Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 709 - Refining the Memories

Chapter 709 - Refining the Memories

Everything existed in harmony and opposition in the vast universe. Since the divine race was the first to appear, it was only natural that they had a nemesis. However, compared to other races, the divine race had very few enemies—or at least, none that Liu Wuxie had ever heard of.

As Liu Wuxie constantly changed his location, the divine race found it challenging to track him, especially since he had perfectly disguised his aura to mimic their own.

Adding to his advantage, many divinekin had vacated Divine Light Mountain, leaving several caves unoccupied. If Liu Wuxie had arrived a month earlier, escaping would have been nearly impossible, as the valley would have been teeming with divinekin, leaving no space for him to evade capture.

As Liu Wuxie delved deeper, the divine race conducted a thorough search, making it increasingly difficult for him to hide. He passed through a narrow passage and reached a dead end—the divine race had sealed off many caves.

"Damn it!" Liu Wuxie muttered. He realized through Ghost Eye that this passage could connect with other caves.

The divine race was known for its high intellect, and they had sealed off some of the interconnecting paths to narrow the scope of their search. He would only draw their attention if he tore through those caves forcibly, leaving him with no choice but to retreat back down the path he had come from.

"This is bad!" Liu Wuxie murmured. There were several divinekin ahead, heading straight toward him. The caves on two sides were blocked, and there was no room for him to avoid them.

A fierce glint flashed in his eyes. He knew retreat was no longer an option and could only steel himself to fight. He had to escape the Divine Light Mountain no matter what.

Since an encounter was unavoidable, he could only fight. He vanished like a meteor striking across the horizon with the plan of finding a hiding spot to gain the element of surprise. He had to end the battle quickly to minimize disruption.

As three divinekin approached, Liu Wuxie held onto the Heretic Blade firmly in his right hand, his heart pounding violently. The divinekin had enormous builds, and the ground trembled with every step they took. They were only ten steps away from Liu Wuxie now.

He could clearly hear their breathing, each exhale sending subtle waves of air rippling through the narrow passage. Each of the divinekin possessed cultivation equivalent to the Nascent Transformation Realm, meaning Liu Wuxie would need to exert his full strength to stand a chance against them.

Right then, the mysterious tree within the desolate world stirred upon sensing the presence of the divinekin, but Liu Wuxie suppressed it forcibly.

The divine race’s power was formidable, and Liu Wuxie knew the Heretic Blade alone wouldn’t be enough to ensure victory. If forced into confrontation, he would need to rely on the combined might of the Earth-Binding Chains and the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron to tip the scales in his favor.

The three divinekin were conversing in a language incomprehensible to Liu Wuxie. The Earth-Binding Chains sprang forth when they were three steps away from Liu Wuxie. Since it could bind the Abyssal Emperor, it should also be effective against the divine clan—or so Liu Wuxie thought.

But in the next moment, Liu Wuxie realized how wrong he had been, and the divine race wasn't as simple as he had imagined. When the Earth-Binding Chains bound onto one of the divinekin, he began twisting and contorting his body, allowing him to escape the chains.

The Earth-Binding Chains had failed two times now, once with the ten-thousand-year deathguard and now against the divinekin. It seemed the Earth-Binding Chains, the treasure of the Spirit Clan, wasn't omnipotent, and it was only effective against common races.

Thankfully, Liu Wuxie was prepared for this and hadn't put all his hopes on the Earth-Binding Chains.

The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron appeared and swallowed the three divinekin before they could react. He didn't dare to resort to a frontal confrontation now. Although he possessed the strength to defeat foes in the Nascent Transformation Realm, the commotion caused by the battle would undoubtedly attract more divinekin over.

The three divinekin were consumed by darkness before they could react.

"The Primal Chaos Cauldron! It's the Primal Chaos Cauldron!" One of the divinekin was versed in the human tongue, while the others yelled in their native language. But their meaning was unmistakably the same.

After the three divinekin were captured, Liu Wuxie brought out the Demonic Purgatory Chains to bind them, a method to prevent them from killing themselves to deliver messages.

However, Liu Wuxie didn't stop there and began forming seals to lock down the entire Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, preventing any aura from escaping.

Only then did Liu Wuxie's heart settle down. The divine races were now in a frenzy, determined to find him even if they had to dig through the earth.

When Liu Wuxie emerged from the cave, he made his way to the mountain's peak. As the saying goes, the most dangerous place was often the safest.

Most of the divinekin forces were in the caves, and the peaks were treacherous cliffs that were difficult to scale. But Liu Wuxie could use this to his advantage. He navigated the cliffs and found a dense tree to conceal himself. He even set up an illusory array in the surroundings, ensuring the divine race wouldn't detect him even if they extended their divine senses to search.

Liu Wuxie finally felt a measure of relief. With the protection of the spiritual array, Liu Wuxie was confident the divine race wouldn't be able to find him.

Once he was done with everything, he sent a wisp of his divine sense into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron to inspect the three divinekin. They roared with fury.

As only one was versed in human language, his head bellowed, "Human! You're doomed! Doomed, I tell you!"

The bellows even caused the demonic flames to rumble, and the Demonic Purgatory Chains tightly bound their feet. With Liu Wuxie sealing the surrounding space, they couldn't send their energy out.

"Still so stubborn even with death staring you in the face," Liu Wuxie said. He had no goodwill toward the divine race. From stories passed down by the ancestors of humans, he knew every appearance of the divine race was catastrophic to the world—a scourge that devastated the world, and countless lives were lost to the divine race.

The mysterious tree extended a root, burrowing into one of the divinekin’s heads.

“@!#$^%!” The divinekin let out a garbled cry; their expression twisted from arrogance to fear with terror etched on his face.

"It's the Ancestral Tree! Why is the Ancestral Tree in your body?" The divinekin versed in human language asked with a horrified expression, a stark contrast to his earlier bluster.

Liu Wuxie was curious about their fear. He wondered if the mysterious tree was the nemesis of the divine race.

"Tell me, what's the Ancestral Tree?" Since the divinekin could call out the mysterious tree's name, they should have more information about it.

This wasn't the claim of one member of their kind, and the collective terror that gripped them confirmed it—the mysterious tree was no ordinary tree.

"You accursed humans! How dare you resurrect the Ancestral Tree!" The divinekin versed in the human tongue cursed. The Ancestral Tree had vanished for eons, and it made no sense for it to reappear now.

"Since you refuse to speak, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Liu Wuxie had learned from Murong Tianze that extracting information from the divine race had always been nearly impossible. Ultimately, they had to extract and search their souls to uncover information about divine energy.

That divinekin screamed in horror when the mysterious tree's root burrowed into his body. His body began to wither, shrinking down to a hollow husk of skin.

Another fruit the size of an egg emerged from the tree's boughs. This one was of a higher quality than the last one. The divinekin killed this time was stronger than the previous one and had a greater mastery of the laws.

The remaining two divinekin paled, their horror unmistakable.

"Human, it's futile even if you kill us. We, the divine race, won't allow the Ancestral Tree to appear again! The news has spread across our kind, and countless experts from the divine race will come after you," said the divinekin on the right.

The news of the Ancestral Tree spread like wildfire among the divine race, reaching not just those in the Divine Light Mountain but the entire race. Any divinekin who learned of the tree’s existence would mobilize forces to hunt Liu Wuxie down and ensure the tree’s destruction.

Liu Wuxie frowned upon hearing this revelation. He hadn’t expected the mysterious tree to pose such a significant threat to the divine race, to the extent of uniting their entire kind against it. Then again, it made sense. The divine race, with no natural nemesis in the world, couldn’t tolerate the existence of something as dangerous to them as the Ancestral Tree. Allowing it to grow unchecked was simply not an option for them.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Liu Wuxie’s focus didn’t waver. He cared little for the divine race’s motives and was intent on uncovering the tree’s origins. He wanted to understand its full potential—whether it had uses beyond being the bane of the divine race, and what secrets lay in the fruits it bore.

"Since you won't come out clean, I can only extract and search your soul," Liu Wuxie said. He was in a race against time and wouldn't trust them even if they were willing to speak. He knew they would try to stall him, buying time for the other divinekin to find this place and rescue them.

He invoked the Heavenly Dao Book without hesitation and plunged into the soul sea of the nearest divinekin.

"You..." The divinekin’s head was powerless against Liu Wuxie, allowing the latter's primordial spirit to enter his mind.

It didn't take long before memories began flooding Liu Wuxie's mind like a tidal wave. He absorbed all of them, relying on his powerful soul sea, a feat impossible for other humans. If anyone tried to absorb memories of such magnitude, it would only overwhelm their soul sea.

Two different sets of memories began to clash in Liu Wuxie's mind, and knowing who had the upper hand was essential. If Liu Wuxie weren't strong enough, the divinekin’s memory would seize his soul sea.

As time ticked by, the screams of the the divinekin began to fade, and Liu Wuxie stripped all his memories. The remaining divinekin could only tremble in fear at this sight, not even daring to hurl curses at Liu Wuxie.

Liu Wuxie spent an entire hour sorting out the memories before looking at the last remaining divinekin. After refining the previous divinekin's memories, he mastered their language and took the opportunity to refine the remaining divinekin’s memories.

He had to verify any difference in their memories to check if they had hidden anything from him.

After the two divinekin were absorbed, the demonic flames incinerated their empty husks. Liu Wuxie planned to spend some time digesting the information he had extracted.

The divine race within the valley was in disarray as they continued their search upon discovering the disappearance of three more of their kin.

Several members of the divine race had searched in Liu Wuxie's direction, but they failed to detect him with the spiritual array around.

As Liu Wuxie was at the waist of the mountain, he could overlook the entire valley with the movements of the divine race laid bare before their eyes.

When dusk fell, the divine race gradually retreated to their dwellings. The exit had been sealed shut, and they were confident that finding the intruder would be only a matter of time.

When the divinekins returned, Liu Wuxie's divine sense delved into his soul sea, and memories poured into him.

Images began to play in his mind, from the birth of the divine race to how they had entered the Divine Light Mountain.

What shocked Liu Wuxie was the extraordinary longevity of the divine race. The three divinekin killed by him had lived for over a thousand years, which was unbelievable, as those in the Nascent Transformation Realm couldn't live for so long.

Moreover, a divinekin over a thousand years old wasn't considered the oldest among them, and they were no more than young adults among their kind.

In stark contrast, humans would reach close to the end of their lifespan at a thousand years of age without reaching the True Profound Realm.