Liu Wuxie slid the jade token into his sleeve and gazed into the distance. Murderous intent flickered in his eyes, and a devilish smile tugged at his lips.
"They're finally here," he murmured.
The ground quaked as more than fifty cultivators charged at once, a sight both terrifying and overwhelming. Yet Liu Wuxie made no move to flee—he had been waiting for this very moment. He knew someone was pulling strings behind the Dharma Institute's disciples, forcing them to target him without reason, while the War Dragon Institute's disciples also sought his death.
He summoned the Heretic Blade and steadied his stance, prepared to meet them head-on.
"You fall back once the battle begins," Liu Wuxie ordered. He meant no insult, but he knew he could not shield He Yingwu once the fight erupted. Even he could not guarantee leaving unscathed.
"No, I won't let you fight alone," He Yingwu insisted, shaking his head.
"Since you want to follow me, you'll follow my orders," Liu Wuxie said, his tone hardening.
"Yes..." He Yingwu lowered his head and bit his lip, understanding the care behind Liu Wuxie's words.
The enemy swarmed in, encircling him.
"Liu Wuxie, how have you been?" Qin Ming asked with a mocking smile. He had watched Liu Wuxie outshine everyone during the assessment, but that, he believed, would end today.
"Before you kill me, tell me who wants me dead," Liu Wuxie demanded, drawing in a deep breath. His expression darkened as he measured the formation before him. Five Origin Conversion Realm cultivators anchored the formation, with Qin Ming himself at the second level. Even a third-level Origin Conversion Realm expert would find such a lineup overwhelming.
"You'll know once you're dead!" Qin Ming sneered, murderous intent flashing in his eyes. The fifty-odd cultivators snapped into formation and surged toward Liu Wuxie like a tidal wave.
The five Origin Conversion Realm cultivators loomed as the greatest threat.
"Then we fight to the death," Liu Wuxie said flatly. He pressed no further, knowing Qin Ming would never answer his doubts. The only way to uncover the truth was to capture someone alive and search their soul.
"Now!" Qin Ming roared, eager to finish it quickly.
Outside the mountain range, the twelve elders leaned closer to the Memory Stone, watching intently.
"Huang Shan, you're behind this, aren't you?" Elder Ding asked, forcing his anger down with a deep breath.
"He's too arrogant. It's no wonder Qin Ming wants to teach him a lesson," Huang Shan replied smoothly, refusing to admit he was the mastermind and casting Liu Wuxie as the villain.
The battle erupted. More than fifty experts struck as one, their combined aura surging like a crushing tide.
Liu Wuxie's fighting spirit surged. The immense pressure made every pore on his skin tighten, and he looked like a lone wolf encircled by a pack. Yet a lone wolf was more dangerous than a pack—countless seasons of surviving alone shaped it.
The Heretic Blade gleamed in his grip. Since there was no avoiding the battle, he would cleave it open. No rage, no taunts, only martial skill flowing like a tidal wave.
He was a lone raft in a storm, ready to capsize at any moment. Raising the blade, he dismissed the Heaven-Severing Strike—they weren't worthy of it. Instead, he calculated a horizontal slash with flawless precision and delivered it. He slipped past incoming attacks, Ghost Eye guiding him to flaws in every strike and step, and struck back.
"Die!" His voice rolled across the battlefield. Frost crept into the air as he awakened the Frost Mythical Art.
In one sweeping arc, the Heretic Blade cut through the dozen-odd disciples charging at him. Their throats opened in unison, and they collapsed before anyone could react.
Huang Shan's eyelid twitched. Even he had failed to track the cut—its speed was monstrous.
He did not know that Liu Wuxie had overlaid Ghost Eye with the Spatial Dao Art, allowing him to shift his position within a few meters at will. The fusion birthed this devastating result.
Qin Ming's face hardened. Shocked by Liu Wuxie's blade, he quickly rallied the other Origin Conversion Realm cultivators. The five attacked in unison, determined to suppress Liu Wuxie's assault.
The pressure intensified. Ghost Eye allowed him to handle one, perhaps two Origin Conversion Realm opponents, but five together pressed him to his very limits. His soul sea trembled with exhaustion, but his blood surged with excitement.
If he slew them, he could strip the Origin Conversion Realm laws from their bodies and push himself to the second-level Transcendent Realm.
"Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms!" His voice thundered as he summoned the technique he had only just learned. Ordinary blade arts could not cut foes of this caliber.
The five Origin Conversion Realm cultivators paled. How had he mastered it so soon?
True essence roared out of the desolate world like a flood, shaping into a divine dragon. Liu Wuxie had no time to waste. He had to finish this quickly and uncover who wanted him dead. Liu Wuxie ruled out Xu Guang; he lacked the power to mobilize elites from other institutes.
He soared upward like a flood dragon. Though the Transcendent Realm could not fly, the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms granted him fleeting flight—at a steep cost in true essence. For ordinary cultivators, half their reserves would burn away in an instant. But Liu Wuxie's desolate world brimmed with essence hundreds of times stronger than that of any ordinary man.
Elder Ding clenched his fists, anxious but powerless to interfere.
"Dragon Subduing Tiger!"
"Dragon Slither!" Liu Wuxie unleashed the first two forms at once, fist and footwork flowing together. His movements denied the five a chance to close in on him.
Their faces darkened. They had not expected the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms to be so overwhelming. No wonder Mu Heng craved them so desperately.
The sky rumbled. Shockwaves boomed. Trees within hundreds of miles shattered under the apocalyptic force.
"Great Divine Sun Sword!"
"Boundless Ocean!" The five unleashed their techniques one after another.
The Transcendent Realm disciples could not approach. They stood at the edge, waiting for scraps while the storm raged.
The rain of fists met their counterattacks and dissolved. Even the combined might of the first two forms could not break the prodigies of the Origin Conversion Realm. Their strength towered over the Transcendent Realm.
Mad Dog had fallen because Liu Wuxie had perfectly countered his Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms. However, their clans had honed these five geniuses for greatness.
Their techniques carried shadows of mythical arts, each one deadly.
Qin Ming in particular stood out. He had grasped a fragment of a mythical art and fused it with his swordsmanship, multiplying its power. His sword ray tore through the curtain of fists and streaked toward Liu Wuxie.
The tide shifted. Liu Wuxie felt the danger keenly, and his gaze flicked to He Yingwu nearby. He Yingwu trembled, wanting to help, but held himself back, remembering Liu Wuxie's command. He would only die if he stepped in.
"Liu Wuxie, surrender! You're no match for us," Qin Ming shouted, his sword aura shrieking through the air like a storm.
Other techniques followed, resulting in a crash with lethal force.
"You think trash like you can kill me? What a joke." Liu Wuxie's lips curled in a mocking smile. His movements grew sharper, the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms flowing like the awakening of an ancient dragon.
When he broke into the Transcendent Realm, he had lit many star nodes, and now their power surged. His aura spiked. Space itself trembled around him.
No one at the Transcendent Realm should have been able to shake space—yet he did, moments before he unleashed the third form, Dragon Roaming.
All three forms of the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms burst forth together.
The twelve elders gaped.
"How is this possible? He's using all three at once! Even high-level Origin Conversion Realm experts couldn't withstand the drain!" Huang Shan cried, disbelief cracking his voice.
"Have we been practicing a false version all along?" other elders muttered. They were Primal Origin Realm powerhouses, yet even they could not unleash three forms together.
But Liu Wuxie wove them seamlessly, shifting between patterns as though born to them.
The elders outside the mountain range reeled in shock. Qin Ming's group could hardly believe what they were seeing.
Power multiplied tenfold as the three forms merged. If he unleashed all nine together, the force could split heaven and earth itself. Chapters first released on novel·fıre·net
"We underestimated him," admitted a War Dragon Institute elder who had once believed Liu Wuxie would fall. Who could have imagined he would wield the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms to such terrifying extremes? Even they could not achieve what he had just done.