Liu Wuxie wielded countless techniques, and no one could guess what he would unleash next. Soul attacks were exceedingly rare, and using one against a stronger foe was usually suicidal; the backlash alone could shatter a soul.
However, his soul sea was unlike any other. The Heavenly Dao Book and the Soul Shield guarded his soul sea, making it impregnable. Anyone who tried to strike at him would find it as hopeless as reaching the heavens.
Shen Yue snapped back to her senses after the shockwave, only for a spear of spirit force to stab into her mind.
"ARGHHH!" Her scream ripped through the valley. She staggered back as blood streamed from her five orifices, her hair a wild tangle, her face twisted like that of a ghoul clawing its way out of hell.
The onlookers froze, and shock drove them into silence. Even the twelve elders beyond the valley felt the shock.
"He's insane! He just struck at the daughter of the Tranquil Meteor Star's planet lord!" someone gasped. A chill swept through the crowd. It was like watching a man kick a hornet's nest with his bare foot.
"My head... it hurts!" Shen Yue clutched her skull, her voice breaking. The Soul Spear writhed into the shape of a sinister ghost and rampaged through her mind.
Liu Wuxie had laced it with a wisp of Avici Hell's power, stabbing into her primordial spirit. Even if she lived, fear would plague her forever, and the phantoms would never leave her soul sea.
Mu Heng's face twisted as he rushed to her side.
Liu Wuxie turned cold eyes on the field. Only three foes remained before him, two at the second level and one at the first level of the Origin Conversion Realm. With the pressure eased, he could end it quickly, before Mu Heng could rejoin the fight.
However, Shen Yue, Mu Heng's fiancée, was beyond reason. Their families had forged their marriage as an alliance between planets, but they had grown up together and shared deep bonds. Seeing her tore him apart.
"Don't touch me!" Shen Yue slashed at Mu Heng the instant he grabbed her arm.
"Stay back! Don't come near me!" she shrieked. Her blade lashed in frantic arcs, scattering disciples who dared approach.
No one knew precisely what Liu Wuxie had done to her. Even he hadn't expected the Soul Spear to become so savage once it absorbed Avici Hell's power. Shen Yue would probably never find peace of mind again.
Her rampage struck down several low-level Transcendent Realm disciples, throwing the War Dragon Institute's formation into chaos.
Beyond the mountain range, the elders exchanged uneasy glances.
"Liu Wuxie's gone mad!" Huang Shan snarled, clenching his fist. Not even he would dare touch Mu Heng or Shen Yue, yet Liu Wuxie had done both and driven her insane.
The planet lord of Tranquil Meteor Star would surely avenge his daughter.
With Mu Heng busy restraining her, Liu Wuxie soared skyward, his figure blurring into the form of a divine dragon.
"Dragon Subduing Tiger!"
"Dragon Roaming!" Three forms burst forth at once, doubling their power since the day before. A dragon over two hundred meters long coiled through the air, radiating suffocating might.
Disciples who had retreated into the distance trembled in fear.
"What a terrifying martial art!" Origin Conversion Realm cultivators muttered, unable to hide their unease.
"Those three will die unless Mu Heng intervenes," some whispered. But Mu Heng had no time. Shen Yue was still thrashing wildly, and Mu Heng struggled to keep her under control.
At that moment, the truth became clear. Liu Wuxie had refined the bones of a Primordial Desolate Dragon, forging his True Dragon Physique. The draconic aura pouring from him left no doubt.
"Dragon-clan laws! How can his body contain so many?" a War Dragon Institute elder gasped, shocked by the dragon aura and those laws pouring from Liu Wuxie.
"He's achieved the True Dragon Physique! Could he be a dragon descendant?" snarled a Dharma Institute elder.
Now it made sense. With the True Dragon Physique, Liu Wuxie could execute the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms without restraint. Where others' bodies would collapse under the strain, his fleshly body could unleash their full power.
Mu Heng finally subdued Shen Yue with a palm strike to the neck, but before he could turn back to the fight, he saw the dragon descend like a grinding millstone, swallowing the three Origin Conversion Realm cultivators alive.
He killed three more in a single breath.
From the start, who could have imagined this? They had marked Liu Wuxie for death, yet here he was butchering his enemies.
Mu Heng's eyes bulged. Even he could do nothing now. The might Liu Wuxie drew from the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms rivaled the fourth or fifth level of the Origin Conversion Realm.
"Retreat!" Mu Heng carried Shen Yue and fled the valley. He did not leave out of fear, but out of urgency; Shen Yue's condition was dire.
Liu Wuxie descended, only to find his quarry gone. Too late to chase, he turned his blade on the remaining War Dragon Institute disciples.
They scattered like startled birds. With their leaders dead or gone, they knew they were no match for him.
Liu Wuxie plunged among them, the Heretic Blade flashing. He was a tiger among sheep, cutting down seventy or eighty in a blink. He swept up their interspatial rings, stripping the laws from their bodies to feed the Sky-Devouring Divine Cauldron.
The laws poured into the desolate world, pushing his foundation higher, though he fell short of the third level of the Transcendent Realm. Still, his strength now rivaled the fifth-level Origin Conversion Realm.
The survivors, barely a few dozen, fled. Even the spectators ran, terrified they would be next.
He Yingwu picked his way through the strewn skins. His face held no joy, only worry. After this, Mu Heng and Shen Yue would never forgive Liu Wuxie, and the forces behind them would be far more dangerous.
"We're out of time. Let's go," Liu Wuxie said. He thought nothing of it. He had joined the Heavenly Dragon Sect to display his strength and draw the eyes of the higher-ups. The greater the commotion, the better. If a planet lord tried to move against him, the sect itself would step in.
As a disciple of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, he represented the sect; allowing a planet lord to kill him would damage the sect's prestige. After all, what fault had Liu Wuxie committed today?
He smiled faintly. He had killed more than a hundred and seized over a million astral stones. Other disciples returned early, still pale with fear. It had been years since the sect saw a bloodbath that shook its foundations .
Mu Heng arrived before the twelve elders with Shen Yue in his arms. The War Dragon Institute elders rushed forward.
"How is she?" one asked, receiving her weight.
"She suffered an injury to her primordial spirit," Mu Heng replied. But there was a black mark on her primordial spirit for some reason. He had tried everything on the way, but the black mark clung to her spirit like a parasite.
He could not dislodge it. Each time she woke up, she would babble nonsense and lash out. He had to knock her unconscious repeatedly.
The twelve elders examined her in turn, even Ding Yi. All shook their heads. Not even they could touch the mark. Perhaps only a Void Realm master could help.
"I'll kill Liu Wuxie!" a War Dragon elder roared, just as Liu Wuxie and He Yingwu stepped from the mountainside.
"Xiao Li, what are you doing? This is the disciples' business. Elders cannot interfere," Ding Yi snapped. He would not allow them to touch Liu Wuxie. The elders had already agreed on the rules—life and death in the wilderness training lay in the hands of the disciples.
"Our sect fought to recruit these prodigies, and Liu Wuxie alone slaughtered more than a hundred!" Xiao Li growled, eyes fixed on him like a beast. Official source is Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
"And what of it? Should he die for that?" Ding Yi shot back.
Tension spiked as the Dharma Institute elders stepped forward to back Xiao Li.
"He slaughtered so many, and he crippled the Tranquil Meteor Star's daughter! Do you know the trouble he's brought? We must execute him!" Huang Shan barked.
"What a joke," Ding Yi sneered. "Shen Yue joined the sect—she follows our rules. Since when does the Heavenly Dragon Sect bow to a planet lord?"
Tranquil Meteor Star was a second-tier world. Planet lords could command reverence among the common folk, but compared to first-tier planets, they were nothing.
And before the Heavenly Dragon Sect, even first-tier lords had no say. To punish a disciple because of a second-tier planet lord's anger would cripple the sect's prestige. Moreover, Liu Wuxie had done nothing to warrant punishment.
Huang Shan's claim that the Tranquil Meteor Star's planet lord would trouble the sect was a joke.
Silence spread. Ding Yi was right. From the moment Shen Yue joined, she was no longer just a planet lord's daughter. Many disciples nodded in agreement.
Huang Shan flushed with fury. To press the matter further would make him appear as if he feared a mere second-tier lord, thereby humiliating the sect itself.
"The feud is between us," Mu Heng said at last, stepping forward, his eyes like steel on Liu Wuxie. "It has nothing to do with Tranquil Meteor Star or Sky Cloud Star. I will take his life with my own hands."