Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 711 - Rescue

Liu Wuxie stood silently in the shadows, listening intently to their conversation. The mention of the Astral Domain Path, the Central Plains, and returning to the divine race’s ancestral tribe momentarily blanked his mind.

While he had studied extensively at the House of Tea Art and read about the Central Plains, the Astral Domain Path was entirely new to him. It must have emerged in recent months, likely tied to the reason why the divine race had begun leaving the Divine Light Mountain.

The two patrolling divinekin left late into the night, leaving behind the two guards dozing off. A small bonfire was in front of them to keep the relentless mosquitoes at bay.

This was how the stone walls had turned black, charred by the smoke. When the two guards were in deep slumber, Liu Wuxie crept closer with measured steps.

This part of the area had been largely abandoned by the divine race, presenting him with a rare and golden opportunity. His plan was clear: kill the two guards, rescue Murong Yi’s parents, and then find a way to escape with them.

Perhaps these guards had been stationed here for far too long, growing complacent over time. Even as Liu Wuxie closed the distance to just five meters, they remained oblivious, showing no sign of waking.

In the blink of an eye, Liu Wuxie summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, which engulfed the two divinekin guards before they could react. Everything happened in a heartbeat—they didn’t even have time to cry out. The guards would never have imagined that someone would ambush them in the dead of night.

When the Ancestral Tree extended its roots into the bodies of the two guards, their energies were rapidly drained, converted into two pitifully small Divine Fruits on the tree, each no larger than a quail’s egg.

Liu Wuxie had noted a pattern: The stronger the divine race he devoured, the larger the Divine Fruit would become. He wasted no time activating the mechanism on the stone wall, revealing a narrow gap wide enough to fit one person.

The narrow passage was pitch-black, and Liu Wuxie darted forward in a flash, vanishing into the darkness. Due to the lack of activity, the blue slabs on the ground were overgrown with wild grass.

However, the darkness posed no threat to Liu Wuxie as his sight could pierce through the surroundings with Ghost Eye.

“It’s a dungeon, just as I suspected!” The Ghost Eye managed to reveal the underground chambers beneath Liu Wuxie. He noticed rows of cells built with unique materials that made them impenetrable by ordinary means. The captured humans were all imprisoned here by the divine race.

“What a foul stench!” Liu Wuxie wrinkled his nose. This place had been a prison for twenty years, and many prisoners had died during that time. Their bodies were left to rot in the cells, which filled the entire dungeon with a horrid stench.

He blocked his senses and continued deeper into the dungeon. The outer cells were desolate, littered with skeletal remains. Some corpses had yet to rot completely, hinting at their recent deaths.

“Are these members of the Murong Clan?” Liu Wuxie was inwardly shocked when he made a rough estimation—there were more than five or six hundred people imprisoned here, and there were over three hundred corpses.

One could imagine how the prisoners must have suffered over the past twenty years. During the early years of their captivity, the divine race frequented the dungeon daily, trying any means available to extract every ounce of information from the prisoners.

But in the past decade, the visits had dwindled after the divine race had extracted most of the human race’s secrets. Some prisoners had succumbed to despair, choosing to take their own lives, unable to bear the horrific conditions of the dungeon any longer. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Someone’s alive!” Liu Wuxie searched with his divine sense and discovered a faint human aura in the deepest part of the dungeon. He quickened his footsteps, which produced an echo in the dungeon.

After so many years, no members of the divine race had ventured this deep. This made the prisoners suspect that the divinekin had come to search their souls again, which was an excruciating process worse than death.

With a few swift leaps, Liu Wuxie stood before a cell forged with unique chains that resisted his power to break it.

“Divine energy?” Liu Wuxie was inwardly shocked. If he hadn’t absorbed the divine race’s memories, he wouldn’t know how to break the chains, and no human could hope to break these chains to rescue the prisoners. This was because the human race didn’t possess divine energy.

The divine energy of the divine race was akin to the true essence of the human race. However, just as divine energy could not produce true essence, humans were also incapable of wielding divine energy.

However, that was different for Liu Wuxie. After refining so many divinekin, and with the Ancestral Tree at his command, he had gained the ability to wield divine energy.

When he infused his divine energy into the chains, the divine runes on them began to unlock according to the memory of the divinekin he had absorbed.

The chains snapped apart, but the prisoners in the cell sat in silence, not responding. Due to the darkness in the dungeon, they couldn’t see Liu Wuxie’s face, and their cultivation and divine sense had long been sealed.

They could only rely on their hearing to tell that someone had come, but anyone capable of opening the chains was undoubtedly a member of the divine race.

“May I ask if Senior Murong Shanhe is here?” Liu Wuxie whispered.

The prisoners were startled as it had been years since that name was called.

“Who are you?” A frail, old voice came from the corner of the cell, where an old man with an unkempt beard sat, with a frail-looking woman beside him.

“My name is Liu Wuxie, and Murong Yi sent me to rescue all of you,” Liu Wuxie replied. He didn’t know who that elder was, but he could tell from the tone that this old man was acquainted with Murong Shanhe.

“Yi’er, she’s still alive?!” that old man muttered in a sobbing tone.

Years ago, the Murong Clan had suffered a great calamity. Although his daughter was taken away by his second brother in the chaos, it remained unknown if they had managed to escape. The mere mention of her name stirred deep emotions within him, especially as the woman beside him struggled to stand, only to be held back by the chains binding her feet.

“May I ask if you’re Senior Murong Shanhe?” Liu Wuxie probed. He had seen their movements and expressions.

“Indeed, I am,” said the old man. Despite looking gaunt and frail, his tone carried the prestige of someone who once held a high position.

“I’ve come to rescue you,” Liu Wuxie declared as he stepped forward before Murong Shanhe. He didn’t dare to light any fire and relied on his divine sense to locate and break apart the chains binding them, finally setting them free.

“You’re a human?” Murong Shanhe was still uncertain about Liu Wuxie’s identity. If Liu Wuxie had been a human, how could he effortlessly infiltrate here? This was too unbelievable!

“There’s no doubt I’m a human,” Liu Wuxie reassured. He had no time to spend on chatting. Since he was here, he might save as many people as possible.

“You should leave while you can, and don’t bother wasting effort on saving us. We can’t escape,” Murong Shanhe sighed in a bleak tone. He was touched by the fact that his daughter had never forgotten to save them, even after two decades.

Liu Wuxie knew Murong Shanhe’s concerns. Trying to escape with a group of weak and injured seemed impossible, but they didn’t know Liu Wuxie possessed a heaven-defying treasure like the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. He could easily rescue them by keeping them in the cauldron.

If someone else had been present, it would have been impossible for them to rescue all these people, and the divine race would have detected them the moment they entered the valley.

“Please be rest assured, senior. I have a way to get all of you out, but I’ll need everyone to endure some discomfort until we’re out,” Liu Wuxie said. The cauldron was filled with demonic flames and would naturally be uncomfortable.

“Some discomfort? There’s no greater torment than this place!” Even the lowest level of hell would have felt like a paradise compared to this place. Murong Shanhe had spent the past two decades in agony as he had watched his fellow clansmen die one by one.

He had considered taking his own life from the torment, but he knew he couldn’t. He was the patriarch of the Murong Clan, and he had to stay alive to give his people hope—hope that someday, they would be set free.

Liu Wuxie nodded and sent Murong Shanhe and his wife into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron with a wave of his hand. He didn’t stop there as he began freeing the other captives from cell to cell, rescuing over two hundred people in an hour.

Many were gravely injured during their stay, and Liu Wuxie poured out a lot of liquified spiritual energy after they entered the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. The Ancestral Tree even burrowed its roots into their bodies to devour the divine energy left in them, allowing their cultivation to recover.

However, since they were imprisoned for two decades, their meridians had deteriorated severely, and they would need at least a year to recover fully. But with the help of liquified spiritual energy, this shortened their recovery dramatically to mere weeks.

Liu Wuxie didn’t abandon anyone and rescued whoever was still breathing, no matter how weak they had become.

“Patriarch, we’re finally saved!” Some of the Murong Clan’s elders and disciples cried out. They had waited two decades for this moment, undergoing inhumane torment during their time here.

When Liu Wuxie looked at the corpses that littered the dungeon floor, he could only sigh in compassion. He couldn’t bring the dead back to life, and he could only store the corpses in his interspatial ring, planning to give them a proper burial when they were out.

When Liu Wuxie’s divine sense entered the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, he took on his form, revealing his appearance before the Murong Clan’s prisoners. They were shocked when they realized that Liu Wuxie was only in the Astral River Realm, but someone so young as him dared to infiltrate the Divine Light Mountain, not to mention he had succeeded.

“Greetings, seniors!” Liu Wuxie bowed and clasped his hands together. Based on his relationship with Murong Yi, it was only proper for him to show respect to Murong Shanhe and other Murong Clan’s clansmen.

“There’s no need for such formality, young friend. What should we do next?” Murong Shanhe stepped forward to support Liu Wuxie. They were still in the Divine Light Mountain, and the danger hadn’t passed.

“Leave the rest to me,” Liu Wuxie replied. He already had a plan, and he didn’t intend to leave the Divine Light Mountain anytime soon as there was still much to learn about the divine race. It would be great if he could understand the effects of the Divine Fruit and what would happen if a human consumed it.

With the pass into the valley under strict lockdown, it would be suicidal if he tried to escape. This meant he needed help from the outside to leave the valley.

When his divine sense left the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, Liu Wuxie exited the narrow passage back to the valley. He immediately took out the Communication Talisman to send out messages.

Meanwhile, Murong Tianze was anxiously waiting outside, growing increasingly worried. It had been two days, but there wasn’t any word from Liu Wuxie.

The Communication Talisman finally lit up. When Murong Tianze learned that Liu Wuxie had rescued Murong Shanhe and the other clansmen, he was so excited that he nearly yelled in joy.

But he immediately regained his composure as Liu Wuxie still hadn’t escaped from the Divine Light Mountain, and the task wasn’t over.

“Don’t worry. I’ll see this plan through, even at the cost of my life!” Murong Tianze vowed, his eyes flashing with determination. The thought of saving his elder brother filled him with a reckless resolve, willing to sacrifice everything if necessary.

That night, Murong Tianze hurried back to the mountain’s entrance, where Murong Yi and the other clansmen waited anxiously. They had received no word for two days, and their patience was wearing thin. When Murong Yi finally learned that her parents had been rescued, tears welled up in her eyes.