Chapter 127 - Three Thousand Droplets
Xue Rui scanned the area but couldn’t locate Liu Wuxie. Consequently, he questioned the few students who were cultivating there. The cultivating ground wasn’t big, and it was only a carved-out platform with scorching heat emanating from the ground. The boiling magma was like a ferocious beast breathing. This meant that cultivating here could allow someone to make rapid progress in their cultivation.
A day of cultivating in the Flame Sun Cave was equivalent to a month in the outside world, and the dense spiritual energy would flow into the body through the pores. This was a perfect place for cultivation, and it was no wonder why so many people wanted the qualification to cultivate in the Flame Sun Cave.
“Where’s the brat that just came in earlier?” Xue Rui inquired of the Profound Grade students present, including a Heaven Grade student among those clad in white robes. This student gave off a powerful aura in the Marrow Cleansing Realm, devouring the surrounding yang energy. Anyone could tell that the cultivation technique he practiced wasn’t simple.
“What are you talking about? We’ve been cultivating here for three days, and you’re the only person who came in.” Everyone ignored Xue Rui and continued to cultivate. After all, they had invested significant credits for the opportunity to cultivate here and couldn’t afford to waste a single moment.
They weren’t lying; they were the only ones cultivating here for three days. If anyone came in, how could they not know about it?
Xue Rui walked around the platform but couldn’t find Liu Wuxie anywhere. That made him wonder, where was he?
Xue Rui frowned because aside from this place, the other passages led to a dead end.
“Leave this place. Don’t disrupt our cultivation!” The white-robed youth spoke out bluntly, telling Xue Rui to leave. It was clear to everyone that Xue Rui didn’t have the qualification to cultivate here and had intruded to find someone, relying on the Xue Clan’s disregard for the academy’s rules.
Xue Rui returned to the surface with reluctance. He stayed in the Flame Sun Cave for an hour. When he came out, Elder Gu and Xue Pinzhi looked at him in bafflement.
“Big Brother Xue Rui, did you kill him?” Xue Pinzhi asked anxiously, assuming that Xue Rui had eliminated Liu Wuxie.
“Elder Gu, are you certain that he went in?” Instead of responding to Xue Pinzhi, Xue Rui turned to Elder Gu. He had checked the other passages on his way out but found no sign of Liu Wuxie. He concluded that they had been tricked.
“I’m certain of it!” Elder Gu insisted. He had seen Liu Wuxie entering the Flame Sun Cave but couldn’t follow him as he had to guard this place.
Xue Rui frowned upon hearing that because Elder Gu didn’t seem to be lying. So where could Liu Wuxie have gone?
“Big Brother Xue Rui, Liu Wuxie isn’t inside?” Xue Pinzhi inquired, surprised to hear that Xue Rui had failed to locate Liu Wuxie.
“He’s not inside. Keep a close eye on this place. He’s likely hiding nearby, tricking everyone into thinking he went in. He might be waiting for us to let our guards down before entering,” Xue Rui said. He refused to believe that Liu Wuxie could carry on hiding.
“Got it!” Xue Pinzhi nodded as the two left the Flame Sun Cave, leaving behind Elder Gu. This made all three of them furious that Liu Wuxie had fooled them.
Meanwhile, in the dark passage, Liu Wuxie had been walking for nearly an hour with no end to the passage in sight. The chilling wind from the passage intensified, making it so cold that Liu Wuxie began to shiver. He had to take out a thick fur coat from his interspatial pouch and put it on to ward off the cold.
As Liu Wuxie circulated the Desolate Devouring Art, the surrounding yin energy began pouring into his body through his pores, filling up his dantian after being converted. This discovery surprised Liu Wuxie, but he didn’t know if this was good news. It was so cold here that it could freeze a cultivator in the Marrow Cleansing Realm solid.
Liu Wuxie barely made it here, relying on his powerful physique and the Desolate Devouring Art. He now understood why this passage was blocked with chains to prevent anyone from intruding.
The cold energy that was absorbed into his body was devoured by the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and converted into black liquid. Liu Wuxie didn’t dare to remove it from the cauldron just yet, as he had to wait till he found a safe place before trying to make a breakthrough.
The liquid continued accumulating in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, and he planned to reach the high levels of the Xiantian Realm with it. This way, he could face cultivators in the low levels of the Marrow Cleansing Realm.
More than a hundred droplets of the black liquid accumulated above the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, and this absorption speed was shocking. When Liu Wuxie traveled from the Azure Billow City to the Imperial Academy, it took ten-odd days for him to accumulate ten-odd droplets of liquid. But in the Flame Sun Cave, it only took him an hour to accumulate over a hundred droplets, and this naturally filled Liu Wuxie with immense joy.
Suddenly, his field of view expanded as the passage widened, allowing two people to pass side by side. Naturally, Liu Wuxie increased his pace.
In the distance, deafening rumbles echoed, sounding like a roar and forming into powerful reverberating sound waves.
“This is the magma’s roar!” Liu Wuxie deduced. The roars were produced when magma clashed against the rocks.
When faint light appeared at the end of the passage, Liu Wuxie quickened his pace. The passage gradually opened up, allowing Liu Wuxie to speed up. He advanced for about ten meters before he came to an abrupt halt, as there was no path ahead. Directly in front of him was a river of magma, fifty meters wide.
The rumbling sounds came from the river of magma, but Liu Wuxie was baffled where the chilling energy came from. The scalding magma was clashing against the cliffs on both sides as waves.
In the center of the magma river was a large protruding rock that calmed the passing magma.
“What’s going on?” Liu Wuxie was bewildered. This was the first time he had faced such a situation. Could it be that there was something special about that rock? But after observing it for a long time, he couldn’t find anything wrong with it.
With no clues, he could only sit down. The platform he was on could fit ten-odd people, and the magma river was just five meters away. Whether yang or yin energy, they had the same effect on Liu Wuxie. He circulated the Desolate Devouring Art at full force, devouring the surrounding spiritual energy.
The subterranean spiritual energy from the magma entered into Liu Wuxie, and the liquid in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron increased alarmingly. However, Liu Wuxie did not choose to make a breakthrough immediately, as he had ten days in the Flame Sun Cave. He planned to use this time to absorb as much spiritual energy as possible.
Liu Wuxie’s absorption of the spiritual energy formed a powerful vortex around him, with the density of spiritual energy forming into spiritual rain. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron was like a black hole, devouring all the spiritual rain and accumulating it into black liquid above the cauldron.
Meanwhile, the students cultivating in the Flame Sun Cave on the other side suddenly opened their eyes when they noticed decreased spiritual energy. This naturally baffled them, and this was the first time they encountered this situation, as some had been there before.
Ordinary people might not know, but Liu Wuxie noticed a spiritual vein beneath the Flame Sun Cave at first glance. The Imperial Academy was built above this spiritual vein, which meant that the density of spiritual energy was the highest here in the Imperial Academy. All the spiritual energy came from this spiritual vein, and the density of spiritual energy increased the deeper one went.
The spiritual vein produced spiritual stones, and the Imperial Academy controlled more than one spiritual vein. After all, each student could receive five spiritual stones per month, a substantial amount that the Imperial Academy could only back up with spiritual veins.
“It’s strange... the spiritual energy seems to be vanishing in a certain direction!” Liu Wuxie observed, noticing that the spiritual energy was moving upstream of the magma river. This naturally led him to question why so much spiritual energy was being absorbed.
“Although the spiritual energy has become thinner, it’s still rich compared to the outside world. Let’s just focus on my cultivation as there will soon be a year-end assessment, and this is a good opportunity for everyone to shine.” There would be an exchange between classes every year, and many geniuses had been waiting for this moment to make a dazzling debut.
After absorbing the spiritual energy for a day, Liu Wuxie finally stopped as the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron had accumulated over three thousand droplets, a terrifying amount.
“According to my calculation, it shouldn’t be an issue for me to reach the eighth-level Xiantian Realm...” Liu Wuxie muttered to himself. Unlike others who had to tread carefully in their cultivation, Liu Wuxie didn’t have that concern. Others had to stabilize at each level to temper their foundation before making a breakthrough. Liu Wuxie had the consciousness of an Immortal Emperor, and he could make rapid breakthroughs in his cultivation as long as he had sufficient foundation.
Liu Wuxie had been eagerly awaiting this day, marking a significant breakthrough after a substantial accumulation of his foundation. He took out over a hundred Heavenly Spirit Pills and ingested them. The pills converted into pure spiritual energy the moment he placed them in his mouth, coursing through his meridians. He didn’t just want to make a breakthrough in his cultivation but also wanted to temper his physique while he was at it.
The physique would naturally strengthen with each breakthrough, but this process was too slow for Liu Wuxie. He needed a robust physique to progress further in his cultivation. If his physique wasn’t strong enough, he risked injuring himself if he executed the Overlord Fist. The Overlord Fist and Ghost Eye were his greatest trump cards now, reserved for life-threatening situations.
The interspatial pouches of the three scorpion brothers and the students from advanced class three fell into his hands, and they had quite the accumulation of spiritual stones. He took them out, planning to use them to make a series of breakthroughs, as spiritual energy wasn’t enough to satisfy him. After he was done, he began to meditate to calm himself.
“Let’s start with my breakthrough!” Liu Wuxie could finally make a breakthrough after so many days of accumulation. He had joined the Imperial Academy to obtain more resources as the Desolate Devouring Art required an astronomical sum of resources. Only the Imperial Academy could sustain consumption in the Great Yan Dynasty.
Liu Wuxie took out all the droplets of black liquid in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron in one go. But in the next second, a scream came from Liu Wuxie’s mouth from the tearing of his tendons and meridians. Furthermore, his dantian also showed signs of collapse from three thousand droplets of the black liquid at once. Liu Wuxie had been a little reckless this time, wanting to make a series of breakthroughs at once instead of taking it step by step.
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