Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 826 - Suppression Stele

This time, Liu Wuxie showed no mercy, and his fist landed squarely on the Tyrant Lion, sending it flying away. When the Tyrant Lion flew through the air and crashed to the ground, it struggled to rise, but its legs buckled each time it tried.

The Tyrant Lion let out a guttural roar and began to ignite its blood essence.

"Bloodline awakening!" Liu Wuxie was shocked. He hadn't expected this Tyrant Lion to possess a strand of ancient bloodline, and its strength would increase significantly once its bloodline awakened.

After awakening its bloodline, the Tyrant Lion's eyes turned into a terrifying shade of crimson, exuding raw ferocity. Drops of fresh blood dripped from its fur, painting a horrifying scene.

But that wasn't the most terrifying change to come. The Tyrant Lion's body began to grow another meter in height. Its limbs were filled with even more power, and it breathed out white mist.

Awakening its bloodline forcibly was like human cultivators igniting their blood essence. Even if the Tyrant Lion managed to kill its opponent, the damage it suffered would be great, and its cultivation might never progress or even regress.

Yet, none of it mattered now as the Tyrant Lion's mind was filled with thoughts of killing Liu Wuxie and feasting upon his flesh and blood. With a heavy stomp, it began to approach Liu Wuxie, leaving deep footprints and bloodstains in its wake.

Liu Wuxie's expression also became grave, not daring to be careless. He knew the Tyrant Lion was no longer the same as before after awakening its bloodline, and its strength had doubled.

Moreover, Tyrant Lions were renowned for their powerful physique. Even among profound beasts, their raw strength was unmatched.

Liu Wuxie slowly began to muster his strength and activated the True Dragon Physique. Dragon scales emerged beneath his skin, and his power surged in response.

Upon sensing the faint yet overwhelming dragon aura, the Tyrant Lion suddenly stopped in its tracks, and a hint of fear was reflected in its eyes.

The Tyrant Lion let out a deafening roar and lunged, fearing hesitation would weaken its resolve. Opening its jaws wide, it released a foul stench so pungent that Liu Wuxie gagged uncontrollably.

"Take my punch. If you can survive, I'll let you live," Liu Wuxie declared. His legs exploded with power as he shot forward, launching himself like a cannonball and leaving two deep craters behind.

The gap between Liu Wuxie and the Tyrant Lion vanished in an instant. They were dozens of meters apart a moment ago, but they collided now in the next second.

Liu Wuxie's fist moved so fast that it left behind afterimages, and the Tyrant Lion could no longer distinguish which was real. It could only watch helplessly as the strike descended upon its skull.

With a loud rumble, the earth trembled, and Liu Wuxie felt like he had struck a boulder. The powerful rebound force sent him backward, landing where he previously stood.

Meanwhile, the Tyrant Lion remained frozen in place. A breath later, cracks echoed from its skull before it exploded in a spray of blood and brain matter, leaving a gaping wound as wide as a bowl.

Crimson blood shot into the air like a fountain, drenching the nearby leaves. Yet, the Tyrant Lion did not immediately fall. Its body stood rigid, refusing to accept its fate. Even after awakening its bloodline, it couldn’t believe it had been slain in a single strike.

The Tyrant Lion's eyes gradually blurred, and it finally collapsed. In its final moments, it was still looking at Liu Wuxie as if asking why Liu Wuxie was so much stronger.

Liu Wuxie, however, felt no excitement—this was only the beginning. He still needed to find stronger profound beasts to test the Heavenly Dragon Seal’s power.

For an entire day, he roamed the mountain range, battling various profound beasts. By nightfall, he had slain more than a dozen pinnacle tenth-grade profound beasts—five with his own hands, while the Heavenly Dragon Seal eliminated the rest.

The seal, having devoured the profound beasts' laws, grew even stronger in response.

By the time Liu Wuxie returned to the cave, it was already deep into the night. He hadn’t realized he had covered thousands of miles in a single day.

Each slain profound beast had guarded a rare spiritual fruit, and he collected them all to bring back for Fiery.

The battles had tempered both his physique and the Heavenly Dragon Seal. Now, he planned to use the remaining time to forge the Metal Suppression Stele. Having killed so many True Profound Realm experts, he had gathered all the necessary materials—only the required elemental energy had been missing. With the abundant metal-attribute energy he had now obtained, that final issue was resolved.

Rather than forging the stele in a traditional form, he chose to use a sword as its foundation. Though he specialized in blade techniques, it wouldn’t hinder him—after all, the paths of the blade and sword would eventually intersect.

Pouring out an array of materials, he began sorting through them. Even into the second half of the night, he remained focused. By the time he had picked out the necessary hundreds of materials, the sun had already risen.

"Good, these are enough to forge the Metal Suppression Stele," Liu Wuxie said with a faint smile.

If anything had been missing, it would have been troublesome to find replacements in this remote mountain range.

Having killed countless people during the recruitment test and after joining the academy, Liu Wuxie had amassed a vast number of resources. If he had relied solely on his own accumulation, it would have taken an unknown amount of time to gather everything he needed.

After resting for the morning, Liu Wuxie took out the sword in the afternoon and officially began his forging. He summoned demonic flames with a wave, and the entire cave's temperature rose.

The sword trembled and struggled to break free. Though it was a weapon without an owner, it still contained an artifact spirit, and it wouldn't be easy for Liu Wuxie to refine it.

The sword, forged by the Witcher Clan, contained many laws. Liu Wuxie didn't quite understand them and needed time to decipher them.

The demonic flame enveloped the sword, purifying the metal-attribute energy within. While the sword was being purified, Liu Wuxie turned his attention to reigniting the other materials.

Now, at the sixth-level Nascent Transformation Realm, he possessed even more blacksmithing laws. Countless runes hovered around him while the materials on the ground gradually diminished.

With a wave of his hand, a massive meteorite floated before him—one he had obtained from Hu Yi. This meteorite contained an immense concentration of metal-attribute energy.

He formed seals and infused his laws into the meteorite, causing it to crack apart as he refined the metal-attribute energy further.

For three days, Liu Wuxie worked tirelessly, refining all the materials. The sword remained engulfed in demonic flames the entire time, allowing the divine avatar’s laws within to gradually merge with him.

With an ancient deity’s power coursing through his body, refining the metal-attribute essence wasn’t too challenging, though there were some difficulties. For anyone else, however, refining the sword would have been nearly impossible.

"Let's begin," Liu Wuxie said. On the fourth day, he had officially embarked on the final forging phase.

The liquid in the sky slowly merged with the sword, which began to tremble violently, rejecting the foreign substances and refusing to accept them.

"Fuse!" Liu Wuxie roared with a thunderous voice as he forcibly merged them.

At that moment, terrifying dragon runes appeared, manifesting into colossal tidal waves that forcibly suppressed the sword's rebound force.

Without hesitation, Liu Wuxie squeezed a drop of his blood essence and injected it into the sword. Doing so would ensure the sword would fully integrate into his body and merge with his lungs with no rejection.

An overwhelming ancient deity's power surged from within the sword, attempting to expel Liu Wuxie's blood essence.

"Suppress!" Liu Wuxie had anticipated this scene, and he had already made preparations.

The Heavenly Dao Book opened up and released a dazzling radiance on the sword, slowly weakening the rebound force until it vanished. It didn't take long before the blood essence settled into the sword's core, taking root like a central control system.

With this success, Liu Wuxie began to speed up his refining process, fusing hundreds of materials into the sword and altering its shape.

As time passed, the sword alternated between the form of a sword and a suppression stele, capable of shifting between the two at will. Once he gathered all five suppression steles, their combined power would increase significantly, allowing him to summon the Five Elemental Divine Stele to suppress his opponents.

But that was a goal for the future, as Liu Wuxie still wasn't sure if he could reach that step.

Forging this sword was different from refining the Heretic Blade, requiring far more effort. Since the sword would merge with his body and become part of him, there was no room for mistakes.

Days passed swiftly, and Fiery had recovered enough to move about in the cave. It even made playful and mischievous gestures occasionally.

Through this experience, Fiery's size and combat power had increased significantly. It now had a crimson glow shimmering on its fur, which would slowly harden and evolve into a tougher texture.

Evidently, it had awakened its bloodline, and its growth would accelerate.

On the seventh day, the sword finally underwent its long-awaited metamorphosis. All the materials had merged as it took the form of a suppression stele, hovering before Liu Wuxie.

Strangely enough, the suppression stele was shaped like a sword, releasing a terrifying wave of metal-attribute energy that filled the entire cave.

Boundless sword aura shot out from the suppression stele in all directions, riddling the surrounding walls with holes.

Liu Wuxie was utterly astounded. He sensed that refining the suppression stele into his body would enhance his mastery of the blade.

After all, sword and blade aura shared a common origin—neither was inherently stronger; their power depended entirely on the wielder’s comprehension and skill. The deeper the understanding, the more devastating the technique would become.

As sword aura continued to surge, Fiery had long taken refuge behind a massive boulder. It was prompted to retreat even further after the boulder shielding it was reduced to rubbles. But this was only the beginning, as Liu Wuxie had yet to refine it into his body. Even so, a smile rose on his lips.

"I can finally refine it now!" Liu Wuxie sat down after two hours, prepared to integrate the Metal Suppression Stele into his body. This was a dangerous process, but he was willing to push himself to the limit in pursuit of strength.

"Come and become one with me!" Liu Wuxie roared, and the suppression stele began to shrink in size, transforming into a golden speck of light and entering his body.