Chapter 1072 - Eighteen Peak Cities

With no other choice, Liu Wuxie pressed deeper into the Eastern Domain's heart.

If things truly reached a dead end, he might have to use faith energy to forcibly convert a few locals into devotees to extract information about the Barefooted Elder. But he loathed that path and reserved it only as a last resort.

Hovering midair, Liu Wuxie caught sight of several groups rapidly approaching from multiple directions, attempting to cut him off.

"Kill him!" a cold voice shouted. Without warning, a mysterious group burst out from the shadows and launched a ferocious assault.

Each of them was formidable, and no matter how Liu Wuxie tried to break away, they clung to him like shadows.

"You're all courting death!" Liu Wuxie roared.

He had held back earlier out of sympathy. But now, he realized he had been far too merciful. These people had no personal feud with him, yet were relentless in trying to kill him. There was no more room for hesitation.

With a thunderous palm strike, he sent hundreds flying.

Then, in a flash, he seized two men by the throat and dragged them in front of him.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Without wasting time, Liu Wuxie activated the Conversion Art, thrusting his soul force into their sea of consciousness. He aimed to forcibly transform them into his followers and glean the information he needed.

However, the moment the Conversion Art began to take hold, a violent surge of cursed energy erupted from within the two men. The soul conversion collapsed instantly, and the faith energy scattered like smoke.

The Conversion Art had failed.

Stunned, Liu Wuxie narrowed his eyes. This was the first time his faith-based technique had failed him.

"It's the curse laws... they're interfering with the Conversion Art," he muttered.

In the laws of the world, every force had a counterforce. And the Curse Dao Art was a natural nemesis of the Conversion Art.

The Curse Dao was even more terrifying than the Death Dao, and practitioners required the legendary Cursed Physique to cultivate it, a feat so rare that it was almost mythical. Most who comprehended the Curse Dao perished.

As soon as the conversion failed, the two men broke free like rabid animals, lunging at Liu Wuxie with wild howls, determined to die with him.

However, Liu Wuxie slapped them away with a casual strike, not bothering to kill them. Despite everything, he still held back.

With the Conversion Art rendered useless in the Eastern Domain, Liu Wuxie could only grit his teeth and press onward.

Finding the Barefooted Elder had just become a hundred times more difficult.

After surviving the earlier ambush, Liu Wuxie became far more cautious.

He no longer dared to ask anyone about the Barefooted Elder casually. Even in silence, trouble found him. The locals had already circulated his portrait and aura across the entire Eastern Domain, appearing in every village, tribe, and outpost. The moment he entered any populated area, he would be recognized.

Still, that wasn't the only reason.

The cursed energy in his body was fundamentally different from the locals. While their cursed energy was thick, oppressive, and deeply ingrained into their blood and bones, Liu Wuxie's was thin, tainted with traces of a foreign power, one that made him stand out like a sore thumb. Anyone with slightly stronger cultivation could immediately detect the discrepancy.

He crossed peak after peak, moving cautiously as he delved deeper.

Eventually, he arrived at the very heart of the Eastern Domain, a massive basin surrounded by eighteen towering peaks. Together, they formed a sprawling mountain city.

It was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Wide bridges and stone platforms linked the peaks, crisscrossing the air like a grand web. Entire crowds bustled across the walkways, moving from peak to peak as if the whole city floated in the sky.

Each mountain stood as colossal as the Heavenly Peak in the Central Plains, and people inhabited them all.

"Abyssal energy... such dense abyssal energy," Liu Wuxie muttered, halting his approach and observing from afar.

What he sensed sent a chill down his spine.

Abyssal energy engulfed one of the peaks, and it wasn't merely lingering traces. Abyssal devils were living there, moving about openly and in significant numbers. This should've been impossible.

After all, since ancient times, humans and abyssal devils had been mortal enemies. Their very existence repelled one another, and their paths rarely crossed without bloodshed.

However, here, in this cursed land... that rule no longer applied.

Everyone, including humans, abyssal devils, and demonic beasts, were bound by the same curse. The same corrupted energy now saturated their once-distinct bodies, blurring the lines between races.

None of them could leave.

And since escape was impossible, they had no choice but to coexist.

Liu Wuxie watched as an Abyssal King strolled across a stone bridge. The surrounding humans instinctively stepped aside, giving way.

Their tolerance was strained but real.

They didn't mingle and speak, and they didn't kill each other either.

"That's it... Liu Wuxie's eyes lit up as a plan formed in his mind. "If I can't hide as a human... then I'll disguise myself as an abyssal devil. That way, I might be able to gather information more freely."

Through close observation, Liu Wuxie soon discovered that although the abyssal devils also bore cursed energy within their bodies, it wasn't as alarming or overt as in the humans. Their abyssal energy effectively masked the cursed energy. It didn't mean the curse spared them, only that the abyssal aura made the signs harder to detect.

The Desolate World once contained a vast, abyssal realm, and Liu Wuxie, who had studied it in depth, found it relatively easy to replicate its characteristics.

Without delay, he summoned a wave of abyssal energy to enshroud his entire body.

In an instant, the human aura around him vanished, replaced by the distinct pressure of the abyss. His features remained, but the energy flowing from him was purely abyssal. He changed into appropriate clothing and stepped forward confidently, blending into the city of eighteen peaks.

People had excavated these mountain peaks for countless years, hollowing them out from within and transforming them into multi-leveled habitats filled with bridges, homes, and cultivation platforms.

The houses here were a mix of styles. Some had doors and windows, clearly more refined and reserved for those of higher status. Others were no more than caves carved into cliffs, identical to the primitive structures he had seen elsewhere. Only the less fortunate lived in those cliffside caves, building simple homes on the stone face.

The eighteen peaks formed a hexagonal layout, with three massive central peaks forming the core. These central peaks housed most of the human population and buzzed with activity, giving off a sense of prosperity and structured life.

Despite the crimson sky and cursed energy in the atmosphere, the people here weren't so different from those of the Central Plains.

They focused on cultivation with determination, each hoping to escape the Eastern Domain's fate.

Though surrounded by cursed terrain, the Eastern Domain was rich in natural resources due to its mountainous terrain. Its mountainous landscape brimmed with rare herbs, precious minerals, and buried ancient relics, fueling a vibrant cultivation scene. In truth, the overall cultivation level here could rival that of the Central Plains.

Unlike the Central Plains, however, the Eastern Domain lacked internal power struggles. There were no sect wars, no faction feuds. Everyone lived under the looming threat of the curse, and so they poured their energy into one thing: growing stronger. Amplified by the curse itself, their combat prowess was formidable.

Liu Wuxie deliberately avoided the most populated areas.

Although the humans and abyssal devils coexisted, the tension between them was evident. Aside from that one peak designated for abyssal devils, traces of abyssal energy were nearly absent on the other mountains.

His next objective was clear: head to the territory of the abyssal race and search for information regarding the Barefooted Elder.

He hoped that, unlike the humans, the abyssal devils would not respond so violently to the mention of that name.

Upon entering their territory, he quickly noticed the difference.

Though a few humans appeared here and there, abyssal devils dominated the region. Each of them exuded powerful auras that marked them as battle-hardened cultivators.

Abyssal Kings were especially eye-catching. Their power was equivalent to human Earth Profound Realm experts, and their presence drew respect and fear in equal measure wherever they walked.

As for the Abyssal Emperors, whose strength matched the Heaven Profound Realm in humans, remained in seclusion, their movements seldom seen.

Liu Wuxie refrained from acting recklessly. Before making any moves, he spent time familiarizing himself with the layout of the Eastern Domain, especially the peaks inhabited by abyssal devils.

With no inns or places of lodging available among the abyssal peaks, he located an abandoned shack tucked into a quiet corner and stepped inside to take shelter.

The moment he entered, several pairs of eyes snapped toward him.

A handful of abyssal devils were already inside, likely stragglers like himself, outsiders seeking a temporary place to stay.

However, as Liu Wuxie scanned the room, he sensed something odd. These beings emanated abyssal energy, but it was faint and blended with something else, traces of a human aura.

Even stranger, when the abyssal devils looked at him, their expressions were filled with unease and fear, as though they wanted nothing to do with him.

Liu Wuxie ignored their reactions. Not even abyssal devils at the pinnacle of the Earth Profound Realm could intimidate him, much less these weak ones.

He continued observing the room until his gaze landed on a small figure curled up in the corner.

Shivering from the cold, the figure looked visibly ill.

Walking over, Liu Wuxie felt something strange about the youth, an aura that didn't quite fit with the others in the room. But he couldn't put his finger on it yet.

"Are you alright?" he asked, crouching beside the frail figure.

The youth slowly sat up, revealing a delicate, almost ethereal face. Liu Wuxie was startled.

This face belonged to a human, yet the energy radiating from the youth's body was overwhelmingly abyssal.

When Liu Wuxie had disguised himself as an abyssal devil, he had taken great care to mask his human features. But this youth hadn't disguised himself at all. His face was flawless, elegant, youthful, and unmistakably human.

"I'm fine. It's an old illness," the youth replied softly, forcing a smile. He leaned back against the wall, breathing heavily as if in pain.

"You're not an abyssal devil?" Liu Wuxie asked, puzzled.

"Both... and neither," the youth said with a bitter smile.

Realization dawned on Liu Wuxie.

"A mixed blood," he murmured.

He had seen such cases before. In regions where humans and abyssal devils had once mingled, willingly or otherwise, there were rare cases of hybrid offspring, born with both bloodlines and belonging to neither side.

He had encountered such people in the Southern Province, in the Abyssal Underground World. One such case was Jian Xing'er.

Abyssal devils rejected hybrids as twisted abominations, and humans labeled them monsters.

To humans, they were abyssal fiends.

To the abyssal devils, they were deviant devils.

Either way, both sides treated them as heretics, outcasts with no place to belong.

"I'm Tian Wucang. What's your name?" the youth asked, his voice softening slightly now that the pain had subsided.

"Gu Yu," Liu Wuxie answered without hesitation.

His real name was now notorious across the Eastern Domain. If he revealed it, enemies would swarm him within moments.

It wasn't that Liu Wuxie wished to lie, but in this cursed and hostile land, keeping a low profile was the only way to survive, at least until he found the Barefooted Elder.

"So, you're Brother Gu. Are you a mix-blood as well?" Tian Wucang asked, his gaze steadily scanning him as if he could somehow sense that Liu Wuxie wasn't a true abyssal devil.

"What makes you say that?" Liu Wuxie replied calmly.

Naturally, he wouldn't admit it. His disguise was flawless, and under normal circumstances, even most abyssal devils couldn't see through it.

Tian Wucang smiled faintly with a trace of bitterness in his expression. "If you were a pure-blooded abyssal devil, you wouldn't be staying in a dump like this. Mixed-bloods like us are outcasts, rejected by both races. We're like vermin in the shadows, forced to hide in places like this to stay out of sight."

He hadn't truly seen through Liu Wuxie's identity but had guessed based on where he had chosen to stay.

If Liu Wuxie were a pure-blooded abyssal devil, he would have had a proper residence, perhaps even servants and status. There would be no reason for him to share space with the downtrodden.

Liu Wuxie silently nodded, his gaze sweeping over the others in the shack.

Just like Tian Wucang, everyone here was a hybrid. That explained the earlier fear in their eyes. His aura was too pure, far too close to that of a true abyssal devil.