Chapter 1226 - Dragon Flame Fruit

This strike was no mere application of the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms. Liu Wuxie had fused the Great Frost Mythical Art into it, significantly amplifying its destructive power. The force pierced the White-Armored Earth Dragon, and frost energy surged wildly within it, rampaging through its veins like a thousand blades of ice.

The beast roared in fury, its bellow shaking the gorge as it hurled its massive body forward in a desperate attempt to drag Liu Wuxie into mutual destruction.

The Heretic Blade appeared in Liu Wuxie's palm with a sharp flash. He decisively slashed the Earth Dragon's eyes. An explosion followed as the eyeball burst apart, spraying blood like a fountain. The blade aura drilled deeper, boring into the beast's mind and shattering its consciousness from within.

Only then did Liu Wuxie allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief. He had spent nearly seventy percent of his true essence in this single battle. To bring down the White-Armored Earth Dragon, he played every trump card he possessed except the Heaven-Severing Strike.

This battle proved his current limits; he had the strength to slay an opponent at the ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm. Yet he knew well that astral beasts, despite their terrifying strength, were still easier to kill than human cultivators.

If he faced two ninth-level Origin Conversion experts at once, he would have no choice but to flee.

He summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, its ancient surface gleaming with dark runes. The cauldron opened like a black maw and swallowed the Earth Dragon's massive corpse whole.

Within, the carcass dissolved into a torrent of Origin Conversion Realm laws. Liu Wuxie sealed the essence away, planning to save it for his breakthrough to the sixth-level Transcendent Realm.

***

Meanwhile, the faces of the four elders in the Primordial Pagoda twisted with shock at the sight of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron.

"What did you all see?" asked the elder on the right, his voice trembling.

"It's a black hole... a terrifying black hole," the elder on the left muttered, still pale with lingering fear. The moment the black hole appeared, he felt as if the black hole would drag his soul through the crystal wall.

Only Elder Long remained composed. He calmly took out a meditation mat, sat cross-legged upon it, and fixed his gaze on the crystal wall, which projected Liu Wuxie's every action.

***

On the battlefield, Liu Wuxie wasted no time tidying up. Instead, he scanned his surroundings, eyes narrowed.

"That's strange," he muttered. "There should be a reward after killing the White-Armored Earth Dragon."

The Death Gate always offered generous rewards. Yet to his surprise, none appeared, even after he struck the beast down.

"Wait... this is the real world," Liu Wuxie realized. "If there's a reward, it must be hidden nearby."

Activating Ghost Eye, he scanned the gorge. His senses tugged in a particular direction, and in the next instant, he executed his movement technique. His figure vanished, reappearing more than three thousand meters away at the cliff's edge.

"The Dragon Flame Fruit!" Liu Wuxie's eyes lit up when he spotted a fiery-red fruit clinging to a branch by the cliffside. A Dragon Flame Fruit required a dragon aura to grow, and an invisible barrier had been concealing it, hiding it even from passing cultivators until now.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect controlled many places in the Dragon Expanse Mountain Range, and this was clearly one of them.

"So this is the reward," Liu Wuxie said with a satisfied smile. His True Dragon Physique had long reached a bottleneck, unable to progress further. The Dragon Flame Fruit had arrived at the perfect moment, its energy capable of strengthening his body even more.

He dashed toward it, intent on plucking the fruit. A terrifying amount of dragon aura seeped from its skin, and within its fiery glow lay condensed laws of the dragon clan itself.

"What a treasure... this Dragon Flame Fruit is nearly ripe," Liu Wuxie murmured, his eyes glittering with excitement.

With the ninth-level astral beast's essence stored in the cauldron and the Dragon Flame Fruit in hand, he had guaranteed his breakthrough to the sixth-level Transcendent Realm.

Just as his hand reached forward, sharp

whooshes

tore through the air.

"Brat, drop that Dragon Flame Fruit!" three voices roared.

Three cultivators at the ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm descended. Their clothes made it clear that they did not belong to the Heavenly Dragon Sect. Their rough attire marked them as rogue cultivators who had come here to train and seek fortune.

The Dragon Expanse Mountain Range, vast and filled with treasures, was a haven for such wanderers. The Dragon Flame Fruit was among the finest treasures it could offer.

"So fast?" Liu Wuxie's face tightened. Without hesitation, he swept the fruit into his interspatial ring. This was not the time to attempt a breakthrough. He still had five days in total, and barely one had passed.

He darted deeper into the mountain range, vanishing like a streak of lightning. Against three ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm experts, his odds were slim. If he could reach the sixth level, however, he could have a chance against them.

In terms of movement speed, Liu Wuxie was no weaker than his pursuers.

"After him! Don't let him refine the Dragon Flame Fruit!" the three shouted as they gave chase, their murderous intent surging.

Liu Wuxie's eyes flickered as he scanned the terrain, searching for a way to shake them. Ghost Eye revealed changes in the mist-veiled mountain paths, and he quickly sensed something strange. The terrain twisted unnaturally, as though an immortal had laid down a massive spiritual array that covered it.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Outsiders would never notice it. However, Liu Wuxie had no time to unravel it now, nor the cultivation level to exploit its weakness.

"Brat, you can't escape! Hand over the fruit, and we'll probably spare your life!" their voices echoed behind him.

He didn't slow down. He knew better. He had chosen the Death Gate. These people would never let him live, even if he gave up the fruit. Trees blurred past as he invoked the Divine Dragon Phantom, doubling his speed until he shot forward like a meteor.

In the next breath, he slipped into dense woods, invoked the Ancient Breath-Concealing Art, and vanished without a trace. By the time the three cultivators arrived, he had disappeared entirely.

"Spread out!" one barked, and the trio scattered in different directions to search.

Judging from their weathered faces and rough clothes, they weren't disciples of any great sect. They were rogue cultivators who had been lingering at the ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm for years. To them, the Dragon Flame Fruit was everything.

With it, they had a seventy percent chance of breaking into the Primal Origin Realm, which would elevate their status across Indigo Bamboo Star.

As soon as they split up, Liu Wuxie reappeared from behind a distant tree, retracing his path back toward the gorge. The most dangerous place was often the safest. None of them would expect him to return.

"This brat is crafty," one of the watching elders muttered, unable to suppress his awe.

"That's strange," another elder said. "Why didn't those three detect his presence?"

"There's something unusual about him," a third added. They could see the broad events, but not the finer details, from afar.

"He must have cultivated a concealment art that hides his presence perfectly," Elder Long finally said.

"That explains it!" The three elders nodded.

Back at the gorge, Liu Wuxie moved swiftly. He didn't dare linger near the wreckage for long, but he had returned for one purpose—to circle behind the trio and avoid them entirely.

Ghost Eye revealed the landscape clearly, and he searched for a suitable hiding place.

"A hollow tree," he muttered as his eyes narrowed. Ahead stood a colossal tree, over ten thousand years old, its trunk wide enough that ten men with linked arms couldn't encircle it. Outwardly, it looked whole, but inside, it was partially hollow.

He leapt to its crown, found a half-meter-wide opening, and slipped inside.

"How did he know that tree was hollow?" the elders gaped, astonished. Ordinary cultivators could never have seen through its façade.

"He must have some unique gift for sensing," they concluded. Most of the Astral Domain was unfamiliar with Ghost Eye, as it was a technique from the Celestial Realm.

Inside the tree, Liu Wuxie sat down cross-legged. He quickly formed seals, isolating the space from the outside world. Even the four elders in the Primordial Pagoda lost track of him; the crystal wall showed nothing but solid bark.

"Are we just going to wait?" one elder asked.

"What else can we do?" Another sighed bitterly.

Upon sealing the surroundings, Liu Wuxie pulled out the Dragon Flame Fruit. He swallowed it whole in one bite. At once, a terrifying torrent of dragon aura surged into him, and his True Dragon Physique frantically absorbed it.

The physique had suffered a grave strain when he executed the Heaven-Severing Strike. Although the Jade Blossom Dew had healed him, hairline fractures remained. The Dragon Flame Fruit's essence washed through him, erasing those flaws perfectly.

Golden dragon phantoms shuttled through his veins. His body glowed with scales that shimmered faintly across his chest and back, as if fire and steel had tempered him a thousand times. He poured the astral beast's laws he had stored in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron into his desolate world.

The desolate world shook violently and expanded, doubling its size in a single breath. Mountains rose, rivers carved their paths, and an immense vitality surged through him. The expansion meant his body could now hold far more true essence, allowing him to sustain even greater techniques.

When the True Dragon Physique absorbed the Dragon Flame Fruit, dragon roars began to echo from within him. Dragon scales began to spread across his chest and back, and he looked as if fire and steel had tempered his flesh a thousand times.

As he absorbed the power of the Dragon Flame Fruit, dragon roars rumbled within him. His aura climbed relentlessly, and the gateway to the sixth-level Transcendent Realm shimmered before him.

He tossed thirty Pure Yang Pills into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, converting them into pure yang energy that streamed into the desolate world. Then, seven hundred thousand astral stones shattered into liquid energy, flooding his inner world until it brimmed with power.

The once-empty, desolate world was filled again. The ancient tree groaned but held, and only Liu Wuxie's preparations spared it.

Even though the elders could no longer see him, they could feel the terrifying aura from thousands of kilometers away.

"Sixth-level Transcendent Realm—breakthrough!" Liu Wuxie roared. His cultivation surged past the threshold, and a rumbling reminiscent of thunder echoed from within the ancient tree, audible for dozens of kilometers around.

Far away, the three pursuers had been running for hours, but they still couldn't find Liu Wuxie. Eventually, one of them sneered darkly and circled back.