Chapter 1276 - Poison Seed

Hundreds of eyes fixed on the man at the water's edge. Each time someone approached the black lake, its surface stirred, exhaling a vast, poisonous essence.

A ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm cultivator stepped too close and screamed as black poison essence burrowed into his body. His features twisted in agony. A heartbeat later, a tendril burst from the lake and stabbed through him. Before everyone's eyes, his body shriveled as the poison stripped the energy inside him away, leaving nothing but a pile of blackened human skin. The tendrils whisked back into the dark water.

Everyone saw the process clearly. Although the tendrils resembled tentacles, they were actually roots from aquatic plants.

"A Poison Seed! It's actually a Poison Seed!" Liu Wuxie smiled. The Poison Seed had already sprouted and grown its own tendrils. If he could obtain it, he would master the Great Poison Mythical Art.

"The lake has given birth to a Poison Seed. If we can sever it, the poison essence here will naturally weaken," Li Dayuan said, recognizing the origin of the tendrils. The crowd nodded in agreement. The black lake had become what it was because a Poison Seed sprouted within it. If they could destroy that Poison Seed, they would be able to retrieve it.

"But how can we destroy the Poison Seed?" The cultivators along the shore quickly split into factions. Groups gathered with their own kind: the human race, the demon clan, the abyssal race, and the elven race. The undead and the Faceless clans kept to another corner no one dared to approach; not even the abyssal race or the demon clan drew near them.

Numbers settled into place. Humans totaled around thirty. The demon clan and the abyssal race together numbered over seventy. The undead and the Faceless clans hovered in the sky by the dozen. The Faceless clan stood in eerie stillness, their blank features making onlookers' skin crawl.

"That's simple. Continue to send people to the bank to lure the Poison Seed out for us to kill," Li Dayuan said, sharing his thoughts. His suggestion instantly won the acknowledgment of everyone; everyone deemed it a good idea.

Eyes swept the shore in search of victims. They initially targeted the demon clan and the abyssal race, mortal enemies of the human race, but the greater numbers and elite strength of those forces made that plan untenable. Gazes shifted to the elven race, the undead clan, and the faceless clan. No one dared provoke the undead or the faceless, and the elves stood farther back and could take to the air at a moment's notice.

This forced the human elites at the high levels of the Primal Origin Realm, led by Li Dayuan, to turn their gaze on fellow humans.

The weaker humans sensed the change and retreated without hesitation. The Scarlet Firmament Stone was not worth their lives.

"Where do you think you're going?" Five human cultivators at the high levels of the Primal Origin Realm moved immediately, cutting off several ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm cultivators. If those people escaped, who would lure the Poison Seed?

Murderous intent flashed in Liu Wuxie's eyes. He had not expected them to stoop so low as to use fellow humans as bait. In that moment, the demon clan and the abyssal race seemed less terrifying; at the very least, they would not sacrifice their own companions for personal gain.

"Li Dayuan, you're a cultivator at the eighth-level Primal Origin Realm. Don't you feel any shame?" The surrounding Origin Conversion Realm cultivators glared at him with contempt. What he had done trampled the human race's bottom line.

"Shame?" Li Dayuan laughed. "Shame is nothing once I get my hands on the Scarlet Firmament Stone."

He would discard anything for his own interest, even if it meant betraying his biological brothers. Even if they were fellow humans, they came from different places, and many did not even originate from the same planet. There was no bond between them, so why would he feel ashamed to use their deaths to secure his gain?

"You four, approach the lake one by one," Li Dayuan ordered, sweeping his gaze across the Origin Conversion Realm cultivators. He settled on Liu Wuxie, whose cultivation appeared to be the lowest.

Liu Wuxie's eyes turned cold. He decided that Li Dayuan had to die. He did not fear cultivators at the high levels of the Primal Origin Realm one-on-one, but he had little chance of surviving a group assault, especially with the demon clan and the abyssal race watching, eager to see humans fight among themselves. Even so, chosen or not, he had already planned to enter the lake to retrieve the Poison Seed. Their approach, however, crossed every line by sacrificing fellow humans for personal benefit.

"Fight our way out!" the other three Origin Conversion Realm cultivators said at once. Even if they died, they would carve a path in blood. Only Liu Wuxie held still, watching in silence for his chance.

The three attacked together, raising a surging tidal force and rushing toward open ground.

"Go back!" Several eighth-level Primal Origin Realm cultivators struck in response. Powerful shockwaves hammered the trio and forced them back toward the bank. The gulf between their realms was too great; they were not on the same level.

"Brat, you too!" Two Primal Origin Realm cultivators moved against Liu Wuxie and sent a crashing tide at him.

Liu Wuxie could only resist by unleashing his full strength, and even then, he could barely face a single eighth-level Primal Origin Realm opponent.

"You people deserve to die," he said through clenched teeth, yielding a step under the pressure.

In the next moment, he flipped into the air, relying on the Primal Origin Realm's aura to hover in midair before executing the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms. Faces tightened around Li Dayuan and his cohort. They had not expected Liu Wuxie's combat strength to hold under the oppression of two Primal Origin Realm experts.

By then, the three ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm cultivators had fallen back to the lake's bank, and only Liu Wuxie remained unscathed.

Across the water, the demon clan and the abyssal race watched in open shock. The demon clan even grew restless after sensing the divine dragon bloodline in Liu Wuxie's body and wanted to devour him.

As the three Origin Conversion Realm cultivators reached the bank, ripples spread across the black surface. A tendril burst forth and arrowed toward them.

Tension spiked.

Li Dayuan and his companions readied their strikes; they had to kill that tendril and leave the Poison Seed helpless. The two eighth-level Primal Origin Realm cultivators who had been pressing Liu Wuxie halted as well, eyes locked on the tendril, and abandoned their assault.

Liu Wuxie waited for his opening. He wanted the Scarlet Firmament Stone, but he also wanted the Poison Seed.

The instant the tendril appeared, Li Dayuan's group launched sword rays that locked onto it before it could slip away. Their blades reshaped in flight and coiled around the tendril, but the moment steel-light touched black vine, poison essence chewed into the sword rays and eroded them.

"Pull it out! Once it leaves the lake, the Poison Seed won't be a threat anymore!" Li Dayuan roared. Others followed at once, releasing true essence that condensed into a massive palm and heaved the tendril toward the shore. In a blink, it stretched like a black vine as their pull dredged it from the lake's depths.

Water slapped the air as a fist-sized seed surfaced. The tendril had sprouted from that newly germinated core. If it had matured, the Poison Seed would have given birth to spirituality, like the Scarlet Firmament Stone, and become far harder to kill.

The moment the Poison Seed broke the surface, Liu Wuxie moved. He summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and swallowed the Poison Seed before anyone could react. When the crowd regained its senses, the seed was gone. Shock rippled through every faction. Even cultivators at the Void Realm would not dare touch a Poison Seed, yet Liu Wuxie had collected it with ease. From the very beginning, they had dismissed him because his cultivation was merely at the fourth-level Origin Conversion Realm.

Inside the cauldron, demonic flame surged and refined the Poison Seed instantly. When the liquefied poison essence poured into the desolate world, Liu Wuxie sensed the Poison Dao Art stirring. If he used this opportunity to comprehend the Great Poison Mythical Art, he could disregard the poisonous miasma here.

As soon as the Poison Seed vanished, the lake's poison haze began to thin. It would no longer harm anyone who avoided contact with the black water.

"Retrieve the Scarlet Firmament Stone!" Li Dayuan reacted first while others still reeled at how Liu Wuxie had taken the Poison Seed. He streaked across the lake like a comet and vanished. His speed astonished everyone—yet someone moved even faster.

After refining the Poison Seed, Liu Wuxie had no time to comprehend the Great Poison Mythical Art. He vanished from the shore. Standing closest to the lake, he moved at a speed that rivaled high-level Primal Origin Realm cultivators. In the blink of an eye, he reached the lake's center. Though Origin Conversion Realm cultivators could not fly, he could glide short distances by relying on the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms.

"Brat, you're courting death!" Li Dayuan roared and struck with his palm. He aimed not to kill but to knock Liu Wuxie into the lake. Without flight, a fall into the black water meant death.

Liu Wuxie snorted and executed all three forms of the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms at once, slipping past the attack like a divine dragon. By now, the other experts had recovered and launched their blows as well.

Without a landing point, Liu Wuxie was in immediate peril. He could not face so many high-level Primal Origin Realm experts while he hung over the water. If he stood on solid ground, he would not fear them; even if he could not defeat them, he could retreat. Here, he hovered above the lake with no leverage and no hands to spare, especially after collecting the Scarlet Firmament Stone.

Killing blows screamed in from every side. A single misstep meant annihilation. The lake yawned below, and devastating attacks rained down from above.

"Great Five Elemental Mythical Art!" Liu Wuxie roared. The Great Five Elemental Mythical Art condensed into a gigantic millstone and crashed toward Li Dayuan and the others. Even so, his body dropped fast, and the danger sharpened. Two choices remained before him: fall into the lake or die under their encirclement. He did not hesitate. If he plunged into the water, he held a slim chance to live. If he stayed, he would die for sure.