Chapter 973 - Arrival of the Twelve Fiends

Although Liu Wuxie focused on his breakthrough, he saw everything unfolding around him. He remained expressionless, knowing he couldn't stop until he completed his breakthrough. Even if he wanted to, it was already too late. He had reached the critical juncture of his breakthrough.

A deep hum echoed through the air while space around him collapsed into a vacuum domain. Spiritual energy surged from all directions, rushed into the underground mine through the cracks, and condensed into liquid form.

The twelve fiends arrived and peered down at the entrance to the underground mine.

"He's down there!" one of them said.

They charged into the entrance and punched the passage wider, as their massive frames wouldn't fit otherwise.

The ancestral tree reacted the moment the twelve fiends arrived and warned Liu Wuxie of their presence.

Liu Wuxie roared.

Desolate Devouring Art, devour it all!

Time was running out for him. While he didn't fear the human cultivators as he had ways to kill them if they approached him, the arrival of the divinekin sparked a sudden, urgent sense of crisis.

The divinekin's methods were overwhelming, and he knew things could turn dire.

The Desolate Devouring Art stirred like a glutton in response to his call and devoured all the surrounding spiritual energy. It pulled in and devoured the lingering laws of Spirit Profound Realm.

Liu Wuxie's cultivation began to rise shortly after, charging straight toward the pinnacle of the Spirit Profound Realm.

The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron absorbed the liquefied spiritual energy until nothing remained. True essence flooded the desolate world and thickened into an ocean, surging through his limbs and acupoints as his aura reached full saturation.

He had no time to consolidate his cultivation. Hence, he circulated the laws within his body, adapting to the changes his cultivation created.

A dao technique blasted Fiery through the air with a loud rumble and slammed it onto the ground.

Lu Liang and the other assassins struggled to hold their ground, and if Liu Wuxie didn't intervene soon, they would all die at the hands of the intruders.

"Go and kill Liu Wuxie now!" someone roared.

After getting rid of Fiery, five men shot forth like shooting stars, charging straight toward Liu Wuxie.

However, the surrounding lightning halted their advance.

Liu Wuxie looked at the five approaching men with indifference. He clenched his fists and channeled his true essence into his arms. Fighting was the best way to temper and consolidate his cultivation after a breakthrough.

When he took a single step forward, the very space around him trembled, and the faces of the five men paled instantly.

"Shit. Not good!" one cursed, but it was too late now that Liu Wuxie had successfully reached the Spirit Profound Realm.

"Die!" Liu Wuxie said.

Lightning rumbled and engulfed the five men. Then, Liu Wuxie vanished and reappeared before them like a lightning dragon, throwing out a punch and distorting the surrounding space.

Before the closest cultivator could react, Liu Wuxie struck him down, bursting him into a puddle of blood. Then, he absorbed his energy and laws.

Having just advanced in his breakthrough, Liu Wuxie needed to replenish his energy. Their laws were extremely pure.

Liu Wuxie took four more steps forward, killing the remaining four with each one. He had killed all five men with his bare fists in the blink of an eye, relying solely on raw strength.

The Divine Thunder Physique's power was beyond his imagination, and he could rely on raw strength to kill those at the higher levels of the Spirit Profound Realm.

He turned the tables the moment he entered the fight. Lu Liang and the other assassins had retreated deep into the spiritual array with nowhere left to run, awaiting death.

"Earth-Binding Chains!"

"Soul Spear!"

"Heretic Blade!"

Liu Wuxie could only unleash ranged attacks to save Lu Liang and others due to the distance between them.

The Heretic Blade flew and manifested into a blade ray, cleaving downward.

After breaking through to the Spirit Profound Realm, Liu Wuxie gained stronger control over the Heretic Blade. He no longer needed to wield it personally—his will alone directed its movement.

The Heretic Blade slashed at the intruder, who was a step away from killing Ruan Ying. The intruder tried to evade the attack, but the blade struck him down before he could escape.

The Earth-Binding Chains bound the intruder who was fighting Lu Liang, instantly immobilizing him. The moment the chains bound him, he was doomed.

Lu Liang seized the chance and brought his sword down, taking his enemy's life.

Liu Wuxie hurled the Soul Spear into He Hai'an's opponent and sent the Earth-Binding Chains after Jiang Nan's foe.

He then stood still, calmly observing the slaughter. Occasionally, he tapped his finger to direct the Earth-Binding Chains to go after the next opponent.

Liu Wuxie continued directing the chains and strikes, killing intruders one after another.

Liu Wuxie didn't bother to engage in direct confrontation. To him, these people were no different from ants. He was waiting for the divinekin to arrive.

The Heavenly Dao Book slowly closed. After reaching the Spirit Profound Realm, it had etched more Spirit Profound Realm laws onto its surface, each denser than the last.

Liu Wuxie's soul sea brimmed and roared like an ocean, slamming onto its crystalline walls. Arcs of lightning crackled inside him, especially through the Five Elemental Suppression Steles, which had grown stronger after being tempered by lightning.

This allowed Liu Wuxie's overall strength to grow exponentially without utilizing any true essence.

He clenched his right fist and summoned a spatial fragment into his palm, radiating with the power of his newfound mastery over spatial arts.

The remaining intruders backed off, none daring to approach. They were terrified at the sight of the blood-soaked ground and scattered corpses.

"H-He made his breakthrough!" Panic and disbelief froze everyone in place.

After all, it wasn't good news for any of them that Liu Wuxie had broken through to the Spirit Profound Realm.

"You can all either end your lives, or I will help you with it," Liu Wuxie said.

From the moment they intruded on this place, he had no intention of letting anyone walk away. This breakthrough had cost him all his resources, and he could refill them by killing everyone here.

"Liu Wuxie, we still have a chance to kill you if we attack together," roared a cultivator at the pinnacle of the Spirit Profound Realm.

He assumed Liu Wuxie had only succeeded because of the Earth-Binding Chains and figured Liu Wuxie couldn't bind everyone at once.

"How ignorant," Liu Wuxie sneered.

They didn't realize he didn't even need the Earth-Binding Chains to kill them. He tapped his finger and unleashed a cold ray, freezing the man who spoke into a lifeless ice sculpture.

"Run!" Someone cried out.

They were finally afraid and turned to flee. Perhaps only someone at the Earth Profound Realm could put up a fight with Liu Wuxie.

"Don't you think it's too late to leave now?" Liu Wuxie asked coldly.

As he began tapping with his fingers, he sealed off the escape route with ice, forcing the intruders back.

"Liu Wuxie, you dare kill me? I'm a disciple of the Profound Cloud Sect, and Senior Brother Mu Yuanyi won't let you go if you do!" A disciple of the Profound Cloud Sect stepped out, hoping that Liu Wuxie would reconsider the consequences of killing him.

After all, killing a disciple of the Profound Cloud Sect was no different from offending Mu Yuanyi.

"You talk a lot," Liu Wuxie replied.

He saw no point in wasting words. He would have continued the slaughter even if Mu Yuanyi were standing there.

With a wave of his hand, a colossal palm crushed the disciple.

The slaughter continued. Liu Wuxie had to finish them all to extract the energy and laws from their bodies before the divinekin arrived.

"You demon!" someone screamed in terror.

Of the fifty or sixty people who had entered, most were dead. Liu Wuxie showed them no mercy, no matter their age or gender.

They had sealed their own fate by stepping into the underground mine.

The four assassins, Gu Yu and Fiery, were injured. This blood debt could only be repaid with blood.

Screams filled the air as the intruders began to burst into blood mists. The scene was gruesome, but Liu Wuxie's face remained unchanged. Such was the cultivation world, cruel and merciless.

In under a minute, every intruder lay dead. There were no complete corpses; only flayed human skins remained, lined up in eerie rows across the ground.

Dozens of interspatial rings also flew into Liu Wuxie's palm, accumulating more than tens of millions of spirit stones.

"Master, powerful enemies have arrived," Lu Liang reported.

He had scouted the mine's entrance earlier and spotted more experts rushing toward them.

"All of you stay here and recover while I deal with them," Liu Wuxie said.

The ancestral tree had already warned him that the twelve fiends' had arrived. He would have hunted them down even if they hadn't found him. Each of the twelve fiends embodied a Divine Fruit. Slaying them would let him open the second gate in his soul sea.

He could only properly wield dao techniques through divine force; without it, their power fluctuated wildly, varying from one cultivator to another.

Leaving Fiery, Lu Liang, Gu Yu, and the others behind to recover inside the spiritual array, Liu Wuxie stepped toward the exit.

The twelve fiends sensed his presence and knew retreat wasn't an option. Even if they knew he had broken through, they would still come—their mission demanded it. If they failed, Ye'lo would never forgive them—even if they escaped the sacred ground alive.

After all, the Ye'lo Tribe's honor had been tarnished, and no one had ever escaped them before. Liu Wuxie hadn't just escaped—he had slaughtered many divinekin.

Since ancient times, the divine race had proclaimed itself to be the descendants of ancient deities and the rulers of creation.

Liu Wuxie stood alone in the vast, hollowed-out chamber. The entire underground world stretched around him, carved out and abandoned, yet he remained unshaken—even if it all came crashing down, he would not falter.

A short while later, the twelve fiends entered Liu Wuxie's view, each one gripping a weapon. Their divine energy surged toward Liu Wuxie like a tide even before they came close.

Any other Spirit Profound Realm cultivator would have buckled under the pressure, legs trembling. But Liu Wuxie only narrowed his eyes, madness and excitement dancing within them.