Chapter 985 - Retrieving the Spiritual Vein

The sudden appearance of the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan cast a heavy shadow over everyone's hearts. They didn't fear the destruction of the sacred ground itself but feared not making it out alive. If the sacred ground collapsed, they would perish along with it.

Lu Liang pulled out his compass and immediately sent a message to Ruan Ying, urging her to return quickly to the surface.

Meanwhile, chaos erupted in the underground world. Many cultivators stood by the side, waiting to snatch spirit stones the moment someone excavated them, which sparked several bloody incidents.

In minutes, Qiao Bian had collected over ten thousand spirit stones, and Liu Wuxie was stunned by this scene.

Luan Tianzhi and the others weren't slow either, and they had each gathered five to six hundred. Even so, they still lagged behind Qiao Bian.

Thousands of cultivators had excavated part of the spiritual vein, but more than half was left untouched.

"Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, can you swallow the entire spiritual vein?" Liu Wuxie muttered as a wild idea began to take shape in his mind.

He planned to take the entire spiritual vein—keeping some supreme-grade spirit stones for himself and burying the rest in the desolate world to nourish it. Even Liu Wuxie didn't expect himself to come up with such a wild idea.

A low hum came from the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron as a response.

"Good. Let's do this," Liu Wuxie decided to go with the insane idea.

With a deafening rumble, a terrifying vortex appeared in the underground world, alarming everyone. As Liu Wuxie began forming seals with his hands, a powerful suction force surged out, causing the entire underground world to creak and crack.

Everyone was focused on excavating the supreme-grade spirit stones, and no one had noticed what was happening. The trembling underground world alarmed them.

"Liu Wuxie, it's him again!" someone yelled.

Liu Wuxie had formed seals with his hands, and a powerful suction force came from the black vortex, pulling everything in.

Qiao Bian's vortex had already terrified many, but it paled in comparison to Liu Wuxie's.

Luan Tianzhi and the others gritted their teeth when they heard Liu Wuxie's name.

"Kill him!" Liang Yi roared and was the first to charge at Liu Wuxie.

However, a strange force field around Liu Wuxie prevented him from getting any closer. This wasn't just the effect of spatial art but also the effect of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron.

The black vortex pulled in everything around it and was on the verge of devouring Liang Yi. Shocked, he hastily retreated to the side.

Qiao Bian looked at Liu Wuxie with a wry smile. While his speed of collecting the spirit stones was monstrous compared to others, it was nothing compared to Liu Wuxie.

"Dig! Don't let him take everything!" someone shouted.

Since they couldn't get close to Liu Wuxie, they could only do their best to dig as much as possible.

"Hmph, let him take it for now. We can kill him once we're outside and claim it all for ourselves," Luan Tianzhi sneered, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Everyone halted their excavation and quietly watched Liu Wuxie control the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron.

Standing behind Liu Wuxie, Ruan Ying felt conflicted. She had just received the message from Lu Liang about the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan, urging them to leave immediately.

However, Liu Wuxie was in the critical moment of retrieving the spiritual vein, and everything would be lost if he were disturbed.

The vortex grew larger above them, and its powerful suction forced everyone nearby to retreat in fear. Even those at the Earth Profound Realm couldn't withstand the suction force, let alone those at the Spirit Profound Realm.

"What the hell is that? Why is it so terrifying?"

Many powerful cultivators were present, but even they couldn't withstand the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron's suction force. They couldn't comprehend its power.

"This must be Liu Wuxie's secret: using this black vortex to devour everything. No wonder his cultivation can advance so quickly."

Someone finally understood how Liu Wuxie had advanced so rapidly from the mundane world in just a few years. He hadn't advanced through talent alone; it was all thanks to that black cauldron.

Many people rubbed their hands in excitement. "I have to kill him and seize that cauldron!"

The spiritual vein was no longer that important now compared to the cauldron.

As everyone nearby backed off, Liu Wuxie controlled the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron to devour more than half of the spiritual vein. This was his limit—the spiritual vein was simply too massive. Even so, the amount of spirit stones he had enveloped with the cauldron had reached over ten million.

"Devour!" Liu Wuxie circulated the Desolate Devouring Art. The Heavenly Dao Book unfurled with various laws, intertwining into a massive phenomenon.

The ground cracked as the spiritual vein broke apart, and the cauldron enveloped a portion of it, lifting it off the ground.

The sight terrified everyone, as Liu Wuxie planned to take the entire spiritual vein. After all, a spiritual vein could weigh as much as a mountain.

Liu Wuxie's true essence was draining at an alarming rate as he controlled the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. But the desolate world generated true essence, sparing him from running out completely.

"It's rising! He is lifting the entire spiritual vein!" an exclamation came from the surroundings.

Those on the spiritual vein fled, terrified of being swallowed by the black vortex. They could only watch as Liu Wuxie was absorbing most of the spiritual vein, and the others could do nothing about it.

Perhaps because Liu Wuxie had dealt with most of the spiritual vein, the remainder became much easier to excavate, and everyone rushed over immediately.

The spirit stones dwindled rapidly, and everyone could only manage to get a few.

Meanwhile, Qiao Bian had also intensified his effort and swallowed tens of thousands of supreme-grade spirit stones in the blink of an eye.

"Come in!" Liu Wuxie roared. His true essence manifested as a giant palm that grabbed onto the spiritual vein and shoved it into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron.

It was a frightening scene. Only cultivators at the Earth Profound Realm could achieve something of this scale, akin to lifting a mountain.

After the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron devoured the spiritual vein, Liu Wuxie quickly began sorting the spirit stones. He extracted over one million supreme-grade spirit stones and planned to fuse the rest into the desolate world.

With the supreme-grade spiritual vein, he wouldn't have to worry about running out of true essence in the future.

He recalled that some powerful dao techniques required burning an entire spiritual vein just to be executed once. He could still manage his dao techniques for now since they remained in their initial stages.

If he could comprehend a formidable dao technique like the Annihilation Fist, he would exhaust all his true essence by executing it once. But that wouldn't happen if he could burn the entire spiritual vein and convert it into spiritual energy to replenish his depletion.

Liu Wuxie recalled the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron back into the desolate world.

Once he finished, he scanned the surroundings, and everyone kept their distance. The underground world emptied out, and Liu Wuxie had no reason to stay after retrieving most of the spiritual vein.

With just a few dozen spirit stones, he quickly replenished his true essence. But now wasn't the time to fuse the spiritual vein into the desolate world.

"Master, we're in trouble! The Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan has appeared outside!" Ruan Ying finally had a chance to speak.

"What?!" Liu Wuxie's expression turned grave.

He knew what it meant. The appearance of the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan signaled this world's impending destruction.

"Let's go!" Liu Wuxie roared and left with Ruan Ying.

"Liu Wuxie, where do you think you're going?" Luan Tianzhi and the others were waiting for this moment, and they wouldn't let Liu Wuxie leave so easily.

After losing half of the spiritual vein, the entire underground world collapsed. More people flocked to the surface, sharing the news about the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan.

"Senior Brother Qiao, what's the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan?" asked one of the baffled disciples from the Dragon Emperor Academy.

"We're leaving, now!" Qiao Bian didn't hesitate and gave up on collecting the remaining supreme-grade spirit stones.

He had collected tens of thousands of spirit stones, which were enough. There was no need for him to take any more risks.

Stones rained down. If they continued to stay, the collapsing underground world would bury them alive.

Supreme-grade spirit stones meant nothing if they couldn't survive to enjoy them.

Luan Tianzhi and the others didn't hold back and began chasing Liu Wuxie down without mercy.

Liu Wuxie didn't linger and dragged Ruan Ying along, swiftly vanishing into the tunnels.

"Let's go!"

His speed was unmatched, and even experts at the Earth Profound Realm would struggle to keep up. But his pursuers weren't slow either as they chased after him.

In just half a minute, Liu Wuxie had emerged from the underground world, and he could see a red screen slowly closing in like a colossal beast swallowing up the earth.

The Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan instantly annihilated every place it touched like a Spatial Beast devouring chunks of space. But the former was much larger, and there was no comparison.

When everyone gradually learned about the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan's origin, they fled for their lives.

"Liu Wuxie, where do you think you're going?" Luan Tianzhi and the others continued to chase after Liu Wuxie and surrounded him.

There were five cultivators at the Earth Profound Realm, and they were a force to be reckoned with. Luan Tianzhi, Liang Yi, Mi Ze, Mu Yuanyi, and Yuan Zilong formed the group.

Liu Wuxie stood at a severe disadvantage—unless he could summon five Earth Profound Realm experts of his own. No one was willing to help Liu Wuxie at this moment, especially when he had devoured half the spiritual vein.

Han Feizi wanted to fight alongside him, but Liu Wuxie stopped him.

"Brother Han, take the others and run. Split these supreme-grade spirit stones among yourselves!" Liu Wuxie threw an interspatial ring to Han Feizi, containing fifty thousand supreme-grade spirit stones for them to share.

After all, he could never have taken so much without them.