Chapter 999 - Death Dao Art

Elder Black unleashed the Lesser Severance Art shortly after the Great Five Elemental Palm took shape. Like a saw, the dao technique tore through an opening in the Great Five Elemental Palm.

His Lesser Severance Art surpassed Qiu Zhengyi's in strength. The two weren't on the same level. While Qiu Zhengyi was only at the pinnacle of the Spirit Profound Realm, Elder Black was at the second-level Earth Profound Realm.

Liu Wuxie had already anticipated that Elder Black had mastered the Lesser Severance Art. After his battle with Qiu Zhengyi, he had modified the Great Five Elemental Palm to enhance its density.

When the Lesser Severance Art tore through the colossal palm, the Great Five Elemental Palm had shaped into a colossal millstone. The millstone spun violently and devoured the Lesser Severance Art's energy with a swirling vortex.

A flicker of unease flashed across Elder Black's eyes as he lost his calm demeanor.

Elder Black laughed and began retreating. "Liu Wuxie, you can't kill me. When I return to the Black Plume Pavilion, I'll ensure you're hunted endlessly!"

No one would believe Liu Wuxie had forced an Earth Profound Realm expert to flee.

"Did I give you permission to leave?" Liu Wuxie sneered.

The four assassins launched a coordinated attack, targeting Elder Black's back.

"You all deserve to die! The Black Plume Pavilion spent decades nurturing you, and you dare turn your blades against it?!" Elder Black bellowed in fury, facing the attacks from Ruan Ying and the others.

However, there was nothing he could do. The assassins weren't at the Earth Profound Realm, but their combined strength could rival someone at the first-level Earth Profound Realm.

The four swords struck from all directions, leaving Elder Black no room to escape.

Liu Wuxie seized the opportunity and unleashed the Great Five Elemental Palm, transforming it into a crushing force.

The teamwork flowed seamlessly. While the assassins pinned Elder Black Liu Wuxie struck head-on.

On his own, Liu Wuxie would struggle to suppress Elder Black. But his combat strength had surged with the four assassins assisting him from the side.

After the assassins cut off Elder Black's escape route, Liu Wuxie launched his attack, leaving Elder Black with no choice but to fight.

Elder Black performed a bizarre dao technique this time instead of the Divine Heaven-Crushing Palm. He clasped his palms together, which resembled an offering gesture.

"Master, be careful! That's a Buddhist Clan's dao technique, Offering Flowers to Buddha, allowing the user to redirect a dao technique to someone else!" Ruan Ying warned.

She had witnessed Elder Black using this dao technique to kill an expert at the Earth Profound Realm. This dao technique allowed the user to redirect a dao technique's impact entirely to someone else.

Offering Flowers to Buddha was merely one of the countless dao techniques in the world.

Elder Black roared in fury. "You even address him as 'Master'? You deserve to die!"

His eyes radiated with torrential murderous intent; the sheer aura he gave off distorted the surrounding atmosphere.

"Not good!" Liu Wuxie exclaimed.

He couldn't master every dao technique in the world, not when cultivators kept creating new ones, many of which had only emerged in the past few decades.

Ancient dao techniques were rare, and most dao techniques arose as cultivators spent years comprehending the dao.

By the time Liu Wuxie realized something was wrong, it was too late. Elder Black had already redirected the power of the Great Five Elemental Palm toward Ruan Ying and the others.

Liu Wuxie hadn't expected the Offering Flowers to Buddha to be so formidable, and he had no choice but to withdraw his attack.

If he didn't withdraw his attack, the Great Five Elemental Palm would crush the assassins. He didn't want them dead for the time being. They could still serve him.

The Heavenly Dao Society was still in its infancy stage of development, and manpower was scarce.

"Isn't it too late for you to pull back now?" Elder Black laughed sinisterly, looking deranged.

He kept forming hand signs, even with the Great Five Elemental Palm looming above him, he had redirected most of the power to the four assassins.

Liu Wuxie lost control of the Great Five Elemental Palm as it crashed, and Elder Black had redirected most of its power. Even when Liu Wuxie had retracted some of his power at the last moment, the remaining force still severely injured the four assassins.

The four assassins were flung into the air, coughing up blood as they lost all combat strength.

"The four of you step back!" Liu Wuxie said with a grim face.

Elder Black's combat strength was average, but his dao techniques were exceptionally bizarre. Though the Lesser Severance Art couldn't completely shatter the Great Five Elemental Palm, it had still fractured its surface.

This had allowed the four assassins to survive. The Great Five Elemental Palm would have pulverized them if it had struck them at full force.

"Liu Wuxie, I advise you to give up. It won't hurt you to cooperate with the Black Plume Pavilion. It won't take long for you to stand at the pinnacle of this continent if you work with us," Elder Black said, still refusing to give up trying to recruit Liu Wuxie to their side.

"You're noisy and starting to get on my nerves!" Liu Wuxie's patience had run dry.

He needed to end the battle quickly. Who knew if other assassins from the Black Plume Pavilion were lurking nearby?

While it was ideal to capture Elder Black alive to extract information from him, killing him was acceptable if capturing wasn't possible.

With his current strength, trying to convert someone at the Earth Profound Realm into his devotee was difficult unless he could reach the fourth or fifth-level Spirit Profound Realm.

He didn't dare to attempt it carelessly. If the Conversion Art backfired, he could end up being enslaved by Elder Black instead.

The Heavenly Dao Book rapidly calculated a strategy. He activated Ghost Eye, hoping to spot a flaw in the Offering Flowers to Buddha technique.

Even as an immortal emperor, Liu Wuxie had only read about the Buddhist Clan and their dao techniques.

After retrieving the Great Five Elemental Palm, Liu Wuxie summoned the Heavenly Dragon Seal. After all, various forces were privy to all of his dao techniques.

Elder Black's pupils contracted as he sensed danger.

The Great Dragon Aspect Art was overwhelmingly powerful as a dao technique belonging to the dragon clan.

"As expected of the chosen one. I didn't expect you to master so many dao techniques in just a few years. I'm truly impressed," Elder Black commented.

Even as he spoke, he continued to execute the Offering Flowers to Buddha. He planned to redirect the Great Dragon Aspect Art's power somewhere else but soon realized something wasn't right.

The Offering Flowers to Buddha failed to redirect the Great Dragon Aspect Art, which had already locked onto him.

"This is impossible! How did you find the Offering Flowers to Buddha's weakness so quickly?!" Elder Black exclaimed, his face twisted in disbelief. He frantically formed hand signs, but the dao technique no longer worked.

"Your dao technique is nothing more than a parlor trick," Liu Wuxie mocked.

The Heavenly Dragon Seal expanded into a golden mountain, crushing with immense force. The sheer force crushed the valley, sinking it by dozens of meters.

Now that he had reached the second-level Spirit Profound Realm, the power was ten times stronger than when he had executed it in Sacred Ground.

Elder Black's sleeves ripped, revealing lean, muscular arms that exposed his youthfulness, but his mask still hid his face.

Special inscriptions on the mask blocked divine sense. Even so, Liu Wuxie's intuition told him he had seen Elder Black before but couldn't recall where.

Under the Great Dragon Aspect Art's crushing power, Elder Black's clothes were shredded into pieces, including his mask.

"You're from the Wang Clan!" Liu Wuxie snapped, his eyes narrowing as he recognized the man.

He recalled seeing Elder Black when he had followed his grandfather to the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy to take the entrance trials.

"Liu Wuxie, so what if you managed to uncover my identity? You still won't escape death!" Elder Black snarled, and a strange blade appeared in his hand.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're the one who nurtured Wang Qi," Liu Wuxie commented.

He had long suspected that the Wang Clan had upper echelons involved in the Black Plume Pavilion, and he had been right.

Liu Wuxie's mention of Wang Qi's name further enraged Elder Black, who radiated with even more murderous intent.

"I'll kill you today and avenge Wang Qi!" Elder Black said, gritting his teeth.

From his reaction, it wasn't hard to tell that Elder Black's connection with Wang Qi wasn't ordinary.

Liu Wuxie sneered. "I've set this trap to ensure you won't leave this place alive. Do you think you can kill me? What a joke!"

The Great Dragon Aspect Art's descent accelerated.

Elder Black's body swelled with blazing energy. He raised his blade and swung it down, attempting to cleave the Heavenly Dragon Seal apart.

"Heaven-Earth Merciless Slash!" Elder Black roared.

Liu Wuxie sensed the surroundings filled with cold and heartless emotions, which was also a dao technique.

Many cultivators were fond of shutting off their emotions. A dao technique of this nature was exponentially stronger than ordinary dao techniques, but the user would lose all emotions.

Space began to rip under the blade's power. The Great Dragon Aspect Art stalled mid-air, halted by Elder Black's counterattack.

Liu Wuxie snorted. "Is this the best you can do?"

He had revealed every trump card except the Annihilation Fist. But there was another dao technique he had recently grasped, and he had been eager to try it out.

"Death Dao Art!" Liu Wuxie roared.

The surrounding laws collapsed with an invisible force eroding everything nearby.

All the plants and trees in the surroundings withered, their vitality drained. Under the erosion, even rocks melted into magma.

The new dao technique changed Elder Black's face. His expression twisted as the deathly energy engulfed and suffocated him.

"What is this dao technique? Why is my vitality being drained so rapidly?" Elder Black cried out in horror.

Earth Profound experts could live for millennia. The Death Dao Art couldn't take all of Elder Black's lifespan, but it could corrode his primordial spirit.

As a result, the deathly energy significantly weakened any dao techniques Elder Black tried to perform. The deathly energy kept seeping into his body, ignoring his resistance.

It was no ordinary deathly energy but deathly energy from the void realm, capable of eroding everything in existence.