Chapter 1914 - Accepting All The Challenges

Liu Wuxie had always been the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's true target, so the middle-aged mentor naturally directed his challenge straight at him.

Scores of Azure Flame Dao Hall students surged to their feet in protest. "How low can they sink? They know Mentor Liu is only a third-level Spirit Immortal, yet they still singled him out on purpose." The Celestial Moon Dao Hall's intentions could not have been more obvious.

Silence swiftly settled over the surrounding spectators. Liu Wuxie had humiliated the Celestial Moon Dao Hall time and again, so no one found it strange that they had chosen to target him.

"What's wrong, Liu Wuxie? Are you too afraid to face me? Refuse my challenge, and the Celestial Moon Dao Hall wins this match," the middle-aged man called from the arena, laughing boisterously.

"I'll take the match!" an Azure Flame Dao Hall mentor declared as he strode forward.

Liu Wuxie stopped him before he could go any farther. In the next instant, before anyone could react, Liu Wuxie appeared inside the arena and landed opposite the middle-aged man.

The crowd exploded into an uproar. "He actually entered the arena? Does Liu Wuxie not realize that he's facing the Poison King, Bi Xueluo?!" Everyone had expected Liu Wuxie to ignore the provocation and send a mentor proficient in poison arts to fight in his place.

Over the past few months, Liu Wuxie had accomplished most of his feats through cunning, with spiritual arrays playing only a secondary role. No one had ever witnessed him use poison arts. In the crowd's eyes, challenging the Poison King Bi Xueluo in his own field was nothing short of courting death.

Every heart on the Azure Flame Dao Hall's side tightened with dread. Even Ye Linghan had no idea that Liu Wuxie possessed any proficiency in poison arts. Yet his refusal to use poison did not mean he lacked the ability. He had simply never considered it worth relying on.

Liu Wuxie had comprehended the Great Poison Dao Art while he was still in the mortal realm. With the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron at his disposal as well, he firmly believed that no poison beneath the heavens could take his life.

"You've got the nerve, Liu Wuxie. For showing that much courage, I'll make your death a little less painful," Bi Xueluo said as he summoned a black vessel teeming with poisonous insects.

Someone had fashioned the vessel from a human skull, lending it a particularly sinister appearance.

Poisonous insects immediately crawled from the black vessel's eye sockets, nose, and mouth. Many unfurled their wings and rose into the air, filling the surroundings with a dark, foreboding buzz.

"That's the Poison King Vessel! Liu Wuxie is in serious trouble," alarmed cries erupted throughout the crowd.

A vast tide of venomous insects swept toward Liu Wuxie. Every creature among them carried enough poison to kill a Profound Immortal.

A cruel smile curled across Bi Xueluo's lips as he opened the vessel in his hand. Black mist poured from within and swallowed the entire arena in an instant.

The attack unfolded so quickly that Liu Wuxie seemed to have no opportunity to respond. By the time the spectators recovered from their astonishment, Bi Xueluo had already unleashed his strongest attack.

"That was shameless," Yi Zhong and the others roared, anxiously stomping their feet. If Liu Wuxie perished here, every remaining match would turn overwhelmingly unfavorable for the Azure Flame Dao Hall.

Unbeknownst to them, Liu Wuxie had already become the pillar holding them all together.

The poisonous black mist consumed Liu Wuxie in an instant. Some insects flew directly onto his body, while others scuttled across the arena, climbed over him, and began tearing at his flesh.

Even sealing his five orifices could not protect Liu Wuxie completely from the poison's corrosive power. The poisonous mist could penetrate his pores and seep directly into his meridians.

"Enjoy being eaten alive by my poisonous insects, Liu Wuxie!" Bi Xueluo laughed wildly.

Laughter also swept through the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's mentors and students. They had deliberately chosen Bi Xueluo for the opening match to end the battle immediately.

The sight drew a deep frown from Gongye Zhang. When he sent his divine sense into the black mist, he clearly observed poisonous insects crawling across every part of Liu Wuxie's body.

Confusion spread among the surrounding cultivators. "Why is Liu Wuxie just standing there? Why isn't he fighting back?" Since the match tested poison arts, Liu Wuxie should have at least retaliated instead of offering no resistance whatsoever.

Even if death awaited him, he could still try to drag Bi Xueluo down with him and force the match into a draw.

"He must have surrendered already. Bi Xueluo is a famous Poison King, and even Origin Immortals treat his poison arts with caution," someone replied.

Bi Xueluo stood only at the pinnacle of the Profound Immortal Realm, yet his mastery of poison arts had earned widespread renown throughout the region surrounding Eastern Emperor City.

The Azure Flame Dao Hall also employed mentors who taught poison arts, but none could rival Bi Xueluo. His greatest advantage lay in his absolute ruthlessness, for no method was too vile for him to use. Rumors had it that he had slaughtered countless cultivators solely to nurture his poisonous insects.

He began by feeding poison to the cultivators he captured. Rather than dying immediately, his victims slowly transformed into living poisonous bodies. Bi Xueluo would then release his poisonous insects into their bone marrow, allowing them to consume the poison from within.

Only after the insects had devoured every trace of poison in their bone marrow would those victims finally succumb to a slow death. The cruelty behind such a method surpassed imagination.

Bi Xueluo had unleashed thousands of poisonous insects moments earlier. In other words, he had turned thousands of cultivators into poisonous bodies to raise them.

"You dare parade such worthless poison arts before me?" Liu Wuxie asked, his voice brimming with open contempt.

A casual wave of his hand allowed the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron to consume every trace of poisonous mist. The Poison Realm immediately expanded, and a seed buried within it germinated into a black flower.

As soon as the black flower released its faint fragrance, every poisonous insect crawling over Liu Wuxie froze in place. The flower blooming within the Poison Realm harbored some of the deadliest poisons between heaven and earth. The slightest breath of its fragrance could reduce anyone to ashes.

"What happened? Why have all the poisonous insects stopped?" people wondered aloud.

When the black mist cleared, the crowd finally saw every poisonous insect prostrating itself before Liu Wuxie as though welcoming the sovereign of all poison.

Bi Xueluo might have carried the title of Poison King, but Liu Wuxie now stood before him as a Poison Sovereign.

Liu Wuxie calmly walked through the swarm, and an astonishing spectacle followed. The poisonous insects fell into line behind him one after another, marching like an army of loyal guards.

Bi Xueluo shuddered at the sight. The connection he had painstakingly forged with his poisonous insects had vanished completely. No matter how frantically he issued commands, not one insect answered him.

"Liu Wuxie, what did you do to my poisonous insects?!" Bi Xueluo roared, glaring at him and demanding an answer.

Liu Wuxie answered only with a look one might reserve for an idiot.

"Take him," he commanded, infusing the poisonous insects with a wisp of energy from the Poison Realm's flower.

Nourishment from the Poison Realm's flower made their venom even more potent, and a sinister radiance gleamed across their bodies. They obeyed Liu Wuxie without hesitation and surged toward Bi Xueluo.

The sudden reversal left Bi Xueluo utterly unprepared. He never could have imagined that the poisonous insects he had personally raised would turn on him. The swarm surrounded him before he could escape the arena, sealing off every path of retreat.

With no other option, Bi Xueluo drew upon his martial cultivation and released a powerful force that blasted the poisonous insects away. Many endured the crushing pressure, however, and slipped beneath his robes.

"AARGH!" Bi Xueluo screamed as the poisonous insects crawled beneath his clothes and sank their fangs into his skin. Faint sizzling noises rose from his body while the corrosive poison rapidly turned his flesh into festering rot.

The horror had only begun. The poisonous insects burrowed through his decaying flesh, entered his meridians, and spread throughout his body.

In less than a thousandth of an instant, the swarm reached Bi Xueluo's bone marrow and began devouring it.

Liu Wuxie had merely returned Bi Xueluo's cruelty in kind. By doing so, he also avenged every victim who had perished at Bi Xueluo's hands over the years.

Bi Xueluo crumpled to the ground and wailed in unbearable agony. His gruesome body slowly shriveled before the crowd while a pungent stench spread through the surroundings.

The cultivators gathered around the arena hastily withdrew, terrified that the poison might touch them.

A suffocating silence gripped everyone from the Celestial Moon Dao Hall. They had prepared meticulously for this match, yet Liu Wuxie had effortlessly torn their entire plan apart.

Within just ten breaths, the poisonous insects consumed everything inside Bi Xueluo, leaving behind nothing more than an empty shell of human skin.

Liu Wuxie waved his hand, drawing the vessel into his grasp and recalling every poisonous insect inside it. He stored the vessel in his interspatial ring, then secretly transferred it into the Poison Realm. Their arrival infused the Desolate World with greater vitality, and the poisonous insects soon began reproducing on their own.

Thus, Liu Wuxie claimed a flawless victory in the opening match.

Once he had finished, he clasped his hands behind his back and faced the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's region. Defeat in this match demanded the lives of ten Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentors.

Bi Xueluo's death accounted for only one, leaving nine more Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentors who still had to surrender their lives.

Every mentor who encountered Liu Wuxie's gaze lowered their head at once, terrified that he would choose them next.

"Will you settle this yourselves, or should I do it for you?" Liu Wuxie asked, his glacial voice carrying across the entire Ten-Mile Slope.

Deathly silence smothered the surroundings, and no one dared to speak. The Celestial Moon Dao Hall still possessed numerous mentors at the Profound Immortal Realm, along with no shortage of Origin Immortals. Yet not a single one of them uttered a word.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall's hall master ground his teeth in fury. His crushing grip made the chair beneath him creak and groan, threatening to collapse at any moment.

"Liu Wuxie, are you truly determined to take this so far?" an elder demanded as he emerged from the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's ranks, fury blazing across his face.

"What purpose does that question serve now?" Liu Wuxie replied, fixing the elder with an icy stare.

The conflict had already reached a point from which no one could turn back. From the moment Zhu Gaoyang used Chen Ping's life to threaten Liu Wuxie, only one side could survive.

Liu Wuxie's answer stripped the elder of every word. The rest of the Celestial Moon Dao Hall likewise remained frozen in place, incapable of selecting nine people from among their own ranks to die.

"If none of you will make the choice, I'll make it for you," Liu Wuxie said after waiting ten breaths.

Since the Celestial Moon Dao Hall refused to nominate nine mentors, Liu Wuxie could only decide on their behalf. His gaze immediately settled upon Zhu Gaoyang, the person he wanted dead more than anyone else present.

"Liu Wuxie, I challenge you in the blacksmithing category. You can't kill me now," Zhu Gaoyang protested hurriedly. As a mentor responsible for teaching blacksmithing, he still intended to compete in that category later.

A trace of pity crossed Liu Wuxie's eyes. Who would have expected a dignified Origin Immortal to display such terror in the face of death?

"Challenge accepted," he said before directing his gaze toward the other mentors.

"Then I challenge you in talisman arts!"

"Face me in spiritual arrays!"

"I challenge you in alchemy!"

"......"

Once Zhu Gaoyang opened the way, the other mentors scrambled to issue their own challenges.

Those who failed to speak quickly enough could only grit their teeth in fury. Every category had already been claimed, leaving them with no way to save themselves. After all, the competition contained only a limited number of categories.

"I accept every challenge," Liu Wuxie replied without a moment's hesitation.

"He's lost his mind! Does he mean to challenge the entire Celestial Moon Dao Hall alone? Everyone seems to have forgotten that the martial path category still remains!" someone said.

Only moments earlier, an Origin Immortal had challenged Liu Wuxie in the martial path category. Even if Liu Wuxie triumphed in every other category, the final martial battle would still await him.

Liu Wuxie paid no attention to the doubts surrounding him. He swept both hands through the air, and nine Heavenly Dao shackles plunged from the sky.