Chapter 1923 - Thunder Spirit Hand

Liu Wuxie's sudden acceleration had nothing to do with the fear that others would steal his technique. The Heavenly Destiny Alchemy Art possessed incomparable profundity, and without its corresponding incantation, they would learn nothing even after watching him refine pills a hundred times.

He had quickened his pace simply because he didn't want to waste excessive time refining low-level pills such as the Spirit Tempering Pill. He wanted to conclude the competition as swiftly as possible.

Although the Heavenly Derivation Codex had concealed his Heavenly Dao, Liu Wuxie could not rule out an unforeseen exception. He needed to remain vigilant and leave Eastern Emperor City at the earliest opportunity.

Elder Meng had previously used Worldly Reversal to lure away the experts pursuing Liu Wuxie. So much time had passed since then that those pursuers had likely noticed something amiss. They were likely already returning to search for him.

"Pill fragrance! What an incredibly dense pill fragrance," spectators cried in astonishment from every direction.

Elder Luo had only just finished purifying his ingredients, while Liu Wuxie had already entered the pill-condensation stage and was twice as fast.

Everyone immediately noticed a thick veil of mist gathering over the cauldron. "Look above Liu Wuxie's cauldron!"

"It's a pill flower! He produced a pill flower!" someone exclaimed as countless people rushed closer, desperate for a better view. Even the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's mentors shifted their attention toward Liu Wuxie.

The same phenomenon had appeared when Liu Wuxie had refined the Soul Healing Pill, but Ye Linghan alone had witnessed it firsthand. When he had later refined pills in the Xiang Manor, only Xiang Zicheng was present.

Cries of wonder echoed as everyone stared at the spectacle in fascination. "Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent! The pill flower is still opening!"

The pill flower opened without haste, unfurling its petals one after another. Before long, the enormous bloom covered the sky. Countless runes filled its interior and streamed toward its center like the stamens of a flower.

"I witnessed a pill flower with my own eyes before the end of my life. I have nothing left to regret," many alchemists said as tears of emotion filled their eyes.

They had devoted their entire lives to refining pills, yet none had ever reached the threshold required to manifest a pill flower.

A seal flashed through the air and entered the cauldron, setting the pills into rapid rotation. Their forms had already stabilized, leaving only the final polishing stage.

Perhaps Liu Wuxie's performance had pushed Elder Luo beyond his usual limits. A faint pill flower gradually manifested above his cauldron as well, though its quality was vastly inferior.

"Why did the heavens allow Liu Wuxie to exist when the world already had Elder Luo?" a mentor beside Elder Luo lamented.

Without Liu Wuxie's appearance, Elder Luo's alchemy technique would have overwhelmed everyone present. The match had not officially ended, yet the crowd could already see its conclusion.

The pill flower above Liu Wuxie's cauldron slowly dissolved into countless threads. They descended into the cauldron and fused with the pills inside.

"Return!" Liu Wuxie commanded, recalling the demonic flame and allowing the cauldron to cool gradually.

A powerful wave of spirituality immediately erupted from the cauldron's depths.

"What astonishing spirituality!" people exclaimed.

Tempering spirituality remained the most difficult stage in refining the Spirit Tempering Pill.

"Ten pills? How did he refine so many?!" Xiang Zicheng exclaimed as he approached the cauldron and looked inside.

The crowd surged toward the cauldron and stared in disbelief at the ten Spirit Tempering Pills resting within. "Could something be wrong? Those ingredients should have produced only six pills."

Elder Luo completed his refinement shortly after Liu Wuxie. His cauldron held six pills, precisely the number everyone had expected.

A table had been placed at the center of the arena. Qian Yao gathered both batches and arranged them side by side for comparison.

"Among Elder Luo's six pills, five have reached top-grade, while the remaining one is high-grade. Every pill also contains abundant spirituality," several people judged.

No one could falsify the results of an alchemy match without inviting ridicule. Spirit Tempering Pills were extremely common on the market, making their quality easy to recognize at a glance.

"I concede. There's no reason to compare them any further," Elder Luo said before anyone began evaluating Liu Wuxie's pills, surprising the entire crowd.

"Elder Luo..." a Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentor began, but Elder Luo silenced him with a wave.

"Ten pills, all full and flawless. Each one carries ten pill runes, three more than my pills possess. If I guessed correctly, these ten Spirit Tempering Pills also produced pill fluid, didn't they?" Elder Luo asked calmly, without the slightest resentment.

He understood that nothing about his defeat to Liu Wuxie had been unfair.

Their spirituality required no further comparison. Liu Wuxie's pills had already begun consuming the spirituality contained within Elder Luo's batch.

As he spoke, Elder Luo selected one of Liu Wuxie's pills and gently split it apart. Crystalline fluid gleamed inside. It was not genuine liquid, but medicinal essence compressed to the absolute limit.

Complete silence settled over the surroundings. Everyone had already foreseen this outcome, yet its confirmation still weighed unbearably upon their hearts.

"Take your own lives and preserve the last of your dignity," Elder Luo told the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's remaining mentors. Since none of them could escape death, they might as well face it with honor.

Elder Luo acted without hesitation. He severed his heart meridians and collapsed.

"Elder Luo!" the nearby Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentors cried as they rushed forward and caught his falling body, grief etched on their faces.

Many Celestial Moon Dao Hall students began weeping as well. Their beloved Elder Luo had chosen death over surrendering his dignity at the final moment.

"Liu Wuxie, I curse you with my dying breath!" a mentor shouted as he stepped forward and severed his own heart meridians.

He did not die alone. One mentor after another followed his example, and ten motionless corpses soon covered the ground.

Heavy sighs sounded throughout the surroundings.

Just as Liu Wuxie had said, even though they could survive a calamity sent by heaven, no one could escape a disaster they brought upon themselves. Had the Celestial Moon Dao Hall not entered the competition, determined to destroy the Azure Flame Dao Hall, this tragedy would never have occurred. Liu Wuxie would not have retaliated and crushed their conspiracy before it could bear fruit.

"We continue," Liu Wuxie said as he walked toward the arena, prepared for the martial path category.

Only the final match remained, and the Celestial Moon Dao Hall had scarcely more than a handful of mentors left.

Defeat in this last match would mean that every mentor the Celestial Moon Dao Hall had brought to the Ten-Mile Slope was dead. Yet the final battle was also the most important, for it offered them their best chance to overturn the entire situation.

The martial path arena had already been repaired. Its surface now lay considerably flatter and better suited for battle.

"Wuxie, stay cautious. If you find yourself outmatched, concede immediately," Gongye Zhang warned through a secret voice transmission.

Even losing the final match gave the Azure Flame Dao Hall nothing to fear. As long as Liu Wuxie survived, hope would remain with them.

Liu Wuxie acknowledged him with a slight nod. He then stood in the arena with his hands clasped behind his back, as steady as an ancient pine, quietly waiting for his opponent.

"Liu Wuxie, prepare to die," a burly man roared as he landed heavily in the arena.

The entire platform shook violently beneath his feet. A mighty aura erupted from his body and crashed toward Liu Wuxie like a raging tidal wave.

His presence alone left no doubt that he was a formidable expert.

"That's Chen Kun, the Thunder Spirit Hand," spectators exclaimed. No one had noticed him anywhere on the Ten-Mile Slope before now.

"Chen Kun was away attending to other matters. He must have heard the news and rushed back for the competition," someone muttered.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall's devastating losses had terrified its surviving mentors, leaving very few with the courage to confront Liu Wuxie directly.

Chen Kun stood apart from them. He had only just returned from handling matters elsewhere, and fierce fury blazed within him. That rage could now transform directly into strength.

When Chen Kun's eyes locked with Liu Wuxie's, invisible sparks seemed to collide between them.

"Liu Wuxie, you've slaughtered so many mentors from the Celestial Moon Dao Hall! I'll tear you limb from limb!" Chen Kun roared, utterly consumed by rage.

The ground beneath him exploded section by section under the weight of his aura. He fully deserved his reputation as a peak Origin Immortal, having already touched the threshold of the Divine Immortal Realm.

Against an opponent of Chen Kun's caliber, Liu Wuxie possessed little chance of victory. Had he entered the Profound Immortal Realm, there would have been nothing to fear. But at only the sixth-level Spirit Immortal Realm, even Liu Wuxie had to retreat one step beneath Chen Kun's crushing suppression.

Any other Spirit Immortal would already have been flattened beneath that overwhelming pressure.

"Then let's fight," Liu Wuxie said, wasting no breath on another word.

The Bloodthirst Blade appeared in his hand and rose toward the heavens. The moment he unleashed the Heavenly Crest Divine Blade Art, its terrifying blade aura made every heart tremble.

Cries of alarm rang from the surroundings. "What a terrifying blade force!"

Liu Wuxie made no effort to restrain himself, revealing his cultivation and aura without reservation.

In the next instant, he sprang forward like a hunting leopard. He closed upon Chen Kun and brought the Bloodthirst Blade crashing down.

Chen Kun remained unmoved. A colossal hammer appeared in his grasp, and he swung it forward to smash directly into Liu Wuxie's blade aura.

The blade aura exploded into countless laws of heaven and earth that scattered across the arena. The violent collision immediately shattered Liu Wuxie's balance and hurled him backward, nearly sending him beyond the arena.

What horrifying strength! Liu Wuxie exclaimed inwardly.

Chen Kun had earned the title 'Thunder Spirit Hand'. He possessed not only tremendous physical strength but also lightning energy from birth. During his teenage years, he had once lost control of that power and accidentally electrocuted his parents to death.

Liu Wuxie shook the numbness from his arm and slowly returned toward the arena's center.

Ye Linghan watched from the sidelines with anxiety twisting through her, yet she could do nothing to intervene.

Other than a Divine Immortal, no one else within the Azure Flame Dao Hall could contend with Chen Kun.

Surprise flickered through Chen Kun's eyes when his strike failed to kill Liu Wuxie. Had any ordinary cultivator at the Profound Immortal Realm received that hammer blow, they would have already been dead.

"Now this is interesting," Chen Kun said.

He felt no urgency to finish Liu Wuxie. Raising the hammer again, he unleashed a second strike carrying even greater force.

Faced with Chen Kun's ferocious offensive, Liu Wuxie executed the Divine Ninefold Step and shifted into a guerrilla hit-and-run strategy. A frontal collision offered him no hope. Hence, he could only evade Chen Kun's attacks and wait patiently for an opening.

Before the hammer could fall, Liu Wuxie vanished and materialized behind Chen Kun, leaving the devastating attack to strike empty space. The hammer crashed into the arena and blasted open an enormous crater.

"Flash Blade!" Liu Wuxie unleashed the fastest form of the Heavenly Crest Divine Blade Art. The blade flashed like a thunderbolt the instant he executed it, then disappeared from sight.

"You dare ambush me? You're courting death," Chen Kun roared, erupting in fury.

As someone at the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm, Chen Kun possessed astonishing reflexes. Before the blade aura could reach him, he twisted around and swung his hammer at Liu Wuxie once again.

Against an opponent at the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm, Liu Wuxie knew that he couldn't secure victory relying on his strength alone. Rather than expose his trump cards prematurely, he continued searching for an opening. He had deliberately reserved the Five Elemental Divine Palm and Divine Eternal Fist for the critical moment.

Another devastating explosion erupted, instantly reducing the arena to ruins. Chen Kun maintained the offensive throughout the battle, forcing Liu Wuxie into an almost entirely defensive position.

More cultivators crowded around the arena, but none could understand the battle unfolding before them. "This doesn't make sense. Liu Wuxie is completely ignoring Chen Kun's oppressive aura!"

By all logic, an Origin Immortal's aura and soul energy should have suppressed Liu Wuxie and pinned him firmly in place. Reality told a different story. Liu Wuxie continued moving without restraint, while the Heavenly Dao Book neutralized every trace of pressure bearing down upon him.