Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 160 - Last Fight

The music affected everyone’s emotions, impacting their souls and shaking their hearts. Liu Wuxie and Xue Lan weren’t on the same level.

“Has it come to an end?” Everyone opened their eyes, unwilling to get out of the mood. They glanced at each other, unaware of when tears had started streaming down their faces. The venue fell into silence as no one spoke a word.

As the initial clapping began, it quickly grew into a resonating applause throughout the venue. “Incredible! This is the most beautiful song I’ve ever experienced!” A man rose to his feet, brushing away his tears as he applauded. His hands turned red from the intensity of his clapping, but he felt no discomfort. This was the only way he knew how to convey his overwhelming emotions.

Yan Ruyu stood up with tears on her cheeks, but a smile hung on her face.

“Brother Liu’s music has attained the pinnacle of perfection,” Zuo Hong remarked with a wistful smile. His encounters with Liu Wuxie had always left him feeling profoundly impacted by each performance.

The outcome was clear, and everyone had an answer. Xue Lan’s face became terrifyingly dark. At a certain point, even he was captivated by Liu Wuxie’s music. However, his rationale told him that he couldn’t sink into it and had to kill Liu Wuxie.

Silence fell among the Xue Clan as a deadly aura emanated from them. Liu Wuxie’s music was akin to a thunderous rebuke to their pride. Their elaborate schemes appeared ludicrous in the face of this.

“Xue Lan, you have already lost. Why aren’t you taking your own life?” Everyone from Advanced Class Seven stood up. The pact was clear: the loser must forfeit his life.

The agreement resurfaced in everyone’s minds, bringing them back to reality. Their eyes turned to Xue Lan, curious about his decision. But Xue Lan wore a vicious expression, unwilling to admit defeat so easily.

“Liu Wuxie, I’ll kill you!” Xue Lan roared as his musical tune turned into sword aura charging at Liu Wuxie. Experts with the zither could use every musical note to kill. Xue Lan couldn’t be considered an expert in music, but he could still use music to kill.

No one had expected Xue Lan to make a move, unwilling to admit defeat. The contenders sat in two arenas a hundred meters away from each other. Xue Lan’s melody morphed into various shapes before transforming into arrows aimed at Liu Wuxie with lethal intent.

The arrows were fast, but Xue Lan didn’t stop as he played a song meant to kill, which he had practiced for a long time.

“My ears hurt!” The piercing sound forced many people to shield their ears. Those in the Xiantian Realm found it unbearable, their ears bleeding from the intense sound.

When the densely packed arrows flew over, some turned into ferocious tigers running on the ground while others transformed into wild beasts, forming a strange picture.

Liu Wuxie was at the center of it, with no place to duck. Xue Lan had locked onto the entire arena, and there was no room for Liu Wuxie to escape.

“That’s the Annihilation Song!” the Profound Grade students exclaimed. The Annihilation Song was long forbidden because playing it could turn one into a blood-thirsty monster. For the sake of killing Liu Wuxie, Xue Lan didn’t hesitate to expose his secret.

The distance of a hundred meters was covered instantly, with the arrows closing in on Liu Wuxie, just three meters away. If Liu Wuxie failed to react, these arrows would claim his life.

Xu Lingxue’s heart leaped into her throat, her every instinct urging her to rush to Liu Wuxie’s aid. Zuo Hong and the others felt helpless, their hearts lost to the Xue Clan’s actions that day.

“How despicable!” Li Shengsheng and others cursed. They had never seen someone so shameless before. Despite his defeat, Xue Lan refused to concede and launched an attack on Liu Wuxie. Such audacity could only be expected from the Xue Clan.

A savage tiger bared its fangs aimed to strike at Liu Wuxie’s head. However, a clear note rang out in this crucial moment as Liu Wuxie deftly hooked his right index finger on a zither string and plucked it. The knowledge of the zither and its use as a weapon were two distinct matters.

While Yan Ruyu was skilled in music, she lacked the knowledge to use it as a weapon. Infusing the zither with true essence, the musical notes took on various forms, following a natural law. However, this required a significant amount of true essence.

Everyone agreed that Liu Wuxie was in danger this time. Xue Lan has practiced the zither for over a decade and comprehended the art of killing with music. Even if Liu Wuxie started practicing from the womb, there was no way he could catch up to Xue Lan, not to mention that he was known as garbage in the past.

The Annihilation Song was meant to kill, and it had long been prohibited to practice. Only someone in the high levels of the Spirit Cleansing Realm could resolve those musical notes. However, Liu Wuxie was only in the Xiantian Realm; the only way to resolve it was through music.

When Liu Wuxie strummed the zither, a resonating hum filled the air, causing all the incoming arrows to halt in their tracks, hovering just an inch away from him. They appeared frozen in time, unable to advance any further.

This left everyone in disbelief. Liu Wuxie had managed to stop Xue Lan’s attack with a single musical note.

“How is this possible?!” Xue Lan looked like a madman as he began playing his zither maniacally, unleashing more musical notes that soon filled the surroundings with arrows.

“Hmph!” Liu Wuxie snorted and plucked the string again, causing all the arrows to reverse their course and target Xue Lan. This unexpected turn of events terrified Xue Lan, who couldn’t understand why the arrows were now aimed at him.

The arrows shot towards Xue Lan\'s arena when a musical note appeared in the sky.

“How can you break the Annihilation Song with one musical note?!” Aside from Xue Lan, those who practiced music couldn’t find any solution to the song.

All Liu Wuxie did was pluck the zither to resolve the incoming attacks, not to mention that he used Xue Lan\'s own attacks against him. This alone had far exceeded everyone’s comprehension.

Even the teachers in the Marrow Cleansing Realm were baffled, but there was no doubt that Liu Wuxie’s attainment in music was higher than Xue Lan\'s. Maybe only the teachers who taught music in the academy could be compared to him.

As the redirected arrows accelerated, they pierced through Xue Lan, staining the ground with his blood. In his final moments, Xue Lan’s eyes were filled with disbelief. He had never imagined that he would meet his end at the hands of his own musical notes.

There wasn’t any intense battle, but the entire fight made everyone’s heart beat wildly.

The duel finally ended with Liu Wuxie emerging unscathed and Xue Lan dead. Putting away the zither, Liu Wuxie looked at the Xue Clan. He took the initiative to speak this time as he didn’t want to waste time with them. He challenged, “Xue Rui, aren’t you going to make a move?”

“Is he really challenging Xue Rui? Xue Rui is at the fifth level of the Spirit Cleansing Realm!” A gasp of disbelief echoed around, with many thinking that Liu Wuxie’s decision was unwise. The Xue Clan had already suffered a significant blow, and challenging them now seemed like walking into their trap.

“Liu Wuxie, today will be your death!” Xue Rui launched himself forward, positioning himself in front of Liu Wuxie even before the latter could complete his sentence, his aura seething with lethal intent that engulfed Liu Wuxie.

“A garbage like you wants to kill me?” Liu Wuxie sneered with a blade appearing in his hand. He didn’t have to use the Overlord Fist against someone like Xue Rui.

Only Liu Wuxie dared to call someone in the fifth level of the Spirit Cleansing Realm garbage, but strangely, no one mocked him, not even the Advanced Class Six. It might be because of the zither music, but their attitude towards Liu Wuxie had changed.

“In a short while, we’ll see who the real trash is,” Xue Rui retorted, drawing his sword. Having lent his profound artifact to Xue Pinzhi, he was left with only a spiritual artifact for combat. As he initiated the attack, jeers echoed from the crowd, criticizing a fifth-level Spirit Cleansing Realm cultivator for resorting to a surprise attack.

“The Xue Clan has no shame. How low will they stoop?” Li Shengsheng bellowed, his voice drowned by the powerful shockwave of sword aura that filled the arena, trapping Liu Wuxie.

“Can Liu Wuxie survive an attack from a fifth-level Spirit Cleansing Realm expert?” The crowd watched with bated breath, anticipating this to be the Xue Clan’s ace in the hole. If Xue Rui were to fall, the Xue Clan would likely hesitate to send out another challenger.

Liu Wuxie, aware of the stakes, refused to take the situation lightly. He knew that the academy’s prodigy was not to be underestimated like Wan Rongzhe. However, it was precisely this challenge that made the situation intriguing.

With a lift of his blade, a fearsome blade aura materialized, slicing through the sword aura. As Liu Wuxie executed the Seven Dipper Steps, he brought his blade down in a decisive swing.

“Momentous Gleam!” A blazing sun appeared in the sky, radiating with suffocating power, smashing towards Xue Rui. This shocked Xue Rui because he didn’t expect Liu Wuxie to be so strong.

Xue Rui altered the path of his sword, which moved like a viper, appearing behind Liu Wuxie from a complex angle, making it difficult to evade. “That’s the Spirit Snake Sword Art!” someone identified Xue Rui\'s sword technique. It was as agile as a snake and not inferior to the Terranean Sword Art.

Weapons clashed with sparks flying around. Liu Wuxie and Xue Rui retreated and were evenly matched in this clash.

Liu Wuxie had only exerted seventy percent of his strength, not wanting to reveal his full power in front of the large crowd.

“If that is the best you can do, you can die now!” Xue Rui’s sword manifested into countless snakes, and this scene made many people’s scalps go numb with chills running down their spines.

“Is that so?” Liu Wuxie laughed, and his cultivation began to rise. When he unleashed an attack in the pinnacle of the Xiantian Realm, he knocked all the incoming snakes away.