Chapter 1936 - Twin-Winged Battle Chariot

Liu Wuxie poured his mental energy into the divine steed in a stream as dense and fluid as liquid mercury, feeding the celestial forge runes buried throughout its body. In an instant, every rune awakened with astonishing clarity and vitality.

What followed defied belief even further. A miniature divine steed materialized inside Liu Wuxie's soul sea, mirroring the construct before him in every detail.

At the command of a single thought, the divine steed slowly stirred beneath the guidance of his divine sense. A groove designed to hold immortal stones had been built into its lower-left side. Operating the entire construct demanded a tremendous supply of immortal energy, while mental energy governed its direction and every mechanism hidden within it.

"#$^@#!#$," Blackie babbled, circling the divine steed and spilling out a torrent of incomprehensible words.

"You're not testing it," Liu Wuxie replied, shaking his head. The divine steed was far too small to carry Blackie, and even if Blackie could somehow squeeze inside, it still lacked the ability to operate the construct.

Countless intricate components filled the divine steed's interior, each functioning in perfect coordination with the rest. One careless operation could upset that delicate balance and damage the entire construct.

Displeasure clouded Blackie's expression as it continued chattering and gesturing insistently with both hands.

"You're right. It does need a name," Liu Wuxie murmured, resting one hand against his chin as he studied the divine steed.

"I'll call you the Twin-Winged Battle Chariot," Liu Wuxie decided. With a pair of wings forming its most striking feature, no other name could have suited it better.

Liu Wuxie climbed into the divine steed, whose interior had room for only one person. The moment he inserted ten immortal stones into the groove, the construct greedily absorbed their energy, awakening every rune across its surface.

A deafening boom shook the surroundings as the Twin-Winged Battle Chariot launched forward like a falling meteor and vanished from sight.

"Flight runes!" Liu Wuxie exclaimed. His hands moved through a sequence of controls inside the Twin-Winged Battle Chariot as he gradually mastered it, until directing the construct felt no different from moving his own limbs. Its sword wings slowly spread apart, lifting the chariot into the air while maintaining its speed.

"Blackie, come at me," Liu Wuxie called.

He felt certain that few ordinary divine steeds could rival his creation in speed, but its defensive strength was his greatest concern. That weakness placed him at a tremendous disadvantage. No amount of speed would matter if a single blow could shatter the divine steed beneath him.

Blackie hoisted its staff and swept it at the Twin-Winged Battle Chariot, releasing a force of unrivaled ferocity.

The divine steed darted sideways and slipped past the attack. Blackie responded by striking faster with every swing, compelling Liu Wuxie to adjust the chariot without pause and steadily sharpen its agility.

Their battle continued for an hour. Throughout the exchange, Blackie could land only one blow on the divine steed, though the impact still left it slightly damaged.

The instant Liu Wuxie climbed out, he formed a succession of seals and began repairing the damaged section, reinforcing it with dozens of additional celestial forge runes. By the time he finished, it was already late at night, and the Divine Steed Tournament would begin the following day.

Blackie had since returned to the Desolate World.

Liu Wuxie spread his divine sense across the surroundings and confirmed that no one lingered nearby. Only then did he leave the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and reappear on the mountain.

Brilliant light flowed across the divine steed, making it appear far more vibrant than it had two days earlier.

Countless divine steeds streaked through the sky as the cultivators who had arrived recently carried out their final trials. Liu Wuxie kept as far from the crowds as possible, deliberately steering toward the most sparsely populated areas.

"I won't stand here and let you insult Immortal Emperor Liu!" an enraged voice thundered just as Liu Wuxie emerged from the mountain. He had nearly reached a stretch of woodland, beyond which lay the path back to the Divine Steed Manor.

Liu Wuxie halted midstride. The voice had come from somewhere roughly fifty to sixty meters ahead.

"And what can you possibly do if I insult him?" another voice retorted from the woods, carrying a faint note of mockery.

The fury in their exchange made it clear that the argument had been raging for quite some time. After a brief hesitation, Liu Wuxie approached the commotion, curious whether the "Immortal Emperor Liu" they spoke of was actually him.

"Insult Immortal Emperor Liu again, and you'll face the consequences!" the first voice warned. The unmistakable rasp of weapons being drawn followed his words.

"I'll insult him whenever I please. A dead Immortal Emperor has no right to retain his title. If it hadn't been for him, how could my Mou Clan have fallen into decline?"

More weapons slid from their sheaths, and the tension between the opposing sides mounted until violence seemed inevitable.

Liu Wuxie traversed dozens of meters in a flash and found two groups confronting each other among the trees.

"Your Mou Clan has stained its hands with countless atrocities over the years!" a righteous-looking youth in his mid-twenties declared. "If Immortal Emperor Liu hadn't spared the last embers of your Mou Clan's bloodline back then, the Mou Clan would have disappeared from the Celestial Realm long ago."

Liu Wuxie studied the young man's face. Something about those features stirred a distant sense of familiarity, yet he could not remember where he might have seen him. As far as he could remember, the two had never met.

After ascending to the Immortal Emperor Realm in his previous life, Liu Wuxie had rarely concerned himself with disputes between sects, choosing instead to spend most of his time in the Grand Supreme Palace Mountain Range. He had occasionally punished the wicked, but centuries had buried most of those incidents beneath the weight of countless other memories.

The Mou Clan held the advantage in both numbers and collective strength. Since the death of the Yu Clan's previous patriarch, the Yu Clan's position had steadily deteriorated.

"Young Master, we've wasted enough time on them. Let's kill them and be done with it," someone said.

"Exactly! Our Mou Clan would never have come so close to extinction if the Yu Clan hadn't saved Liu Wuxie back then," the Mou Clan disciples agreed, openly urging their companions to slaughter every member of the Yu Clan.

Dozens of clashes had already broken out around the Divine Steed Manor within only a few days. Some reignited grudges passed down from the past, while others erupted from resentments born only recently.

Liu Wuxie searched his memories, trying to determine whether the Yu Clan had once saved his life. Scene after scene flashed through his mind, but unraveling hundreds of years of experiences was not something he could accomplish in an instant.

"I remember now. Could they be that Yu Clan?" Liu Wuxie murmured as his thoughts abruptly settled upon a particular memory. His eyes filled with disbelief, and at last he realised why the young man's features seemed so familiar.

When the Yu Clan had rescued Liu Wuxie during his previous life, the youth standing before him had still been an infant.

Back then, while Liu Wuxie was an Immortal King, he had battled a formidable demonic cultivator and sustained grievous injuries. After fleeing into the Yu Clan's territory, he happened upon its patriarch returning from a journey with several disciples, who found him and saved his life.

After recovering most of his strength under their care, Liu Wuxie had gone out for a walk and witnessed several Mou Clan disciples attempting to abduct a woman from the street. Unable to stand by and watch, he taught the offenders a minor lesson.

The Mou Clan had refused to swallow the humiliation and immediately sent experts to surround Liu Wuxie.

Young and fiercely proud at the time, Liu Wuxie had responded to their provocation by dealing the Mou Clan a devastating blow. From that day forward, their hatred for him had become deeply ingrained.

The ancient hostility between the Mou and Yu Clans only worsened matters. Even after Liu Wuxie departed from the Yu Clan, the two sides continued to collide repeatedly.

The Mou Clan members moved swiftly, forming a ring around the six Yu Clan members.

"Young Master, we'll hold them here. Find an opening and escape," the five Yu Clan guards urged, preparing to carve a path for their young master.

"The Yu Clan has no cowards," the Yu Clan's young master declared, resolve hardening his expression as he raised his sword and leveled its point at Mou Shaochun.

"Kill every last one of them!" Mou Shaochun commanded.

The Mou Clan's experts surged forward without hesitation, each determined to slaughter their opponents.

Violence exploded through the woods. None of the ten Mou Clan members were weak. Mou Shaochun himself had reached the ninth-level Origin Immortal Realm and wielded terrifying power, while the others were at either the sixth- or seventh-level Origin Immortal Realm.

Among the Yu Clan's fighters, only their young master had reached the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm. His five guards remained at the lower levels of the Origin Immortal Realm, leaving the Yu Clan decisively inferior in overall strength.

The violent clash of weapons rang across the night, and the disturbance soon drew a large crowd toward the woods.

Events unfolded exactly as Liu Wuxie had anticipated. Several people followed the sounds of battle and assembled along the forest's edge, content to watch without showing the slightest intention of intervening.

The tide rapidly turned against the Yu Clan. Their young master could not restrain every enemy alone, and the Mou Clan's relentless offensive had already wounded all five guards.

"Young Master, get out of here," the Yu Clan's guards shouted desperately.

"None of you will leave this place alive!" Mou Shaochun laughed sinisterly as his sword carved a deadly arc through the air before driving straight toward the Yu Clan's young master's throat.

"That's the Face-Seer Ghost King's sword technique. How did he learn it?" Liu Wuxie muttered in astonishment. In his previous life, he had fallen into the Face-Seer Ghost King's trap and sustained the severe injuries that had ultimately led the Yu Clan to rescue him.

The Mou Clan's meteoric rise over the past few decades was closely tied to the Face-Seer Ghost King. His support had allowed the clan to flourish, and he was also responsible for killing the Yu Clan's old patriarch.

Confronted by such an uncanny sword technique, the Yu Clan's young master couldn't counter the strike.

The Face-Seer Ghost King had already entered the Immortal King Realm several decades ago. By now, his cultivation had most likely climbed to an even more terrifying height.

Liu Wuxie tore off a strip of cloth and wrapped it around his face. In a flash, he appeared at the heart of the battlefield.

The Yu Clan members stood on the brink of destruction beneath the Face-Seer Ghost King's sword technique, and Liu Wuxie could no longer stand by and watch. They had saved his life in his previous lifetime, and he could never allow their descendants to perish under the Mou Clan's blades.

Cruelty and ruthlessness defined the Face-Seer Ghost King, who cultivated a demonic art. No one had ever seen his true appearance, for he possessed a thousand faces and could exchange one for another as he pleased.

Liu Wuxie left the Bloodthirst Blade concealed, knowing that drawing it would expose his identity. Instead, he executed the Divine Ninefold Step and appeared before Mou Shaochun with a sword already in hand. A casual upward flick of his blade shattered the incoming attack.

The masked stranger's sudden arrival shattered the rhythm of the battle. Both factions stopped at once, and every gaze snapped toward the unexpected newcomer.

"Who are you? What gives you the right to interfere in our affairs?" Mou Shaochun roared. Had his attack landed, it would have severely wounded Yu Jingtong even if it had failed to kill him outright.

"I have no desire to kill anyone. Leave this place immediately," Liu Wuxie said, deliberately deepening his voice as overwhelming pressure swept outward from his body.

Mou Shaochun's expression shifted violently. Unable to endure the aura radiating from Liu Wuxie, he stumbled backward.