Chapter 1220 - Lesser of Two Evils
Liu Wuxie slew Deng Huaiguang to make an example of him. He wanted to intimidate the rest and secure his footing in the Outer Sect once and for all.
He had a deeper goal. He deliberately unleashed the Heaven-Severing Strike to draw the eyes of the Heavenly Dragon Sect's upper echelons, and he succeeded, as many had already begun making their way to the Outer Sect's martial field.
He had not anticipated the Heaven-Severing Strike's surge. The technique spiraled beyond his control, and the backlash tore through him. Worse, the Heretic Blade hit its limit; cracks resembling a spiderweb spread across its surface as it teetered on the brink of destruction, unable to contain the strike's profundity.
With a single blow, Liu Wuxie cleaved Deng Huaiguang apart. In that instant, he violated the sect's rules in full view of all by openly killing an inner disciple.
Hissing gasps swept the field as disciples stared at what remained of Deng Huaiguang. He was a prodigious inner disciple with exceptional talent, yet Liu Wuxie had cut him down without hesitation.
Even the distant elders stood dumbstruck, unable to comprehend what they had witnessed.
Without pause, Liu Wuxie took Deng Huaiguang's interspatial rings and drew the energies and laws from his corpse to strengthen the desolate world within. The effort left him trembling. Blood sprayed from his lips, and his face paled. He was not feigning weakness; the Heaven-Severing Strike had drained every shred of his true essence.
True essence would recover with time, but the toll on his body ran deeper. His True Dragon Physique hit a bottleneck and could not withstand such backlash. To progress, he needed either more divine-dragon remains to refine or a specialized cultivation method for the True Dragon Physique.
He possessed no such technique in his memory. Instinct remained his only path, just as when he refined the divine dragon's bones.
The stronger the strike, the greater the strain. Fortunately, he had cultivated the Panwu Divine Art; without it, the Heaven-Severing Strike's backlash would have pulverized him to dust.
Seeing his weakened state, faint smiles spread across many faces.
"He's ruthless," several inner disciples murmured. "He even uses a technique that harms his own body."