Previously, Lu Ye was planning to ascend to the Ninth-Order first before leaving Hidden Light Sanctuary’s Outpost. He was hoping to lie low until the danger had passed, or lessened to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, the Hundred Wards Tower Zhao Li mentioned was just too attractive. Before he knew it, he was already heading toward the Heavenly Derivative Sect.
Lu Ye wasn’t too afraid that his enemies were spying on him. As long as Thousand Demon Ridge still conformed to the rules, there was only so much they could do against him.
Of course, there was always the possibility that they would ignore everything. That was what really worried him.
It wasn’t until evening that the unpleasant feeling finally vanished from his back, but it did vanish. No matter how well Thousand Demon Ridge’s arrangements were, there was no way they could watch him all the time. They had to lose him once in a while.
Lu Ye immediately asked Ju Jia to lower them and fly into a forest.
A while later, a bonfire was lit, and Ju Jia took out a good amount of raw meat from his Storage Bag. He gave Amber one before barbecuing the rest over the bonfire.
His movements were extremely practiced. Clearly, Sima Yang had made him prepare his food for a very, very long time.
Very soon, the silence was interrupted by the crackling of oil, and the fragrance of cooked meat filled the air. Ju Jia then produced a bunch of salt and spices from god-knows-where and sprinkled them over the meat.
The scent grew even more enticing.
Ju Jia did not wait until the meat was fully cooked before chowing down earnestly, though he did not forget to offer Lu Ye one of the meat before doing so. Lu Ye accepted it without hesitation and happily dug into his meal, unwittingly winning Ju Jia’s affection with his gluttonous display. In fact, the big man had become much closer to him for the past few days.
Realization struck Lu Ye in the middle of his meal. He discovered that everyone in his party except Yi Yi was a glutton.
It should not need to be said that he and Amber were both big eaters. They chugged down at least forty to fifty Spirit Pills everyday like addicts.
Ju Jia wasn’t a big eater of Spirit Pill in the past because Sima Yang never gave him any. He cultivated his power purely through inhaling Spiritual Qi.
Of course, Lu Ye was nowhere as miserly and selfish as Sima Yang. He told Ju Jia to consume as many Spirit Pills as he wanted, and the latter gratefully accepted the offer. Of course, Ju Jia still did not consume too many Spirit Pills. It was because consuming too much Spirit Pills would affect the purity of his Spiritual Power.
Two men and one tiger burped out in satisfaction after the fulfilling meal. Next, Lu Ye produced the dragon scale from his Storage Bag and inhaled a wisp of blood qi. He then offered Amber and Ju Jia one wisp each.
In the past, he wouldn’t dare to do such a thing. His usual practice was to place it in a Circle of Boon before absorbing and refining the nebulized blood qi bit by bit.
Now that his cultivation and Divine Soul were stronger, he could inhale the blood qi directly.
It was the same for Amber. Since it came back from the Lost City of Xianyuan, it no longer dropped like a sack of rocks after inhaling the blood qi in the dragon scale. Improving one’s Divine Soul definitely brought more benefits than he initially expected.
In fact, Lu Ye reckoned that entering and exiting the Rift of Illusions should be less of a headache now. Literally. In the past, he would be beset by a painful migraine every time he died and exited the Rift of Illusions.
He hadn’t confirmed this yet because he was engrossed with the Way of Wards as of late.
After extinguishing the bonfire, Ju Jia adopted a meditative stance and began cultivating as usual. Lu Ye took out a book and began reading under the moonlight. As for Amber, the tiger was already lying next to the young man and snoring out loud.
Three hundred meters away, a slightly-built figure was stealthily making his way toward the group. His body blended almost perfectly with the environment, making him nigh invisible as he traversed the terrain. Even his aura and life force were fully concealed by some sort of unspeakable power. His footsteps were unnaturally light, making no sound even when he was stepping on leaves.
He wasn’t moving slowly either. He was traveling at near normal walking speed. It was clear that the man was extremely confident in his ability to conceal himself.
Thousand Demon Ridge had lost track of Lu Ye a while ago, knowing that he had vanished somewhere in this area, but not his exact location. Therefore, a lot of people were scouring the place for him. Naturally, they were all ghost cultivators.
Cloaked by darkness, the ghost cultivator peeked at the young man in front of him, his aged heart stirring a little with excitement. It was because killing the young man might give him a shot and becoming a Cloud River Realm cultivator!
Last time, the major sects of Thousand Demon Ridge had put a ridiculous bounty on Lu Ye’s head to ensure the removal of the Crimson Blood Sect. That bounty had been hefty enough to last a cultivator a lifetime. The newest bounty they set up wasn’t as hefty as the first, but it was still worth a hundred Barrier Penetrating Pills. That was enough for him to unlock his Spirit Points and finally meet the requirement to achieve Cloud River Realm.
Thirty years. He had waited thirty years to become a Cloud River Realm expert! He would be damned if he didn’t give it his all!
In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, there was a special community of people known as old school Ninth-Order Realm cultivators.
Contrary to what some people might think, it was neither a complimentary nor a derogatory term. It was simply an apt one.
Not everyone possessed the talent to ascend and become a Cloud River Realm cultivator. The higher you climbed, the harder it became to unlock Spiritual Points. It was because everyone possessed a natural limit.
There were a total of three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points in the human body, and only ten percent of all Spirit Creek Realm cultivators were naturally capable of unlocking all of them. Without exception, these people were the most gifted of them all.
Did that mean that the remaining ninety percent could never achieve Cloud River Realm no matter what they tried? Of course not.
A cultivator who had reached the Ninth-Order could purchase a Heavenly Grade cultivation technique to unlock another sixty Spiritual Points and obtain a total of two hundred and forty Spiritual Points. After they switched out the Heavenly Grade cultivation technique to the one that fit them best, they could then ascend and become a Cloud River Realm cultivator.
In other words, a cultivator needed at least two hundred and forty Spiritual Points to achieve Cloud River Realm, and not one less.
Despite this, there were still a ton of people who could not meet that requirement naturally. Some people hit their natural limit after just unlocking two hundred or so Spiritual Points. Take the slightly-built ghost cultivator for example. He had unlocked two hundred and twenty three Spiritual Points, meaning that he was still seventeen points away from the hard limit to achieve Cloud River Realm.
That was why he had been stuck on Spirit Creek Realm Ninth-Order for thirty years, and there were plenty more people like him in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. Everyone who reached the Ninth-Order a long time ago but was unable to unlock more Spiritual Points to ascend was known as an “old-school Ninth-Order cultivator”.
Again, they were a very special community of cultivators. Most of them could not be measured by their cultivation level because they all possessed the strength to fight beyond their level.
There were many such cultivators in sects as well. Generally speaking, a Spirit Creek Realm cultivator who looked old was most likely an old-school Ninth-Order cultivator.
Since there was no way to advance their cultivation level, these people often found other methods to further their strength. These methods could range from unpredictable to downright terrifying.
This ghost cultivator for example, had almost reached the pinnacle of the Way of Concealment for his level. In fact, he was better than most of his peers in the Core Circle who already cultivated a Heavenly Grade cultivation technique.
Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect was an expert in killing enemies beyond his cultivation level. The first time he officially displayed his “talent” in this area was the Battle of Goldentip. More recently, he had successfully cut off Yue Mei’s arm in two strikes and snatched the Grand Ward’s Control Gem despite being a cultivation level lower.
This wasn’t a secret. The ghost cultivator didn’t even need to hear through the grapevine to know this.
However, this talent did not belong exclusively to Lu Ye alone. There were plenty of geniuses in the Cultivation World who were capable of such a thing, and this was doubly true for ghost cultivators. Their entire niche was to assassinate targets who were usually stronger than them, so they rarely fought an enemy head on. Given the right opportunities and circumstances, forget assassinating enemies who were just one cultivation level above their own, they could kill targets who were two or even three cultivation levels higher than them!
The ghost cultivator’s plan was very simple. While under cover, he would slip behind Lu Ye and kill him in one decisive hit. Then, he would bring his head back to the nearest bounty collection spot to receive his reward!
The body tempering cultivator named Ju Jia was a bit of a problem. The big fellow would definitely attack him if he were to reveal himself. He was confident in his speed though. As long as he could survive Ju Jia’s first attack, he was certain he could make his escape.
It was going to be a dicey assassination, but what was a bit of risk compared to the rewards? If this was the price he must pay to ascend to Cloud River Realm, then so be it.
Unfortunately, man plans and the Heavens laugh. He was about ten meters away from Lu Ye when he suddenly froze in his tracks. It was because Lu Ye had abruptly closed his book, turned in his direction, and stared him directly in the eye. In that moment, he felt an icy chill shooting from his foot all the way to his head.
[Did he see me? But that’s impossible! How can a mere Eighth-Order combat cultivator possibly see through my concealment?]
The ghost cultivator had absolute confidence in his concealment abilities, and for good reason. Once, he had snuck up to a Heaven-Grade Seventh-Order cultivator and took off their head right in front of them. He would never forget the look of shock and disbelief on their face before the light winked out of their eyes.
If even a Heaven-Grade Seventh-Order cultivator could not see through his concealment, then how could an Eighth-Order possibly do the impossible?
[Yeah, there’s no way he saw me. Something behind me probably drew his attention or something. It can’t be me.]
The reason he thought this was because Lu Yi Ye wasn’t the only one who was staring at him. The body-tempering cultivator, Ju Jia was, too. Even the Spirit Beast sleeping next to Lu Yi Ye had opened their eyes to stare in his direction as well.
He would not deny that there was an instant he had felt like pissing his pants…
That said, he was an old-school Ninth-Order cultivator. A youngster might’ve succumbed to the pressure and broken their concealment already, but he had survived long enough to turn his nerves into steel. That was why he remained calm and, while withdrawing his aura and pushing his concealment abilities to the limits, slowly took a step to the right.
He was wrong. His entire scalp tingled when all three pairs of eyes followed his figure like glue. Lu Yi Ye was even laying his chin on one hand and tapping the Inviolable rhythmically with the other, smirking as if he could see him as plain as day.
This turn of events was completely beyond the ghost cultivator’s expectations. He could believe that Lu Yi Ye was talented enough to see through his concealment, but Ju Jia, a simpleton who only knew how to flex his muscles? A Spirit Beast even? Had he been deluding himself all this time? Was the concealment technique he honed for decades really worth nothing at all?
The bonfire in the makeshift camp crackled once. It was because the flames hadn’t died out completely.
It was at that moment the ghost cultivator rushed forward and attempted to kill Lu Ye. Unfortunately for him, he was immediately met by a bright flash of steel.
Blood flew everywhere as a deep wound erupted across the ghost cultivator’s chest. The attack had nearly split him in half! Without hesitation, he began running away from the party. Any ghost cultivator worth their salt would know that staying after a failed assassination was folly.
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