“You’ve worked hard.” Bai Qian gave Lu Ye a smile. “Go catch some rest.”
“Before that, I need to tell you something. Brother Zhao and I were—”
Bai Qian raised his hand to stop him from continuing. “I’m aware of your plans, but I’m sure you can afford to wait a day, no? Don’t forget that we’ve put the entire headquarters in complete lockdown. I promise you that our enemies will not hear of your survival until it’s too late. So return to your room and catch some well-deserved rest. Zhao Li will take care of the preparation. You may depart when tomorrow comes.”
Lu Ye thought for a second before nodding. “As you wish, Elder Bai.”
Elder Bai immediately wrapped Lu Ye in his Spiritual Power and took to the sky. The reason he was in a hurry to leave wasn’t because he was worried that someone in the Heavenly Derivative Sect might harbor ill intentions toward Lu Ye, but because the young man had conquered thirty-three floors in a row and triggered a resonance each time. Suffice to say, countless ward cultivators were eyeing him like a piece of meat to put it mildly.
Bai Qian knew his ward cultivators better than anyone. Forget leaving, the poor lad wouldn’t be able to catch a breather if he did not leave now.
As the old man had predicted, countless ward cultivators sighed in resignation when they saw that Bai Qian had “kidnapped” Lu Ye. Not all of them had given up though. The bolder ones actually chased after Bai Qian, and a good number of them were in the Cloud River Realm too…
“Zhao Li, come with me. The rest of you should leave,” Yu Xiao ordered.
“Yes, sect master!” Zhao Li responded from the crowd.
Very soon, Yu Xiao left the valley with Zhao Li in tow. It was obvious that they were going away to do something.
Despite the sect master’s order, the commotion in the valley didn’t subside until much later. It was because a lot of ward cultivators had rushed into the Hundred Wards Tower to challenge themselves after being inspired by Lu Ye. Of course, whether they would be rewarded for their efforts was a different story.
Lu Ye ate like a horse after he had returned to Bai Qian’s residence. He then took a long bath before collapsing on top of his bed. The next morning, he woke up feeling completely refreshed.
There was a message in the Battlefield Imprint. It was sent by Zhao Li. The Heavenly Derivative Sect was ready to go, and even their allies were just waiting for the signal. They were just waiting for him to start the operation.
Lu Ye replied to the message asking Zhao Li to give him a tally of their manpower so he could prepare accordingly. He then messaged Yi Yi and Ju Jia to meet him as soon as they were able.
While waiting for the duo, Lu Ye took a moment to inspect his Spiritual Points. He had ascended to the Ninth-Order when he was on the first floor of the Hundred Wards Tower, and now he had a total of two hundred and eighteen unlocked Spiritual Points!
This meant that he had unlocked thirty nine Spiritual Points during the seventeen days he spent in the Hundred Wards Tower. On average, he had unlocked one Spiritual Point per floor or two Spiritual Points per day.
This was easily the fastest Lu Ye had ever unlocked his Spiritual Points. If the Spirit Creek Battlefield’s cultivation environment was this good, he could probably ascend to the Cloud River Realm in two or three days.
Of course, this was just a pipedream. The reason the cultivation environment of the Hundred Wards Tower was as excellent as it was was because he had cleared the challenges with flying colors. Few people got to enjoy his level of treatment.
He could not help but look forward to the second portion of the Hundred Wards Tower. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to do so for a while.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though. Until the day he could enter the Hundred Wards Tower, he would continue to study hard at the Way of Wards so he could repeat what he did here and enjoy that cultivation environment once more.
His time in the Hundred Wards Tower was a fruitful one. In fact, it was too fruitful. Although he had digested and absorbed all the rewards that were bestowed by the Hundred Wards Tower, he was nowhere near the level where he understood them completely. To give an example, he had digested all the food he had consumed, but the nutrients hadn’t been fully absorbed by his body, nor had he trained those muscles to maximize his gains.
There was a lot to look forward to in the future. He was already quite impressive in the half-baked state he was in if he dared say so himself. He could not imagine how much better he would become when he fully made the learnings he had obtained from the Hundred Wards Tower his own.
Cultivation wise, he was only twenty two Spiritual Points away from hitting the two hundred and forty Spiritual Points requirement necessary to change his cultivation technique. It should take only one and a half months of normal cultivation to reach that level. Unfortunately, he was going to be quite busy in the near future, so he did not think he would be able to spare much time on cultivation.
Yi Yi and Ju Jia hadn’t arrived yet, so he decided to check out the pitch black ward flags he had obtained from the Hundred Wards Tower. A quick check revealed to him that the enhancements inside the flags were more comprehensive than his own, and even the materials they were made of were better than the ones Elder Bai had given him. Since he hadn’t had much contact with natural treasures, he was unable to identify the materials they were made of.
It had to be good since it was one of the two final rewards of the Hundred Wards Tower. He would even bet that they were among the best of the best in the entire Jiu Zhou.
Ward flags were only tools used to support the ward cultivator in creating and breaching wards, but it went without saying that the better their quality, the greater their effects would become. Like a tiger who was bestowed a pair of wings, he had no doubt that he would be able to breach wards faster and create stronger and stabler wards with this set of ward flags.
A short while later, Lu Ye rose to his feet and walked out of his room. Ju Jia was standing outside the door, and Amber was curled up on top of his head. Yi Yi was nowhere to be seen, but that was because she was hiding inside Amber’s body right now.
Half a month had passed since he saw his companions. Ju Jia hadn’t changed much, but Amber was clearly stronger than before. Even his aura felt a lot denser than it used to be.
Now that everyone was gathered, he took them to Bai Qian’s room to bid the old man goodbye. Before they left, Bai Qian said seriously, “I leave our meager savings in your hands, young friend. Do try not to be too extreme in your approach.”
“Do not worry, Elder Bai. I promise you that the Heavenly Derivative Sect will retake what they had lost at the very least.”
“Go with my blessing.”
And so Lu Ye left the place. Once they were outside the building, Ju Jia summoned his flying Spirit Artifact and waited for Lu Ye to get onboard. Then, they took off to the sky in a stream of light.
A short while later, Lu Ye heard Zhao Li shouting passionately in front of the Sanctum of Providence. He was joined by hundreds of Spirit Creek Realm cultivators. Every time he barked out a command, the cultivators would respond with a thunderous “Kill!” of their own. They were clearly doing some pre-mobilization exercises.
Morale was sky high to put it mildly. Their killing intent alone could pierce the heavens. Two months ago, Thousand Demon Ridge had occupied their Outpost with overwhelming forces, and they were forced to withdraw to the headquarters without being able to fire so much as a single spell or telekinetic weapon. The entire sect was stewing with frustration and fury to say the least.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the elders had suddenly put the headquarters in total lockdown for two months straight, one so absolute that they couldn’t even send or receive a message from the outside world, much less return to the Spirit Creek Battlefield. No one knew what the elders were thinking at the time.
The disciples thought to themselves: [Why are we waiting when Thousand Demon Ridge has already withdrawn their forces from our Outpost? Shouldn’t we rebuild as soon as possible so that our Spirit Creek Realm disciples have a place to cultivate?] And the thought of all of them having to visit an ally’s Outpost just to cultivate normally… It was humiliating to say the least.
That was why the disciples had been submitting letters to reenter the Spirit Creek Battlefield everyday. They had just been suppressed by Yu Xiao and the elders. One could say that Heavenly Derivative Sect had been stewing in rage for two months straight. A single spark was enough to cause everything to explode.
This state lasted until they saw a perfectly unscathed Lu Ye walking out of the Hundred Wards Tower, and certain news were spread among them. Then, Zhao Li gathered all Spirit Creek Realm disciples in front of the Sanctum of Providence today.
Everyone knew then that today was the day they paid back what had been done to them tenfold!
The Heavenly Derivative Sect hadn’t holed up in their headquarters for two months because they were afraid. No, they were just waiting for the right opportunity to strike back.
To say that they were excited would be a massive understatement. Everyone was itching to go on a rampage already.
Several hundred pairs of eyes turned toward Ju Jia and Lu Ye after they landed. Zhao Li walked up to Lu Ye and clasped his fist respectfully. “Everything is ready, Brother Yi Ye.”
Lu Ye took a step forward and swept his gaze across the animated crowd in front of him. He then looked at Yu Xiao and the Heavenly Derivative Sect elders floating not far away behind the crowd and gave them a nod.
“Let’s go!”
Zhao Li immediately turned around and shouted, “Let’s go!”
Without a word, the cultivators of the Heavenly Derivative Sect marched into the Sanctum of Providence and pressed their hand against the Divine Opportunity Column. Then, they teleported back to their Outpost one group after another.
It was like a dragon entering the sea. The storm that would turn the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield upside down began now.
The first few groups were all body tempering cultivators, followed by the combat cultivators and ghost cultivators, and finally the spell cultivators and medicine cultivators. Although Thousand Demon Ridge should have withdrawn their forces a long time ago, that was no reason to relax their guard. If the enemy had set up an ambush, then at least the body tempering cultivators would be able to survive until reinforcements arrived.
It took only dozens of breaths before everyone had teleported back to the Outpost. The ghost cultivators who had spread out to scout the area reported back that they hadn’t seen any enemy within the vicinity.
This was normal. It had been two months since the Outpost was conquered. Thousand Demon Ridge could be completely out of their minds, and they still wouldn’t sit on an empty ruin for two months straight. It was just illogical and benefited no one.
A while later, a massive ship Spirit Artifact floated into the air. After everyone had gotten on, Zhao Li commanded the ship to fly in a certain direction.
Lu Ye was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Zhao Li on the deck. After the latter had finished messaging an ally on his Battlefield Imprint, he asked, “Deep Sea Mountain has already departed. They are led by their Legate, Brother Song Yin. We will be attacking the Clear Wind Sect first as per your plan, Brother Yi Ye.”
“How many people did he bring with him?”
“He brought everyone besides a hundred defenders.”
Lu Ye raised his eyebrows. “This Brother Song must be quite a bold fellow.”
Zhao Li explained, “On the contrary, Brother Song is usually a conservative fellow. If I’m not mistaken, he did this probably because he received some ‘advice’ from his elders, or maybe he felt guilty he couldn’t do more when our Outpost was taken. We are close neighbors and so share an interdependent relationship. In fact, they were scared for their lives when Thousand Demon Ridge had occupied our Outpost.”
Two months ago, Lu Ye had been poisoned by a spy right after he arrived at the Heavenly Derivative Sect’s Outpost. Not long later, several Thousand Demon Ridge sects had joined hands to conquer the Outpost by force.
It was the Heavenly Derivative Sect’s fault that he was poisoned on their turf, but it was his fault that their Outpost was occupied, and Thousand Demon Ridge grew mad enough to activate a precious spy in the first place. He could not deny that some of the responsibilities fell on his shoulders as well. If he didn’t have the Tree of Glyphs, he would have been crippled or dead already. If he didn’t have the Soul Cleansing Water, Ju Jia and Zhao Li could’ve died even with Shui Yuan’s treatment.
Ultimately, there was no point in assigning blame. Thousand Demon Ridge was the one who tried to destroy him, so he would destroy them in return. Not only that, he was going to take back what the Heavenly Derivative Sect had lost exactly as he had promised Bai Qian.
A huge amount of Sect Contribution Points was necessary to rebuild an Outpost. And how were they going to get all those Contribution Points? By occupying their enemies’ Outposts and robbing their Blessings, of course.
The reason he came to the Heavenly Derivative Sect in the first place was to become proficient enough in the Way of Wards to breach a grand ward, and now he had the ability to do exactly that.
Looking at the 10-point map, the Heavenly Derivative Sect’s location was poorer than expected. They were literally surrounded by three Thousand Demon Ridge factions on three sides. In fact, the Clear Wind Sect, Sanguine Vale and Thunderlight Sect made up the main force that occupied the Heavenly Derivative Sect’s Outpost.
The reason they chose to attack the Clear Wind Sect first was because they bordered both the Heavenly Derivative Sect and Deep Sea Mountain.
The Heavenly Derivative Sect was fearless because they had nothing to lose—they literally did not even have an Outpost anymore—but Deep Sea Mountain was a different story. That was why they had to take out the Clear Wind Sect first. Otherwise, Deep Sea Mountain would not be able to help them without reservation.
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