Sage of Humanity-Chapter 341 - 339: Harvest

"Senior Brother, don’t rush off. It’s rare for you to come back; I have some matters I want to consult with you about."

Li Baxian laughed, raised his hand to touch his battlefield marking, "Just message me at any time."

"It seems that Second Senior Sister has made a lot of delicious food."

"I haven’t visited the old man for a long time. Now that I’m back, I should go see him."

With that, Li Baxian stepped towards the direction of Heaven’s Augury Hall.

Lu Ye gave Hua Ci a look, and Hua Ci led Yiyi and Giant Armor to follow him.

Shortly after, they used the Heaven’s Augury Pillar to return to the Nine Provinces sect headquarters.

Lu Ye stayed behind and pressed his hand against the Heaven’s Augury Pillar.

After spending so much time running around and fighting outside, the time to reap the rewards from the blessings plundered through the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge augment had finally arrived.

This kind of plundered blessing could only be converted into a corresponding amount of sect merit at one’s own Heaven’s Augury Pillar. With the experience of the Chess Sea, Lu Ye was very familiar with this process.

With the authority of a Governor, he checked the number of sect merits on the Heaven’s Augury Pillar.

There were just over two thousand points.

Currently, the only type of enhancement on the Righteous Blood Sect’s Heaven’s Augury Pillar was the one that increased the local Spiritual Energy. There were nineteen paths of this enhancement, and each one could improve the local Spiritual Energy by ten percent. Taking into account the ten percent increase provided by the Heaven’s Augury Pillar itself, the Spiritual Energy within the Righteous Blood Sect’s base was now double that of the outside world.

If the concentration of Spiritual Energy in the wild was one, then the concentration within the Righteous Blood Sect’s base was three.

Lu Ye used to think that the nature’s Spiritual Energy in the Righteous Blood Sect’s base was fairly rich, but after visiting the bases of various big sects, he realized that the Spiritual Energy here was actually nothing special.

With a thought, the enhancements that had been plundered into his battlefield marking shattered one after another, turning into specks of light that fell into the Heaven’s Augury Pillar. For a moment, the entire pillar was surrounded by a swarm of fireflies, a sight that was quite beautiful.

And the number representing the sect merits within the Heaven’s Augury Pillar also changed at an exaggeratedly fast rate.

Fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, one million, two million, three million...

Lu Ye didn’t know if other people’s Heaven’s Augury Pillars stored such an exaggerated amount of sect merits, but surely no sect in either the outer circle or even the inner circle had such a terrifying number. As for the Core Circle, that was uncertain.

Calculating based on the value of a typical Level 9 cultivator being nine merits, three million merits is a staggering concept. It meant that with Lu Ye’s current cultivation, he would have to kill exactly three hundred thirty-three thousand three hundred thirty-three people...

That number is quite horrifying. Although Lu Ye had also killed quite a few people from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, he was far from even a fraction of that number.

Of course, the sources of merit are not limited to just killing enemies. Dealing with the Insect Plague also earned merits, as did selling items to the Heaven’s Augury treasure vault, along with other less common methods.

But for the general populace, killing enemies is the most common way to obtain merits.

The number of sect merits finally settled at over three million and one hundred thousand.

Having such an exaggerated number was not considered outrageous since the first Allied Forces led by Lu Ye had broken through over a hundred different Ten Thousand Demons Ridge powers’ bases. Aside from the first three where Lu Ye did not partake in the plunder, he had a share from every single one of the rest.

Since the Allied Forces were rallied by Lu Ye, his share exceeded that of everyone else, at least ten percent, sometimes even five percent.

The sects in the inner circle had been developing for many years, and the number of enhancements on their Heaven’s Augury Pillars was enormously vast. Hence, the bounty from such plundering could not be meager.

The number of bases broken by the second Allied Forces was fewer, but there were still twenty to thirty.

Especially the last battle at Golden Clouds Tower, where he monopolized all the enhancements.

With these small accumulations adding up, such an exaggerated harvest was possible.

He had worked hard for so long, and even when he heard that discussions for a ceasefire between the two Divine Sea Realm powers had begun, he fervently started to carve out a second battlefield, all for this moment.

It was enough, with plenty to spare.

Lu Ye did not rush to increase the sect’s nature’s Spiritual Energy. Instead, he used his authority as Governor to grant himself a monthly salary.

Previously, he thought the amount of one’s monthly salary was related to the total number of sect merits and could not exceed ten percent of the total. But later, he realized it also related to one’s personal contributions. Without sufficient personal contributions, no matter how plentiful the sect merits were, it would be impossible to get any significant benefit.

That was why issuing his and Hua Ci’s monthly salary had been so smooth before because they had earned those merits together in the Chess Sea.

With over three million and one hundred thousand merits, the maximum monthly salary he could issue was three hundred ten thousand. With a thought, the battlefield marking on the back of his hand immediately heated up and grew hot, as if a branding iron were pressed against his skin.

This heat came quickly and left just as fast, disappearing in an instant.

Lu Ye checked his personal merits to confirm he had received the three hundred ten thousand before he began to increase the Spiritual Energy of his base.

The more enhancements bought on the Heaven’s Augury Pillar, the higher the cost, with each path costing five hundred more merits than the previous one. Lu Ye only needed five hundred merits to purchase the first enhancement, but now he would need ten thousand to buy another.

The proportion of increased Spiritual Energy remained the same, so in the later stages of base development, to increase the nature’s Spiritual Energy concentration, the cost in merits is extremely substantial. It can even be said that the development of the base is like a bottomless pit.

Lu Ye didn’t care and directly spent his sect’s merit to start buying, his remaining two million seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand merits decreased at a visibly rapid pace, while the Heaven’s Augury Pillar twisted and changed continuously, emitting a dense series of crackling sounds within.

Inside the stationed area, cultivators of the Righteous Blood Sect were still immersed in the joy of Lu Ye’s triumphant return when suddenly the heavens and earth began to change.

For some reason, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth throughout the stationed area became extremely abnormal. Before the cultivators could investigate this anomaly, the sky above the stationed area became stormy, followed rapidly by the formation of large expanses of dark clouds.

The dark clouds, like thick cotton, blocked out the sunlight shining from the sky, as if a shadowy behemoth was slowly pressing down from the heavens.

A sense of oppressiveness that made their hearts pound in fear caused the disciples of the Righteous Blood Sect to panic, and what made them even more terrified was that the already thick dark clouds were still becoming denser and thicker.

Guk Yang, the Deputy Governor, hurried out from his residence, looked up, and realized the situation was grim. While swiftly sending a message to Lu Ye, he took out the jade cluster to control the big array and hurriedly dismantled it.

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No matter what this anomaly was, if they didn’t dismantle the protective array, once those dark clouds descended, the big array would likely collapse.

A moment later, he rushed into the Heaven’s Augury Hall and said urgently, "Fifth Senior Brother, something’s wrong. You need to go out and see."

Lu Ye, who had been buying enchantments and was becoming somewhat impatient, turned his head, "Hm?"

"There are some strange phenomena in the sky."

Lu Ye frowned, flashed out of the Heaven’s Augury Hall, and after looking up for a moment, gestured to Guk Yang, "It’s nothing."

He then went back into the Heaven’s Augury Hall and continued buying enchantments.

Guk Yang was somewhat dumbfounded. How could such an obvious celestial phenomenon, which resembled the coming of the apocalypse, be nothing?

But if Fifth Senior Brother said it was nothing, then perhaps it was... nothing?

While he comforted the sect’s cultivators, he entered the Heaven’s Augury Hall and immediately heard the dense crackling sound.

Slowly approaching Lu Ye, he asked doubtfully, "Fifth Senior Brother, what are you doing?"

He had been an independent cultivator previously and hadn’t been the Deputy Governor for long, so naturally, he was clueless about this.

"Here, you try buying, get familiar with it," Lu Ye lifted his hand, gesturing for Guk Yang to take his place.

Guk Yang did as told, and upon checking the numbers representing the sect’s merit on the Heaven’s Augury Pillar, his eyes nearly popped out.

He couldn’t believe it and counted again, making sure he hadn’t seen incorrectly.

Turning to look at Lu Ye, he seemed to seek confirmation.

"Buy!"

"Oh," Guk Yang immediately got to it.

Crackle...

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Once again, the Heaven’s Augury Pillar emitted a dense series of sounds from within.

Lu Ye also placed his hand on the Heaven’s Augury Pillar, his mind connecting to the Heaven’s Augury treasure vault, and with a thought, he soon found what he wanted.

It was an elixir pill that could only be bought within the Heaven’s Augury treasure vault, even the Heaven’s Augury Mercantile Union did not have it in stock. Each pill was worth an astonishing one hundred and fifty thousand merits!

He had previously checked this elixir pill and was shocked by its high price, thinking that it would be difficult for him to gather enough merit to buy it. His plan was to accumulate merit over time until he had enough, but his journey to the inner circle had allowed him to accumulate sufficient capital quickly.

Thanks to those sects stationed at Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, whose bases had been breached!

In the treasure vault of Heaven’s Augury, there were not many of these elixir pills, totaling only eight. According to what Second Senior Sister had said, when she had been at the Spirit Stream battlefield, there were over thirty of these pills. However, as time passed and more people bought them from here, their number gradually decreased.

No one knew where these elixir pills had come from because no one in the Nine Provinces could refine them.

There were many such treasures within the Heaven’s Augury treasure vault that were difficult for Nine Provinces cultivators to obtain or refine. Some speculated that these items were remnants of the previous era’s cultivation world, so these treasures were being depleted as they were used.

With each elixir pill costing one hundred and fifty thousand merits, Lu Ye didn’t even blink as he directly purchased two pills.

The abundant merit he originally possessed shrunk dramatically, leaving only a small amount, but even this small amount was more than ten thousand.

Withdrawing his mind, he now had two ancient-looking wooden boxes in his hand, their age indeterminable. Lu Ye opened them to check the elixir pills inside to make sure they weren’t damaged before he carefully stored them away.

"Fifth Senior Brother, I can’t buy any more," Guk Yang’s voice came.

Lu Ye placed his hand on the Heaven’s Augury Pillar, checking the sect’s merit. From an original two million seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand merits, only four hundred thousand remained.

But the enchantments on the Heaven’s Augury Pillar amounted to an incredible ninety-nine!

Lu Ye attempted to buy more and found, just as Guk Yang had said, that he could no longer make any more purchases.

"Ninety-nine enchantments really are the limit," Lu Ye raised an eyebrow. He had heard from Li Baxian that the enchantment limit for a big sect’s Heaven’s Augury Pillar in the outer circle should be ninety-nine, but throughout history, no outer circle big sect had ever achieved this level of enchantment on their Heaven’s Augury Pillar. Therefore, whether ninety-nine indeed was the limit, no one could say for sure.