Sage of Humanity-Chapter 472 - 470 The Source of the Madness

"Young Master, be careful!" The Great Elder, who was resting not far away, leaped up and struck at Amber with a single palm.

From his perspective, Lu Ye's natal demon beast was undoubtedly struck with a crazed disease. Faced with such a situation, the only option was to quickly kill the demon beast, otherwise, it would certainly turn and devour its owner.

A fiery red sword light flashed by, and the Great Elder hastily withdrew his hand, staring at Lu Ye, the one who had drawn the sword, in astonishment, "Young Master?"

"Wait!" Lu Ye called out sternly, his expression grave.

He had never expected that Amber would be contaminated with the madness, especially since it had been fighting alongside him and had never left his side, nor did it show any signs of injury. How had it caught this affliction?

However, unlike other demon beasts that would go berserk immediately upon contracting the disease, Amber's eyes occasionally flickered with a blood-red hue and it continuously let out threatening growls from its throat, but one could see, it was desperately trying to maintain its sanity, suppressing the urge to attack everything around it uncontrollably.

After all, it was a pet beast that had shared life and death with Lu Ye for more than two years, bound by a pet contract bestowed by Heaven's Augury. Even though it was afflicted with the frenzy, it retained its last shred of rationality, unlike other demon beasts that completely lost their minds.

There was a message from the battlefield marking, and Lu Ye quickly checked it – it was from Yiyi.

After reading Yiyi's message, Lu Ye suddenly looked up, and Amber, standing in front of him, lowered its head towards him.

Lustrous light flickered on the Boulder Mountain Saber as Lu Ye thrust out with it, the sword accurately piercing Amber three inches behind its neck, an action so sudden that Xia Qianqian and the others watched in shock, unable to understand why he, who had just stopped the Great Elder, would now take action himself.

But the next moment, they realized something was amiss because, had Lu Ye truly intended to take Amber's life, he would not have struck at that particular spot.

A faint and peculiar chirping sound ensued, similar to that of cicadas, but the clamor of the battlefield made it hard to hear clearly.

The sword, lodged in the back of Amber's neck, was levered up, blood splattering, drawing everyone's gaze to Lu Ye's Boulder Mountain Saber.

At that very moment, on the tip of the saber, something resembling a cicada that had been pierced and lifted out was struggling and writhing. However, before the observers could make out what it was, the cicada suddenly burst open, turning into a puddle of black liquid!

Lu Ye hurriedly mobilized his spirit force to envelop the cluster of black liquid, preventing it from spreading.

Everyone stared at the mass of black liquid encased by spirit force with indescribable expressions.

As for Amber, from whose neck the cicada-like creature had been extracted, it had now calmed down; it shook its head, and the blood-red color in its eyes had already vanished.

Blood streamed from its neck, but such a wound was merely superficial for a demon beast of its caliber; it lifted its eyes and warily circled around the mass of black liquid now wrapped in spirit force, then took cover behind Lu Ye.

Lu Ye turned to look at Xia Qianqian, and their eyes met.

"We've found the reason why the demon beasts go mad!"

"What?" Xia Qianqian hadn't yet recovered from the sudden turn of events, instinctively replying before suddenly grasping the implication, "You mean, the thing you just extracted?"

"It's not the demon beasts that are going mad; something is parasitizing inside them, controlling them!"

Parasitism, control...

Xia Qianqian was taken aback, "Are you sure?"

"Positive!"

If it had been just him, Lu Ye would not have been able to detect the root cause of Amber's affliction so quickly because the parasite in Amber's neck had completely blended with its aura. Even if he had scrutinized every inch of Amber with spirit force, he might not have found anything unusual.

This was why the cultivators from the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain had not been able to understand the cause of the demon beasts' frenzy, despite having captured some and examined them closely, to no avail.

But inside Amber, there was still Yiyi!

Since entering this secret realm of the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain, Yiyi had remained unseen. Before Amber had shown signs of illness, she hadn't been too concerned, but as soon as Amber fell ill, she immediately began examining its body and quickly discovered the odd parasite, promptly informing Lu Ye.

The parasitism was silent and stealthy, and even Lu Ye didn't know when Amber had been infected. What was certain was that the parasite must have been very small when it infected Amber, so tiny that even Lu Ye hadn't noticed it until it grew rapidly after living inside. By the time Lu Ye exposed it, the parasite had already grown to the size of a cicada.

Unfortunately, after being extracted by Lu Ye, the creature immediately burst open. This could have been an innate mechanism to remain hidden, preventing cultivators from detecting it.

Now, the burst black liquid was enveloped by Lu Ye's spirit force, and upon closer inspection, everyone was horrified to discover tiny worms moving within it; indeed, these parasites were so small that they could have easily been overlooked without careful examination.

Lu Ye's spirit force intensified, the fiery red spirit force incinerated the liquid until nothing was left.

"Aoow!" Amber, now back to the size of a house cat, jumped onto Lu Ye's shoulder and started growling softly.

While Lu Ye checked the information from Yiyi in the battlefield marking, he nodded as if in agreement.

Since Yiyi and Amber had been born together, Yiyi was the first to know what Amber was thinking – a detail not even Lu Ye, as the owner, could match.

Despite the pet contract endowed by Heaven's Augury, and the bond forged with the Life Origin Method and Beast Seal, Lu Ye could at most manage simple communication with Amber and could not discern details as precisely as Yiyi could.

"What's it saying?" Xia Qianqian watched in wonder, having never seen a demon beast so intuitively human.

Lu Ye kept nodding incessantly…

Moments later, after probing the information transmitted by Yiyi, Lu Ye said, "It mentioned that when it was being controlled by that insect, it faintly sensed something in that direction!" Saying this, he pointed in a direction.

"Sensed what?"

"Not sure, but there is definitely an invisible connection deeply related to the insect that controlled it."

"The source of the madness?" Xia Qianqian's eyes lit up.

The demon beasts went mad not of their own accord, but because there were insects parasitizing inside them, controlling them, and these insects were somehow related to an entity far away; naturally, she would make such an association.

If this were true, then all that had been previously elusive was now startlingly clear.

"Do you know exactly where?" Xia Qianqian pressed on.

"Only the direction…"

"That direction…" said the Great Elder, who had stood silently to the side, deep in thought.

Lu Ye looked at him: "Great Elder, did you think of something?"

"That's the direction of Black Tortoise Sect." The Great Elder furrowed his brows: "The demon beasts' madness began with the outbreak at the Black Tortoise Sect and then swept across the entire Ten Thousand Beasts Domain."

Hearing him say this, both Lu Ye and Xia Qianqian couldn't help but think the same thing; it was very likely that the place Amber sensed was where the Black Tortoise Sect was located.

"But the Black Tortoise Sect has already been wiped out. We have all gone there to investigate, and there's nothing left."

"You also investigated the mad demon beasts, didn't you? And just the same, you did not find the insects," said Xia Qianqian.

The Great Elder immediately looked ashamed.

From his perspective, if it hadn't been for their Young Master and his natal demon beast sharing a telepathic link today, the matter with the insects might still have remained undiscovered.

The cause for the demon beasts' madness was found, and although the source wasn't yet confirmed, it was close to being certain. Lu Ye and Xia Qianqian exchanged glances, both recognizing the other's thoughts.

Two Worlds City was no longer tenable. Judging by the demon beasts' assault on the city, even if they went all out here, they couldn't hold out for more than a few days. Once the city fell, the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain would still proceed on its predestined historical path. If it really came to that, whether it was the native cultivators of the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain or the visiting cultivators from the Nine Provinces, none would meet a good end.

Therefore, for Lu Ye and others, there was only one way to survive now.

They had to go to the origin of this incident and try to solve the problem from there. Only then might there be a chance for survival.

"We need some help," Lu Ye said gravely.

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"I'll contact people," said Xia Qianqian, as she began to send out messages.

As a Cloud River Level 9 cultivator, naturally, her network wasn't comparable to that of a fledgling like Lu Ye. Among the Nine Provinces cultivators who came this time, there were certainly some she knew.

"Young Master, what are you…" The Great Elder was puzzled.

Lu Ye thought for a moment and then said, "Great Elder, we are going to the Black Tortoise Sect! There should be a way to solve the problem there."

"To the Black Tortoise Sect now?" The Great Elder's face changed. It was the time of the demon beasts' attack on the city; leaving now meant breaking through an encirclement, which was extremely dangerous.

"If we don't go now, there won't be another chance. Staying here is just waiting for death!"

The Great Elder seemed ready to argue, but upon further thought, wasn't what Lu Ye said the truth? He nodded immediately: "The Young Master is right. Staying here is indeed waiting for death! I'll go see Liew Wuzhai, that old scoundrel, and see if he can send some people to go with us!"

Lu Ye was pleased: "That would be best!"

The more people they had for this trip to the Black Tortoise Sect, the better. The greater the number, the more they could achieve.

"Just wait a moment, Young Master!" said the Great Elder, soaring into the sky and streaking towards the City Lord's Residence.

Moments later, a beam of light shot straight towards them, descending in front of the group. Following closely was a lazy voice: "Xia Qianqian, do you know that leaving your post at such a critical moment could get your battle merits deducted?"

Upon hearing the voice, Lu Ye was startled because it sounded… somewhat familiar!

He turned his head to look and immediately saw a round and plump figure with a chubby face, squinty eyes reduced to mere slits, a prominent belly, and a genial smile.

Lu Ye was taken aback, not having expected to encounter this person here! Moreover, when he first entered the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain secret realm, he hadn't noticed this person's presence at all.

Seemingly noticing Lu Ye's gaze, the plump man glanced at Lu Ye, and a glint of sharpness flashed through the narrow slits of his eyes, his smile growing even more hearty.