Sage of Humanity-Chapter 600 - 598: Significant Increase in Strength

His cultivation had advanced another level, aided by the blessings of Heaven's Augury Baptism, greatly increasing his efficiency in producing array markers. In just two days, Lu Ye's hand held nearly three hundred array banners.

Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan had also found several suitable locations for setting up teleportation arrays.

As a large number of array banners were used up, Formation after Formation took shape. Soon, all three hundred array markers were gone.

On the fourth day after returning from Fox Fairy Valley, as Lu Ye was crafting more array banners, he suddenly looked up toward a direction outside the spirit ground.

The next moment, he rose to his full height and darted toward the outside of the spirit ground. The instant his body dashed out of the protective array, the Concealment and Breath-concealing Spirit Runes enveloped him, and his figure swiftly vanished.

Less than a li away from the spirit ground, Yean Gui concealed his presence and quietly hid behind a large tree.

After receiving orders from Tu Guanxiong, he had hurried to this place. With his Cloud River Level 7 cultivation, it shouldn't have taken him four days to arrive here.

But this place was deep within the Great Wilderness Mountain, and the journey was fraught with dangers. Fortunately, as a spirit cultivator, he could avoid many unnecessary battles, though this did delay his time.

He had barely arrived at Great Reversal Valley today when he accidentally triggered an alarm array.

He immediately moved away from the location of the alarm array and hid in the shadows, silently observing.

Tu Guanxiong had only asked him to scout out the situation in Great Reversal Valley and hadn't specified what exactly was here, but something that Tu Guanxiong and Huo Liaoyuan highly valued was undoubtedly hidden here.

If there was an alarm array, there must surely be someone who set it up.

Who was hiding here?

Now that he had triggered the alarm array, the person who set it up would definitely come to investigate. He would learn their identity then. What was strange to him was that he waited for a long time and saw no one.

A few hundred zhang away, Lu Ye had concealed himself and was secretly observing the surroundings; there were no traces of wild beasts or demon beasts, and the view presented nothing out of the ordinary...

Someone had been here!

And from the current situation, it was likely a spirit cultivator!

He had rushed out the moment the Formation was triggered, but had still not seen any sign of the person; the other party was obviously hiding. This spirit cultivator was indeed a cautious person.

Could it be someone Tan Sheng and Xia Liang sent?

It didn't seem likely. Both of them knew the situation of the spirit ground very well; why would they send a spirit cultivator here?

Was it just someone passing by?

Maybe ... or maybe not...

Lu Ye quietly moved, not revealing the slightest hint of his aura as he silently surveyed the surroundings. Now his mental power had significantly strengthened; within a thirty-zhang range, even without using the Insight Spirit Runes, he could detect any anomalies instantly.

One tea stick of time, one incense stick's time...

The covert game of cat and mouse silently unfolded.

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It was nearly one hour later when Lu Ye suddenly turned his head and looked behind a large tree; there... something seemed to be subtly off.

Enhancing his eyes with the Insight Spirit Runes, his vision altered, multicolored lights began to flow, and sure enough, among the mix of colors moving back and forth, the outline of a slightly short figure was drawn out.

He immediately sneaked up quietly.

Yean Gui suddenly felt a sense of unease, faint though it was. But, as a spirit cultivator who often ventured into dangerous places, he was always careful and cautious; if not, Tu Guanxiong wouldn't have been reassured to have him come here alone to scout the area.

Immediately, he held his breath and concentrated, silently sensing his surroundings, trying to find the source of his uneasy feeling.

At that moment, suddenly, there was a surge of spirit force from behind. Without thinking, he hastily turned around, and his hand flashed with a glowing curved saber, swiping it backward.

Not far behind him, a figure had appeared out of nowhere. When the red saber light slashed down, Yean Gui felt a massive force accompanied by the burst of spirit force attacking from the front, sending his body flying backward; his chest churned with blood Qi.

His concealment was broken, revealing his figure.

While mid-air, he got a clear look at the face of the person who had ambushed him, and his eyes flashed with recognition, exclaiming, "Lu Yiye!"

So that's how it is! It makes all sense!

No wonder Senior Brother Tu and Senior Brother Huo had him come to scout out this place; it turned out this was where Lu Yiye was hiding.

He had seen Lu Ye's image before. Sacred Universe Spirit Ground was led by the Sacred Fire Order, and the Sacred Fire Order had a deep-seated grudge with the Righteous Blood Sect. Huo Liaoyuan had somehow acquired an image message stone that had an imprint of Lu Ye's image.

With this action, Huo Liaoyuan evidently wanted all disciples of the Sacred Fire Order to remember Lu Ye's appearance.

So even though he had never met Lu Ye before, Yean Gui immediately recognized him.

His heart surged with excitement... But what followed was boundless horror.

A storm-like barrage of saber strikes enveloped him, each strike carrying the breath of death. Yean Gui kept retreating, and in a short amount of time, the base of his palm cracked, his arms went numb, and the spirit force within his body surged wildly!

How is this guy so strong?

Although he was a ghost cultivator and not adept at direct combat, he was at least at Level 7. The spirit force fluctuations exhibited by Lu Yiye seemed to be only at Level 5, yet he was completely unable to withstand it. Facing that ferocious, continuous saber onslaught, he couldn't help feeling utterly crushed.

I'm going to die! This terrifying thought uncontrollably sprang up in his mind. The excitement on Yean Gui's face had long since faded, replaced by nothing but fear and panic.

When Lu Ye struck the first blow, he hadn't used his full strength because he couldn't be certain which faction the newcomer was from.

However, once Yean Gui blurted out his name, the other's stance became clear.

If he recognized him, then he certainly knew of his background. If the other party were from the Haotian Alliance, they would have voluntarily shown the glow of the battlefield marking. Since that didn't happen… they must be from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

Thus, from the second blow onward, Lu Ye held nothing back.

A ripping sound was heard, accompanied by Yean Gui's agonizing scream. His chest clothing tore apart, revealing a bloody wound.

Under the agony, Yean Gui's defense became even more chaotic. Taking advantage of this, Lu Ye delivered another saber cut which nearly decapitated Yean Gui. Fortunately, he managed to block it with his Spiritual Artifact at the last moment, but even so, his body was sent tumbling through the air, blood spraying amidst the chaos.

As he landed awkwardly, Yean Gui didn't attempt to flee right away but instead pressed his hand on his battlefield marking...

He didn't understand why Lu Yiye was so powerful; he only knew he had been exposed and that his chances were slim. Given that, he had to pass the message back no matter what, refusing to die in vain.

He didn't even entertain the idea of begging for mercy, as he knew it would only bring greater humiliation and torment.

However, the next moment, his heart contracted violently, and his vitality and vigor rapidly dissipated. Looking down, he saw a fiery long saber had somehow pierced his chest. The violent spirit force exploded within him, causing him to spit blood and stagger.

As the light in his eyes quickly dimmed, Lu Ye withdrew his saber, and his body toppled forward.

Lu Ye shook the blood from the Boulder Mountain Saber and sheathed it.

A speck of red light floated from the corpse of the ghost cultivator in front of him, like a firefly, and landed on the back of Lu Ye's hand.

Frowning at the corpse in front of him, Lu Ye suddenly realized… he might have underestimated his own strength.

Even though the opponent was a ghost cultivator not skilled in direct confrontations and was at Level 7, he stood no chance against the current him.

Recollecting his previous experience in the hunting grounds with that Level 7 combat cultivator, he and Li Baxian Feng Yuechan had fought fiercely, and if he hadn't successfully activated the Beast Transformation Secret Technique, it was uncertain whose game it would have been.

In just two months, those Level 7 figures who had once forced him and his brothers to exhaust all their methods, now couldn't last even thirty seconds against him – his growth in strength could almost be described as earth-shattering.

Of course, back in the hunting grounds, he was only at Cloud River Level 3. Although it's only been a little over two months, his cultivation had jumped two minor levels to Cloud River Level 5.

Undoubtedly, the Heaven's Augury Baptism he received at the altar in Fox Fairy Valley had considerably fortified his foundation.

Especially, the increased flow speed of the spirit force river inside his body contributed to this, as the quicker the spirit force circulates within a cultivator, the stronger the burst of power they can unleash instantaneously.

Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan approached and upon seeing the body, Li Baxian asked, "What happened?"

Lu Ye replied, "Someone came to probe the situation."

Li Baxian frowned. "Xia Liang? Tan Sheng?" He then denied his own guess, "No, that's not right. They are very familiar with the conditions of the spirit ground, there's no need for them to send someone to investigate. Was this just a passerby?"

"Doesn't seem like it." Lu Ye shook his head. If it was merely passing by, it made no sense to precisely target Great Reversal Valley. Recalling the ghost cultivator's immediate reaction upon seeing him, Lu Ye felt that, as if oblivious to the actual situation, the ghost cultivator had been sent here specifically to gather intelligence.

Raising his hand, spirit force surged, and he grabbed two storage sacks from the corpse.

In just a moment, the restriction locks on the storage sacks were opened, and Lu Ye rummaged through them quickly, soon pulling out a jade tablet similar to an identity tag, with an image of a palace engraved on the front, and a large character in the center.

Universe!

Looking at the back, it likely bore the name of the deceased ghost cultivator, Yean Gui.

Lu Ye tossed the jade tablet to Li Baxian, who examined it and pondered, "It might be someone from Universe Sect."

Universe Sect...

Lu Ye carefully recalled, barely remembering that it was a 5th grade sect. He had seen the sect's location marked on a ten-part map during his time in the inner circle of the battlefield.

"Sacred Universe Spirit Ground!" Li Baxian murmured again.

"What?"

Li Baxian took out the ten-part map, examined it, and frowned, "If it's someone from Universe Sect, then he might be from Sacred Universe Spirit Ground! Sacred Universe Spirit Ground is a large spirit ground shared between Universe Sect and another Ten Thousand Demons Ridge power, and it's marked on the ten-part map. It's only about two or three thousand miles away from us."

Two or three thousand miles, undoubtedly a vast distance for a Spirit Stream Realm cultivator.

But for those at Cloud River Realm, it wasn't much at all. With Lu Ye's current speed, even only relying on weapon control-flying, he could reach there in about a day if he traveled at full speed.