Sage of Humanity

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As if the sun had plummeted from the sky, when the fireball slammed into the protective array, the entire encampment shook violently. Spirit force exploded, and although the protective array blocked the magic and spells' power, the frenzied energy managed to seep through, causing the temperature inside the encampment to rise significantly in an instant.

"Call your people back, or this lady will start a massacre!" Feng Yuechan stood on her flying spirit artifact, shrilly declaring.

The governor stationed there dared not delay and quickly sent messages to his fellow sect brothers and sisters; he could see that Feng Yuechan was not joking.

For a time, in various parts of the inner circle of the battlefield, some Hundred Refinement Valley cultivators who were heading towards the outer circle cursed loudly and withdrew.

In recent days, the Spirit Stream battlefield had been bustling, far more than ever before, especially among the inner circle sects. Several sects of the Haotian Alliance had chosen to declare war on the forces of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

The most outrageous was the Dading Palace of the Haotian Alliance, which crossed over the domains of several other sects to declare war on the Zhaotian Sect, thousands of miles away from them...

When declared upon, the low-level cultivators of the Zhaotian Sect were befuddled; with a thousand miles between them and no adjoining borders, while the factions were different, there was no enmity deep enough to justify the declaration, leaving them clueless as to why they had provoked Dading Palace.

Only a few higher-cultivation cultivators understood what was going on since they had received orders from the Nine Provinces sect headquarters. Those orders instructed them to immediately head to the outer circle of the battlefield to search for the trace of one individual.

They naturally did not want to concern themselves with such a declaration of war, but they could not ignore it, as Dading Palace's cultivators had actually traveled thousands of miles to their doorstep, barring the lower-level cultivators from leaving their homes. With no other choice, Zhaotian Sect's Spirit Stream Level 8-9 cultivators had to return to the encampment to stabilize the morale.

This kind of war declaration was initially rare, but with time, more and more emerged. According to Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union's statistics, in just five short days, conflicts involving declarations of war had swept through over a hundred big and small sects, which was unprecedented.

This was a massive outright confrontation between the Haotian Alliance and Ten Thousand Demons Ridge camps in the Spirit Stream battlefield, the first in decades. This involved too many sects, even those of the Core Circle paid close attention, as the outcome would determine whether the banner that once commanded the Nine Provinces under the Haotian Alliance could be retained!

Originally, this banner was set to fall in two months, but at this sensitive time, a minor figure emerged who could potentially sustain the banner's existence, and how could Ten Thousand Demons Ridge endure this?

After waiting for more than thirty years and seeing the fruit ripen, no one wanted any complications, so no matter what, the Level 5 junior cultivator had to die, and that banner must fall!

This concerned the face of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge's camp.

In a desolate wilderness at this time, Lu Ye shook the blood off his long saber and frowned, surrounded by several fallen Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators.

He had a nagging feeling that something was not quite right!

A few days ago, after killing Dong Shuye, he had resumed his journey toward Righteous Blood Sect's encampment, feeling light-hearted again.

However, since a skirmish three days ago, it seemed as if something strange had happened.

Three days prior, he was leisurely on his way when suddenly a squad of cultivators approached. Meeting cultivators in the wilderness was normal, and Lu Ye had encountered many on his journey.

Normally, both parties would make way for each other to avoid any misunderstandings.

When he encountered this squad, Lu Ye intended to avoid them, but they directly charged at him, looking surprisingly excited as if they had found money.

With the other party being so rude, Lu Ye had no choice but to charge on Amber, causing a massacre.

Although the squad had a Level 5 governor, how could they withstand Lu Ye? In no time, they were wiped out to the last man.

After collecting the spoils of war, he was back on the road.

But, to Lu Ye's surprise, soon after, he encountered another squad of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators...

In just these three short days, he had already killed six groups of people, collected over twenty storage sacks, and accumulated more than a hundred merits.

Lu Ye was a bit unhappy because this was delaying his journey.

What made him even more uncomfortable was that there seemed to be some problems arising with his spirit force.

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His spirit force seemed to have some impurities...

The reason he could cultivate with elixirs without any hidden dangers was all thanks to the Talent Tree. He had observed it carefully before, and every time he consumed an elixir pill for cultivation, the pill poison would be burnt away by the Talent Tree and expelled from his body.

As a result, his spirit force had always been extremely pure, and he never experienced the accumulation of pill poison that the sect master had mentioned before.

Even without Sharpness and Defense Spirit Runes, with the purity of his spirit force alone, he could outmatch any other cultivator at the same level because the purer the spirit force, the greater the destructive power the cultivator could unleash.

The same strike delivered with different levels of purity in the spirit force would result in varying degrees of power being unleashed by the cultivators.

But now, his spirit force actually had some impurities!

Last night while resting, he had thoroughly examined the Talent Tree and was shocked to find that it seemed to have lost the ability to burn away the pill poison, which was the root cause of the impurities in his spirit force.

His ability to grow from a cultivator who had just opened his orifices not long ago to the Level 5 realm in less than half a year could largely be attributed to the Talent Tree. If the Talent Tree lost the ability to burn pill poison, then his cultivation speed would inevitably be significantly reduced.

This discovery weighed heavily on Lu Ye's mind, and today, when he encountered cultivators from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge blocking his way, he showed no mercy, swiftly killing them off.

However, he had considered many possibilities. Perhaps this situation was not unchangeable; the Talent Tree needed to absorb some fire attribute or scorching power, which not only could ignite the leaves of the Talent Tree but also serve as fuel for it to burn away the pill poison.

If the fuel absorbed before had been used up, then naturally it could not continue to perform the function of burning the pill poison.

Lu Ye didn't know if his speculation was correct. To verify it, he needed to find more energy for the Talent Tree to absorb.

The first time the Talent Tree had absorbed energy, it was from an orange flame sealed within a piece of ore; the second time, it was the scorching heat beneath the Barrier-Breaking Fruit Tree. The type of energy it absorbed was roughly around these standards, but Lu Ye had no idea where to find such energy again, as the previous two times had been coincidental.

Fortunately, his spirit force had been pure before, so a little bit of impurity would not affect him much. Now, he just couldn't consume elixir pills recklessly like before. At most, he could take one pill a day and then use the Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes to enhance his strength.

He still had quite a few Spirit Stones in hand. He had originally planned to go to the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union to inquire if he could buy something to use as fuel for the Talent Tree.

But now that was not possible; in the past few days, he had encountered several squads of cultivators from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge camp, and each squad had a Level 5 governor. He felt as if he were being targeted.

Yiyi was cleaning the battlefield, and Lu Ye looked up to see an eagle circling in the sky, seemingly in search of prey.

At the same time, three miles away from Lu Ye, under a large tree, a group of cultivators gathered. Next to them lay several corpses, and in front of them was a Spiritual Artifact that resembled a scaled-down Shadow Moon Disc, reflecting the image of Lu Ye.

It was clearly a view from a high altitude.

The group was quietly observing the scene in the small Shadow Moon Disc.
Your journey continues with empire

A man swallowed, "Is this a Level 5 realm?"

They had witnessed how Lu Ye had slaughtered the squad of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators like chopping vegetables; his methods were swift and decisive, clearly not his first time killing, and the speed of killing foes was even greater than that of an average Level 6 cultivator.

"Are you sure that's him?" Another person spoke, "Let's not make a mistake."

"Level 5 cultivation, riding a snow-white big tiger, departing from Fengyun Mountain and heading towards the Righteous Blood Sect, about sixteen or seventeen years old. Who else could it be if not him?" spoke a curvaceous female cultivator leading them.

She was the one maintaining the Spirit Force on the small Shadow Moon Disc, and judging by her cultivation, she was a Level 7 cultivator, accompanied by three Level 6 and several Level 5s.

Such a squad would typically not be seen outside the battlefield's outer circle under normal circumstances.

They were originally departing from their station to the border between the outer circle and inner circle of the battlefield, as their strength was just right for tempering in such a place. But they had received an order from their sect halfway through and hurriedly came here.

They were not very clear about the grudge from the previous generation but knew that the Righteous Blood Sect was indebted to their own sect. When that message began to spread uncontrollably, the senior members of their sect had ordered them to meet and protect this youth riding the White Tiger, to ensure his safety.

It was not just their sect undertaking this action, the entire battlefield of the Spirit Stream was undergoing surges beneath the surface and billows above. Many sects wanted to protect the youth, while even more wanted to kill him. This was a contest between two major camps, and the survival of that youth would ultimately determine the victor.

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