Sage of Humanity

The scale of Dark Moon Forest Pass isn't too big, but not too small either, somewhat similar to the situation at Cangyan Mountain Pass.

Lu Ye followed behind Tong Shuyao, flying in one direction, listening to her chatter while silently observing.

Last time, although he had visited Gushan City Pass, he went there in a rush and didn't see much.

This time, even though he came to another pass, he could still deduce some insights about the situation of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators through certain clues.

It must be said, passes with people are lively, unlike the Cangyan Mountain side, where Lu Ye only ever saw Nian Yuexian and no one else.

Tong Shuyao undoubtedly had some popularity here, with many cultivators greeting her along the way, and she responded enthusiastically.

Some people were also interested in Lu Ye. After all, with his current decent appearance, suspected to be a sword cultivator, and accompanied by Tong Shuyao, he naturally attracted attention.

After dismissing several waves of people trying to strike up a conversation, Tong Shuyao glanced at Lu Ye with secret glee, only to find him expressionless and looking around, with no interest in her whatsoever, which annoyed her, leaving her uninterested in talking further.

Soon she led Lu Ye to a house: "This will be your residence from now on. In peacetime, you're free to move around as long as you don't step outside the pass's defensive perimeter. If there's a battle, orders will be issued from above, just follow them."

After saying this quickly, she glared at Lu Ye again: "After traveling all the way, take a rest, humph!"

The young girl walked off in a huff, and Lu Ye immediately felt relaxed.

He pushed the door open and walked inside. The room was not very large and the conditions were not great either, but it was undoubtedly much better than those foot soldiers who shared a room with several others.

Lu Ye entered the room, carefully checked it, and set up several formations for protection and isolation.

He took Amber out from the spirit beast sack, gently tapped Amber's little head, and Yiyi immediately flashed out, took a deep breath, and stuck her tongue out at Lu Ye: "I was nearly suffocated!"

In the sword sect's secret realm, Amber couldn't run around freely, but at least wasn't put inside the spirit beast sack. However, Yiyi had been hiding inside Amber since over two months ago and hadn't appeared since.

After such a long time, she was indeed quite suffocated.

Very soon, she noticed something amiss: "Lu Ye, how did you become so handsome?"

Although the appearance was different, having been with Lu Ye day and night all these years, she naturally recognized Lu Ye's identity at a glance. Moreover, if it weren't Lu Ye himself, Amber would have noticed instantly, for after all, there was a pet contract between them.

"It's a long story." Lu Ye sighed; the current situation had become somewhat complicated, and he didn't know where to start.

"Where is this?" Yiyi asked while probing her battlefield mark, quickly identified the location, and was quite surprised: "Dark Moon Forest Pass? Lu Ye, how did you get here? Were you captured?"

But judging by Lu Ye's appearance, there were no signs of being captured, rather he looked like a guest.

Having no other choice, Lu Ye had to recount the events since he left the sword sect's secret realm, listening to which made Yiyi and Amber widen their eyes.

Who would have thought that Lu Ye would unwittingly infiltrate the enemy's camp, now even becoming a member of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge provincial guard!

"Then... what will you do in the future? You can't stay here forever, can you?" Yiyi asked.

Though Lu Ye's identity as a Ten Thousand Demons Ridge provincial guard was acknowledged by Heaven's Augury, his roots were in the Righteous Blood Sect, and he was a Haotian Alliance cultivator, so naturally, he couldn't stay here permanently.

"Don't worry, getting out isn't that hard. But now that I have this extra identity, there's no rush to leave. When it's time to go, I'll leave naturally."

"Mm." Yiyi nodded.

"Let's cultivate for now." Lu Ye said, and began his unique way of cultivating by Theft of Heaven's Augury.

Over two months ago, he had advanced to True Lake Level 3, at that time feeling that his cultivation had progressed too quickly and needed to slow down a bit.

Now, more than two months had passed, and it was time to resume cultivation.

He didn't exchange for a gold-hued spirit fortune stick. Although he had a lot of battle merits, using the fortune stick for cultivation would not allow him to stop casually without causing unnecessary waste.

Being in the enemy's camp and newly arrived, it's better to be cautious.

The Talent Tree's power was activated, its roots spread, probing into the vortex of spirit force.

With Lu Ye's current foundation, he didn't need to put his entire mind into activating the Talent Tree's power. He had already developed Mental Consciousness, his psyche was strong, and he could multitask with ease.

Letting the Talent Tree's roots absorb the rich nature's spiritual energy, Lu Ye first took off the longsword from his waist.

This longsword wasn't of high quality, only top-grade spirit artifact level, which he had randomly found in his storage space and wasn't even sure when he had obtained it as a battle trophy.

His current identity was a sword cultivator, with True Lake Level 3 cultivation, and a top-grade spirit artifact longsword was no longer satisfying his needs.

At the very least, he needed a handy longsword.

Preferably magic-artifact class.

His battle trophies didn't include magic-artifact class items, as these mostly came from the Cloud River battlefield, at best supreme grade spirit artifacts.

So he needed to visit either the Heaven's Augury Hall or the Hall of Battle Merits to exchange for a magic-artifact class longsword.

But there's no rush.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Ye took down the sword gourd from his waist.

This item was given to him by Khong Khong as the sword sect's secret realm collapsed, a keepsake of the Sword Weapon Sect's Sect Master and a remarkably exquisite treasure itself, with Khong Khong only saying it was infinitely mysterious.

However, due to his busyness in the past few days, Lu Ye hadn't had time to study it.

Now he had the opportunity.

Grasping the sword gourd, Lu Ye activated the spirit force and infused it within, slowly refining it.

Time passed.

At a certain moment, Lu Ye suddenly opened his eyes, looking down at the sword gourd in his hand.

He knew the quality of this treasure must be extraordinary, but before refining it, he wasn't sure exactly what grade it was. Now he could see that its quality was far beyond his expectations.

Because within the sword gourd, he sensed a dense and countless number of restrictions...

In the Nine Provinces, all sorts of treasures are graded by the number of restrictions they contain.

Under 36 restrictions, it's a Spiritual Artifact.

Above, it's a Magic Artifact, maxing out at 180 restrictions.

Beyond that, it's the spirit treasure level, with 360 restrictions as the pinnacle!

Lu Ye didn't know how many spirit treasures there were in the Nine Provinces since these items are generally the exclusive possessions of strong Divine Sea cultivators. He had one spirit treasure given by his master, the Nine Arrays Diagram.

As Lu Ye's cultivation and perspective grew, he gradually realized something: the Nine Arrays Diagram might not be of high quality among spirit treasures. It's not that his master was reluctant to part with something better, but rather this item had long surpassed what Lu Ye could activate. Even if he was given something better, he wouldn't be able to wield it.

In the Nine Provinces, there was another spirit treasure similar to the Nine Arrays Diagram called the mountain and river map, which was the highest grade spirit treasure with infinite power.

The Nine Arrays Diagram was crafted to imitate the mountain and river map.

The mountain and river map contains 360 restrictions and is the most prestigious spirit treasure in the Nine Provinces, also serving as the town-guarding treasure of a certain top big sect.

There are few treasures in the world more powerful than the mountain and river map.

Yet Lu Ye sensed not just 360 restrictions within the sword gourd...

This means this seemingly ordinary sword gourd is a treasure beyond the spirit treasure level!

What grade are treasures above the spirit treasure level?

Suddenly, he remembered Khong Khong's words—how the sword gourd is naturally formed and was gathered by the 9th generation ancestor of the Sword Weapon Sect in a perilous realm, later slightly refined by the 13th generation ancestor...

At that time, when the Sword Weapon Sect's secret realm was collapsing, Lu Ye didn't think too much about it.

But now, in retrospect, he quickly detected some unusual information.

Khong Khong was undoubtedly a strong cultivator beyond the Divine Sea Realm, and the Sword Weapon Sect back then was surely packed with strong cultivators!

The cultivation of the 9th and 13th generation ancestors, even if not stronger than Khong Khong, wouldn't be weaker—they were both Sect Masters of the Sword Weapon Sect, none inferior to the other.

Such strong cultivators gathered this treasure in some perilous realm.

Even such strong cultivators could only slightly refine this treasure...

This reveals the extraordinariness of the sword gourd; it is naturally formed, not crafted by human hands, making its origins even more mystical.

Lu Ye's heart was continuously shaken. He didn't expect the item Khong Khong passed onto him at the end to be so precious.

Luckily, the sword gourd didn't look like much, or Lin Yue might have noticed something amiss.

Such a valuable treasure would entice even strong Divine Sea cultivators.

But… could such a treasure be activated by a True Lake Realm cultivator like himself?

Even activating a spirit treasure like the Nine Arrays Diagram was quite taxing for Lu Ye now, let alone the sword gourd, which had a quality surpassing the Nine Arrays Diagram and had an unknown grade.

However, there wasn't much difficulty in refining it; nothing too obscure arose. As Lu Ye infused spirit force continuously, he began to faintly perceive the manifold mysteries within the sword gourd.

Better not to overthink it; refine it first and see later.

However, the number of restrictions in the sword gourd was too copious—it was impossible to completely refine it in a short time; this could only be tackled gradually.

With resolve, Lu Ye continued to refine the sword gourd.

Two days later, Lu Ye opened his eyes thoughtfully, picked up the sword gourd, pointed the gourd's mouth at the nearby top-grade spirit artifact class longsword, activated spirit force, and infused it into the sword gourd.

The gourd mouth then emitted an immense pulling force, and the longsword on the ground promptly flew in, vanishing into the sword gourd.

In just a moment, Lu Ye sensed something new.

There were now additional things within the sword gourd.

These things were indescribable, but when Lu Ye activated his Mental Consciousness to perceive inside, he detected an extremely sharp aura.

Oddly, the longsword that had been devoured was nowhere to be seen.

Lu Ye explored further and finally confirmed what the new things inside the sword gourd were.

Sword Qi!

He suddenly realized, understanding the extraordinary nature of the sword gourd.

It could devour a longsword and, in a very short time, transform the longsword into numerous Sword Qi, storing them within!