Sage of Humanity

"Where are those people?" Lu Ye asked.

Lin Yinxiu was responsible for guarding the captives from before. Now that she wasn't doing her job and had run over here, wasn't that place unguarded?

Lin Yinxiu smiled confidently, "Don't worry, Nightingale is watching over there. They won't be able to escape."

The three of them hurried back, and when they arrived, Lu Ye discovered where Lin Yinxiu's confidence came from.

On the spirit ark, those five people were not only bound by her web-like treasure, but there were also Explosive Fire Spirit Stones placed all around them. Nightingale was sweating profusely as he held an explosion talisman, watching them warily.

The atmosphere was such that if anyone dared to move, he would immediately activate the explosion talisman and send them all on their way together.

In such a situation, who would dare run away? They all stayed in place obediently, not moving a muscle.

Although Nightingale had been bribed by the Zhou family and had failed to transmit the information effectively, he was still part of the Justice Department. His actions were exposed by Lu Ye's Insight, and now he was trying to redeem himself. Lin Yinxiu gave him this opportunity, and Nightingale naturally seized it.

Seeing Lu Ye and the others return, Nightingale was visibly relieved.

Lin Yinxiu stepped forward to retrieve the Explosive Fire Spirit Stones she had placed, as well as her net treasure.

Lu Ye threw Zhou Wang onto the spirit ark and waited quietly.

The Zhou family was quite efficient. Not long after they returned, Zhou Ze rushed over with a healing cultivator.

The healing cultivator examined and treated Zhou Wang, while Zhou Ze came over to Lu Ye, cupped his hands and bowed, "Fellow Daoist Niu, today's matter was a mistake on the part of the Zhou family. We apologize. However, please consider the Zhou family's sincere effort to protect our disciples."

"I understand," Lu Ye responded calmly, "But the Zhou family should also understand that our work is not easy."

After all, they had already captured the person. Although the process had been somewhat unpleasant for everyone, the other party had now shown a submissive attitude, so there was no need to press the issue further.

His purpose in coming this time was simply to do his job.

Zhou Ze nodded repeatedly, "I understand, sir!" He looked around and said in a low voice, "But, sir, I have one more request that I hope you will grant."

"Let's hear it."

"Today, the Zhou family gave some items to you two. Please do not report this. If it gets out, it will benefit neither you nor our Zhou family."

"What items?"

Bribing the members of the Law Enforcement Hall in private would indeed be detrimental to the Zhou family if it became known. However, it would also be disadvantageous to the Law Enforcement Hall squads previously tasked with executing missions.

If an investigation were conducted, those Law Enforcement Hall squads that had dealt with the Zhou family before would inevitably be implicated.

Lu Ye was currently serving in the Justice Department, doing work that inherently offended people. Nevertheless, he did not wish to unnecessarily offend his colleagues without reason, so he didn't plan to report this matter anyway.

Besides, did Qian Wudang really not know about this kind of thing? Perhaps he had been aware of it all along but chose to turn a blind eye.

If even the Department Chief Lord acted like that, why should he make a fuss?

Hearing Lu Ye's words, Zhou Ze stroked his beard and smiled slightly, "I must have been mistaken, please don't mind, Fellow Daoist Niu."

Meanwhile, the healing cultivator had already finished treating Zhou Wang's injuries, which, although seemingly severe, were actually not serious, and thus not difficult to treat.

"Fellow Daoist Niu, as you journey to Haotian City, please take care of this inept disciple of the Zhou family. We are grateful to you."

"I am only responsible for taking him back to Haotian City. As long as he doesn't cause any trouble, I won't do anything to him."

"He won't cause any. Rest assured, Fellow Daoist."

Lu Ye nodded and turned to Nightingale, who was waiting for his punishment. His expression turned serious, "Go to Haotian City and receive your punishment."

Nightingale looked as if he had been granted an amnesty, "Yes!"

He summoned his Flying Spirit Artifacts and hurriedly left. Judging by the direction, he was indeed heading towards Haotian City.

"Farewell!" Lu Ye turned around, cupped his hands towards Zhou Ze, stepped onto the spirit ark, and shortly after, the spirit ark soared into the sky, transforming into a streak of light that quickly disappeared into the distance.

Zhou Ze watched him go, then turned and flew towards Dingtian City. It didn't take long for him to return to the Zhou Family Manor and meet with the current head of the Zhou family, Zhou Dingtian, in a forbidden land.

The name of Dingtian City was taken from him.

The forbidden land was the place where Lu Ye had previously sensed the Divine Sea Realm's aura and was also Zhou Dingtian's place for quiet cultivation.

"Family Head, they have left," Zhou Ze reported.

Zhou Dingtian sighed lightly, "I knew this day would come sooner or later."

"If you were reluctant to let them go, why did you allow them to leave the Zhou family earlier?"

"What else could I have done? Forcibly detained them?" Zhou Dingtian slowly shook his head, "If they were just two ordinary True Lake Realm cultivators, this family head naturally wouldn't take them seriously, but standing behind them is the Justice Department. It was wrong of you all to obstruct them in the first place. If I had intervened, the situation would have only escalated, and besides... If I'm not mistaken, that young man, Niu, is that rising star of the Righteous Blood Sect."

"Righteous Blood Sect?" Zhou Ze was slightly taken aback, soon realizing, "You mean Lu Yiye? How can you be so sure?"

Zhou Dingtian said, "The Four Auspicious Sacred Beasts!"

Righteous Blood Sect's Lu Yiye has been making a name for himself over the past few years, causing disturbances in both the Spirit Stream battlefield and the Cloud River battlefield on the side of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, which naturally caught the attention of many.

Zhou Dingtian had taken note of him as well.

As soon as the Four Auspicious Sacred Beasts' Fire Phoenix technique was displayed, Zhou Dingtian was certain of Lu Ye's identity because he had once received intel detailing Lu Ye's various actions in the hunting grounds.

Lu Ye used the Fire Phoenix in the hunting ground.

Under the reflection of the two, if Zhou Dingtian still doesn't know that Niu Meng is Lu Ye, he's wasted all these years of living.

"Thang Yifeng has already risen again, ranked in the Elder Council. You must have heard of who he is. If I make things difficult for Lu Yiye here, Thang Yifeng might come to our Zhou family tomorrow."

Zhou Ze was drenched in cold sweat, with a look of lingering fear, grateful that he ordered the Zhou family's cultivators to surround but not harm Lu Ye due to concerns about his identity with the Justice Department's Law Enforcement Hall. Otherwise, if Lu Yiye had been hurt, bringing Thang Yifeng out... things would be hard to resolve.

"But Young Master Zhou Wang over there..."

Zhou Dingtian sighed slightly: "Send a message to Zhou Kui, tell him to handle things well. Don't seek to avoid punishment, just try to keep him alive."

"Yes!"

...

"Junior brother, is this the direction to Mount Ao?" On the spirit ark, Xiao Xinghe examined the ten-part map and found the spirit ark was flying towards Mount Ao instead of Haotian City.

"It's just on the way, returning to the sect to handle some matters."

"Alright, it's been a while since I've seen Second Senior Sister." Xiao Xinghe nodded, suddenly remembered something, and took out two storage sacks from his chest: "These things..."

These were the two storage sacks previously sent by Zhou Ze, containing quite a lot of good stuff.

"Senior brother, you can keep them for your own cultivation; I don't lack cultivation supplies, nor does Yinxiu."

With Qian Wudang backing her, how could Lin Yinxiu lack cultivation resources?

"Isn't this improper? Weren't you saying before..." Xiao Xinghe hesitated a bit.

"Just talk, who really would turn them in?"

Xiao Xinghe was speechless. Previously, Lu Ye had forcibly stormed the Zhou family, brazenly acted, and caught Zhou Wang right under the noses of a group of Zhou family's cultivators, making him think his junior brother was upright and law-abiding. But now it seemed, the junior brother wasn't entirely inflexible.

He felt relieved all of a sudden.

"Then I won't be polite." Xiao Xinghe laughed heartily and put away the storage sack.

Though they said it was on the way, they did take a bit of a detour. But generally, the direction was correct.

By noon the next day, the spirit ark arrived at Mount Ao's territory, and after flying forward for a long time, it finally reached Righteous Peak.

The huge peak was still empty, without a single person in sight.

Although the Righteous Blood Sect now has quite a few disciples, their cultivation time is still short. Either they are cultivating hard at the Spirit Stream battlefield's residence or have entered the Cloud River battlefield, naturally making the sect headquarters seem quiet.

Unlike other sects, where both the headquarters and the two battlefields have the presence of large numbers of disciples.

But soon, a familiar figure came into view; it was Shui Yuan who noticed the commotion.

Seeing Lu Ye and Xiao Xinghe at the boat's bow, Shui Yuan's face blossomed into a smile.

The spirit ark flew down; Lu Ye leaped off the spirit ark: "Second Senior Sister."

Shui Yuan slightly nodded, her gaze turned to Xiao Xinghe.

Xiao Xinghe took a deep breath, calmed his excitement, grinned at Shui Yuan and said: "Second Senior Sister, I'm back."

There was a slight mist in Shui Yuan's eyes; she raised her hand and lightly patted Xiao Xinghe's shoulder. Because of the height difference, she slightly stood on her tiptoes.

Just as Lu Ye expected to see a warm scene of sisterly love and brotherly respect, Shui Yuan's jade hand moved like lightning, grabbed Xiao Xinghe's ear, harshly twisted it around, gritting her teeth: "You still know to come back, huh? I haven't seen you for years; I thought you died out there!"

Xiao Xinghe tilted his head, hunched over, and pleaded with gritted teeth: "Ouch ouch ouch, little junior brother, save me!"

Lu Ye silently took a few steps back and decisively said: "I'm off to see the master!"

Better to slip away first!

On the unemptied spirit ark, Zhou Wang and five others shivered, sensing Shui Yuan's Divine Sea Realm's powerful aura.

Lin Yinxiu, on the other hand, watched with cheerful curiosity, looking quite intrigued.

At Bright Heart Peak, Lu Ye arrived with ease, but only saw the master's doppelganger, Little Butterfly, not the master himself.

Of course, Little Butterfly is the master's doppelganger, which means she is practically the master.

According to her, during the repairs of the Dragon Throne, the master gained many insights, and after the sect master took the Dragon Throne away, he began to close in seclusion for comprehension.

Since he was in seclusion, Lu Ye naturally wouldn't disturb him too much, and the master using a doppelganger to speak with him also required distraction.

After listening to some instruction for a moment, Lu Ye hurriedly left Bright Heart Peak.

Just as he was about to return to Righteous Peak, a message suddenly came from the battlefield marking, Lu Ye checked it and found that it was sent by Yiyi.

When he came over here earlier, Yiyi and Amber had separated from him and headed to Emerald Bamboo Peak.

Emerald Bamboo Peak is Lu Ye's spirit mountaintop; because he seldom returns, every time he comes back, Yiyi always tidies it up.

"Lu Ye, come quickly, there seems to be someone here."

"Who is it?" Lu Ye was quite surprised. This is the Righteous Blood Sect's headquarters, and Emerald Bamboo Peak is his spirit mountaintop. Shui Yuan also stationed here regularly. Who could have gone over there?