Translator: TheBrokenPen
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
In the vast and boundless darkness, an eddy swirled. It grew wider and larger, spreading further and faster, and something stirred.
Time passed unnoticed until the darkness was ripped and torn like a fabric. Next came the waves of indescribable pain and soreness—a pair of inseparable Siamese twins that existed in tandem—before Lu Ye finally blinked his eyes open abruptly.
He could see two figures standing beside his bed. One of them sat down and took his head. Warmth seeped into his hands. The warmth of a hand that cared funneling Spiritual Powers into him to examine his condition.
He could not see who it was. His vision was still blurry. But he sensed that it was a woman.
The other person remained standing. Lu Ye struggled to get a proper look and he seemed to be his mentor…
His mouth opened to speak, but the warm and soothing energy coursing through him was only making him more lethargic and drowsier. Then he heard his mentor asking, “How is he now?”
A lilting voice rang, “He’s dying!”
“Stop it, girl,” Tang Yifeng berated, “Stop scaring me after I’ve gone to such lengths to—”
Lu Ye missed the rest. He felt as if he had fallen further and further away from the world as sleep took him.
He woke up once again later.
Someone was sitting beside him again and whoever it was, was injecting more Spiritual Power into him to heal him. Lu Ye felt better this time. At the very least, he did not feel so blurry and drowsy anymore.
As his vision gradually gained clarity, he could see that the person sitting next to him was a girl not much older than he was. The pretty young woman had eyes as pellucid as the waters of the clearest lake but what was more intriguing was how uncanny her resemblance to Sister Wei Yang was.
On a more serious note, she looked like a younger version of Wei Yang, and the airs that she exuded made her look like a younger and more blithely lass than the latter.
“You’re up!”
“You’re…” Lu Ye croaked, his throat so parched that he could breathe steam.
She smiled at him. “I’m your Sister Shui Yuan. I’m more junior compared to Wei Yang.”
[That would make her something of a second big sister?] Lu Ye thought.
“Where are we?” Lu Ye wanted to look around, but then he found that he could not move his neck.
“This is the Crimson Blood Sect stronghold, Brother Lu Ye,” said Shui Yuan. “You’ve come home.”
[Home? Have I finally achieved what I’ve always wanted since the day I was sent to the Battlefield?] Lu Ye could feel as if something that had been tense and taut for so long slackened at last. Then he remembered Yi Yi and Amber. “What about my mount? Where is he?!”
If Yi Yi and Amber were here, they would surely be by his bedside all the time.
“Still at the Turbulent Watch outpost. Without a Pact between you and the tiger, there was no way we could bring him out here. But I’ve arranged for him to be taken to our outpost. So, when you get better, you can go see him.”
Lu Ye knew nothing about making Pacts, but he had spent enough time in the Battlefield to know that some sort of prerequisite condition needed to be met for a form of transmission to occur between the real world and the Battlefield. Nevertheless, with Yi Yi accompanying Amber, there was nothing much to be worried about. Being at the Crimson Blood Sect outpost should be safe enough.
Lu Ye examined himself. His Spiritual Power had been fully depleted. But having endured this before, he wasn’t too worried. While his body recovered, so would his Spiritual Power.
And that looked like it was going to take some time, for Lu Ye then discovered that he was now wrapped up like a spring roll. Aside from his eyes, nose, and mouth, every other part of him was pretty much bandaged with not even a square inch of his skin exposed.
At Sister Shui Yuan’s doing, that was not the only thing he was wrapped in. A soft and tender layer of energy enveloped him firmly, eliciting an endless wave of soreness, pain, and even itchiness.
The methodology was a match of how Hua Ci used to heal him, although she used Wood Elemental powers, while Sister Shui Yuan’s powers were of the Water Element.
The Spiritual Powers of these two elements held great healing properties since both Wood and Water are vital to the nurturing of natural life.
That would mean that Sister Shui Yuan must be a Medical Cultivator too.
But Sister Wei Yang and Brother Li Baxian were nowhere in sight. The same could be said for their mentor Tang Yifeng and one more brother- or sister-in-arms which he had not yet met. Sister Wei Yang had mentioned to him before that she was the first student, and if Sister Shui Yuan and Brother Baxian were the second and fourth students respectively, that would mean that Lu Ye still had one more senior.
Two hours later, Sister Shui Yuan stopped channeling her powers. “Stay put,” she instructed. “Just give me a call if you need anything. I’ll be just outside.”
“Yes,” Lu Ye replied softly.
Shui Yuan rose from her chair and strode out of the chamber. She shut the door behind her back, then she paused to think. She tapped on the Battlefield Imprint on her arm and delivered a message that said: “He’s safe now!”
At the same time, somewhere where the provinces of Bing Zhou and Yun Zhou intersected. This was within the circle of Thousand Demon Ridge influence, but that did not stop Tang Yifeng from coming all the way here. The Grand Master of the Crimson Blood Sect was hovering in the air, radiating torrents of Spiritual Power that gradually calmed like a storm reaching its end. Below his feet was a swath of rubble and debris that formerly formed parts of the stronghold of a Thousand Demon Ridge sect known as Weiberwolvenstein. Close to being single handedly slaughtered by Tang Yifeng alone, most of the sect’s membership now lay bloodied and lifeless under the heaps of fallen walls and collapsed ceilings.
As a mere Tier-Six sect, Weiberwolvenstein’s best comprised only a handful of Real Lake Realm Cultivators whose puny might could barely hope to match Tang Yifeng’s. That they managed to prevent the full decimation of the whole sect was only because of the quick thinking of some of the members who managed to slip into the Spirit Creek Battlefield to escape imminent doom. But there was little doubt that Weiberwolvenstein’s tier would be taking a deep dive come the next assessment. 𝙫．
A flash of light approached from afar at great speeds. Before it ever got close, a voice thundered, “Are you seeking death, Tang Yifeng?!”
The Grand Master of the Crimson Blood Sect said nothing. As a response, he morphed into a flash of light himself, piercing through the skies in pursuit. The two figures fought in a blurry whirl of fists and kicks. Whoever it was, he was not feeling pleased at all; Tang Yifeng was displaying strength that Thousand Demon Ridge had never seen before. In just a matter of seconds, the newcomer knew that he would never win, hence he fled.
Tang Yifeng watched the newcomer leave. There was no need to give chase. As much as he could defeat and kill his enemy, doing so would only consume more time. Yun Zhou was after all within the circle of influence of the Thousand Demon Ridge faction and more Divine Ocean Realm champions must be on their way here.
He immediately flew away.
Weiberwolvenstein was hardly the only one that came under attack. In just one day, three Thousand Demon Ridge sects in Yun Zhou sustained heavy losses on Tang Yifeng’s account and Weiberwolvenstein was the one that got the brunt of the Grand Master of the Crimson Blood Sect’s full wrath with almost every Real Lake Realm Cultivator slain and more than half of its crop of Cloud River Realm Cultivators put to the sword.
Such was the terror that a Spell Cultivator in full rage could wreak, more so, a Spell Cultivator who was a Divine Ocean Realm champion with powers and deadliness few in the world could match.
The Thousand Demon Ridge had to marshal a force of more than a dozen Divine Ocean Realm champions and even with such odds, Tang Yifeng managed to defend himself before he escaped with serious injuries himself.
But before he escaped, he left a message.
One that was loud and clear enough: anyone who dared to lay a hand on another one of his students ever again, he would come, and more death and destruction would ensue, the dignity of being an elder or not.
The Thousand Demon Ridge faction was still reeling over their defeat at the Battle of Goldentip and now this? It was manifestly clear enough that Tang Yifeng was exacting this reprisal for the slight they had caused his student.
The three sects and orders that he laid waste to each had played a part in the Battle of Goldentip.
They had awakened the sleeping giant who had been slumbering for years and his emergence once more sent jolts of fear and panic down the spines of many Thousand Demon Ridge sects and orders.
In the meantime, Lu Ye was sitting on his bed inside his room.
He was amazed by Sister Shui Yuan’s prowess in healing. In just two days, the pain and soreness from the heavy injuries he received were nearly gone. He might still be all wrapped up like a spring roll, but he really was feeling better now.
She had been feeding him some sort of strange potion, which tasted considerably better, compared to the concoctions of that sadistic Hua Ci’s, the terrible odor of which never stopped making him vomit.
To help regain his Spiritual Power, he was fed a Spiritual Pill. As he digested it, he channeled his cultivation discipline with Glyph: Gathering Spirits activated. That was when he discovered something troubling: his Spiritual Power had become impure. Even as he now gathered fresh Spiritual Power, the contamination still existed, if not worse than before.
He could barely help it. He had consumed too many Spirit Pills during the Battle of Goldentip. While most of them were high-quality pills, there really wasn’t any way for him to prevent being affected by the accumulated toxins.
To solve this quandary, Lu Ye would need to restore the Tree of Glyphs’ ability to consume away the toxic in his body, although the “how” of it was what befuddled him at the moment. But that would be a question for a later time; what mattered most right now was getting back to good health first.
He needed to get back into the Battlefield and get Amber. Yi Yi must be worried sick about him right now.
[Bang!]
The door swung open, nearly ripping off its hinges and taking Lu Ye by surprise. He looked and saw a large bed coming in upright through the threshold. It was Sister Shui Yuan trying to lift the bed in despite her petite frame.
Being taken care of by her for the past few days was enough for Lu Ye to understand that Sister Shui Yuan was a gentle and kind woman, unlike Hua Ci who might wear her damsel-in-distress fa?ade like a mask to disguise how cunning and devious she could be. In fact, she had been so attentive in her care of him that Lu Ye was wondering if he was her long-lost son long separated since birth.
That said, nothing explained the reason behind how angry she looked as she carried the bed into the chamber.
“Um, Sister Shui Yuan? What is this…” [Surely she’s not thinking of wanting to take care of him day and night?!]
She flashed him a sweet smile and said to him softly, “Don’t you worry about it. Just rest.”
“Oh, okay.”
She tossed the bed aside and magically produced a set of sheets and blankets from somewhere that left Lu Ye gawking in stunned silence. She made the bed before she swiveled around and scowled coldly at the open door. “Come on, get in here! Are you feeling embarrassed?”
Only then did Lu Ye realize that there was someone else outside. He tried looking but he found no one, hence he could only throw furtive and quizzical glances at Shui Yuan.
“You either come in or I’m gonna be making you come in!” she snorted crossly.
“Ahem!” a gruff cough came from outside the door. “Is this how you speak to me in front of your junior fellow student?”
An elderly man stepped into the chamber, looking stern as he stroked his beard.
Enter Tang Yifeng, the Grand Master of the Sect and their mentor.
The whites of Lu Ye’s eyes trembled. He got up at once. But before he could stand up, he nearly lost his balance and fell. Tang Yifeng rushed forward and held him. Their eyes met. Lu Ye could see the guilt in his eyes. The aged, wrinkled lips of the old man quivered as all myriads of emotions condensed into one short sentence, “Much you have endured, my child.”
He did not expect this, nor did he wish this to happen to Lu Ye the day he accepted him as a student. It was a debt the Crimson Blood Sect incurred and Lu Ye, as a fresh recruit who had not even laid eyes on the door of the stronghold before, should not have borne the brunt of, which had nearly cost his life, alone.
For the past few months, he knew that Lu Ye was alive. But he lacked the manpower for a Battlefield-wide search to find him. He had Shui Yuan roped in several independents that he knew and pleaded for their assistance in tracking down Lu Ye. But the Battlefield was a huge haystack and finding Lu Ye, the proverbial needle in this case, was a job that no low-tier independents could easily complete.