Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
The enemy who should be on the ground floor waiting for him to dish out a beating was actually above him. The round moon shining above his head, he flapped what seemed like a pair of wings made of fiery red Spiritual Power and brought down his glowing saber straight at him!
‘Impossible!’ The mage screamed internally as the attack connected and sent him plummeting toward the ground.
Boom…
Dust flew everywhere as the spell cultivator hit the ground like a meteor. He must have broken Heavens know how many bones, and blood sprayed out of his mouth against his will.
The Spiritual Power Shield that blocked the twice Sharp Edge empowered Inviolable had vanished into nothing as well. It wasn’t because the attack had destroyed it, but because the spell cultivator had run out of Spiritual Power.
In his attempt to avoid Lu Ye’s flying weapons, he had flown almost 130 meters above ground level. That was why the impact had almost killed him outright, not that he was going to last much longer. His sight was pitch black, his ears were buzzing incessantly, and blood was pouring out of the seven apertures of his head.
Lu Ye landed soundlessly beside him and withdrew his wings. He then reversed his grip and stabbed the spell cultivator through the chest.
The spell cultivator tensed at the sudden pain and instinctively grabbed the blade in his chest. His eyes were overflowing with the unwillingness to accept defeat.
He was a Ninth-Order cultivator. If he had died in a fight to the death, then he only had his own incompetence to blame. But Lu Ye was just a Seventh-Order cultivator, and he was going to die before he could fire a single spell at the bastard. How could he possibly rest in peace like this?
The choice wasn’t in his hands though. His back sank to the ground again, and a dot of red light flew out of the back of his hand. That was the end of a Ninth-Order spell cultivator.
Lu Ye pulled out his saber, but the fight wasn’t over yet. He walked toward the spot where the combat cultivator had disappeared until suddenly, it was as if he had broken through a thin, invisible barrier. His surroundings distorted, and he appeared in a familiar-looking stone forest.
A fierce battle was happening here right now. Hao Qing was fighting the combat cultivator in melee while Hao Ren harried him from afar using his flying weapon. Their teamwork was impeccable, and the combat cultivator looked frustrated at his inability to defeat them.
The Hao brother and sister might be no match for the combat cultivator one on one, but it was the reverse in a two on one.
Not all cultivators shared the same strength despite being on the same cultivation level.
Earlier, Lu Ye had observed that the combat cultivator’s Spiritual Light was rather impure. It was much worse than Yuan Guang’s at least.
Yuan Guang might have been able to defeat the Hao brother and sister on his own, but this combat cultivator clearly lacked the ability.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lu Ye appeared out of nowhere and caused his heart to skip a beat.
Under any other circumstances, a single Seventh-Order cultivator would not have worried him in the slightest. But now, any factor could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
There was another question that puzzled him: Where was his ally? Why hadn’t he killed the Seventh-Order cultivator?
A fiery red light shot out of Lu Ye’s hand and flew straight toward the combat cultivator. At the same time, he tossed a Spirit Pill into his mouth.
He did not know when it became a habit, but he always ate a Spirit Pill or two after combat even if he didn’t use up much energy these days…
The Sky Pillar Sect combat cultivator was trapped in the Nine Realms Scroll and fighting the last battle of his life. He was weak enough that even the Hao brother and sister could take them out by themselves. 𝓋．
That was why Lu Ye had merely supported them with his flying weapon instead of joining the battle.
He was cooperating with the duo right now, so he couldn’t compete for the kill like he had back at the Chess Sea. A cooperative relationship where only one side got all the benefits was fragile as a matter of course.
Metallic clangs rang incessantly as a pair of flying weapons flew rings around the combat cultivator. From time to time, they would slip past his defense and deal him a flesh wound. Hao Qing might be a girl, but her skill and bravery were equal to that of any man. She moved so quickly that her Spiritual Artifact was practically a blur to the combat cultivator’s eyes, and she was always able to strike a vital spot every time he was distracted.
A dozen or so breaths later, blood was soaking through the combat cultivator’s clothes. Another twenty breaths later, Hao Ren’s flying weapon pierced through the back of the combat cultivator’s head and ended the fight.
A red dot flew out of the body and entered the back of the ghost cultivator’s hand. Hao Qing also wasted no time in looting the body.
There was a strong sense of rejection, and the trio returned to the real world an instant later. There were now two bodies on the ground, and Yi Yi was standing not far away from them while holding the Nine Realms Scroll.
“That was fun! Hahaha!” Hao Ren guffawed.
The two of them had decided to cooperate with Lu Ye after observing his skills. Even so, they weren’t confident that their plan would succeed.
But now, they had successfully assassinated a pair of Sky Pillar Sect Ninth-Order cultivators without losing a single person. Their confidence was greatly bolstered to say the least.
“Let’s go!”
Lu Ye grabbed Amber from his shoulder and tossed it on the ground. The tiger immediately transformed into its original form so that Lu Ye could climb onto its back. After he pulled Yi Yi up, Amber took off toward the ore vein.
As for the Hao brother and sister, they melted into the darkness and could not be perceived by normal senses. However, his sixth sense told him that they were somewhere close even though he couldn’t see them.
They always knew that the bait was only going to work one time. The cultivators of Sky Pillar Sect weren’t dumb after all. They had dispatched two Ninth-Order cultivators to hunt down the enemy, but not only did they fail, they were killed in action as well. There was no chance they wouldn’t notice their deaths either. It only took a bit of effort for them to confirm their status. When that happened, the guards would surely message the Outpost and sound the alarm.
Hao Ren had scouted the place earlier. Three Ninth-Order cultivators were guarding the ore vein today, and two of them had already died to their ambush. Once he had taken out the last guard, no one else in the mines would have the strength to stop him. They would be able to wreck as much havoc as they wanted—at least until reinforcements showed up, and they were forced to withdraw from the area.
That was why the plan now was to kill the last Ninth-Order cultivator as soon as possible.
They sprinted at full speed until they arrived within 1.5 kilometers of the mines. After Lu Ye climbed off Amber’s back, the tiger transformed back to a cat and jumped onto his shoulder once more. As for Yi Yi, she was already scouting ahead in search for that Ninth-Order cultivator.
The Hao brother and sister were standing by as well. As soon as Yi Yi had found the last Ninth-Order cultivator, they would cooperate with Lu Ye and kill the enemy in the shortest time possible.
Lu Ye took a step forward and inhaled. A Glyph soundlessly appeared on his body before concealing his presence in an instant including that of Amber’s.
He had obtained Glyph: Conceal Presence at the same time as Burster.
There was a Spirit Talisman Paper called Breath Curbing that he had used to save Amber in the past. Before acquiring the Glyph, he often kept a few in his Storage Bag because of how useful they were in certain situations such as this one.
Of course, he had discarded them since obtaining Conceal Presence from the Tree of Glyphs.
Conceal Presence was great, but Lu Ye would have preferred to obtain a Glyph that could turn him invisible just like the ghost cultivators. He would’ve become as elusive as them.
Lu Ye raised his head and stared at the haphazardly arranged lights shining out of the mines for a moment. It immediately reminded him of the days he spent mining in Evil Moon Valley…
Back then, he thought he would never have to mine another ore after escaping the valley and becoming a cultivator. In reality, many cultivators did this for a living.
It wasn’t just the Sky Pillar Sect. The major sects had more or less the same arrangement. Outpost resources were one of the main income of cultivators, and no one was willing to leave them unattended. They weren’t that wealthy after all.
Of course, some sects had considered hiring ordinary people to do the mining—there were plenty of them on the Spirit Creek Battlefield after all—but there were plenty of dangerous creatures lurking within an ore vein, and sometimes an enemy sect would attack a resource production site. Every time these incidents happened, with ordinary miners there would be a massive amount of casualties. As such, no one was willing to work for them no matter what they offered.
That was why the cultivators had no choice but to work the mines themselves.
These days everyone who fought on the Spirit Creek Battlefield be it the heirs of major sects, disciples of clans or even independent cultivators was an expert miner in their own right.
Everyone’s Storage Bags carried at least one mining pick and or other bizarre mining tools.
They were less than five hundred meters away from the mines when Lu Ye came to a sudden stop. An alarm bell was ringing softly in his head. It felt as if he was targeted by someone.
Without hesitation, he channeled a bit of Spiritual Power into his right eye. A delicate Glyph quickly appeared in his pupil, transforming his vision in the blink of an eye.
The Glyph he had constructed in his eye was called Insight. It allowed him to see things that the naked eye couldn’t see. The scenery in his Insight-boosted eye seemed almost illusory, and he could see ribbons of strange light that constantly twisted and changed forms all over the place. They were the light of the World Spiritual Qi.
Insight allowed him to see the flow of Spiritual Qi and the exchange of Spiritual Power clearly.
His gaze swept the area until it locked on a spot to his left. The flow of Spiritual Qi in that area was strange in the sense that it was thicker than its surroundings. In fact, if he could give the anomalous blob an outline, it would look just like a human being!
The humanoid figure was rapidly closing the distance between him. They were in front of him in just the blink of an eye. At the same time, his senses suddenly screamed danger and caused all the hair on his body to stand on their end.
He immediately unsheathed the Inviolable and enhanced it with a Sharp Edge. He then slashed at the anomalous blob.
There was a metallic clang as a dagger suddenly winked into existence, blocking the attack. The next moment, a person appeared out of thin air right in front of him.
He was a man of short stature and a small mustache. His Spiritual Light revealed him to be a Ninth-Order cultivator!
‘A Ninth-Order ghost cultivator! That explains why his ability is so strange! Is he the last Ninth-Order cultivator guarding this mine?’
There was no time to think. Lu Ye immediately withdrew his saber and went in for a thrust.
Meanwhile, the ghost cultivator was clearly surprised by his failure. Not only had the Seventh-Order cultivator seen through his concealment with surprising ease, he had seized the initiative as well.
The slash had been incredibly powerful. He felt like his purlicue was about to split when it connected with his dagger. He hastily raised his Spiritual Artifact when Lu Ye acted to stab him with his saber. Then—
On Lu Ye’s shoulder, Amber suddenly opened its mouth and let out a roar. It was so powerful that the air visibly twisted, and the shockwave struck the ghost cultivator point blank. He felt as if someone had struck his head with an invisible hammer, leaving him dizzy and completely confused.