Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Lu Ye spared some of his attention to Amber. He hadn’t instructed the tiger to seek out Ju Jia. It had sought out the body tempering cultivator of its own accord, so he had no idea what it was planning either.
Amber bumped its head against Ju Jia’s legs once. It then let out a couple of incomprehensible growls.
For the first time, Ju Jia stirred from his posture before slowly rising to his feet. The crisscrossing, bloody marks on his back looked absolutely terrible.
What looked like boiling vitality seeped out of Ju Jia’s body and mingled with his dense, solid, earthen yellow-colored Spiritual Power. Crimson light shone out of his pupils as well. In that moment, the man felt more intimidating than he had been his whole life.
Suddenly, he crouched lower and bowed his head as if he was about to launch into a sprint. He was facing the cultivators of the House of Wintry Blossoms. His messy hair was blocking his face from view, but it did not matter. All Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators abruptly shivered as if the killing intent of a monstrous beast had washed over them.
Boom…
An actual shockwave spread from beneath Ju Jia’s feet as he abruptly sprinted toward a group of House of Wintry Blossoms cultivators. Crimson red vitality and earthen yellow Spiritual Power mingled together to form a visible halo that wrapped around his whole person.
He wasn’t actually moving all that quickly, but he most certainly felt unstoppable. Not even a literal mountain was going to stop him from charging through.
“Stop him!” screamed someone as the cultivators of Thousand Demon Ridge grew even more panicked.
The Xianyuan City Watch was attacking them, the special apparitions were attacking them, Lu Ye and Yi Yi were attacking them, and now even Ju Jia was charging toward them as well.
They should be the ones who held the absolute advantage, so why was it that they were barely able to put up a resistance?
[I wanna cry!]’
Flying weapons and spells bombarded Ju Jia, but not a single one was capable of even slowing his charge. They were all blocked by the halo made up of vitality and Spiritual Power.
No one had ever witnessed this Ju Jia, not even his lifelong companion, Sima Yang.
He struck the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators’ frontline like a landslide. The man who attempted to hold him back was a body-tempering cultivator himself judging from his rich vitality, but the second they made contact, his eyes widened like saucers, and he sailed across the air like a spilled blood bag. His bones snapped like twigs as well.
They were both Ninth-Order and body-tempering cultivators, and yet the power gap between them was like night and day.
It wasn’t a pointless effort though. Thanks to his sacrifice, he managed to slow the giant a tad and caused him to take more attacks than he would have. His dimming halo reflected this.
Ju Jia might be simple, but he wasn’t stupid. He was aware he couldn’t withstand any more attacks as well. So, right before the body tempering cultivator he sent flying could fly out of his reach, he reached out and grabbed the man’s leg.
The body tempering cultivator’s eyes bulged when he felt an iron grip around his ankle. Then, the world began spinning like a top.
On the rooftop, Lu Ye was chewing Spirit Pills and killing his enemies with his flying weapons. However, Ju Jia’s actions caused his eyes to twitch violently.
It had been months since he began exploring the Spirit Creek Battlefield, and he had experienced countless big and small battles. He was no longer the ignorant child he was before. Even so, this was the first time he ever saw such a ridiculous scene. Ju Jia was currently swinging the Ninth-Order body tempering cultivator around like he was a weapon. As a result, no Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator dared to get within ten meters of the man.
The nicest people were also the scariest when pushed too far.
A while later, the weight in Ju Jia’s hand suddenly lessened considerably. When he looked down, he noticed that he was only holding a leg now. The poor bastard he was swinging around had turned into minced meat a while ago.
The giant was just starting though. Throwing the leg against the ground like he would smash it to pieces, he let out a wounded animal’s roar and charged toward the nearest enemy.
Ju Jia had never taken a life since he embarked on his cultivation journey. Today, he would break his streak with a massacre!
It had only been a few minutes since the battle began, but Thousand Demon Ridge had already sustained massive losses already. More than half of the group who surrounded Ju Jia at the beginning were already dead, and most of those who were still standing were bound by Spirit Shackling Ropes and being killed as well.
It was around this time Lu Ye recalled his flying weapons. They had run out of Spiritual Power. He would have to recharge them before he could use them again.
Lu Ye stored them in his Storage Bag and trained his gaze on Ruo Yan. He then slowly unsheathed the Inviolable.
Right before he could jump down from the roof and join the battle though, something pulled his gaze away from his target and toward the distance. He saw a massive group of enemy cultivators appearing from the end of a street and running toward the battle at high speed.
The leader of the group was a tall, slender woman with exposed hips. It was Chu Qing of course. At least forty people were following behind her.
“Get ready to withdraw!” Lu Ye said to Yi Yi.
If Ruo Yan’s tattered group was the only enemy he had to contend with, then he was sure he could wipe out most, if not all, of them. However, it was a different story if Chu Qing and her reinforcements joined the battle.
Moreover, it wasn’t like his army of Ghost Spirits were completely unscathed. The ordinary sentries were almost completely wiped out, and a few of the sentry leaders were dead as well. The enemies weren’t stationary targets who didn’t know how to retaliate, after all.
He shot a glance at the still fighting Ju Jia and jumped off the rooftop. Enhancing his speed with Windwalk, he shot into the battlefield and cut down an unguarded enemy like lightning.
Suddenly, a tide of violent energy swam toward his right side. Lu Ye managed to block the attack with the Inviolable, but the blade shrieked as if it was in pain, and his entire body was flung into the air. His weapon arm was numb by the time he landed on his feet.
The attack had come from Ju Jia. He had reached the point where he no longer cared to differentiate between friend or foe. That said, his bloodshot eyes regained a bit of clarity when he saw Lu Ye.
“Enemy reinforcements are coming, and there are too many for us to handle right now! Follow me if you wish to take revenge for your partner!” Lu Ye said before making his escape.
At first, Ju Jia paid his warning no heed and charged toward another group of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators. Then…
“Roar!”
Amber roared once at the body tempering cultivator before catching up to Lu Ye and leaping onto his shoulder.
The Ghost Spirits also mounted a swift retreat, leaving behind a mess of bodies and destruction. 𝐞𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺
Lu Ye didn’t go too far before he heard heavy footsteps trailing behind him. It was none other than Ju Jia.
His warning had fallen on deaf ears, but not Amber’s. It was partially due to the strange bond the two shared, and also because Ju Jia wasn’t stupid. He had also seen Chu Qing’s group and knew that to stay any longer was to court death.
Not long after the duo retreated, Chu Qing and her cultivators arrived at the scene. The prolegate looked around the battlefield in shock as she asked, “What happened?”
She had come to meet up with Ruo Yan after the young woman informed her that she had found and trapped Ju Jia.
The scene before her was nothing like what she had expected though. Ruo Yan’s group was over thirty strong at the beginning. Now, less than half of them were left. It was no ordinary battle either. Looking at the battlefield, she saw what looked like minced flesh and massive swathes of blood. It almost looked like someone had been lifted into the air and smashed against the ground. She could hardly imagine what the hell had happened here.
Ruo Yan looked shell-shocked and afraid, her body still trembling even though she was safe now. Ju Jia going crazy had left that deep of an impression on her.
That wasn’t the real reason they had lost though. No matter how powerful Ju Jia was, the amount of damage he could’ve done on his own was limited. Just like the last time, it was Lu Yi Ye and those sentries who had fucked everything up.
“Lu Yi Ye is still alive, Sister Chu. Not only that, I think he can control the Xianyuan City Watch.”
Chu Qing shot her junior sister a dubious glance and wondered if she had lost her mind. She knew that Lu Yi Ye was capable of many things, but controlling the Xianyuan City Watch? That was a stretch too far, wasn’t it?
“I’m telling you the truth!” Ruo Yan hurriedly gave her senior sister a brief summary of the battle just now. It had taken her a while to accept this as well. This was the second time the Xianyuan City Watch had appeared at the worst possible time, and just like the last time they ignored Lu Yi Ye and attacked Thousand Demon Ridge. Not only that, they actually withdrew together with Lu Yi Ye.
Chu Qing’s skepticism faded as she listened to Ruo Yan’s story. In fact, she realized that everything that puzzled her before would make sense if she assumed that Lu Yi Ye could control the Xianyuan City Watch. It hadn’t been a coincidence that the spectral sentries appeared just at the right time to screw up their perfect ambush; it was Lu Yi Ye counter-ambushing their ambush. It would also explain why Qiao Yun had died, but Lu Yi Ye had survived when they were both supposed to be thrown into the dungeon!
On the other hand… was Lu Yi Ye really that powerful? If he was, then why didn’t he just command the Xianyuan City Watch to hunt down all Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators from the start?
In fact, why did he run away just now when he firmly held the upper hand?
“Chase them!” Chu Qing ordered immediately when she realized what was going on.
Lu Yi Ye might possess the ability to control the Xianyuan City Watch, but the fact that he was escaping meant that he currently did not have the power to throw down against all of them. Otherwise, he would’ve just stayed and killed them all. In other words, this was their best chance to take out Lu Ye and the heavily injured Ju Jia at the same time.
Once they were rid of these nuisances, they could devote their full attention to cooperating with Sunlit Mountain and take out Hidden Light Sanctuary.
And so, they hurriedly swept the battlefield before chasing after Lu Ye and Ju Jia. While doing so, Chu Qing sent out a message and caused all House of Wintry Blossoms cultivators in other locations to move in this direction as well.
While the enemy had a head start, they also left behind an incredibly obvious trail to follow. The massive, bloody footprints on the ground could only belong to Ju Jia.
Meanwhile, Lu Ye was several streets away from the battlefield with Ju Jia behind him. However, the big fellow was looking pretty bad right now. His aura was weaker than normal, and his entire body was covered in wounds. He also looked like he had just crawled out of a pool of blood. His entire body was covered in the blood of his enemies and his own. No physique could have weathered through that level of assault unscathed.
His body wasn’t the only thing that was damaged either. Even now, Ju Jia was wrapped up in a clear cocoon of sorrow. He must’ve been really affected by Sima Yang’s death.
Of course, Lu Ye couldn’t empathize with Ju Jia. He did not know how close they were, but he certainly hadn’t had a good impression of the spell cultivator. His death simply did not matter to him.