Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
When Lu Ye asked his fourth senior brother when he would be ascending to Cloud River Realm, he said that he still needed time to adapt to his newly repaired Spiritual Point, and that he wasn’t going anywhere for the moment.
Lu Ye looked thoughtful after the communication ended.
The sky was growing brighter. Lu Ye exited his residence and saw Ju Jia, Yi Yi, Feng Yue and Gu Yang waiting for him outside.
For the past month, the number of times he met Ju Jia could be counted on one hand. He had spent almost every day cultivating during the day and breathing the essence of the moon with Amber during the night.
Ju Jia had hit Heaven Seven during this time.
Lu Ye wasn’t surprised by this. Ju Jia had been qualified for a breakthrough a long time ago, he had just been keeping himself suppressed. In fact, Lu Ye suspected that Ju Jia could unlock all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points and ascend to Cloud River Realm in one go if he truly let himself loose.
Yi Yi hadn’t shown her face much either. While Lu Ye was studying the Way of Glyphs under Lady Yun, she was studying spells at the Sect Master’s place. Besides that, they both had their own cultivation studies to attend to during the night.
Today, her aura was much stronger than what he remembered a month ago.
“Brother Lu!” Feng Yue greeted him quietly with grateful eyes.
A while ago, she had sought out Lu Ye and requested to enter the Inner Circle. However, Lu Ye had turned her down harshly. Sad and helpless, she had turned to her fellow victim, He Xiyin and criticized the heck out of him behind his back.
Then, Lu Ye messaged her telling her to obtain some resources from Shui Yuan at the headquarters and prepare to enter the Core Circle today.
It was only then she realized that she had misunderstood Lu Ye. The reason Lu Ye had rejected her earlier wasn’t because he was discriminating against her, but because he already had plans for her.
“I heard that you have a lot to say about me?”
“That is not true!” Feng Yue hurriedly defended herself. “This junior sister is most grateful that you were willing to forget my past and take me into the sect. I would not dare to criticize you in any way!”
On the inside, she wondered how on earth Lu Ye had found out about it.
“You can speak honestly. I’m not an intolerant person.”
Feng Yue shook her head like a fan. “No, no. Like I said, I have nothing to share, Brother Lu.”
Lu Ye stared at her a bit longer before finally turning to Gu Yang. “I shall leave the Outpost in your hands.”
Gu Yang nodded. He had come to see him off. “Do not worry, Brother Lu. I promise to take good care of the Outpost.”
“We’ll be going then.”
As Lu Ye summoned his Spirit Boat, Yi Yi slipped into Amber’s body, and Amber jumped onto Ju Jia’s head. The group then climbed onto the Spirit Boat one by one.
There was a surge of Spiritual Power, and the Spirit Boat shot toward into the distance in a beam of light. Gu Yang had already brought down the grand ward beforehand, so there was no risk of a collision. He watched them until they were completely gone.
Originally, Lu Ye was planning to surrender his post as a Legate to a worthy candidate. The Crimson Blood Sect Outpost was located in the Outer Circle, and his cultivation level had exceeded the expected standard a while ago. In fact, he should’ve surrendered it when he had reached the Ninth-Order.
The reason he changed his mind later wasn’t because he didn’t trust in his fellow cultivators’ abilities—in fact, managing an Outpost wasn’t a difficult task, it was just a tad time and energy-consuming—but because he thought that he could use this opportunity to form an alliance pact with a few Core Circle sects. Besides that, if he were to occupy a Core Circle Outpost, he needed the authority to plunder the Blessings on the Divine Opportunity Column.
That was why he decided to keep his post a little longer.
Both his and Ju Jia’s flight speed had increased tremendously after they had ascended to Heaven Seven. It would only take them a number of days to reach the Core Circle.
On the Spirit Boat, Lu Ye had taken out his 10-point map to plan their route forward. Right now, he was sitting at the forefront of the Spirit Boat, followed by Feng Yue and Ju Jia. Ju Jia was currently sitting cross legged in a meditative position cultivating. This was one of the body tempering cultivator’s greatest strengths. If he had time to sit around and do nothing, he would always spend it on cultivating.
Feng Yue was a disappointment in this regard. She was busy sightseeing and exclaiming her wonder at everything.
She was an Eighth-Order cultivator, so of course this wasn’t her first time flying. Moreover, the last thing a Crimson Blood Sect disciple lacked was flying Spirit Artifacts because Lu Ye always brought back all kinds of Spirit Artifacts when he returned to the Outpost. Those who had reached the required cultivation level would be able to apply for them from the sect.
However, an Eighth-Order cultivator could only fly so fast and so high on their flying Spirit Artifact. Naturally, the view and experience were nowhere as great.
Lu Ye and Ju Jia took turns flying the flying Spirit Artifact and took almost no breaks.
The good news was that they hadn’t encountered any opposition even after they had entered the Inner Circle. Although it had been a month since the absolute madness Lu Ye had created in the Inner Circle, the Thousand Demon Ridge sects were still a little jittery about it. Most of them were keeping their grand wards up almost twenty-four seven and avoiding going outdoors as much as possible. Everyone was afraid of catching the Vanquisher of Sects’ attention and bringing about their own downfall.
On the tenth day, Lu Ye’s group finally passed through the entire Inner Circle and entered the Core Circle.
Lu Ye had always known that the Spirit Creek Battlefield was huge, but even with a 10-point map in his possession he hadn’t truly realized just how big it was first hand. Now? Now he did. Despite their new flight speed, it had still taken them ten whole days to travel from the Crimson Blood Sect’s Outpost to the Core Circle. It showed just how wide the Spirit Creek Battlefield really was.
Traffic had increased visibly after they entered the Core Circle. These cultivators usually traveled at high altitudes, and they all looked to be in a hurry for some reason. Moreover, they generally stayed away from other flyers as much as possible. It was because no one knew if the other cultivator was a friend or foe and, if they were an enemy, whether they were within their ability to beat.
That was why their journey remained relatively peaceful despite the increase in traffic.
Another day passed, and a territory with exquisite scenery entered their view. They saw a few Spirit Peaks surrounding a massive valley, and inside the valley was a grand ward.
It was the grand ward of an Outpost and Lu Ye’s first objective of this trip.
The trio walked up to the grand ward after landing on the ground. A ward watcher watched them warily as they called out, “Who are you people?”
Lu Ye stepped forward and clasped his fist respectfully. “Lu Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect greets a fellow cultivator. Can you please inform my fourth senior brother that I have come to meet him?”
He could have messaged Li Baxian directly, and he had. However, his message had failed to go out. It meant that his fourth senior brother had returned to the headquarters at Jiu Zhou—the Devoted Ones’ headquarters to be exact.
“You are Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect?” The ward watcher exclaimed in surprise before looking him up and down.
“It is I.”
The cultivator thought for a second before replying, “Give me a moment.”
He then hopped onto his flying Spiritual Artifact and took off.
Beside him, Feng Yue examined the Outpost curiously before realizing a little too late where she was. “Is this the Devoted Ones’ Outpost, Brother Lu? Is this the sect we’re going to attach ourselves to?”
It wasn’t a bad choice. Not only was the Devoted Ones a Tier-Two sect, their fourth senior brother, Li Baxian was the prolegate. She was sure they would be treated well.
“Do battles happen frequently in the Core Circle, brother Lu? Will there be sufficient patients for me to treat? I might not be able to earn many Contribution Points otherwise.”
Feng Yue grew even more worried. “I’m only an Eighth-Order cultivator, and I doubt the Devoted Ones would be wanting for medicine cultivators. Worse, their cultivation should all be greater than mine. Even if someone was hurt, the chances that I would get to treat them would be… low…”
Her voice grew smaller and smaller as she spoke because both Lu Ye and Ju Jia were starring her expressionlessly. In the end, she even hugged herself and kept her mouth tightly zipped.
[I knew it! I’m still the most unlikeable disciple in the Crimson Blood Sect…]
It was at this moment that two people flew out from the center from the Outpost. One of them was the ward watcher from earlier, and the other was a young man in aquamarine clothes. They looked to be in their twenties.
The young man swept his gaze across the group before focusing on Lu Ye. “You are Lu Yi Ye?”
“Lu Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect greets you, senior brother.”
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The young man’s aura looked incredibly thick, so he was probably a Heaven Nine cultivator. He hadn’t ascended yet most likely because he wished to hone his skills a little longer.
To his surprise, the young man replied rudely, “I am not your senior brother, and I do not appreciate your casual social climbing.”
Lu Ye raised an eyebrow. A long time ago, his second senior sister had told him that the disciples of the Devoted Ones were not very fond of the Crimson Blood Sect. He could see now that it was true. It was due to a historical problem.
A long time ago, the Crimson Blood Sect and the Devoted Ones were the two most famous sects in Bing Zhou. Their combined might was feared throughout the Jiu Zhou. ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
Back then, both the Crimson Blood Sect and the Devoted Ones were Tier-One sects. They were also close enough to be one big family. This was especially true after the pillar of the Crimson Blood Sect, Feng Wujiang and the beloved princess of the Devoted Ones fell in love and got married to one another. Their love story was told throughout the world like a real life fairy tale.
Thanks to their precedent, many cultivators from the Crimson Blood Sect and the Devoted Ones also became lovers.
Unfortunately, that happiness did not last. Feng Wujiang’s final battle against the Thousand Demon Ridge was a terrible one that severely damaged countless Grand Sky Coalition sects. Of course, the two sects that suffered the worst damage were the Crimson Blood Sect and the Devoted Ones. The Crimson Blood Sect was almost completely destroyed, and the Devoted Ones lost so many champions that their very roots were shaken.
Not only that, the survivors of the Crimson Blood Sect were targeted across all battlefields and killed one after another. Having grown completely disheartened with the state of things, the Sect Master chose to cast out Li Baxian and the remaining disciples out of the Crimson Blood Sect to protect them.
Since then, the Crimson Blood Sect had not accepted another disciple. They slowly declined from Tier-One all the way to the Tier-Nine, and they would’ve been eliminated as a sect if Lu Ye had not joined them at the last moment.
The Devoted Ones too had dropped from Tier-One to Tier-Three. It took them two decades to finally climb back to Tier-Two.
That war had happened over thirty years ago, and Lu Ye only knew of the broad strokes of the incident. All he knew was that his extraordinarily talented first senior brother was largely blamed for the massive damage the Grand Sky Coalition had suffered. He also perished in that battle, and it was said that his body was never found.
Since then, the Crimson Blood Sect slowly drifted apart from many sects they used to be close with. This was doubly true for the Devoted Ones. As the new blood replaced the old, they even became hostile toward the Crimson Blood Sect.
The twin sects of Bing Zhou were no more after that.
When Li Baxian was sent to the Devoted Ones, the fallout between the two sects wasn’t yet too severe. Moreover, it was Feng Wujiang’s wife, Qiu Min who had personally requested Li Baxian to be taken under her wing. It was because Li Baxian was almost the same age as Feng Wujiang’s daughter at the time, which made him the perfect playmate for her.
However, as the relationship between the two sects grew increasingly strained, so did Li Baxian’s position in the Devoted Ones. If Qiu Min hadn’t shielded him from most of the attacks, he would never have achieved what he had today.
That was why Li Baxian treated Qiu Min like his own aunt or mother.
The daughter of Feng Wujiang and Qiu Min was none other than the champion of the Scroll of Supremacy, Feng Wuchan. She was one hundred percent her father’s daughter.