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But the rest of the Thousand Demon Ridge couldn’t care less about the aftermath of the attack and the New Moon Sect’s indignation; if anything, they were more concerned about Lu Yi Ye’s present condition.
His return to the Spirit Creek Battlefield and subsequent conquering of an enemy outpost might sound like the sort of derring-do that could someday be written into some glorious paean, but Lu Yi Ye was a Cloud River Realm Cultivator nonetheless and the Heavens’ retribution had and always been merciless and unyielding.
And in the midst of this turmoil, Lu Yi Ye had claimed over fifty lives, although it was rumored that once the relentless slaughter ended, the purple lightning coiling around him seemed to have materialized enough that it looked very real. It was so real that it looked incredibly dangerous and ominous…
But if the destructive force of the Judgment of the Heavens was truly so fearsome, surely that would mean the demise of Lu Yi Ye?
If such were the case, the New Moon Sect could at least bask in the glory of their accomplishment, in spite of the magnitude of their losses.
The unrest Lu Yi Ye had sown caused enough unrest in the Spirit Creek Battlefield for every Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivator to feel panic and terrified at the mere mention of his name. Yet even when he had gone into the Cloud River Battlefield, he miraculously eluded the grasp of enemies far more powerful and deadlier than him, despite his relatively low cultivation rank there..
That illustrated one truth: if such talent were to be allowed to mature, then Lu Yi Ye would undoubtedly spell disaster for all of the Thousand Demon Ridge in the future.
But if the Judgment of the Heavens could kill him, then this would be a cause for celebration for them all.
Multitudes of messages were dispatched to the New Moon Sect, beseeching them to send some men into the Spirit Creek Battlefield to ascertain Lu Yi Ye’s fate. Everyone needed to know whether he lived or perished.
But the New Moon Sect responded with a firm refusal, finding the messages nothing but unfounded requests.
Sending anyone back to the New Moon Sect outpost, where Lu Yi Ye might still be present, would be extremely dangerous. The sect couldn’t afford to risk more lives just to accommodate the requests of bystanders who had nothing to lose.
During the Carnage Colosseum, Tan Sheng was not the only enemy Cultivator who had given Lu Yi Ye enough hell to want payback. However the origins of the conflict undeniably traced back to him. Now that their outpost had been overrun and the acolytes there slain, the New Moon Sect could do nothing else but acknowledge their involvement in the offense.
Yet, given Lu Yi Ye’s unstoppable and enraged rampage, his thirst for vengeance surely extended beyond the New Moon Sect. Each and every Thousand Demon Ridge sect and order that stood behind the elite Cultivators who were part in Lu Yi Ye’s torment during the Carnage Colosseum had to answer for their involvement. None would escape this reckoning.
This revelation sent tremors through the hearts of many Thousand Demon Ridge sects. They hastily dispatched acolytes into the Cloud River Battlefield to gather intelligence, wanting to find out who was amongst those who had participated in the attack on Lu Yi Ye, and whether the throng included any of their own.
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However, communication between the Cloud River Battlefield and the real world of Jiu Zhou was not as convenient as that of the Spirit Creek Battlefield, rendering much of the information elusive. The duration of the wait for confirmed news remained uncertain.
Furthermore, Lu Yi Ye was undoubtedly in trouble due to the Judgment of the Heavens. Even if he survived, he would likely lack the strength to launch any more attacks.
To that end, the leadership of the other Thousand Demon Ridge sects and orders believed that the situation may not be as dire as the New Moon Sect’s reports suggested.
Nevertheless, it was imperative to ascertain Lu Yi Ye’s status; such matters could not be taken lightly. Hence, some of the Thousand Demon Ridge outposts near the New Moon Sect promptly dispatched men to investigate the situation.
In the meantime, somewhere within the Cloud River Battlefield, Tan Sheng, clad in azure robes was grieving with tears from eyes scarlet from his rage rolling down his cheeks. He had just received word from his order’s stronghold in Jiu Zhou, informing him of the events in the Spirit Creek Battlefield.
Tan Sheng clasped his fists tightly, silently vowing to himself that he would not rest until he had confronted Lu Yi Ye—a solemn pledge he intended to fulfill in this lifetime.
From his perspective, targeting Lu Yi Ye during the Carnage Colosseum was not a misjudgment. His mistake lay in failing to exterminate Lu Yi Ye once and for all, allowing him to slip through his fingers.
What’s even more unfathomable was that Lu Yi Ye would brazenly slip back inside the Spirit Creek Battlefield to exact revenge, leading to the tragic deaths of his own junior acolytes, including his blood sibling at the hands of Lu Yi Ye.
If their prior interactions had merely been a clash of factions, this has now intensified into a real vendetta. A blood feud that demanded retribution.
At the Ninth-Order of the Cloud River Realm and after gaining considerable advantages from his adventures in the Carnage Colosseum, Tan Sheng’s initial plan was to advance into the True Lake Realm within a month. However, given the current circumstances, his ascension would be meaningless without avenging his fellow acolytes of the New Moon Sect. In the face of this deep-seated bitterness and rancor, he pledged to exhaust every resource in his quest to slay Lu Yi Ye first.
Back inside the Spirit Creek Battlefield, Lu Yi Ye was lounging casually on the steps leading into the New Moon Sect outpost’s Sanctum of Providence. The purple lightning bolts that once snaked all around him had mostly dissipated.
Right now, he was responding to messages sent to him by several close allies.
Word about his return had somehow spread, and many within the Spirit Creek Battlefield were now aware of his presence here and his successful invasion of the New Moon Sect outpost. Filled with a sudden spurt of zeal and enthusiasm, the legates and prolegates of various allied sects and orders were reaching out to him, inquiring if he needed assistance.
Lu Ye harked back to the time when he was leading a crusade of Grand Sky Coalition allies that not only laid waste to a number of enemy outposts but also brought those who were part of the crusade substantial gains. Such conveniences were no more since many of his allies had entered the inner circle areas of the Spirit Creek Battlefield themselves during his ascension into the Cloud River Realm.
Now, with his return, many were becoming restless, yearning for an encore.
Some were concerned about his well-being, given his significant body count and the damage caused by the Judgment of the Heavens.
Lu Ye responded to each message one by one.
Which took quite some time to address them all.
But to Lu Ye, if members of the Grand Sky Coalition were concerned about his condition, it was likely that the Thousand Demon Ridge would be even more interested to know how he was at the moment, although there was no way to predict how they would react once they confirmed that he was still all and well.
From a personal perspective, the assault on the New Moon Sect’s outpost had been costly, with nearly twenty thousand Contribution Points invested in the endeavor.
But the Crimson Blood Sect had undoubtedly profited from the successful invasion. Just the Blessings that Tao Zhengyu had stripped from the enemy outpost already worth more than two thousand Contribution Points.
Nevertheless, leaving aside the merits reaped from their spoils, the primary satisfaction came from venting pent-up frustration.
Lifting up his weapon, Lu Ye beckoned at Tao Zhengyu, who had been waiting with the patience and obedience comparable to that of a butler, “Let’s go. On to the next one!”
Back then, he was besieged by so many enemy Cultivators that it was impossible for him to possibly know which Thousand Demon Ridge sect or order were all of his assailants from. All he could remember were the New Moon Sect and the Clouded Sun Clan, where Tan Sheng and Wei Que were from respectively.
Tan Sheng was the source of the whole debacle, which is why Lu Ye chose to attack the New Moon Sect first.
Meanwhile, Wei Que was the biggest instigator and the fiercest nemesis on his tail all the time. So he was placed second. But Lu Ye couldn’t kill as many people as he did at the New Moon Sect outpost anymore. He had already sold off all his spoils of war, and still, his reserves of fuel for the Tree of Glyph were running low.
Nevertheless, Lu Ye believed that there was a good chance that the Clouded Sun Clan would make a wise decision to not step into the same shoes as the New Moon Sect.
As for the others…
It didn’t matter which sect or order they came from. Of all the Thousand Demon Ridge sects and orders with outposts in the central regions of the Spirit Creek Battlefield, Lu Ye would just treat them the same.
With the precedent last time, Lu Ye had a good feeling that they would know what to do to prevent his wrath.
Anyone who refused to submit to his demands for protection money, Lu Ye would be more than happy to make examples out of them, just like the New Moon Sect.
As for the notion of conquering every single Thousand Demon Ridge outpost in the Battlefield, Lu Ye would not go that far yet. He did not try something as drastic as that back when he was still the most powerful Cultivator here at the Heaven Nine stage, hence there was no reason to do it now.
With their outposts razed to the ground, the surviving enemy Cultivators would find themselves without shelter. The gravity of the situation would have been less dire if this affected only a couple of Thousand Demon Ridge factions. However, if all the Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivators in the central regions of the Battlefield were to simultaneously lose their outposts, the situation would spiral out of control.
With nothing to lose, the surviving enemy Cultivators could band as one and form a force potent enough to go on a rampage of their own, systematically assaulting every Grand Sky Coalition outpost they encounter, one by one.
Therefore, while Lu Ye undoubtedly possessed the means to rid the Battlefield of any Thousand Demon Ridge outpost, he absolutely must refrain from doing just that; for doing so would only bring boundless calamity to the rest of the Grand Sky Coalition members within the Battlefield.
There had been an order that had endured in the Spirit Creek Battlefield for so long, a balance that if broken or disrupted, would only bring more harm than good.
In contrast to notions that would only grant fleeting gratification, Lu Ye was more inclined to secure tangible gains by treading with careful deliberation.
He consulted his map and discovered that the Clouded Sun Clan outpost was unexpectedly nearer to the New Moon Sect than he expected. With his speed, he could reach it in less than half a day.
Lu Ye rode on his magical conveyance. He took into the air, just in time to see ribbons of streaking flashes appearing on the horizon. That must be Cultivators approaching, although he could not yet tell if they were friend or foe.
And from the looks of things, they appeared to have spotted him. Yet they continued their approach, their greater seemingly washing away any wariness or apprehension towards his presence.
At a distance of over ten miles away, the group continued to fly, exchanging words as they traveled across the air.
“Surely that’s not Lu Yi Ye, Brother Miao? That fellow seems to be coming from the direction of the New Moon Sect’s outpost,” said one of them.
“Don’t overthink it,” responded the one the approaching Cultivators referred to as Brother Miao, “Lu Yi Ye is here inside the Spirit Creek Battlefield as a Cloud River Realm Cultivator. After killing so many, he must be afflicted by the Judgment of Heavens by now. That stranger bears not a trace of any purplish lightning. I don’t think that’s Lu Yo Ye; he must be just a passerby.”
“True,” the other nodded in agreement.
“We’re approaching the New Moon Sect’s outpost. Stay vigilant, everyone!” cautioned Brother Miao, issuing a solemn command. “Lu Yi Ye is a ruthless killer and a formidable adversary of all Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivators. Our mission is solely to gather intelligence, not engage him in combat. If anything happens, withdraw at once. This is not a time to worry about face!”
“Yes, sir!” they all replied in unison.
They were under orders from the leadership of their sect to come to the New Moon Sect’s outpost to investigate Lu Ye’s situation and none of them were expecting to meet face-to-face with the very quarry they had been charged to surveil. With the substantial distance still between them, there was no way they could recognize him either.
It wasn’t until they were less than three miles apart that Miao furrowed his brow as he scrutinized the incoming stranger.
With them moving as a group, they saw no need to veer away. Yet despite being outnumbered, the stranger did not choose to alter his course as well, much to Miao’s surprise.
It was common for the side with weaker strength or lesser number to avoid potential confrontation whenever Cultivators encountered each other in the wilderness without prior knowledge of each other’s allegiances
That was why Miao was incredulous as to the stranger’s boldness.
He lifted his gaze and carefully observed. That was when his figure turned petrified as if suspended in mid-air. For one second, Miao nearly thought that his senses were deceiving him. But it was true. He looked again and there it was, their intended target for this reconnaissance mission—Lu Yi Ye himself! Shocked, he cried, “Impossible!”
As he had said earlier, Lu Yi Ye had killed so many people that even if he survived, he would undoubtedly be afflicted by the Judgment of Heavens. He could barely fathom the possibility that the stranger approaching them could be Lu Yi Ye himself.
And there was no sign of any purplish electric bolts enveloping his body. It was as if the killings that he had committed here in the Spirit Creek Battlefield had gone unpunished.
That would have compelled Miao into thinking that he must be mistaken. This must be just someone else whose appearance resembled Lu Yi Ye. Yet what about the presence of that small, snow-white feline perching on his shoulder? Who else could it be if not Lu Yi Ye?
Plus, he clearly was coming from the direction of the New Moon Sect outpost
The distance between them had now fallen to just two miles!
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