<
>
After Lu Ye was done observing the Tree of Glyphs, he roused Yi Yi and whipped out the Amulets he had purchased from the auction. As time passed, the Amulets came apart one by one, diffusing pure Spiritual Qi as the two of them devoured it to cultivate their powers.
A day later, all the Amulets were fully consumed. Lu Ye examined himself and realized the progress wasn’t significant. After all, those Amulets, when combined, still didn’t last longer than a single Golden Amulet.
It had come to a point where just one to two Golden Amulets were not enough to help him ascend to the next Minor Realm.
Nonetheless, cultivation was all about accumulation until one turned into a more powerful cultivator.
Since there were no more Amulets left, Lu Ye consumed Spirit Pills to continue cultivating.
He had caused a commotion by showing up in the Sanctum of Providence. Although he had been wearing a face mask that concealed his face the entire time, the cultivators of Thousand Demon Ridge, who were adamant that he was hiding in the Divine Trade Association, could make some judgment through various traces.
Now, there had to be many powerful cultivators waiting for him to show up outside the Association.
Therefore, he had no intention of leaving this place anytime soon.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
Cultivating for a long time was boring, after all, especially when Lu Ye’s way of cultivation was different from that of others.
When other cultivators breathed World Spiritual Qi, they had to be fully focused. As such, they could hardly notice the passing of time. Perhaps several days would have passed without them knowing it by the time they were done with their cultivation session.
That was why the stronger cultivators would spend a year or more cultivating in seclusion, for the flow of time meant nothing to them.
On the other hand, Lu Ye was different. He mainly relied on consuming Spirit Pills to cultivate, so it wouldn’t hinder him from doing other things. Therefore, he would feel bored when he had nothing else to do for a long time.
In such a situation, he would usually stop cultivating and walk around.
However, he couldn’t do that now, for his enemies were waiting for him to show up. After giving it some thought, he decided to enter the Rift of Illusions to practice his Blade Technique.
There was no doubt improving his Blade Technique was much harder than increasing his power. The increase in power could be felt, but the same couldn’t be said for Blade Technique. Before breaking through a bottleneck, the advancement of the Blade Technique felt slow, and there might be little progress even after a long time. Nevertheless, once the bottleneck was broken through, he would reach the next stage.
Lu Ye sank his soul into the Storage Sphere, ready to fish out his Mystic Fruit Seed.
Nevertheless, when the seed appeared on his palm the next instant, he was startled for a moment.
That was because the seed looked slightly different from the past.
Although the Mystic Fruit Seed was the core of a Mystic Fruit, the thing looked just like a sapphire. When Lu Ye came into contact with the seed for the first time, he was curious about why it looked like that. At that time, he only felt that the world was full of wonders.
Gradually, he came to the realization that it wasn’t a seed in the strictest sense. This thing was a medium that had been blessed with a special power by the Heavens. It was a key one could use to unlock the door to the Rift of Illusions, so its appearance didn’t matter.
However, the Mystic Fruit Seed apparently looked different now.
The surface of the sapphire-like seed was full of intricate and abstruse patterns.
Although Lu Ye was adept at the Way of Glyphs, he still couldn’t figure out what the patterns meant. Moreover, as he observed the seed, he had an illusion that his soul had been sucked into it. ŖÁ𝐍ỌBĘ𝙎
Besides the fact that the Mystic Fruit Seed looked different now, he was puzzled as to where his other seed went.
He already owned one seed in the first place, and he acquired another one from the loot the other day, so he had a total of two seeds that looked identical. He had kept both of them inside the Storage Sphere.
Strangely, he only had one left now.
He ruled out the possibility of oversight as the Storage Sphere on the back of his hand was built using a Void Glyph. Although the space was large and there were many things inside, he could easily find anything he wanted by sinking his soul into it.
Now, only one Mystic Fruit Seed was left while the other was missing. Furthermore, the surface of the seed in his hand was now full of complicated patterns.
That led Lu Ye to speculate that Mystic Fruit Seeds could merge with each other.
The two Mystic Fruit Seeds were placed together, and without him realizing it, they had become one. Although it sounded ridiculous, it was the only explanation.
Unwilling to give up, he rummaged through his Storage Sphere again, but the other seed was still nowhere to be found.
It seemed that the two seeds had really combined into one.
His own Mystic Fruit Seed could lead him to enter the Rift of Illusions to practice Blade Technique, so he wondered what the new one could do for him.
Regardless, he just had to give it a shot.
He clenched the seed and infused his Spiritual Power into it before letting his soul plunge into it.
His vision blurred for a moment before he appeared in a sealed space, where there was an ancient-looking door in front of him with some words above it. ‘If you wish to enter the Rift of Illusions, you have to spend 100 Contribution Points.’
Nothing seemed to have changed as he had seen the same thing in the past.
While he was in his thoughts, he suddenly caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, he was surprised.
That was because there was another door in that direction, and the words above it read, ‘If you wish to enter the Rift of Illusions, you have to spend 10,000 Contribution Points.’
There was a difference of a hundred times between 100 and 10,000!
He was certain that there was only one door in this sealed space in the past, and that he only needed to spend 100 Contribution Points to enter the Rift of Illusions. After pushing the door open, he would enter an environment that was shrouded in fog, where countless cultivators or all sorts of insectoids would appear, which would allow him to practice his Blade Technique and brush up on skills he could use to kill his enemies.
At that moment, he wondered where the door that required him to spend 10,000 Contribution Points would lead him to.
Why did such a transformation happen when two Mystic Fruit Seeds with the same effect became one?
Lu Ye suddenly felt that the Mystic Fruit Seeds were more complicated than he thought. The Heavens had blessed the two Mystic Fruit Seeds with an effect that could lead a cultivator to the Rift of Illusions, and when two seeds with the same effect were merged, it had retained the original effect, but there was also a new effect he had never come into contact with before.
Judging from the number of Contribution Points required, the place where the second door led must be dangerous.
Certainly, that might not be the case at all. He had to explore it to find out.
Under normal circumstances, Lu Ye wouldn’t enter the second door. At the end of the day, he was only a Fifth Order Cloud River Realm Master, so he wouldn’t want to barge into a dangerous place that could kill him.
However, it was the Rift of Illusions. Even if he was killed, he wouldn’t really lose his life; he would only suffer some pain.
Other cultivators might not be able to fork out 10,000 Contribution Points, but the amount was nothing to Lu Ye.
Therefore, after staring at the second door for a while, he made up his mind.
He had to enter it. Regardless of where the second door led to or what danger awaited him, he had to explore it and find out.
Even if he failed, he would only lose 10,000 Contribution Points and be forced to leave the Rift of Illusions.
With that in mind, he walked up to the second door and pressed his hand against it.
The back of his hand felt slightly warm as 10,000 Contribution Points were deducted. He stepped into the place after the heavy door was pushed open.
Right after he passed through the door, he was overwhelmed with a sense of surrealism. It was as if he had suddenly broken free from some restraints and become much stronger.
Nevertheless, he didn’t have time to ponder. Every time he arrived at a new environment, he had to immediately conceal his presence and put on his guard, ensuring that no one could ambush him.
Therefore, as he walked past the door, he activated some Glyphs to curb his aura and conceal his presence. At the same time, he clenched the hilt of Inviolable Saber at his waist, ready to attack anything that came his way.
Meanwhile, the moment Lu Ye moved past the new door and entered the unknown space, Amber and Yi Yi, respectively sleeping and cultivating in the room, noticed the anomaly as they turned to look at Lu Ye.
At that instant, the two of them felt strange. It was as if Lu Ye had disappeared all of a sudden, even though he was right before their eyes.
Yi Yi was gripped by a sense of fear. Despite knowing that she shouldn’t disturb the man at this point, she still couldn’t help but call out weakly, “Lu Ye?”
The man didn’t respond to her.
She rose to her feet and approached Lu Ye. After observing him for a moment, she tremulously placed her fingers beneath his nose, and she yelled the next moment, “Lu Ye!”
That was because she realized Lu Ye had suddenly stopped breathing, and she could feel that the man had lost something crucial.
As an apparition, she wasn’t powerful; she was only on the same level as Lu Ye. However, her perception of souls was sensitive.
Presently, there was no soul in Lu Ye’s body. In other words, only his figure was left there, and he wasn’t even breathing.
Amber was equally shocked as the tiger ran toward Lu Ye and patted him with its paw.
“Lu Ye is dead!” Yi Yi fell to her bottom and wailed, drowning in a great sense of grief.
A flabbergasted Amber growled at Lu Ye, but the man never responded to it. Why was he dead all of a sudden when he was cultivating moments ago?
After giving it some thought, the tiger realized something was off. If Lu Ye was dead, it would be gone for good as well. As such, it turned its head and growled at Yi Yi.
She could read Amber’s mind, so she came to her senses upon the tiger’s reminder.
There wasn’t only a Bonding Pact between Lu Ye and Amber, but they had also activated the Life Energy Art together. Since Amber was his Fated Beast, Lu Ye would suffer some damage if the tiger was dead. However, if Lu Ye passed away, there was no way Amber could live on.
On the other hand, Yi Yi was an apparition that was inseparable from Amber. If the tiger was dead, she would go to Hell as well.
Therefore, Lu Ye’s life or death would also affect the tiger and the apparition.
Since Amber and Yi Yi were still alive and kicking, it showed that Lu Ye wasn’t dead.
Upon that realization, Yi Yi quickly suppressed her sorrow and extended her trembling hand to find out if Lu Ye was still breathing.
Fortunately, she could still feel his breath, though it was very weak.
The emotional swing drained all the energy out of Yi Yi, almost causing her to collapse to the floor.
Nonetheless, she didn’t understand what Lu Ye had done that made him fall into such a state. She could sense that the man’s body was merely an empty shell, and it was a mystery as to where his soul had gone.
<
>