Sage of Humanity-Chapter 605 - 603: Night Exploration

Not long after the great battle at Great Reversal Valley had ended—mere moments it seemed—Tu Guanxiong received intelligence from the Universe Sect cultivators, which left him utterly shocked once he read it.

Under Huo Liaoyuan’s leadership, not only had the two sects failed to breach Lu Yiye’s spirit ground or capture him, but they had also suffered a resounding defeat and heavy losses!

Sixty-three cultivators had died in the conflict, among them forty-five from the Sacred Fire Order and eighteen from the Universe Sect.

A mere sentence conveyed an overwhelming stench of blood.

Tu Guanxiong hardly dared to believe it, personally contacting Huo Liaoyuan for confirmation, and it took a while before his shock turned to stupefaction.

How could this happen?

How could this possibly be?

Huo Liaoyuan had taken more than seventy cultivators from Sacred Universe Spirit Ground, and had gathered almost the same number of Sacred Fire Order cultivators, totaling over one hundred fifty men to deal with a lone Lu Yiye. How could the losses be so heavy, even if the adversary could command a wolf pack?

After contacting several Universe Sect cultivators again, Tu Guanxiong eventually understood the root cause of such massive losses.

It was the Great Sky Prohibition Array!

The Sacred Universe Spirit Ground on their side lacked a Great Sky Prohibition Array, yet Lu Yiye had one? Just how advanced was this fellow’s mastery over array paths?

The deceptive weakness shown by the first layer of the protective array isolated the cultivators who rushed into the spirit ground, making it impossible for them to coordinate; the sudden strike of the Great Sky Prohibition Array left the cultivators who were trapped inside completely unprepared. Unable to fly freely, they naturally struggled against the numerous demon wolves.

With this understanding, Tu Guanxiong sighed deeply. Although he was annoyed at Huo Liaoyuan’s carelessness, he couldn’t really blame him. Anyone in Huo Liaoyuan’s position would find it impossible to reverse such a situation.

After some thought, all he could do was send a message to Huo Liaoyuan, informing him that he would gather disciples of the Universe Sect scattered nearby to come help, and advised him not to make any rash moves until he had sufficient forces.

That was Huo Liaoyuan’s plan as well, so he naturally agreed.

Moments later, across the Cloud River battlefield, numerous cultivators from both sects received the message and set off toward the direction of Great Wilderness Mountain. But these cultivators were at varying distances and the quickest among them would need seven to eight days to arrive, while the slowest could take up to twenty days—there was no immediate hope of reinforcement.

Inside the spirit ground of Great Reversal Valley, several people were cleaning the messy battlefield and collecting the spoils of war.

Li Baxian and others were all unharmed; only a few demon wolves had died in battle. Compared to their victory, such losses were almost negligible.

However, Giant Armor seemed slightly saddened. Although initially, the wolf pack had followed him willingly, much to his annoyance, the time spent together had changed his initial thoughts.

The ability to station the spirit ground inside Great Reversal Valley relied on the protection and guardianship of the wolf pack, rather than the protective arrays set up by Lu Ye.

Indeed, today’s battle proved that without the wolves’ aid, no matter how many formations Lu Ye set up, they would be useless. There were only four of them in total. No matter how capable they were in fighting beyond their levels, how many could they actually kill?

So even though only a few demon wolves had died, Giant Armor felt deeply saddened.

"Junior Brother Lu, the people from Sacred Universe Spirit Ground are stationed at the mouth of the valley. It seems they are waiting for reinforcements," Li Baxian said slowly, observing the mouth of the valley from within the spirit ground.

The battle today resulted in great losses for Universe Spirit Ground. Realizing that this side was covered by a Great Sky Prohibition Array, they definitely wouldn’t come uninvited anymore.

But having suffered such a major defeat and yet not retreating, instead taking up a strict defensive stance as if they were fearful that Lu Ye and others might escape, it was clear they were gathering more manpower.

Once they had gathered enough reinforcements on their side, they would surely attack the spirit ground fiercely.

"Should I call some people over to help as well?" Li Baxian asked.

Lu Ye shook his head, "Money is easy to pay, favors are hard to repay. This is our own matter; we’ll handle it ourselves without bothering others."

Although with the connections of Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan it would certainly be no problem to call for help, during the last incident at the hunting grounds, when Lu Ye was being chased by many strong cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, Li Baxian had already asked many people for help. These favors were debts that would weigh on Li Baxian.

If they asked for help again today, the burden would only increase.

Hearing this, Li Baxian sighed, "You have a point."

Lu Ye said, "Before today, if we had escaped back to the Nine Provinces, it wouldn’t matter much, but after today, trying to escape back to the Nine Provinces... the losses would involve more than just a Heaven’s Augury Pillar and a spring spirit."

Li Baxian was momentarily stunned but quickly understood what he meant.

While they could certainly escape back to the Nine Provinces and avoid trouble here, the wolf pack wouldn’t be able to leave. Today’s battle saw dozens of cultivators from both sects slaughtered by the wolf pack. Once they left, the rage of the cultivators from both sects would undoubtedly be vented on the wolf pack. How many of the pack would survive then, they could only guess—it likely wouldn’t be long before they were completely annihilated.

Given such worries, Giant Armor might not be willing to abandon the wolf pack and return with them to the Nine Provinces. If Giant Armor didn’t leave, how could they possibly go?

"Compared to the situation at Sacred Universe Spirit Ground, I’m more concerned about something else," Lu Ye frowned slightly.

"What is it?"

"Xia Liang and Tan Sheng," Lu Ye said the two names, "The Sacred Universe Spirit Ground was able to accurately find the location of our spirit ground and even dispatched so many people at once. They clearly had an understanding of our situation, and this intelligence could only have been leaked by Xia Liang and Tan Sheng. But today, I didn’t see either of them... Moreover, while Sacred Universe Spirit Ground had a lot of information, there were two things they were unaware of. First, they didn’t know that the spirit ground had a Great Sky Prohibition Array; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been so careless today. Second, they didn’t know we have Heaven’s Augury Pillar."

If Sacred Universe Spirit Ground had known about the presence of Heaven’s Augury Pillar in the spirit ground, they might not have been willing to advance all the way here, because even if they really pushed Lu Ye to a dead end, he could use the Heaven’s Augury Pillar to return to the Nine Provinces.

"This means the information Xia Liang and Tan Sheng revealed was held back," Lu Ye said, nodding. "Hiding the existence of Heaven’s Augury Pillar is nothing more than sitting on the fence and waiting to profit from the fisherman’s benefit. As for not revealing the Great Sky Prohibition Array, it’s probably to intensify the hatred."

"So, these two must be hiding in the dark!"

"How sinister!" In the midst of speaking, Lu Ye stood up. "Senior Brother, I’m going to scout their position. At least these covert enemies must be brought to light. I won’t let these two scoundrels spy on us from the shadows."

Li Baxian quickly intervened, "That’s too dangerous."

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"Just waiting here is like sitting ducks. Don’t worry, Senior Brother, I’m confident. I’m certainly not their match, but it’s not so easy for them to kill me either," Lu Ye reassured.

"Then I’ll come with you!"

Lu Ye smiled wryly, "Senior Brother, aren’t you well aware of my capabilities? If you come with me, I won’t be able to employ my methods effectively."

Li Baxian was about to say something more when the usually silent Feng Yuechan tugged at his sleeve and spoke up, "Junior Brother Lu is right. Just waiting here is like sitting ducks. We must find a way to break the situation. Junior Brother Lu has the means of a ghost cultivator; you following would only add to the chaos."

Li Baxian furrowed his brows and remained silent.

Feng Yuechan took out a small umbrella and said, "Junior Brother Lu, if you insist on acting alone, then refine this and take it with you. Otherwise, neither your Senior Brother nor I will agree!"

Lu Ye looked at the small umbrella. Although he didn’t know what kind of power it possessed, given that Feng Yuechan had brought it out at this moment, it must have strong protective capabilities.

"Okay!" He didn’t refuse Feng Yuechan’s goodwill, took the small umbrella, and quietly sensed it only to be amazed to find that it was a magic-artifact class object.

Cultivators of the Cloud River Realm naturally couldn’t unleash all the power of a magic artifact, just like Yiyi had been unable to fully activate the Nine Arrays Diagram’s power all this time. Their strength wasn’t sufficient, they hadn’t reached that level yet.

Moreover, forcibly activating it would definitely consume a lot.

However, with this object in hand, he had at least some extra means to protect his life.

But to unleash its power, he needed to refine it first.

Lu Ye immediately began to refine it with his spirit force, with Feng Yuechan, the original owner, cooperating, which made it not too difficult. After the refinement was complete, Lu Ye discovered not only did the small umbrella possess strong protective capabilities, but it also had the ability to isolate breath and conceal presence.

However, when activating its effect of isolating breath, he couldn’t move, which was similar to a trace-erasing bangle Lu Ye had obtained before.

This effect wasn’t of much use to Lu Ye. He could already construct Concealment and Breath-concealing Spirit Runes; with the dual enhancement of these two spirit runes, his concealing ability was stronger than that of an average ghost cultivator, so he had no need for external aid.

Now, with the moon at its zenith and the night deep and quiet, it was a good time to act.

Lu Ye walked directly to a corner of the room, where a teleportation array he had set up a few days ago was located.

People from the Sacred Universe Spirit Ground were camping at the valley entrance, certainly keeping strict watch over the situation on this side of the spirit ground, constantly monitoring any movement here.

However, a big array concealing the area covered the spirit ground, so they couldn’t see the inside. If Lu Ye walked out from inside, he would surely disturb the concealing big array, revealing some traces.

Teleporting directly out would spare him this worry.

Standing in the teleportation array, Lu Ye connected his mind with the positions of several other teleportation points.

Li Baxian, still worried, reminded him, "Be very careful, Junior Brother."

Lu Ye nodded. The space around him slightly twisted, and then his figure vanished.

Over 200 miles away from the Great Reversal Valley Spirit Ground, in a secluded cave in the mountains, spirit force suddenly surged, and Lu Ye’s figure appeared.

The first thing he did was to sense in all directions. He didn’t notice any signs of life, which reassured him enough to step out of the cave with composure.

He didn’t summon his Spiritual Artifact, to avoid leaving conspicuous traces. With his spirit force activated, he took to the air and headed straight towards Great Reversal Valley.

In the past, demon wolves hunted every few days, which resulted in very few demon beasts being encountered within a thousand miles around Great Reversal Valley, facilitating Lu Ye’s current action. Otherwise, meeting a few demon beasts along the way would just add to the trouble.

Even so, he didn’t fly too high, just more than ten yards above the ground.

Only when he was about thirty to fifty miles from the Great Reversal Valley did Lu Ye land, fully employing Concealment and Breath-concealing, and completely disappeared.