Sage of Humanity

There were no signs of battle around, yet the body of a 9th Heaven level ghost cultivator lay there.

The situation... seemed somewhat complicated.

Then he lifted his eyes to meet Lu Ye's expressionless gaze...

Cold sweat flowed from Yul Qi's forehead, almost at the moment their eyes met, Yul Qi knew he was exposed.

Although he couldn't understand how he had been exposed.

Logically speaking, a 7th Heaven level combat cultivator like Lu Yiye shouldn't have been able to detect him.

Ghost cultivators were indeed naturally capable of defeating enemies of higher levels, but once a ghost cultivator's whereabouts were exposed, their deterrence undoubtedly diminished greatly.

Without any hesitation, Yul Qi's figure leapt backward, bursting forth with unprecedented speed at that moment.

The hissing sound of tearing through the air arose, as three streaks of light shot towards him in a trigram formation.

He had heard of Lu Ye's weapon control skills early on, so he hurriedly summoned his Spiritual Artifact. Clinking and clanging sounds were heard as the three streaks of light aimed at him were deflected. Yul Qi used the rebound force to fly back more than ten meters, but just as he steadied himself, another streak of light quietly approached from the side.

Yul Qi hastily dodged, but was still grazed on the shoulder by the streak of light, and immediately intense pain surged, with blood flowing from his shoulder.

Simultaneously, the sound of air being torn came from behind, and on looking up, five or six streaks of light were attacking from various different angles.

In that instant, only one thought flashed through Yul Qi's mind,

My life is over!

He knew Lu Ye was strong, capable of leaping two levels to kill a 9th Heaven cultivator with his 7th Heaven cultivation, but previously he only heard of it without a clear concept, until now experiencing it firsthand.

Thinking that he himself was a 8th Heaven cultivator with three hundred and ten orifices opened, facing Lu Ye who was a level lower in cultivation, he didn't even have a chance to retaliate.

Moreover, from start to finish, the man had been sitting there without moving, merely using his weapon control skills to drive him into a desperate situation.

This strength had already surpassed his understanding.

In the moment of life and death, he pressed his hand onto his own battlefield marking, and urgently sent out a message.

In his mind, only one thought persisted: his own death didn't matter; he must reveal Lu Yiye's location immediately.

He hadn't done so earlier upon discovering Lu Ye because he wanted to monopolize the benefits of killing Lu Ye, but now, he couldn't afford not to send the message.

He just didn't know if it was too late!

Ding...

A light ringing sound arose, and Yul Qi could almost feel the sharpness of the approaching weapons from all angles. Then, he realized that he was not dead yet.

The Spiritual Artifacts stopped just one inch away from him, all halted in place.

Yul Qi maintained his rigid posture, not daring to move.

Sweat dripped down his face in large drops, and Yul Qi rolled his eyeballs, looking towards Lu Ye who still sat in the same spot.

"Did you finish sending the message?" Lu Ye spoke.

"What?" Yul Qi did not catch on.

"Did the message go out?"

"Mhm." Yul Qi instinctively responded.

"Very good!"

As his words fell, the Spiritual Artifacts suspended in front of Yul Qi exploded with brilliant spirit light.

In the imminent moment of his death, Yul Qi gritted his teeth and said, "I'll be waiting for you on the road to Hell!"

Blood splashed everywhere as the hastily conjured protective spirit force around Yul Qi was like paper under the Spirit Artifacts' assault, piercing through his vital points, and with bursts of hot blood, flew back into the supplies box at Lu Ye's waist.

Plop...

Yul Qi's body fell.

Giant Armor put down the half-cooked mountain pig he was roasting, stepped forward, and lifted Yul Qi's body, taking the storage sack from his waist and throwing the body behind a large rock. Behind the rock, several corpses lay scattered haphazardly.

All were ghost cultivators who had discovered Lu Ye's whereabouts, yet each one of these cultivators had foolishly thought to kill him single-handedly. The result was that, without exception, they all ended up lying here.

None of the ghost cultivators had managed to leak his location before dying.

Until Yul Qi.

After days of preparations and a significant expenditure of merit, his location was now exposed. A feast of slaughter was about to start.

Mere moments after Yul Qi's death, in Fog-shrouded Mountain, various squads from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge began rapidly converging towards Lu Ye's location.

The squad closest to him took only half an hour to arrive and spotted Lu Ye from a distance. This squad did not rashly attack but quietly lay in wait, waiting for other squads to converge.

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An hour later, the gathered squads reached five, numbering over seventy people.

More teams were converging from all directions.

It was not until then that several teams began to encircle from all sides, and as the distance closed, a killing intent started to erupt.

At this point, there was no need to hide their movements, and as they looked at the figure standing on the giant rock, each Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator's eyes were filled with fervor.

"Lu Yiye, meet your death!"

"Kill Lu Yiye!"

"Avenge our fallen Fellow Daoists!"

Angry shouts roared from all sides, and at first glance, it looked like many righteous heroes besieging a most wicked demon. Bursts of light from controlled weapons and spells began to radiate, thunderously striking towards Lu Ye.

However, to the utter astonishment of all Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, Lu Ye stood there unmoved, facing the overwhelming onslaught, without even the intent to dodge.

What the hell was he doing? All the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators watching this scene were perplexed.

Such aggression would be tough even for an average cultivator from the Cloud River Realm, not to mention a 7th Heaven level cultivator.

Unless he wanted to die.

Naturally, Lu Ye did not seek death. Just as those numerous attacks were about to strike, a banner suddenly appeared in his hand. With a slight flick of the banner, spirit force was activated, and a visible layer of light shield barrier suddenly rose, tightly wrapping him and the Giant Armor.

Above the light shield barrier, Defense Spirit Runes swam around like fish.

"Protective array!" a Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator exclaimed, now understanding Lu Ye's apparent disregard for anyone.

The site he occupied had clearly been set up with a protective array.

This defensive Formation, fundamentally similar to the stationary protective arrays, seemed exceptionally strong since it was meant to protect a smaller space.

The reason why Lu Ye was dreaded by all factions of Ten Thousand Demons was precisely because of his array destruction skills demonstrated in the inner circle. He was capable of dismantling protective arrays of that caliber, and setting up arrays was naturally no challenge for him.

A sense of unease arose in many of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, recalling a problem that they had long overlooked...

A thunderous noise erupted, and when the power of various controlled weapons and spells fell, the protective array shielding Lu Ye and the Giant Armor rippled in layers, its brightness visibly dimming and likely to shatter in less than ten breaths.

However, just then, another banner appeared in Lu Ye's hand. When the banner was waved, over a dozen cultivators from a Ten Thousand Demons Ridge team approaching from the side felt a skin-pricking sting, and a profound sense of danger arose within them.

At the same time, bright patterns emerged beneath their feet, swiftly forming a large array covering an area spanning over ten meters.

Four hidden banner poles surfaced at the four corners of the formation, resonating with each other, and the spirit force stored within the banners delineated a pattern of spirit runes.

Explosion!

This was a spirit rune that Lu Ye had recently obtained from the Talent Tree, and it was particularly suited for use in formations.

His extensive knowledge of the Array Path garnered from the challenge in the Hundred Arrays Pagoda at the Tianyan Sect had led to an unimaginable improvement in his expertise, with profound insights not immediately evident. Many pieces of knowledge were worth savoring repeatedly, which enhanced his mastery of Array Path during the process.

In the tests of the Hundred Arrays Pagoda, he had arranged many formations according to its requirements, so his skills in array setup had improved significantly since then.

How strong the power burst from an array structured with four banner poles and based on the Explosion Spirit Runes, filled with a large amount of Spirit Stone energy stored by Lu Ye, was something he also wanted to see.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators feared his ability to destroy arrays, but none had yet tested his skills in array setup.

"Run fast!" a Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator shouted.

But it was too late.

The destructive spirit force boiled to its limit in an instant; the moment the Explosion Spirit Runes formed, the ground shook, and a deafening roar rang out, startling all Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators rushing towards Lu Ye, instinctively halting their advance.

Looking in the direction of the noise, one could only see a flurry of Blood Rain falling, with limbs and flesh scattered everywhere. A team of over a dozen Ten Thousand Demons Ridge members was decimated in an instant, with the survivors badly injured, falling to the ground and screaming in agony.

The power of this explosive magic array was even better than expected.

However, the cost was high, and the banners used just now were damaged beyond repair.

These four banners were not a reward from the Hundred Arrays Pagoda.

The banners awarded by the Hundred Arrays Pagoda were extraordinary, and Lu Ye would never dare to waste those recklessly.

These four banners had been purchased by him from the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, each costing between dozens to hundreds of merit points, a price almost equivalent to a decent low-grade spirit artifact.

Lu Ye had spent nearly all of his thousands of merit points on buying banners and array bases.

Actually, if Lu Ye were strong enough, given his advantage of possessing fire-type spiritual power, he could have bought some materials and crafted the needed banners himself.

However, given his current cultivation level wasn't up to that mark, and lacking the time and conditions to craft on his own, he had to buy ready-made ones from Heaven's Augury treasure vault.

For him, this was not a loss because killing enemies itself earned merit, and the spoils of war could be resold for more merit or Spirit Stones.

If the enemies he killed were wealthy enough, it wouldn't just break even, there would be a profit.

As the first explosive formation activated, a few more arrays were triggered.

With the second loud noise, the squad of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators covered by the array suffered the same fate as the earlier team, suffering heavy casualties.

The other formations were not all explosive types, but each had its unique utility; controlled by Lu Ye, spells radiated within the arrays, causing immense distress to the afflicted Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators.