Sage of Humanity

Less than half a day later, Lu Ye sensed something amiss; it seemed that there were no Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators in this area anymore. Not only that, but even the demon beasts that originally lived here seemed to have sensed the coming danger and were fleeing the area one after another.

The relentless pursuit of the bee swarm was incessant and unforgiving. Had it not been for Lu Ye's ability to continuously replenish his spirit force with the help of the Talent Tree and the Bestial Gluttony Feast, he would have been unable to hold on.

The honey scavenged from that huge beehive had been a great help; this fine-quality honey had a more significant effect on the recovery of stamina and spirit force compared to the inferior honey he encountered earlier.

At this point, he could no longer be concerned about whether he might attract any scents again. Without properly replenishing his strength, there was no way to continue fleeing.

Lu Ye had tried flying through the air several times, but even if he maintained the Move-Like-The-Wind Spirit Runes regardless of the consumption of spirit force, he could only temporarily shake off the bee swarm. As soon as he took a brief pause, the swarm would quickly catch up to him.

It was endless.

The only plan for now was to take a less conventional route to rid himself of the swarm.

The ten-part map showed that deep within Fog-shrouded Mountain, there was a Land of Fiery Flames, enveloping thousands of miles and with an extremely harsh environment. It could be considered one of the perilous lands within the Spirit Stream battlefield.

In theory, such an extreme environment should be barren, but in reality, while the Land of Fiery Flames was unbearably hot, it still possessed a vitality within its heat. This resulted in the land neither being lush and green nor being a barren wasteland.

Moreover, that place was rich in fire attribute Spirit Plants and minerals.

When Lu Ye initially decided to enter Fog-shrouded Mountain, he had discovered the Land of Fiery Flames and considered visiting it after resolving the issue with those from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge who were after him.

After all, the Talent Tree could devour unclaimed things containing scorching energy; there might be some gains to be had in the Land of Fiery Flames.

Now the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators had vanished, but he was being followed by something even more troublesome, leaving Lu Ye with no choice but to head towards the Land of Fiery Flames.

As long as the environment there was harsh enough, it could block the bee swarm for him.

Of course, the prerequisite was that he himself could withstand it!

After all, he was a 7th Heaven level cultivator, and his body was comparable to a physique cultivator of the same level. His endurance should be stronger than that of the demon bees.

With his decision made, Lu Ye followed the guidance of the ten-part map and headed straight for the Land of Fiery Flames.

He even tried to fly through the air a few times on the way, hoping to lose the swarm of bees behind him, but all attempts ended in failure.

After walking and stopping intermittently, two days later, the tall trees that filled his vision had disappeared, the vegetation became noticeably sparser, and a faint burning heat flowed throughout the surrounding environment.

He had arrived at the outskirts of the Land of Fiery Flames.

Two days of almost non-stop fleeing had been grueling for Lu Ye. Now that he had reached the Land of Fiery Flames and confirmed that the environment matched what was recorded on the ten-part map, a glimmer of hope immediately surged in his heart.

As he continued forward, the vegetation grew even sparser. With no natural barriers and obstacles, the speed of the pursuing bee swarm increased significantly.

Out of necessity, Lu Ye had to bring out his Flying Spirit Artifact, skimming across just a few dozen feet above the ground.

The farther he went, the more apparent the scorching heat became, to the point where even the ground started to become dry and cracked.

However, as recorded on the ten-part map, this scorching heat was not devoid of vitality. On the contrary, it contained a unique life force, which made it possible for certain Spirit Plants to survive in such an environment.

There were rumors that a supreme treasure existed within the Land of Fiery Flames, which was the source of the peculiar environment. Over the years, many cultivators had been attracted to enter the Land of Fiery Flames in search of treasure.

But they either returned empty-handed or their corpses were left to decay in the wilderness.

It must be known that on the ten-part maps sold by the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, the Land of Fiery Flames was marked as a perilous land. Every location that was marked as a perilous land was a forbidden zone for cultivators.

The dangers here not only came from the environment itself but also from factors outside of it.

For example... demon beasts!

The special environment of the Land of Fiery Flames attracted many fire attribute demon beasts to live here. Many of them were extremely powerful, and an average cultivator would stand no chance against them.

For instance, the fire lizard that Lu Ye encountered at the moment. This creature crawled on the ground, blending in with the surroundings, its stealth not inferior even to the best ghost cultivators.

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When Lu Ye flew overhead, a long tongue shot out, sticking to the flying spirit ark. Had Lu Ye not reacted quickly, deploying several weapon control attacks from his supplies box to sever it, he would likely have been dragged down.

The fire lizard's tongue was incredibly elastic, and Lu Ye's weapon control attacks failed to cut it completely. After being hurt, the creature even spat out flames ferociously.

Lu Ye immediately ascended higher to hastily avoid it.

As a result, the bee swarm that had been chasing him became unfortunate victims; under the raging flames, at least dozens of demon bees perished.

More fire lizards revealed themselves nearby, spewing out bursts of flames, causing swathes of demon bees to fall like raindrops.

Seeing this spectacle, Lu Ye's eyebrows lifted slightly, feeling a sense of relief for the persistent frustration he had been carrying for days.

Yet, were the demon bees so easily provoked? The Lu Ye Extermination Alliance cultivators who had been stung to death by them in the hundreds served as a warning; although these creatures had low spiritual intelligence, their vengefulness was exceptionally strong. Lu Ye had merely scavenged some honey and royal jelly from that huge beehive, and they had chased him relentlessly all the way here.

The fire lizards had dared to slaughter the demon bees— their fate could not be good.

The buzzing became more intense, a blanket of demon bees descending from the sky; the flames they spat out were quickly extinguished. Accompanied by hissing noises, the fire lizards lay stiff on the ground, spasmodically twitching.

After the swarm of bees had whizzed past, only about a dozen fire lizard corpses remained on the ground.

The fire lizards were just peripheral demon beasts, not too strong. The deeper one went, the more fire-attribute demon beasts one encountered, and their strength correspondingly greater.

These demon beasts usually perched within their own territory, occasionally venturing out to hunt. No one had expected that disaster would befall them while they sat at home, brought down from the heavens.

Perhaps having learned from their encounter with the fire lizards, wherever the swarm of bees went, they stung any demon beast they came across, whether provoked or not, causing their victims' bodies to swell and fall dead.

In no time, the Land of Fiery Flames was strewn with countless dead and injured demon beasts.

Perhaps influenced by the scorching environment around them, the demon bees seemed to have lost their minds at this moment, frenziedly retaliating against all living creatures around them.

Perhaps their simple spiritual intelligence had sensed that Lu Ye, the thief who had stolen their treasure, was about to make his escape.

A half-day later, Lu Ye had ventured deeply into the Land of Fiery Flames.

Here, the searing heat of the surrounding environment was more than the average cultivator could withstand, and the high temperature made the surrounding area appear abnormally dark red, as if twisted.

Lu Ye activated his spirit force to protect his body, yet he was still drenched in sweat. His perspiration had barely emerged before being evaporated, rendering his clothes rigid and extremely uncomfortable against his skin.

This was despite his cultivation being at the 7th Heaven level and his practicing of a fire attribute Cultivation Technique; otherwise, he wouldn't have lasted this long.

By this time, the pursuing swarm of demon bees had also suffered heavy losses. Chasing him all this way, countless had been killed by demon beasts along their path. Those that remained seemed to have lost their vitality, not only slowing down significantly but also, many of the weaker bees had fallen out of the chase entirely. Even more were dropping to the ground as their wings were damaged by the high temperature; their limbs melted by the intense heat of the ground, they lost their life force and ultimately combusted into fireballs.

Lu Ye looked back and felt a sense of calm, knowing that coming to the Land of Fiery Flames had been the right choice; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to shake off this swarm of demon bees.

After flying a bit further, the sounds of pursuit from behind gradually quieted.

Looking back again, Lu Ye saw that the now sparse number of demon bees were no longer advancing but hovered in place, quietly watching him.

A moment later, the remnants of the swarm reversed direction and returned the way they had come.

Lu Ye watched them go.

He had finally shaken off this plague of demon bees.

With a lightened heart, overwhelming fatigue washed over him, and the spirit ark that he was controlling through the air wobbled slightly.

Lu Ye quickly took some good-quality honey from his storage sack to replenish his physical strength and spirit force, and also swallowed several elixir pills.

He neither retreated nor continued onward.

Lu Ye lowered his fleeing light and descended.

He had been relentlessly pursued for several days and hadn't had a chance to properly rest. Although the environment was harsh, there was no longer the pressing danger of being chased, so he could stop to rest for a while and recover somewhat.

He chose not to retreat for two reasons. Firstly, he feared the swarm of demon bees might be waiting for him outside. Having managed to shake them off after so much difficulty, Lu Ye never wanted to deal with that swarm of demon bees again in his life.

The second reason was the abnormality of the Talent Tree.

Since half a day ago, he had had a vague feeling that something was unusual about the Talent Tree; this feeling was very similar to when he used the Talent Tree to absorb Earth's Core Fire.

Upon introspection, he could even see new roots emerging from the Talent Tree anchored in his Root Spiritual Orifice, floating all around.

It looked as though the Talent Tree wanted to absorb something, but couldn't find the spot...

This made Lu Ye certain of something: there must be fire-type treasures in the Land of Fiery Flames that the Talent Tree could absorb!

This was a great attraction for Lu Ye. Over the past few days, the Earth's Core Fire absorbed by the Talent Tree had all been purchased from the Heaven's Augury treasure vault with his own merits, each portion of Earth's Core Fire costing two hundred merits.

For any cultivator, two hundred merits were no small sum, and Lu Ye had spent roughly twenty thousand merits in total on them.

If he could find fire-type treasures in this place for the Talent Tree to absorb, it would effectively save him a substantial amount of merits.

Naturally, this was worth exploring for him.

As time passed, Lu Ye slowly recovered, and the surrounding heat seemed to lessen considerably.

Lu Ye knew it wasn't that the heat itself had diminished, but rather that he had gradually adapted to the environment here, giving his physique some resistance to it.@@novelbin@@

He hadn't noticed this before because he had delved in too quickly. He had flown in with weapon control, and as he went deeper, the harshness of the environment accelerated too quickly for his body to adjust.

Now that he had stopped, this adaptability was slowly becoming apparent.

Realizing this, Lu Ye abandoned his original plan to continue deeper with weapon control and instead proceeded on foot, stepping forward deliberately.