Sage of Humanity

Those from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge could see the tremendous threat Lu Ye posed to their side, and they wished to eliminate that threat to prevent future troubles; the Haotian Alliance could likewise not fail to see this.

To Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, Lu Ye the Sect Destroyer was a disaster star, the source of chaos and calamity, but to the Haotian Alliance, Lu Ye was the young generation's rapidly rising star, a pillar to stand against Ten Thousand Demons Ridge in the future.

When one's stance differs, so naturally does one's attitude towards people and things.

If Ten Thousand Demons Ridge wanted to kill, then the Haotian Alliance would want to protect. Since ancient times, the confrontation between these two camps has always been thus; neither side would easily fulfill the other's wishes.

It wasn't just the Beixuan Sword Sect that had sent people; many sects from the Core Circle had also dispatched their disciples. However, they didn't know from which direction Lu Ye would come, so they scattered to various locations to search and wait.

Lu Ye came from this direction and encountered the Beixuan Sword Sect; had he come from another direction, he might have encountered the Righteousness Sect, Qingyu Sect, or the Jade Cloud Palace.

The Beixuan Sword Sect has extremely stringent requirements for taking in disciples; looking across all the 1st grade sects in the Nine Provinces, this sect had the fewest members. Within the Core Circle, there were only a few dozen disciples from the sect headquarters in the Beixuan Sword Sect's station. Now, more than ten of them had been dispatched, demonstrating how much they valued Lu Ye, a decision surely influenced by Li Baxian.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, you cannot go to the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest; the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge has laid numerous traps there, just waiting for you to walk right into them."

"A member of our Righteous Blood Sect is trapped inside."

"I've heard. Even if you have to go, now is not the time. You need to gather more forces first. Right now, Ten Thousand Demons Ridge has the upper hand, with thousands of their cultivators gathered there. Without adequate manpower, we can't breach their defenses."

"We can't wait any longer. The conditions inside are harsh, and my Righteous Blood Sect disciple has already been trapped for a number of days. Further delay may result in more bad than good." Lu Ye turned to look at Yooi Lianzhou, "If a disciple of the Beixuan Sword Sect were trapped inside, what would you Fellow Daoists do?"

Yooi Lianzhou pondered briefly and replied, "I understand. Then let us accompany Fellow Daoist on this journey."

"I am deeply grateful for Fellow Daoists' willingness to help. However, this journey is perilous, and you need not venture deep into the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest."

"Fellow Daoist intends to break through alone?" Yooi Lianzhou understood the meaning behind Lu Ye's words.

"I may be able to breach their defenses and enter the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest."

"May be able to?"

"I haven't tried before, so I can't be certain. However, I still must trouble Fellow Daoists to escort me on my way. With my whereabouts now exposed, quite a few from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge will probably come to intercept me, and I need to recover for a while to maintain my spirit force."

"But Fellow Daoist Lu, even if you truly have a means to break their defenses and enter the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest, what then? The place is rife with deadly poison, a land of great danger. If you can't find a way out, you'll eventually die there."

"I have my plans, please don't worry, Fellow Daoist."

Yooi Lianzhou frowned at him, unsure whether Lu Ye was telling the truth.

Lu Ye smiled: "I value my life more than any of you."

Only then did Yooi Lianzhou nod in agreement: "We will do as you say, Fellow Daoist. However, if the task proves impossible, do not act recklessly."

"Understood."

"Let's go!"

With Yooi Lianzhou's low shout, he rose on his flying sword, and Lu Ye stepped onto his sword. A group of more than ten people turned into sword light and sped towards the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest.

Lu Ye had been worried about the endurance of his spirit force, but now with Yooi Lianzhou's Sword Control carrying him, he could concentrate on recovering his own strength.

He stuffed a large number of elixir pills into his mouth, activated the Bestial Gluttony Feast, and the buzzing in his belly never stopped, rapidly restoring his spirit force.

Along the way, numerous Haotian Alliance cultivators received the message and hurried over to join forces, and they also encountered Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators who came to kill Lu Ye head-on. However, after several groups of them were wiped out, those from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge no longer dared to act rashly, and didn't even dare to follow from afar.

Because, the speed of a sword cultivator's Sword Control is very fast; once targeted by the sword madmen of the Beixuan Sword Sect, there was a very high likelihood of not escaping.

Gradually, the number of Haotian Alliance members that gathered grew more and more, quickly reaching over two hundred people.

But as Yooi Lianzhou had previously mentioned, Ten Thousand Demons Ridge had the advantage this time, amassing far more people than the Haotian Alliance, so in a short time, the Haotian Alliance could not gather too many reinforcements.

Initially, he wanted to persuade Lu Ye to wait a few more days, to wait until the Haotian Alliance gathered enough manpower to battle with Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, but he was unable to convince him.

Under normal circumstances, waiting a few more days wouldn't matter, but in the current situation, neither Lu Ye nor the Giant Armor could afford to wait.

Moreover, even if the Haotian Alliance amassed enough manpower on their side, at most they would only be able to form a standoff with Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

A standoff involving several thousand people usually doesn't lead to battle because the numbers are too large. Once a fight broke out, both the enemy and allies would suffer heavy casualties, something neither side could bear.

Just like in the inner circle, facing the Allied Forces pulled together by Lu Ye, Ten Thousand Demons Ridge gathered a nearly equal number of cultivators to resist.

In previous years, neither of the two major factions would engage in such large-scale operations, as no one wanted to force the other into a mutual destruction scenario.

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However, since Lu Ye stirred up a storm in the inner circle, large gatherings of cultivators seem to have become the norm.

On his Spirit Sword, Lu Ye's spirit force had become abundant, yet he still felt somewhat uneasy.

The Fire Phoenix Spirit Runes that required one to two hundred leaves to bear were extremely complex to construct, but with the Talent Tree, Lu Ye wasn't worried about failing to create them. What concerned him was the enormous amount of spirit force consumed during construction, and with his current Level 7 cultivation, he wasn't sure he could manage it.

If he exhausted all his spirit force during the process... the scene would be unimaginable.

Consuming Breath Fruit wine while constructing the spirit runes was one solution, but it couldn't guarantee timely replenishment.

The best response would be to rapidly increase his own spirit force reserves, but that wasn't something one could enhance just by saying so.

To expand his spirit force reserves, he would need to open more orifices, and even though Lu Ye could open them quickly, it would still take some time to see any effect.

Lu Ye thought of a spirit rune.

Spirit Energy Storing!

This rune was specifically for storing spirit force.

Each weapon control artefact was built around a core of restriction that stored spirit energy; otherwise, there would be no way to control the artefact once it left the body.

The key for a cultivator to control artefacts was reaching Level 7, being able to manage spirit force outside their body, pre-storing spirit force in the artefact, and using the control over the stored spirit force to achieve the goal of artefact manipulation.

If he could use Spirit Energy Storing to store a large amount of spirit force, it would undoubtedly solve the problem he faced.

He could enhance his own body with the Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes, and he could do the same with the Bloodstain Spirit Runes, so naturally, he could enhance himself with the spirit energy storing spirit runes as well!

With this thought, Lu Ye immediately activated his spirit force and constructed a spirit energy storing spirit rune on his chest. Then he began to channel his own spirit force into the rune, storing it.

The spirit energy storing spirit rune itself required spirit force to maintain, and this act of injecting his own spirit force was another consumption. Moreover, the impact during spirit force injection could also cause the rune to collapse, which was undoubtedly a substantial test for Lu Ye.

Fortunately, his psyche was tough enough, his concentration strong, and his control over his own spirit force, smooth and natural.

As he slowly infused spirit force into the spirit energy storing spirit rune, Lu Ye gradually adapted, and there was no sign of the rune collapsing.

Once he confirmed his idea was workable, Lu Ye took out an elixir pill and drank a bottle of Breath Fruit wine to replenish his consumption.

As time passed, Yooi Lianzhou suddenly turned his head to glance at Lu Ye.

He vaguely sensed that there was something off about Lu Ye behind him. From Lu Ye, he felt a hint of danger, not because Lu Ye was going to sneak attack him, but because Lu Ye himself seemed like a balloon about to burst, with highly unstable spirit force fluctuations.

It wasn't just him who felt it; other cultivators nearby who were providing protection also noticed and turned their attention to it.

At this moment, the spirit energy storing spirit rune Lu Ye had constructed on his chest had reached its limit and could no longer store any more spirit force.

After sensing it briefly, the stored spirit force in this rune was roughly equivalent to thirty percent of his total reserve.

With plenty of mental capacity to spare, Lu Ye boldly constructed another similar spirit energy storing spirit rune on his back.

The same method as before!

With previous experience, this time was much simpler.

If Lu Ye's spirit force reserves were likened to a pond, then he was now digging two small connected ponds beside it. The total spirit force these two small ponds could store was roughly sixty percent of his own.

Lu Ye continued with his work until he felt he had stored enough spirit force and then stopped. By this time, he had a total of five such 'ponds' within his body.

Yooi Lianzhou's temple twitched with the sharp realisation of the crisis behind him. If Lu Ye previously resembled a balloon at the brink of bursting, now he seemed like a volcano ready to erupt at any moment.

He didn't know what Lu Ye was up to, but he could be sure of one thing—that Fellow Daoist Lu was engaging in a very risky affair!

"Fellow Daoist Yooi, please speed up!" Lu Ye's voice suddenly came from behind.

Previously, to wait for reinforcements from the Haotian Alliance from various locations, Yooi Lianzhou hadn't been flying swiftly because in his mind, the more people, the better for taking action. Even though the people they had gathered were but a mantis trying to stop a chariot against Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, having more was always better.

As for Lu Ye's previous claim that he might have a way to break through the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge's defense line and enter the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest, Yooi Lianzhou had not paid much attention. Human efforts are sometimes limited; even if Lu Ye had exhibited exceptional performance before, facing so many Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators by himself, he would still have difficulty achieving his goal.

While they were hurrying forward, he had already discussed with other Haotian Alliance cultivators who had come to join up. They planned to charge the formations together, trying to tear through Ten Thousand Demons Ridge's defense line and enter the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest. If the task proved impossible, then they would retreat and plan slowly.

They could understand Lu Ye's desire to save his sect members in the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest, so they were willing to take this risk with him. However, sensing the intense crisis from behind, Yooi Lianzhou started to believe a bit in what Lu Ye had said about possibly having a way to break through the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge's defense line.

This method hadn't even been used yet, and it was already so impressive. What would it be like if it were actually deployed?