Sage of Humanity

Under non-essential circumstances, cultivators from the same camp would not challenge each other, as doing so could easily give opposing cultivators an advantage.

Lu Ye chose to challenge the cultivator ranked ninety-ninth, but the information fed back to him from the marking was unexpected: that person was already in the midst of a challenge…

A person obviously can't accept two challenges at the same time, so if Lu Ye insisted on challenging this individual, he would have to wait until the current battle was over.

He then changed his challenge target to the one ranked ninety-eighth, and surprisingly, this person was also being challenged.

It seemed that the cultivators ranked in the last three places on the Spirit Stream Ranking were rather busy…

This indicated that if one didn't have enough strength to push towards the higher positions on the ranking list, even if by luck one climbed onto the Spirit Stream Ranking, they would quickly be beaten down.

Just as Lu Ye was prepared to wait a little longer, the name at the hundredth position on the Spirit Stream Ranking suddenly started to twist, then disappeared, to be replaced by another person's name.

The original hundredth rank had been replaced!

Lu Ye hurriedly checked the new ranker's camp, confirmed that it was a Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator, and with quick reflexes, he sent out a challenge.

This time, there was no information about this person being currently challenged.

Not a moment later, the challenge was accepted. There was no choice; to refuse would mean Lu Ye would take their place.

Having just finished challenging someone else and climbed the Spirit Stream Ranking, the opponent would certainly need some time to recover, so although they accepted the challenge, the battle did not begin immediately.

With nothing else to do, Lu Ye swallowed elixir pills for cultivation while letting the Talent Tree continue to devour the Earth's Core Fire. At the same time, he divided his attention to study the Spirit Stream Ranking.

His understanding of the Spirit Stream Ranking was all hearsay; although he had once climbed to the thirty-third position, he was quickly ousted after just three days, so he wasn't very clear about what exactly was involved in this ranking.

Time flew by, and four hours passed.

There was a message in the battlefield marking, and Lu Ye immediately stopped what he was doing, readying himself for the battle.

In the midst of the unknown, suddenly Heaven's Augury descended, enveloping him. The space around Lu Ye began to twist, his vision changed, and vast white light flooded his sight.

When the white light dissipated, a figure appeared not far in front of him: a male in his early twenties, who should be the target of this challenge.

"Ah woo…"

"Huh?"

A strange sound came from the side. Lu Ye turned his head and saw Amber and Yiyi standing beside him, both looking around in surprise. They had been asleep and cultivating respectively just moments ago, without understanding how they suddenly ended up here.

"Lu Ye, what is this place?" Yiyi asked.

"We'll talk about it later," Lu Ye replied, turning his gaze back to the opposite side. The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator was looking at him and Yiyi with a stunned expression, then glanced at Amber, utterly baffled. The agreed-upon one-on-one duel had somehow turned into a group fight!

In the Spirit Stream Ranking challenges, it was understandable for a cultivator to have beast pets that they had formed pet contracts with. There were cultivators from the beast-taming faction on the ranking list who even had more than one beast pet.

However, having two enemies participate was quite preposterous!

Just as he was about to ask about the situation, the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator suddenly recognized Lu Ye's face. Upon closer examination, wasn't this the guy whom their camp had been desperately but fruitlessly searching for recently?

Presently, the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance had many cultivators still scouring the area of his last known whereabouts, yet here he was, challenging the Spirit Stream Ranking!

"Lu Yiye!"

The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator cried out, torn between laughter and tears.

Inexplicably, a moving treasure vault had appeared right in front of him. If he could kill Lu Ye here, all the spoils would be his.

But knowing Lu Ye's formidable strength, he had barely made it onto the Spirit Stream Ranking and wasn't confident he could win this fight.

As the words fell, Lu Ye had already rushed towards him at an alarming speed.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator internally cursed—being a combat cultivator, he had deliberately chosen a very small space for the battle. This area had nothing but a combat arena a few dozen zhang square, the confined space undoubtedly suited a combat cultivator's abilities.

But Lu Ye was also a combat cultivator, facing similar advantages in this environment.

With Move-Like-The-Wind grant, his figure was agile, almost trailing an afterimage, rapidly closing the distance that originally was dozens of zhang.

That speed… The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator's eyes twitched as he raised his hand and summoned his Spiritual Artifact, feeling unlikely to be Lu Yiye's match yet resolved to at least exchange a few moves to gauge Lu Ye's strength.

Whooshing through the air, as Lu Ye dashed forward, nine Liu Guang projectiles were already hurled from the supplies box, each stream of light joining into a straight line, chasing the stars and the moon.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator had heard of Lu Ye's weapon control prowess and quickly took out a Golden Body Talisman and slapped it on himself, fully mobilizing his spirit force, protecting his body.

"Roar!" A thunderous tiger roar resounded, and visible waves of force swept towards the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator. Struck by this wave of sound, the man immediately felt as if someone had hammered his head, causing pain in his brain, seeing stars, and for a brief moment, his spirit force disbanded.

Shock overcame his heart, as Lu Yiye's companion, the White Tiger, possessed such divine might?

Just as he steadied his mind, a barrage of magic and spells assaulted him from the flank. Amidst the chaos, he caught a glimpse of the young girl who entered with Lu Yiye, her body surging with spirit force, rapidly forming one spell after another, hurling them at him as if money meant nothing.

The speed of the spellcasting and the variety of the spells were dazzling.

With booming sounds, the spells struck down, and even though the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator gave it his all to dodge, he was inevitably hit, and the golden light on his body visibly faded.

An immense sense of danger grew within him.

He quickly uttered, "I acknowl..."

Before the last word could escape him, a flying weapon had breached his Golden Body Talisman and protective spirit force, tearing through the protective treasure armor he wore, carrying with it a spray of blood as his body was forcefully knocked back, violently shaking. Read the latest on My Virtual Library Empire

Lu Ye rushed to his side, drawing the Boulder Mountain Saber. With a swift motion, the blade fell, and as he brushed past, a large head soared to the sky, gushing blood from the neckless stump, Blood Rain sprinkling down.

Some distance away, Lu Ye flicked the bloodstains off the Boulder Mountain Saber, then sheathed it.

Too weak!

Since advancing to the 7th Heaven and entering the Core Circle, he had slain many from the 9th Heaven, but this was the first time he directly fought and killed someone from the Spirit Stream Ranking. His opponent felt extremely weak, hardly a match for him.

Even though Amber and Yiyi had intervened in the battle, the level of skill displayed by the opponent still left Lu Ye feeling disappointed.

Since entering the Core Circle, Lu Ye had always been in a state of being besieged and had never fought someone in a one-on-one fight. The Spirit Stream Ranking challenge presented him with a perfect opportunity.

This way, he could use it to gauge the gap between himself and other strong cultivators on the Spirit Stream Ranking. Moreover, having chosen to challenge the Spirit Stream Ranking, he naturally had to heed his Fourth Senior Brother's advice—to strike for the highest position in the shortest amount of time!

Yiyi stepped forward to collect the man's storage sack and Spiritual Artifact, only then realizing, "Lu Ye, Lu Ye, this was a Spirit Stream Ranking challenge, wasn't it?"

When she first appeared here, she hadn't quite grasped the situation, but by now, she had come to realize it.

"Hmm."

That both Yiyi and Amber could be transported here to participate in the challenge was something Lu Ye hadn't anticipated beforehand.

However, strictly speaking, Amber was his beast pet, and as a combat cultivator, bringing a beast pet to join a Spirit Stream Ranking challenge was reasonable and permitted by Heaven's Augury.

And since Yiyi was Amber's minion spirit, she naturally came along.

This gave him an innate advantage.

"Let's go," Lu Ye called out.

Heaven's Augury descended, and with a blurring of his vision, he was back inside the wooden hut.

Yiyi floated in through the window, settling neatly in front of him, while Amber leapt onto his lap, silently waiting. Both appeared well aware that Lu Ye wouldn't just call it quits and were prepared to join him in the ranking battles.

Lu Ye once again activated the battlefield marking, trying to connect with the Spirit Stream Ranking to challenge those ranked ninety-nine, but was unsuccessful, so he settled for the one ranked ninety-eight.

This time, it was a success.

And to Lu Ye's surprise, the opponent didn't make him wait too long; just half a Shichen later, Heaven's Augury descended and transported him into a small space.

The terrain of this battle was similar to the last one; a very small space with an area of only dozens of yards.

Whoever chose such a space must be either a physique cultivator or a combat cultivator because only these two types would prefer a terrain suited for close combat. Magic cultivators, ghost cultivators, and the like would definitely opt for a larger space.

As the white light dispersed from his vision, Lu Ye immediately looked ahead, spotting a burly cultivator opposite him. As expected, the man was a physique cultivator.

In this moment, the physique cultivator was frowning as he sized up Lu Ye...

He seemed to have caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure just then, but the transmittal by Heaven's Augury filled his vision with bright light, so he wasn't sure if he had seen correctly.

The fleeting figure was naturally Yiyi, who had already hidden underground, concealing her presence to avoid alerting others to the fact that it was two against one on Lu Ye's side, which could add unnecessary psychological pressure.

Moreover, with Yiyi concealed, she could launch a sneak attack at any time.

The physique cultivator had already mobilized his spirit force, with abundant blood Qi around his body. His left arm held a spirit artifact big shield, and in his right hand, he wielded a mace with sharp spikes covering its surface; a single blow from it would surely inflict great pain.

Raising the big shield before him, the physique cultivator tapped it with his mace, producing a loud thud. The challenge in this gesture was clear as he spoke, "Come at me, little Haotian Alliance..."

Before finishing his sentence, he paused, looking at Lu Ye attentively and exclaimed in surprise, "Lu Ye the Sect Destroyer?"

Lu Ye was already charging toward him, imbued with Move-Like-The-Wind, his figure streaking through the air like lightning and leaving a trail of afterimages.

As the distance between them closed rapidly, the physique cultivator's expression shifted subtly, inwardly cursing his bad luck. He had just made it onto the Spirit Stream Ranking, only to be challenged by this calamity. It looked like keeping his ninety-eighth position wasn't going to be easy.