Sage of Humanity

In the cabin, Lu Ye could no longer endure it and cast both Yiyi and Hua Ci out.

He checked the Spirit Stream Ranking, contemplated briefly, then immersed his mind in the battlefield marking to find the imprint of Yooi Lianzhou and sent a message: "Fellow Daoist Yooi, do you know anyone ranked after fifty on the Spirit Stream Ranking?"

Soon, Yooi Lianzhou responded, "I know most of them, though there are a few I haven't had contact with. What's the matter?"

"I'd like to ask for your help in delivering a message to them."

Without a moment's delay, Yooi Lianzhou understood Lu Ye's intention. Though not knowing why he was doing this, he still replied, "Consider it done."

To get what he wanted from Bai Lan, relying on himself alone wasn't enough; he needed others to cooperate.

After ending communication with Yooi Lianzhou, Lu Ye connected with the Spirit Stream Ranking and challenged Bai Lan once again!

Challenging the Spirit Stream Ranking, besides abiding by certain rules, wasn't heavily restricted; so even though Lu Ye had conceded earlier, he could still continue to challenge at this moment.

On the precipice's giant rock, Bai Lan was discussing the details of the previous battle with Lu Ye with her senior, since he too was on the Spirit Stream Ranking, ranked slightly higher than her, so eventually Lu Ye would challenge him too.

At this moment, gathering more information on Lu Ye would make future responses more effective.

The battlefield marking suddenly transmitted activity, Bai Lan checked and immediately felt unhappy: "Lu Yiye is challenging me again. We agreed on one hour, and it's only been the time for one cup of tea. Truly deceitful, such a scoundrel!"

"Just ignore him then," the man laughed.

"Mm, I rejected him."

Bai Lan relaxed in the embrace of her senior, currently ranked fifty on the Spirit Stream Ranking, while Lu Yiye moved up to forty-eight, so she no longer had to worry about his challenges.

As she thought this, the ranks of forty-eight and fifty-three suddenly swapped places, with Lu Yiye moving to fifty-three and the one originally at fifty-three taking over the forty-eighth rank!

Bai Lan's smile gradually stiffened, something... seemed off!

"Senior brother!" Bai Lan's voice trembled a bit.

This rapid swap in ranking was clearly because the Haotian Alliance cultivator originally at fifty-three had challenged Lu Yiye, who then refused.

A refusal was tantamount to conceding, which was why their ranks had swapped.

When Lu Ye was ranked forty-eight, he indeed had no grounds to challenge her, but now at fifty-three, he once again qualified to challenge her.

Her senior, also keenly watching the Spirit Stream Ranking, immediately sensed something amiss: "He's challenging you again?"

"Mm..." Bai Lan was actually close to tears.

Originally thinking that as long as she was ranked behind Lu Ye, she wouldn't have to worry about his challenges, but who could have expected him to pull such a bizarre maneuver.

Lu Yiye's current stance was clear: he was willing to drop his own rank just to keep her under constant watch.

He clung on like a festering maggot that wouldn't be shaken off.

Bai Lan hurriedly refused, and their ranks swapped again, with Bai Lan now at fifty-three and Lu Ye at fifty, but soon, Lu Ye moved to fifty-five, having been challenged by the original rank fifty-five...

Not only the siblings were watching the Spirit Stream Ranking, at this very moment, both Ten Thousand Demons Ridge and the Haotian Alliance had many people observing the changes.

For no other reason, Lu Ye had been climbing the ranking so swiftly these past few days that many people had kept their eyes on him.

Then, pair after pair of eyes witnessed an unprecedented bizarre occurrence on the Spirit Stream Ranking since its inception.

Lu Yiye, from Righteous Blood Sect, and a female cultivator named Bai Lan from Runyu Sect were constantly moving up and down the ranking list, occasionally swapping places.

While there were ups and downs, with other Haotian Alliance cultivators' involvement, overall, their ranks were steadily dropping; they slid only two or three places each time, but the frequency was so rapid that changes in their ranking occurred in the blink of an eye.

In less than the time it took for one cup of tea, their rankings had fallen from the top fifty to beyond seventy.

The Spirit Stream Ranking was being toyed with!

Such tactics had never been used before—not that they were particularly difficult to execute. Most climbers of the Spirit Stream Ranking consistently moved forward. Who would choose to fall back? The closer to the top, the richer the rewards from Heaven's Augury—real, tangible rewards!

Yet, here they were, seeing it happen!

Lu Yiye was deliberately falling back, not just bringing himself down but also dragging someone with him against her will.

In Runyu Sect, Bai Lan stared blankly...

She racked her brain but couldn't understand why she was being targeted!

If she were guilty, let Heaven's Augury punish her, not send someone like Lu Yiye to torment her!

With so many people on the Spirit Stream Ranking, why did the brute have to fixate on her!

"Junior sister, pull yourself together!" The man grasped Bai Lan's shoulders, shaking them vigorously, his heart bleeding as he looked at his junior sister's haggard expression.

"Senior Brother!" Bai Lan cried out in anguish.

"Accept his challenge!" the man said sternly.

"But I'm not his match."

"I didn't ask you to fight him, just accept it. You have four hours after acceptance to delay. I'll figure something out."

Inside the cabin in the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest, Lu Ye's eyebrows lifted slightly. So, they had finally decided to accept the challenge?

It seemed they wanted to delay, but it was ultimately meaningless.

Holding a book in his hands and swallowing an elixir pill, he quietly focused on his cultivation.

Meanwhile, some unfavorable comments about Lu Ye emerged at the Spirit Stream battlefield: they accused him of bullying a woman, which was not in the spirit of a true cultivator; they also claimed he only challenged those ranked in the last fifty of the Spirit Stream Ranking, preferring to bully the weak. If he truly had the ability, they challenged him to take on the top fifty.

Even more provocatively, a cultivator from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, ranked thirty-fourth, declared he was waiting for Lu Ye right at his position!

This statement ignited many higher-ranked Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators to collectively challenge Lu Ye to come up quickly and meet his demise.

During this time, the Haotian Alliance cultivators enjoyed the spectacle immensely. In just a few days, Lu Ye had consecutively defeated twenty to thirty strong opponents from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge on the Spirit Stream Ranking, to the great delight of his peers, who were eager to see him push higher and defeat even more opponents from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge. Suddenly, amidst this anticipation, so many antagonistic statements toward Lu Ye surfaced; naturally, the Haotian Alliance could not tolerate it.

Suddenly, the entire Spirit Stream battlefield buzzed with excitement, as slander and quarrels flew everywhere, and the more hot-headed ones began to issue ranking challenges directly.

The changes in the Spirit Stream Ranking were unprecedentedly fast...

Cultivators could communicate extremely efficiently, and various kinds of messages naturally reached Lu Ye's ears through various channels. He ignored them; regardless of how the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators cursed or provoked him, he wouldn't suffer any actual losses—his reputation might just get a bit more tarnished.

After all, he never had a good reputation over at Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

Every four hours, his and Bai Lan's rankings changed once because each time Bai Lan would accept a challenge and then delay it for four hours.

This was a rule of the Spirit Stream Ranking, and Lu Ye could do nothing but wait.

As for the thirty-fourth ranked guy, Lu Ye checked and found that he was from the same sect as Bai Lan; they likely shared a senior-junior relationship, which clarified why he would come to Bai Lan's defense.

And these clamorous comments were most likely his doing.

However, the Runyu Sect was indeed impressive. Being a 2nd grade sect and having two members within the top fifty of the Spirit Stream Ranking was rare in the Nine Provinces. Only previously did Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan, both from the Loyal Heart Sect, manage to occupy high ranks on the ranking consistently due to their unique circumstances.

Time flew by, and three days later...

Lu Ye and Bai Lan's rankings had both dropped to the last places on the list—Lu Ye at one hundred and Bai Lan at ninety-seven!

With one more swap in ranking, one of them was bound to fall off the Spirit Stream Ranking, and which one it would be was obvious.

In the Runyu Sect compound, Bai Lan's eyes were swollen from distress; she had been under immense pressure and had barely rested these past days.

"Senior Brother!" Bai Lan said guiltily, lowering her head.

In front of her, the man placed a storage sack in Bai Lan's hand, "Inside are twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire. When you give them to him, make sure he swears by Heaven's Augury that he will no longer trouble you on the Spirit Stream Ranking in the future!"

"Senior Brother, I..."

The man raised his hand to stop her, "It's only a few days until Heaven's Augury dispenses its rewards. If you fall off the list now, all your previous efforts will have been in vain. The items are from our sect headquarters, and both the Sect Leader and the second elder want to quell this matter and ensure you secure this reward from Heaven's Augury. Disgrace can be experienced now but can be reclaimed later."

If the Spirit Stream Ranking were just a title, then losing it wouldn't be painful, but the ranking was tied to the rewards from Heaven's Augury, which were crucial benefits for any Spirit Stream Realm cultivator to miss.

Now, with only a few days left until Bai Lan received her reward from Heaven's Augury, falling off the ranking now would be too much of a loss.

Four thousand merit points were not insignificant, but compared to the future of an elite disciple from a 2nd grade sect, it was relatively minor, and the Runyu Sect could certainly afford it.

"He hasn't challenged you directly, has he?" the man asked again.

"Mm."

"It seems he is giving you time to prepare. This is his final ultimatum." Enjoy exclusive adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

Now with Lu Ye ranked one hundred, it would only take one more challenge for Bai Lan to be ranked one hundred, and from there, it was easy for him to manipulate the situation to make her fall off the ranking list. After another challenge, Bai Lan's name would vanish completely from the Spirit Stream Ranking.

Even if she had the opportunity to challenge again, all her previously accumulated time would be voided, and she would have to start over from a month.

"So later, you need to explain the situation to him, and then try to reach the highest possible ranking in the shortest time possible; after that, leave the rest to me. I will make that Lu Yiye pay!"

Bai Lan wanted to say that her senior brother might not be a match for that ruffian, but she feared hurting his ego and struggled to speak up.

"He challenged me!" Bai Lan suddenly changed expression and checked her battlefield marking.

"Go then."

Bai Lan nodded, tightly grasping the storage sack containing twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire, steadied her spirit, chose her terrain, and accepted the challenge.