Sage of Humanity

In the combat field, Lu Ye stood at a high point with his hand on the hilt of his blade. His cheeks puffed rhythmically as he chewed on the elixir pill in his mouth. Taking a few quick bites, he swallowed it whole to recover his own spirit force. Then, he took out a large chunk of high-quality honey and ate it, recovering not just his spirit force but also his physical strength, which was exactly what he needed at the moment.

The combat field, spanning dozens of zhang, was a scene of intense battle.

Yiyi and Amber were in the arena, facing off against a 9th Heaven physique cultivator.

Lu Ye had been fighting challenges like this for half the day and, exhausted from the effort, simply let Yiyi and Amber take over.

Plus, Yiyi had been itching for a fight since she hadn't taken action earlier.

Yiyi alone would find it very difficult to overcome a 9th Heaven cultivator, but with Amber's assistance, it was a different story. The two, a spirit and a tiger, had an intrinsic bond, understanding each other perfectly, and their cooperation was seamless. Amber was responsible for distracting the enemy's focus and attention, while Yiyi launched magical and spell attacks.

Even if they couldn't defeat their opponent right away, that physique cultivator didn't even get the chance to concede defeat. The moment he dared to open his mouth, Amber would unleash a Tiger Roar Intimidation. Its roar was an Innate Divine Ability targeting the psyche and mind, and in Xianyuan City, it had absorbed plenty of soul mist, which greatly enhanced the might of its roar.

So far, no Spirit Stream Realm cultivator they had encountered had been able to withstand the intimidation of the tiger's roar on their psyche.

After a fierce battle, the physique cultivator's morale exploded.

Unable to defeat them or escape, and without even a chance to verbally surrender.

And there stood Lu Yiye, watching intently — he felt he might die right there.

Why was this happening? The challenges on the Spirit Stream Ranking were always one-on-one. How could it be fair for a combat cultivator to have a beast pet, and not to mention, a female magic cultivator?!

What was agreed as a fair fight turned into him against three opponents.

No wonder so many Fellow Daoists who had previously challenged Lu Yiye had died. In such an environment, facing multiple opponents at once, what chance did anyone have?

He was full of unwillingness but could do nothing about it.

He wanted to share this information with others, but this was a combat field, where it was impossible to send messages out.

After a full hour of intense fighting, the physique cultivator finally staggered and fell, his body covered in marks of spells and magic, looking extremely pitiable.

Yiyi cheered and went forward to collect the spoils of war, picking up the opponent's storage sack and presenting it to Lu Ye like a treasure: "I won!"

Lu Ye ruffled her head and took the storage sack. "Good job, do you want to keep fighting?"

"Fight!" Yiyi's gaze was resolute.

She rarely had such opportunities to refine her own combat skills. Previously, when she was with Lu Ye, they were usually surrounded and attacked by large groups. Now, taking advantage of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators challenging Lu Ye, this grind was greatly beneficial for her growth.

Of course, this was only possible with Amber's cooperation; without him, she alone couldn't possibly defeat those 9th Heaven cultivators.

The moment they stepped out of the combat field, the next challenge was already arriving. Lu Ye accepted it, waiting for half an hour to let Yiyi and Amber recover some their strength before heading back into the combat field.

This unusual situation soon attracted the attention of the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance cultivators, including those from the previous battle!

Since the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance started their relentless challenges against Lu Ye, he always accepted immediately and entered the combat field, ending the battles quickly...

But the last battle had taken half an hour, and this time, he delayed accepting the challenge for another half an hour.

What did this imply?

It undoubtedly indicated that Lu Yiye was significantly drained and no longer at his peak, hence the delayed decision.

This lifted the spirits of the cultivators in the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance, brightening their mood.

Another half hour later, the battle ended.

The next challenge began.

After several consecutive battles, Yiyi was utterly exhausted, and even Amber seemed somewhat weakened...

Lu Ye, I can't go on anymore; you take over," Yiyi said, and then retreated into Amber to rest.

In the cabin, Lu Ye fed Amber some elixir pills and accepted the challenge that an unknown brother had just sent.

He then bizarrely discovered that the challenger this time was not a physique cultivator but a combat cultivator!

Perhaps there were too many Ten Thousand Demons' physique cultivators being killed or something.

As the opponent appeared and hastily sized up Lu Ye, he saw Lu Ye charging at him with an overwhelming momentum, his complexion drastically changing. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

The situation was not as he expected at all; Lu Yiye was in perfect condition, filled with energy, and not the weary warrior he had imagined.

A moment later, the cultivators from the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance were stunned because Lu Ye had returned to his previous speed of killing enemies. Nearly every few moments, he ended another battle.

All those who challenged him died cleanly, and no one knew exactly what his condition was now.

The glimmer of hope they had just seen was cruelly extinguished with cold water.

After most of the day, Lu Ye waited inside the cabin for a long time, but no new challenges came.

No one dared to challenge him anymore.

In these two days, due to challenges against Lu Yiye, the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance lost over a hundred 9th Heaven cultivators, a large number of them physique cultivators!

Yet even with such a high-intensity challenge, they could see no hope of defeating Lu Ye. To challenge him again would be to court death.

It was not until this moment that the Lu Ye Extermination Alliance cultivators realized, even though their previous actions had some effect and ousted Lu Yiye from the Spirit Stream Ranking, what did it truly mean?

Being unable to kill him, merely driving him out of the rankings, seemed to be no significant loss to him.

Upon this realization, it suddenly felt like the more than a hundred people that Lu Yiye had killed during the past two days had all died in vain...

How utterly tragic!

Currently, Lu Ye's rank in the standings was at the very end, in the hundredth position, which was just as conspicuous as being first.

He didn't rush to climb to a higher rank but instead took out those twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire.

He had been delayed for two days and finally had time to deal with this matter.

Activating the Talent Tree, he devoured the Earth's Core Fires one by one. Lu Ye watched the dozen or so symmetric leaves tensely, calculating the progress of their burning.

It took a full eighteen portions of Earth's Core Fire before those leaves suddenly all ignited.

Lu Ye's tense mood relaxed.

After devouring the remaining two portions of Earth's Core Fire, Lu Ye then focused his mind on those dozen leaves.

Boom...

His mind slightly shuddered, his consciousness dramatically dispersed, giving rise to a sensation akin to his psyche leaving his body. Then, a vast and complex flood of information uncontrollably surged into his mind, bringing with it indescribable agony. Lu Ye's face suddenly turned pale.

However, he did not pass out.

Perhaps it was because he had previously withstood the powerful impact of the Fire Phoenix Spirit Runes, or perhaps his psyche was resilient enough. This time, the impact did not render him unconscious.

Lu Ye wished he could have passed out to avoid enduring this unbearable pain.

After a long while, he slowly recovered, shaking his head slightly. It felt as though his whole brain was shaking, almost as if it would fall out of his head. In such a state, the power he could muster was significantly reduced. Regrettably, no one from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge dared to challenge him anymore by then.

They were all intimidated.

Closing his eyes and concentrating, he digested the vast and complex information.

Lu Ye's expression gradually turned joyful.

Having the experience with the Fire Phoenix Spirit Runes, when he first saw those symmetric leaves, he thought they looked like a pair of wings. That's why he was so eager to verify it and even went so far as to swindle twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire from Bai Lan.

As it turned out, he was right.

These newly appeared spirit runes were indeed the Wings he had obtained before!

Before the Spirit Stream Defense Battle, Madam Yun had bestowed wings rune tattoos on his and Hua Ci's backs. They functioned until recently, in the Land of Fiery Flames, where they finally lost their effect. Many times they had greatly aided Lu Ye, often allowing him to escape certain death.

After those runes lost their effect, Lu Ye missed them greatly, especially during the times he was being chased by numerous cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

If he had the wings rune tattoo by his side, his speed would undoubtedly be faster, and his movements more agile, preventing him from being so embarrassingly cornered.

But even with Madam Yun's involvement, the cost of bestowing wings rune tattoos was enormous, needing the Essence Blood of a big avian demon. The last materials used were prepared by the sect master, and Lu Ye had planned to accumulate more merit to check the Heaven's Augury treasure vault for suitable big demon blood for sale, hoping to request Madam Yun to bestow him with another wings rune tattoo.

Now that seemed unnecessary.

Lu Ye had mastered these spirit runes himself, able to activate them at any time, undoubtedly better than the time-restricted Tattoos.

He just didn't know what the consumption would be like.

With that thought, Lu Ye flashed out of the wooden hut and onto an open field.

With a slight shift of thought, spirit force surged around him, firelight flowed behind him, and in an instant, a pair of fiery red wings, spanning more than three Zhang, explosively unfolded.

Turning his head to look, these wings, built on the basis of his own spirit force, were undoubtedly more majestic and imposing than the previous wings rune tattoos.

The consumption seemed to be even greater!

Lu Ye thought for a moment and slightly retracted some spirit force. The fiery red wings on his back also shrank a bit.

The next instant, his entire body transformed into a mass of firelight and soared into the sky, flapping his wings and flying.

He did not fly out of the range covered by the toxic barrier, so he didn't fly very high. The fiery red figure passed through the area, stirring up the toxic mist and barriers.

For a full hour, the fiery red figure descended from the sky and explosively landed in front of the wooden hut. Lu Ye crouched down, the spirit force flowing in his wings gradually retracting.

After this test, Lu Ye gained a deeper understanding of these spirit runes.

The consumption was higher than adding flying to Flying Spirit Artifacts, even though he had tried hard to reduce the size of the wings. This kind of consumption was inevitable.

However, compared to weapon control-flying, using the Wings was undoubtedly more agile, and the speed was also faster.

Previously, when he slaughtered his way out of Ten Thousand Poisons Forest and was chased by a large group of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, if he had had the wings spirit runes on him, he would have left those fellows far behind without a trace.

It could be said that with the wings spirit runes, as long as Lu Ye had ample spirit force, he no longer needed to worry about being chased in the future.