Sage of Humanity

This ghost cultivator sensed Lu Ye's gaze, indicating his strength wasn't weak. However, without certainty about Lu Ye's exact location, he dared not act recklessly.

A moment later, he quietly moved away from the area where Lu Ye was, clearly wary or perhaps misunderstanding something.

The multicolored cloud stopped, about several miles away from Lu Ye.

Looking in that direction, Lu Ye felt a surge of relief. That position was likely where he had first noticed the cloud. In other words, had he not run, he would now be directly underneath it.

That was a close call, fortunate that he had run, or his current situation would be quite awkward.

Wait a minute!

Lu Ye suddenly remembered the situation with the heaven-bestowed spirit fortune stick last time. The sticks flying out of the cloud radiated outward in all directions. Being directly underneath, he really couldn't have grabbed any sticks.

So, his current position was actually the truly awkward one.

About ten miles from the cloud was exactly within the range where the spirit fortune sticks would radiate.

Ah well...

Lu Ye didn't know what to say.

At this moment, he dared not make any rash moves. In just a short while, several presences had appeared around him, evidently all cultivators who had calculated the distance and position and had come here to compete for the spirit fortune sticks.

The closest one was only about sixty yards away, hiding in a large tree and looking up at the sky.

He could only respond to changes by remaining unchanged. When the spirit fortune sticks fell, the scene would definitely get chaotic. He could look for a chance to leave then.

Silently lying in wait.

Everyone was waiting, even the Cloud River Level 8-9 powerhouses didn't create any additional complications at this time. The main thing now was to snatch the spirit fortune sticks.

About the time it takes to half-finish a cup of tea, a commotion suddenly erupted nearby. Lu Ye looked up and saw the multicolored clouds in the sky tremble and then, centered on the clouds, streaks of light burst out, falling in all directions.

When the spirit fortune sticks first appeared, they did not reveal their true colors, so no one knew what color the sticks were. Only when they fell to a certain distance would they reveal their colors, making it clear whether they were gold, purple, blue, green, or white.

The stronger cultivators naturally targeted the higher-quality spirit fortune sticks, while the weaker ones adhered to a principle of proximity, competing for the easiest-to-snatch sticks closest to them.

The immense number of cultivators attracted by the heavenly descent of spirit fortune sticks meant the scene was bound to be chaotic.

Under the watchful eyes of all, streaks of light floated in all directions, quickly revealing various colors. In an instant, nearly all cultivators sprang into action, each towards their own target.

Some grouped together in threes and fives, others fought separately. The scene was extremely lively, and in a blink, most of the spirit fortune sticks had been claimed, with some still being contested.

Several cultivators near Lu Ye also soared into the sky, seizing the opportunity, and he swiftly moved.

He still maintained concealment spirit runes, so he moved slowly, roughly equivalent to the speed of a person walking normally. It wasn't that he didn't want to move faster, but moving too quickly would render the concealment spirit runes ineffective. Under the premise of maintaining the effectiveness of the concealment spirit runes, this was the fastest speed possible.

Various chaotic fluctuations of spirit force came from behind him, occasionally mixed with curses and roars, and also cries of shock and agony.

Without looking back, Lu Ye knew that the fight there had become extremely fierce and lively.

Normally, when competing for heaven-bestowed spirit fortune sticks, cultivators wouldn't fight desperately, but the situation in the hunting grounds was different. Competing for spirit fortune sticks made it very easy to discern whether the others were from a rival camp or not; if so, they naturally battered each other mercilessly.

While sneaking away, suddenly, a cry of agony from far to near rapidly reached his ears.

Lu Ye looked back and saw a cultivator, his body streaked with blood, falling from the sky. This fellow was clearly defeated in the just-past combat and it was unclear who had injured him. Judging by the bleeding, the injuries were obviously severe, otherwise, he wouldn't have been unable to maintain his form.

As luck would have it, he was falling right where Lu Ye was standing.

If that strike hit him hard, Lu Ye was certain that his own physique, although comparable to physique cultivators of the same level, couldn't withstand it.

Without any hesitation, he quickly dodged to the side.

This action caused the continuously maintained concealment spirit runes to break on their own, revealing his figure.

With a thud, mud flew as the falling person crashed heavily onto the ground, rolling several times before barely stopping. He struggled to rise, but failed twice. Spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, he knelt on the ground, panting heavily, his complexion pale as paper.

His almost dispersed gaze suddenly fixated on his hand which burst into a bright red light!

Someone from the Haotian Alliance!

The man immediately looked up and spotted Lu Ye standing not far away, his expression slightly helpless.

Lu Ye, who only wanted to quietly leave this place of strife, obviously hadn't expected to encounter this situation.

At this moment, a faint blue light blossomed from the back of Lu Ye's hand. The light wasn't strong, but in the blood-drenched surroundings, it was extremely conspicuous.

With a helpless look fading away, eyebrows slightly lowered, Lu Ye's legs powered him forward and his figure burst out like a cheetah. The Boulder Mountain Saber thundered out of its sheath!

He didn't know how high the cultivation of this unfortunate soul was, but given the other's clearly severely injured state and the fact that his own whereabouts were exposed, it was impossible to pretend he hadn't seen anything.

Seeing Lu Ye coming to kill him, the man gritted his teeth trying to stand up, but he had already been heavily injured by someone else and had just fallen from mid-air. His spirit force was scattered, not to mention his bones were broken in numerous places, leaving him unable to stand.

He didn't even have a chance to get up, as Lu Ye had already brushed past him. A fiery red saber light traced an arc, slashing through the man's neck.

The man's figure stiffened in place, his mouth moving as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out.

A speck of red light drifted out and fell onto the back of Lu Ye's hand.

Another figure descended from the sky, powerful fluctuations of spirit force around him, clearly demonstrating that he was a Cloud River Level 9 cultivator!

Lu Ye turned around to look at him, glanced at the back of the man's hand, and relaxed his tense mood.

Everyone's battlefield marking showed no reaction, indicating that they were all from the Haotian Alliance.

Looking at the corpse then at Lu Ye, the man said irritably, "You little rascal really know how to pick the easy gains!"

From this man's words, it was clear that the guy who had fallen from the sky was his doing, originally an easy target for merits and kill points, but Lu Ye had gotten there first.

Lu Ye looked innocent; he hadn't planned it, but since the guy had fallen right in front of him, he had to strike first.

Although annoyed that Lu Ye had picked up an easy advantage, the Haotian Alliance cultivator didn't intend to cause him trouble. Realizing that Lu Ye was only at the Level 3 cultivation, he frowned and said, "This place is dangerous, leave quickly!"

Lu Ye clasped his fists in thanks and swiftly darted off into the distance, not even caring to activate the Concealment Spirit Runes to hide his form anymore.

After Lu Ye left, the man bent down to pick up a storage sack, then pried open the dead man's hand and took a blue spirit fortune stick from it.

It wasn't that he wanted to rob Lu Ye of his loot; this was rightfully his.

Turning around, as the multicolored clouds trembled once again, streaks of light scattered in all directions. The spirit fortune sticks were being contested once more, and the man soared into the sky, joining in the conflict.

Lu Ye ran nearly about 30 miles in one breath, turned around to look back, and saw that the volume of the multicolored clouds had shrunk to half its original size. He knew the Heaven-bestowed spirit fortune sticks were nearing their end, and the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks would soon appear. Along with the appearance of the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, the cultivators from the two camps would likely scramble frantically.

Feeling slightly regretful, if his cultivation had been a little higher, not even much, just at Cloud River Level 5, Lu Ye felt he too would have the qualifications to participate in such a grand event, not to scramble for the golden purple spirit fortune sticks, but to contest for the ones less than purple.

Level 3 cultivation was still too weak. In such a chaotic scene, being alone, it was better not to participate.

Just as he was about to divert his gaze, Lu Ye's eyes fixed on the Kills Ranking.

At that very moment, the rankings on the Kills Ranking were constantly changing, occasionally someone's name would disappear from the list, which meant they had died in battle; otherwise, they would not disappear without reason.

Some people's rankings shot up, clearly having killed opponents, while others' rankings were dropping.

Lu Ye looked at the name ranked fifteenth, his eyes twitching uncontrollably.

Lu Yiye, three hundred and seventy points, one gold-hued spirit fortune stick.

...

...

Earlier, his ranking was in the fifties, and was continuously dropping as time passed. In less than half a day, he would likely fall off the Kills Ranking.

But at this moment, his ranking suddenly shot from the fifties to fifteenth, a jump from one hundred and twenty, the kill points had increased by two hundred and fifty!

Crazy!

Within the hunting grounds, he had only killed two people in total, but he had managed to secure the fifteenth rank. This didn't reflect the weakness of the others; those currently on the Kills Ranking were mostly Level 7 cultivators, with many at Levels 8-9.

His achieving the fifteenth position had mostly come from the benefits of surpassing his rank in combat.

The first had been two levels above him, a Level 5, which had instantaneously added one hundred and twenty points.

As for just now, that had directly added two hundred and fifty points.

Lu Ye quickly calculated and arrived at a conclusion.

The unfortunate soul he had just beheaded was actually a Level 7...

A Cloud River Level 7 represented a base merit of fifty points, surpassing four ranks meant a fivefold profit, which was exactly two hundred and fifty merits.

Level 7...

This... Lu Ye didn't know what to say.

He had thought that it wouldn't take long before his name fell off the Kills Ranking, but this sudden surge had made him wonder how much longer he would have to wait.

Lucky for him that the Kills Ranking didn't reveal the cultivators' cultivation levels; otherwise, a Level 3 mixed among a group of Levels 8-9 would be extremely conspicuous!

Just like that time at the Spirit Stream battlefield, when he, with a 7th Heaven cultivation, had fought his way into the Spirit Stream Ranking, shocking everyone on the battlefield.