Sage of Humanity

During casual conversation, the restrictions on the storage sacks were all opened.

Previously, there were only five enemies, but Yiyi had collected more than twenty storage sacks.

It was naturally impossible for five people to have so many storage sacks. Generally speaking, a cultivator would have more than one storage sack on them, but not too many, mostly two or three, to sort and store different items.

That these five individuals had so many storage sacks clearly indicated that they were spoils of war from previous killings, and now they all cheaply fell into Lu Ye's hands.

Lu Ye picked out ten storage sacks and kept them for himself, pushing the rest toward Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan.

Li Baxian did not decline, since they were all brothers, there was no need to be overly courteous. He picked up the storage sacks and started to rummage through them, sorting out the useful items one by one.

Lu Ye did the same.

Overall, there weren't many valuable items, just some common materials, along with Spiritual Artifacts. The materials could be used, and the Spiritual Artifacts could be sold for merit or brought back to the Righteous Blood Sect.

The cultivators from the Cloud River Realm generally used mid-grade spirit artifacts, which were quite valuable.

A moment later, Lu Ye suddenly pulled out a chest radiating five-colored halos from a storage sack. This item looked familiar; it was a fortune stick chest.

Without hesitation, Lu Ye immediately opened the chest, releasing a blue light.

Li Baxian, who was next to him, looked on in surprise, "Junior Brother Lu, you really have good luck."

Having been in the Cloud River battlefield for so long, Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan had also acquired some fortune stick chests, and Li Baxian even had three in his own storage sack. But up to now, the best spirit fortune stick he had obtained from these was green at most; he had never seen a blue one.

After inquiring with others, it was mostly the same; although a fortune stick chest had a chance to produce a gold-hued spirit fortune stick, the odds were extremely low, not to mention gold-hued, even pulling out a purple one from the chest was exceedingly rare. Nine out of ten cultivators who opened a fortune stick chest ended up with white or green sticks, and those with better luck might get blue.

It was precisely for this reason that he had saved up the chests, planning to open them all at once to see if he could get a better spirit fortune stick.

The saying goes, if luck isn't enough, make up for it with quantity!

But unexpectedly, Lu Ye straightforwardly pulled out a blue one.

"When I advanced to the Cloud River realm, I received the Heaven's Augury Bestowment, and since then, my luck has been continuously great. There was also the time I entered a secret realm and obtained a secret technique that could change the pattern of the Beast Taming Faction. Somebody told me that if I sold that technique to the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, I would gain Heaven's Augury's favor, boosting my luck, and then we sold that technique together."

"Junior Brother Lu, you received Heaven's Augury Bestowment?" It was the first time Li Baxian had heard of such a thing. At the time Lu Ye advanced to the Cloud River Realm, Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan were already on the Cloud River battlefield and had not yet returned to the Nine Provinces, so it was hard to know what news had come from outside.

"Mhm."

"No wonder," Li Baxian realized. "I vaguely remember the old man saying, when the elder brother received the Heaven's Augury Bestowment, his luck became astonishing. Whatever he did was as if aided by heaven, allowing him to rise in an extremely short period and command the entire Haotian Alliance. It looks like it's true..."

A thought struck him, and he took out three fortune stick chests from his own storage sack and handed them to Lu Ye, "Help me open them, Junior Brother."

Knowing Lu Ye's luck was good, it seemed most appropriate to have Lu Ye open the treasure chests. What if a gold-hued one came out?

As Lu Ye held the three chests in his hands, he couldn't help but recall Xia Qianqian. A few days before, this woman also wanted to borrow some luck from him, but ended up drawing a white spirit fortune stick...

In the cave, three pairs of eyes watched intently.

Lu Ye gently opened the first chest, and white light emanated.

This caused Lu Ye to raise an eyebrow; something was amiss.

He had opened four chests before and after; the first time yielded a purple spirit fortune stick directly, stunning Xia Qianqian, the second was when Xia Qianqian asked for his help, which resulted in white, the third time was just now, a blue fortune stick, and then again a white one.

Once could be coincidence, could twice also be coincidence?

"Luck is like a river, it ebbs and flows, it's normal. Now, open the second one," Li Baxian said.

Lu Ye pondered for a moment, then spoke up, "Senior Brother, could I have these two fortune stick chests?"

Li Baxian smiled, "Why not, they are yours. It's a pity we only saved up three recently; had we known this would happen, we should have saved up the others as well."

As he spoke, Lu Ye had already opened the second fortune stick chest, and a green light burst forth.

It was passable, acceptable.

The third fortune stick chest was opened.

Purple radiance blossomed, casting a violet glow over everyone's faces.

Li Baxian exclaimed in a low voice, "Impressive!"

Feng Yuechan also widened her eyes, utterly not expecting Lu Ye to directly reveal a purple spirit fortune stick. Compared to a white one, its value instantly increased by twenty-seven fold!

Hearing about it was one thing, but seeing it with one's own eyes was another. It seemed true, as Lu Ye said, that after receiving the Heaven's Augury Bestowment, his luck was indeed astonishing.

Just over a month ago, Li Baxian was still complaining to her that if someone could really draw a spirit fortune stick higher than purple from the fortune stick chest, then it must mean that their ancestors' graves were emitting green smoke.

Today, she witnessed it with her own eyes!

Lu Ye pushed both the green and purple spirit fortune sticks he had drawn in front of Li Baxian.

Li Baxian looked at him, not understanding.

"It seems that only when I draw my own spirit fortune sticks does my luck work, and it's useless if I'm helping someone else."

Lu Ye explained this was the reason he had asked Li Baxian to give him the two fortune stick chests. If it wasn't for wanting to verify his guess, why would he have asked Li Baxian for those two chests?

There was no reason that when helping others draw, all he got were white sticks, but when he drew for himself, they were all above white.

This action confirmed his hypothesis, that his own luck probably only worked for himself, and others could not borrow it from him.

Looking at the two spirit fortune sticks in front of him, Li Baxian shook his head, "Junior Brother, I can't take these."

Just as Lu Ye was about to explain, Li Baxian said with a smile, "I understand what you mean, Junior Brother, but luck is elusive and intangible. If your luck truly comes from Heaven's Augury Bestowment, then you must be more cautious. Heaven's Augury is omnipresent, and if we try to obtain spirit fortune sticks through such opportunistic means, it might affect your luck and diminish Heaven's Augury's favor upon you, which would not be worth the loss."

"There's such a concept?" Lu Ye was surprised.

"Better safe than sorry," Li Baxian said seriously, unwilling to act recklessly with anything concerning Heaven's Augury, not even if there was the slightest possibility.

If it were anyone else, Li Baxian definitely would not refuse—after all, a purple spirit fortune stick is very precious and could increase his cultivation. But Lu Ye was a junior brother from his own faction; he could not harm Lu Ye.

Feng Yuechan also added from the side, "Senior Brother is right. It's best to be cautious with this kind of thing. Junior Brother Lu, you should not let others borrow luck from you in the future to avoid affecting your own destiny."

Lu Ye nodded in agreement.

"If that's the case, then I'll keep the spirit fortune sticks, and the rest of the stuff can go to Senior Brother and Senior Sister Feng."

He pushed his own storage sack towards them.

This time Li Baxian did not refuse and happily started rummaging through the storage sacks.

Lu Ye checked his own storage space, finding one gold-hued spirit fortune stick, one purple, one blue, one green, and two white. With so many sticks, Lu Ye estimated that he should be close to advancing to Level 4.

He had already accumulated a lot on Level 3 and should be not far from Level 4.

However, this was a hunting ground, not a convenient place to use spirit fortune sticks for cultivation. It was okay with white ones, which could be consumed in one incense stick's time, but not the gold-hued one. To fully utilize a gold-hued spirit fortune stick, it would take at least a day and a night, and it would be awkward if someone intruded during that period.

So to cultivate, he would have to wait until after the hunting ground closed and find a safe place.

"Junior Brother, if that's the case, you could totally go buy fortune stick chests, and buy them at the price of a green spirit fortune stick. With your luck, you definitely won't lose out," Li Baxian suddenly had a novel idea.

Feng Yuechan chuckled on the side, "The price of a green spirit fortune stick is only six or seven hundred merits. Once a cultivator reaches the Cloud River Realm, do they still lack those six or seven hundred merits? For cultivators in the Cloud River Realm, a fortune stick chest signifies the hope of a gold-hued spirit fortune stick. Instead of selling it for six or seven hundred merits, why not try your luck and open it yourself? Maybe Heaven's Augury will look favorably upon you."

After a moment of thought, Li Baxian nodded, "That's true."

Not to mention others, even himself, if he got a fortune stick chest, he definitely wouldn't sell it for six or seven hundred merits; there was always hope if he opened it himself. If he sold it to someone else and they drew a good spirit fortune stick, he would regret it deeply.

Moreover, in the Cloud River Realm, everyone was striving to improve their cultivation, and spirit fortune sticks were a primary means to do so. Generally, people would open the chests as soon as they got them; very few would hoard them.

Therefore, the likelihood of success in buying fortune stick chests was probably slim.

Unless Lu Ye was willing to pay the price for a blue spirit fortune stick, but even doing that, there was no guarantee of profit or loss for Lu Ye, and it was uncertain how many he could buy; perhaps he wouldn't be able to buy a single chest even after several days of trying.

After the fortune stick chests were dealt with and the storage sacks were all opened, the goods were gathered. Li Baxian found a storage sack to put in some elixir pills and Spirit Stones, and tossed it to Lu Ye.

Before Lu Ye could refuse, Li Baxian said, "There are many array banners inside."

Lu Ye kept silent, and after checking, indeed found dozens of array banners inside. It seemed to be the remnants of that array cultivator. Although he had previously crafted a batch of array banners, he didn't have many left. Now with dozens more, it was a good replenishment, so he accepted it and carefully put it away.

"Junior Brother, what are your plans next?" Li Baxian asked.

"Originally, I was thinking of using the teleportation array I set up to hide here until the hunting ground closes."

"And now?"

Li Baxian raised an eyebrow, sensing the implication in Lu Ye's words.

Lu Ye sighed, "There's something I forgot to tell Senior Brother. The person ranked first on the Kills Ranking seems to be me!"