Sage of Humanity

Atop Heavenly Sword Peak, Lu Ye closed the scroll in his hand and looked up at Yun Qingyue, his gaze calm but his words resolute, "You can go. I won't kill you, and kindly convey to your Divine Sea Realm that as long as I, Lu Ye, live, I will come to the Spirit Stream battlefield every six months, selecting thirty sects from the Core Circle to breach their strongholds."

Having said so, he slowly rose and summoned his Flying Spirit Artifact, looking as if he intended to set off immediately.

Yun Qingyue paled dramatically and hastily called out, "Fellow Daoist Lu, please wait a moment."

"What else is there?" Lu Ye cocked his head to look at her.

Ten Thousand Demons Ridge wanting him to vow never to step into the Spirit Stream battlefield again was a condition they could never accept. Although he truly no longer needed to step onto the Spirit Stream battlefield after his advancement to the Cloud River Realm, and henceforth, there was no possibility to use the people or events of the Spirit Stream battlefield to threaten Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, there were limits to everything. This now being his third extortion of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, they surely would no longer compromise, likely opting to fight Lu Ye to the death.

However, whether to step foot in the Spirit Stream battlefield was a matter of his own volition, not something imposed by Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

If Ten Thousand Demons Ridge insisted on this condition, there really was nothing to discuss.

Gazing at Lu Ye, Yun Qingyue felt overwhelmingly helpless and ultimately sighed, "Fellow Daoist Lu, perhaps there's room to negotiate…"

She knew that having reached this point in the negotiation, as one of the negotiating parties, showing any hint of weakness was out of the question. But now, showing weakness was unavoidable. The man was about to leave, and without conceding, soon thirty sects would suffer under Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

"He even said he would come every six months. Who can withstand that?"

If it were so, in the future, where would cultivators from Core Circle sects of the Spirit Stream Realm find peace to cultivate? The Spirit Stream Realm was the foundation of every sect, and if this foundation were to crack, it would affect the entire sect's heritage and future development.

Standing on the spirit ark, Lu Ye just watched Yun Qingyue, saying nothing.

Yun Qingyue bit her red lips, taking a long moment before she said, "In the future, unless an event similar to this hunt occurs, Fellow Daoist Lu must not indiscriminately attack the stationed areas of the sects on the Spirit Stream battlefield!"

Compared to the previous stringent conditions, this one was much more lenient as it did not restrict Lu Ye's movements in and out of the Spirit Stream battlefield. However, correspondingly, it did restrict the conditions under which he could attack the sects of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge unless a situation similar to this hunt arose.

It was a simple sentence, yet Lu Ye could understand the painful good intentions of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

Clearly, they had not given up on their plans to kill him.

Within the hunting ground, many cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, far stronger than Lu Ye, had pursued and trapped him. They even used a secret technique from a tracking disc, making him unable to hide or escape, ultimately leading to an overwhelming siege by hundreds to thousands of people. Without delving into the long-standing grievances between the two camps, this action by Ten Thousand Demons Ridge was excessive. Lu Ye was fortunate to survive, enduring great cost to strike back at the Spirit Stream battlefield, and no one could fault him for it.

But if the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge party targeted Lu Ye again in the future, they would certainly be more cautious, never again giving him a chance to retaliate.

"This is the final bottom line of the Divine Sea Realm. If Fellow Daoist Lu cannot agree, then please do as you see fit," she said.

Yun Qingyue finished speaking, staring anxiously at Lu Ye, uncertain if he would agree.

Lu Ye nodded calmly, "Agreed. Is there anything else?"

Although he knew that the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge force had not abandoned their intent to kill him, frankly, a cultivation path without such challenges would be too dull. From the moment he stepped onto the path of cultivation, Lu Ye had always been clashing with opponents stronger than himself, especially after his identity as a disciple of the Righteous Blood Sect had been exposed, facing continuous oppression and attacks.

It was only through such oppression and challenges that he had managed to rise swiftly and dominate the Spirit Stream battlefield.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge party would not likely fear to act against him because of this incident, nor did he have any grounds to demand that Ten Thousand Demons Ridge refrain from targeting him in the future.

These were things both knew and need not be stated outright.

Seeing Lu Ye agree, Yun Qingyue breathed a sigh of relief, her expression visibly more relaxed. She had always been of a merciful temperament, genuinely reluctant to see too much bloodshed.

"There is also this matter: justice has its targets, and debts have their debtors. If Fellow Daoist Lu ever seeks to retaliate in the future, please direct it at the actual offenders, and do not involve innocent sects," she pleaded.

The cultivators who troubled Lu Ye in the hunting grounds came from varied backgrounds, but it was certain that not all disciples from the Core Circle sects had participated.

Yet Lu Ye's proposed conditions targeted all Core Circle sects, truly causing many forces undue distress. But they couldn't well say that their disciples hadn't participated in the hunting event to ask Lu Ye to spare them, as that would be utterly laughable.

"It's only right," Lu Ye nodded. "Anything else?"

Yun Qingyue shook her head, "That's all."

She was momentarily lost in thought. Was that it? She had thought that Lu Yiye would not have agreed so easily, having prepared many persuasive arguments, but now none were needed.

"You have no more conditions, but I have two," he said.

Yun Qingyue tensed up, anxiously asking, "Please speak, Fellow Daoist Lu."

"In the hunting grounds, there was a guy named Xia Liang wielding a saber. If I'm not mistaken, he should be from Mad Saber Sect. I won't trouble Mad Saber Sect's stronghold. Communicate to them for me that, besides the thirty thousand merit's worth of materials, I also need twenty volumes of saber skill cultivation insights. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind making a trip myself."

Yun Qingyue diligently made a note, "Okay."

The insights on saber skills cultivation weren't precious unless they were unique, and even then, they could be replicated through printing. In Mad Saber Sect, such insights were abundant—twenty copies could easily be fetched.

"Additionally, add one hundred thousand merits worth of resources from Fengyun Manor."

"Fengyun Manor..." Yun Qingyue was momentarily speechless. Wasn't Fengyun Manor the sect of Brother Wu Jun? By allocating resources worth one hundred thousand merits to Fengyun Manor, Lu Yiye was clearly expressing his irritation towards Brother Wu Jun's poor attitude during the earlier negotiations.

This young fellow seemed reasonable on the surface but actually held petty grudges.

"Playing the villain comes with a price, don't you think?"

Lu Ye gave Yun Qingyue a languid glance.

Yun Qingyue chuckled wryly, "It seems Fellow Daoist Lu saw through it long ago." It wasn't a sophisticated tactic, and there was no helping it if he was seen through.

With a sigh, Yun Qingyue said, "I will report your two requests, but before that, I must ask you to sign the Heaven's Augury Pact."

"Agreed!"

Words alone are no proof; signing the Heaven's Augury Pact is the best constraint.

Yun Qingyue immediately summoned the Heaven's Augury Pact, listed a series of clauses, and handed it to Lu Ye for inspection. After confirming that there were no hidden linguistic traps, Lu Ye pressed his handprint on it.

Yun Qingyue also represented the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side by pressing her handprint, and the Heaven's Augury Pact shone brightly, establishing the contract.

Storing away the Heaven's Augury Pact, Yun Qingyue felt much relieved. Honestly, although she was only dealing with a Cloud River Realm cultivator, the burden felt heavier than ever. Now that the negotiation was successfully concluded, her mission was also deemed complete.

"Then, Fellow Daoist Lu, we will meet again in the future." Yun Qingyue bowed deeply to Lu Ye, summoned her flower basket spirit artifact, and flew away using it.

Lu Ye watched her figure depart, then put away his book and walked to the side. He took out a saber and chopped down a large tree, trimmed it neatly, and chopped it into several sections, busying himself.

Time passed.

Three days later, while sitting on a rock reading a book, Lu Ye suddenly spoke softly, "Leave the items. Take the wooden plaque of the sect that the items belong to as my return gift. After ten days, any sect whose wooden plaque remains here will be visited by me."

No one was before him, but within his perception, unfamiliar auras had gathered around.

These individuals were naturally here to deliver the resources, but fearing his reputation, they temporarily hesitated to show themselves.

Upon hearing what Lu Ye said and looking a few feet away, where hundreds of wooden plaques lay, each inscribed with the name of a sect associated with Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, people remembered his words.

These plaques were marked by Lu Ye against the ten-part map and recorded precisely, ensuring nothing was missed. It wasn't to facilitate tallying up but to improve his memorization of the sects within the Core Circle. There were so many sects in Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, and through such a method, Lu Ye partly memorized the sects in the Core Circle, in case he encountered cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge again and could associate them with their respective sects.

Now, people in hiding understood the intention behind Lu Ye's words.

After a while, someone showed themselves, walked up to Lu Ye, dropped a storage sack, then picked a wooden plaque corresponding to their sect from the many plaques and hurriedly left.

Once someone took the lead, more quickly came forward, silently placing down storage sacks and taking their sect's wooden plaque.

As time passed, the number of storage sacks in front of Lu Ye grew while the remaining wooden plaques lessened.

Every cultivator who came here to deliver resources could see the amassed and spectacular storage sacks, knowing their value amounted to tens of millions of merits, but no one dared to harbor any greedy thoughts. After finally settling matters with Lu Yiye, if any complications arose now, not only would Lu Yiye not spare them, but even the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge wouldn't spare the sect behind them.

At one moment, Lu Ye noticed the wooden plaque of Mad Saber Sect being taken. He waved his hand, grasped the just-dropped storage sack, opened it, and saw that it contained many items, including twenty volumes of insights on saber skills cultivation.

That Xia Liang, indeed belonged to Mad Saber Sect!

Otherwise, the Mad Saber Sect wouldn't have conceded so obediently. The last time he personally went to the Mad Saber Sect, all he got were ten volumes of saber skills cultivation insights.

Lu Ye then began enthusiastically flipping through a volume of the saber skills cultivation insights.

Regrettably, Haotian Alliance didn't have a sect that specialized in saber training, or else he could have gone there to deeply study without so much effort in requesting saber skills cultivation insights.

Moreover, the insights given out weren't the best, and with Lu Ye's current strength and mastery in saber skills, although these insights could bring some benefits, they were unlikely to breakthrough his saber skills.

If someday, Haotian Alliance could conquer the headquarters of Mad Saber Sect, that would be ideal.

Of course, such thoughts were merely wishful thinking. Mad Saber Sect was a 1st grade sect with an immensely profound foundation, not something that could be conquered just like that.