Sage of Humanity

Such merit was unparalleled across the Nine Provinces, even Divine Sea Realm cultivators likely did not possess as much. It's not that cultivators of the Divine Sea Realm couldn't earn that much merit, but they needed to use their merit to exchange for cultivation resources—who would frivolously accumulate so much merit?

Moreover, with more than three hundred thousand battle merits, even the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks could be exchanged for 20!

With Lu Ye currently at the Cloud River Level 5 in terms of cultivation, if he had 20 gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, he could easily advance to Level 8-9!

Although the City Lord could clearly see some of Lu Ye's minor actions beneath the soul pool, he had no way to know exactly how much battle merit Lu Ye had. After getting the answer from the Butcher, he immediately schemed.

Even though he was the Xianyuan City Lord, he couldn't use up Lu Ye's battle merits to let him obtain soul water of corresponding weight—that endeavor still required the power of Heaven's Augury.

This was a good opportunity to test if this person was the chosen one.

If he was, then Heaven's Augury would surely respond; if not, naturally there would be no response.

Once he made up his mind, he clasped his hands together, facing the void, and softly chanted, "Ji Yuan of Xianyuan City, respectfully summons Heaven's Augury. Today an outsider, surnamed Lu and named Ye, joined my Xianyuan City, fought a bloody battle, slaughtered invading Insect Race, amassed damaged Spiritual Bodies, allowed entry into the soul pool for recuperation, upon awakening, harbored ill intentions, stole soul pool soul water, damaging the foundation of my Xianyuan City. He should have been executed as a warning to others, but considering his contributions, Yuan also cannot bear it, please Heaven's Augury, grant him the power to exchange his battle merits for soul water!"

In just a short speech, Ji Yuan spoke without pause, with a resonant and forceful voice.

At the moment the words fell, Heaven's Augury descended from the void!

Ji Yuan raised his eyebrows, and the Butcher standing behind him revealed an intriguing expression.

It was confirmed—the boy was indeed the chosen one!

Although Heaven's Augury is omnipresent, any cultivator can respectfully summon Heaven's Augury for some witnessing or to sign contracts, but such one-sided granting of special power to an individual was still rare.

Especially since this involved the soul water in the soul pool.

This was the foundation of Xianyuan City, the high Heaven's Augury could not be ignorant of the importance of soul water, yet upon Ji Yuan completing his plea, it still offered a response.

That boy was absolutely the chosen one—that's why he received such special treatment from Heaven's Augury.

Since Heaven's Augury had granted Lu Ye the power to exchange battle merits for soul water, what could Ji Yuan say?

The exchange ratio was unknown to Ji Yuan, but such matters did not require his intervention, as Heaven's Augury would have its own judgment, and besides, soul water was immensely important. If the boy, as the Butcher had said, only had a few tens of thousands of battle merits, he presumably could not exchange for much soul water.

He thought so to himself…

Lu Ye was unaware of these developments at the side of the Soul Cleansing Pool. At this moment, he was focused on condensing soul water.

The last time he came here, he was only at Spirit Stream Level 8, but now, although he was at Cloud River Level 5, his current strength was comparable to that of the True Lake Realm due to some special circumstances.

Therefore, the spirit energy gathering funnel he constructed this time was much larger than the last, naturally causing a disturbance that couldn't be compared to last time.

The massive funnel came with an endless devouring force, sucking in the thick soul mist and then condensing it into soul water.

Lu Ye originally used a jade vial to store the soul water, only to find the soul water condensing too quickly, quickly filling one.

He simply took out an empty water bladder, placed it under the spirit energy gathering funnel, and as he listened to the soul water drip into it, Lu Ye felt elated, thinking it was the most wonderful sound in the world, blissfully unaware that a powerful entity was secretly gnashing teeth above the Soul Cleansing Pool.

While collecting the soul water, he was also constantly alert to his surroundings.

The last time he set up a spirit energy gathering funnel here, for some unknown reason, the funnel often shattered, causing him to repeatedly rebuild it.

What he didn't know was that the disturbances he experienced last time were caused by the Xianyuan City Lord Ji Yuan's secret interference…

If it wasn't for that, he could have taken out a significantly larger amount of Soul Cleansing Water last time.

At the time, he had just thought the funnel he built wasn't stable enough and didn't think much of it.

This time, with his guard up, the same situations as before no longer happened.

Just as Lu Ye was joyfully collecting the soul water, the back of his hand suddenly felt slightly hot, this strangely familiar sensation startled him because this movement was clearly a reaction to a large amount of merit being deducted.

Just like when he had pushed open that door that required the consumption of ten thousand merits…

But he was only collecting soul water now; why would a large amount of merit be deducted?

Bewildered, he quickly immersed his mind to investigate, and subsequently discovered something unbelievable.

The deduction was not of merits, but of battle merits!

He originally had over three hundred thousand battle merits, but now he was missing fifty to sixty thousand, and the number was rapidly decreasing.

What was happening?

Lu Ye was somewhat panicked.

This time in Xianyuan City, the greatest gains besides the soul water were these battle merits, not insubstantial in number, but all were exchanged for his life.

He had already planned that once he returned to the Cloud River battlefield, he would immediately enter the Heaven's Augury treasure vault and exchange for a batch of gold-hued spirit fortune sticks to raise his cultivation level. It didn't need to be too high; with his current foundation, as long as he could advance to Cloud River Level 7, then there would hardly be anyone in the entire Cloud River battlefield who could threaten his safety. If he could reach Level 8, that would be even better. At that time, he could stride across the Cloud River battlefield; any Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivator who came looking for trouble would be on a path to their own demise.

Such pleasant plans, however, were interrupted by a sudden turn of events.

Lu Ye couldn't figure out why his battle merit was inexplicably decreasing, and the speed of the decrease was too fast, nearly a thousand points at a time.

Why is this happening!

Although he had indeed used some methods to obtain these battle merits and had harnessed power far beyond his own cultivation, he had earned them through killing members of the Insect Race, one by one. So why should they just vanish?

Moreover, he had never heard of a cultivator's merit or battle merit disappearing in such a bizarre manner.

Even faced with desperate situations, Lu Ye could remain calm and undisturbed, like a still well. But at this moment, he panicked as he watched his battle merits rapidly decrease, uncontrollably feeling as if someone were slicing away at his flesh with a blunt knife.

Over three hundred thousand battle merits—more than double his current merit. In the Nine Provinces cultivation world, perhaps no other cultivator had battle merits exceeding their merit by so much.

They hadn't even warmed up yet, and now they were disappearing little by little.

Lu Ye reminded himself to stay calm. First and foremost, he needed to figure out why his battle merit was vanishing without reason.

But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find any clear clues.

At most, there was his stealing of the Soul Cleansing Water...

Wait a second...

Lu Ye suddenly realized something as he stared at the huge funnel in front of him.

The decrease in battle merits was regular, each time a whole thousand points.

Whether it's merit or battle merit, Heaven's Augury is at work in their tallying and consumption. This is common knowledge.

So, the decrease in his battle merits was also caused by Heaven's Augury.

If Heaven's Augury really wanted to erase his huge amount of battle merits, it would have just erased them directly. There was no need for this slow, painful method.

A whole thousand points is an intriguing number.

As Lu Ye sensed the condensation of the Soul Cleansing Water and monitored the changes in his battle merit, he gradually discerned a pattern.

Every time his water sack received one drop of Soul Cleansing Water, his battle merit decreased by a thousand points.

To confirm his guess, Lu Ye moved the water sack away from underneath the funnel.

As expected, the number of his battle merits no longer changed. Even if new soul water condensed, as long as he didn't collect it, his battle merits wouldn't decrease since the formed soul water would quickly vaporize back into the soul mist.

So that's it!

The battle merits he had consumed were exchanged for soul water, each drop valued at a thousand battle merits.

Realizing this, Lu Ye's previously tense mood completely relaxed!

He had been acting sneakily here, somewhat fearful of being discovered, as unauthorized taking wasn't exactly praiseworthy.

But since this process consumed his battle merits, it wasn't a problem anymore.

This certainly spoiled his original plan to enhance his cultivation, but compared to cultivation, soul water was undoubtedly more precious.

This stuff could only be obtained in Xianyuan City, while cultivation could be gradually improved. This priority was clear to anyone.

Moreover, a thousand battle merits for one drop of soul water was incredibly cheap!

Lu Ye hadn't expected the exchange rate for soul water here to be so favorable.

What can a thousand battle merits do? For a cultivator, a thousand battle merits can be exchanged for one blue spirit fortune stick or two white spirit fortune sticks, which don't substantially enhance a cultivator.

But what about one drop of soul water? If released, even the strong cultivators of the Divine Sea Realm would scramble for it, as any one of them possessing a drop of soul water could significantly enhance their psyche.

Compared to that, some cultivators in True Lake Level 9 had an even greater need for soul water, as a single drop might help them break through their current bottleneck and ascend to the Divine Sea Realm.

The two were not at all on the same level.

Having understood why his battle merits were consumed, Lu Ye completely relaxed.

He wasn't sneaking around; he had exchanged a huge amount of battle merits for these drops of soul water!

Even in front of the Xianyuan City Lord, he could stand tall!

At the same time, by the Soul Cleansing Pool, the expression on the Xianyuan City Lord, whom Lu Ye had been concerned about, began to look ugly, as he sensed that something was not right in how events were unfolding.

"Butcher!" Ji Yuan called out, "Didn't you say he only had tens of thousands of merits?"

The Butcher hastily defended, "I don't know how many merits he has; I was just guessing," he said, then quickly asked, "What happened?"

Ji Yuan slowly turned his head, glaring at the Butcher, his teeth clenched, "He has already collected more than two hundred drops of Soul Cleansing Water! And he hasn't stopped yet!"

How could that be just tens of thousands of merits? The boy's merit must far exceed the Butcher's estimate.