Sage of Humanity

Chapter 187 Bone Fragment

Three days later, the small island where Lu Ye and Hua Ci were located had grown to ten times its original size, having merged with several drifting islands along the way. Some islands harbored enemies, while others were empty.

Lu Ye had wanted to observe the pattern behind the merging of islands, but in the end, he discovered there was no pattern to speak of.

They encountered the first small island one Shichen after their arrival. Then, there was no activity for half a day, yet the second and third islands almost arrived at the same time. At that moment, Lu Ye and Hua Ci were quite tense; if both islands had enemies, their situation would probably not be very good.

The islands that came afterward would suddenly appear within sight. There was no way to find a pattern. The islands seemed to drift with the waves upon the Chess Sea, drawing closer to each other until they merged.

Having killed several batches of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators and having the experience of their first cooperation, Lu Ye and Hua Ci's teamwork became increasingly adept.

Whenever they discovered an enemy, both would pretend to be magic cultivators and greet the opponent with magic and spells. If the other side was a combat cultivator or a physique cultivator, they would surely be unable to resist charging at them.

At that moment, Lu Ye always had a surprise for them.

However, there were exceptions. They once encountered two magic cultivators and passionately exchanged techniques with them for quite a long time. It was an intense exchange of spells.

In the end, it was Lu Ye and Hua Ci pretending to be overwhelmed and fleeing backward that lured the enemy in. Once their foes stepped into the mushroom field Hua Ci had planted, their fate was sealed.

Once Hua Ci's mushrooms were activated, the spore powder they released would invade the enemy's body. These spores, too small for the naked eye to discern, posed no lethal threat. They would only make the cultivator's spirit force obscure and unclear for a short time, significantly reducing their strength.

At the same time, the spores would absorb the enemy's spirit force and grow within the 7th orifice. Experiencing such changes during a battle could leave anyone in panic, with their spirit in disarray and weakened spirit force; they wouldn't be able to withstand Lu Ye's long saber.

It could be said that Hua Ci's method of killing enemies was very intricate, not as straightforward as Lu Ye's, but extraordinarily effective.

Nevertheless, the mushrooms she planted did have a natural counter: the fire attribute spirit force, which could restrain those invading spores. If someone knew of her traps in advance and cleared the area with fire-type techniques, all her arrangements would be thwarted.

In three days, both had their gains. The acquisition of merits was not too abundant, but they received many enhancements from the Heaven's Augury Pillar. After the Spirit Stream Defense Battle concluded, if they invested all these enhancements into their base, the Spiritual Energy in their base would see a tremendous improvement.

Another battle ended, and Lu Ye stood amidst a pool of blood, covered in both the enemy's and his own, taking deep breaths.

By his side lay the corpses of four Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators!

This time luck hadn't been on their side. Two cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge sects had joined forces. Had it not been for Hua Ci's preemptive arrangement, Lu Ye wouldn't have survived this battle by any means.

Although he could defeat enemies beyond his level, he also had his limits. With his current level of cultivation, facing two Level 7 cultivators was already very challenging, let alone three, which would have been certain death.

Hua Ci's mushrooms played a significant role. When they saw that the opponents were four strong, they knew they couldn't confront them directly. Before the other island could collide with theirs, they didn't even bother with the ruse of being magic cultivators and promptly retreated.

The size of the island had grown large enough, otherwise, they really wouldn't have had the space to flee.

What followed was them fleeing and four cultivators pursuing them, circling the island several times until they were finally cornered.

As the four enemies laughed ferociously, Hua Ci activated her technique. With her actions, the enemies' spirit force suddenly became muddled, while mushrooms started sprouting from their orifices.

Lu Ye erupted into action, instantly killing one.

Next ensued a fierce battle on the brink of life and death. Despite Hua Ci's technique taking effect, the sudden lethal assault from the three enemies still inflicted a significant amount of damage on Lu Ye. Even Hua Ci herself was struck by an enemy's weapon control, and if not for the Spiritual Artifact robe given to her by her Second Senior Sister, the blow would have pierced through her abdomen.

After holding on for ten breaths, the situation slowly improved as the enemies' strength rapidly decreased. Eventually, they couldn't even use their weapon control and fell one by one under Lu Ye's blade.

He turned to look at Hua Ci, noticing blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Although she appeared uninjured on the surface, the strike from the enemy's weapon control was clearly not easy to endure.

Lu Ye himself had several wounds, with the most severe one nearly revealing the bone. However, on the whole, he was not in grave danger.

Their eyes met, each feeling lingering fear from their ordeal.

Hua Ci approached Lu Ye to heal him, enveloping him in a gentle emerald glow. The blood flow from the wounds stopped, and a tingling sensation continuously spread.

After reaching Level 6, Hua Ci's healing abilities had significantly improved. After some treatment, the wounds wouldn't heal immediately, but they were no longer a concern.

After tending to Lu Ye's injuries, she proceeded to heal herself.

Lu Ye swallowed a healing pill and a Spirit-Nurturing Pill, switching his Cultivation Technique to recover, while also keeping watch on his surroundings.

He didn't need to meditate with closed eyes like other cultivators during recovery because the Bestial Gluttony Feast was working autonomously. Once he took the elixir pills, he didn't have to worry about them.

It was the same while cultivating in his base. Other cultivators had to concentrate deeply, inhaling and exhaling nature's spiritual energy. Any lapse in concentration could affect their cultivation efficiency. But all Lu Ye had to do was set up the Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes in his spiritual orifice and switch to the correct Cultivation Technique. He could even be busy with other things.

However, under normal circumstances, he had nothing else to occupy him. He spent most of his time daydreaming or sleeping...

At the center of the small island, which was also where he and Hua Ci had first appeared, he had laid out a rather sizable array of Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes. This was mainly to consider providing a place for Hua Ci to recover. Her recovery speed was not as fast as his, so going there to recuperate after each battle would make the process more efficient.

In such a place where a great battle might erupt at any time, it was indeed very necessary to maintain an abundance of spirit force, especially since Hua Ci's cultivation of mushrooms was also extremely energy-consuming. Those unremarkable mushrooms were all cultivated using her own spirit force and some unique methods.

Now that the island had expanded, the number of places she needed to plant mushrooms had also increased.

However, correspondingly, the richness of nature's spiritual energy was also increasing. Generally, after every battle, Hua Ci only needed to sit in meditation there for a while to fully recover.

As usual, he collected the spoils of war. From the battle just now, Lu Ye had obtained enhancements from these four Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, as many as yi-yi, indicating that these four had already killed quite a number of Haotian Alliance cultivators.

These four must have been from two different sects. Lu Ye didn't know how they happened to have such good luck to be able to join forces.

He and Hua Ci had been on this side for several days and had not encountered a single Haotian Alliance member.

He took the storage sacks from the bodies and dragged the corpses to the seaside and threw them into the water. This was how Lu Ye had been dealing with the corpses these past few days. After all, they didn't know how long they would be staying on this island, and corpses would become rotten if left there.

When the blood-soaked corpses were thrown into the sea, Lu Ye clearly saw countless shadows surging below the surface of the water. In just an instant, the bodies were reduced to nothingness, not even leaving behind bones.

He had never been able to see clearly what those shadows were, but he knew that venturing deep into the Chess Sea would certainly mean certain death.

The second body was thrown down, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The third body likewise. Just as Lu Ye was about to lift the fourth body, he suddenly frowned and looked towards the sea in front of him.

A bone fragment had somehow appeared floating on the water surface.

Near the bone fragment, the shadows retreated.

Lu Ye stared at the bone piece, recognizing it as something one of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators had hung around their neck. He had seen it when going through the bodies earlier, and after confirming it was neither a Spiritual Artifact nor precious spirit material, he had disregarded it.

But now, it seemed that this object was somewhat extraordinary.

Because even the shadows below the surface of the water were avoiding it!

After thinking it over, Lu Ye put the body he was holding down and opened his jacket, pulling an object from the neck of the other person.

It was also a bone fragment, the same as the one floating on the water's surface.

He activated his spirit force into it, but there was no reaction. Squeezing it with his hand, it was very hard, confirming it wasn't any spirit material.

What exactly was this thing?

He had originally thought that the bone piece had some special significance for the two men, so each wore one. But now, thinking back, something seemed off.

Because those two individuals wearing the bone pieces didn't seem to be from the same sect. Lu Ye vaguely remembered that during the battle, the two didn't cooperate with each other but instead acted inseparably with others. Explore more stories with empire

Two people from different sects, yet wearing the same pendant - a coincidence?

He didn't rush to throw the bodies into the sea and instead went to find a tree branch, returned to the water's edge, and fished the floating bone piece out of the water.

After dealing with the bodies and without the bone piece on the water's surface, the shadows below became active again.

Holding the two bone pieces, Lu Ye returned to the highest point of the island, while keeping watch all around, he pondered over them.

An hour later (two hours later), Hua Ci, who had fully recovered, walked up to him. Seeing the item in Lu Ye's hand, she asked curiously, "What is this?"

Lu Ye shook his head, shared his findings, to which Hua Ci said in wonder, "Are you saying the two people from different sects each wore a pendant made of this bone piece?"

"Mhm!" Lu Ye nodded, then described the features of the two individuals. Hua Ci thought carefully, "It seems they indeed are not from the same sect. Could it be possible that they're actually brothers with a blood relation? This might be an inheritance from their family."

This speculation was indeed plausible.

"Whatever it is, we'll know once we take it back to Second Senior Sister," Lu Ye said as he put the bone pieces into the storage sack.

Suddenly, Hua Ci nudged him with her elbow and pointed in a particular direction.

Lu Ye looked up and his expression became grave. In that direction was an island, not smaller than theirs, that was quickly approaching them.