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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
If the Thousand Demon Ridge found out that Chen Yu was a disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect, they would surely attack him from multiple angles.
“What are you saying, Brother Lu? Your achievements only honor us. People have been jealous of people who are better than them since time immemorial. Does that mean we should never be better? Of course not. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t bring shame upon the sect.”
The next day, Chen Yu left before the sun even rose. He received some Spirit Stones and Spirit Pills from Shui Yuan before taking his leave.
Lu Ye and Hua Ci were the only two people who came to see him off not because Chen Yu was disliked within the sect—on the contrary, he was extremely close with most of them because he used to manage the neighboring bazaar—but because they did not want the start of his journey to be marred by sorrow.
After all, there was no telling what would happen in the future. Either he would return in triumph and glory, or he would die.
The disciples of top-tier sects were noble, were they not? And yet they too must leave their nest and pit themselves against the world to grow stronger.
All cultivators were unpolished gems at the beginning. Only through polishing could they have a wonderful life. A dream was just the desire to have wings. Only through hard work could one’s wings truly grow the strength to fly.
Chen Yu was the second Crimson Blood Sect disciple to step out of the Outpost after Lu Ye. In the future, there would be more spreading to every corner of the battlefield like seeds.
“I’m planning to pay Mount Ying a visit.”
Hua Ci spoke up suddenly as they walked together in the breeze of dawn.
“Huh? What for?”
“To pick something up.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Hua Ci shook her head. “You won’t be able to follow me there.”
Lu Ye turned to examine her profile for a moment. The wind had blown a few strands of hair out of place, but it only gave her a laid-back kind of beauty.
“Remember the time you asked me where I learned to plant my mushrooms?”
Lu Ye had, in fact, asked this question before. In the past, he didn’t think too deeply into it because his cultivation was weak, and his understanding of the Cultivation World was acceptable at best. However, he was now knowledgeable enough to claim that Hua Ci’s technique was unusual despite her argument that medicine cultivators were perfectly capable of killing as well.
A medicine cultivator’s main focus was to help the sick and save lives. While some medicine cultivators were combat capable because they had cultivated another Way, clearly that wasn’t the case for Hua Ci. Not only that, he had never seen or heard anyone who used a technique that was even remotely similar to hers.
That she had started as an independent cultivator only deepened the mystery.
“I once received the inheritance of a medicine cultivator. Long story short, those techniques are all part of the inheritance.”
“And that inheritance is at Mount Ying?”
“It’s nearby.”
Lu Ye nodded. That explained everything.
In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, it wasn’t unusual for someone to receive the inheritance of a late cultivator. In fact, the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield was rife with such opportunities. While most people might never encounter such boons even if they searched for a lifetime, for some, it was almost as if the inheritance had been waiting for them.
Generally speaking, those who received an inheritance all had a bright future.
Lu Ye was once mistaken to have received a Glyphweaver’s inheritance from the Spirit Creek Battlefield. While it was true that the inheritance belonged to a Glyphweaver, he had not received it at the Spirit Creek Battlefield.
“Is it dangerous?”
“A little.”
“Then there’s no hurry. I’ll be entering the Core Circle in a bit. I’ll contact a Core Circle sect and send both you and Feng Yue there. Both of you are combat-averse medicine cultivators, so you might as well skip the Inner Circle and enter the Core Circle directly. You can head there after your cultivation is stronger.”
Medicine cultivators earned their Contribution Points by healing others, not killing enemies. As a result, most of them were incapable of slaying enemies in battle.
For example, if someone in the Crimson Blood Sect was hurt, and a medicine cultivator treated them, the Legate or the prolegate could reward them with a certain amount of Contribution Points.
Besides that, they could also earn Contribution Points by completing special missions that were issued by the sect.
Hua Ci tilted her head at him. “Are you worried that I will die out there, hmm?”
“Of course!” Lu Ye looked right back at her.
Hua Ci wasn’t expecting such a frank and serious answer. Flustered, she hurriedly withdrew her gaze.
Lu Ye wasn’t done though. He abruptly walked up to her and grabbed her hands.
Hua Ci’s eyes widened like saucers as she looked at Lu Ye in shock. She tried to pull them out to no avail.
“You’re not allowed to put yourself in danger.”
“Let go!”
“Promise me you won’t put yourself in danger, and I will.”
“I’m going to scream.”
“Sure, go for it. Let’s see how loud you can really scream.”
“I really am going to scream!” Hua Ci sucked in a deep breath and acted like she was going to scream. In the end though, Lu Ye’s nonchalant gaze convinced her that it would be a futile effort.
“Fine. If you like my hands so much, then you can hold them for as long as you want. It would be a good opportunity to show your junior brothers and sisters their fifth senior brother’s true face anyway.”
Hua Ci started staring into Lu Ye’s eyes with an impish smile on her face. Lu Ye stared right back while maintaining their current posture. For a while, the duo kept looking into each other’s eyes within an arm’s reach, waiting for the other person to break first…
The glimmers of dawn grew more and more powerful as the sun peeked out of the mountains. It wouldn’t be long before the slumbering Outpost regained its vitality.
“You do not understand the ways of a medicine cultivator. I could be a Cloud River Realm cultivator, and that place will still be as dangerous.”
“Then don’t go.”
“I cannot agree to that.”
“It looks like I won’t be able to change your mind.”
“Well, I can lie to your face and sneak out later. At least you’ll have the illusion that I agreed with you, right?”
“And what would be the point of that?”
He let out a sigh and finally let go of Hua Ci’s hand. The young woman immediately took two steps away from him and shook her hands a little. They were a little numb after being held for so long.
She then summoned her flying Spirit Artifact, jumped onto it and said, “I’m going now. Don’t worry, I’ll give birth to our child and take good care of her. You just focus on taking care of Ling Yu and Kong Niu!”
Lu Ye felt the corner of his eyes twitching uncontrollably as he watched her flying to a nearby Spirit Peak. A moment later, Beaky soared toward the horizon and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, he heard a strange noise that sounded like teeth grinding together. He turned around and saw a red-eyed He Xiyin doing exactly that and glaring at him like he had done something unforgivable to her.
“What?” Lu Ye asked in a disgruntled voice.
“You bullied Sister Hua!” He Xiyin abruptly burst into tears before lowering her stance and charging him like a bull. “I’m going to kill you!”
Lu Ye just grabbed her head and held her in place. “Don’t tell me you actually believe your sixth senior sister’s bullshit?”
“Uwuuuuu… I don’t care! Give me back my unsullied Sister Hua!” He Xiyin swung her arms like a pair of pinwheels in an attempt to smack Lu Ye in the head, but her arms just weren’t long enough to reach him. It was an infuriating and embarrassing experience for her, to say the least.
A moment later, He Xiyin sat on the ground, and cried like a babe while holding a bump on her head with her hands. Lu Ye had left a long time ago as a matter of course. What on earth was wrong with these people? Why couldn’t they be more normal and less worrying?
On Beaky’s back, Hua Ci stifled a smile as she recalled Lu Ye’s final expression.
As a medicine cultivator, she was well aware that Lu Ye’s suggestion was the best arrangement for her at the moment. As he said, she and Feng Yue could just skip the Inner Circle and enter the Core Circle with him. No one would turn down a medicine cultivator, and their cultivation level did not matter too much since fighting wasn’t required of them.
Lu Ye told her not to rush, and yet the biggest reason she was rushing was because he was progressing too fast.
Her cultivation level had been higher when they first met each other. But now, Lu Ye was close to becoming a Heaven-Grade Seventh-Order cultivator, while she was still at the Eighth-Order.
She now understood Yi Yi’s pressure and sense of urgency. At least Yi Yi was barely keeping up with Lu Ye in terms of cultivation speed, but if she were to continue at her current pace, she would be nothing more but a sojourner in his life.
It had nothing to do with their feelings for each other. She just didn’t want this situation to continue.
She hadn’t cared much when she first came to the Outpost, but now that she was slowly integrating into the community that was the Crimson Blood Sect, she didn’t want to be left behind ever again.
The news of Chen Yu and Hua Ci’s departure eventually spread within the Outpost. Although everyone knew that this day would come eventually, the disciples were still affected to an extent when it actually happened.
When Feng Yue learned of this news, she sought out Lu Ye of her own accord and said that she would like to enter the Inner Circle to train as well. She would also like to apply for a bunch of cultivation resources before taking her leave.
She had never considered this before Lu Ye had recruited her into the Crimson Blood Sect. After all, not even her future was in her own hands back then. So what if she managed to reach the Ninth-Order? She would be stuck there forever because she couldn’t earn the Contribution Points necessary to ascend higher.
This all changed after Lu Ye took her in as a true acolyte. Now, she could earn Contribution Points and make plans for the future. Her life was filled with hope once more!
Her optimism lasted until Lu Ye refused her.
Doom and gloom hung above Feng Yue’s head like clouds as she slunk away. She should’ve known that she was still disliked by Lu Ye even after she had become a true acolyte.
That Lu Yi Ye must be the vilest, most ruthless man in the entire world!
After that, she joined a swollen-eyed He Xiyin for another crying session.
Inside his residence, Lu Ye was staring at a newly ignited leaf after feeding the Tree of Glyphs the last Flame of Earthen Spirits in his Storage Bag. It was yet another one of those Connection-type Glyphs; a technique that was used to link two Glyphs together.
In the past, Lu Ye didn’t think that the techniques were all that useful. Now, his recent studies with Lady Yun had enlightened him on the benefits they provided.
Different Glyphs required different techniques to be linked together. The more techniques he mastered, the better he would be able to link different Glyphs perfectly. Besides that, mastering these techniques also deepened his understanding of the profound Way of Glyphs.
He had fed all fifty Flame of the Earthen Spirits he bought to the Tree of Glyphs and obtained six new independent Glyphs in total. However, they weren’t very useful in his opinion.
They were Glyph: Record Sound, Glyph: Record Image, Glyph: Spirit Storage, Glyph: Explosion, Glyph: Aquatic Lungs, and Glyph: Conceal.
Record Sound and Record Image were generally used together for obvious reasons. A Spirit Creek Realm cultivator did not really need these Glyphs, but they would become more commonplace at higher cultivation levels.
Spirit Storage was self-explanatory. Every Spirit Artifact that could be telekinetically controlled was imbued with an enhancement that contained the Glyph: Spirit Bank. Spirit Storage was a slightly superior version of it.
Aquatic Lungs was a Glyph that allowed underwater breathing. It felt uncomfortable when Lu Ye gave it a try, but he could definitely see its uses.
Conceal was definitely less useful to him because he already had the Concealment Bracelet, but he supposed he could use it in wards and create some Concealment Wards.
All in all, there was no such thing as a useless Glyph, only one that required the right time and place to display the maximum effect.
Assuming that the requirements were met, even the most situational Glyph could be incredibly powerful.
By now, Lu Ye realized that the Glyphs he unlocked from the Tree of Glyphs could be anything and everything. It was impossible to predict what Glyph he might unlock next. This was fine though. So long as he continued to accumulate Glyphs, his bag of tricks would grow as well.
