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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Lu Ye even suspected that the reason this female Primal became so powerful was because she had spent many years absorbing the energy leaking out from the True Phoenix Flame.
If that was true, then it was that no wonder she was fatally attracted to the flame.
He immediately imbued his Spirit Boat with Windwalk and kicked up his travel speed by another notch. However, the presence behind him only grew closer at an unbelievable rate.
Just a short time later, he turned his neck stiffly to one side. The female Primal was now flying right next to him.
She was a bird and a Tyrant. Even at his maximum speed, she had still caught up to him with insulting ease. Perhaps he could give her a run for her money if Wings was still usable, but the Tattoo-type Glyph had reached its limit a long time ago.
There was a silver lining though. The female Primal hadn’t attacked him even though she had caught up to him.
“The flame!” The female Primal said suddenly while staring at him with her crimson eyes.
Lu Ye’s heart skipped a beat as he gripped his Inviolable. He was going to hit her the second she asked a question he couldn’t possibly answer. Yi Yi, Amber and Ju Jia needed him right now, and he was in no mood to play twenty questions with the female Primal. Sure, his chances of defeating her were incredibly slim, but he was going to make her work for it at the very least.
“I couldn’t find it!”
It would be stranger if she could as the Tree of Glyphs had gobbled up the True Phoenix Flame completely. He highly suspected that there wouldn’t even be a Burning Lands in the future.
“I already told you I didn’t see it,” Lu Ye answered calmly. “Perhaps you didn’t try hard enough.”
“Impossible.”
Despite the incredibly obvious, the female Primal did not suspect for even a second that Lu Ye was the true reason her flame had disappeared. She was much stronger than Lu Ye, but even she was unable to claim the flame. Naturally, Lu Ye could not be the one who took it.
“You can’t sense it anymore?”
The female Primal shook her head dejectedly.
Lu Ye thought for a moment before starting, “It’s like this. There are plenty of treasures in this world that naturally become sentient over time. Those destined to obtain a certain treasure might find it falling into their lap one day, but those who weren’t may never even catch a glimpse of it. You were sure there was a flame there, but neither of us were able to see it. Perhaps this means that we weren’t fated to get that treasure.”
“Fate?”
“Yes. Fate.”
The female Primal fell into deep thought. She only flapped her fiery red wings from time to time, but Lu Ye still wasn’t able to shake her off. He could not imagine how fast she could go if she was flying at full force.
A long time later, she suddenly said, “You mean the flame is still there. It’s just hiding from me, right?”
[No, I never said that! Not even close!]
The female Primal abruptly stopped in her tracks and turned back toward the Burning Lands. Somehow, she had interpreted Lu Ye’s words as the flame actively trying to hide from her senses.
Lu Ye sighed as the female Primal vanished into the horizon. The Creator was fair after all. Some people appeared to have an unfair advantage over others, but they surely had a flaw or two that balanced out that advantage. Take this female Primal for example. If she wasn’t as ridiculously powerful as she was, she would’ve died a long, long time ago.
He was glad that the interlude turned out to be a false alarm. He continued to fly toward the Myriad Poison Forest at top speed.
Looking at the 10-point map, he should arrive at the Myriad Poison Forest in less than two days—but only if he kept Windwalk active the whole time. Of course, that was impossible. Even if his Spiritual Power could hold out that long, there was no way he could fight anyone.
If he did not use Windwalk, then it would take twice as many days to reach his companions. However, his energy regeneration would just barely be able to keep up with the consumption. Even if his estimate was off, the Mystic Fruit cider should be enough to make up the difference.
And so he kept shoving Spirit Pills into his mouth and refining them as quickly as possible. From time to time, he would activate Windwalk to give himself a boost.
Meanwhile, the amount of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators surrounding the Myriad Poison Forest had exceeded three thousand. More and more were gathering outside the forbidden area as time passed.
News of the Lu Ye Elimination Front’s failure had spread far and wide a long time ago. Thousands and thousands of people had participated in the hunt, but not only did they fail to achieve their objective, they had even lost hundreds to the Vanquisher of Sects. They could hardly believe it was true.
It wasn’t just one sect who lost face because of this. It was all of them. Lu Yi Ye had basically planted his foot on their face and mopped the floor with it.
It was a wake-up call for the entire Thousand Demon Ridge. They realized that this might very well be their last chance to eliminate Lu Yi Ye.
Previously many Tier-One sect cultivators and champions on the Scroll of Supremacy had refrained from joining in on the pursuit in the Misty Mountains because they considered the work to be beneath their status. It was different now. At least twenty plus Scroll of Supremacy champions had gathered outside the Myriad Poison Forest, and the strongest of them all was ranked in the thirties.
It was even rumored that a top ten champion had hidden themselves in the area. They were just waiting for Lu Yi Ye to show up to deal him a fatal blow.
Besides that, the amount of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators gathering outside the Myriad Poison Forest was greater than when they were hunting Lu Yi Ye in the Misty Mountains. As if that wasn’t bad enough, both the timing and geographical conditions were in their favor this time.
The Misty Mountains were ridiculously vast and unique in some ways. Even if they managed to find Lu Ye, their manpower was spread thin enough that he was able to deal massive damage to them time and again.
The Myriad Poison Forest was different though. For starters, it was way smaller than the Misty Mountains; small enough that they could surround the entire place with three thousand cultivators. This ensured that Yi Yi and Ju Jia would be unable to escape.
Second, they weren’t afraid that Ju Jia and Yi Yi would hole up in the Myriad Poison Forest forever because the area was permanently shrouded in a fog of poison. Even if they could hold out for a while, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of antidotes and died.
This was exactly why the Thousand Demon Ridge wanted to venture into the Myriad Poison Forest and capture Ju Jia. It had taken them considerable effort to finally corner the bastard. If he died in the Myriad Poison Forest, then Lu Yi Ye would not show himself or willingly walk into the death trap they had prepared for him.
Currently, their plan was to capture Ju Jia alive and force Lu Yi Ye to show himself!
The Antidote Pills and poison-neutralizing treasures they were waiting for had finally arrived. It was time to enact their operation. As the orders were given, squads of cultivators began entering the Myriad Poison Forest from every direction in search of Ju Jia.
It didn’t take long before a squad reported that they had encountered Ju Jia and Lu Ye’s white tiger. Unfortunately, he was able to escape.
This news invigorated the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators and motivated them to push harder. They were going to keep up the pressure until Ju Jia had no choice but to walk into their arms.
Ju Jia had tried to fly to safety several times, but each time he was driven back into the forest.
For a while, it felt like the Myriad Poison Forest would be his graveyard.
It was at this moment the Thousand Demon Ridge received some great news. Lu Yi Ye had finally shown himself, and he was less than half a day away from Myriad Poison Forest!
To say that the Thousand Demon Ridge was excited would be an understatement. Knowing that their plot had succeeded, many cultivators immediately backed out of the Myriad Poison Forest. At the same time, they set up countless traps and wards all around the place. Now, they were just waiting for their prey to step into them.
The impatient ones even took off in the direction Lu Ye was expected to appear in hopes of intercepting and killing him before their peers.
Half a day away from Myriad Poison Forest, Lu Ye continued to fly toward his destination at high speed. He was also being pursued by a good number of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators.
It was inevitable that he would be found out since he was traveling openly, not that he had planned on hiding his tracks from the start.
He knew exactly what the Thousand Demon Ridge was plotting, though he was far less sure about Yi Yi and Ju Jia’s situation. Every time he messaged the girl, she would tell him that they were still doing okay. It was obviously a lie.
His appearance should alleviate some of the pressure on them.
He counted at least dozens of pursuers behind him. Just like all the previous chases, every time someone fell behind because he was too fast, two would join the group.
The good news was that Lu Ye had zero intentions of tangling with them. Every ounce of Spiritual Power was precious right now. He could not afford to waste any time or energy on these people.
He was flying over a forest when suddenly, he sensed something and looked beneath his feet. He immediately saw a hail of Sword Lights bursting out of the tree leaves and flying straight toward the pursuers behind him.
At the same time, a dozen or so cultivators in plain clothes took to the skies.
“It’s the Northern Profound Sword Clan!” One of Lu Ye’s pursuers screamed in panic.
Lu Ye immediately did a one hundred and eighty degree turn and charged toward his attackers. His nine flying weapons—he had replaced the three he lost to the female Primal with new ones—flew out of his Weapon Holder and reached them even sooner than he.
The reason he didn’t want to fight his pursuers wasn’t just because he didn’t want to waste his Spiritual Power, but also because he was alone. Even if he managed to kill some of them, there was a high chance he would be overwhelmed in the end.
It was a different story if he had help though, especially when these reinforcements were infamous for their bloodlust.
Sword Lights filled the sky, and blood curdling screams rang through the air. Although these Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators were numerous, even they were afraid to go up against the sword maniacs of the Northern Profound Sword Clan. After all, their sword telekinesis was said to be the deadliest telekinesis technique in all of Jiu Zhou.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lu Ye was part of the beatdown as well. His killing speed was as good or better than the sword cultivators.
The Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators lost many of their numbers after just a brief clash. Only a dozen or so people were able to escape in the end, and none of them were unscathed.
They were ambushed by the infamous sword maniacs after all. It would be stranger if they managed to escape unharmed.
Metal ringing filled the ears as Lu Ye’s flying weapons returned to his Weapon Holder. After flicking off the blood on the Inviolable and returning it to his sheath, he turned toward the leader of the sword cultivators. To his surprise, he found himself recognizing the man.
During the Battle of Goldentip, Li Baxian had once instructed the man to keep Lu Ye safe. At the time, his cultivation level wasn’t very high yet. Now, he was a Heaven Nine cultivator.
If Lu Ye remembered correctly, his name was Yu Lianzhou.
“Hail, Senior Uncle Lu!” Yu Lianzhou greeted and saluted Lu Ye seriously. The sword cultivators did the same thing.
Lu Ye hurriedly stopped them. “Don’t call me that! I’m younger than all of you!”
The reason Yu Lianzhou addressed Lu Ye as Senior Uncle was because Li Baxian was their elder in terms of seniority, and Lu Ye was Li Baxian’s junior brother. Therefore, they should address Lu Ye as their Senior Uncle.
In fact, only a handful of individuals across the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield had seniority comparable to Lu Ye.
Back then, Yu Xiao, the sect master of the Heavenly Derivative Sect, had addressed Shui Yuan as his senior sister. Cultivators generally led very long lives, so it was quite difficult to ascribe seniority properly. Excluding those who were close enough to use first names, nicknames or other affectionate terms with each other, those within the same age range generally addressed each other as senior/junior brother/sister.
“I’m aware you are reluctant to address me as a junior brother due to my fourth senior brother, so just call me Fellow Cultivator Lu.”
“Fellow Cultivator Lu,” Yu Lianzhou responded without hesitation.
“So, why are you guys here?” Lu Ye asked. It was clear that their presence here wasn’t a coincidence.
I was wondering when Momo would remember that Demon brats ain’t the only people there invested in Yi Ye’s survival or lack thereof.