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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
It was very simple to verify if someone was a medicine cultivator or not. They only needed to check their treatment skills. That was why the Heaven Eight cultivator had cut Hua Ci.
Hua Ci flipped her hand over and summoned a warm and gentle aquamarine light on her palm. The light washed over the wound for around three breaths before the bleeding had ceased completely. Another dozen or so breaths later, Hua Ci deemed the wound sufficiently treated and stopped.
The group of cultivators were all looking at Hua Ci’s arm with raised eyebrows. It was because the wound was showing signs of recovery already!
When Hua Ci had displayed her Spiritual Power Attribute, they already figured out that she was likely telling the truth. After all, only medicine cultivators possessed such warm and gentle Spiritual Power. Now though, they realized that they had underestimated the woman.
Not all medicine cultivators could heal a wound this quickly. It proved that she wasn’t just a medicine cultivator, but an extremely skilled one.
“Which sect do you come from?” The Heaven Eight cultivator asked.
“I’m an independent cultivator.” Of course Hua Ci wasn’t stupid enough to tell them her true affiliation.
The Heaven Eight cultivator made a noncommittal grunt.
Independents were made up of all kinds of cultivator factions just like the sects, but they possessed the least amount of medicine cultivators since few of them would choose to remain as independent cultivators. After all, there was no such thing as a sect with too many medicine cultivators. The medicine cultivator could be the lousiest of the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield, and they would still be welcomed with open arms.
Hua Ci was a Ninth-Order cultivator, an uncommon breed even if she belonged to a different cultivator faction. A medicine cultivator? They would have to be incredibly stupid to believe her claim.
That said, they did not force Hua Ci to divulge the truth. Since they had captured her, the only way she might regain her freedom was if the sect she belonged to contacted them and paid the ransom money.
They would figure out her background then.
It was one of the unspoken rules that hadn’t changed since the Spirit Creek Battlefield came to be.
Hua Ci did not bother to resist. In fact, she tossed them her Storage Bag of her own accord. It wasn’t like she brought any valuables with her anyway. There were only a handful of Spirit Stones, Spirit Pills and Spirit Artifacts in it.
The Thousand Demon Ridge group set off to their destination once more, this time with a prisoner in their midst. Their leader, the Heaven Eight cultivator who cut her just now, thought that her flight speed was too slow, so he fetched her on his flying Spirit Artifact.
No one tried to torture her or even bind her. They did not think a Ninth-Order medicine cultivator could threaten them whatsoever.
“Where are you going?” Hua Ci asked.
“Myriad Poison Forest!” The Heaven Eight cultivator fetching her replied carelessly.
Hua Ci nodded and kept quiet after that. The group would never know that the answer had inadvertently saved their lives.
In the inner depths of the Myriad Poison Forest, Lu Ye slowly awakened from his dreamless slumber. He felt weakened and tired despite his sleep—it wasn’t something he was going to recover from without a few days of rest at least. Someone had taken off his bloody clothes and wrapped his wounds for him though. It was probably Yi Yi’s handiwork.
He asked, “How long was I asleep?”
“Almost two days,” Yi Yi replied while handing him a waterskin.
Lu Ye took a few greedy gulps before he finally checked out his surroundings.
The ward he had set up was still working, so the poisonous fog was unable to enter. However, the surroundings outside the ward were overflowing with aquamarine, poisonous fog.
The energy globe keeping the poisonous fog from coming in was sizzling non-stop; a clear sign that the fog was corroding the fog. It was fine though. As long as they had enough Spirit Stones, the fog would not be able to make it through.
Yi Yi’s skin was looking a little green. Despite being an apparition, the poison was clearly corroding her somewhat.
Ju Jia was doing even worse. Despite the royal jelly, there wasn’t an inch of his body that wasn’t covered in green, and his eyes looked deeply sunken. He looked like he might pass away at any moment. In fact, he would have died two days ago if he wasn’t as strong as he was.
The only one who looked perfectly healthy was Amber. His aura was perfectly clear as well.
“My items didn’t work?” Lu Ye asked with a deep frown on his face.
“They did, but Senior Brother Ju Jia had probably accumulated too much poison in his body. The items could suppress its effects for a time, but not expel it completely.”
Ju Jia had shielded Amber with his Spiritual Power the entire time before Lu Ye showed up. As a result, Amber managed to avoid being poisoned. Yi Yi too was safe until Ju Jia had lost control of his flying Spirit Artifact, and she had to emerge from Amber’s body to catch their fall. As it turned out, not even an apparition was immune to the poison.
The bad news was that she couldn’t consume the royal jelly because she was an apparition. The good news was that her symptoms were moderate at worst because she wasn’t exposed for too long.
While Lu Ye was unconscious, Yi Yi had fed Ju Jia the royal jelly as he instructed. At first, it looked like Ju Jia would be saved after all. However, it wasn’t long before the deadly poison in his body returned in full force. Worse still, the royal jelly was growing less and less effective with repeated usage.
Lu Ye looked at Ju Jia and asked, “How do you feel?”
Ju Jia shot him his usual silly grin. He would’ve looked better if he cried.
Lu Ye knew that Ju Jia was in grave danger, but they had very few options right now. He did not expect the poison in Ju Jia to be so bad that even the royal jelly could not neutralize it. The only way he might be saved was if he returned to the headquarters, and his senior sister treated him in person.
However, they were currently surrounded in the Myriad Poison Forest, and he himself wasn’t at his peak form right now. How could he possibly break them out of the encirclement and lead them to safety?
He might not know what was going on outside, but he knew that the Thousand Demon Ridge must have them surrounded completely. No, they would only die if they showed their faces.
[What if I try burning the poison with the Tree of Glyphs? It shielded me from the heat before. Perhaps it can affect another person as well?]
Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The Tree of Glyphs was firmly rooted in his Source Spiritual Point, and while he could consume energy by channeling its power and causing its invisible roots to appear from his body, he could not burn the poison in Ju Jia’s body no matter what he tried.
The only other option was to channel his Fire Attribute Spiritual Power into Ju Jia’s body and literally burn away the poison. However, not only was it highly inefficient, it would severely damage Ju Jia’s insides as well.
“Can’t you think of anything, Lu Ye?” Yi Yi asked while watching Ju Jia worriedly. For the past couple days, she could only watch the big man weaken little by little without being able to do anything. She was beyond frustrated and anxious to say the least.
Lu Ye thought for a moment before looking at Ju Jia, “Can you ascend to the Cloud River Realm?”
On the surface, Ju Jia was just a Heaven Seven cultivator. In reality, Lu Ye knew that this was far from his limit. Ju Jia possessed a unique Mutant core that could store a tremendous amount of Spiritual Power like his Spirit Storage, but way better. The reason the body-tempering cultivator did not unlock more Spiritual Points wasn’t because he couldn’t, but because he refused to.
Maybe it was because he wanted to ascend to the next cultivation level together with Lu Ye, or maybe it was because he had formed an unbreakable habit while he was traveling with Sima Yang. He loved cultivating, but he would never allow his cultivation level to exceed his companions’ cultivation level. This was something Lu Ye had realized a long time ago.
Lu Ye did not know how much Spiritual Power the big man had saved up in his Mutant core, but the crisis would resolve itself if he could ascend to the Cloud River Realm.
The Spirit Creek Battlefield was a place for Spirit Creek Realm cultivators and no one else. If Ju Jia ascended, then he would automatically be kicked out of the Spirit Creek Battlefield and back to their headquarters in Jiu Zhou. His second senior sister would be able to save him then.
Since ancient times, many cultivators had chosen to ascend to the Cloud River Realm in their Outpost because it contained a rich amount of Spiritual Qi, and it was a safe environment. Naturally, everyone knew that a cultivator would be kicked out of the Spirit Creek Battlefield after they had ascended to the Cloud River Realm. Lu Ye had never witnessed it with his own eyes, however.
“I’m not sure,” Ju Jia replied.
“Give it a try!”
Even if Ju Jia failed in the end, it couldn’t hurt to be at a higher cultivation level. It might buy them enough time to think of an alternative solution.
Ju Jia nodded and closed his eyes. The moment the body-tempering cultivator channeled his Spiritual Power, Lu Ye immediately heard a series of strange popping sounds coming from his body.
This wasn’t the first time he had experienced Ju Jia’s unlocking speed, but he still couldn’t stop his eyes from twitching with incredulity.
Most cultivators took at least some time to break through the barrier around their Spiritual Points, but Ju Jia? Heavens, it was like he was popping bubbles. Wherever his Spiritual Power traveled, the barriers crumbled like they didn’t even exist.
Lu Ye reckoned it was because he had more than enough Spiritual Power to make the breakthrough.
A dam could cut off a river, but not a flood.
Sixty pops came and went in an unbelievably short time. After that, Ju Jia took a moment to connect his new Spiritual Points into Microcosmic Orbits and ascend to the Heaven-Grade Eighth-Order Realm.
The pops began once more, and this time both Lu Ye and Yi Yi were counting the number in their heads. When it stopped at sixty pops once again, Lu Ye realized that he had underestimated the amount of Spiritual Power in the body-tempering cultivator’s Mutant Core this whole time.
Ju Jia was qualified to become a Cloud River Realm cultivator ages ago.
In the past, the biggest roadblock in Ju Jia’s cultivation was his lack of Contribution Points. He was unable to purchase the Heaven-Grade cultivation technique he needed to continue his cultivation. After Lu Ye had got him the Contribution Points though, there was nothing stopping him from ascending all the way to the Cloud River Realm.
Now, Ju Jia had unlocked all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points in his body, although he hadn’t connected them to his Cosmic Orbit Circulation yet. As a result, he still appeared to be a Heaven Eight cultivator.
Now that his Spiritual Points had been fully unlocked, he could ascend to the Cloud River Realm at any moment.
“Tell Sister Shui and the Sect Master that they do not need to worry about me,” Lu Ye instructed while pulling out the loot he had collected for the past few weeks. He then put it all in a Storage Bag and tied it to his waist.
Perhaps it was because his cultivation level had increased, but Ju Jia’s complexion looked better than it was before.
Ju Jia watched him for a moment before turning all of a sudden and leaning against a tree trunk. He then crossed his arms and turned his back toward Lu Ye.
[What does he mean by this?] Lu Ye was completely confused by his body language.
Yi Yi explained, “He doesn’t want to leave. He’s worried about you.”
Lu Ye broke into a smile and walked up to Ju Jia. He then crouched beside him and said patiently, “You don’t want this place to be your resting place, do you? Head back to the headquarters and seek out our second senior sister. Right now, she’s the only one who can save you. I’m not trying to push you away, but this is literally the only way left to save you. You don’t need to worry about me. You might have noticed, but I’m immune to poison. This place might be extremely dangerous to most people, but it is nothing to me.”
“I can break you out of here!” Ju Jia suddenly declared with a fierce expression.
