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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Lu Ye’s weapon arm turned sore and swollen after executing the finishing move. Not only did his skin turn as red as a boiled lobster, steam was rising out of the pores.
For a time, the arm would not stop shaking. Lu Ye had to clench and unclench his fist repeatedly until it finally began to recover.
He recalled the move and felt like his hard work was finally rewarded.
For the longest time, he had to explore his path of cultivation himself. He never knew what was right and what wasn’t. But now, his third senior brother’s booklet was like a guiding light that illuminated the path in front of him.
A tea time later, after Lu Ye felt that his arm had completely recovered, he executed Flash once more.
After six hours had passed, he switched hands and practiced with his left hand instead. He wouldn’t stop until he literally couldn’t continue any further.
That night, when Hua Ci returned from her cultivation, she was surprised to find Lu Ye standing at the courtyard and doing seemingly nothing in particular. His arms were hanging casually beside him while the Inviolable was planted beside his feet.
When their eyes met, Lu Ye immediately cried, “Help!”
Surprised, Hua Ci blinked and looked at him again. It was then she realized that his arms had become as swollen as his thighs. It was a stunning sight to say the least.
After a quick check, she determined that Lu Ye’s condition wasn’t as serious as it looked. It was just a matter of his vitality becoming clogged in his arms. After she calmed down, she asked him what the hell he was doing and learned that it was the result of his blade practice. She could barely resist rolling her eyes at him.
The reason he looked like this was because he had accumulated too much vitality in his arms, and he did not reduce the swelling in time. That was why restoring it wasn’t a problem. After a series of slaps and massages—to improve the blood circulation—and a full night’s rest, Lu Ye’s arms returned to normal.
The same thing happened again the next day. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad since Lu Ye knew what to expect and tried to restrain himself a little.
For the next couple days, Lu Ye practiced his blade technique during the day and received Hua Ci’s treatment at night. As his skill increased, the side effects of the Blood Shifting technique also decreased over time.
One day, Hua Ci was treating Lu Ye’s arms when she asked suddenly, “Did you check the Scroll of Supremacy lately?”
“No. Why?”
He used to check the Scroll of Supremacy very frequently, but that stopped after he had become the champion. It was because there were very few people who could threaten him at this stage.
“Check it.”
Lu Ye complied and connected his mind to the Scroll of Supremacy. Then, he started looking through the list from bottom to top. The rank list had changed a little, and some familiar names were nowhere to be seen. They had probably ascended to the Cloud River Realm.
He noticed something wrong when he reached the seventieth placement. It was because almost everyone between the fortieth and seventieth spot was Thousand Demon Ridge. Only a handful of them belonged to the Grand Sky Coalition!
[Now where have I seen this before?]
The same thing had happened when Lu Ye was challenging the Scroll of Supremacy, and he had done it by challenging and killing every Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator above him.
He immediately trained his gaze on the thirty-eighth ranker. It was someone named Lan Zi Yi!
He had never seen this name before, but he was fairly sure that they—she, if her feminine name was any indication—had only started climbing the Scroll of Supremacy recently.
“You saw it?” Hua Ci asked.
“When did she start challenging the Scroll of Supremacy?”
“Yesterday.”
Lu Ye was surprised. If what she said was true, then this Lan Zi Yi was climbing the Scroll of Supremacy even faster than he had.
“She’s very strong. I’m sure she’s gunning for you, so watch your back,” Hua Ci warned.
“Infinite Island…” Lu Ye muttered thoughtfully. The memory was old, but he was sure he had crossed paths with someone from this sect before.
If he remembered correctly, the guy named Luo Ji he had encountered at the Split Sky Gorge was a member of the Infinite Island.
As expected of a Tier-One sect. Luo Ji had cultivated a Heaven-Grade cultivation technique from the get go, and now this Lan Zi Yi was ripping through the Scroll of Supremacy…
Hua Ci thought that Lan Zi Yi was targeting him. He was almost certain that she was right.
The Thousand Demon Ridge had made multiple attempts to kill him to no avail. Now that he had made it back to the Myriad Poison Forest, he was well and truly out of their reach. The only way left for them to kill him was to challenge him via the Scroll of Supremacy.
However, he was the champion for a reason. Nearly every Thousand Demon Ridge ranker who fought him had perished by his hands, and not even a former champion like Shi Guang was a match for him.
Out of everyone he knew, the deceased Yan Xing might be the only one left who stood a chance against him.
Now, a new challenger had arrived. Not only was this woman climbing the rank list the same way he did, no one from the Grand Sky Coalition was able to stop her so far. Even worse, she had surpassed his speed and made it to the thirty-eighth rank in just a day…
While Lu Ye and Hua Ci were talking, Lan Zi Yi’s placement abruptly vanished and reappeared on the thirty-sixth spot. At the same time, the former thirty-sixth ranker had vanished completely from the Scroll of Supremacy. It was clear that the ranker was dead.
Obviously, there was only one reason Lan Zi Yi would copy Lu Ye’s method of climbing and choose now to climb the Scroll of Supremacy of all times.
“How many more days do you have left before you receive the second reward? Seven? Eight?” Hua Ci asked.
Lu Ye calculated in his head before answering, “Seven!”
It had been twenty three days since he last received the Heavens’ reward.
Every time he received the Heavens’ reward, Lu Ye would become visibly stronger than he was before. If Lan Zi Yi really was gunning for him, then she would challenge him before he entered the Pool of Heavens. She would not give him the chance to grow stronger.
At her current speed, she might challenge him as soon as tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Sudden anticipation welled inside Lu Ye’s heart. Currently, there was no one left in the Spirit Creek Battlefield who could give him a real fight and allow him to verify his skills. Getting into a fight was simple—he only needed to leave the Myriad Poison Forest and expose himself to the world, and the world would swarm him from every direction like bees to honey—but it would be a one-versus-many battle, and the best way to verify one’s strength was to pit oneself against a powerful foe.
Considering Lan Zi Yi’s climbing speed, she could not possibly be a weakling. Although he felt like he had improved a lot as of late, training was ultimately just training. Just like how a test was the only way to verify the fruit of one’s studies, a good fight was the only way to verify the labor of his training. Assuming that this Lan Zi Yi was as strong as she seemed, she would be the perfect whetstone for him.
Meanwhile, Lan Zi Yi’s abrupt ascension had caught the eyes of countless cultivators from both factions.
Before Lu Ye had come under scrutiny, no one had ever managed to kill more than a dozen or so rankers, much less challenge every one of them. This greatly infuriated the Thousand Demon Ridge as a matter of course.
Even worse was the fact that Lu Yi Ye had done the impossible and become the champion in one fell swoop.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, everything the Thousand Demon Ridge had pitted against him had ended in failure so far.
Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect had become a mountain that pressed down on their shoulders all the time. They could barely breathe because of him.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel, however. Finally, their faction had produced a similarly outstanding talent! While she wasn’t able to slay every ranker in her path, her climbing speed was even better than Lu Yi Ye’s. Everyone was looking forward to the moment where Lan Zi Yi acquired the right to challenge the champion. When it happened, they would know who was the true king or queen of the Spirit Creek Realm!
In the courtyard, Lu Ye was practicing his blade technique as usual when he suddenly received a message from Han Tiejun. It said, “Beware of that woman! She’s strong and playful!”
He understood Han Tiejun’s first sentence, but not the second. He already knew that Lan Zi Yi was strong. Forget that he had never underestimated an opponent, her climbing speed made it pretty clear that she was no one to be trifled with.
What did he mean by playful though?
Also, had Han Tiejun fought against Lan Zi Yi already?
Lu Ye quickly checked the Scroll of Supremacy. As expected, Han Tiejun had dropped from the third place to the fifth place.
“Are you alright?” Lu Ye replied.
“I’m grievously wounded!”
“Not bad!”
“What do you mean, not bad? I’m grievously wounded!”
“…”
“Anyway, you really should be careful of her. I do not think she’s weaker than you. For starters, I wasn’t able to force her into revealing her true strength. Not only that, I felt as if she’s just been toying with me the whole fight.”
“I see. Got it.”
After the conversation ended, Lu Ye considered his options before contacting Hua Ci. He also stopped his practice completely.
Although his arms never swelled like the first day again, the practice still cost a lot of stamina. Not knowing when Lan Zi Yi would challenge him, he needed to ensure that he was in peak form until then.
Hua Ci quickly returned and treated his arms. He then returned to the third floor, adopted a meditative stance and swallowed a few Spirit Pills. Finally, he placed the Inviolable on his knees and cultivated using the special method.
Since Lan Zi Yi had become the second runner-up, it meant that the anticipated battle was right around the corner. At that moment, countless Grand Sky Coalition and Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators were paying attention to the Scroll of Supremacy and looking forward to finding out who was the stronger between the two.
In fact, the social war had begun even before the battle itself. Right now, the cultivators of both factions were busy flaming the hell out of each other. The Thousand Demon Ridge claimed that this fight was inherently unfair because Lu Yi Ye had already received the Heavens’ reward.
The Grand Sky Coalition immediately retorted by saying yes, this fight was unfair because Lu Ye was just a Heaven Eight, and Lan Zi Yi a Heaven Nine…
The retort had struck the Thousand Demon Ridge like a hammer and silenced them for a bit. It was because they suddenly realized that the Grand Sky Coalition was right. Lu Yi Ye… really was just a Heaven Eight.
Even if Lan Zi Yi emerged victorious, she could not prove that she was the strongest cultivator at the Spirit Creek Realm. When Lu Yi Ye had reached Heaven Nine, he would be able to challenge her a second time for the throne.
On the other hand, there was no second chance for Lan Zi Yi. If she lost here, then all hope was lost.
If she couldn’t beat Lu Yi Ye when he was Heaven Eight, then there was no chance she could do it when he was Heaven Nine.
That was why she only had one chance. Lan Zi Yi must become the champion if she wished to defeat Lu Yi Ye for even a moment.
The social war was at its height when Lu Ye abruptly opened his eyes.
He felt a disturbance in his Battlefield Imprint.
Lan Zi Yi had issued him a challenge!
I wonder.
Kill, humiliate or seduce?
Yes