Chapter 1034, Rough on the Outside but Delicate on the Inside

Translator: Jon

Translation Checker: Silavin

 

Lu Ye took a stroll around the Sacred Mountain. There was nothing much to see as there were only several palaces and other buildings. He could see everything quickly.

 

Since he was new here, he wasn’t supposed to wander around. He could only kill time by walking around.

 

When he passed by a palace, he took a peek and suddenly stopped in his tracks. Then, he strode into the hall, which was empty as there was only a column in the centre.

 

An excited Lu Ye walked towards the column. He seemed to be walking down memory lane, for he hadn’t seen this thing for a long time.

 

The people in Blood Refinement Boundary might not know what this thing was, but cultivators from Jiu Zhou were fully aware of it. This was none other than a Divine Opportunity Column!

 

In fact, after Lu Ye arrived in Blood Refinement Boundary, he had been pondering why the Heavens had sent him to this world and how he could return to Jiu Zhou.

 

It wasn’t like he could stay here forever. Since the Heavens had a way to send him here, it could naturally help him return as well.

 

This time was different from the previous experience where he entered the Peerless Continent. Previously, he had brought four Divine Opportunity Columns with him when he went to the Peerless Continent. With the help of those Divine Opportunity Columns, he could establish connections with Jiu Zhou. But he had none this time.

 

Much to his surprise, there was a Divine Opportunity Column on the Sacred Mountain. In that case, he didn’t have to worry about not being able to return. The Divine Opportunity Column could send him back to Jiu Zhou.

 

He could also purchase some cultivation resources from the Vault of Providence. What he lacked most were cultivation resources, which was why his progress had been slow.

 

He pressed his hand against the Divine Opportunity Column and connected his Divine Soul to the Heavens. He frowned as there was no reaction. As such, he decided to do that again, but he still received no reaction.

 

It was his first time experiencing that. Every cultivator in Jiu Zhou was able to connect his Divine Soul to the Heavens through the Divine Opportunity Column. It was also a right granted to every cultivator by the Heavens. There was no way the column wouldn’t react. After several attempts, he still couldn’t achieve his goal.

 

“Junior Brother,” Feng Wujiang called out from behind.

 

Lu Ye turned around and asked in puzzlement, “Eldest Senior Brother, why can’t I use this Divine Opportunity Column?”

 

Feng Wujiang explained, “The Divine Opportunity Column here is unlike those in Jiu Zhou. This particular Divine Opportunity Column can only be activated every five years, and it’ll only last for several minutes. During the process, a lot of resources will be sent from Jiu Zhou, and the column will stop reacting again.”

 

Lu Ye was surprised, not expecting that was what was going on. Previously, he had been wondering how Human cultivators in Blood Refinement Boundary could cultivate their powers since there weren’t suitable cultivation resources like Spirit Stones. It wasn’t like they could merely absorb World Spiritual Qi.

 

The truth was that the Heavens of Jiu Zhou would send them resources.

 

“The next activation of the Divine Opportunity Column is still a year away. You naturally can’t use it now.”

 

“Why is it, though?” Lu Ye was perplexed.

 

“I don’t know the reason behind it either, but I guess it has something to do with this world’s willpower. When the Heavens sent us to this world, it did some concealment so that this world’s willpower wouldn’t notice our invasion. It’s probably why the Divine Opportunity Column is unreactive. If it’s reactive all year round, this world’s willpower will detect Jiu Zhou’s existence. That’s why the column is only activated every five years, and the process won’t last long.”

 

Lu Ye fell deep in thought.

 

“Do you need to purchase anything?” Feng Wujiang asked.

 

“I’m running out of cultivation resources, so I had wanted to purchase some.”

 

Feng Wujiang replied with a smile, “In that case, I’ll send you some cultivation resources later. I still have some left from the previous time.”

 

“Thanks.” Lu Ye nodded, then asked, “By the way, are there Blood Crystals in the Holy Land?”

 

“Yes. Do you need those things?”

 

In the past decades, Blood Race members had besieged the Holy Land many times. Every time, a lot of Blood Race members would lose their lives. Although most of them fell into Divine Palace Sea and vanished, some were killed on the surrounding islands. Their Blood Crystals were collected by the Human cultivators here.

 

Initially, they wanted to use the Blood Crystals’ energy to build Wards, but the energy was erosive, so they couldn’t do so with the crystals. As such, those Blood Crystals were stashed away.

 

After every war, those from the Holy Land would collect a large number of Blood Crystals, but they didn’t need them. That was why they had accumulated a lot of Blood Crystals.

 

There was a vault in the Holy Land that was specifically used to store Blood Crystals, which came in different sizes and qualities as they had been piled up like a mountain.

 

“Yes.” Lu Ye nodded firmly. To other cultivators, Blood Crystals were no different from poison, but they were useful to Lu Ye. As long as he had sufficient Blood Crystals, he could make it to the Ninth-Order Real Lake Realm and achieve an ascension to the Divine Ocean Realm.

 

“I’ll ask someone to send you some later.” Feng Wujiang then beckoned to him. “Come with me. A person would like to see you.”

 

Lu Ye then followed his Eldest Senior Brother. A moment later, he saw Ouyang Zi in the workshop.

 

Feng Wujiang introduced the two parties to each other. When Lu Ye learned that Ouyang Zi was the chief artificer of the Divine Trade Association several hundred years ago, he had a lot of respect for him.

 

The Divine Trade Association was a massive organisation with countless talented people. Since Ouyang Zi could become the chief artificer, he was naturally a Master in the Way of Artification. Lu Ye had only dabbled in this Way, so he wasn’t comparable to the older man.

 

After all, he had only studied the Way of Artification from Kong Kong for two months in the Sword and Tool Sect. Even though he was talented in this Way, he couldn’t master it without putting in a lot of effort for a long time.

 

On the other hand, Ouyang Zi was shocked because Lu Ye was too young.

 

When he heard from Feng Wujiang that the United as One Ward Nexus was made by his Junior Brother, he thought Lu Ye was probably over 50 years old. However, the young man before his eyes was only in his early twenties.

 

“Did you make this thing?” Ouyang Zi was holding the ward nexus. His reddened eyes showed that he didn’t get any proper rest.

 

“Yes.” Lu Ye nodded.

 

“Show me how you make it.” Ouyang Zi looked like he didn’t believe him because it was inconceivable. Considering Lu Ye’s age, even if he started learning the Way of Artification when he was in his Mother’s womb, he still couldn’t successfully brand such a complicated Glyph into the ward nexus.

 

Lu Ye turned to look at Feng Wujiang, who nodded. “Just make one more.”

 

Since Feng Wujiang had said so, Lu Ye naturally wouldn’t turn him down. He fished out some materials from his Storage Sphere and turned his Spiritual Power into fire to burn and refine the materials.

 

He was an Eighth-Order Real Lake Realm Master, so he could make some simple Artifacts without relying on any tools. He had made the ward nexus this way.

 

Under his control, the impurities were separated as a ward nexus slowly took shape.

 

A moment later, he retracted his Spiritual Power as a new United as One Ward Nexus was made. He then passed it to Ouyang Zi, who took it and activated his Spiritual Power to examine it. Disbelief was written all over his face as he said, “That’s strange.”

 

He had witnessed how unskilful Lu Ye was when making the ward nexus, and the item barely passed the quality test. Considering his lack of mastery, how did he successfully brand such a complicated Glyph into the ward nexus?

 

It could be said that such a ward nexus was rough on the outside but delicate on the inside. Beneath its ordinary appearance lay the good stuff.

 

Lu Ye knew why the older man was amazed, so he explained, “Senior, I’m a Glyphweaver, so it’s not hard for me to build a Glyph.”

 

Still, Ouyang Zi appeared to be astounded. “That’s some amazing skill you have.”

 

He had seen many Glyphweavers before, but none of those he had seen were as ridiculously adept as Lu Ye.

 

“Little Friend, can you teach me how to build the Glyph?” Ouyang Zi asked politely. Although he could use his Divine Ego and Spiritual Power to find out the complete composition of United as One, the same Glyph posed different levels of difficulty if it was constructed using different ways. Therefore, he wanted to know how Lu Ye built the Glyph so that he could learn from him.

 

He had studied the ward nexus the day before and found out its amazing uses. It could be said that the item was like a lethal weapon in a large-scale war, and it was indispensable for those from the Holy Land to fend off the Blood Race soldiers.

 

Naturally, he wanted to make more of this item so that many Human cultivators could be equipped with the ward nexuses.

 

“Sure.” Lu Ye directly agreed to it.

 

The two of them then whispered among themselves. Lu Ye would show Ouyang Zi how the Glyph was constructed from time to time.

 

Feng Wujiang waited silently beside them. Dao Thirteen also waited like a log there.

 

Hours later, Feng Wujiang and Lu Ye left the workshop, leaving behind a bitter Ouyang Zi.

 

That was because he discovered that Lu Ye could effortlessly build the Glyph as though he was breathing or having a meal, but when Ouyang Zi did it, he made all sorts of mistakes and couldn’t build the Glyph.

 

That was how Glyphs were made. To successfully weave a Glyph, not even one mistake was allowed during the process. If one made a mistake with the elements of Yin and Yang, the entire Glyph would be rendered useless.

 

That was why there were only a small number of cultivators who focused on the Way of Glyphs.

 

Those Ward Cultivators, artificers, and Pill Cultivators knew how to build Glyphs to make it easier for them to produce their items, but they were only well-versed in Glyphs that were useful in their respective crafts, and they could only successfully build Glyphs which they frequently used.

 

It was unlike a real Glyphweaver who could effortlessly weave all sorts of Glyphs.

 

“We can’t pin our hopes on Senior Ouyang…” Feng Wujiang realised something as well. Ouyang Zi was one of the best artificers that ever existed. Even in Jiu Zhou, hardly anyone was comparable to him in the Way of Artification. However, he wasn’t a Glyphweaver, so he couldn’t weave the complicated United as One.

 

Perhaps he could slowly increase his success rate of constructing the Glyph through practice and use it in the artification process, but what those in the Holy Land lacked was time.

 

Blood Race soldiers were bound to invade the Holy Land in two months, so they couldn’t pin their hopes on Ouyang Zi.