Sage of Humanity

The Saintess of the Sacred Fire Order clenched her teeth, stretching her small hand forward as she stimulated the scant spirit force remaining in her body, immediately manifesting a cluster of red light above her palm.

That was a gathering of her spirit force.

As this cluster of red light appeared, the dissipated energy from the previous extensive magic and spells swiftly coalesced towards it.

The scorching temperatures at Golden Light Peak swiftly dropped.

In the blink of an eye, a figure formed entirely of flames appeared before her.

"Fire Giant!" a cry of alarm came from the Haotian Alliance's side, clearly recognizing the name of the spell cast by the Saintess of the Sacred Fire Order.

This was also a spell that should not have been cast by a Level 7 magic cultivator, which showed how exceptional the Saintess's talent was.

However, perhaps due to insufficient cultivation, the Fire Giant, which should have been imposing and at least several zhang tall, was now only the size of an ordinary human. This Fire Giant had no legs, its lower half purely composed of flowing flames, and even its facial features were not quite distinct.

Nonetheless, its frame was burly, and it instantly appeared, positioning itself in front of the female cultivator.

After releasing this spell, the Sacred Fire Order's Saintess collapsed to the ground with a thud, truly exhausted.

It must be said, she was a clever woman.

In these final moments, instead of casting something like the Fire Serpent Technique with her last reserves of spirit force, she summoned a Fire Giant. Spells were easy to dodge, and had Lu Ye evaded her last attack, all she could do was await death.

Her mind pained as if pricked by needles, the blood flowing from her orifices turned dark red. Although she knelt on the platform in utter disarray, she still looked up directly at Lu Ye, rushing toward her, her mind controlling the Fire Giant to meet him.

As the heat wave surged towards him, Lu Ye instinctively raised his broken saber to strike.

Having survived the previous spell's assault thanks to the Defense Spirit Runes, when that spell's power attacked, he activated a rune that could envelop his entire body.

This nearly depleted his already scarce spirit force.

Fortunately, the opponent's spell didn't last long, or he truly would have been burned alive.

Currently, he could still activate one last spirit rune, intended not for this inexplicable entity, but for his own opponent.

His vision was a sea of red, almost too blurry to discern anything. The Sacred Fire Order's Saintess was drained, but so was Lu Ye, both at the end of their tether.

On the platform, the powerful members of both camps watched the final battle with solemn expressions, none having anticipated that a fight between those of merely the 5th and 6th levels could be so ferocious.

At the moment, the two battling figures on the platform looked rather comical and ridiculous. Lu Ye lacked his previous sharp ferocity; each slash he made seemed feeble, and his every step was staggering, as if he might collapse at any moment.

The Fire Giant appeared equally sluggish and foolish, slow to react, which was due to the Saintess of the Sacred Fire Order beginning to lose clarity in her consciousness. Though she had summoned the Fire Giant with her powers, it had no mind of its own and required her control.

This resulted in the battle on the platform resembling a children's scuffle…

Nobody laughed, instead they were silently shocked by the fighters' tenacious will.

A group of powerful cultivators from the Spirit Stream Ranking considered if, at the 5th or 6th level of cultivation, they could do the same? If not killed today, these two combatants would surely appear on the Spirit Stream Ranking in the future.

The childish fight continued, not fierce, but as time passed, the Fire Giant, summoned by magic and spells, gradually became unstable, even its form slowly shrinking.

Anxiety grew among the members of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

Having gotten this far, it would be terrible to fail now.

"Great sacred fire, consume my body!"

A deep chanting voice arose, initially just one person, but soon, many cultivators from the Sacred Fire Order joined in, elevating their voices together.

On the platform, the Saintess, already delirious, suddenly burst out her last energy, tears of crimson blood flowing from her eyes. The Fire Giant battling Lu Ye suddenly swelled, swinging a fierce punch.

With a cracking sound, the half-piece of broken saber in Lu Ye's hand completely shattered, and he himself was blasted away, falling to the ground.

Falling with him were the hopes of the Haotian Alliance.

After striking Lu Ye away, the Fire Giant also burst apart suddenly, turning into specks of light and vanishing, having exhausted its own strength.

The Saintess of the Sacred Fire Order gasped heavily, struggling to get up from the ground, step by step moving towards the motionless Lu Ye on the ground, softly reciting the doctrines of the Sacred Fire Order, her pained expression gradually calming.

Li Baxian's expression turned grave and tense, Weh Ying also covertly stimulated her spirit force; at the same time, the gaze of the powerful cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge fixed on the two, ready to strike at any sign of irregularity.

In that moment, the atmosphere turned extremely tense.

On the platform, halfway to her target, the Saintess slowly drew a longsword from her storage sack. Just that action seemed to drain all her energy. It should have been only a normal mundane sword, as it emitted no spirit light, but it was enough.

Too weak to lift the sword, she dragged it over to where Lu Ye lay, wobbling a bit before stabilizing herself.

As she looked down at her opponent who had suffered burns all over, the Saintess, who had never shown a smile since she began her cultivation, revealed a slight smile.

She very much wanted to tell her opponent: I won!

Though she could open her mouth, she found herself unable to make a sound.

Her hands gripping the hilt of the sword in reverse, the tip aimed at Lu Ye's chest, she slowly lifted it.

The already tense atmosphere around the arena escalated to its peak in that instant, with countless people silently gathering their spirit force.

Lying motionless on the ground, Lu Ye suddenly lifted one hand, palm facing the woman standing beside him, as if to block the impending thrust of her sword.

His dry, cracked lips moved, and a faint voice emerged.

"Fire... Phoenix..."

Red spirit force surged in his palm, and the Saintess's smile instantly stiffened, as she lunged with all her remaining strength, thrusting the sword downward.

A flapping sound rang out, and a phoenix, large as a quail, burst forth from his hand, slamming into the Saintess's chest and exploding violently.

A scream echoed as the Saintess was blasted away, her chest charred black, falling to the ground lifelessly.

Everyone was rendered speechless by this abrupt turn of events, the side previously assumed as certain to die had retained the power to counterattack, and with a magic and spell...

In that final moment, the magic cultivator lifted the sword, the combat cultivator cast a spell.

The winner was decided, life and death determined!

Almost simultaneously, two figures charged onto the arena. The sound of swords clashing resounded in an instant as Li Baxian stood in front of Lu Ye, with hundreds of sword lights swarming and weaving behind him, each one a flying sword.

Sword Qi soared into the heavens, the sword cultivator's killing intent awakened!

Anyone daring to make a move would be met with the onslaught of a hundred flying swords.

Weh Ying cradled the horribly injured Lu Ye in her arms, examining his wounds.

Suddenly, a powerful surge of spirit force rose from the rear of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side like a tide, alarming everyone as they turned their heads in shock, only to see a figure rising tens of meters high into the sky, blocking out the sun with its immense form.

That was the form of a Cloud Giant, a magic and spell.

On the whole Spirit Stream battlefield, there were no more than three people capable of casting the Cloud Giant spell on such a grand scale.

"Everybody, don't move about carelessly; it can be deadly!" a crisp voice called from the direction of the Cloud Giant, and it was only then that the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side noticed a woman sitting on the shoulder of the Cloud Giant, her tiny figure stark against the massive Cloud Giant, but nobody dared underestimate her.

For she was Feng Yuechan, the leader of the Spirit Stream Ranking and a monster who had dominated that position for more than a decade!

"Feng Yuechan!" some Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators gnashed their teeth and muttered.

Nobody knew when she had been lurking nearby, though there had been rumors that she was blocking the gateway at the Hundred Refinement Valley, but now it seemed she had long since left that area. After all, even as the leader of the Spirit Stream Ranking, she couldn't block a 4th grade sect's residence indefinitely.

"Senior Brother, I'm here to help you!" Feng Yuechan raised her hand and greeted Li Baxian warmly.

At this moment, there was no time to correct her address, and Li Baxian nodded in acknowledgment, "Whoever dares to move, kill them!"

"Okay!" Feng Yuechan crisply responded.

On the arena, Weh Ying had already administered an elixir pill to Lu Ye and fed him some unknown medicinal syrup to sustain his life force.

Lu Ye's lips moved slightly, and Weh Ying, unable to hear clearly, leaned closer and whispered, "What are you saying, Junior Brother?"

"Is it over?" Lu Ye asked with difficulty.

"It's over!" Weh Ying nodded.

One of Lu Ye's eyes was completely shut, and the other was barely a slit. He tried to smile but couldn't, letting his tense mind relax. His head tilted, and he passed out decisively.

Alarmed, Weh Ying hurriedly checked on him, and upon confirming that Lu Ye was just overwhelmingly exhausted, she calmed down and looked up at Li Baxian's figure, "Let's return to the sect!"

Li Baxian called out, "Yuechan, take the senior sister and junior brother to Cangming Mountain!"

"Yes!" Feng Yuechan responded, and the tens of meters tall Cloud Giant leaned down, extending a hand toward the arena. Under its massive shadow, many of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators scattered like birds.

The giant hand touched down beside the arena, and Weh Ying carrying Lu Ye jumped aboard, gently setting him down. Suddenly, she noticed something nearby and turned to see a white big tiger.

Recognizing it as Lu Ye's beast pet, and seeing the worried look in the big tiger's eyes, she unexpectedly reassured, "Don't worry; with me here, he won't die."

The Cloud Giant's hand lifted gently, holding the two and the tiger in its palm, then under Feng Yuechan's control, turned its huge form toward the direction of the Cangming Mountain residence and sped off at an incredible velocity!

"Fellow Daoists of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, please wait here for the time it takes one incense stick to burn. After that, you may do whatever you wish, but if there are any rash actions before then, don't blame me, Li Baxian, for a massacre!"

Li Baxian's voice came faintly, but the hundred circling flying swords behind him told all the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators that this man was not joking.

Watching Li Baxian intensely, Yanh Xing's expression grew solemn, realizing only today that Li Baxian's Sword Control Technique had reached such a terrifying level. In their prior encounter, this man had not been fighting with his full strength.