Sage of Humanity

Lu Ye and the others had finished their battle, and the same was true on the other side; they collected the spoils of war and counted the casualties. Those injured voluntarily went to Hua Ci for treatment.

The battle had resulted in many enemies killed, and the casualties on their own side were not significant.

Lu Ye sent a message to his Fourth Senior Brother, asking about his situation.

Previously, because Chess Island had not fully merged, there was no way to travel between them, but now as the final merging had begun, once all the Chess Islands merged into a single provincial state, the previous restrictions would no longer exist.

Lu Ye's message was mainly to ask his Fourth Senior Brother whether he wanted to join him, as his own situation was temporarily very safe, and he even had the capacity to suppress the people from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

If the situation was not good for Fourth Senior Brother, joining him would undoubtedly be a good choice.

However, Lu Ye was at the outermost periphery, so if Fourth Senior Brother came over, his cultivation would definitely be suppressed by Heaven's Augury.

In the Spirit Stream Defense Battle, no matter what the terrain, Heaven's Augury always had such harmonization and suppression, especially since the cultivation levels of the governors from the big sects varied greatly. Take Lu Ye and his Fourth Senior Brother as examples.

Lu Ye was at Level 6 cultivating an Earth-class technique, while Fourth Senior Brother was at Level 8 cultivating a Heaven Rank technique. The gap in cultivation was more significant than just two levels. In actuality, it was a full five levels of difference.

Because being at Level 9 in Earth-class techniques was only equivalent to Level 6 in Heaven Rank techniques, both had opened the 180th orifice.

The gap in cultivation was too large, and without Heaven's Augury's harmonization and suppression, a powerful being like Li Baxian could easily overwhelm any cultivator from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge in the outer circle.

After waiting for a while, Fourth Senior Brother finally replied, telling Lu Ye to rest easy and go with the flow. He was still busy with some matters and would find Lu Ye after he had finished.

Above the vast Chess Sea, streams of light chased after stars and moons as they swept across the sea surface, with a gourd-shaped Spiritual Artifact at the forefront. On the gourd, Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan were seated. Both were injured. Feng Yuechan, pale-faced, leaned on Li Baxian's shoulder, occasionally coughing lightly, indicating that her injuries were severe.

The streams of light following the two were not numerous, only about a dozen or so, amounting to just over twenty people.

After ending the communication with Lu Ye, Li Baxian breathed a sigh of relief. He had always been worried about Lu Ye's safety, and knowing now that Lu Ye's situation was very good, naturally, he relaxed.

However, his own situation was not good. As Lu Ye had previously thought, Ten Thousand Demons Ridge had come with a plan and naturally would not be satisfied with just killing some level 7-8 governors. They wanted to kill leading figures of the Haotian Alliance like Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan.

If they killed enough, Ten Thousand Demons Ridge could dominate the confrontation between the two camps in the coming decades.

In the past twenty days, inside the inner circle, the Haotian Alliance side suffered huge losses, with even Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan getting injured.

They had encountered a group of powerful fighters from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge. Outnumbered, they had no choice but to flee their current Chess Island.

Under normal circumstances, this act was tantamount to suicide, for flying over the sea consumed too much spirit force. Even for Li Baxian and his company, it was risky to guarantee reaching the next Chess Island before their spirit force was depleted.

But now, all the Chess Islands were in the final stages of merging, converging towards a central point, so they took the gamble. With some luck, they might find a landing spot before their spirit force ran out, assuming, of course, it wasn't already occupied by Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators—otherwise, it would mean certain death.

"Brother, I fear I won't make it much longer," Feng Yuechan's weak voice rang out, her breath thinning, "Brother, it was great to have met you in this life."

Li Baxian's expression was solemn, and he sighed, "Don't talk nonsense."

"I can feel it… Brother, I want to return to the sect."

"I will take you back to the sect!" Li Baxian said, his head bowed low.

"After we return to the sect… cough cough… let's get married!"

Slap…
Your adventure continues at empire

Li Baxian smacked his hand on Feng Yuechan's smooth forehead in response.

Feng Yuechan touchingly covered her forehead, "I'm about to die, and you're still hitting me?"

Li Baxian gave her an annoyed look, "Do you think I don't know that before coming here your mother made you wear a treasure garment?"

Feng Yuechan's face turned red, "I wore it inside, how did you know, brother?"

"Ah, there's a Chess Island over there, we're saved!" Li Baxian suddenly brightened up as he looked in one direction. Following his action, the gourd-shaped Spiritual Artifact carrying both of them flew toward that Chess Island, closely followed by the dozen or so streams of light behind them.

A massive buzzing sound continued without pause; when the entire Chess Island finally stopped, the last merger was completed.

Looking down from high above, the checkerboard of islands on the Chess Sea had disappeared, replaced by a single massive province. Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators from all around the province had gathered and began to act almost simultaneously.

According to their prearranged plan, they started purging the periphery of the land, groups of unequal numbers moving either clockwise or counterclockwise to search for traces of Haotian Alliance cultivators.

Not just on the outskirts, but even the cultivators from the inner circles of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge did the same. In a moment, the entire province seemed to turn into a gigantic millstone, driven by the power of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators. Once they found traces of Haotian Alliance cultivators, the crushing force of the millstone would pulverize any enemy they encountered.

Before the final consolidation of the province, the 300 Haotian Alliance cultivators on the Chess Island where Lu Ye was located also began to devise their next plan.

Now, Lu Ye and his people were faced with two choices. One was to stay where they were. After all, this was a place that Lu Ye and others had managed for over twenty days. Not to mention, Hua Ci had made various arrangements here, and Lu Ye had constructed more than a dozen huge Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes to facilitate killing enemies and recovery.

Thus, waiting here provided a significant advantage, whether it was for other Haotian Alliance members to come join them or for the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge foes to fall into their trap.

However, if they chose to stay, then the scattered Haotian Alliance cultivators would face greater danger because currently, their group had the highest number of Haotian Alliance cultivators. If they did not take action, other smaller groups would certainly face annihilation by Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators.

They did not know how many from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge were still alive, but it was certain they outnumbered the Haotian Alliance.

Therefore, the second choice in front of their group was to take the initiative to strike while searching for the enemy, thereby absorbing more of their own cultivators to strengthen their power.

All who had come to participate in the Spirit Stream Defense Battle were governors and deputy governors from various big sects. Even if they had not participated in such large-scale operations before, they had enough insight and foresight.

So after only a brief discussion, they almost unanimously agreed.

That was to forsake the various advantages of this location and launch a proactive strike! This was not only about saving others but also about self-preservation. Otherwise, once Ten Thousand Demons Ridge had cleaned up the outskirts, they were bound to launch an attack on this location. By then, it wouldn't just involve a couple of hundred people—a couple of thousand might be possible.

Once the plan was set, the more than 300 people were divided into over thirty squads, each consisting of about ten people who cooperated and moved closely connected.

Choosing a direction, the group of over 300 people thundered out.

At the same time, messages were sent out to inform those scattered small groups of their movement trajectory, directing them to find opportunities to come and join them.

Naturally, Lu Ye and Hua Ci were in one team, as were Lann Yudie and Gao Tai, along with the siblings Loo Yushan. The others present were responsible for closely protecting Hua Ci.

Everyone was sprinting at full speed, except for Hua Ci and Loo Yushan's sister, who each rode on a mechanical wolf with a leisurely demeanor.

These mechanical wolves were the siblings' creations, using Spirit Stones and some spirit force for transportation. These weren't especially fast, but neither were they slow; their advantage was in conserving physical strength.

Lu Ye somewhat regretted not bringing Amber inside. Previously, he was concerned that having Amber with him would easily reveal his identity, but who knew beforehand that the terrain for this Spirit Stream Defense Battle would be the Chess Sea. In the Chess Sea, whether or not identities were exposed seemed to matter little.

After all, it was just moving between merging islands, where encounters meant life or death battles.

Hua Ci's mechanical wolf was hung with storage sacks, over a hundred in total, and that was after she had firmly declined more. If she hadn't been so insistent on not taking more, she might now have several hundred.

This Spirit Stream Defense Battle had been extremely profitable for Hua Ci. It wasn't just about the storage sacks. Most of the cultivators from the big sects had received her medical treatment, and what she had earned even more of was their goodwill.

As an independent cultivator, she was little known previously, but one Spirit Stream Defense Battle had made her known to many big sects' governors and deputy governors. Just by walking the battlefield of Spirit Stream afterward, she could receive protection from any sect.

Of course, Lu Ye was the same; his construction of Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes greatly facilitated the recovery of their fellow cultivators.

The achievements of the two were not under the shadow of the Righteous Blood Sect, but were earned through their own abilities, which also brought honor to their sect.

"Thirty li ahead, some brothers from the Haotian Alliance are being pursued and are heading toward us. All squads, prepare for battle!" a roar suddenly came from ahead.

With the province fully formed and the sun hanging high in the sky, it was easy for cultivators to determine each other's locations with vague orientations and communication methods.

"Beat them to a pulp!" someone shouted out.

Suddenly, a burst of noises erupted, the group of Haotian Alliance cultivators descending like bandits down a mountain.

They hadn't covered the thirty li because as they were approaching each other, only about ten or so li later, Lu Ye felt fluctuations of spirit force ahead, suggesting that the Haotian Alliance cultivators being pursued were resisting their enemy's attacks.

Being pursued naturally didn't bode well, but with the arrival of their own cultivators, the situation quickly reversed.

The pursuing Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, seeing the tide turn, exchanged blows hastily, abandoned some corpses, and turned to flee.

The pursuers turned into the fleeing, and the fleeing turned back to pursue, making the scene extremely lively for a moment.

Lu Ye and Hua Ci exchanged a word, and his body shot out like an arrow, passing one Haotian Alliance cultivator after another. Within moments, he caught up with the fleeing enemies, led with magic and spells, toppled them, and after a swift slash, left without even time to collect the spoils, continuing the chase.