Sage of Humanity

Spirit fortune sticks could be transferred, which gave rise to a unique transaction, spirit fortune stick auctions! Some cultivators who acquired spirit fortune sticks and were short on funds would choose to consign them for sale. Every so often, the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Unions in various places would hold an auction event for these sticks. Moreover, these auctions only used merit as the means of transaction, so even if someone was unlucky and couldn't find a spirit ground or seize a spirit fortune stick, as long as they had enough merit, they could still cultivate at a fast pace. This indeed matched some of the information Lu Ye had heard previously. He had heard that merit was very useful on the Cloud River battlefield, and now it seemed to be true. In fact, merit was useful at any time, in any place. This was Lu Ye's first visit to the Cloud River battlefield, so he didn't need to worry about spirit grounds for the time being, since the existing ones were all claimed, unless he was capable of seizing one from someone else. In the Spirit Stream battlefield, he was unmatched, but that was not the case here in the Cloud River battlefield. After all, he had only just advanced to the Cloud River Realm, and no matter how solid his foundation was, his strength was limited; it was impossible for him to contend with those seasoned Cloud River Realm cultivators. He did want to find some spirit fortune sticks to see what they were like. Although he could cultivate using alchemy even without nature's spiritual energy, having dense nature's spiritual energy would further enhance the efficiency of his cultivation. He still had over seventy thousand merits at hand, so he could buy some spirit fortune sticks no matter what. He casually asked a manager from the mercantile union about the auction, found out that the last auction had just occurred two days ago, and the next one wouldn't be for nearly a month, so he immediately dismissed the idea. All the information he needed to gather was in hand, and Lu Ye stepped out of the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union. Outside, the sunlight was bright and cheerful, and constantly, cultivators' figures flitted high across the sky. The Cloud River battlefield seemed much livelier compared to the Spirit Stream battlefield. Of course, this was because this place housed the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union. In reality, due to the vast expanse of the Cloud River battlefield, the probability of encountering a cultivator in the wild was actually smaller than in the Spirit Stream battlefield. After all, in general, there were much fewer cultivators at the Cloud River Realm compared to those at the Spirit Stream Realm. Standing outside the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, Lu Ye communicated with Giant Armor, checking the ten-part map and informing him of his current position. Giant Armor replied, "Hmm!" Lu Ye guessed that probably meant he understood, but Giant Armor didn't have a ten-part map at the moment, so he wasn't clear on his own position; even if Lu Ye wanted to go find him, he didn't know which direction to head in. Well, since he was here, he might as well settle in. Being new to the place, it was best to familiarize himself with the environment first. With this thought, Lu Ye soared into the sky, randomly chose a direction, and traveled through air. According to the ten-part map, three hundred miles away from here was a Class C Spirit Ground, and Lu Ye wanted to see what the level of nature's spiritual energy was there. If he just went to observe and not to seek shelter, others probably wouldn't refuse him. The identity of the cultivators occupying that spirit ground... In fact, many spirit grounds were jointly occupied by cultivators from the Haotian Alliance and Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, neither openly revealing their alliance nor knowing each other's backgrounds. Such a sight was not seen in the Spirit Stream battlefield because the garrisons there were occupied by sects as a whole. But this phenomenon was common in the Cloud River battlefield because there, cultivators mostly acted individually, and even if they formed groups, it was just three or five people in a squad; there would never be too many people acting together. Thus, if a new spirit ground were discovered, the first cultivators to gather there would sign a Heaven's Augury Pact for some temporary cooperation. The unique environment necessitated this unique method of operation. That's why Second Senior Sister Shui Yuan had told Lu Ye earlier that in the Cloud River battlefield, the cultivators from the two major factions sometimes weren't completely antagonistic and needed some cooperation. With the Heaven's Augury Pact as a guarantee, both parties could rest assured, preventing any backstabbing occurrences. As he traveled, before long, Lu Ye summoned his spirit ark as flying long distances with weapon control was less tiring. His spirit ark now was a mid-grade spirit artifact, faster than before and more robust, having more defensive restrictions in place, so it wouldn't easily sustain damages from attacks as before. With no one around, Yiyi quietly appeared, sitting in front of Lu Ye, looking around curiously and said, "So this is the Cloud River battlefield. It doesn't seem much different from the Spirit Stream battlefield." "The people are different; from now on, the cultivators we meet will all be at the Cloud River Realm." "No problem, if there's a fight, Amber and I will help you," Yiyi said, waving her small fists. Amber also gave a woof, indicating his readiness to fight! "Where are we heading now?" asked Yiyi. "To a Class C Spirit Ground, to scout the place," Lu Ye replied. "Oh," Yiyi responded and didn't ask further, sitting upright and looking around. Suddenly, she raised her hand, pointing to a direction, and exclaimed, "Lu Ye, Lu Ye, that cloud is so beautiful, it has four colors!" Lu Ye followed the direction she was pointing and indeed saw a four-colored cloud at the edge of the sky, which was moving swiftly towards them. Lu Ye's eyebrows raised, surprised that he had encountered such good fortune upon just entering the Cloud River battlefield. According to the information purchased from the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, before the descent of spirit fortune sticks, colorful clouds would appear, from which the fortune sticks that aid cultivators in their cultivation would fall. Four-colored clouds could give birth to four types of fortune sticks: white, green, blue, and purple. If there were five-colored clouds, then the highest-grade gold-hued spirit fortune sticks could be born. Correspondingly, with only three colors, the fortune sticks born would only be white, green, and blue. If there were two colors, they would be white and green. The colorful clouds appearing before the descent of fortune sticks range from at least two colors to as many as five colors. Now, the four-colored clouds appearing before him meant that purple fortune sticks could potentially be born. Lu Ye immediately halted in place, observed for a moment, and confirmed that the direction of the drifting clouds was indeed heading towards him; he was instantly delighted, thinking his luck was indeed remarkable! However, a moment later, Lu Ye's expression turned grave, as trails of light came shuttling below the clouds. Knowing that the appearance of colorful clouds would lead to falling spirit fortune sticks, nearby cultivators naturally followed closely, and judging by the agile and vigorous figures, there were clearly many powerful individuals among the arrivals. When cultivators are at the Spirit Stream Realm level, one can deduce another's cultivation based on the intensity of the circulation of the Minor Circumambulation within their body by observing the spirit light on their skin. But that isn't the case in the Cloud River Realm. In the Cloud River Realm, cultivators only have one Major Circumambulation cycle within their body, and it's difficult to discern another's true strength based on the intensity of their spirit lights. Moreover, the Cloud River Realm is the realm with the largest disparity in strength among cultivators. Some ascend to Cloud River with 240 orifices while others with 360 orifices, and at the same Level 1 of Cloud River, the strength that can be exerted differs naturally due to the differing number of opened orifices during the ascension. Thus, within the vast realm of Cloud River, to judge one's strength based solely on their level of cultivation is unwise, as it often leads to a lower-level cultivator killing a higher-level one on the battlefield. Here, cultivators are only categorized into two types: those who can be beaten and those who cannot! As to whether one can actually beat another, one only knows after truly facing off. This is also why Lu Ye dared to act alone shortly upon arriving for the first time. He indeed rose to prominence on the Spirit Stream battlefield, causing many sects from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge to wish to eliminate him swiftly, but that was only on the Spirit Stream battlefield. Upon arriving at the Cloud River battlefield, who knew who he was? Many cultivators, on arriving at the Cloud River battlefield, don't return to their sects for many years, like Lu Ye's Third Senior Brother, Xiao Xinghe, who stayed continuously on the Cloud River battlefield until he advanced to the True Lake and then left. For Lu Ye, this was a fortunate situation. On the Spirit Stream battlefield, he was notoriously known as "Lu Ye the Sect Destroyer" and "Three Calamities of Spirit Stream," titles that made everyone from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge's factions want to attack him on sight. Now in the Cloud River battlefield, he felt the need to act low-key, at least not like on the Spirit Stream battlefield where everywhere he went, he encountered groups of people wanting to kill him. In the entire Spirit Stream Realm, his life was almost spent fleeing in desperation, truly pitiful. Lu Ye wasn't proud or complacent about his achievements on the Spirit Stream battlefield; he was quite self-aware. With his current strength, there were many on the Cloud River battlefield who were stronger than him. So, seeing a large group of light following the clouds flying towards him, he quickly lowered his figure, landing on a small hill below. The arriving group of cultivators was easily several hundreds large, and with time passing, more and more cultivators joined them. After all, with such a large cloud floating in the sky, anyone within a few hundreds of miles, unless blind, could see it clearly. Combat had not erupted between them yet because it wasn't the right time, and also, no one carelessly revealed their allegiance. In the upcoming contest, unless there were acquainted people teaming up, everyone else remained rivals, regardless if they were from hostile or friendly camps. The cloud moved directly above Lu Ye, then suddenly stopped. Lu Ye looked up, thinking to himself how it was too much of a coincidence that it stopped right above him. The cloud was not exceptionally high above the ground, just a thousand yards, a height that Cloud River Realm cultivators could easily reach by flying because, logically, the closer one is to the cloud, the better positioned they are to take the initiative. But in reality, no cultivator dared to get too close to a colorful cloud. There had been someone who did so before, and now the grass on their grave was over a dozen yards high, because when the fortune sticks fell from the cloud, their speed was incredibly fast and their lethal force immense. If one were too close, no one in the Cloud River Realm would be able to withstand it. The farther a fortune stick flies, the slower its speed and the easier it is to capture. Therefore, instead of approaching the cloud, the cultivators who followed dispersed in various positions; securing a fortune stick was largely a matter of luck, as no one knew in which direction the stick would fall.