Sage of Humanity

Moreover, the name Fox Fairy Valley particularly caught Lu Ye's attention.

He took out the ten-part map and compared it to his current location. On the map, this valley was not specially marked, meaning the existence of this valley was not recorded on the ten-part map.

So it seemed that the title of Fox Fairy Valley was unique to the cultivators of this area.

He had previously speculated that the Venerable One was a demon, but what specific race was hard to determine unless she revealed her true form.

Undoubtedly, Fox Fairy Valley was an excellent clue.

A Fox Demon?

It would make sense—the legends said Fox Demons transformed into humans, with males handsome and females enchanting, which matched perfectly.

But for the Venerable One, with her strength at the Cloud River Realm level, to be capable of casting Psyche Secret Techniques that controlled people's minds, she clearly was no ordinary Fox Demon; it was highly probable that she possessed some extremely special bloodline.

Just like Amber, there are countless tiger-type demon beasts in this world, but apart from Amber, there has never been another tiger-type demon beast known to transform minion spirits.

And Amber has the bloodline of the White Tiger, one of the Four Auspicious Sacred Beasts, and transforming minion spirits is an innate divine ability of its kind.

Regardless, that Venerable One was not going to be easy to deal with. Now stranded in Fox Fairy Valley, having the Talent Tree by his side meant Lu Ye wasn't affected by the Venerable One's secret technique, but Li Baxian had been mind-controlled, so devotedly loyal that it would definitely be impossible for Lu Ye to take him away.

She had even decided to leave Yuechan behind, who she had lived with for many years, showing the domineering nature of the Psyche Secret Technique. If Lu Ye tried to forcibly take Li Baxian away, he would only reveal his secret of being uncontrollable, and then all the cultivators in Fox Fairy Valley would probably come after him.

With powerhouses aplenty here, Cloud River Level 8-9 cultivators were everywhere; if it really came down to that, the consequences were unpredictable.

He felt fortunate that Giant Armor had been injured earlier and that Yuechan stayed behind to care for him—if they had come along, they would definitely have been captured as well.

Now with Yuechan and Giant Armor still at the spirit ground, at the very least, Lu Ye had a backup plan and wouldn't be completely without support.

That such a place as the Fox Fairy Valley existed within Cloud River battlefield and had never been discovered before by anyone could be attributed to two main reasons. First, was its deep location within the Great Wilderness Mountain, which was difficult for ordinary cultivators to reach, and second, was due to Fox Fairy Valley's rules: any cultivator who entered had to sever their past. Under the Venerable One's Psyche Secret Technique, no one would spread the news of this place outside.

As a result, even if a cultivator went missing for a long time and couldn't be contacted, their sect or their relatives would be unable to find them, at best only able to use battlefield markings to determine if they were alive or dead.

If Lu Ye wanted to take Li Baxian away from here, he'd need to break the Venerable One's implanted Psyche Secret Technique. Otherwise, Li Baxian would never comply willingly. But Psyche Secret Techniques involved Psyche Force, something Lu Ye, still at the Cloud River Realm, couldn't break.

Unless the Venerable One lifted the secret technique herself, which was obviously not possible.

Or else kill her!

In comparison, killing her seemed the only viable option.

No matter how strong she was, she was still only equivalent to the Cloud River Realm. From what he saw of her today, she didn't seem to be an Overlord-level being. In other words, her strength was most likely equivalent to the peak of Cloud River Realm, so while it would be difficult to kill her, there might be a chance for success.

The challenge was how to deal with the cultivators of Fox Fairy Valley.

Lu Ye wasn't sure how many cultivators were gathered here, but starting from the time he encountered Zhou Yuntian, he had seen more than thirty different individuals, and those were just the ones he had come across—there were certainly many more he hadn't seen.

Why did this Fox Demon gather so many cultivators under her? What was she trying to do?

After a long thought, Lu Ye had a vague plan in mind. No matter what, it was right to first figure out the strength of Fox Fairy Valley; only by understanding everything about Fox Fairy Valley could he more effectively deal with the current situation.

He needed to make contact with Yuechan and Giant Armor first.

Since he and Li Baxian had been chasing Xia Liang and Tan Sheng for so long without any news, Yuechan must be getting anxious by now.

Li Baxian couldn't respond to messages, so it was up to Lu Ye to make contact.

Moreover, he had already received messages while he was pretending to be unconscious. He hadn't been able to check them conveniently, but if he wasn't mistaken, they should be from Yuechan.

He touched his battlefield marking and stilled his mind to check, and as expected, it was Yuechan who had sent messages, and there were several, asking about his and Li Baxian's situation.

"Senior Sister Feng."

Barely had the message been sent when Yuechan responded, clearly having been waiting.

"Junior Brother Lu, you finally responded. How are things on your end? Are you hurt, and what about my senior brother? Why isn't he responding to my messages?"

Through the battlefield marking, Yuechan could tell that both Lu Ye and Li Baxian were alive, but their lack of response made her unavoidably suspect something was wrong.

"Senior brother and I are unharmed, so you don't need to worry. However, we've encountered some issues here and I'm afraid we won't be able to return to the spirit ground anytime soon."

"Where are you? I'll come find you."

"You can't come here!" Lu Ye quickly refused, then proceeded to recount the events that had befallen him and Li Baxian, informing Yuechan of their current predicament.

Feng Yuechan was clearly greatly shaken, "You're saying that Senior Brother was bewitched by a Fox Demon?"

"The Fox Demon is my guess, I can't be certain without seeing her true form, but the fact that the mind is controlled is indeed true. Senior Brother is now behaving as usual, with only one exception: he is completely obedient to the Fox Demon due to the influence of the Psyche Secret Technique, and I couldn't forcibly take him away."

"Despicable beast!" Feng Yuechan cursed furiously, although she was curious about how Lu Ye was unaffected by the secret technique, she did not ask further.

After all, if Lu Ye really was influenced, he wouldn't be discussing these matters with her.

"There's a rule here with the Fox Demon; once you've entered Fox Fairy Valley, you must sever all past connections, so Senior Sister Feng, if you try to communicate with Senior Brother, he will not respond to you. However, to avoid revealing anything, please continue to contact Senior Brother as if unaware of the situation."

"I understand," Feng Yuechan replied and soon sent another message, "Now that you mention it, I recall an event from a few years ago. A Cloud River Realm cultivator from the Loyal Heart Sect went missing in the Great Wilderness Mountain. Although the battlefield marking confirmed he was still alive, no replies came no matter who from the sect tried to contact him. The sect presumed he met with some mishap. Although we've organized several searches in the Great Wilderness Mountain, we've never found anything. Now it seems likely that the missing person might have also ended up in Fox Fairy Valley."

"What's his name?" Lu Ye asked immediately. If it was as she said, that person must still be in Fox Fairy Valley.

"He's already dead. One year after he went missing, the battlefield marking disappeared."

A chill went through Lu Ye's heart, becoming more certain that Fox Fairy Valley was not a place of peace.

Moreover, considering the situation here in Fox Fairy Valley, there have always been cultivators going missing, not just from the Loyal Heart Sect. However, since no one has been able to contact those lost cultivators, the situation in Fox Fairy Valley has never been exposed.

Lu Ye didn't know exactly how many cultivators had ended up in Fox Fairy Valley, but the number was certainly not small.

There were only a hundred or so buildings in this place adequate for residence. Even if there was one person per building, that would only be a little over a hundred people. Where had all the other cultivators gone?

There must be some dangers here that he had not yet seen.

"Junior Brother Lu, you must be extremely careful over there, take good care of your Senior Brother and if there is any anomaly, make sure to let me know immediately."

"I'm aware, Senior Sister Feng, rest assured, by the way, how is Junior Brother Giant Armor?"

"Junior Brother Giant Armor has a strong physique, his injuries are not serious, they just looked somewhat frightening, he is now out of danger."

"That's good to hear."

After speaking a few more words with Feng Yuechan, Lu Ye concluded the communication.

Sitting on the bed, Lu Ye's gaze flickered.

Thinking of killing the Fox Demon, he knew his power alone was insufficient; perhaps he could let Feng Yuechan assemble some people on standby near the spirit ground?

However, he quickly dismissed the idea.

There were not a few cultivators in Fox Fairy Valley; if he really needed to summon aid, he didn't know how many would be sufficient.

Furthermore, there was a wolf pack at the spirit ground. When the opportunity was right, all he needed was for Feng Yuechan and Giant Armor to draw out the wolf pack, so there was no need to go to the trouble of finding additional help.

Hence, what he needed to do was to integrate himself into Fox Fairy Valley as much as possible, learn about the power structure here, especially the strength of that Fox Demon. To kill someone, he needed to at least understand how capable they were.

Having made up his mind, Lu Ye stood up and began tidying up his house, cleaning up the remnants left by the previous owner.

After finishing quickly, Lu Ye went outside to arrange some simple Formations, and took the opportunity to visit the dwelling of Li Baxian next door to set up some Formations for him as well.

The night passed quietly in cultivation.

With the dawn of the new day, as Lu Ye was cultivating, he heard the voices of Li Baxian and Zhou Yuntian conversing from the adjacent building.

Zhou Yuntian had come to deliver rewards. The Fox Demon placed great value on Li Baxian's talent during the audience the day before, so she had specifically instructed Zhou Yuntian to provide him with some cultivation resources. Zhou Yuntian naturally dared not disobey the Fox Demon's orders.

Lu Ye didn't know exactly what had been delivered, but since it was for cultivation, it was likely either Spirit Stones or elixir pills.

Soon after, Zhou Yuntian left Li Baxian's place and came directly to Lu Ye, calling out, "Fellow Daoist Lu, are you here?"

Lu Ye got up, opened the door, and came out to greet him, saluting with a fist, "Fellow Daoist Zhou."

Zhou Yuntian laughed heartily and asked with concern, "How is it, are you getting accustomed to living here?"

Lu Ye replied, "The valley is quiet and secluded, very much to my liking."

"That's great," Zhou Yuntian nodded, not beating around the bush, and directly said, "You mentioned yesterday that you have some skill with the Array Path?"

"Indeed, is there a Formation that needs setting up?"

"Not exactly, it's just that despite the quantity of Daoist brothers and sisters in the valley, there's only Fellow Daoist Xie who practices the Array Path, so he is responsible for all the Formations in the valley. Since Fellow Daoist Lu is skilled with the Array Path, the Venerable One wishes you to lend Fellow Daoist Xie a hand in maintaining the Formations."

Lu Ye naturally would not refuse such a task; it was a good opportunity to become familiar with the situation in Fox Fairy Valley. He nodded without hesitation, "I can do that."