Humanity’s Great Sage

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Lu Ye was just outside the New Moon Sect outpost when he lowered himself to a crouch to better observe the luminescent shield of the defensive ward with his Glyph: Insight-augmented sight.

This did not go unnoticed by one of the sentries keeping watch. He hurried here at once and growled from the other side of the wall of light, “Who goes there?!”

There was little reason for his tone to be friendly—not when a suspicious stranger was skulking about outside.

Lu Ye pensively shot him indifferently, “Who do you think I am?”

The odd question startled the enemy Cultivator. He looked at Lu Ye more closely. This time, he could almost swear that he must have seen the face somewhere before. 

Somehow, he was confident that he had never personally met this stranger before, despite the palpable feeling of familiarity. 

But before he could demand a name, the stranger was already gone. Lu Ye had wandered off to look for weaknesses in the shield to exploit, which he found as he began casting his ward flags. 

If Lu Ye still wielded the rank of a Cloud River Realm Third-Order, he could have easily ripped open the magical shield through brute force alone due to the defensive ward not working at full capacity yet—at a bare subsistence level. But now that he was limited to just the Heaven Nine rank of the Spirit Creek Realm, he could only rely on his fundamentals in ward-casting.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” the enemy Cultivator barked again, dubious about what Lu Ye was doing.  

Lu Ye ignored him and continued his work. 

The enemy Cultivator shifted in a swift change of countenance, his gaze falling upon Lu Ye once more. Finally, he realized the reason behind the nagging familiarity of the stranger before him.

Indeed, he had not personally encountered Lu Ye before, but he had seen the face before in a sketch!

However, it had been nearly three months since Lu Yi Ye was believed to have departed the Spirit Creek Battlefield for good. It had never crossed his mind that the figure before him was the same Lu Yi Ye who had reappeared once more and right outside the entrance of his order’s outpost to boot!

“You are that Annihilator of Sects!” exclaimed the figure, stumbling backward as though Lu Ye were some ferocious monster, an insurmountable terror.

Without hesitation, he spun on his heels and cast into the air a flying conveyance that he hopped on at once, soaring up into the sky, towards the inner cloisters of the outpost with urgent haste as he squawked with the voice of a tolling bell, “The Annihilator of Sects! The Annihilator of Sects has arrived!”

Catastrophe had fallen on their heads with the unannounced advent of the much-feared Annihilator of Sects Lu Yi Ye. All who heard the cries sank into deep doubt about the outpost’s defenses.

Multitudes of New Moon Sect acolytes stirred with trepidation and uncertain alarm.

A thunderous command rang out, “Who dares utter such nonsense!?”

As the voice resonated with the force of a thunderclap, a robust figure, riding atop his flying conveyance, emerged from the edifice of the outpost.

“Brother Tan Li! It’s Lu Yi Ye! It’s the Annihilator of Sects!” reported the sentry who had just left Lu Ye to deliver the ill tidings to none other than the legate of the New Moon Sect outpost Tan Li. Currently ranked fifty-eighth upon the Spirit Creek Battlefield’s Roll of Supremacy, Tan Li was arguably the most formidable Cultivator stationed here. 

“Say again?! Who!?” Tan Li’s brow furrowed with skepticism tingling his thoughts as he wondered if his hearing was failing him. 

“The Annihilator of Sects! Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect!”

“That’s impossible!” bellowed Tan Li, “That fellow’s a Cloud River Realm Cultivator three months ago. He should be in the Cloud River Battlefield by now! How could he possibly be here?”

“But I’m sure of this, Brother Tan Li. This is not a mistake; that really is the Annihilator of Sects outside there! I have seen his likeness before in a sketch!”

Tan Li’s brows knitted together, “Maybe he’s just someone who looks like Lu Yi Ye?”

Not that resemblances were hardly uncommon occurrences, but most of all, Tan Li was unwilling to believe that the Annihilator of Sects would be here—just outside this very outpost at this very moment!

“He’s trying to bring down the defensive ward as we speak, sir!”

“What?” Tan Li gasped with unbridled astonishment. As if to prove the sentry’s point, the Control Gem that allowed him the full helm of the defensive ward’s operation was trembling. Before he could even extract the Control Gem from inside his clothing to have a proper look at it, a streak of light jetted across the distant horizon, arriving in the blink of an eye.

It really was the Annihilator of Sects Lu Yi Ye!

He had encountered Lu Ye before; Tan Li was the one leading the New Moon Sect contingent of Cultivators in the Thousand Demon Ridge entrapment of Lu Yi Ye on the outskirts of the Myriad Poison Forest.

That was why he knew Lu Ye. But Lu Ye hardly remembered him; given how many enemy Cultivators he was facing at the time, it was only just understandable. 

What mattered to Tan Li was why did Lu Yi Ye come back? What was his reason for coming back to the Spirit Creek Battlefield and why, of all places, here?

A colossal blend of incredulity and apprehension loomed in Tan Li’s mind. While his expression remained solemn, his countenance betrayed not a trace of agitation.

If it were the Lu Yi Ye of old—the same Lu Yi Ye who was just a Heaven Nine Cultivator—then he would be truly afraid. But knowing that Lu Yi Ye could only be here by forcefully entering the Spirit Creek Battlefield as a Cloud River Realm Cultivator, there was little need for undue concern.

To expect that he would triumph against Lu Yi Ye in an all-out skirmish would be futile. There was no discounting the various feats the latter had accomplished back when he still reigned over the entire Battlefield with terror. At least Tan Li was certain that he would never best Lu Yi Ye in a fight. 

Still, not that it mattered anyway—not now.

Would Lu Yi Ye dare to kill anyone with the same savageness as he once did?

The Judgment of Heavens was no trifling matter; if more elite Cultivators were allowed to casually kill and raze to their hearts’ content, then all outposts—those belonging to all big and small sects and orders alike—would have long been laid to waste by now. 

[But why is Lu Yi Ye here?] Tan Li wondered with dread. [Is he not afraid of the Judgment of the Heavens?]

At any rate, he was sure that Lu Yi Ye did not come as a friend. After all, he was a member of the Grand Sky Coalition and the members of the Thousand Demon Ridge. If anything, all major sects and orders in the Ridge wanted the head of Lu Yi Ye on a silver platter more than anything. Who could tell how much Thousand Demon Ridge blood had been spilled because of him? How many friends and allies of theirs had he slain? To describe him as a veritable harbinger of death would not be an overstatement.

With this notion at the forefront of his thoughts, Tan Li advanced a few paces, his countenance grave as he regarded Lu Ye. “You should be at the Cloud River Battlefield, Lu Yi Ye. What brings you here to our outpost? What do you want with us?”

“You know Tan Sheng? Is he a fellow member of the New Moon Sect?” Lu Ye asked, his hand subtly finding the hilt of his blade, his voice a steely whisper.

Tan Li’s brows furrowed warily upon those words, a contemplative air enveloping him. “Indeed, he is my blood sibling. What do you want with him?”

“Oh? So you’re Tan Sheng’s real younger brother?” Lu Ye’s brows piqued with a flicker of surprise dancing in his eyes. What an unexpected revelation.

“I am.”

“Most intriguing!” Lu Ye inclined his head. “Tan Sheng extended me his care and hospitality when we met each other in the Cloud River Battlefield. I came today to return the favor.”

Before the final syllable was even out of his lips, Lu Ye’s figure blurred into a phantom-like silhouette surging forward like a tempest unleashed, aimed with unfaltering determination toward Tan Li.

Tan Li had been harboring a semblance of caution, but he was ill-prepared for the suddenness of Lu Ye’s attack. This was quite at odds with his expectations; he had surmised that Lu Ye—being a Cloud River Realm Cultivator here in the Spirit Creek Battlefield—would refrain from living up to the full extent of his reputation by indulging in reckless violence. The taste of having the Judgment of Heavens tormenting one’s body and soul was not one easily endured.

Lu Ye translating his threat into a real attack really was not what he expected. 

In the face of such an impending crisis, Tan Li quickly conjured his weapon: a giant shield that drew upon his inner reservoir of Spiritual Power, interposing it before him.

A colossal boom resounded through the air as the impact struck, threatening to drive Tan Li into the ground. His eyes widened as a cocktail of astonishment and trepidation flooded his senses. What proved even more unsettling was the realization that the Spiritual Power glow that enveloped his shield had dimmed just after sustaining one blow, its essence chipping away.

Tan Li could not quite believe it. As a Heaven Nine Cultivator and numbered among the fiftieth of the Spirit Creek Battlefield’s finest upon the Roll of Supremacy, there were few who would doubt his strength and prowess. 

Coming in here as a Cloud River Realm Cultivator, Lu Yi Ye’s power had been dialed down to Heaven Nine. Still, his attack was one that had nearly sundered his defenses. 

Never before had Tan Li truly fought against Lu Ye before. Though cognizant of Lu Yi Ye’s prowess, he understood little about the latter’s deadliness in battle—until this very instant.

“Brother Tan!”

Surrounding acolytes of the New Moon Sect bore witness as Tan Li was cast down by the tempestuous strike, their collective astonishment echoing in the air like a chorus of startled birds.

Simultaneously, within the heart of the maelstrom of blurriness and danger, Tan Li felt the resounding impact of another assault upon his once stalwart shield. 

A sonorous crash heralded the shattering of the protective relic, a formerly-formidable defensive weapon bonded with nonuple enchantments. Tan Li’s visage contorted with a mixture of disbelief and panic.

Swift as a coursing wind, Lu Ye caught up closely behind with Inviolable arcing in a horizontal sweep.

Stripped of his shield and dispossessed of the sanctuary it provided, Tan Li’s only recourse was to marshal the depths of his Spiritual Power and vital essence, conjuring a protective aura bristling over the surface of his flesh.

Inviolable’s stroke drew blood. Tan Li plummeted heavily to the earth, the echo of impact mingling with his anguished cry. A gaping wound cleaved his abdomen, so deep that it almost unveiled the morbid discombobulation of his entrails, an unsightly tableau of vulnerability.

A shiver coursed down his spine. For once in his life, the specter of Death loomed so near at his threshold. 

Were it not for his stalwart physical constitution as a Body-tempering Cultivator whose bodily defenses were fortified by unyielding tenacity, the rending strike would have cloven him into two bloody halves.

In the meantime, Lu Ye found himself mildly astonished with a quiet exhalation of wonder escaping his lips. The resilience of a Body-tempering Cultivator really was starkly in contrast to the usual lot of Cultivators adopting other disciplines..

Lu Ye advanced upon his prey, poised to deliver a final blow before he was disrupted by the cacophonous symphony of howling air and whistling winds.

Seeing their legate fall, the rest of the New Moon Sect had decided to spring into action, unable to contain their tumultuous fervor. What fear they had for Lu Yi Ye dissolved into irrelevance; what mattered was saving their leader, whatever the cost.

For they were many, and fear for just a lone adversary seemed an awful absurdity.

Colorful ribbons of arcane incantations screaming through the air intertwined with the radiant dance of flying weapons, converging from all directions on Lu Ye with unrelenting intent.

Urged by the throes of necessity, Lu Ye found himself compelled to suppress the burgeoning urge for bloodshed. He gracefully maneuvered his form, evading the onslaught of attacks directed his way. In this tempestuous moment, a symphony of metallic resonance erupted from the scabbard at his waist, and with an almost ethereal flourish, nine resplendent flying weapons took flight.

The scene unfolded into a disarray of chaos, as even more New Moon Sect acolytes were roused into hastening towards the epicenter of turmoil from all other corners of the outpost.

A Medical Cultivator hastened to Tan Li’s side to inspect the extent of his injuries, tending to him with practiced hands. The legate of the New Moon Sect outpost himself bellowed with a thunderous proclamation, “How dare you, Lu Yi Ye! You’re a Cloud River Realm Cultivator! How dare you come in here and impose your martial superiority on us! Do you truly believe that we of the New Moon Sect are afraid of you?! I know! You must have suffered being attacked by my brother, that’s why you’re here! Do you expect to find grandeur from subduing lessers like us?! How shameless you are?!”

Tan Li had expected as much when Lu Ye mentioned his elder brother earlier. The inquiry had stirred enough shadow of speculation for Tan Li to guess most if not all of the truth accurately. Otherwise, why would the Annihilator of Sects come all the way here, of all places, to the New Moon Sect’s outpost?

Accompanying the timbre of his wrathful retort, an anguished cry unexpectedly pierced the tumultuous air.

Diverse in their ranks of cultivation, the New Moon Sect defenders were a ragtag and variegated ensemble of inept lackeys when Lu Ye had enough experience of dealing with enemies that well outnumbered him. He had traversed enough perils on his journey that the crucible of such adversity no longer felt unfamiliar to him.

Serpentine in his movement, Lu Ye relied on Glyph: Protection while he maintained his own onslaught until a momentary lapse caught one of the New Moon Sect acolytes off-guard. With a vicious stroke of precision, Lu Ye’s flying weapons descended upon him like a hawk finding prey, cutting him down with a macabre-red downpour in its wake. 

His fury unbridled, an enraged Tan Li screamed, “You dare spill blood here?!”

Never in his wildest dreams could Tan Li have fathomed that Lu Yī Ye would dare incur the wrath of Heavens’ retribution by spilling blood here in the Spirit Creek Battlefield.

True enough, with a single life now extinguished on his account, a pulsating violet luminescence suffused Lu Yi Ye’s countenance. More than that, it actually was an assembly of amorphous violet arcs coursing through him.

The corners of Lu Ye’s twitched at the recognition of what it was: the Judgment of the Heavens. 

Painful. Very painful. 

He could recount an anthology of injuries—minor and grievous alike with a few besetting him to the precipice of unconsciousness. However, never before had he tolerated any agony of this caliber. 

The Judgment of the Heavens wrought anguish not solely upon his physical body, but also on his very essence too. It was as if a legion of ants were gnawing ravenously upon his body and spirit, a feast that subjected him to a maelstrom of torment indescribable.

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