Translator: TheBrokenPen Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys Lu Ye pounced the moment he saw his chance, bounding towards Dong Shu Ye with quick and long strides that easily covered the whole distance, swinging his Spiritual Power-swathed saber down at the latter. A huge pulse of energy surged forth to meet Lu Ye’s falling saber. What magic this wave of energy came from, Lu Ye did not know. But whatever spell that Dong Shu Ye had cast, was working in his favor by driving into Lu Ye like an invisible wall pushing him further and further away from Dong Shu Ye. He had to draw back several tens of meters before he could regain steadiness. Lu Ye renewed his gaze upon his opponent. Dong Shu Ye was already up on his feet, clutching at the gaping wound on his chest. On the right side of his torso, he could see blood still pouring out, drenching Dong Shu Ye’s tunic red. The blow had nearly killed him and Dong Shu Ye was clearly still reeling in the sudden onset of panic and disbelief. Lu Ye’s spell had thrown his Spiritual Power off-balanced making him lose all ability to defend himself for one fleeting moment, and he would have already been dead if his control over his Spiritual Power did not return in the nick of time. He might have escaped death, but the wound on his chest was bad enough to cost him this skirmish. “Hoo… Hoo…” Dong Shu Ye panted, heaving for air as he struggled to keep himself upright. At this point, he finally realized that Lu Ye led him here and had sealed off the exit because this was where he chose to end their feud. Lu Ye had chosen this place as Dong Shu Ye’s final resting place! Funny how it was he who initially thought he was the one being the hunter, without realizing how the roles had switched and how it was hubris that had prevented him from seeing it sooner. Dong Shu Ye watched as his foe charged for him again. There was no time to rest, no time for respite. In comparison, his opponent was brutal and straightforward, and his way of battle clearly showed how much he favored being on the offense. Up until now, his foe had barely said anything; an opponent whose very focus was centered solely on trying to get close and attack. How fitting for a skirmish to the death! Dong Shu Ye beheld Lu Ye’s approach, his hand slipping into his Storage Bag and finding another Golden Body Talisman. He slapped it on himself. His end might be coming fast, but he refused to go down without a fight. Dong Shu Ye raised his arms, his entire body enfolded in a golden drape of protective layers. This time, knowing that his end was nigh, he had nothing more to lose. Without any regard for the rapid exhaustion of his Spiritual Power, he unleashed volleys after volleys of spells at Lu Ye. But his arms were hurt and on the right side of his chest was a wound so chasmal that the loss of blood was already making him feel dizzy. Even breathing itself felt difficult and strenuous. All that was making him so sluggish and weak that he could not fire spells as quickly as he could before. Lu Ye effortlessly evaded the bolts that screamed past him. He rushed up to Dong Shu Ye and swung his saber without guile and without mercy. The golden layer crumbled. Even as Dong Shu Ye made a last-ditch effort to conjure up another protective shield, it was no use. Lu Ye’s saber sliced through the shield and shattered it. The blow almost split his right shoulder, ripping its way all the way down to his left abdomen, his entrails and viscera barely clinging to his inside. Lu Ye’s saber came up again before Dong Shu Ye could fire any spells. But before he could attack, the same invisible force as vast as a wall like before slammed into him, knocking him back several tens of meters again. He regained his balance once more and this time, Dong Shu Ye was already hovering in mid-air. Only this time, he wasn’t hanging in the air stationary; he was floating around in non-uniform speed as if he was trotting around near the eaves of the rock chamber. Lu Ye flung an arm and fired at the same plump-looking bird-like projectile he had used before. It missed badly. Accuracy had always been a problem that never stopped plaguing him and it was the reason why he rarely used spells in his skirmishes. The first spell he fired worked only because Dong Shu Ye did not expect him to be able to use spells and he was fast enough that the magical bolt caught Dong Shu Ye unaware. That was Dong Shu Ye’s biggest miscalculation. While the damage the spell caused wasn’t great, it was the resulting disorientation of his Spiritual Power that lost him this fight. Their eyes met suddenly. Dong Shu Ye cracked into a malicious grin and lifted his arm to tap on his Battlefield Imprint. [Dammit, he’s calling for reinforcements!] Lu Ye realized and he intensified his firing of spells. All of a sudden, the glow from Dong Shu Ye’s Battlefield Imprint was gone. At the same time, the glow from the emanation of Spiritual Power from his person subsided and he crashed face-first into the ground. Lu Ye did not know what was going on at first, but it did not take long for him to catch on: Dong Shu Ye had used up all his power! But that was impossible. There was no conceivable way that Dong Shu Ye could have fully depleted his Spiritual Power so quickly. He was a Cultivator who had unlocked one hundred and eight Spiritual Points and that meant that he had twice as much Spiritual Power as Lu Ye. But what Lu Ye did not realize was how he had used up a huge amount of his Spiritual Power trying to keep up with Lu Ye during the earlier chase and the fire elemental spells that he had been using to prevent Lu Ye from getting close were ultimately spelled his inevitable doom. On the other hand, Lu Ye had Amber to carry him and that was what allowed him to save up all his Spiritual Power for the final showdown, including his ascension to Fifth-Order which sealed the victory. The crash from so high up in the air nearly fractured every bone in Dong Shu Ye’s body. He could hear footsteps drawing near. Lu Ye strode to him slowly, with his saber at the ready. There was no doubt that this was not a show for his benefit. Falling from so high was definitely not what Dong Shu Ye had in mind, especially with the injuries he carried. That would mean that his initial suspicion was true: Dong Shu Ye really had finished off the last of his Spiritual Power. Lu Ye stood over his fallen enemy and gazed down at him. Blood smeared all over Dong Shu Ye’s face. The Sixth-Order Cultivator looked up at Lu Ye and his throat rattled as if he was trying to say something. Lu Ye raised his saber, holding the weapon in a backhand grip with its tip aimed at Dong Shu Ye’s heart. Then he plunged it through the ribs and through the organ. Dong Shu Ye’s body jerked and stiffened. “We’ll… Meet again… In Purgatory!” Dong Shu Ye managed his final words with great difficulty and with apparent hatred and resentment. Then his body went limp and he was gone, dead with his lifeless eyes still wide open. A reddish glow rose from the back of his forearm and flew into Lu Ye’s Battlefield Imprint. Lu Ye stared at Dong Shu Ye’s body with a surrealistic sensation. He could remember how he was chased like a dog two months ago; so desperate that it was only by a stroke of luck that he managed to give Dong Shu Ye the slip back then. Yet here he was, two and a half months later, having defeated the same Cultivator whose very name could put the fear of the Heavens into him. To think that he had come a long way since that day. And besides… “I’ve barely used my full strength…” Lu Ye muttered softly. And that was true. Lu Ye still had another trick hidden up his sleeves—Move-With-The-Wind Talismans. The Talismans worked on Amber, naturally, they would work on him too. At his present abilities, a Move-With-The-Wind Talismans could give him at least an additional increase by at least three-tenths of his usual speed. That was Lu Ye’s original plan: to first get used to his new physical condition after his ascension to the Fifth-Order, then he would decide if he wanted to use one of the Move-With-The-Wind Talismans. The last thing he wanted was to flippantly use the Talisman and risk the same blunder that occurred when he momentarily lost proper control of his body after his physical enrichment in the Dragon Spring. Too great a speed increase isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially since he was up against an experienced Spell Cultivator like Dong Shu Ye. Dodging spells required precise control of his body and if he could not properly handle the speed increase that came with using Move-With-The-Wind Talismans, that could do more harm than good. A blunder like that could be a fatal mistake. But the skirmish had ended even before he had the chance to use any of the Talismans. He had not committed any blunders. If anything, it was Dong Shu Ye who had made the miscalculation that allowed Lu Ye the chance to wound him using that flaming phoenix spell. Yi Yi was clutching a Talisman when she peeked out from behind one of the huge rocks she and Amber were taking refuge at. Carefully, she squeaked, “Is it done? Have you won?” Lu Ye allowed himself to fall back to the ground in a spreadeagle form while he cried, “Yeah, I won!” Yi Yi had been hiding since she used a Talisman to detonate an explosion that sealed off the exit. Lu Ye had reminded her not to appear. She was supposed to be his final option if and when he failed to defeat Dong Shu Ye. They did not expect the fight to end so easily and Yi Yi did not have to appear again. “You’re strong, Lu Ye,” Yi Yi expressed her admiration without guile and without sarcasm. Lu Ye grinned at her. “Well, it’s not really safe to stay. Get Amber something to eat while we rest, then we’re outta here.” There was no telling what Dong Shu Ye was doing to his Battlefield Imprint moments before he died. He could be calling for reinforcements, for all Lu Ye knew. That was why they needed to leave as quickly as possible. But what Lu Ye did not know was that Dong Shu Ye had long deserted his former order. He could no longer summon his former sworn brothers for help. Furthermore, Dong Shu Ye should know best of all that he was going to die and no help would have been able to come in time. But he did deliver a message. One that was sent to lots of people. Yi Yi fed Amber some food before she went to clear up the site of the battle. She came trotting back with a Storage Bag, “Lu Ye, Lu Ye! We’re rich!” From her reaction, Lu Ye could only surmise that the contents of the Storage Bag must be valuable. Dong Shu Ye’s Storage Bag was still unsealed because he was still retrieving Talismans from inside the Bag during the fight and there was no time for him to reseal it with magic. Lu Ye was sitting on the ground, taking some Spirit Pills to replenish his powers while he ate some food. Then he checked his Battlefield Imprint. [Name: Lu Ye Status: Crimson Blood Sect acolyte Cultivation: Sixty-three Spiritual Points Unlocked Location: Spirit Creek Battlefield Contribution Points: Three Hundred And Ninety-Seven] The last time he checked his Contribution Points when he departed from the Hundred Peaks Mountain range, the tally was three hundred and sixty-eight. His points had risen as much as twenty-nine now. He had killed two Fourth-Order enemies back at the marshlands. That would have raked him eight points, meaning Dong Shu Ye alone had accounted for twenty-one points. Dong Shu Ye might have, for reasons unknown, fallen back to the Sixth-Order, but the Contribution Points Lu Ye accrued indicated that he was still viewed as a Seventh-Order Cultivator. But Lu Ye could not yet get his head around what happened to Dong Shu Ye and what caused him to fall back to the Sixth-Order. But that would seem to be a question that he would never learn the answer to. There were lots of Spirit Stones and Pills inside the Storage Bag. A count yielded one hundred and thirty-four Stones and fifty-seven Pills. That was the most enormous bounty Lu Ye had ever gotten from a looted Storage Bag, which was definitely enough to make up for losing the Mystic Spirit Bell. Still, Lu Ye couldn’t help feeling that Dong Shu Ye’s belongings were still a tad too modest. He expected more of a Seventh-Order Cultivator, even if it’s a former one. But that was Lu Ye’s own misconception. He had never been in real destitution of resources because of the Yuan Metal ores he brought from the Evil Moon Valley slave mines, which was something that no other novice Cultivator could boast. Therefore, Dong Shu Ye’s belongings were by no means modest. As commander of a Nine Star Clan outpost, he was the one responsible for the distribution of the outpost’s supplies, allowing him to embezzle what should have been for the rest of the Clan’s other acolytes to build up his own stores. Most Seventh-Order Cultivators would barely have anything left inside their Storage Bags because of the huge amount of supplies they needed to upkeep their cultivation. The amounts issued by militant sects and orders to their members were barely enough just for upkeep alone, most of the time, let alone saving up for a rainy day. Lu Ye stowed away his loot and made sure everything was ready before he and Yi Yi removed the rocks sealing the exit of the rock chamber and went back outside.