Translator: TheBrokenPen Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys When Yan Xing heard that Li Baxian had finally left the Devoted Ones’ outpost, he knew his chance had arrived. He came early and hid himself. Lo and behold, his vigil did not turn out to be fruitless. Li Baxian did indeed come. He could care less about the massive contest between the Thousand Demon Ridge and the Grand Sky Coalition. Brash and straightforward, all he wanted was Li Baxian and to end this more-than-one-decade-long vendetta. “Let me deal with him!” Wei Yang barked, “Take Brother Lu Ye and go!” Li Baxian shook his head. “You know as well as I do that I can kill, but I can hardly protect. What’s more… Yan Xing’s not the only one here.” “Wait, you mean—” Wei Yang murmured quietly. The Judgment of Heaven electrical bolts still trying to gnaw at her flesh and body had impaired her spiritual senses enough for her to not notice the presence of other powerful foes. “They’re all lurking nearby, hiding amongst the crowd. Watching and waiting for their best chance to strike,” snorted Li Baxian with contempt. “I’ll create a chance, take Brother Lu Ye and leave this place. It’s not a lot, but we still have to try.” “Careful!” Wei Yang warned him. Li Baxian raised his gourd up to his lips and took a swig. But he did not swallow the gulp of wine. Instead, he spewed it all out. What came out of his mouth was not liquid, but a torrent of tiny little quarrels shaped like swords. At least a dozen of them, the tiny little swords whizzed quickly with purpose and haste and streamed straight at Yan Xing with Li Baxian himself peeling just closely behind, engulfed in a shining glob of light. That was the cue for Wei Yang to act. She flung out a leaf that magically enlarged into the size of a blanket and she wrapped it around Lu Ye. Then she seized the collar of his tunic and shot up into the sky. The chaos that Li Baxian was now creating would be her best chance to take Lu Ye and leave. From inside the bundle, Lu Ye could not see what was going on outside. But he could feel the discharges and flare-ups of Spiritual Powers coming from nearby and the occasional thuds and bumps hitting him. Then he heard a grunt that he recognized as Wei Yang’s. Next, he realized that the leaf-blanket was no more. He looked around. They were back where they were before. Wei Yang had failed to take him away. When Wei Yang was killing the enemies with ease earlier, the true Thousand Demon Ridge champions were all skulking around quietly without attracting her attention. They knew that the more lives she took, the stronger the Judgment of Heaven would become and soon, she would die by her own hands, with their interference or without. But none of them would sit back and allow Wei Yang to leave with Lu Ye. As soon as she soared up, they attacked her in unison, forcing her to retreat lest Lu Ye might be killed before they could even get any further. That was the impetus for another wave of pandemonium. As soon as Li Baxian attacked and Wei Yang tried to bolt with Lu Ye, the enemy horde attacked and the fragile, short-lived peace was shattered. The Grand Sky Coalition Cultivators held their ground and staved off waves and waves of onslaught piled on them by the enemies. Fortunately, the enemy numbers had been drastically reduced all thanks to Li Baxian and Wei Yang’s earlier efforts and this had greatly lessened the pressure, or none of them would be able to weather the storm. Wei Yang no longer actively tried to attack. She stayed close beside Lu Ye, swinging her scythe around to parry away whatever spells and Talismanic attacks that came this way. Lu Ye would be safe so long as she was around. She did not let her botched attempt at escaping with Lu Ye dissuade her from trying again. But whenever she rose up into the air, volleys of spells flung at her by the enemies were enough to force her to land. She might be able to endure the blasts and get away, but Lu Ye would never survive that kind of damage. As the battle dragged on, more Cultivators from both sides hurried here as quickly as they could. Word of Lu Ye being trapped here on Goldentip had long spread and as more time passed, the Cultivators that thronged around Goldentip had reached in the thousands and the number was still rising. Countless skirmishes had broken out everywhere around the crest with Cultivators from both sides doing their utmost to make sure that no enemy would get to see the next daylight, making Goldentip a veritable Purgatory in real life. From day till night, and night till day; Cultivators fell like flies but more would come to take the place of the fallen to keep the fight going. More than ten Cultivators of the Roll of Supremacy had come, engaging each other once they crossed paths. Never before had the Battlefield witnessed such a furious war happening. No one had anticipated that what was initially a manhunt for the newest acolyte of the Crimson Blood Sect would spiral into such a chaotic disaster. Killing a Fifth-Order Cultivator should have been easy enough. Given time and chance, anyone with the prerequisite skills and rank of Cultivation for such a deed could have finished the job and be done with it. But the one thing that the Thousand Demon Ridge confederacy underestimated was the resolve of the Grand Sky—an iron-like resolve that would not be dented and was what had kept Lu Ye alive up until this moment. Despite the stalemate, so long as any Grand Sky Coalition Cultivator endured, Lu Ye would still have a chance to stay alive. What a huge conundrum this had become! Since the beginning of the Spirit Creek Battlefield, never before had a war of this scale occurred this far out in the outer regions of the Battlefield. With such huge losses on both sides, both the Grand Sky Coalition and the Thousand Demon Ridge had long passed the point of any truce. Meanwhile, Lu Ye, the center of this whole war and the one person his allies were desperately trying to protect stared at his weapon. The growing feeling of helplessness and frustration was gnawing at him. He liked none of this at all. The sensation and comprehension that his life and death had slipped out of his own grasp were unbearable and he hated it. Weakness really was a sin. [The weak get sidelined and ignored while the powerful get heard and noticed; such is the way the world works. The survival of the fittest,] Lu Ye realized. But he wouldn’t have it. [Screw this war,] he told himself. If he was going to die, then he would be leaving this world on his own terms and instead of just waddling here like a sitting duck with nothing to do but wait for an outcome while others did the fighting for him. Just then, something landed with a crashing bang right at his feet. It was Li Baxian and he looked absolutely battered with bruises and lacerations all over him. Perhaps expecting the Number Ten of the Roll of Supremacy to defeat the current Number Two just be a pipe dream after all. “Don’t worry, I am not making it easy for him either!” Li Baxian roared heartily. He might look beaten, but apparently, his spirit was not. He flashed Lu Ye a grin and said, “Don’t worry, Brother. I’ll lop off that head of his soon enough!” He sprang to his feet at once. Swordsmen Combat Cultivators like him never cowered from enemies greater and stronger than them. His powers might pale in comparison to Yan Xing’s but that did not mean that Li Baxian lacked the confidence to kill Yan Xing, even if it meant his own death as well. But before he could leave, Lu Ye placed a hand on his shoulder. Li Baxian stared at Lu Ye incredulously. “It’s enough, Brother Baxian,” said Lu Ye softly. “You’ve done enough.” “What?” “Please, stop,” Lu Ye smiled. He lifted his head and stared all around him. He took a deep breath and with his Spiritual Powers to amplify his voice, he roared, “STOP! ALL OF YOU, STOP!” He was only in Fifth-Grade, but his Spiritual Powers-magnified voice swept all around the battlegrounds like a thunderclap. Those who were already hankering for a respite immediately stopped. At first, it was those who were nearest to Lu Ye. They immediately backed away from the enemies with whom they had been trading blows. Gradually, like a rippling wave, the fighting stopped everywhere around him, spreading farther and wider as the combatants all realized the sudden pause. Warily, everyone disengaged and in thirty seconds, all the fighting and the noise ended. Peace once again returned and the huge fluctuation of Spiritual Energies everywhere all returned to a relative stillness. Every pair of eyes trained on Lu Ye. Only now did everyone realize that it was he who gave the signal to stop. “Lu Ye?” uttered a surprised Wei Yang with confusion. She had been just beside him all the time. She peered at Li Baxian quietly as if asking for an answer although all the latter could do was shrug. Even he did not know what Lu Ye was up to. “Let me speak,” Lu Ye said to Wei Yang before he surveyed everyone around him and cried loudly, “Let me speak!” The second time was for the benefit of all other Cultivators nearby. “I know I lack the power and authority to give orders, but every single one of you is here because of me,” said Lu Ye, “I believe that gives me the right to a few words. Does anyone disagree?” “Pray tell, my friend.” “Indeed. You’ll hear no disagreement from me!” Several Grand Sky Coalition Cultivators were quick enough to voice their support. Lu Ye’s sudden call for a parley might have caught them all off-guard, but it nevertheless provided all the combatants a chance of respite. It was a break that everybody sorely needed. The long hours and stress of the battle had been wearing them down. “Speak!” a Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivator demanded. Being a Cultivator who was among the twenty best champions of the Roll of Supremacy, he was the second most senior champion present after Yan Xing. That plus the fact that he was a member of a Tier-One militant order made him the most eligible person to speak for the rest of the enemy horde after Yan Xing, who appeared as if he could care less. All he cared about was only Li Baxian and no one else. “I was accepted into the Crimson Blood Sect months ago and during our way back to the stronghold, we were waylaid, and my mentor was forced to send me here. Truth be told, I know nothing about the Sect. I don’t know where this stronghold is and what it looks like. I don’t even know who my fellow acolytes were until today. I was not even aware of what happened in the past until I was told about it days ago. Only then did I know that my existence had sparked a war. I’m just a meager Fifth-Order weakling. How could this even be possible: that’s the question I’ve been asking myself. But I’m but a powerless person unable to change what has happened. I can only concede to the current state of affairs. I could have been killed by you Thousand Demon Ridge folks. It was through the tireless and relentless help of my allies in the Grand Sky Coalition that I managed to make it here. People have died. Either before my eyes or in places I don’t know. I don’t even know their names. But right here, right now, more people are dying. If this goes on, none of you will be going home. Is this what we all want?” No one responded. “The losses will be greater than what they already are. Is this what every one of us wishes?” Lu Ye pressed. “What do you suggest?” asked the Thousand Demon Ridge champion who spoke earlier before he paused with a snort. “That all of us here should just give up what we started and just walk away? That would work out just fine for you, I reckon.” “Nay,” Lu Ye shook his head, “So many have died. I’m sure both the Ridge and the Coalition cannot simply just back down now. Even if you do, the higher leadership of the various militant sects and orders you come from won’t sit on this.” “Clever,” smirked the enemy champion, “Well if you’re really feeling sorry for your allies dying for you, then take your own life. Do it and this war will be over!” “That’s right! Take your own life! You’re never walking away from this alive!” “Take your own life! At least you can be guaranteed a clean death, boy! Getting hacked to death by a mob isn’t going to be a pretty sight after all!” Scores of heckles clamored from the midst of the Thousand Demon Ridge mob. Wei Yang’s lithe face never looked so dark with rage before as she struggled to suppress the urge to pounce and cut down every single man who dared to cry out for Lu Ye to kill himself. Lu Ye shook his head wearily. “Can I? So many of my allies have been killed on my account. Is this the right gesture of gratitude to repay their sacrifice? No. What’s more, I’m still too young to die!” “Then why the hell are we wasting time here, having this useless conversation?” the enemy champion glowered. Lu Ye’s eyelids drooped to a close. He paused and said at last, “Being protected gives me comfort and thrill, but I am a Cultivator. This is a matter that concerns me so I must be doing something!” “But I admit that I’m powerless to bear the whole weight of the war on my shoulders. Regardless, I’ll do this,” he said, drawing his weapon from its sheath and holding it up against the enemy mob. “I am Lu Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect and I hereby issue this challenge to all those of similar rank to me: come fight me!”