Translator: Truth Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys Strictly speaking, Li Baxian’s liquor gourd was a type of Weapon Holder as well. It was just weird-looking and stronger. Li Baxian stored all of his Spiritual Artifacts in it. The Weapon Holder Lu Ye had purchased was undoubtedly inferior to Li Baxian’s liquor gourd, but it did not matter as long as it was usable. The Weapon Holder could be tied to one’s waist without affecting movement. It could also nurture his Spirit Artifacts until it was time to use them. This was way better than manually producing them from a Storage Bag especially since he was planning to increase the number of flying weapons he controlled. The beehive-like Weapon Holder had nine holes in total. Each hole could be used to store a single Spirit Artifact. He had already acquired the additional Spiritual Artifacts. He only needed to refine them to use them. After purchasing the Weapon Holder from the Vault of Providence, he proceeded to purchase a total of fifty Flame of Earthen Spirits. Although he had not encountered another situation where the Tree of Glyphs ran so dry that it couldn’t even burn away the Pill Poison anymore, Lu Ye had a vague feeling that its reserves were running low. It was only natural. As his cultivation level increased so did his consumption of Spirit Pills. This was especially true now that he was a Ninth-Order cultivator. If he were to cultivate using Spirit Pills only, a single Spiritual Point would cost him forty Spirit Restoring Pills to unlock. The increased consumption also increased the amount of toxin in his body. Naturally, the Tree of Glyphs had to burn more fuel to purge them. That was without mentioning the time he was poisoned at the Heavenly Derivative Sect. That one poisoning incident had used up much of the Tree of Glyphs’ fuel. He hadn’t replenished the Tree of Glyphs’ fuel for a long time, nor had he obtained any new Glyphs from it. He had been focused on accumulating the Contribution Points needed to purchase a Heaven-Grade cultivation technique and the Point Restoration Pill for his fourth senior brother. The reason the Point Restoration Pill was so expensive was because it was nearly extinct. Every time someone bought it and used it, there would be one less Point Restoration Pill in the entire world. It wouldn’t be nearly as expensive if someone was able to recreate the pill and restock the dwindling supplies in the Vault of Providence. Unfortunately, no one had been able to accomplish such a feat so far. Today, he had purchased his Heaven-Grade cultivation technique, Li Baxian’s Point Restoration Pills, and his Weapon Holder. He did not need anything else until he ascended and became a Cloud River Realm cultivator. Naturally, he saw no reason not to spend the rest of his Contribution Points on the Flame of Earthen Spirits. The Middle-Grade Weapon Holder cost over nine hundred Contribution Points; a fairly affordable price tag from Lu Ye’s point of view. However, it was a different story for your generic Ninth-Order cultivator. The lousiest Heaven-Grade cultivation technique cost a little over a thousand Contribution Points. This meant that the Weapon Holder was almost as expensive as the lousiest Heaven-Grade cultivation technique. Not all Middle-Grade Spirit Artifacts were this expensive, of course. On average, the Low-Grade Spirit Artifacts in the Vault of Providence were priced between thirty to a hundred and fifty Contribution Points, Middle- Grade between two to five hundred Contribution Points, and High-Grade almost a thousand Contribution Points. A Weapon Holder was a unique type of Spirit Artifact. That was why it was priced higher than normal. The prices in the Vault of Providence were extremely fair because they were decided by the Heavens themselves. It was basically impossible to cheat the Heavens or purchase something that was even slightly underpriced. Fifty Flames of Earthen Spirits cost ten thousand Contribution Points. This meant he only had two thousand Contribution Points left. To think that he once had three hundred and ten thousand Contribution Points… Truly, one could never have enough Contribution Points. He checked his own Spiritual Points. He had unlocked two hundred and twenty five Spiritual Points in total, and was only fifteen away from being able to cultivate a Heaven-Grade cultivation technique. When he exited the Hundred Wards Tower, he had already unlocked two hundred and eighteen Spiritual Points. The reason he had only unlocked seven Spiritual Points despite the fact that it had been over one and a half months was simple. He just didn’t have much time to cultivate while leading the invasion force and conquering Outposts left and right. Even so, his unlock speed was still on par or better than an ordinary Ninth-Order cultivator. Gluttonous Feast was almost useless to most people, but to Lu Ye, it was a godlike auxiliary cultivation technique thanks to the Tree of Glyphs’ ability to burn the Pill Poison. Lu Ye started toward his residence after putting away the Weapon Holder and Flames of Earthen Spirits safely. Yi Yi and Ju Jia were nowhere to be seen. Not even Amber was waiting for him like he thought it would. The World Spiritual Qi in the Outpost was so rich that no one was willing to waste their free time doing nothing. Lu Ye’s earliest home had been built by Chen Yu and the others. Hua Ci’s home was right next to his. Together, they owned what was probably the most scenic location in the entire Outpost. Strictly speaking, Hua Ci and Chen Yu should have moved out of the Outer Circle by now. After all, they were both Eighth Order cultivators already. However, the unrest in the Inner Circle hadn’t fully subsided and, after the upgrade, the quality of the World Spiritual Qi of their allied sects might not necessarily be better than their Outpost’s. Therefore, it was fine to delay their journey a little longer. The first thing Lu Ye did after returning to his residence was to refine all the Spirit Artifacts he had bought. Then, he put all nine of them into his Weapon Holder. After he had strapped the Weapon Holder to his waist, he rose to his feet, tested his movements for a bit, then readjusted the position of the Weapon Holder. He did not stop until he was sure it wouldn’t affect his movements. While requesting guidance from Li Baxian regarding the Way of Telekinesis, he eventually figured out how his fourth senior brother was able to control a hundred flying weapons at the same time. Talent was definitely a major part of it. The same went for mental strength. There was nothing Lu Ye could do about the first, but the latter was directly tied to the strength of his Divine Soul. Lu Ye’s powerful Divine Soul was a massive boost to his mastery for sure. The reason he was able to continuously add more telekinetic weapons to his arsenal was because his Divine Soul kept growing stronger. It was true that Li Baxian was able to control a hundred flying weapons at once because he had a strong Divine Soul. However, the biggest reason was because he could split his focus into many, many threads and multitask. This was an ability that most people could practice hard for many years and still never reach. He succeeded not only because he was naturally talented, but also because he worked just as hard as everyone else to refine it to perfection. Lu Ye did not need to control a hundred flying weapons though. He would not have chosen a nine-holed Weapon Holder otherwise. He only needed to practice with nine until he could use them even in his sleep. It was definitely something he could achieve with his current abilities. As for how he was going to get there… there was no better practice than real combat. Lu Ye took out the Mystic Fruit he hadn’t used in a very long time and poured his energy into it. He hadn’t entered the Rift of Illusions even once after he entered the Ninth-Order. Now, he was going to temper his Way of Telekinesis with it. The scenery before him changed, and he entered the small, familiar space. Something was different, however. He was surprised to find a fog-covered shadow just a short distance away from him. This had never happened before. This small, strange space was the hub prior to entering the Rift of Illusions, and Lu Ye had never lingered in it for long. It generally took him a few seconds to pay fifty Contribution Points, open the door and enter the Rift of Illusions. He had definitely never encountered another person until now. [Are they a creature of the rift? Or another Mystic Fruit user like me?] It was clear that the other person also noticed him. They were just as surprised as he was. One more thing Lu Ye noticed was that his body was covered in a layer of fog as well. He could not see through the other person, but they couldn’t see through him either. While Lu Ye was examining the mysterious person warily, they suddenly raised their hand and revealed a faint red light. [He’s from Thousand Demon Ridge!] Without further ado, Lu Ye unsheathed all of his flying weapons with a single thought before sending them spinning toward his enemy from multiple angles. “Spirit Creek Realm!” A voice that was made genderless spoke. Then, Lu Ye saw the fog-covered person thrusting their palm at him, causing his flying weapons to shoot back the way they came. Not only that, the palm strike landed squarely on his chest almost before he realized what was going on. The next moment, Lu Ye found himself back in his residence. He was stunned and displeased to say the least. [Did I just… die?] He already knew that he was no match for his opponent the second they launched their palm strike. The Spiritual Power they exuded absolutely did not belong to that of a Spirit Creek Realm cultivator. They had to be a top-tier Cloud River Realm cultivator or even a Real Lake Realm cultivator, at the very least. Still, Lu Ye was frustrated that he was killed in such a fashion. He didn’t even get the chance to strike that motherfucker once! Who on earth were they? Both their appearances had been concealed in that strange room. All he knew about his killer was that he was a Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator, and that they had a Mystic Fruit just like him. Besides that, their cultivation level and even their gender were completely unknown to him. It wasn’t strange that there was another person carrying a Mystic Fruit like him. The Chess Sea had appeared more than once as the stage of the Battle Royale of the Legates. While the Mystic Fruit Tree didn’t appear every time, enough years had passed that someone had to have obtained a Mystic Fruit that was similar to his. The reason Lu Ye had never encountered one of these people was because they had entered at different times. Plus, almost no one would stay at the hub for more than a few seconds. This whole encounter was one mighty coincidence so to speak. Sometimes, forbearance only made one angrier. Sometimes, compromise only resulted in more losses. Without further ado, Lu Ye channeled his Spiritual Power and entered the small space once more. He was just in time. The other party had just pressed a hand against the door, and they hadn’t gone through it yet. Lu Ye immediately unsheathed the Inviolable and attacked the mysterious person. The world abruptly spun and spun. The next thing he knew, he had returned to the real world once more. The third time he entered the small space, the other party was waiting for him. The second he showed up, a beam of Spiritual Light hit him and… and that was it. This hopeless loop continued until the seventh death. It was only then Lu Ye finally calmed down enough to realize how stupid he was acting. He was no match for the enemy. Plus, his head was starting to hurt after dying so many times in a row. The fact that his headache was so mild proved that his Divine Soul was much more tenacious than before. In the past, Lu Ye would feel like his head was close to bursting after dying and exiting the rift. Now, he only had a mild headache after dying seven times in a row. If there was one thing Lu Ye was furious about, it was that there was no way to identify the fucker who killed him. He could never take revenge. In that small space, the fog-covered person waited for a long, long time until they were certain that Lu Ye wasn’t going to appear anymore. Only then did they open the door and enter the Rift of Illusions. In their opinion, that Spirit Creek Realm cultivator must be the stupidest person alive in the Grand Sky Coalition. If their first death could be reasoned as ignorance, then the next six could only be described as futile and stupid. Their mind must be goo at this point. All they had earned was their own suffering. Meanwhile, the Three Sages School, a Tier-two sect of Bing Zhou, was welcoming an honored guest…