Translator: Truth Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys There were many strange locations in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, and many of them were filled with unknown dangers. Some were dangerous enough that even cultivators were unwilling to venture into them. The lairs of powerful Spirit Beasts were one such example. The lake of the Great Serpent was one such example. While the lake was technically a danger zone, the Great Serpent wasn’t that much of a threat to a cultivator. Unless provoked, it usually did not bother the cultivators that passed by its lair, especially those who offered it food. Not all Spirit Beasts were as easy-going as the Great Serpent though, not to mention that they were all Tyrant-level existences that no single Spirit Creek Realm cultivator could hope to defeat. Besides the lairs of Tyrant-level Spirit Beasts, there were many other places that were naturally dangerous for one reason or another. These were not the locations Lu Ye was looking for. Although he was powerful enough to kill an ordinary Heaven Nine cultivator on his own, a Tyrant-level Spirit Beast was a match for many Heaven Nine cultivators. Naturally, he wasn’t stupid or audacious enough to seek out such places. The terrain in his mind was one that would allow him to maximize his abilities. He wanted an environment that naturally made aerial scouting ineffective or was a naturally good hiding place. The good news was that there were plenty of places like this. He found one that fit his criteria very quickly. He took a four-hour rest after finishing his meal. It was only then that he got ready to leave. Several kilometers away from the Three Sages School, over three hundred Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators had already gathered in place. More were still coming over from every direction. At the edge of the grand ward, Lu Ye bade Situ Han and Shi Lei farewell. The Legate did not pretend that he wanted Lu Ye around. He simply let out a sigh and said, “We did you wrong, Junior Brother Lu.” “You are exaggerating, Senior Brother Situ. You are already doing me a big favor by accepting my fellow disciple in these trying times.” He then shot Feng Yue a glance and said curtly, “Do not bring shame to the sect.” Feng Yue maintained an obsequious appearance as she responded, “I understand.” “Farewell!” Lu Ye said one last time to Situ Han and Shi Lei before summoning his Spirit Boat. He and Ju Jia then hopped onto the flying Spirit Artifact. He did not bother asking Ju Jia to stay, not because he didn’t want to, but because he knew that Ju Jia would not agree to it. The Spirit Boat vibrated once before shooting into the sky. Feng Yue took a step forward and cried out to the departing Spirit Boat, “Take care, Brother Lu!” Her feelings toward Lu Ye were quite complicated. At the beginning, she hated and begrudged Lu Ye for effectively damning her to a hopeless future. However, most of that hatred faded away after he formally accepted her as a true acolyte. The fact that he took her to the Core Circle and left her behind at the Three Sages School’s Outpost proved that he hadn’t held her past against her despite the way he acted toward her. At the very least, she would never get to enjoy such treatment if she was still a cultivator of Clan Feng. It was around this time Feng Yue realized that leaving Clan Feng and joining the Crimson Blood Sect wasn’t so bad after all. It would be even better if her fifth senior brother was friendlier… The Spirit Boat swiftly turned into a dot in the sky. The Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators immediately gave chase when they saw this. The sky immediately became filled with what looked like hundreds upon hundreds of reverse shooting stars. A moment later, the grand spectacle ended, and the outskirts of the Three Sages School fell silent once more. To the Thousand Demon Ridge, hunting Lu Ye was the top priority right now. Not only would they be rewarded handsomely, they would not have to live in fear anymore. In the past, they only feared Lu Ye for his extraordinary ward breaching skills. Now, they feared his exceptional martial prowess as well. The young man was just a Heaven Seven cultivator, but he was already strong enough to kill an ordinary Heaven Nine cultivator. Was there anyone in the Spirit Creek Battlefield who could defeat him when he reached the Heaven Nine Realm? The Thousand Demon Ridge had no intentions of reliving the horror of their entire cultivation faction being dominated by a single person. It was clear that the pursuers were composed of a mishmash of weak and powerful cultivators. Those with low cultivation level and/or poor flying Spirit Artifacts quickly lagged behind the group, and even the Heaven Eight or Heaven Nine cultivators were hard pressed to keep up with Lu Ye. The good news was that the entire Core Circle had been mobilized to hunt down Lu Ye. They would never lose track of him unless he hid himself. The bad news was that Lu Ye vanished from their sight just a day later. His last known location was a massive mountain range that encompassed a wide area. According to the 10-point map, the place was named Misty Mountains. One could tell from the name alone that the terrain was generally shrouded in mist. From a bird’s eye view, the mountain forest was permanently shrouded by a sea of rising mist and churning clouds. The scenery was fantastic to say the least. The mist was so thick and tall that even three hundred meter tall trees were completely hidden beneath it. Only those old enough to have gigantic canopies could stand out amidst mist. The ancient mountain forest was the lair of many a Spirit Beast. However, it was also a treasure trove of natural treasures. Misty Mountains was quite famous in the Core Circle. A lot of cultivators loved to come here to harvest herbs or capture a Spirit Beast or two. Of course, the Misty Mountains weren’t without its dangers. For starters, it contained as many as three Tyrant-level Spirit Beasts! Luckily, they almost never left their territory. In fact, they were generally not hostile unless their territory was invaded. It was obvious why Lu Yi Ye had escaped into the Misty Mountains. He was planning to use the terrain to shake off their pursuit. The Thousand Demon Ridge could not allow him to escape as a matter of course. To deal with this, they called their friends and allies to join in the hunt. Just a few days later, Misty Mountains went from a fairly tranquil resource spot to a riotous one. That was how many people had joined in on the hunt. Since the mountain range was permanently shrouded in mist, it was basically impossible to scout from the air. So, they were forced to search for Lu Ye on the ground. That said, they weren’t bumbling around like idiots. For starters, the stealthy ghost cultivators moved into the forest first in search for Lu Ye’s tracks or better, the man himself. They were to message the main group immediately if they found anything. Behind the ghost cultivators were squads responsible for exploring and sweeping the area thoroughly. Each squad consisted of ten cultivators or more because any less than that, and they might not be able to defeat Lu Ye even if they found him. Finally, the squads made sure to stay fairly close to one another. This way, they could reinforce their allies at a moment’s notice. It must be said that the Thousand Demon Ridge was well prepared for this hunt. And so the great hunt for Lu Yi Ye in the Misty Mountains began. Yu Qi was one of the ghost cultivators who was searching for Lu Ye in the Misty Mountains. His cultivation level was so-so in the Core Circle. He was a Heaven Eight cultivator who had unlocked three hundred and ten Spiritual Points in total, or fifty points away from reaching the Heaven Nine Realm. At the beginning of one’s cultivation journey, the first fifty Spiritual Points were very easy to unlock. Anyone with even a smidgen of cultivation talent would be able to achieve this. At Yu Qi’s level though, he had to give it his all to unlock just a single Spiritual Point. The more Spiritual Points a cultivator had unlocked, the thicker the barrier surrounding a Spiritual Point became. That was why it grew more and more difficult to unlock a Spiritual Point over time. Not only that, it wasn’t like a cultivator had an infinite amount of tries. The bigger the number of attempts, the easier it was for a locked Spiritual Point to become damaged. If that happened, then the Spiritual Point would basically be useless and could only be restored with a Point Restoration Pill. Yu Qi knew full well that he was unlikely to unlock all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points unless he stumbled upon a windfall of sorts. However, he was reluctant to just give in to fate and ascend as he was either. His sentiment was shared by many Heaven Seven and Heaven Eight cultivators. No one had come this far just to resign themselves to mediocrity. They might never make it to the Heaven Nine Realm, but they would be damned if they didn’t push as far as humanly possible before ascending to the Cloud River Realm. The reason was simple, the more Spiritual Points they unlocked, the greater their potential as a Cloud River Realm cultivator. There was another reason they were able to keep pushing. It was because there existed a Spirit Pill called the Barrier Penetrating Pill. Unlike the Point Restoration Pill’s obscene price tag of one hundred and sixty thousand Contribution Points, the Barrier Penetrating Pill cost only five hundred Contribution Points. Its price tag had not changed for centuries either. However, five hundred Contribution Points was a tall order even for Core Circle cultivators, not to mention that someone like Yu Qi would need an incredible amount of Barrier Penetrating Pills to unlock further Spiritual Points. Right now, he might be able to unlock his next Spiritual Point with a single Barrier Penetrating Pill. However, the next Spiritual Point would require two or even three Barrier Penetrating Pills to unlock. Not only did he need an exponential amount of Barrier Penetrating Pills to unlock the next Spiritual Point, he would eventually reach a point where the Barrier Penetrating Pill became completely ineffective. When that happened, ascending to the Cloud River Realm would be his only option. To reiterate, Yu Qi was fifty Spiritual Points from reaching Heaven Nine. He did not even want to think how many Barrier Penetrating Pills it would take him to get that far, assuming the efficacy of the pill would last until then. What he did know was that there was no chance under the Heavens that he was going to gather that many Contribution Points without some sort of windfall. That was why he had joined the hunt. If he managed to kill Lu Yi Ye, he would have the wealth to unlock many Spiritual Points. As a ghost cultivator who communed with the Nether all day and night, Yu Qi was extremely confident in his attainment in the Way of Concealment. More accurately, there was no such thing as a ghost cultivator who wasn’t confident in their ability to conceal themselves. As it turned out, he was a lucky man as well. Just a few days after he entered the Misty Mountains, he actually managed to find Lu Yi Ye! Right now, Lu Yi Ye was sitting cross legged on a large rock next to a clear mountain spring. There was a small bonfire where the body-tempering cultivator named Ju Jia was barbecuing a mountain boar. Its sleek, oily surface was giving off a most enticing scent, and the oil would sometimes drip onto the fire and cause some sizzling noises. There was also a Spirit Beast that was shaped like a snow white cat. It was currently curled up into a ball and chowing down on a bloody chunk of meat. Yu Qi had nearly lost control of his heartbeat the moment he spotted the group. Seventeen or eighteen year old youngster was like a walking treasure trove to all Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators right now! Anyone who managed to kill him would basically be unlocking the door to an infinite source of wealth. Yu Qi glanced back and forth between the meditating Lu Yi Ye and the barbecuing Ju Jia before calling them airheads in his head. Just how careless could they be to have the mood to have a barbecue while thousands upon thousands of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators were searching for them? He took a small breath to calm down his excitement. Then, he slowly inched his way toward Lu Ye. To a ghost cultivator, Lu Yi Ye was even more enticing than that boar that had been roasted to golden perfection. He was certain he could kill Lu Yi Ye if he could get within ten meters of the young man because he was a ghost cultivator; a type of cultivator that was born to assassinate enemies one or more minor realms above them! His foot landed on a carpet of soft leaves, but it did not generate even the slightest noise. Yu Qi was pushing his abilities to the max right now. Thirty meters, fifteen meters, ten meters! Suddenly, Yu Qi paused in his tracks and felt a thick sheen of cold sweat breaking out of his forehead. He suddenly discovered that a corpse was lying behind the rock Lu Ye was meditating on. Not only that, their attire clearly marked them as a fellow ghost cultivator. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his mind turned completely white when he saw the dead man’s face. It was because he recognized the guy. The ghost cultivator was a Heaven Nine cultivator from a Tier-Two sect, and he was much stronger than Yu Qi to put it mildly.