Translator: Truth Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys “Don’t be silly.” Lu Ye gave Ju Jia a pat on the shoulder. “The Thousand Demon Ridge vastly outnumbers us. They want us to show ourselves so they can eliminate us all. Right now, this is the safest place in the Core Circle for me.” Ju Jia looked a bit dejected. Despite his protest, he knew that Lu Ye was probably right. “Ascend and return to the headquarters, Ju Jia. And please give the Sect Master and second senior sister my regards.” Ju Jia was still silent, but Lu Ye had already walked away from him and begun perfecting the ward he had set up earlier. It wasn’t that the ward wasn’t functional, because it was, but he was dead tired when he had set it up at the beginning and did not make it as good as it could be. After he installed a couple more ward flags into the ward, its stability and range immediately increased visibly. Ju Jia watched Lu Ye until the young man was finally done. Then, he said, “You must live!” Lu Ye looked back with a smile. “I will.” Ju Jia finally sat down on the ground and regenerated his Spiritual Power to full. Then, his cultivation level began falling drastically. It wasn’t difficult to ascend from the Spirit Creek Realm to the Cloud River Realm. In fact, it was way harder to unlock the Spiritual Points. As long as the cultivator met the base requirement to ascend to the Cloud River Realm, the ascension process itself was almost risk free. It took Ju Jia only a while to stop all the Microcosmic Orbits in his body to stop circulating completely. Then, he started penetrating his Spiritual Points one after another starting from his Source Spiritual Point. The more Spiritual Points he penetrated, the stronger his Spiritual Power became. In fact, they could even hear the energy flowing inside his body. It wasn’t that obvious at the beginning, but like a tiny stream that steadily grew bigger over time, the noise grew louder and louder. When he finally penetrated all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points in his body, his Spiritual Power had become as loud as a roaring river. They could practically feel the vibration on their skin. Then, a radiant Spiritual Light and an invisible shockwave erupted from Ju Jia’s body. Just like that, the body-tempering cultivator had become a Cloud River Realm cultivator. In fact, the name of the cultivation realms directly described the flow of one’s Spiritual Power. A Spirit Creek Realm cultivator’s Spiritual Power flowed like streams within a Microcosmic Orbit Circulation System, and their cultivation level was determined by the amount of Microcosmic Orbits inside of their body. This was why they didn’t name the cultivation level after the Ninth-Order as the Tenth-Order, the Eleventh-Order and so on. There was no tenth or eleventh Microcosmic Orbit. But of course, they were treated as such when Contribution Points were involved. For example, a Ninth-Order cultivator who killed a Heaven Seven cultivator would be rewarded as if they had killed someone a level above their cultivation level. Unlike a Spirit Creek Realm cultivator, a Cloud River Realm cultivator only had one Cosmic Orbit that encompassed every Spiritual Point they had unlocked. For someone who unlocked all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points in their body like Ju Jia, it could be said he had a perfect Cosmic Orbit Circulation System. Since the cultivator’s Spiritual Power was now fully connected in one big Cosmic Orbit instead of many Microcosmic Orbits, it was like combining many “creeks” into one giant “river”. In this unified system, the cultivator’s strength and control would undergo a qualitative increase. This was why most Spirit Creek Realm cultivators chose to unlock as many Spiritual Points as possible before ascending to the Cloud River Realm. It was also why many Heaven Seven and Heaven Eight cultivators would rather “languish” for decades than ascend to the Cloud River Realm as they were. The more Spiritual Points they unlocked, the more Spiritual Power and control they would get when they connected their Spiritual Points into one massive “river”. Naturally, their future potential would be greater as well. Every additional Spiritual Point made a cultivator stronger when they were at the Cloud River Realm. In fact, that one extra Spiritual Point might be the difference between ascending to the Realm Lake Realm, or not. Everyone knew that there was nothing more important in cultivation than a solid foundation, and to a cultivator, that foundation was the Spirit Creek Realm. Every cultivator strove to solidify their foundation to the utmost degree because the amount of Spiritual Points directly affected one’s strength when they ascended to the Cloud River Realm. Both a cultivator with two hundred and forty Spiritual Points and another with three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points could ascend to the Cloud River Realm. However, the power gap between the two was almost day and night. In the Spirit Creek Realm, the ability to overcome the cultivation gap and defeat a stronger foe was generally a right that belonged to geniuses only. But at the Cloud River Realm, it was an all too common sight. This was the first time Lu Ye witnessed someone ascending to the Cloud River Realm. Since this was a process he was going to undergo eventually, he kept a close eye on Ju Jia in hopes of gleaning some useful insights. However, there wasn’t much to learn. As the people claimed, the process of ascending to the Cloud River Realm was almost a risk-free process. Unless the cultivator was trying to ascend with less than the minimum amount of Spiritual Points, the process was practically smooth-sailing the whole way. Almost the second Ju Jia had ascended to the Cloud River Realm, the space around him suddenly distorted unnaturally. Ju Jia clearly noticed this anomaly as well and hurriedly opened his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but the distorted space had already returned to normal. The body-tempering cultivator was also gone without a trace. Lu Ye immediately messaged Shui Yuan. A while later, she responded saying that Ju Jia had appeared at the Sanctum of Providence, and that she was inspecting his condition right now. She told him not to worry. Lu Ye was feeling the opposite of worry. Last time, his second senior sister had saved Ju Jia from a much deadlier poison. This should be child’s play for her, especially since she was now a Divine Ocean Realm cultivator. Ju Jia was finally out of danger, but Yi Yi… Worry returned to his face when he looked at Yi Yi. Unlike Ju Jia, the girl was nowhere close to ascending to the Cloud River Realm. She would not be able to exploit the Heavens’ rules and return to the headquarters. Worse still, an apparition was incapable of eating anything. “I’m fine. I just feel a little uncomfortable is all.” Yi Yi immediately consoled him after sensing his worry. “Has Amber eaten the royal jelly?” “Yeah.” “Do you feel like you’re better after it ate the royal jelly?” He was hoping that Amber eating the antidote might improve Yi Yi’s condition, but unfortunately the girl shook her head. She then held his arm and placed her head on his shoulder, saying, “Stop worrying about me and focus on your recovery first.” “If you feel that something is off, you must tell me immediately, understand?” Lu Ye instructed seriously. When the girl did not respond, he flicked her in the forehead hard and asked again, “Do. You. Understand?” “I get it already! Bully!” Yi Yi rubbed her forehead with an aggrieved expression. Lu Ye checked his Battlefield Imprint. He had been unconscious for two days, and he discovered that he had a ton of unread messages. They were more or less all asking about his condition. Even more people told him to hang on just a bit longer, and that they were going to coordinate with him and save him as soon as they had gathered enough manpower. Even some of his acquaintances from the Inner Circle were on their way to the Myriad Poison Forest. There was Luo Fu of the Silverlight Island, Zhou Pei of the Lofty Plume Court, Zhao Li of the Heavenly Derivative Sect and more… They were all worried about him. Lu Ye replied to each and every message. He assured them that he was safe, and that they didn’t need to worry about him. Roughly fifty kilometers away from the Myriad Poison Forest, over two thousand Grand Sky Coalition cultivators had gathered together in a hidden location. They were led by the cultivators of the major sects of Bing Zhou. Right now, they were gathering around Yu Lianzhou of the Northern Profound Sword Clan and waiting for him to finish his conversation with Lu Ye. An entire incense stick later, Yu Lianzhou finally finished the conversation and looked up at the crowd. A cultivator from the Righteous Sect immediately asked, “How is it?” Yu Lianzhou swept his glance across everyone and said, “Fellow Cultivator Lu strongly advises us against engaging the Thousand Demon Ridge in a large-scale battle. He does not wish for our blood to be on his hands.” Lu Ye was well aware that a large-scale battle involving thousands of people was going to result in massive casualties no matter who emerged victorious in the end. This was his biggest worry when he learned that the Grand Sky Coalition was organizing a rescue operation for him. “He also said that he is in no danger right now. He is in no danger of dying from poison because he has secured a safe area with his wards. He is wounded, but not so wounded that he requires emergency treatment. He also said that he’s probably going to cultivate until he reaches the Heaven-Grade Ninth-Order Realm before coming out of the Myriad Poison Forest…” Everyone wore strange expressions after they heard this. They had been terrified and on edge for the past couple of days because Lu Ye hadn’t responded to their messages. They all worried that every second they delayed might mean the death of one of the greatest rising stars the Grand Sky Coalition had ever seen in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. But now? Not only was Lu Ye safe, it sounded like he had found the perfect refuge to hide in until he became a Heaven Nine cultivator. Assuming he wasn’t just trying to assure them, it would be ill-advised to clash with the Thousand Demon Ridge forces gathered around the Myriad Poison Forest. “Do you think he’s telling the truth, Brother Yu?” There was a chance Lu Ye was lying to save their lives. “He swore a Heavenly Oath in the message,” Yu Lianzhou replied with a complicated expression on his face, “So, yes, I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth.” “So… are we still going to continue with the rescue operation?” If Lu Ye really was doing as well as he claimed, should they continue with the rescue operation or not? If they abandoned the operation now… well, they had already come this far. It would feel weird to go back without having done anything. But if they continued with the operation, it didn’t sound like Lu Ye needed saving, not to mention that it might have the opposite effect… Yu Lianzhou said, “Fellow Cultivator Lu told us to return to whatever it was we should be doing. While the Thousand Demon Ridge has surrounded the entire Myriad Poison Forest, they don’t dare to pursue him deeper. In other words, they are wasting time they could be spending on cultivating their power. Fellow Cultivator Lu said that he is only all too happy to waste the Thousand Demon Ridge’s time, not to mention that the day he ascends to the Heaven-Grade Ninth-Order Realm is the day he breaks free.” It was no empty boast. Lu Ye was already capable of killing Heaven Nine cultivators as a Heaven Seven cultivator, not to mention that he possessed that Fire Phoenix technique that had propelled him to the third-third spot on the Scroll of Supremacy. Once he became a Heaven Nine cultivator, was there anyone in the Spirit Creek Battlefield who was a match for him? When the day came, the Thousand Demon Ridge could gather everyone and still not prevent him from breaking free. “I guess we are going to leave him to his own devices then.” “Fellow Cultivator Yi Ye truly is one of a kind.” “Still, we have come all the way here. We can’t leave without at least killing some Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators, can we? Plus, it’s not every day we gather this many people in the Core Circle. We gotta do something!” “Yeah! The Thousand Demon Ridge went so far just to kill Fellow Cultivator Yi Ye. Even if his safety is assured, we can’t not show them we’re not to be trifled with! They’re going to think us cowards and weaklings otherwise!” The group started discussing their next course of action. The leaders of the group—all rankers on the Scroll of Supremacy—already knew from the start that there was no chance they were disbanding the group without doing something. Now that rescuing Lu Ye was no longer a pressing matter, they were actually free to act however they liked. It wasn’t long until they came to a decision. Soon, their group of two thousand broke up into countless smaller groups and scattered in every direction. Lu Ye didn’t need rescuing, and they couldn’t attack the enemy forces in Myriad Poison Forest. In that case, they were going to intercept the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators looking to join their brethren at the Myriad Poison Forest. It wasn’t the grand battle they had envisioned, but it was still better than returning empty-handed. They could always assemble and discuss a new plan If the operation turned out to be less fruitful than expected. Meanwhile, the cultivators of the Thousand Demon Ridge were all wondering the same thing: Why was Lu Yi Ye not dead yet?