Translator: Truth Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys While Lu Ye was honing himself in the Rift of Illusions, activity was rising in the Spirit Creek Battlefield once more. Every Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator was searching for Hua Ci of the Crimson Blood Sect! Not only did the Crimson Blood Sect disciple rise to the seventies in just a day, every ranker she challenged had been killed without mercy. This angered the Thousand Demon Ridge as a matter of course. First, there was Lu Yi Ye. Now, there was Hua Ci. She challenged every opponent in their way and killed them all. Just when was the Crimson Blood Sect going to stop with this nonsense? Lu Yi Ye was as powerful as he was skilled. Since he ascended to Heaven Nine, he became so strong that they could stop him even if they threw their entire faction at him. He had essentially become invincible in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. When the guy finally ascended to the Cloud River Realm, they thought that the mountain sitting on their backs was finally gone. Then, Hua Ci popped out of nowhere and crushed their hopes and dreams. As if that wasn’t insulting enough, she was just a medicine cultivator! What was she doing in the Scroll of Supremacy anyway? Medicine cultivators should just focus on healing the sick and saving people’s lives instead of participating in a battle for supremacy that was basically the antithesis of being a medicine cultivator! Every bit of resentment they held against Lu Ye was transferred to Hua Ci. By hook or by crook, the Thousand Demon Ridge was going to dig her out of her hidey-hole and end her miserable life! They had to. These days, the Spirit Creek Realm cultivators could not see the name “Crimson Blood Sect” and not feel a jolt of fear. They would not allow a Crimson Blood Sect disciple to appear on the Scroll of Supremacy a second time! However, the Thousand Demon Ridge was unable to find Hua Ci even after mobilizing all their manpower and every contact they had. They couldn’t even be certain if she was in the Spirit Creek Battlefield because she hadn’t appeared in any Outpost. The next day, Hua Ci was ranked fifty on the Scroll of Supremacy. While her speed was incomparable to Lu Ye’s, it was the highest rank a medicine cultivator had ever occupied in Scroll of Supremacy! Most people thought that this was as far as she could go, but when the third day came, she continued to vanquish every Thousand Demon Ridge ranker she challenged and rise through the ranks at a steady pace… On the fourth day, Hua Ci officially entered the top ten! Everyone in the Spirit Creek Battlefield was stunned by this. There had never been a medicine cultivator who ranked in the top fifty, much less the top ten. This meant that Hua Ci of the Crimson Blood Sect had created history with her achievement. For a time, countless medicine cultivators took pride in her achievement and wondered if they could do the same. Perhaps this was the era of the medicine cultivators? They were deluded, of course. Many medicine cultivators tried to increase their rank only to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of their enemies… There were exceptions, but the top ten rankers of the Scroll of Supremacy were rarely too far apart from one another in terms of overall fighting strength. Looking at Hua Ci’s speed, performance and result, she was definitely qualified to challenge the champion for the top spot. The current champion of the Scroll of Supremacy was Lan Zi Yi, another woman. Naturally, everyone wanted to know who would be the strongest between the two. Then, something unexpected happened. Lan Zi Yi’s name suddenly disappeared from the rank list. It wasn’t long before it was revealed that the woman had ascended to the Cloud River Realm! It was a most peculiar timing to choose to ascend. It was almost as if Lan Zi Yi was avoiding a clash against Hua Ci. For a time, countless rumors rose, and the Thousand Demon Ridge felt deeply ashamed by their champion’s avoidance. The fact that Infinite Island released no statement to defend themselves only served to affirm their suspicions. On a related note, they finally found out how Hua Ci had killed her opponents before they could even surrender. Previously, everyone she fought had either rejected her challenge request or perished in battle. It wasn’t until she fought her next battle after entering the top ten that her methods were finally revealed to the world. According to the Thousand Demon Ridge ranker who barely lived after the battle, Hua Ci of the Crimson Blood Sect was just a medicine cultivator who used poison. When the battle began, she immediately tossed a shining green pellet at him that exploded and engulfed the entire battlefield in poisonous fog. The fog was so poisonous that the ranker collapsed on the ground before he even made it to Hua Ci’s side. He would’ve died if he hadn’t surrendered in time. Although he managed to survive the battle, the toxin coursing through his body turned out to be incredibly difficult to purge. It was so bad that he had to be brought back to the headquarters and receive treatment from their medicine cultivators. Hua Ci of the Crimson Blood Sect was a poison doctor. For a time, the whole world was stunned by this revelation. There were countless medicine cultivators who were experts in the art of poison, but no one in the history of Jiu Zhou had ever made it to the top ten with this skill, much less defeat a top ten ranker with it. After that, Hua Ci’s rank started rising faster than ever before. Everyone she challenged afterward had rejected her challenge request. They might be top ten rankers, but even they weren’t confident that they could survive Hua Ci’s poison intact. Even if they managed to defeat her, they would have to spend a great deal of time recovering from the poison. In that case, they might as well surrender and live to fight another day. As a result of this, Hua Ci of the Crimson Blood Sect became the champion of the Scroll of Supremacy five days after Lu Ye had ascended to the Cloud River Realm! She was the first ever medicine cultivator to become the champion of the Scroll of Supremacy. The world was stunned by the unprecedented feat. Previously, the world thought that Lu Yi Ye would be the only monster the Crimson Blood Sect had produced in this generation. Now, Hua Ci had joined him at the top. For a time, the woman was praised and revered by countless medicine cultivators including those from the Thousand Demon Ridge. They might be enemies, but even they had to admit that Hua Ci’s achievement had brought their cultivation faction much glory. From the Thousand Demon Ridge’s perspective, the one silver lining to this disaster was that Hua Ci wasn’t a troublemaker like Lu Yi Ye. In fact, they, or even the Grand Sky Coalition, didn’t know where she was to this day. It was almost as if the woman had appeared out of nowhere. She could not be spotted in any Core Circle Outpost. … At the Crimson Blood Sect’s headquarters, Lu Ye was studying his blade technique insights and feeding the Tree of Glyphs some Flames of Earthen Spirits. He was also consuming Spirit Pills to restore his depleted Spiritual Power. After honing himself non-stop in the Rift of Illusions for the past few days, Lu Ye had come to master his new power completely. The difference between his Heaven Nine self and now was like night and day. He now understood why people considered entering Major Realms to be a qualitative leap in power. His cultivation hadn’t improved a bit in the past five days because he had been using his power non-stop. He had spent twenty thousand Contribution Points to purchase a hundred Flames of Earthen Spirits from the Vault of Providence. It took a few days, but he was nearing the end of the feeding. When the Tree of Glyphs had consumed the last Flame of Earthen Spirits, Lu Ye finally put down his book and checked inside his body. He frowned when he saw the Tree of Glyphs. Based on his estimate, a hundred Flames of Earthen Spirits should ignite fifty to sixty leaves at the very least. In reality, he was way off. The number of ignited leaves was less than half of what he expected. Lu Ye checked them all and only obtained four Glyphs in total. The rest were techniques and methods that were used during the construction of a Glyph. While they weren’t independent Glyphs, they were incredibly important to Lu Ye. The more techniques and methods he obtained, the easier it became to build a Glyph. Take the Teleportation Ward for example. If he hadn’t obtained everything he had obtained from the Tree of Glyphs, he would not have been able to construct Void—a Glyph that took over three thousand Yin and Yang elements to build—with his current attainment, much less set up a Teleportation Ward. It was thanks to those techniques and methods that he was able to construct Void and make it work in a Teleportation Ward. The four new Glyphs he had obtained were not very suitable for combat. They were Glyph: Leaf Dance, Glyph: Fire, Glyph: Water Arrow and Glyph: Earth Protrusion. He could use them as spell techniques if he constructed them individually. It would seem that he was venturing further and further down the path of a spell cultivator even though he wasn’t trying to… Although his one hundred Flames of Earthen Spirits had ignited far fewer leaves than he expected, Lu Ye did not think that it was a waste at all considering the Tree of Glyphs itself needed some fuel reserves. When the Yuan Metal Storm had engulfed the Spirit Creek Battlefield, he was able to survive the poison of the Myriad Poison Forest only because the Tree of Glyphs had consumed a sufficient amount of Flames of Earthen Spirits. Otherwise, he would’ve been in the same boat as Amber. Therefore, the Flames of Earthen Spirits wouldn’t be wasted even if none of the leaves were ignited. The Vital Spirit Pill he currently consumed to cultivate was over ten times more potent than a Spirit Restoring Pill. The amount of pill poison it contained was about ten times greater as well. Naturally, he was going to need the extra fuel to burn away the pill poison. He didn’t purchase more Flames of Earthen Spirits even though he still had over seventy thousand Contribution Points. It was never a good idea to rush a purchase, and assuming the information he received was accurate, he was going to need those Contribution Points in the Cloud River Battlefield. Five days after ascending to the Cloud River Realm, Lu Ye stepped out of his room and noted that a lot of disciples were walking about in the headquarters. He later realized that they were disciples who had accepted the mission to rebuild the Summit of Bamboos. They all saluted him respectfully when they saw him. Lu Ye rose to the air and looked down on the Summit of Bamboos. He saw a great number of disciples removing the decrepit buildings and replacing them with brand new structures. A great palace was also being built at the peak of the summit. It looked pretty huge even from a cultivator’s perspective. Work was progressing very quickly because they were all cultivators, not to mention that he counted around a hundred cultivators participating in the work. At this rate, it should take fifteen days or less for the Summit of Bamboos to be rebuilt. The bad news was that he would be long gone by the time it was fully rebuilt. The good news was that his departure wasn’t forever, and he would witness the new Summit of Bamboos eventually. Lu Ye returned to the Summit of Fortitude and sought out his second senior sister. She asked as if sensing his intent, “Are you going to enter the Cloud River Battlefield?” “Yeah. I have mastered my new cultivation. It is time to cultivate for real.” “I agree.” Shui Yuan nodded. “Have you packed enough cultivation resources? You may stock up some more if you think it’s necessary.” “I have enough.” “The Cloud River Battlefield is vastly different from the Spirit Creek Battlefield. I have told you some things, but there are many more things I cannot tell you without going on a lengthy and tedious explanation. When you enter the Cloud River Battlefield, remember to visit the Divine Trade Association and purchase a basic information package and a 10-point map. They are very important.” “I will remember this.” “The Spirit Creek Battlefield constantly pits its two factions against one another, and the Cloud River Battlefield is more or less the same. However, the main focus of the Cloud River Battlefield is cultivation resources. Given enough strength, you should be able to cultivate faster than most people. That said, you have just ascended to the Cloud River Realm, so it is better to play it safe. If you run into an enemy you cannot defeat, saving yourself has to be your first priority. Only the living have a future, understand? One more thing. Remember to contact your fourth senior brother when you’ve entered the Cloud River Battlefield.” “I will.” Shui Yuan wasn’t done yet. She could not stop giving him advice like a mother advising a son who was leaving for a long trip. A long time later, Lu Ye finally bade Shui Yuan goodbye and fetched Amber and Yi Yi. Then, he strode toward the Sanctum of Providence. [Cloud River Battlefield, here I come!]