Translator: Truth Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys Outside the beast prison, the guard accepted Lu Ye’s bribe and winked. “Give me a moment.” He then went over to the other guard and whispered a little something Lu Ye couldn’t hear. A while later, he returned and pulled Lu Ye aside. He then said, “According to my buddy over there, the only way to retrieve a Spirit Beast from the prison is to obtain a verbal or handwritten order from the lord of the city himself.” Understanding bloomed across Lu Ye’s features. “Understood. I’ll find a way.” If Lu Ye hadn’t been bestowed a special identity, he would’ve had a hard time trying to organize a meeting with the ruler, much less obtain a handwritten order from him. But since he had already met with the ruler and even given him a great gift, it should not be too much trouble. Just in case though, he returned to his detached house and brought Xia Qianqian with him. The same guy was keeping the order when they arrived at the lord’s residence once more. His attitude was a lot more respectful than before though. He saluted Lu Ye first before asking politely, “What else do you need, Young Master Ye?” “Sorry for the trouble, but can you please inform the lord that I have something else I’d like to speak with him about?” “Please give me a moment,” the guy replied before leaving to carry Lu Ye’s message. A while later, the guy returned with the cultivator they had met before, Ah Si. At that moment, Lu Ye knew that it was unlikely he would be able to meet the ruler again. It would seem that his earlier predictions were accurate after all. The Myriad Beasts Sect and Bilandia really didn’t share a good relationship with each other. It made no sense that the city lord would not afford him a second meeting otherwise, especially considering that he had given him a great gift. Ah Si walked up to them and asked, “What is your business, Young Master Ye?” Lu Ye replied immediately, “I would like to enter the beast prison and retrieve a Spirit Beast!” “Excuse me?” Ah Si frowned before shaking his head. “My apologies, but I cannot do that. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how dangerous and sensitive your request is. We haven’t even decided what to do with the Spirit Beasts in the city yet.” “I only need one.” “It’s not a matter of quantity, it’s—” Suddenly, Ah Si paused and tilted his head. It almost looked like he was listening to an invisible person. A while later, he continued, “Young Master Ye, I am aware that Beast Tamers are much weaker without their Spirit Beasts. I understand your urgency to recover your strength as well. However, you’re aware of the saying, ‘when in foreign lands, act like a foreigner’, right?” “What do you need me to do?” Lu Ye cut straight to the point. He was pretty sure that Ah Si had received an order just now. It might even come directly from the city lord himself. “I see you are a straightforward man, Young Master Ye. Very well. Our scouts have discovered many diseased Spirit Beasts approaching the city, and this is especially true for the valley about fifty kilometers east from here. If you will agree to take them out—” “Deal!” Lu Ye did not wait for Ah Si to finish. Even if Bilandia hadn’t requested him to fight the Spirit Beasts, he was going to head out with Xia Qianqian and the others anyway. Heck, the fast ones had already left the city. Regardless of whether they could save the world, they were truly here for one and one thing only: profit. Ah Si beckoned them to follow. “Follow me.” It wasn’t long before they returned to the beast prison once more. This time, Lu Ye was allowed to go inside thanks to Ah Si’s presence. The beast prison was split into six floors in total. The Spirit Beasts were divided based on their strength. The ones at the lowest floor were the strongest, and vice versa. Amber was held at the B1 floor. It took Lu Ye a long time before he finally spotted the white tiger amidst the sea of Spirit Beasts. The second the enchantments were deactivated, Amber immediately leaped onto Lu Ye’s shoulder and growled in dissatisfaction. It was understandable. It had been imprisoned practically the second it entered the Hidden Realm. Ah Si was still waiting for him when he exited the beast prison. When he saw how obedient Amber was, he couldn’t help but praise, “As expected of the Myriad Beasts Sect. Your Beast Taming skills are truly impressive, Young Master Ye.” From his perspective, Lu Ye had subdued and tamed a wild Spirit Beast—a powerful one too, judging from its appearance—in just a short time. Of course it was due to his excellent Beast Taming skills. “Remember our promise, Young Master Ye.” “I know. I will depart as soon as I finish my preparations.” With that, Lu Ye and Xia Qianqian returned to their detached house with Amber in tow. Kitty Shen and Lan Ziyi were resting when they arrived. They emerged immediately after Xia Qianqian yelled, “We got a job, girls!” Everyone was in agreement when Lu Ye told them about their mission to clear out the Spirit Beasts in the valley. It was decided that they would depart immediately. A while later, the group of four rose to the sky and flew toward the east. Right now, countless Jiu Zhou cultivators were leaving the city in groups and exterminating all nearby Spirit Beasts. Therefore, Lu Ye’s group didn’t draw any attention at all. As they continued forward, they would sometimes encounter cultivators who were escaping to Bilandia and small groups of crazed Spirit Beasts from time to time. They were fifty kilometers away from the city when they finally arrived at their destination. Hiding behind a cloud, the group floated about several hundred meters above ground and stared at the valley beneath them. The valley was incredibly huge, but it was still jam-packed with Spirit Beasts. Lu Ye could not even begin to imagine how many Spirit Beasts there were. What was even more surprising was the fact that these Spirit Beasts were perfectly silent. It was as if they were a well-trained army that were waiting patiently for the time to shine. “Are you sure that this is the valley Bilandia asked us to clear out, Ye Six? If it is, it sure looks like they sent us on a Heavens damned suicide mission,” Kitty Shen commented worriedly as she stared at the sea of Spirit Beasts beneath them. There was no way in hell the four of them could clear out this entire valley by themselves. Lu Ye was expressionless. The only thing that betrayed his true emotions was the thumb brushing repeatedly against his saber. He wondered if Bilandia’ intel was outdated, or if Kitty Shen was right about the bastards sending them on a suicide mission. That said, they had already accepted the mission, and it wasn’t like this was all bad news. Plenty of Spirit Beasts equaled plenty of battle points. Worst case scenario, they could just run and live to fight another day. “I can set up a ward at that location!” Lu Ye pointed at the flat terrain directly opposite of the valley entrance. “You’re a ward cultivator too?” Xia Qianqian shot Lu Ye a surprised look. “I thought you were a combat cultivator?” “I know a little about wards.” Lan Ziyi’s eyes twitched once when she heard this. Of the three of them, she was the only one who knew exactly who Lu Ye was. Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect was the first cultivator ever to breach a grand ward at the Spirit Creek Realm single handedly. He was also the man who had earned titles like ‘The Vanquisher of Sects’ and the ‘Three Banes of Spirit Creek’. To hear him say that he only knew “a little” about wards was… she would’ve punched him if she could. “Okay. You go set up the wards, and we’ll lure the Spirit Beasts to that location. The goal is to kill as many Spirit Beasts as we can,” Xia Qianqian said. Lu Ye nodded and descended on the location he mentioned. The girls followed him and acted as his guards while he did his work. It wasn’t long before the ambush site was filled with wards. They were all the same type of wards though: Explosive Wards! Their goal was just to kill the crazed Spirit Beasts after all. They didn’t need a fancy Illusion Ward that played with their enemies’ senses or something. All they needed to do was a ton of damage. Not all of the Explosive Wards shared the same size, but they were all interconnected to one another in some ways. A good number of them were trigger traps as well. They would activate as soon as a Spirit Beast had entered the ward. Some of the Explosive Wards could only be triggered via manual control. Lu Ye had specifically asked the girls to memorize their locations just in case. Lu Ye had plenty of ward flags, but since he was aiming to obtain as many battle points from this battle as possible, he did not save even a single one of them. But of course, he did not use the ward flags he received from the Hundred Wards Tower. When everything was ready, three pairs of eyes turned to look at Xia Qianqian. She understood their meaning immediately. “Right. I’m the strongest cultivator here, so I should be the one to lure the beasts over. Get ready then.” They nodded their heads, and Xia Qianqian flew straight toward the valley. A while later, the trio sensed a massive disturbance of Spiritual Power from the valley. They also saw the flashes of spell techniques. It was of course Xia Qianqian’s handiwork. Xia Qianqian was a spell cultivator and a medicine cultivator. Her spells were great, but her medical skills were barely passable. In fact, there were a lot of cultivators in Jiu Zhou who cultivated the medical arts, just like how most medicine cultivators would cultivate other cultivation arts. Generally speaking, their secondary cultivation was always poorer than their primary one. The ground shook like an earthquake as a beam of light flew toward them. Right behind her was what looked like an endless horde of Spirit Beasts. The good news was that the large majority of the Spirit Beasts were incapable of flight. All cultivators could fly without aid after reaching the Cloud River Realm, but the same could not be said for Spirit Beasts. Some Spirit Beasts could fly after they became a Champion-class Spirit Beast, but the rest were still stuck on the ground. Of course, avian Spirit Beasts could fly no matter what their power level was. Xia Qianqian cast one spell after another as she escaped her pursuers, unwittingly showing off the true power of a Ninth-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator. Every time she launched a spell, multiple avian Spirit Beasts would fall from the sky and be crushed underfoot by the Spirit Beasts. Despite their preparation, Lu Ye’s group could not help but feel a tingling in their spine as they watched the horde of Spirit Beasts charging straight at them. Lu Ye was the first to attack when the Spirit Beasts were about three hundred meters away from them. His fiery red Spiritual Power joined together to form a beautiful Fire Phoenix before flying straight toward the horde. It was so lifelike that even the details of the feathers were clearly discernible. Since Lu Ye had reached the Second-Order, his Fire Phoenix Spell was a lot stronger than before. He did not dare to use Glyph: Fire Phoenix though. It just required too much Spiritual Power. Even at his current level, it would strain him too much to cast it. “You know spells too?” Kitty Shen blurted out in astonishment. She felt like she was recognizing the young man for the first time because he had not displayed any spell-casting ability until now. As if that wasn’t enough, his spell casting speed and the power of his spells were on par with that of a true spell cultivator. From her perspective, Ye Six was a combat cultivator who knew wards, spells and even had a Tamed Beast. Not only was he a dabbler in at least four types of cultivation, it looked like he was damn good in all of them. Kitty Shen really wanted to know if there was anything that the young man wasn’t good at. The Fire Phoenix dove into a group of Spirit Beasts before transforming into a massive inferno. The terrific heat instantly killed or injured most of them. It wasn’t until Lu Ye had launched his third Fire Phoenix that Kitty Shen and Lan Ziyi finally had the opportunity to act. Kitty Shen threw the ribbon wrapped around her arm at a Spirit Beast, and the Spirit Artifact wrapped around her target like it had a life of its own. The next instant, the Spirit Beast exploded in a shower of blood and gore.