Sage of Humanity

Lu Ye focused his spirit force in his legs, significantly quickening his chase.

This was a little trick he had inadvertently discovered on his trips in and out of Qingyun Mountain. A cultivator's spirit force had many wonderful uses: focused in the eyes, it could reveal things usually unseen; condensed in the legs, it allowed one to run faster; reinforced onto blades, it enhanced the lethality of weapons.

The terrain of the forest was complicated, filled with large trees that required several people to embrace their trunks. The person fleeing ahead naturally was not as familiar with the terrain as Lu Ye, and the distance between them steadily closed.

By the time Lu Ye could see the person's silhouette clearly, all his doubts suddenly cleared.

He knew who was plotting everything from behind. This revelation surprised him since, in his view, he had no grievances with the other party and had interacted with them only once!

"Roar!" A snow-white figure suddenly burst out ahead, blocking the escapee's path—it was Big Tiger!

The person, terrified out of their wits by Big Tiger, screamed. Without thinking, they threw out a pre-prepared Spirit Talisman. The talisman turned into a crescent-shaped slash in mid-air, heading straight for Big Tiger.

Big Tiger hastily dodged; the crescent-shaped slash nearly grazed its body as it flew past, piercing through a big tree behind, revealing the penetrating power of the Spirit Talisman.

Having missed the strike, the person became even more panicked, frantically fumbling for something in their storage sack.

A tiny figure had already silently climbed onto her back, emitting a piercing screech.

Lu Ye saw the person's stature lower as if weighed down by something heavy; their hands also paused for a moment.

This reminded Lu Ye of the first time he encountered Yiyi and Big Tiger in the cave, when he was stealthily attacked by Yiyi the same way...

Delayed by this, Lu Ye had already charged close and sliced down with his sword.

The bright sword light flashed, and an arm flew off, blood spraying wildly.

The pain made her scream. Although she was an independent cultivator, her outstanding posture and appearance attracted the attention of the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union not long after she entered the Spirit Stream battlefield. They recruited her into the mercantile union, and she had not fought with anyone since, let alone suffered such a severe injury.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a flower raised in a greenhouse.

Most of the people in the mercantile union were of this sort. They didn't need to fight against others, nor did they experience the hardships and dangers of Sect Disciples battling in the battlefield. They just needed to manage their business well.

Big Tiger pounced, knocking her to the ground, its fierce maw roaring and the foul breath nearly causing her to faint.

What terrified her even more was the sound of footsteps approaching from nearby. Twisting her head, she saw Lu Ye with his sword angled toward the ground, the blade still dripping with blood, as he walked step by step towards her.

Upon reaching her, Lu Ye looked down at her and said indifferently, "Liew Ruyin!"

This woman was indeed the one who had traded with him on his first visit to the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union.

"Don't kill me, please, I beg you not to kill me!" Liew Ruyin's makeup was smeared by tears as she kept begging.

Lu Ye looked down, his eyes and brows low: "Who sent you?"

"No one sent me, I was blinded by greed, enticed by wealth..." Overwhelmed by immense fear, Liew Ruyin naturally blurted out everything, not even waiting for Lu Ye to continue questioning, and she rambled on about the reasons and effects.

"I see..." Lu Ye raised his sword high.

Sensing Lu Ye's intent to kill, Liew Ruyin yelled, "Don't kill me, I'll give you anything you want!"

The Longsword fell, and Big Tiger cleverly got out of the way, allowing the spirit force-imbued blade to glide across Liew Ruyin's fair and slender neck.

A streak of yellow light shot from the snow-white back of Liew Ruyin's hand and into the right hand of Lu Ye.

The headless corpse twitched and fresh blood spouted from the neck like a fountain, only to subside after a good while.

Yiyi, who was watching from the side, couldn't stop her eyelids from twitching. Everything she saw today had completely reshaped her understanding of Lu Ye. Now it became clear to her that Big Tiger hadn't died at this man's hand simply due to good luck. This guy was not someone easy to talk to.

Lu Ye bent over to remove the storage sack from around Liew Ruyin's waist and then searched her body to see if she had any hidden storage sacks. Of course, he was not trying to take advantage of her, but he wondered if she might have a storage sack concealed on her person.

He himself had a hidden storage sack... based on his own practice, he thought others might have the same.

Unfortunately, Liew Ruyin did not have this habit. After all, she was a member of the mercantile union, not needing to fight with others or take risks outside. Her storage sack was very safe on her person.

Liew Ruyin's storage sack was open, and after a brief inspection, Lu Ye found some useful items.

"Deal with the bodies," Lu Ye ordered.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Huh?" Yiyi looked at him incredulously, with a "are-you-kidding-me" expression.

Lu Ye then took a bottle out of Liew Ruyin's storage sack and tossed it in his hand.

"Alright!" Yiyi hastily agreed and gave Big Tiger a signal before they swiftly got to work.

Lu Ye ran back to the spot where he had killed the fair-skinned cultivator earlier and picked up his storage sack as well, not to mention the fair-skinned cultivator's weapon.

Half a shichen later, inside the dwelling cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged, shirtless, applying healing pills to his wounds.

The number of healing pills he had was not abundant; after using two pills this time, only four remained.

Reflecting on today's battles, Lu Ye didn't take pride in killing a Spirit Stream Level 3. Instead, he was reflecting on himself. The fights among low-level cultivators mostly revolved around close combat.

It could be said that the majority of low-level cultivators followed the path of a combat cultivator because they did not have high cultivation or enough time and energy to delve into magic and spells. Only when they grew stronger would they gradually realize their future path.

The fight with the fair-skinned cultivator had revealed a serious problem – he had no technique to speak of in combat, which was unavoidable. He had only been cultivating for less than three months, focusing solely on advancing his cultivation; how could he have spare energy to improve his combat skill?

In the end, he managed to kill the fair-skinned cultivator by taking advantage of Big Tiger's momentum, catching his opponent off guard.

But as for how to improve his technique, he was at a loss. Without a proper teacher to guide him, groping in the dark on his own would undoubtedly get him nowhere.

Then there was the issue of weaponry...

He hadn't felt it much before; the longsword in his hand was left behind by Manager Yang after his death, and before that, he had used it to kill Zhou Cheng, but their fighting was a mere moment.

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It wasn't until today's life-and-death struggle with the fair-skinned man that he really noticed something – the compatibility with his longsword was severely lacking. Holding the sword, he found it awkward to use, failing to exploit the sword's advantages.

Swordplay emphasizes agility and skill, yet wielding his longsword was all about chopping and hacking, completely failing to exhibit the virtues of the sword.

With these thoughts, Lu Ye redressed himself, picked up the longsword at his feet, and examined it closely. There were many notches on the blade, all caused by his hacking, especially one gap about the size of a grain of rice located one-third of the way up the blade.

Such a gap was serious for a longsword; it was no longer usable.

He picked up the long knife of the fair-skinned man, stood up, and swung it a few times, raising his eyebrows.

This thing, when wielded... felt surprisingly gratifying.