Sage of Humanity-Chapter 499 - 497: Disappeared

Jiang Liuzi frowned, "How long has he been in the Cloud River battlefield?"

"It's unclear exactly when he entered the Cloud River battlefield, but intelligence shows that he advanced to the Cloud River in less than two months!"

Jiang Liuzi gasped in shock.

Advancing to the Cloud River in less than two months. In other words, even if he had entered the Cloud River battlefield immediately after advancing, it had only been this long.

Yet he was already at the Cloud River Level 3!

What kind of freakish cultivation speed was this?

Indeed, the Cloud River Realm is a realm that allows for rapid cultivation advancement, thanks to the existence of mystical objects like spirit talismans. However, spirit talismans aren't so easily obtained, and even though one might encounter a Heaven-bestowed spirit fortune stick, there's a need to fight over it with hundreds or thousands of people, battling until bloodied to have a chance of snatching one or two, without any guarantee of quality. Those purple or gold-hued ones are definitely targeted by strong cultivators at Level 8-9, and someone of Jiang Liuzi's cultivation can only dare to compete for the blue ones at most. If he set his sights on purple or gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, he would surely be taught a lesson.

How many spirit talismans had this Lu Yiye obtained to reach Cloud River Level 3 in one go?

Everything fears comparison. Jiang Liuzi considered his own cultivation speed to be quite fast, yet compared to Lu Ye, he was utterly subpar.

"We're here."

As they spoke, their figures descended. Jiang Chengzi, who had been hiding in the shadows, revealed himself and came forward to greet them.

"Is he still there?" Wei Que asked.

"Over there, there's a cave. He's hiding inside and hasn't come out," Jiang Chengzi pointed in a direction.

"Very good!" Wei Que revealed a look of joy and ordered, "Jiang Chengzi, go and ambush him. If you can succeed, all the better. If you can't, Jiang Liuzi and I will join forces to kill him. Once we succeed, I shall take sixty percent of the spoils, and you two brothers can have forty percent!"

Even though Wei Que demanded to take the lion's share of the benefits, his cultivation at Level 9 gave him the qualifications to do so. Naturally, Jiang Liuzi had no objections.

As for Jiang Chengzi, he still hadn't figured out Lu Ye's identity and thus didn't understand the concept of forty percent of the so-called spoils. But since his brother didn't speak up, he naturally wouldn't say anything either.

"Then I'm going," Jiang Chengzi said, producing a jet-black dirk in his hand. His figure swiftly vanished as he crept toward the direction of the cave.

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Previously, when Jiang Chengzi had clashed with Lu Ye in the valley and his Concealment Technique was directly broken, resulting in a miserable lesson, he naturally felt indignant. He believed it was simply Lu Ye's good luck. After his Concealment Technique was broken, he couldn't use any of his assassination techniques and was forced into close combat, where he unfortunately stood no chance.

Determined to restore the prestige of the Spectral Bewitchment cultivators, this time he wanted to show that fox-faced man the terror of a Spectral Bewitchment's assassination!

After his figure disappeared, Wei Que and Jiang Liuzi prepared to provide support at any moment.

After a short wait, a sudden explosion came from the direction of the cave, followed by flames reaching for the sky!

The well-prepared Wei Que and Jiang Liuzi were both startled, unable to comprehend why Jiang Chengzi would cause such a commotion in an attempt to assassinate just a Cloud River Level 3 cultivator.

Furthermore, that commotion sounded somewhat unusual, as if it were…

"Damn!"

Jiang Liuzi exclaimed and transformed into a beam of sword light, rushing toward the source of the disturbance, with Wei Que frowning and following close behind.

Moments later, among a pile of collapsed rocks, Jiang Liuzi dug out Jiang Chengzi, who was buried underground. At this moment, Jiang Chengzi was a blood-soaked mess, hair in disarray, body charred, and in the utmost disarray.

Fortunately, his life was not in danger.

"What happened? Where's Lu Yiye?" Wei Que asked.

The cave had already collapsed, but there was no sign of Lu Yiye, only Jiang Chengzi.

In between heavy breaths, Jiang Chengzi—looking like someone who just had a close brush with death—finally responded after a while, "Didn't see him, there was an explosion magic array set up here!"

He had thought this attempt would redeem his previous embarrassment. However, shortly after he entered the cave, he stepped into an explosion magic array.

There wasn't much space to move around inside the cave, so even when he noticed something amiss at the moment the magic array activated, he couldn't escape. Once the magic array detonated, the cave collapsed, and he was buried inside.

As for that fox-faced man... he hadn't seen him at all.

"Didn't you say he was here?" Wei Que's expression turned ugly.

"He was indeed inside, but for some reason, he's gone!" Jiang Chengzi explained. He had personally watched the fox-faced man enter the cave, and from start to finish, there had been no indication that the man had left.

Yet, somehow, the man had vanished like a ghost.

Now, the only explanation seemed to be that Lu Ye had already detected someone tracking him, so he purposefully arranged an array in the cave as an ambush, and used a concealment talisman to quietly slip away.

Wei Que's face darkened with irritation, disappointed.

He had thought this would be a highly rewarding endeavor, but it turned out to be a wild goose chase. The key issue now was that it was impossible to track down Lu Ye! In the vast Cloud River battlefield, if the target intended to hide, who could find him?

Of course, if they leaked the information and mobilized the entire Ten Thousand Demons Ridge force, Lu Yiye would have nowhere to hide. However, the Cloud River battlefield was far more complex than the Spirit Stream battlefield, and with such a great opportunity at stake, Wei Que was not willing to share with too many others. With his cultivation at Cloud River Level 9, as long as he found Lu Ye's whereabouts, he was confident he had a good chance of killing him.

The reason he brought Jiang Liuzi and his brother this time was merely to use Jiang Chengzi's ghost cultivation abilities to track Lu Ye.

He had been extremely careful and cautious, yet he still ended up short of success!

The problem did not lie with Jiang Chengzi. As a Level 5 realm ghost cultivator, his concealment techniques were superb. Logically speaking, Lu Yiye, with his Level 3 cultivation, shouldn't have been able to detect him at all.

But, against all odds, he still sensed them and even set up a trap.

This guy... what keen perception!

"Split up and search, he surely couldn't have gone far!" Wei Que declared, soaring into the sky and leaving the Jiang brothers looking at each other.

He wasn't worried that the Jiang brothers would find Lu Ye and not report it to him because, based on the abilities that Lu Ye had previously shown, they wouldn't be able to kill him quickly. If they did find him, they would definitely inform him.

On the other hand, if he found Lu Ye, he could claim the prize for himself!

The only concern was that these brothers might contact their own people from their sect. Behind the Jiang brothers stood a 2nd grade sect, naturally having quite a few powerhouses active on the Cloud River battlefield.

This wasn't something he could stop, nor did he intend to.

"Who is that guy, and why does Senior Brother Wei seem to value him so much?" Jiang Chengzi asked after Wei Que left.

"Righteous Blood Sect, Lu Yiye."

"Sounds somewhat familiar, like I've heard it somewhere?"

"The battle at Golden Light Peak." Jiang Liuzi gave a brief reminder.

"Ah! It's that kid... Sss, I remember he's wanted by all the big sects."

"Now you know why Wei Que values him so much, right?"

Jiang Chengzi suddenly became spirited, no longer feeling the pain as much, "Then what are we waiting for, let's hurry up and find him."

"First, we need to send a message to Senior Brother Loo Shu and the others. Wei Que wants to ditch us and hog all the reward for himself, but we'll see if he's really capable of that." Jiang Liuzi said, sending out several messages.

Though they were all cultivators from the same camp, and they stood united on major issues, when it came to personal gains, there were bound to be overt and covert struggles.

Such is human nature.

Soon, more people learned the news of Lu Yiye from the Righteous Blood Sect. These powerhouses, often active on the Cloud River battlefield at Level 8-9, might not have heard of this name before, but with all the information about Lu Ye provided by Jiang Liuzi, how could they remain unmoved? After all, a Level 3 Cloud River Realm cultivator was linked to a vast amount of cultivation resources. Such an opportunity was rare. They all set out towards the direction, afraid of being beaten to the punch by others.

Meanwhile, back in the cave where he first hid, Lu Ye was chowing down on roasted beast meat with big bites.

The two caves were about 30 miles apart. His quick return was, of course, thanks to a teleportation array.

He had previously left a parent teleportation array here and went to set up a child teleportation array about 30 miles away, which allowed him to directly teleport back.

When Jiang Chengzi stepped into the cave, he triggered the explosion magic array that Lu Ye had left behind. The cave must have collapsed by now, as well as the child teleportation array he left, being destroyed with it. No one who went there would be able to uncover any clues.

The round trip was perfectly timed; the meat he left behind was just nicely roasted.

Lu Ye hadn't used the teleportation array in quite some time, and using it this time, he noticed something interesting: the sensation during teleportation wasn't as unpleasant, and the connection between the child and parent arrays was tighter.

No doubt, this had to do with the improvement of his cultivation. After all, when he set up the teleportation array on the Spirit Stream battlefield, he only had a 7th Heaven cultivation level.

In other words, given his current cultivation level, the teleportation array he set up could transport him much farther, no longer limited to a mere 30 miles!

This was good news. The value of teleportation arrays was undoubtedly greater the farther they could transport.

Lu Ye did not linger in the cave for long. He packed up the array banners and left with the roasted beast meat.

He needed to get away from this area quickly.

Thirty miles was not much for Cloud River Realm cultivators. Those who were after him and had been foiled in that cave would surely continue their search. If he delayed too long, they might actually be able to track him down.

The night was as dark as ink, without a single star in sight.

Lu Ye traveled through the night, naturally making sure to avoid the direction of the second cave. By dawn, he had covered several thousand miles and finally found a place in the wilderness to rest.

There was a spring in the mountains. Dusty and weary from the road, Lu Ye first took Amber for a bath, then found a secluded spot, set up a few simple arrays, and rested for a bit.

After recovering his energy and spirit force, he finally took out a purple-colored spirit fortune stick.

Of course, it was from the fortune stick chest that Xia Qianqian had given him.

Fortune sticks were an item that cultivators loved, and upon obtaining one, it was natural to use it promptly, transforming it into one's own strength.