Sage of Humanity

The core flesh sack was breached, and the vitality core removed; thus, the insect hive quickly began to wither.

"The injured clean up the battlefield, everyone else follow me!" Ding Yushu called out, leading more than four hundred cultivators along the Insect Path to make their exit.

Upon leaving the insect cave, the cultivators immediately ran towards a certain direction.

Midway, someone noticed something amiss, as this direction was not the way back to their base but rather seemed to be headed towards the Phong family's territory.

Someone excitedly asked, "Senior Brother Ding, are we going to attack the Phong family?"

"Attack the Phong family? That sounds great, I've been fed up with those bastards for a while now. Last time, Senior Brother Zhang and I even fought a team from the Phong family and killed one of their men."

"Don't mention it, but that young lady from the Phong family is pretty good-looking. If we could capture her for Senior Brother Ding to warm his bed... hehehe."

"Brother, your laugh is so sleazy. Also, don't ruin Senior Brother Ding's reputation. You all know what that young lady from the Phong family is like. What qualifies her to warm Senior Brother Ding's bed?"

"Then she can warm my bed, I don't mind!"

"What are you all babbling about? Senior Brother Ding, are we really going to attack the Phong family?"

Despite having just fought a major battle against the Insect Plague, the Infinity Heights cultivators were all greatly depleted. Yet, hearing about attacking the Phong family, they suddenly became spirited, clearly indicating frequent scuffles between the two clans on regular days.

At the Spirit Stream battlefield, every sect's base is typically adjacent to two or three other sect's bases, one of which must be from their own camp because being completely surrounded by enemy bases would mean the sect's cultivators could barely leave their own gates, dooming them to a lack of development.

Lu Ye had a ten-part map in his hand that marked the situation of the major sects' bases. He had observed that if the bases of both factions were connected, they would resemble two dragons entwined at the Spirit Stream battlefield.

Among the three forces neighboring the Phong family, beside Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, the other two were Righteous Blood Sect and Infinity Heights.

Considering the past situation with Righteous Blood Sect, the Phong family didn't need to bother about them, allowing them to focus all their efforts on dealing with Infinity Heights.

Infinity Heights, however, didn't have such leeway. They had to handle more than just the Phong family, including another sect, Ten Thousand Demons Ridge. Small skirmishes were tolerable, but a large-scale conflict with the Phong family would inevitably draw Ten Thousand Demons Ridge into the fray, much to the detriment of Infinity Heights.

The mutual grudges between the two had deepened over time, naturally leading to mutual disdain.

"Shut up!" Ding Yushu from the front shouted softly, not revealing the true purpose of this mission. Partly for secrecy, as with many speaking, it might accidentally be leaked, and partly because he was not completely certain, although Lu Ye had communicated with him saying the success rate was very high, there are always uncertainties.

It was apparent that Ding Yushu held high prestige on Infinity Heights' side. After he spoke, the cultivators immediately fell silent, silently popping elixir pills into their mouths to recover.

Being long-time neighbors, Infinity Heights naturally knew where the Phong family's insect cave was. Led by Ding Yushu, they marched directly toward it, their presence formidable.

The Phong family's cultivators guarding the place immediately detected them and, while taking cover in the insect cave, sent out messages.

Shortly after, over four hundred cultivators from Infinity Heights surrounded the mouth of the insect cave, their eyes fiercely fixed below, while the Deputy Governor Phong Lianju, leading his family's cultivators against the Insect Plague inside the cave, received the news almost instantly and merely snorted, then chose to ignore it.

Being blocked at the insect cave's exit seemed dangerous, but it was not a serious threat as long as they didn't recklessly expose themselves. Infinity Heights wouldn't dare to rashly charge down unless they sought death.

And Infinity Heights couldn't afford to block there for long. To do so meant their own base would be undefended, and the Phong family could easily coordinate with another Ten Thousand Demons power to attack Infinity Heights' base.

Thus, Phong Lianju was not panicked at all.
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This news also reached the Phong family base immediately. The Governor of the Phong family's base was a female cultivator named Phong Yue. Hearing that Infinity Heights had deployed four hundred cultivators to block their insect cave's exit, she was stunned for a long while, puzzled by the significance of their actions despite their swift handling of the Insect Plague.

However, to be cautious, she still sent out a message.

The response came quickly.

"What's the matter, Little Sister Phong Yue?" The address was very affectionate, and Phong Yue could almost picture the ugly face of the speaker.

This made her feel disgusted, but naturally, she wouldn't easily show it. She explained the actions of Infinity Heights to the other party.

The other side was arrogantly furious, "They have some nerve. It's been a month since I taught that kid Ding Yushu a lesson, and now this dog thinks he can turn the heavens! Don't worry, Little Sister Phong Yue, once I finish dealing with the Insect Plague here, I'll lead people to wipe them out."

Phong Yue quickly replied, "There's no need for that, I just wanted to inform Senior Brother of this situation. The Phong family can handle things here properly on our own."

She certainly wouldn't ask the other party to do anything, otherwise, this unsightly fellow would definitely make some impolite demands again. If any casualties occurred in the conflict with Infinity Heights, the Phong family might yet have to compensate with Spirit Stones.

However, with such significant movements from Infinity Heights, this moment was an excellent opportunity to attack their base. Given their character of loving grand accomplishments, how could they miss such a chance?

Throughout the process, she had merely provided some information—such exchanges between cultivators of the two big camps were quite common. Therefore, no matter how things unfolded, it wasn't her concern.

"This is really interesting," Phong Yue said, picking up a cup of water and taking a gentle sip.

"Boom..." A loud noise startled Phong Yue, causing her to choke on the water and cough violently for a while before she recovered.

A Phong family cultivator rushed in hurriedly.

"Who is it?" Phong Yue's expression was icy. Although she hadn't seen what had just happened, the noise clearly indicated that the protective array at their base was under attack. She was immensely annoyed—how dare someone attack the Phong family base at such a time?

The person arrived, panic-stricken: "The Insect Plague!"

"What Insect Plague?" Phong Yue frowned, asking as she faintly heard some strange noises and rustling sounds.

Her expression changed drastically, and she hurriedly rushed out to the edge of the base and looked up, her face losing all color in shock.

On the light curtain of the forward protective array, various types of Insect Race creatures swarmed. Each of these creatures was not small; those as big as a human were especially numerous, crawling on the light curtain, their mouthparts writhing as they nibbled on the flowing spirit force. Where the Insect Race chewed, the light curtain visibly weakened considerably.

Some insects even spat green juice from their mouths. When the juice hit the light curtain, it emitted a hissing sound as it corroded the spirit force.

Watching the overwhelming swarm of the Insect Race, Phong Yue felt a chill all over her body.

Whose Insect Plague had erupted? With such a scale, it was beyond what outer circle cultivators could handle. Her first thought was Infinity Heights, but then it seemed unlikely. If it were truly an eruption from Infinity Heights, they would be too busy dealing with their own crisis to spare hundreds of cultivators to gamble on their insect cave's mouth.

If not Infinity Heights, could it be the Righteous Blood Sect?

But hadn't the Righteous Blood Sect recruited over a hundred disciples in name and several hundred independent cultivators? Even if they suffered losses in handling the Insect Plague, the outbreak shouldn't have escalated to this extent. Moreover, even if the Righteous Blood Sect's Insect Plague had erupted, it wouldn't have reached here so quickly.

The Insect Race would first devour the vitality along the way, leaving nothing alive, and only then push outward layer by layer, so they wouldn't have initially moved fast.

"Senior Sister Phong!" someone called out from the side.

Phong Yue immediately snapped back to reality. At this point, pondering over the origin of the Insect Plague was futile. No matter where it came from, this wave of the Insect Plague had already reached their doorstep. If mishandled, this base would be done for.

"Quick, fully activate the might of the protective array!" Phong Yue's crisp voice rang out. Soon after, Phong family cultivators rushed to the locations where the array bases were set up. A large number of Spirit Stones were fed into them, and the accumulated spirit force was released to strengthen the protective power of the array.

Three miles behind the Phong family base, under a slanting slope, seven hundred cultivators from the Righteous Blood Sect lay quietly in ambush.

Normally, so many people gathering here would be quickly discovered, but now was the time for the big sects to handle the Insect Plague. A large number of cultivators had gone underground, with only a few staying to guard the bases. Hardly anyone was seen outside, which is why the Righteous Blood Sect cultivators could hide here undetected.

"Senior Brother Zhang, when do we move in?" someone asked, having tasted the sweetness of capturing another group's base once and eager for a second attempt. The saying goes, "Once bitten, twice shy."

"Not yet," Lu Ye responded, while communicating with Senior Brother Ding, learning that they were in position and that the Deputy Governor from Infinity Heights was on his way.

He looked again towards the Phong family base, seeing their protective array still stable as before, which made him mutter to himself a bit.

The reason he hadn't struck immediately was first to wait for the Deputy Governor from Infinity Heights to arrive, and second, Lu Ye also wanted to kill more of the Phong family's cultivators.

Simply capturing another group's base, although it would cause them great losses, wouldn't it be even better to kill their cultivators as well?

As the fourth senior brother had said, the Insect Race had one very powerful characteristic, which was array destruction. Their gnawing had a tremendous destructive power on these light curtain-type protective formations.

If they charged out now, the Phong family's response would definitely be like what had happened with Sky Fiend Hall; the cultivators left to guard would retreat back to the Nine Provinces, abandoning the base.

So, Lu Ye wanted to wait until the Insect Race had almost destroyed their protective array, then strike in one fell swoop. By then, just by blocking Heaven's Augury Hall, every single one of the Phong family cultivators left guarding the base would be trapped.

Previously letting the Deputy Governor from Sky Fiend Hall escape had been a loss because a base could produce a lot. The Deputy Governor's storage sack must have contained many valuable items.

This time, he couldn't let the Phong family escape either.

Capturing another group's base: the first time is an encounter, the second time familiarizes, and the third time one becomes thoroughly accustomed. Lu Ye was slowly summarizing experiences to choose the most advantageous method for his side.