Sage of Humanity

This was truly terrifying, nobody knew how Lu Ye did it, and some even suspected it was a set-up, a smear campaign. But the story spread from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge was detailed and convincing, which left people no choice but to believe.

Moreover, Haotian Alliance didn't care about the process through which the Righteous Blood Sect occupied the territories of the two Ten Thousand Demons Ridge forces. Everyone only looked at the outcome, and for the people of the Haotian Alliance, taking down the strongholds of two sects in just a couple of days was undoubtedly an inspiring achievement.

Consequently, cultivators from both sides clashed through verbal fights, resulting in an uproar that filled the Spirit Stream battlefield with a tense atmosphere.

But as time went on, it was soon discovered that the source of the Insect Plague wasn't the insect cave of the Righteous Blood Sect at all, but the one belonging to Sky Fiend Hall. All the insects had surged out from there.

This discovery undoubtedly overturned the previous accusations against the Righteous Blood Sect, so the argument between the two sides became even fiercer.

By now, many cultivators from the inner circle had already rushed over, especially those from the Sky Fiend Hall and the Phong Clan, who arrived the earliest. Their own strongholds had been seized, so they had no time to wander outside and naturally hurried back to help their surviving juniors rebuild.

Apart from these two groups of cultivators, others from different forces also came, not for the spectacle but to kill the Insect Race. For them, the scale of the Insect Plague here was comparable to the inner circle, and exterminating insects here could also earn them merits.

When the cultivators from the two camps met, clashes were inevitable. In the wilderness where the Insect Plague was raging, battles frequently erupted between Level 8-9 cultivators, and even practitioners of Heaven Rank techniques, making the area exceptionally lively.

Lu Ye didn't know which side had won this conflict. Three days after leading his disciples back to their base, the Insect Plague was finally contained. Some powerful individual had penetrated the insect hive of the Sky Fiend Hall, destroyed the core fleshy sack, and taken away the vitality core.

Today was the fourth day since everyone returned to their base.

The Sect Protection Array of Righteous Blood Sect was operating at its lowest level, enclosing the base with a protective barrier.

In front of Heaven's Augury Hall, Lu Ye sat on the steps, engrossed in reading the books he'd brought over from Madam Yun.

In front of him, a large number of spoils of war were piled up in the plaza; these were collected by his disciples previously. They hadn't tallied them up during the Insect Plague but started to do so today.

The spoils of war, naturally, weren't just for whoever grabbed them first. Everyone put in an effort together, so they had to be accounted for before being distributed.

"Fifth Brother, everything is here," He Xiying came up to report.

Responding with a nod, Lu Ye looked up to see a huge pile of items, but he quickly furrowed his brows, as there were many items like tables, chairs, benches, and even pots and pans in the mix...

This made him twitch in the corner of his eye, what on earth had they been plundering?

Curling up in a corner outside Heaven's Augury Hall, Phong Yue, looking dejected, couldn't help but shrink back upon seeing several familiar pieces of furniture among the items... Read the latest on My Virtual Library Empire

Those were clearly from her own room.

The people of Righteous Blood Sect...

"Are you robbers?"

Lu Ye felt a headache coming on, "What's the point of bringing back these tables, chairs, benches, and kitchenware?"

He seriously suspected that if storage sacks could fit larger items, like beds, the Righteous Blood Sect's disciples would have likely hauled those back as well.

Chen Yu chuckled nearby, "We're lacking everything here in the base, and the quality of these two sects' belongings is quite good. These chairs can be placed inside Heaven's Augury Hall, so we'll have somewhere to sit during discussions in the future."

When he put it that way, it made some sense.

"First, clear up these miscellaneous items. Whoever wants something can take it," Lu Ye declared.

The surrounding cultivators immediately swarmed over. Although the scene was chaotic, there was no looting. Chen Yu selected some chairs to send into Heaven's Augury Hall first, and the rest took what they needed. Soon, the tables, chairs, and benches vanished.

He Xiying also brought a jade pillow over to Lu Ye, "Fifth Brother, I saved one for you."

"Hmm."

Lu Ye acknowledged. Currently, he mostly stayed in the training room at the base, but he did have his own place to live, constructed by Chen Yu and some others—a house with a prime location, next door to Hua Ci.

However, Lu Ye hadn't yet visited that house, which was unfurnished.

Phong Yue watched longingly from afar, her inner voice crying out, it's mine! It's mine!

With the bothersome items out of the way, what was left were things useful to cultivators, including various Spiritual Artifacts, elixir pills, Spirit Stones, and Spirit Talismans. The most numerous were the Spiritual Artifacts.

The several hundred people from Sky Fiend Hall died in the insect cave, and the Righteous Blood Sect wasn't able to collect their spoils of war posthumously, so it was unknown who benefitted from that.

The majority of these spoils came from the several hundred people of the Phong Clan.

Every dead person left behind a Spiritual Artifact, so just from the artifacts, there were several hundred pieces, the second most numerous items being unopened storage sacks, roughly the same in number as the artifacts.

Only a small portion of the storage sacks were open, with their contents already taken out.

Distributing these spoils was tricky, as the value of unopened storage sacks, even if obtained, remained unknown. One could become rich overnight or end up with nothing.

Lu Ye divided his disciples into ten squads, each with around seventy people, and took turns selecting spoils. If someone chose a storage sack, they could take one. With Spiritual Artifacts, it was also one apiece. For Spirit Talismans, two pieces were allowed, and for Spirit Stones or elixir pills, twenty apiece were permissible.

It all came down to whether it was a loss or a profit, which hinged on one's discernment and luck.

Teams took turns stepping forward, with some taking a gamble on the storage sack, while others played it safe and picked a Spiritual Artifact. Those in need of elixir pills chose them, and anyone without Spirit Stones took them.

It wasn't really a matter of who got the better deal; everyone just took what they needed.

After two rounds of this, there wasn't enough left to go around.

Lu Ye then had people collect what was left to be confiscated, to be accumulated and distributed with the next batch of loot.

"Before the battle began, I had made it clear that the top ten merit earners of this outing would be rewarded with Spirit Stones, and the top three would receive a Restriction Level 9 Spiritual Artifact," Lu Ye said.

"Present!"

"How are the results for the merit count?"

"All counted and the top ten list has been compiled."

"Read it out."

Chen Yu immediately called out loud, "Ranking first in merit earned, Chen Yu!"

Announcing his own name made him touch his nose somewhat sheepishly, then he continued to read out the names of the remaining nine. As expected, several Level 6 cultivators made the list. To Lu Ye's surprise, Yiyi actually ranked second...

"The rewards for these ten will be distributed by Hua Ci later. Also, have you tallied the merit for the squads?"

"That's been done as well."

"Which squad is the first?"

"He Xiying's team."

In the crowd, He Xiying suddenly straightened up and grinned foolishly.

Lu Ye nodded towards her, encouraging, "Very good, keep it up. Each member of your squad can make one request of me, within my power to grant. You can ask now or later, whenever you've decided, just come to me."

"Furthermore, since we achieved a huge victory this time and earned a lot of merit, I discussed it with your Sixth Sister, and we decided to give everybody a little merit reward—not much, just twenty points each, think of it as a reward from the sect."

At those words, all the cultivators couldn't help but be overjoyed. Although everyone had earned quite a bit of merit in the fight against the Insect Plague, who would ever think they had enough merit?

And twenty points each for nearly seven hundred cultivators—that was an expenditure of around twenty thousand merit points.

At that moment, many felt extremely fortunate to have joined or become affiliated with the Righteous Blood Sect; just one Insect Plague had allowed them to make a fortune. Could the days ahead be anything but better?

"Finally, our sect has decided to take in another two hundred disciples in name, chosen from those who performed exceptionally this time. The list will be announced shortly. Your Sixth Sister is waiting at Heaven's Augury Hall, queue up there to receive your merits," he concluded.

Seven hundred cultivators promptly formed a long line, each one entering the Heaven's Augury Hall in turn, and then emerging brimming with joy. Hua Ci was kept busy for half the day before she finished distributing the twenty-point merit rewards to everyone.

Afterward, she spent the remaining merit to purchase the blessings for the Heaven's Augury Pillar, increasing it to nineteen layers of blessings.

As a result, the spiritual energy of the entire territory experienced a noticeable increase again, more than doubling that of the outside world.

To enhance the territory's spiritual energy to this extent was not easy, as the next layer of blessing would require a full ten thousand merit points to purchase.

Taking into account the merit distributed to the sect's cultivators and the purchase of the Sect Protection Array, the Righteous Blood Sect had plundered merit points amounting to eighty or ninety thousand from the other two sects.

This was twice as much as what Lu Ye and Hua Ci had acquired in the Chess Sea.

It seemed that if they wanted to rapidly improve the spiritual energy of the sect's territory, they would need to attack other territories and plunder their merit points.

However, attacking a territory was not an easy task. Their success this time around was due to the Insect Plague; without it, relying solely on the Righteous Blood Sect's own strength, it would have been impossible to succeed.

Perhaps they could ally with Infinity Heights and target Mount Shixiang? Lu Ye contemplated the sinister idea, but it didn't seem right: if they really went through with it, Mount Shixiang wouldn't sit idly by; they would surely send messages to the forces of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge nearby.

If anyone took the chance to attack the territory of Infinity Heights, employing a tactic akin to besieging Wei to rescue Zhao, Infinity Heights would inevitably have to withdraw.

If there was a way to rapidly destroy arrays, that would truly be the power to do anything they wished!

This made Lu Ye feel all the more that he had to sharpen his Path of Spirit Runes diligently.

He Xiying's squad consisted of six people; three of them approached Lu Ye in the following two days, expressing their desire to have a personal training room. Naturally, Lu Ye agreed, using his authority as governor to assign each of them a training room and attentively constructing the Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes for them.

The list of the newly recruited two hundred disciples in name was also posted, attracting the attention of the cultivators within the sect. Those included on the list were naturally overjoyed.

With the Insect Plague behind them, the disciples now had access to the necessary elixir pills, Spirit Stones, and merit, and with the spiritual energy of the territory having received another boost, they naturally immersed themselves in fervent cultivation.

But within this peaceful atmosphere, there was one person who stood starkly at odds with the entire Righteous Blood Sect, and that was the captive Phong Yue.