Sage of Humanity

A while later, Lu Ye put away the Heaven's Augury Pact, and an invisible mighty force fell from the obscurity above, merging into Phong Yue's body.

"Erase your own battlefield marking."

Lu Ye commanded.

The despondent Phong Yue, upon hearing this, cheerfully responded, "Yes!"

A moment later, a red light on the back of Phong Yue's hand collapsed into tiny glowing particles that dissipated, a sign that the battlefield marking had been erased.

Lu Ye had already taken out his Governor's big seal, blew a breath on it, and beckoned to Phong Yue, reciting, "Today, I take in the independent cultivator Phong Yue as a disciple in name of the Righteous Blood Sect, and I respectfully request Heaven's Augury as witness!"

He pressed the big seal onto the back of her hand.

Blue light surged, and Phong Yue looked at Lu Ye with gratitude in her eyes. Although she had lost her status as a Governor, preserving her life was still a good thing.

"Go and donate four thousand merits."

"Ah? Oh," Phong Yue hurriedly ran to the Heaven's Augury Pillar, performed the necessary actions, her heart aching. As a cultivator of Level 7, under normal circumstances, it was impossible for her to accumulate so many merits.

But let's not forget, she was from the Phong Clan and a Governor, naturally, she could engage in some embezzling, just like how Lu Ye previously granted himself a monthly stipend, which he earned fairly with Hua Ci in the Chess Sea, so he distributed it without guilt. However, it was different with the Phong family.

Lu Ye had also heard that she had over four thousand merits, which is why he decided to take her in as a disciple in name of the Righteous Blood Sect. Simply put, that was Phong Yue's life-saving money.

Since it was impossible to get a satisfactory ransom from the Phong Clan, it wasn't bad getting some merit from Phong Yue's side. Otherwise, what was the point of abducting her? To keep her as a trophy?

If he wanted something nice to look at, he merely needed to look more at Hua Ci.

"Fifth brother," Phong Yue came back after donating and called out to Lu Ye softly as 'Fifth Brother', mimic the way others did.

Lu Ye glanced at her and announced loudly, "Righteous Blood Sect's disciple in name, Phong Yue, has been disrespectful to the sect. I, Lu Ye, as the acting Governor, strip Phong Yue of her status as a disciple in name, and I respectfully request Heaven's Augury as witness!"

"?" Phong Yue looked at Lu Ye with a dumbfounded face, feeling the marking that had just appeared on the back of her hand once again collapse and vanish in a swirl of light.

It truly hadn't occurred to her that Lu Ye would so blatantly burn his bridges right in front of her...and moreover, she had only called out 'Fifth Brother.' How was that disrespectful to the sect?

Was her tone not affectionate enough?

Only at this moment did she realize that to Lu Ye, her value consisted solely in those four thousand merit points. He had taken her in as a disciple in name only to facilitate the donation of her merits.

Now drained, she was utterly worthless...

Feeling weak, she staggered backward, her voice quivering with a crying tone, "So, you still intend to kill me?"

"Why would I! After all, you've contributed four thousand merits to our sect, and I generally don't kill women. I was just scaring you earlier. If you wish to stay, it's up to you; if you want to leave, that's also up to you. Just like that!"

After finishing, Lu Ye walked to the Heaven's Augury Pillar to return to sect headquarters, leaving Phong Yue standing there, dazed. In no time, she pouted and began to cry.

She had lost everything...

There was no way Lu Ye would actually accept Phong Yue into the sect, even as an independent cultivator seeking shelter, because no matter what, Phong Yue was from the Phong family, the former Governor. He could abduct her, kill her, but the one thing he couldn't do was to accept her—an issue of maintaining a tacit understanding that has existed between the two major camps for a long time.

Otherwise, if everyone did this, captured healing cultivators would surely not die, but they would also have only one option, which would be to turn to the enemy.

With the Heaven's Augury Pact in hand, Lu Ye wasn't worried that Phong Yue would have any detrimental thoughts towards the Righteous Blood Sect, so she was free to leave if she wished.

If she didn't want to leave and chose to stay, even if Ten Thousand Demons Ridge discovered her whereabouts, it could be explained that the Righteous Blood Sect and the Phong Clan hadn't agreed on a satisfactory ransom—it wouldn't be that the Righteous Blood Sect didn't release her, but that the Phong family's offer was insufficient and lacked sincerity.

Lu Ye estimated that there was a high probability this woman wouldn't leave, given that the Phong family was currently anxious to catch her. If she dared to leave the territory of the Righteous Blood Sect, that would be walking into a trap.

So, she was likely to stay.

This meant the Righteous Blood Sect had acquired a healing cultivator with neither name nor rank for nothing... and that was quite clever.

The Insect Plague had just passed, and the Spirit Stream battlefield was expected to be peaceful for some time. Both neighbors beside the Righteous Blood Sect had been crippled, neither Sky Fiend Hall nor the Phong family had any capital left to confront the Righteous Blood Sect, making it the perfect time for the Righteous Blood Sect to take over the nearby veins.

This matter, with Hua Ci arranging it, didn't require Lu Ye to worry about anything.

He decided to take this opportunity to go to Bright Heart Peak to learn properly the Path of Spirit Runes from Madam Yun, and if he could learn how to perform array destruction, it would be the best.

Having tasted the sweetness of taking over someone else's territory, Lu Ye craved more. Killing Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators indeed earned merit, but it wasn't as swift as conquering territories.

Therefore, array destruction was crucial. As long as he could break through others' protective arrays, he would be able to do whatever he pleased!

Returning to sect headquarters, he called for Amber, and Lu Ye headed straight for Bright Heart Peak.

In these past days, he had completed the construction of the two spirit runes that Madam Yun had previously assigned, which were useless numeric spirit runes. After getting accustomed to them, even though there were failures in the construction process, he could now be considered proficient. What remained was just the need for time to settle and gather experience.

After explaining his intentions, Madam Yun chuckled, "You want to decipher someone else's Sect Protection Array?"

"Yes."

Madam Yun shook her head and said, "That is too far-fetched for you. To decrypt a big array, you first need to know how to set up an array. Do you know how to do that?"

"Not yet, but I can learn," Lu Ye replied.

Madam Yun pondered briefly, then spoke, "Originally, based on your accomplishments in the Path of Spirit Runes, you should not have come into contact with these things so early; however, you possess exceptional talent and have also received the inheritance of a spirit runes master. It would be inappropriate to view you through conventional wisdom. Your cultivation progress can be expedited.

Before that, let's test you first."

She raised her hand and summoned several books, which flew over and were laid out in front of Lu Ye.

"You have half a day to finish reading these books."

Madam Yun left, and Lu Ye picked up one of the books and started to study it carefully.

He had brought back many books from Madam Yun before, all of which recorded the basics of spirit runes. The content in these new books clearly surpassed the basics and had reached a practical level.

Moreover, they explained how to break spirit runes.

As spirit runes could be constructed, naturally, they could also be decrypted. Decrypting spirit runes was a method to break formations since every formation relied on spirit runes to function. If the runes in a formation were decrypted, the formation would naturally fail to sustain itself.

The foundations he had laid down previously were now coming into play; otherwise, even if Lu Ye held these books, he wouldn't have understood what was written in them.

Engrossed in his studies, occasionally when Lu Ye encountered a particularly fine point, he would have moments of enlightenment, understanding things that had previously puzzled him.

The gains were tremendous!

Half a day was just enough time for Lu Ye to finish reading the books.

Madam Yun returned, taking out a crystal tablet that was a foot square with spirit stones embedded around it.

With the surge of her spirit force, a spirit rune immediately emerged on the crystal tablet.

Such a spirit rune, if not continuously replenished with spirit force, would soon vanish; the spirit stones embedded in the tablet supplied the spirit force, which is why, once constructed, it could be maintained indefinitely.

"Break it!" Madam Yun handed the crystal tablet to Lu Ye.

Lu Ye solemnly took it, channeling his spirit force into the rune and sensing its structure. To break a spirit rune, one must first understand its construction, essentially the basic analysis, at the very least, how many Yin and Yang origins composed it. He must have an idea in his mind, only then could he stand a chance at decryption.

If one could not figure that out, there was no possibility of breaking it. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire

The method to break a spirit rune was to construct the opposite basic element, causing the rune to gradually dissolve.

In other words, to break a spirit rune, one must build something with a completely opposite basic element...

Lu Ye had previously analyzed spirit runes and thus had experience, so after only a short observation, he had an idea.

He immediately began to channel his spirit force, attempting to decrypt the spirit rune.

However, the rune quickly became chaotic and the spirit force burst open.

The first attempt failed.

Madam Yun took back the crystal tablet, constructed the same spirit rune again, and handed it to Lu Ye.

Lu Ye continued to attempt decryption.

After failing time and again, and with Madam Yun painstakingly reconstructing the rune each time and handing it back to him, he never grew tired of it.

Time slowly passed by, and while progress wasn't fast, Lu Ye wasn't impatient. Instead, he accumulated experience from each failure and searched for the trick.

Madam Yun said his talent in the Path of Spirit Runes was exceptional, but it wasn't actually his own talent; instead, it was thanks to the Talent Tree.

Every spirit rune he obtained from the Talent Tree came with complete knowledge about that rune, deeply ingrained as if he had cultivated it himself.

The knowledge that came with those runes often had universal applications to other runes. However, the ability to actively apply these universals was Lu Ye's own skill.

After a full six hours, Lu Ye had decrypted less than twenty percent of the rune. At this rate, it would take at least several days of Cultivation Technique and some luck to fully decrypt it.

The reality was quite different. After another two hours, Lu Ye's progress improved by leaps and bounds, and he had decrypted up to eighty percent of the rune!

Because he had found some practical tricks in those repeated failures.

Another two hours later, the spirit rune was completely decrypted!

Madam Yun nodded, "Not bad, your reading was not in vain. It's late now, come back tomorrow and we'll continue."

"Yes!"

Lu Ye stood up, took several unread books from Madam Yun, and rode Amber back to Righteous Peak.

Moments later, he squatted by the kitchen door, holding a large bowl and stuffing his face with food, his mind full of thoughts about spirit runes, while Shui Yuan kept adding more food to his bowl.

An hour later, Lu Ye, rubbing his round belly, returned to his quarters. He didn't know why, but he had eaten a bit too much today...

The days passed by day by day; Lu Ye would go to Bright Heart Peak during the day to learn the Path of Spirit Runes from Madam Yun, and in the evening, he would return to his quarters for cultivation and reading. Every day was exceedingly fulfilling.

He had not returned to the Mirage Realm since he wasn't confident in getting through the nine challenges in one go. Even though he now had a total of five thousand merits, he didn't want to waste them senselessly.