Chapter 1174: Hard Nut to Crack

The current situation in the Blood Refining World was exactly as Lu Ye had predicted. The cultivators' army from the Nine Provinces used the Heavenly Dao Pillars to teleport and disperse widely across the Blood Refining World, catching Blood Race members in various locations completely off guard.

While eliminating the Blood Race, many Nine Provinces cultivators also received tasks to collect Spirit Rice and protect human settlements. These two tasks could actually be completed simultaneously, as collecting Spirit Rice required locating the human settlements within this world.

Of course, relatively speaking, protecting the human population required a certain amount of time. They would have to maintain continuous protection until the Nine Provinces completely controlled the Blood Refining World.

Cultivators from the Nine Provinces did not resist this task, as their philosophy held that protecting mortals was inherently a cultivator's duty. No one would hesitate to contribute their strength when within their means.

Therefore, even without an official task, if Nine Provinces cultivators realized that fleeing Blood Race members might cause casualties to human villages, they would still voluntarily arrange personnel to guard and remain there.

Now, with tasks directly issued by Heavenly Dao, and additional military merits to be gained, it served as compensation for cultivators undertaking these tasks.

Large quantities of Spirit Rice were collected and sent back to the Nine Provinces, relayed through various Heavenly Dao Pillars.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Lu Ye had already left the Sacred Island and was traveling to various parts of the Blood Refining World. Thanks to the convenient message transmission among Nine Provinces cultivators, everyone now knew that as soon as traces of a Saint Seed were found, a message should be sent out immediately. Soon after, Lu Yiye would descend like a divine soldier to resolve the situation.

Previously, some Divine Sea realm cultivators from the Nine Provinces, disbelieving the common wisdom, gathered a group of people to try and encircle a Saint Seed. However, after a major battle, they couldn't do much to the Saint Seed, but suffered considerable losses themselves. Only then did they realize that Saint Seeds couldn't be dealt with merely by numbers; special methods were required. And Lu Yiye of the Biqing Sect was the Nine Provinces' trump card against Saint Seeds.

When this news spread completely, Lu Ye's main body and clone became incredibly busy. For a time, they were either killing Saint Seeds or on their way to kill Saint Seeds.

Fortunately, the number of Saint Seeds in the Blood Refining World was ultimately limited, so this level of busyness would not last too long.

Amidst his busy schedule, his cultivation broke through to the sixth level of the Divine Sea realm. Since his promotion to the fifth level of the Divine Sea realm that day, he had cultivated diligently for a while, but was still some distance from advancing to the sixth level. Although there wasn't a cultivation environment like that of the Nine Provinces in the Blood Refining World, nor could he use the golden spirit tokens, in the process of refining the Saint Blood, Lu Ye gained more than just an enhancement of his sacred properties; every drop of Saint Blood contained immense energy. Refining Saint Blood was also a form of cultivation for him.

Therefore, his promotion to the sixth level was quite natural.

With the improvement of one realm, his strength was enhanced, making it even simpler to deal with Saint Seeds.

In contrast to the Nine Provinces cultivators' dispersed attacks, the Blood Race was now continuously gathering.

Their message transmission was indeed not as convenient as that of the Nine Provinces cultivators, but they were not fools after all. After being caught off guard by the Nine Provinces cultivators in the initial stages and losing stronghold after stronghold, the Blood Race members who narrowly escaped also spread the news of the attacks.

Although they still weren't entirely clear about what was happening, it was a fact that a human force was massacring Blood Race members everywhere. Moreover, this human force was unprecedentedly powerful, which forced the remaining Blood Race members to band together, hoping to offer some resistance.

Consequently, Blood Race members from various blessed lands and grotto-heavens converged towards the strongest Blood Race presence near their respective territories. Especially the sacred lands where the Saint Seeds resided naturally attracted numerous Blood Race members without needing an invitation. This abnormal situation was quickly detected by Nine Provinces cultivators, and the news was immediately disseminated.

With no other option, the Nine Provinces side could only combine forces on a smaller scale, with cultivators from various sects purposefully gathering in one place, engaging in back-and-forth battles with the Blood Race.

However, generally, such stalemates wouldn't last long, because as news spread, more and more Nine Provinces sects would join in, until the Blood Race could no longer resist at all.

After finishing a battle, they would disperse again to search for targets. If a sufficiently powerful target was found, they would then send messages far and wide to gather personnel. For Nine Provinces cultivators, this was a completely normal operation, but for the Blood Race, it was very difficult.

Even if they could temporarily gain the upper hand, the human side would soon gather enough personnel to turn the situation around.

This was the situation almost everywhere in the Blood Refining World.

What was particularly noteworthy was that as time passed, this situation would become increasingly severe.

This was because in the Southern Domain, the Nine Elite Legions of the Nine Provinces were breaking into smaller units, rapidly moving north and sweeping away any evil spirits and monsters encountered along the way.

In fact, after the previous major battle, most Blood Race members with any significant strength in the Southern Domain of the Blood Refining World had basically perished. The number of Blood Race members still guarding strongholds was not large. Facing the teams formed by the Nine Elite Legions, they had no ability to resist.

When the elites of the Nine Legions swept through the entire Blood Refining World from south to north, that would mark the Nine Provinces' great victory in the expedition to the Blood Refining World… perhaps they wouldn't even need to wait until that day.

The Boulder Sacred Land, a renowned presence on the Cloud Luo Plains, was commanded by Boulder Saint Venerable, an extremely senior figure among all Blood Race Saint Venerables whose fame had been established for over a thousand years.

After a thousand years of operation, even in normal times, the Sacred Land's strength was not to be underestimated, let alone now, with a large number of Blood Race members recently joining from all directions. Currently, the Boulder Sacred Land's power had more than tripled compared to normal times. Coupled with Boulder Saint Venerable personally overseeing the place, it was undoubtedly a tough nut to crack.

Even if it was tough, they had to tackle it. There was no reason for so many Blood Race members to gather here and for Nine Provinces cultivators to ignore them; these were all military merits.

Moreover, in this Nine Provinces expedition to the Blood Refining World, military merits were not acquired solely by killing enemies. Conquering Blood Race strongholds also yielded military merits, and the amount varied depending on the cultivator's contribution.

Therefore, since the start of the war, almost every cultivator from the Nine Provinces had gained a substantial harvest, and it wasn't even time for the end yet.

It was hard to imagine what kind of gains the cultivators would achieve when the expedition succeeded.

The only thing that could be foreseen was that after this expedition, the overall strength of the Nine Provinces cultivation world would inevitably increase significantly.

At this moment, a large number of Nine Provinces cultivators gathered in a certain direction near the Boulder Sacred Land. A group of Divine Sea realm cultivators were discussing and waiting. The cultivators gathered here came from a total of eight sects, all of whom had been hunting within a radius of tens of thousands of miles nearby. Upon hearing news of a "big fish" here, they eagerly rushed over.

Among the eight sects, some were strong and some were weak; there were first-rank, second-rank, and third-rank sects. As for sects below third-rank, they generally did not have the qualifications to act independently because they had no Divine Sea realm cultivators. They often attached themselves to their superior sects and acted together with their cultivators.

In terms of overall strength comparison, the Nine Provinces' side held an absolute advantage. Yet, even so, no one dared to act rashly. Their only fear was Boulder Saint Venerable.

Leading the Nine Provinces cultivators were three cultivators at the ninth level of the Divine Sea realm: Kucha of the Qingwei Sect, Yun Lietian of the Jing Lei Pavilion, and Leng Meishuang of the Baihuang Pavilion. Among the three, Leng Meishuang was a tall, stern-faced woman, appearing quite unapproachable.

Among cultivators, female cultivators were fewer in number than male cultivators, and those reaching the ninth level of cultivation were even rarer. Leng Meishuang did not seem very old, yet she possessed ninth-level cultivation, which showed her exceptionally high talent.

As for Kucha, that wasn't his name, but seemingly a nickname; no one knew his real name anymore. He had a smiling expression on his face, creating a stark contrast with the icy Leng Meishuang.

Relatively speaking, Yun Lietian was much more normal: a standard burly man with a mighty demeanor.

Waiting was agonizing, especially with so many Nine Provinces cultivators gathered. The Boulder Sacred Land couldn't possibly be unaware, so they had to launch an attack as soon as possible. Otherwise, they might face an enemy assault, and then they would be forced into a passive defense.

"Haven't they arrived yet?" Yun Lietian waited impatiently.

Kucha spread his hands. "The message needs to be relayed, so we can't get a definite reply. We only know they are on their way, but it's unclear how much longer it will take."

"They'll be here soon," Leng Meishuang, who had been silent, suddenly said.

Kucha and Yun Lietian were puzzled. "How do you know?"

Leng Meishuang looked at the two as if they were fools. "Of course, I asked through a message."

The two were greatly surprised. Kucha asked, "You have Lu Yiye's spirit imprint? When did you get it?"

Leng Meishuang replied, "I exchanged it with him at the Bingzhou victory banquet." Indeed, some people had exchanged spirit imprints with Lu Ye that day, but the number wasn't large. Thus, neither of them had expected that this "ice beauty" Leng Meishuang would be among that group.

The two couldn't help but stare at her, with expressions that clearly said, "We never thought you were this kind of Leng Meishuang."

Leng Meishuang frowned. "We are both part of the Vast Sky Alliance, and my sect also had some connections with the Biqing Sect in the past. As the most outstanding rising star of this generation, what's wrong with me exchanging a spirit imprint with him?"

Kucha hastily said, "No problem, no problem at all! Fellow Daoist Leng, you truly have foresight." He thought that if he had known they would need Lu Yiye's help today, he would have exchanged one back then, saving himself the time and effort of relaying messages through others and not getting timely feedback.

He secretly resolved that the first thing he would do upon seeing Lu Yiye, before anything else, was to exchange imprints.

"They're here." Yun Lietian suddenly looked in a certain direction. Everyone looked collectively and indeed saw two streaks of light rapidly approaching from that direction. That direction was precisely where the nearest Heavenly Dao Pillar was located.