Chapter 1336: Extra Person!

Less than half an hour later, the third Western cultivator to respawn arrived from the main camp and was intercepted and entangled by Lu Ye, Huang Li, and Xu Xinghe.

By this point, a total of three Western cultivators were trapped here, unable to support their main force or the Southern battlefield. Among them, one was a Mid-stage cultivator and two were Early-stage.

For a lineup of only nine people, the immediate absence of three undoubtedly had a significant impact on the situation.

On the battlefields of the Southern and Western forces, fierce fighting was already underway. The overall strength of these two forces was quite similar, and from the start of the exercise, they had regarded each other as their sole opponent. On the battlefield, cultivators occasionally fell and died.

At first, the two sides were still evenly matched. Even if the West held a slight advantage due to having one more Mid-stage Constellation cultivator, the advantage was not too obvious.

But as time passed, the situation gradually started to go awry.

Southern cultivators continuously arrived from their main camp, while the West could not receive timely support. After fighting for most of the day, their nine-person lineup was now missing three, completely putting them at a disadvantage.

The most direct manifestation was that the spirit orb, contested by both sides, was slowly but steadily moving towards the Southern main camp.

No one was foolish; even if they hadn't seen exactly what happened, they could infer it. Especially since the Eastern cultivators hadn't appeared since delivering the spirit orb, this was clearly abnormal.

The Late-stage Constellation cultivator from the West was momentarily enraged, roaring repeatedly, "Easterners, you're asking for death!"

The Late-stage cultivator from the South, however, burst out laughing. Activating his spiritual energy, his voice echoed in all directions, "The East truly keeps its promises! We'll seek your cooperation again in the next exercise!"

Originally, he hadn't been able to see any Eastern cultivators and had thought the East wasn't going to fulfill their previous agreement. But now it seemed they were fulfilling it in another way.

However, the East was quite self-aware, knowing their overall strength was the weakest. Thus, they didn't rashly interfere directly in the current conflict. Instead, they intercepted cultivators on the necessary path for Western cultivators returning after respawning.

The East's approach was impeccable; it could be considered a disguised form of assistance.

In the current situation, with nine against six, the South was virtually guaranteed to win. However, completely annihilating the opponent was somewhat unrealistic because, after realizing the unfavorable situation, the six Western cultivators became much more cautious. Their strategy against the South was merely to entangle them, delay their transport of the spirit orb, and never engage in a head-on fight.

This made the South somewhat frustrated, but they were helpless. They could only slowly move the spirit orb towards their main camp.

The Eastern nine-person battlefield was not as intense. After all, three small teams were each entangling one person, and without engaging in life-or-death battles, it was relatively relaxed.

However, the layout of the battlefield was slowly changing.

Originally, the battlefields where the three small teams were located were very spread out, but now they were intentionally or unintentionally moving closer to each other. As the side with the absolute advantage, the three Eastern small teams were capable of doing this.

This change occurred because Lu Ye secretly transmitted messages to Haitang and Han Morong. Neither of them knew Lu Ye's intentions, but they simply cooperated.

After another while, with the undulation of a peculiar energy fluctuation, the sixth spirit orb was born.

Lu Ye had been waiting for this moment and was constantly monitoring the location of the fifth spirit orb. He quietly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing the time was right.

If it were any later, and the South had transported the fifth spirit orb back, all previous efforts would have been useless.

Fortunately, the sixth spirit orb appeared not too late.

"Close in on me!" Lu Ye immediately messaged Haitang and Han Morong.

The three battlefields were already close enough, but as Constellation realm battlefields, they required a considerable range for maneuvering, so the distance was still somewhat insufficient.

Following Lu Ye's message, Haitang's and Han Morong's teams promptly moved their battle formations closer to Lu Ye's team.

The next instant, a streak of blood-red light suddenly burst forth, followed by an overwhelming surge of a blood sea. Even in this void, the sound of surging waves almost echoed in everyone's ears.

This strange and vast scene not only stunned the three Western cultivators but also left everyone on the Eastern side wide-eyed and speechless.

No one knew that Lu Ye could actually activate such a secret art.

With Lu Ye's cultivation advancing, his own foundation strengthening, and his vital energy becoming immense, the outward manifestation of the Blood River Art was undoubtedly even more magnificent.

This was already a veritable sea of blood.

An area of a hundred miles was instantly engulfed by this dense crimson color. Everyone was trapped within it, their bodies becoming unsteady as the undercurrents of the blood sea surged.

However, soon, the Eastern cultivators, under Lu Ye's guidance, regained their senses and clarity. As for the three Westerners, they didn't have such good treatment; trapped in the sea of blood, their divine sense was hindered, their movements were impeded, and they felt extremely uncomfortable.

A short while later, a gigantic blood sphere, spanning a hundred miles, lay across the void. Nine figures emerged from the sea of blood—these were the nine Eastern cultivators.

Lu Ye took the lead, flying towards the sixth spirit orb. Everyone followed closely, and in an instant, their speed was maximized.

It was another race against time!

Haitang glanced back at the gigantic blood sphere, vaguely feeling that it bore some resemblance to the Blood River Art of the Blood Race that she had seen in ancient texts.

The Eastern Fangcun Mountain had once been besieged by the Blood Race, and thus held extremely detailed records of their various secret arts. Although the Little Human Race had never seen the Blood Race or the Blood River Art, they could discern clues from certain traces.

But Blood Arts were exclusive to the Blood Race. How could Lu Ye, a human, use it?

Ultimately, she could only conclude that this was a Blood Dao secret art cultivated by Lu Ye.

Blood Arts were indeed exclusive to the Blood Race, but Blood Dao secret arts were not. Many races cultivated secret arts related to the Blood Dao, whose power was mysterious and unpredictable.

For a human to be able to unleash a Blood Dao secret art so grandly and extensively showed Lu Ye's profound mastery of this secret art.

By this point, Haitang finally understood the purpose of Lu Ye's previous arrangements.

Intercepting the three Western cultivators here, bringing the three battlefields closer together, and then, when the time was right, activating this Blood Dao secret art to trap them—this way, they would inevitably be delayed.

The timing was precisely when the sixth spirit orb was born!

As for how long the Blood Dao secret art could trap the three, Haitang didn't know, and now was not the time to satisfy her curiosity.

While the Eastern cultivators, led by Lu Ye, frantically flew towards the sixth spirit orb, in the strange misty space, the three Sun-Glow cultivators were all momentarily stunned, staring wide-eyed at the exercise space in the center.

For no other reason than that the scene displayed in the space showed something they couldn't comprehend!

A total of twenty-seven light spots had now inexplicably become twenty-eight!

In other words, an extra person had appeared out of nowhere!

In a special environment like the Black Abyss, it was impossible for an extra person to suddenly appear out of nowhere. If such a situation occurred now, there was only one possibility.

Old Zhu Er from the South looked up towards Chen Xuanhai and the others, asking, "A Body Talisman?"

A "Body Talisman" is an external avatar talisman. The previous battle between Chen Xuanhai and Su Yuqing was fought using Body Talismans, not their true bodies.

Generally speaking, when Little Human Race cultivators reach the Divine Sea realm, they become qualified to refine their own Body Talismans. In some special environments, these can produce miraculous effects.

But a Body Talisman is, after all, merely a spirit talisman with limited power. For example, a Body Talisman refined by a Divine Sea realm cultivator only possesses three-tenths of their strength, and in contests of similar levels, such a talisman cannot exert much effect.

A Body Talisman refined by a Constellation realm cultivator can likely exert about five-tenths of their strength.

Of course, this is not absolute, because after a Body Talisman is refined, it can be nurtured with one's own power. The longer it is nurtured, the greater the power it can exert, but there is ultimately a limit.

For the Little Human Race, only when their cultivation reached the Moon-Glow realm would they use Body Talismans in battle. At this level, the power that a refined Body Talisman could exert was quite considerable.

The Constellation realm was still somewhat lacking in that regard.

What surprised the Sun-Glow cultivators was not the Body Talisman itself, but the appearance of the light spot. Under normal circumstances, even if the Little Human Race activated a Body Talisman in the Black Abyss, no extra light spot would appear because the power of the Body Talisman was insufficient to be specially marked by the exercise space.

The light spot that appeared at this moment was clearly abnormal. Judging solely by its brightness, it was unmistakably equivalent to an Early-stage Constellation cultivator.

Which Constellation realm cultivator could refine a Body Talisman with such immense power?

Not only was Old Zhu Er puzzled, but Chen Xuanhai and Wu Qimo were equally astonished. All of them looked towards Su Yuqing.

Their own young ones didn't possess this ability, so the source of the current change could only be one possibility: Lu Ye of the Nine Heavens Realm!

But the two still didn't understand what kind of technique this was, so they could only ask Su Yuqing. After all, Su Yuqing was the most familiar with Lu Ye.

How could Su Yuqing know what kind of technique this was? She shook her head slightly, indicating her ignorance.

The Western Sun-Glow cultivator suddenly cursed loudly, "Bastards! Three against one, and you still can't achieve anything! All these years of cultivation have gone to waste!"

Under his observation, three Westerners were fighting one Easterner, and the West even had a Mid-stage cultivator present, while the Easterner was only Early-stage. Yet they couldn't defeat the opponent, which truly angered and vexed him.

He could only see the West fighting three against one, but he couldn't see that in the Black Abyss, these three were all trapped in the sea of blood, like headless flies.

The key was that Lu Ye's clone was present within the blood sea, and with a thought, a grand formation would take shape. The three were in their own formations, and even at full strength, they couldn't escape in a short time.

At this very moment, the nine Eastern cultivators were rapidly heading towards the sixth spirit orb. From another direction, the six Western cultivators, led by their Late-stage Constellation cultivator, were also rushing over.

They had previously been entangled with the South, but with three of their own trapped and no timely support, the tide had turned. Since they were unable to hinder the South, they naturally had to focus on the newly born spirit orb.

Currently, the South was transporting the spirit orb. Before the spirit orb was transported back to their main camp, there was no need to consider any obstruction from the South. So the only force they needed to face was the East.

When had the East ever been considered a threat by them? Therefore, this spirit orb was a must-win for the West!