Chapter 1422: Array Gains Fame

When the three of them formed a formation, Lu Ye's team's offense was already extremely formidable. Now, with five people in the formation, it was even more impressive. In contrast, the targeted enemies performed rather poorly after losing one late-stage Star Host. Coupled with the immense danger posed by the ghost's flickering presence, they were even more hesitant to act. After only a brief skirmish, this fairly strong team was utterly defeated, with members either wounded or killed, retreating in disarray.

At the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance, Liu Quan politely escorted Lu Ye to the door. Most cultivators in the outer circle were quite poor, except for disciples from major sects. Therefore, a transaction involving several dozen spirit stones was not easy to come by. Moreover, Lu Ye was quite straightforward, so Liu Quan naturally wanted to build a good relationship with him, hoping for future business.

After watching Lu Ye's figure disappear, Liu Quan turned around, and a fragrant breeze wafted towards him as he found someone standing behind him.

“You startled me!” Liu Quan grumbled irritably. “Why aren’t you attending to customers? What are you doing standing behind me?”

The person replied sweetly, “I missed you.”

Liu Quan glanced left and right furtively. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he lowered his voice and said, “I’ll come find you after work tonight.”

“Alright,” the woman replied with a smile.

Liu Quan walked towards the main hall as if nothing had happened, attending to other customers. The woman, meanwhile, subtly glanced in the direction Lu Ye had departed, a thoughtful look in her eyes. Later that night, after a passionate encounter, the two chatted casually. The woman subtly steered the conversation towards the day's transactions. Liu Quan was a little drowsy, answering sporadically, and soon fell soundly asleep.

The woman, lying in his arms, found it difficult to fall asleep.

If she hadn't been mistaken, the customer from earlier that day was the same one she had attended to half a month ago, who had sold many ores and bought some spirit pills. To her surprise, in just half a month, he was already back to sell more ores. From the customer's appearance, he was undoubtedly a rogue cultivator. For a rogue cultivator with no backing to accumulate wealth of several dozen spirit stones in such a short time naturally drew some attention. Working at the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance like her, even with additional income, she only earned twelve or thirteen spirit stones a month at most. This made her recall her days as a rogue cultivator. Compared to that, she couldn’t help but feel a little bitterness. She tossed and turned, lost in thought for a long time, before finally feeling drowsy, yet she couldn’t sleep soundly.

Meanwhile, in the cave on Qingyun Mountain, Lu Ye was cultivating. After completing his transaction at the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance during the day, he used the remaining spirit stones to buy a lot of food. He rushed back without stopping, only managing to return before nightfall. With enough spirit pills, he immediately began cultivating with them.

As spirit pills were consumed one by one, the spiritual power in his fifteenth aperture gradually became full, and then pushed towards the sixteenth aperture.

Twelve days later, in the cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged, calming his breath and concentrating his mind. Today was a big day. If all went well, he would advance to the second layer of the Spirit Creek Realm today. Since returning twelve days ago, he had continuously consumed over thirty Spirit Accumulation Pills, finally opening his eighteenth aperture and cultivating the spiritual power in his eighteenth aperture to its full capacity.

Recalling the cultivation path in the Golden Cicada Free Spirit Art, Lu Ye activated his spiritual power, starting from the tenth aperture, sequentially passing through the eleventh, twelfth... and finally to the eighteenth aperture. He had done this when he reached the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, so he was quite proficient now and encountered no difficulties. The spiritual power smoothly flowed through the nine great apertures, gently like a stream. As Lu Ye continued his efforts, the speed of the spiritual power flowing through these nine apertures continuously accelerated, circulating repeatedly. Until a limit was reached, Lu Ye felt a jolt throughout his body, a wave of energy swept through him, and the spiritual power flowing through the tenth to eighteenth apertures began to circulate autonomously.

Second Layer of the Spirit Creek Realm: Achieved!

Having experienced this once before, Lu Ye didn't feel much exhilaration, just a sense of natural accomplishment. He was no longer the minor cultivator with three apertures who had stumbled into the Spirit Creek Battlefield more than two months ago. If reaching the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm gave him the qualification to survive in the outer regions of the battlefield, then the second layer gave him the qualification to roam more freely. Of course, there was still a gap compared to cultivators with higher cultivation, but Lu Ye was already quite satisfied.

It had taken him roughly forty days to reach the first layer, but from the first to the second layer, he only used less than a month. This was mainly due to the abundant cultivation resources. Even so, this cultivation speed was exceptionally rapid. One must understand that in the early stages of cultivation, it usually takes cultivators about ten days to open each aperture. This is because their primary method of cultivation is to absorb and release the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. When their cultivation isn't high enough, the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy is low, so their cultivation speed naturally cannot be fast. This situation only slightly improves after reaching the fourth layer of the Spirit Creek Realm. In other words, for ordinary cultivators in the beginning, advancing one layer every three months is normal. But for Lu Ye, he advanced one layer on average every month. This was the joy of cultivating by consuming pills.

At the first layer, Lu Ye only had one small circulating cycle of spiritual power within his body, from the source aperture to the ninth aperture. But after reaching the second layer, he gained another cycle, starting from the tenth aperture and ending at the eighteenth. He now had two spiritual power circulation systems within his body. As a result, he could activate more spiritual power in a short time, and the destructive power of his spiritual energy would naturally be stronger. Upon reaching the third layer, there would be three such small circulating cycles. By analogy, a cultivator at the ninth layer of the Spirit Creek Realm would have nine such systems within their body.

He still had thirty Spirit Accumulation Pills. Although Lu Ye really wanted to continue cultivating, he also knew the principle that haste makes waste. He first ate something. Then he walked out of the cave, found a mountain spring to bathe, and changed into clean clothes. Amidst the trickling sound of the spring water, he took out the Golden Cicada Free Spirit Art to study. Next, he planned to advance towards the third layer of the Spirit Creek Realm. He needed to ascertain the locations of the apertures beyond the eighteenth to facilitate his continued cultivation.

The mountains and fields were tranquil, with occasional chirping of birds and buzzing of insects. Dappled sunlight pierced through the canopy of leaves, illuminating the side of the young man's face, making the scene appear like a painting.

“What are you doing, sneaking around?” Lu Ye called out without lifting his head.

From the trunk of a large tree nearby, a small head poked out. Its disheveled appearance would surely startle anyone unfamiliar with it. Yiyi peeked at what Lu Ye was reading. After seeing that it was a low-level cultivation technique, she pouted slightly, looking disdainful.

“Something wrong?” Lu Ye asked, tilting his head, forcefully resisting the urge to punch her.

“When are you leaving?” Yiyi asked.

Although Lu Ye hadn't come out to hunt during this period, this was her and Dah-hu's territory, and she couldn't tolerate anyone else encroaching on their domain. If not for her apprehension about the spirit talismans in Lu Ye's possession, she would have long since teamed up with Dah-hu to drive him away. However, having suffered a loss at Lu Ye's hands once before, Yiyi wasn't quite daring enough to act recklessly. Moreover, Yiyi could tell that Lu Ye had become much stronger than he was two months ago.

Lu Ye closed his book, stood up, and stretched, saying, “I’m tired, time to go back to sleep!”

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” Yiyi exclaimed angrily. However, she received no response and could only grit her teeth and curse, “Scoundrel, you rotten thing, you’re infuriating me! Wah-yah-yah-yah!” She then scratched furiously at a nearby tree, sending wood chips flying.

The ghost disappeared. Lu Ye led his four-person team to the purple talisman. He raised his hand to grab the talisman, but when he was about ten inches away, he encountered an invisible barrier. This was the treasure's protective barrier! He smoothly changed his grab into a palm, placing it against the barrier, and activated his spiritual power, channeling it into the barrier. Breaking this barrier was not easy when there was interference, but with no one interfering, it was quick, taking only twenty breaths. After the treasure had been suppressed for two hours, Lu Ye put away his blade, walked to a dark spot, took out his water skin, briefly washed himself, put on clean clothes, and returned to the base of the cliff.

Dah-hu was already fast asleep, snoring loudly enough to shake the heavens. Yiyi was still sitting there, presumably waiting for him. However, seeing Lu Ye's expression, she felt a little strange, because Lu Ye currently seemed to have made some difficult decision, wearing an expression as if he would go forward even if a thousand men opposed him. She couldn't help but tilt her head.

Lu Ye sat down cross-legged, his heart heavy with worry. After a moment of thought, he instructed Yiyi, “If I pass out in a bit, don’t worry too much.”

“Huh?” Yiyi asked, her face full of confusion.

Lu Ye didn't explain much further. He closed his eyes, immersing his mind, and once again “saw” the talent tree residing in his Source Aperture. On the massive tree crown, three leaves were burning fiercely. The fourth leaf was already glowing, but hadn't ignited. In the mine cave of Evil Moon Valley, his talent tree had manifested its first burning leaf, carrying a spirit pattern called “Sharpness.” Without that Sharpness spirit pattern, he wouldn’t have been able to easily kill the heavily wounded Zhou Cheng later, nor would he have been able to pierce the pale man’s protective spiritual power with a single sword thrust, let alone heavily wound the snake demon and ultimately win. It could be said that this spirit pattern had greatly assisted Lu Ye at several critical moments.

Now, two more leaves on the talent tree were burning. While feeling uneasy, he was also very eager to see what kind of spirit patterns he would acquire. His attention slowly focused. Lu Ye looked towards one of the burning leaves. Just like last time, the small leaf rapidly magnified, filling his entire vision and mind in the blink of an eye. At the same time, a flood of information uncontrollably poured into his mind. Lu Ye once again felt as if someone had hammered his head forcefully. Last time, he had fainted instantly. This time, although he felt dizzy and the pain was unbearable, he managed not to faint. Lu Ye wished he had fainted, because throughout the process, he felt a sensation worse than death. It was as if someone had pried open his brain, forcibly stuffing in things he completely didn't understand, and then vigorously stirring them.

He abruptly opened his eyes, a suppressed growl escaping his throat, and his eyes were bloodshot. Yiyi, who had been watching him, was startled. Even the sleeping Dah-hu was woken up, letting out a roar and looking around cautiously, mistakenly thinking they were under attack. After a good while, Lu Ye gradually calmed down. His vision was still blood-red, and his entire body was drenched in sweat. Yiyi and Dah-hu stood beside him in a panic, at a loss for what to do. In fact, Lu Ye's appearance at this moment was extremely terrifying. Not only were his eyes bloodshot, but veins protruded from both his temples, as if he were enduring immense torture. After heavily panting for a moment, Lu Ye recovered slightly, and told the anxious Dah-hu and Yiyi, “It’s alright.”

He closed his eyes again. The pain was gone; it was time to receive the fruits of victory. Yiyi and Dah-hu exchanged a look, both confused. But this matter seemed related to Lu Ye's cultivation, and since he wasn't saying anything, Yiyi found it inappropriate to ask, so she and Dah-hu could only stand guard nearby.

At this moment, Lu Ye was examining the characteristics of the second spirit pattern.

Guardian Ward!

This was the name of the second spirit pattern. Judging purely by the name, this should be a defensive spirit pattern. Lu Ye had previously speculated that the first spirit pattern was offensive, so perhaps the second would be defensive. It now seemed that his guess was correct. He opened his eyes, and after a brief moment of concentration, a visible layer of spiritual light suddenly shimmered on his palm. The spiritual light transformed into the shape of a triangular shield, upon which intricate and complex patterns were carved.

“This is… a spirit pattern?” Yiyi, who had been silently observing Lu Ye, was startled. Although she had lost many memories, she still remembered some common knowledge of the cultivation world, and she understood more than Lu Ye did. To manifest such a spirit pattern was simply incredible. One must know that low-level cultivators like Lu Ye generally focused on improving their cultivation. They didn't even have time to delve into and learn spells, let alone complex spirit patterns. Of course, some spells could also be considered manifestations of spirit patterns. In fact, the spirit pattern Lu Ye was now activating could be seen as a defensive spell. Spells and spirit patterns were closely related, often sharing commonalities, yet they were not entirely the same and difficult to explain in a few words. But no matter what, it was still unbelievable that a low-level cultivator could construct a spirit pattern.

Yiyi became increasingly certain that Lu Ye was likely a disciple of some top-tier major sect. Moreover, his status within that sect was definitely not low. He might even be the illegitimate son of a sect master or something similar, forced to venture out alone for experience due to some unavoidable reasons... In just a few breaths of time, she had already concocted a dramatic tale filled with grudges and affections in her mind.

Lu Ye, however, didn't notice Yiyi's gaze. He was currently assessing the solidity of the Guardian Ward. Purely from a defensive standpoint, the Guardian Ward's protective capability completely surpassed his own protective spiritual power. Compared to each other, there was at least a several-fold difference in protective strength. This meant that in the future, if he encountered any attacks, he would have better defensive means. However, while its protective power was outstanding, its consumption was also not low. This palm-sized Guardian Ward spirit pattern alone consumed the spiritual power reserves of one of Lu Ye's apertures. It consumed more than the Sharpness spirit pattern. In other words, if he continuously activated this spirit pattern twenty times, Lu Ye would exhaust his spiritual power. Moreover, if the protective range were expanded, the consumption would increase further. Lu Ye was currently only activating a palm-sized Guardian Ward spirit pattern, which didn't mean the Guardian Ward spirit pattern could only be that big. If he wished, he could activate a much larger one.

All in all, this was a good spirit pattern. Although he had items like Golden Body Talismans, spirit talismans would always run out eventually. However, this Guardian Ward spirit pattern was his own innate ability. Moreover, relatively speaking, activating the Guardian Ward was instantaneous. However, activating a spirit talisman was more troublesome; first, he had to take the talisman from his storage bag and infuse it with spiritual power. In intense battles, Lu Ye often didn't have the time to do these things. If he had possessed such a spirit pattern before encountering the pale man, he could have completely withstood the opponent's attacks and directly fought him to death. A single spirit pattern, though it didn't increase Lu Ye's cultivation, significantly boosted his combat power.

There was still one more...

Lu Ye shivered slightly, recalling his previous experience. He wasn't going to examine the other spirit pattern, at least not for the next two days. His mind was currently a mess. If he were to examine that spirit pattern again, he might die. So, he needed to rest for a few days first. He took out a Spirit Accumulation Pill and consumed it. Lu Ye was prepared to investigate the question that had always puzzled him: whether his cultivation through pill consumption had no hidden dangers because it was related to the talent tree. Calming his mind and sensing carefully, he quickly “saw” the talent tree hidden within his Source Aperture.