Chapter 170: Awakening

In the boundless darkness, a ripple stirred. As it spread, a dormant consciousness began to revive.

After an unknown period of time, the darkness was torn apart. An inexpressible pain and a tingling sensation assailed him simultaneously, and Lu Ye suddenly opened his eyes.

He vaguely saw two figures standing by the bed. One of them immediately sat down, took his hand, and a gentle spiritual energy flowed from their palm into his body, checking his condition.

His vision was blurry, and he couldn't make out the person's appearance, but he could confirm it was a woman.

Another figure stood by the bed. Lu Ye observed for a moment and thought it seemed to be the Sect Master...

He opened his mouth, wanting to call out. However, as the gentle spiritual energy flowed in, his consciousness began to drift again, and he vaguely heard the Sect Master ask, "How is he?"

An ethereal voice immediately responded, "He's as good as dead!"

The Sect Master's voice then rang out, "You girl, don't scare this old man. I finally managed to..."

He couldn't hear the rest. The whole world quickly receded from him, and he fell back into slumber.

After another unknown period of time, Lu Ye woke up again.

Someone was sitting beside him, channeling spiritual energy to heal his injuries. Compared to his previous awakening, Lu Ye felt much better; at least his consciousness wasn't as blurry.

His vision slowly cleared, and he saw that the person sitting beside him was a young woman with a charming appearance. Her clear, limpid eyes were utterly pure. What surprised Lu Ye was that her appearance bore some resemblance to his Senior Sister Wei Yang.

Comparing them closely, this woman seemed like a younger, undeveloped version of his Senior Sister. However, compared to Senior Sister's maturity, the woman before him was undoubtedly purer.

"You're awake?"

"You are..." Lu Ye began, his voice dry and his throat burning.

The woman smiled gently, "I am your Second Senior Sister, Shui Yuan!"

So he didn't have a Second Senior Brother, only a Second Senior Sister, Lu Ye thought to himself.

"Where is this?" Lu Ye tried to turn his head to look around, but was startled to find his neck wouldn't move.

"This is the Crimson Blood Sect," his Second Senior Sister replied. "Junior Brother, you've come home."

Had he come home? Had the goal he set upon entering the Spirit Creek Battlefield been achieved? Lu Ye felt a sense of relief. Then he remembered Yiyi and Amber: "Where is my mount?"

He was certain Yiyi and Amber weren't nearby; otherwise, they would have been guarding him constantly.

"They are temporarily at the Azure Mountain stronghold. You haven't formed a contract with it, so it couldn't return to the Nine Provinces with you. However, I've arranged for someone to escort it to our sect's stronghold. Once your injuries heal, you'll be able to go find it."

Lu Ye didn't know what kind of contract he needed to form with Amber, but he figured there must be some conditions for traveling between the Spirit Creek Battlefield and the Nine Provinces. He wasn't in a hurry for now. Yiyi was with Amber, and being at the Crimson Blood Sect's stronghold, they should be safe.

Only then did Lu Ye have time to check his own condition. The spiritual energy within him had long since dried up. He had encountered this situation once before, so he wasn't panicked. As long as his body recovered, his spiritual energy would naturally replenish itself.

His injuries must have been severe, because he found himself wrapped like a zongzi (rice dumpling). A literal zongzi, his entire body, except for his eyes, nose, and mouth, was covered without a single gap.

As Second Senior Sister Shui Yuan performed her healing arts, he was currently enveloped in a gentle, water-like spiritual energy, and a mixed sensation of pain and tingling came from all over his body.

It was similar to how Hua Ci had treated him, but Hua Ci had channeled wood-elemental spiritual energy, whereas his Second Senior Sister channeled water-elemental spiritual energy.

Both types of spiritual energy contained immense vitality and were greatly beneficial for healing.

Lu Ye understood clearly that his Second Senior Sister, like Hua Ci, was a healing cultivator.

He hadn't seen his Senior Sister or Fourth Senior Brother, nor the Third Senior Brother he had never met, and even the Sect Master was nowhere to be found.

An hour later, Second Senior Sister withdrew her spiritual energy and instructed Lu Ye, "Don't move around recklessly. If you need anything, call me; I'll be right outside."

"Understood," Lu Ye softly replied.

Shui Yuan got up and walked out, closed the door securely. After a moment's thought, she raised her hand and tapped her battlefield imprint, sending out a message: "He's saved!"

Meanwhile, in the territory of Yunzhou, bordering Bingzhou, which was considered the domain of the Myriad Demon Ridge, Tang Yifeng's figure hovered in mid-air as the violent spiritual energy fluctuations slowly subsided. Below him, a sect belonging to the Myriad Demon Ridge had been razed to the ground. This Myriad Demon Ridge force, called White Wolf City, was almost completely annihilated. Amidst the shattered ruins, countless Myriad Demon Ridge cultivators lay dead.

White Wolf City was merely a sixth-rank force. Its strongest cultivators were only at the True Lake Realm, and they weren't numerous. Facing a Grand Cultivator of the Divine Sea Realm like the Sect Master, they naturally had no power to retaliate. The reason it wasn't completely wiped out was that the Spirit Creek Realm and Cloud River Realm cultivators, sensing the unfavorable situation, had all fled into the battlefield. However, after this battle, White Wolf City would most likely drop in rank during the next sect evaluation.

Suddenly, a streak of light swept from afar, and before it even arrived, a fierce shout rang out: "Tang Yifeng, you are courting death!"

The Sect Master didn't utter a word but transformed into a streak of light and rushed towards the approaching figure. In an instant, the two figures engaged in an intense battle. The newcomer grew increasingly alarmed as they fought, because the strength Tang Yifeng displayed far exceeded what the Myriad Demon Ridge understood. After just a brief exchange of blows, he knew he was no match and hastily fled into the distance.

The Sect Master watched the direction the person fled and chose not to pursue. Although he could kill the opponent, it would certainly take a significant amount of time. Yunzhou was controlled by the Myriad Demon Ridge, and besides that person, there were surely other Divine Sea Realm powerhouses already on their way.

He immediately flew in another direction.

On that day, three Myriad Demon Ridge sects in Yunzhou were attacked by Tang Yifeng, the Sect Master of the Crimson Blood Sect, all suffering heavy losses. Especially White Wolf City, where all True Lake Realm cultivators within the sect were slaughtered, and more than half of its Cloud River Realm cultivators were killed or wounded.

The devastation brought by a furious spell cultivator was utterly terrifying, especially when that spell cultivator was a Grand Cultivator of the Divine Sea Realm.

The Myriad Demon Ridge deployed over a dozen Divine Sea Realm cultivators to surround and intercept Tang Yifeng. The two sides clashed for half a day before Tang Yifeng, heavily wounded, made his escape.

But before he left, he laid down a warning.

If anyone dared to disregard the rules and attack a disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect, then they shouldn't blame him for abandoning propriety and bullying the young with his greater strength.

Only a few days after the Battle of Golden Light Peak, such incidents occurred, clearly indicating Tang Yifeng was standing up for his disciples.

All three Yunzhou sects he attacked had disciples who participated in the Battle of Golden Light Peak.

The ferocious beast that had been dormant for many years had bared its fangs. For a time, many sects within the Myriad Demon Ridge felt a chilling unease.

In the room, Lu Ye sat cross-legged.

It had to be said that his Second Senior Sister's medical skills were truly remarkable. He had suffered such severe injuries, but after two days of treatment by his Second Senior Sister, he already felt much better. Although he was still wrapped like a zongzi at the moment, he was clearly recovering rapidly.

His Second Senior Sister also fed him some strange medicinal concoctions. However, compared to the bitter, nauseating concoctions prepared by that black-hearted woman Hua Ci, the taste of what his Second Senior Sister prepared was much better.

He was currently recovering his spiritual energy. He swallowed a spiritual pill, refined its medicinal effects, and after activating his cultivation technique, he applied a Spirit Gathering spirit pattern to his spiritual orifices. Then he discovered something that gave him a headache: his spiritual energy was very impure. Even the spiritual energy he was now recovering was still impure, and the situation was worse than before.

There was nothing he could do about it. During the Battle of Golden Light Peak, he had consumed too many spiritual pills for recovery. Even though those pills were of good quality, it was inevitable that a large amount of pill toxins had accumulated in his body.

To resolve this, he needed his Talent Tree to resume its function of burning pill toxins. As for how to restore this function to the Talent Tree, Lu Ye had some ideas. He wasn't in a hurry for now; healing his injuries was the priority.

Furthermore, he still needed to visit the stronghold to pick up Amber. Yiyi must be very worried about him.

Bang...

The door was kicked open. Lu Ye flinched in surprise. He looked up and saw a large bed walking in vertically. Behind the large bed was the petite figure of his Second Senior Sister.

A few days of interaction had made Lu Ye realize that his Second Senior Sister was a truly gentle woman, unlike Hua Ci, who was outwardly gentle but inwardly cunning. In the past few days, her care for him had been meticulous, almost treating him like a child, which left Lu Ye feeling both amused and helpless.

So he didn't know what his Second Senior Sister had encountered. She looked a bit angry and had even moved a bed over.

"Second Senior Sister, this is..." Surely she wasn't coming to personally attend to him?

His Second Senior Sister gave Lu Ye a sweet smile and said gently, "It's not your concern. Just rest well."

"Oh."

Second Senior Sister tossed the bed aside and pulled out bedding from somewhere, laying it out. After tidying everything up, she turned to look outside the door, her tone cold: "Why are you still hiding and not coming in? Is there something to be embarrassed about?"

Only then did Lu Ye realize there was someone else outside the door. He looked up but couldn't see anything and looked at Shui Yuan in confusion.

Shui Yuan scoffed softly, "If you don't come in, I'll have to invite you myself!"

"Cough!" A light cough came from outside the door. "You rebellious disciple, is this how you speak to your master in front of your Junior Brother?"

As the voice spoke, the figure of an old man, not yet elderly but clearly aged, walked in from outside, his expression stern, and he reached up to stroke his beard.

Who else could it be but the Sect Master?

Lu Ye's eyes lit up with excitement, and he hastily tried to get up. However, he had barely risen when he almost fell. The Sect Master swiftly stepped forward and steadied him. Their eyes met, and Lu Ye clearly saw a look of guilt in the Sect Master's eyes. The old man's lips moved twice, and a thousand words condensed into one sentence: "You've suffered!"

He truly hadn't expected that taking Lu Ye as a disciple would stir up so much trouble. Ultimately, this was the lingering poison of the Crimson Blood Sect, and there was no reason for a disciple who hadn't even stepped through the sect's gate to bear it, or even nearly lose his life because of it.

In the past six months, although he was certain Lu Ye was still alive, he suffered from a lack of suitable manpower and couldn't extensively search for Lu Ye's whereabouts. He had asked Shui Yuan to request help from some trustworthy rogue cultivators, but their strength wasn't high either. Trying to find someone in the vast Spirit Creek Battlefield was like looking for a needle in a haystack.