Chapter 2010: Nine Faces Return

"Sword Gourd, Alchemy Gourd..." Tang Jun looked incredulous. "Just how many treasures do you have?"

The existence of the Alchemy Gourd was a secret within Three Realms Island, known only to a select few, and Tang Jun was one of them.

However, the Alchemy Gourd was primarily for alchemy and not suitable for combat. Therefore, in some respects, its value was significantly less than that of the Fire Gourd from One Yuan Realm.

But he never expected Lu Ye to suddenly produce a Sword Gourd as well.

It seemed Lu Ye had possessed this item for a long time; Tang Jun had simply been blind and never recognized its true nature.

"Just a few, I suppose," Lu Ye answered casually.

The Sword Gourd, Alchemy Gourd, and the Small Star Palace's Destiny Die were all domain treasures, as was the Asura Arena in Kyushu.

Tang Jun stared at him, speechless for a moment.

A moment later, Old Tang departed, and Lu Ye continued to activate the Sword Gourd, making it devour numerous magical treasures. Inside the gourd's space, the sword body became increasingly solid and complete.

It wasn't until many more magical treasures had been consumed, one after another, that the sword body suddenly glowed brightly and transformed from solid to transparent.

At that instant, Lu Ye felt a tremor in his heart.

He faintly perceived that the sword energy within the Sword Gourd had been cultivated to its peak; even a subtle sensation of it caused a stinging pain in his soul.

Lu Ye himself didn't know what power such a sword energy could unleash if deployed, but judging by the Fire Gourd's previous performance, the destructive power of this sword energy was anything but ordinary.

There were still some magical treasures before him. Lu Ye thought for a moment, aimed the gourd's mouth at them, and lightly activated the Sword Gourd's power.

He found that the Sword Gourd could no longer devour any more treasures. This undoubtedly confirmed his previous conjecture: after consuming a magical treasure, the gourd's inner mystery would rapidly refine it, transforming it into energy to strengthen the sword energy.

Now that the sword energy had been cultivated to its peak, there was naturally no need to devour more magical treasures.

Lu Ye made a rough estimate: the total value of the magical treasures spent cultivating this sword energy was approximately 500 million spirit jades.

This expenditure was extraordinary. Only the incredibly wealthy Three Realms Island could afford it; a typical realm, even if it acquired such a domain treasure, would find it difficult to unleash its full power.

The Sword Gourd was like this, and the Fire Gourd should be similar. Lu Ye wondered how Yuan Se cultivated the unique fire within his Fire Gourd; it likely required some special methods.

As for other offensive domain treasures, most did not come without a cost to activate.

No wonder such items were rarely seen; they were usually regarded as realm-guarding treasures by major realms, for truly compelling reasons.

In contrast, the ease with which Xiao Gua activated the power of the Three Treasures Ruyi Coin was astonishingly convenient. With the vast waters of the Myriad Manifestations Sea, no matter how much it consumed, it could never run dry.

Picking up the Sword Gourd, Lu Ye walked out of his pavilion and quickly reached the edge of Three Realms Island. He plunged into the sea and dove deeper.

He wanted to test the power of this sword energy. Currently, there was no suitable target on the surface of the Myriad Manifestations Sea, so he had to search beneath the waves.

A considerable number of star beasts lived beneath the Myriad Manifestations Sea, but they generally resided in the deep sea, making them invisible to ordinary people.

Lu Ye spent a full day before finally spotting a star beast at the Sun-Disciple realm. This beast was not weak, but it acted purely on instinct. Upon sensing Lu Ye's aura, it swam towards him without hesitation, its posture clearly indicating hostile intent.

Lu Ye stood perfectly still. Only when the star beast was within a thousand feet of him did he suddenly channel his spiritual power to unleash the Sword Gourd's might.

As the Sword Gourd in his hand vibrated slightly, a beam of white light surged from its mouth. The white light was incredibly fast, appearing a thousand miles away in an instant, and the deep waters of the Myriad Manifestations Sea seemed to offer it no resistance at all.

The Sun-Disciple star beast, which had been swimming towards him, suddenly had a huge gash appear in its abdomen. Blood profusely spilled out, and through the opening, its writhing internal organs were dimly visible.

It wasn't dead.

It wasn't that the Sword Gourd's energy lacked power, but rather that its speed was so immense that Lu Ye couldn't fully control it for a moment, leading to a slight deviation in accuracy.

A strange beastial roar echoed. Though the star beast's intelligence was low, it knew to seek advantages and avoid harm. Realizing its predicament, it immediately changed direction, attempting to flee.

But it was already too late. The white light sword energy, a thousand miles away, swept back, precisely piercing its body and creating a large hole in its massive form.

Lu Ye raised his hand and seized the returning sword energy. Instantly, his large hand was covered in blood.

His formidable physique actually couldn't withstand the pervasive power of the sword energy, and feeling it at such close range caused a stinging pain even in his soul.

The sword energy he held in his hand had an untamed quality, subtly twisting, with fine rays of light flickering around its white glow. Lu Ye felt as if he wasn't holding a beam of sword energy, but a bolt of lightning that could explode at any moment.

His expression shifted slightly, and he quickly drew the sword energy back into the Sword Gourd.

Looking down, the injury on his hand didn't heal immediately because residual sword energy power remained, continuously tearing at his flesh.

This thing... can't be touched!

This thought immediately sprang to Lu Ye's mind. Fortunately, the Talent Tree reacted, and as its flames burned, the residual sword energy on his hand gradually showed signs of dissipating.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking up again, the Sun-Disciple star beast was silent. Its colossal body, ravaged by the residual power of the sword energy, had turned into a mist of blood, leaving no trace of even its bones.

The power of the Sword Gourd was truly terrifying!

Lu Ye was delighted, and his figure moved swiftly, returning along the path he had taken.

The result of this Sword Gourd power test undoubtedly pleased him, but after returning to Three Realms Island, Lu Ye discovered another issue.

That was, the sword energy cultivated within the Sword Gourd had clearly suffered considerable depletion, because the Sword Gourd could now continue to devour magical treasures...

Judging from this, this sword energy was most powerful only when first unleashed, but each activation came with a cost. In terms of magical treasure value, one activation depleted roughly 100 million spirit jades!

If activated multiple times, the power of this sword energy would certainly be greatly diminished.

Using the Sword Gourd in combat was simply burning money.

However, compared to the Sword Gourd's immense power, this cost seemed acceptable. He just needed to carry more magical treasures for the Sword Gourd to consume.

This wasn't difficult; many of the unused magical treasures Tang Jun had previously sent were all stored by Lu Ye in his Small Flower Realm.

The matter of the Sword Gourd was put aside for now.

Next, he had to address the problem of the black fruit on the Talent Tree.

This matter was urgent. He couldn't risk accidentally losing control and devouring someone during a major battle later, which would lead him further down the path of a devourer.

He had already had some ideas regarding this, and now his task was to truly implement them.

Based on his previous attempts, forming a Talent Tree clone allowed for a portion of the black fruit to be separated.

But the Talent Tree itself couldn't be abandoned; it would always have to merge back, rendering such separation meaningless.

Since a Talent Tree clone wouldn't work, what about a Treasure Blood clone?

Indeed, a Talent Tree clone couldn't be abandoned, but a Treasure Blood clone presented no such issue.

What Lu Ye needed to do now was attempt to separate a portion of the black fruit into a Treasure Blood clone while simultaneously forming it. If this idea succeeded, he could then continuously weaken the black fruit by discarding Treasure Blood clones, thereby achieving the goal of completely removing it.

Time flew, and half a month passed.

Recently, Three Realms Island had been bustling, and the entire Myriad Manifestations Sea was slowly recovering its former prosperity. In fact, due to the previous great battle, the Myriad Manifestations Sea now had much less turmoil, which was a positive development.

Inside the bamboo pavilion, Lu Ye sat with closed eyes. Suddenly, he opened them and looked in one direction.

The next moment, he rose to his feet, flashed outside, ascended into the air, and left the protective formation, standing just outside Three Realms Island.

Luan Xiao'e and Yan Miao both sensed something and were about to rush towards him, but he stopped them with a mental message.

Only one person flew to his side: Chu Shen.

"Big Brother," Chu Shen said worriedly, following Lu Ye's gaze. He could vaguely see a streak of light rapidly approaching, carrying an aura he found extremely familiar. "Mother seems very angry. Big Brother, please be a bit more tolerant."

Jiu Yan had returned!

Chu Shen had been constantly worried about what would happen when his mother and Lu Ye met again after the turmoil in the Myriad Manifestations Sea. But no matter how much he worried, this encounter was inevitable.

Feeling his mother's imposing Sun-Disciple aura, his heart was filled with trepidation.

Lu Ye smiled, "It's fine!"

He let out a long breath, realizing the situation might not be as bad as he thought.

Jiu Yan's open approach indicated her intention to speak with him, which was exactly what Lu Ye hoped for.

Throughout the entire Myriad Manifestations Star System, Lu Ye could disregard others, but not Jiu Yan. Deep down, he didn't want to be her enemy, not only because of Chu Shen but also because Jiu Yan herself had been kind to him. However, as a cultivator of the Myriad Manifestations Star System, Jiu Yan simply couldn't escape the vortex of grievances between Three Realms Island and Myriad Manifestations.

Since Myriad Manifestations had lost several Sun-Disciple cultivators and suffered such a great loss this time, Jiu Yan could not possibly stand by idly. An antagonistic relationship arising from this was not what Lu Ye desired.

The streak of light drew closer. Moments later, the light receded, revealing Jiu Yan's ample figure.

Lu Ye strained his vision towards her face, but still couldn't see her features clearly. As always, her face was shrouded and concealed by a layer of spiritual light.

It had been like this when he was at the Lunar-Shine realm. Now that Lu Ye was a Sun-Disciple, he had expected some progress, even if he couldn't completely penetrate the spiritual light.

However, in reality, whether at Lunar-Shine or Sun-Disciple, his vision couldn't penetrate this layer of spiritual light.

Lu Ye understood then that Jiu Yan's strength was indeed formidable, far beyond that of other Sun-Disciples in the Myriad Manifestations Star System.

"Lu Ye greets Senior and respectfully welcomes your return," Lu Ye said, putting his thoughts aside and bowing politely.