Chapter 230: Post-war Inventory

This was quite alarming; nobody knew how Lu Ye managed it. Some even suspected foul play or a smear campaign, but the detailed rumors from the Ten-Thousand Devil Ridge were so convincing that people had no choice but to believe them.

Moreover, the Haotian Alliance cared little for the specifics of how the Bixue Sect conquered two Ten-Thousand Devil Ridge strongholds; they only focused on the outcome. For members of the Haotian Alliance, seizing two sect territories in a mere two or three days was undoubtedly a cause for celebration.

Consequently, cultivators from both sides engaged in heated debates and disputes, causing the entire Spirit Stream Battlefield to become highly volatile.

However, as time passed, it was quickly discovered that the insect tide did not originate from the Bixue Sect's wormhole at all, but rather from the Tiansha Hall's. All the insects had poured forth from there.

This discovery naturally refuted the previous claims against the Bixue Sect, intensifying the arguments between the two sides.

By this point, many cultivators from the inner circle had already arrived, particularly those from Tiansha Hall and the Feng clan. Having had their strongholds captured, they had no time for leisure or travel, so they naturally rushed back to help their surviving fellow disciples rebuild.

In addition to these two groups, cultivators from other factions also rushed to the scene. They weren't there to spectate, but to hunt insects. For them, the scale of this insect tide was comparable to those found in the inner circle, and eradicating the insects here naturally earned them significant merit points.

When cultivators from opposing factions encountered each other, friction was inevitable. For a time, the wilderness around the insect tide area became a hotspot for intense battles, with cultivators of the eighth and ninth levels frequently clashing. Even powerful individuals practicing Heaven-grade cultivation techniques participated, making the entire region incredibly lively.

Lu Ye was unaware of who had emerged victorious from these conflicts. However, three days after he led his disciples back to the stronghold, the insect tide was finally brought under control. A powerful cultivator had penetrated the Tiansha Hall's insect nest, destroyed its central flesh sac, and retrieved the vitality core.

Today was the fourth day since everyone returned to the stronghold.

The Bixue Sect's grand formation maintained its lowest operational level, with a light barrier enveloping the stronghold.

In front of the Heavenly Secret Hall square, Lu Ye sat on the steps, intently reading the books he had brought from Madam Yun.

In front of him, the square was piled high with spoils of war. These spoils had been collected by his disciples previously, but due to the ongoing insect tide, they hadn't been tallied until today.

Spoils of war, naturally, weren't simply kept by whoever seized them. Everyone had contributed, so they needed to be tallied before distribution.

"Fifth Senior Brother, everything is here," He Xiyin reported, approaching him.

Lu Ye acknowledged her and looked up, his gaze falling upon a huge pile of items. He quickly frowned, however, noticing that much of it consisted of tables, chairs, and even pots and pans.

His eye twitched involuntarily. What kind of things had they looted?

Crouched in a corner outside the Heavenly Secret Hall, hugging her knees, Feng Yue, with a crestfallen expression, instinctively flinched. She had recognized several familiar pieces of furniture among the pile.

Those were clearly items from her own room.

"These people from the Bixue Sect..."

"Are you bandits?" Lu Ye felt a headache coming on. "Why did you bring back these tables, chairs, bedding, and kitchenware?"

He strongly suspected that if storage bags weren't too small for beds, the beds from both sect strongholds would have been moved back as well.

Chen Yu chuckled from the side. "Our stronghold is currently lacking in many things, and the items from these two sects are of excellent quality. These chairs can be placed in the Heavenly Secret Hall, providing everyone a place to sit during future discussions."

His explanation did make some sense.

"First, clear out these miscellaneous items. Anyone who wants something can take it."

The cultivators gathered around immediately surged forward. Although the scene was chaotic, no one scrambled to snatch things. Chen Yu first selected some chairs and took them into the Heavenly Secret Hall, and the rest took what they needed. Soon, the tables, chairs, and other similar items had disappeared.

He Xiyin even brought a jade pillow to Lu Ye. "Fifth Senior Brother, I saved one for you."

"Mhm," Lu Ye replied. He usually stayed in his training room in the stronghold, though he did have his own living quarters. Chen Yu had previously led people to build a house for him in an excellent location, right next to Hua Ci's residence.

However, Lu Ye hadn't yet visited that house, and no furniture had been added to it.

Not far away, Feng Yue stared wistfully at the jade pillow, wailing internally, "That's mine! It's mine!"

With those cumbersome items gone, what remained were things useful to cultivators, including spiritual artifacts, elixirs, spirit stones, and talismans. Spiritual artifacts were the most numerous.

The hundreds of people from Tiansha Hall who died inside the wormhole meant the Bixue Sect couldn't collect their spoils, so it was unclear who ultimately benefited from them.

The vast majority of the spoils here came from the hundreds of people from the Feng clan.

Each person left behind a spiritual artifact upon death, amounting to hundreds of them. The next most common items were unopened storage bags, their number roughly equivalent to that of the spiritual artifacts.

Only a very small number of storage bags were already open, their contents having been removed.

Distributing these spoils was troublesome, as the value of unopened storage bags was unknown even after acquiring them; one might become rich overnight or gain nothing at all.

Lu Ye divided his disciples into ten teams, each consisting of approximately seventy people. They would take turns stepping forward to choose their spoils. For example, if they chose a storage bag, they would take one. If they chose a spiritual artifact, they would take one. For talismans, they could choose two. As for spirit stones, they could take twenty, and elixirs, twenty pills.

This way, whether they gained or lost depended on their discernment and luck.

Team after team stepped forward. Some gambled by choosing storage bags, while others played it safe with spiritual artifacts. Those in need of elixirs chose them, and those lacking spirit stones took those.

It was hard to say who gained or lost; everyone simply took what they needed.

After two such rounds, there weren't enough items left to distribute.

Lu Ye then had the remaining items collected and put into public storage, to be accumulated and distributed with future spoils.

"Before the battle, I stated that the top ten in merit points from this expedition would receive spirit stone rewards, and the top three would each receive a Nine-Forbidden spiritual artifact. Chen Yu."

"Here!"

"What are the results of the merit point tally?"

"It's been tallied. The top ten list has been compiled."

"Read it out."

Chen Yu immediately announced loudly, "First in merit points, Chen Yu!"

After calling out his own name, he awkwardly rubbed his nose. He then proceeded to read out the names of the remaining nine individuals. As expected, several cultivators at the sixth level were among them. What surprised Lu Ye was that Yi Yi was ranked second.

"Hua Ci will distribute the rewards for these ten later. Also, have the team merit points been tallied?"

"Yes, they have."

"Which team came in first?"

"He Xiyin's team."

In the crowd, He Xiyin instantly stood ramrod straight, grinning foolishly.

Lu Ye nodded at her and encouraged, "Very good, keep up the excellent work. Each member of your team can make one request of me, something within my capabilities. You can ask now or later; come find me whenever you've decided."

"Additionally, this expedition was a great success, yielding many merit points. I discussed it with your Sixth Senior Sister, and we've decided to distribute some merit points to everyone. It's not much, twenty points per person, as a reward from the sect."

Upon hearing this, all the cultivators were overjoyed. Although everyone had earned a fair amount of merit points from fighting the insect tide, who would ever complain about having too many?

And with twenty points per person for nearly seven hundred cultivators, that amounted to an expenditure of ten to twenty thousand merit points.

For a moment, they all felt immensely fortunate to have joined or become affiliated with the Bixue Sect. A single insect tide had allowed them to earn a fortune; would their future days be any worse?

"Finally, our sect has decided to accept another two hundred nominal disciples, chosen from those who performed exceptionally well this time. The list will be announced soon. Your Sixth Senior Sister is waiting for you in the Heavenly Secret Hall; line up and go collect your merit points from her."

The seven hundred cultivators immediately formed a long queue, entering the Heavenly Secret Hall one by one and emerging joyfully. Hua Ci was busy for half a day, distributing the twenty merit points reward to each person.

Afterward, all the remaining merit points were used to purchase enhancements for the Heavenly Secret Pillar, bringing its total enhancements to nineteen.

As a result, the spiritual energy of the entire stronghold significantly increased again, now more than double that of the wilderness.

At this level, it became much harder to further increase the stronghold's spiritual energy, as the next enhancement required a staggering ten thousand merit points to purchase.

Including the merit points distributed to the disciples and those used to purchase the sect protection formation, the Bixue Sect had plundered a total of eighty to ninety thousand merit points from those two sects this time.

This was more than double what Lu Ye and Hua Ci had gained in the Chess Sea.

It seemed that to quickly increase the spiritual energy of a sect's stronghold, one still had to attack other strongholds and plunder their merit points.

However, attacking strongholds was not easy. Their success this time was due to the fortuitous insect tide, allowing them to leverage its power. Otherwise, the Bixue Sect alone would not have been able to conquer them.

Perhaps they could team up with Wuji Xuan to attack the Ten-Phase Mountain? Lu Ye entertained this wicked thought, but it wasn't feasible. If they did, Ten-Phase Mountain wouldn't just wait to be attacked; they would surely send messages to nearby Ten-Thousand Devil Ridge factions. Any opportunist attacking Wuji Xuan's stronghold in a "besiege Wei to rescue Zhao" strategy would force Wuji Xuan to withdraw.

If there were a way to quickly break through formations, they could practically do anything!

This increasingly made Lu Ye feel that his path in spiritual patterns needed thorough refinement.

He Xiyin's team had six members. Three of them approached Lu Ye in the following two days, expressing their desire for their own training rooms. Lu Ye naturally agreed. Using his authority as a garrison commander, he allocated three training rooms to them and carefully constructed spirit-gathering patterns within each.

The list of the newly accepted two hundred nominal disciples was also posted, attracting the attention of the disciples. Those whose names were on the list were naturally overjoyed.

The insect tide had passed. The disciples now had elixirs, spirit stones, and merit points, and the stronghold's spiritual energy had increased again. Naturally, they were all cultivating intensely.

However, amidst this peaceful atmosphere, one person seemed completely out of place with the rest of the Bixue Sect: Feng Yue, who had been abducted.