Chapter 256: Continue Moving Forward

After about an hour, a spiritual artifact shaped like a small boat flew at a height of forty zhang above the ground.

With prior experience flying with the Winged Spirit-pattern, and Lu Ye's current control over his spiritual power being far superior to before, he quickly grasped the knack of controlling the artifact for flight.

The speed of flying with an artifact like this was faster than Amber running at full speed. After all, one was flying and the other running; they couldn't be compared.

However, riding Amber required no spiritual power consumption. Flying with the artifact, on the other hand, consumed Lu Ye's own spiritual power.

The consumption rate was much lower than Lu Ye had anticipated, which was related to the purity of his spiritual power. After checking the consumption of his spiritual power and making a quick calculation, he estimated he could maintain this artifact flight for approximately two to three hours.

For a cultivator who had just advanced to the eighth-layer realm, such a duration was already quite long. As his cultivation improved in the future, both the duration and speed of his artifact flight would significantly increase.

The small boat also had a simple protective formation. Though it offered little defense, it could withstand the rushing winds.

Lu Ye sat in the middle of the small boat. Yiyi sat in front of him, leaning against his chest, her bell-like laughter echoing as the boat moved forward.

Being able to fly with an artifact meant he had an additional means of travel and escape in the future. If he wanted to fly, he no longer had to rely entirely on the Winged Spirit Tattoo.

A few hours later, night had fallen. Lu Ye, riding Amber, arrived at the lake where the Ying Jiao resided.

Traces of the bonfire left by the group last time still remained there.

Lu Ye didn't know if the Ying Jiao had returned, but based on Yiyi's observations, the fierce creature had most likely returned.

He had Amber transform into the size of a cat and had Yiyi stand by, ready to act. Only then did Lu Ye take out the scale from his storage bag.

He quietly watched the lake surface, waiting for a moment, but there was no movement.

Lu Ye brought the scale closer to Amber. Amber immediately took a deep sniff, and a faint trace of blood was drawn out...

"It's coming," Yiyi whispered.

Lu Ye also saw ripples spreading across the lake surface. Immediately after, the ripples quickly expanded, a fleshy horn slowly emerged, and gradually swam towards the shore.

He secretly activated his spiritual power, ready to activate his wings at any moment.

With a loud splash, a massive serpent's head rose from the lake. Its two emerald eyes stared at the scale in Lu Ye's hand. On its body, which was now visible above the water, many scales had fallen off, making it appear disheveled and battered.

From thirty zhang away, their gazes met. Lu Ye raised the scale in his hand, and the Ying Jiao's eyes followed its movement.

Unlike last time, however, though the fierce creature still seemed very eager for the scale, it didn't rush forward immediately.

Its serpent eyes were filled with wariness.

Seeing this, Lu Ye knew that his plan to continue luring the Ying Jiao was likely ruined.

The Ying Jiao possessed high intelligence. Last time, it had been lured by the scale and ended up fighting cultivators from the Qingtian Sect at their stronghold. While the Qingtian Sect didn't have an easy time, the Ying Jiao also sustained injuries.

The pain from its injuries had enraged it, causing it to lose its rationality. At that time, its sole focus was to seize the scale, which only led it deeper into the trap.

Finally, the aura of the scale disappeared. After it returned, looking disheveled, it realized something was wrong. It seemed it had been used!

It knew about the incessant conflicts among humans in this world. The reason it had always secluded itself in this place was partly because it no longer had many pursuits, and partly because it didn't want to get involved in human disputes. To it, humans fighting to the death was none of its concern, as long as they didn't disturb it.

But even such a peace-loving creature had been exploited by a despicable and cunning human!

In the days since it returned to heal its wounds, the more it thought about it, the angrier it became. But what could it do? The aura that had captivated it was gone, and the despicable human had disappeared.

Until today, when the aura reappeared, and the human reappeared.

Though the Ying Jiao still desired the scale, it would no longer act impulsively. It knew that to obtain the scale, it had to kill that despicable human!

So, after a moment of consideration, lightning suddenly flashed at the fleshy horn on its forehead, and a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm surged towards Lu Ye.

Lu Ye, who had been prepared, immediately shot into the sky.

With a loud boom, the lightning bolt struck the spot where Lu Ye had been standing, creating a deep pit.

In the sky, Lu Ye widened the distance between himself and the Ying Jiao. A cold sweat broke out on his back.

Although he had previously thought it unlikely to exploit the Ying Jiao again, he hadn't expected the creature to harbor such intense hatred for him. It had greeted him with lightning upon sight. If he hadn't been prepared beforehand, he wouldn't have been able to dodge that attack at all.

He landed some distance away. Yiyi followed. Lu Ye handed the scale to Yiyi and told her to try.

Yiyi, holding the scale, burrowed underground to make an attempt.

Half an hour later, Yiyi returned and shook her head at Lu Ye.

No matter how Yiyi tried to lure it, the Ying Jiao refused to leave its dwelling lake. It had become smarter.

Lu Ye raised his hand and touched his battle imprint, sending a message to Luo Fu.

"The Ying Jiao won't come out; there's nothing more I can do."

Luo Fu quickly replied, his tone somewhat disappointed. But he knew it was unavoidable. Lu Ye had already made it clear to him that he couldn't control the Ying Jiao, but could only guide its movements to some extent. Since it was merely guidance, there was no guarantee that everything would go as planned.

After ending the communication with Luo Fu, Lu Ye called out to Yiyi, "Let's go."

Unable to lure out the Ying Jiao, Lu Ye decided not to return to the Silverlight Island stronghold. He would continue his journey.

In the latter half of the night, he found a suitable place to rest, and set off again at dawn.

Lu Ye's purpose for entering the inner circle this time was first, to scout ahead for the cultivators of the Green Blood Sect. Using his authority as a Guardian, he aimed to establish alliances with suitable inner-circle sects. This would give the Green Blood Sect cultivators more options in the future. Secondly, it was to avenge the grievances from the battle at Golden Summit that day.

The nearest sect, Qingtian Sect, had already been dealt with. His next target was Fenghua Court.

Lu Ye vaguely recalled that this was the second Ten-Thousand Demon Ridge force at Golden Summit to send someone to challenge him. The one who appeared was a delicate female spellcaster. Her combined wind and fire attacks had put him at a disadvantage for a moment, but after he got close, the delicate female spellcaster was also decapitated.

Fenghua Court was not close to this location. Traveling on Amber would take at least half a month. Flying with an artifact would be faster, but the spiritual power consumption was too high.

Since there was no rush, Lu Ye naturally chose to travel on Amber.

On Amber's back, spiritual power continuously surged in Lu Ye's left and right hands.

In his left hand, Yin-Yang basic elements constantly emerged, gradually forming extremely complex patterns. This was a spirit-pattern he had learned from a cultivation manual. Lu Ye had learned more than just this one spirit-pattern from manuals. While each of these spirit-patterns had its own wonderful uses, they couldn't be activated instantly by his will. Thus, they were only suitable for daily practice and couldn't be used in combat.

The spirit-patterns Lu Ye used in combat were all obtained from the Talent Tree. He could activate those spirit-patterns at will.

Even with Madam Yun's meticulous guidance before, Lu Ye was still only a beginner in the way of spirit-patterns. Now that he couldn't frequently consult Madam Yun, he could only teach himself.

Fortunately, before he left, he had brought many spirit-pattern manuals from Madam Yun. As long as he could thoroughly comprehend the contents of these books, he would achieve significant improvement in the way of spirit-patterns.

In his right hand, there was also a spirit-pattern, the Sharpness Spirit-pattern. However, Lu Ye was using his own spiritual power to dismantle this spirit-pattern, causing it to dissipate.

Constructing with one hand and dismantling with the other, doing two things at once, it was undeniably very difficult. Lu Ye was not yet proficient at it.

This kind of practice would not only enhance his understanding of spirit-patterns but also train his precise control over spiritual power. The reason Lu Ye could control two artifacts at the seventh-layer realm stemmed from this.

Now that he was at the eighth-layer realm, he could increase the number of artifacts he controlled by one or two more if he wished.

He hadn't refined more spiritual artifacts. Simply increasing the number of artifacts controlled didn't hold much meaning. If Lu Ye wanted to enhance the destructive power of his artifacts, he would need to construct spirit-patterns on the artifacts while using them to kill enemies.

This was very difficult. Lu Ye had no immediate clues on how to do it. He could only continue to study the way of spirit-patterns and improve his mastery in this field.

As the saying goes, 'Practice makes perfect.' Once his mastery in the way of spirit-patterns was sufficient, he would be able to construct spirit-patterns as he wished.

If he were traveling alone, Lu Ye would never dare to be so distracted. However, he wasn't alone; Yiyi was with him. So, if there was any danger, Yiyi would alert him.

During the day, while traveling, he would enhance his mastery of spirit-patterns this way. At night, Lu Ye would study the manuals he had brought from Madam Yun. And occasionally, when he felt the urge, he would seek some excitement in the Mirage Realm.

Speaking of which, after he reached the eighth-layer realm and entered the Mirage Realm again, he no longer encountered insectoids. Instead, an eighth-layer realm cultivator directly appeared to fight him. He didn't know why this was.

Eighth-layer realm cultivators were naturally no match for him. Even ninth-layer realm cultivators couldn't last long against his blade. In the Mirage Realm, cultivators of the Heavenly Rank, seventh-layer realm, had begun to appear.

Each time was a fierce battle! After cultivators switched to Heavenly Rank cultivation techniques, their strength experienced explosive growth.

When Lu Ye, at the seventh-layer realm, killed Yuan Guang, who was two ranks higher, it hadn't been very difficult. However, fighting a Heavenly Rank, seventh-layer cultivator at the eighth-layer realm, which was also two ranks higher, left him covered in injuries, and he could even be forced out of the realm if he wasn't careful.

From this, Lu Ye gained a clear understanding of his current strength. With his current power, if he were to face a Heavenly Rank, seventh-layer cultivator, it would be largely a fifty-fifty situation. Survival would depend on who performed better in the moment.

The opponents he fought in the Mirage Realm belonged to different factions each time. Therefore, as long as Lu Ye was willing to spend merit points, he could easily accumulate a large amount of combat experience. This experience, once refined, would become techniques for killing enemies.

His journey was not entirely peaceful. As Lu Ye was traveling in a straight line, he inevitably trespassed into the territories of various Ten-Thousand Demon Ridge forces. Encounters with Ten-Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators naturally led to conflicts.

Cultivators in the inner circle were generally between the sixth and ninth layers. Few had switched to Heavenly Rank cultivation techniques; generally, those who cultivated Heavenly Rank techniques operated in the core circle. These individuals who encountered Lu Ye naturally met unfavorable ends. This was true even if they were in groups of three to five. It should be noted that Yiyi now controlled the Nine Realms Map, and she was elusive. If Lu Ye's enemies weren't careful, they would be pulled into the Nine Realms Map, and naturally, they wouldn't fare well.