Chapter 261: Another Restless Spirit

An incense stick’s time later, Lu Ye had already lost thirty consecutive rounds.

Winning was impossible. The dice cup in Liu Sanbao’s hand was a spiritual artifact, allowing him to determine whether the roll was "big" or "small" with a single thought.

Listening closely, he noticed the commotion outside had gradually died down. Sensing the time was right, he stood up and declared, "My skills are inferior; I admit defeat."

He turned and walked towards the exit.

Liu Sanbao remained where he was, chuckling as he watched.

Lu Ye reached the door, peeking through the crack. The street outside was desolate, devoid of any person. He tried to open the door, but it was stuck. There was no lock, yet an invisible force seemed to hold it firmly shut.

Spiritual energy surged in his eyes, and the Insight Spirit Mark swiftly materialized.

With the Insight enhancement, Lu Ye immediately perceived that the entire room was enveloped by a formation, turning the house into a completely sealed unit. To escape, he would first need to break the formation.

As expected, things weren't that simple.

He scanned his surroundings, considering an attempt to break the formation. Having studied the path of spirit marks with Madam Yun for a considerable time, he had some knowledge of how to dismantle such arrays.

The formation here was not complicated; given enough time, he should be able to break it.

However, he couldn't afford to be disturbed, and Liu Sanbao would certainly not allow him to dismantle the formation undisturbed.

He slowly walked back and stopped before the gambling table, his fingers idly tracing the hilt of his saber as he looked at the ever-smiling Liu Sanbao.

"Open the formation. I'm leaving!"

Liu Sanbao smiled and shook his head. "That's not possible, young friend Lu. Our game isn't finished yet."

"When will it be over?"

"That depends on how much you have left to wager. The game ends when you have nothing left to lose." He chuckled, "For a true gambler, anything can be a stake, including... your life!"

"I see," Lu Ye nodded. "Then let's bet lives. You can gamble on whether I can... cut you down!"

As those last words left his lips, Lu Ye leaped over the gambling table, his long saber already drawn. Enhanced by a sharp spirit mark, he brought the blade down on Liu Sanbao.

Liu Sanbao's smile didn't waver, as if he had long anticipated Lu Ye's choice. He didn't dodge the attack at all, instead lightly tapping the dice cup in his hand, sending a single die flying directly at Lu Ye's face.

With a clang, the Pan Mountain Saber struck the die. The immense force of the impact made Lu Ye recoil slightly, slowing his forward charge by a step.

The other two dice also flew out, one to the left and one to the right.

"Roar!" A tiger's roar ripped through the air, sending a visible wave of energy surging forward.

Simultaneously, Yiyi emerged from Amber's body and, with a raised hand, unleashed a spell towards Liu Sanbao.

The smile on Liu Sanbao's face instantly froze. His entire spiritual body seemed to falter for a moment amidst Amber's roar.

The two dice flying towards Lu Ye immediately lost control and were sliced away by Lu Ye's twin saber strikes.

The next moment, Yiyi's spell struck Liu Sanbao, sending his rotund body soaring through the air before he crashed heavily to the ground.

Liu Sanbao's dazed expression cleared. As he looked up, he found himself staring into a pair of amber-colored pupils. Those eyes seemed to hold a soul-snatching power, and under their gaze, Liu Sanbao felt a panic and unease he hadn't experienced in countless years.

"This is..."

Amber, now in its original form, opened its enormous maw and, just as it had consumed the scaled bloodlines before, took a mighty inhale aimed at Liu Sanbao.

Visibly, Liu Sanbao's spiritual body twisted, bulging high from his chest, appearing as if Amber was about to swallow him whole.

Lu Ye watched the scene in astonishment. Before striking, he had no idea Amber possessed such an ability. His initial thought was simply to kill Liu Sanbao and escape quickly, but only after they engaged did he realize Amber's overwhelming suppression of Liu Sanbao.

This suppression wasn't specific to Liu Sanbao; it seemed to be effective against spiritual entities in general!

Amber had previously transformed Yiyi into a revenant spirit, indicating it possessed some unknown talent in this area. Had they not coincidentally entered Xianyuan City this time, Lu Ye might never have discovered this.

"No!" Liu Sanbao shrieked in terror, fiercely resisting Amber's consumption. Despite the significant power disparity between them, the sensation of facing a natural predator rendered him utterly unable to exert his full strength. It was a tremor and dread born from the deepest parts of his soul.

Lu Ye immediately brought his saber down on Liu Sanbao.

Liu Sanbao's resistance immediately weakened significantly.

Lu Ye struck another blow.

Liu Sanbao's resistance weakened even further, his entire body folding under the irresistible suction and being pulled into Amber's gaping maw.

"Save me! I was wrong!" Liu Sanbao reached out to Lu Ye, his face filled with desperate pleading.

With a whoosh, Liu Sanbao vanished. Amber let out a satisfied burp, and its body glowed with flickering spiritual light.

Lu Ye and Yiyi exchanged glances, both utterly surprised. They had expected a bitter struggle, yet it ended in such a manner.

Amber's ability to suppress spiritual entities was simply terrifying.

"Has Amber changed at all?" Lu Ye asked.

It had never shown this talent before, primarily because it had never encountered other spiritual entities and thus had no opportunity to display it.

Yiyi sensed for a moment, then shook her head. "No... wait!"

Lu Ye's heart tightened.

Yiyi darted inside Amber, and when she reappeared, she surprisingly pulled out another spiritual entity from within it.

Lu Ye focused his gaze and marveled, for this spiritual entity was none other than Liu Sanbao, the one Amber had just consumed.

So he wasn't eaten after all...

Anyone who witnessed that scene would likely have assumed Liu Sanbao was consumed by Amber as a meal. But now it seemed Amber wasn't devouring the spiritual entity, but rather transforming it into its own revenant spirit.

However, this revenant spirit, Liu Sanbao, was vastly different from Yiyi.

Yiyi possessed her own intellect, but Liu Sanbao's expression was utterly vacant, completely lacking his former cunning.

Furthermore, Liu Sanbao's strength had diminished. He was originally at the Seventh Level of the Heavenly Stage, but now he only appeared to be at the Ninth Level of the Ordinary Stage. It was unclear if this reduction was due to Lu Ye's recent saber strikes.

"Can you control him?" Lu Ye asked again.

Amber tilted its head in thought, and a spiritual light flickered across its body. Immediately after, the vacant-faced Liu Sanbao slowly began to move. At first, he was like a puppet, but he quickly became more agile. He even picked up his spiritual artifact dice cup that had fallen to the ground, ran back to the gambling table, and started shaking it, shouting loudly, "Bet big on the left, bet small on the right, no more bets!"

Yiyi slapped Amber's large head, "Don't learn bad habits!"

Amber let out a whimper, looking wronged. This wasn't its doing; it had simply given Liu Sanbao a simple command, and then Liu Sanbao had acted on his own. A gambler remained a gambler; even when transformed into a revenant spirit, his gambling nature couldn't be erased.

"How many revenant spirits can you control?" Lu Ye asked again.

Amber whimpered again, and Yiyi answered for it, "Unclear. We'll have to try to find out."

A bold idea suddenly sparked in Lu Ye's mind.

"Let's go find the Immortal Yuan Guards."

Lu Ye instructed Amber to order Liu Sanbao to open the room's formation. Soon, the group departed.

The chaotic situation in Xianyuan City had now significantly eased. When hundreds of cultivators first arrived, the scene had been chaotic, with scores of them unluckily apprehended by the Immortal Yuan Guards and thrown into dungeons.

The Immortal Yuan Guards were currently searching the entire city for cultivators, and encounters were inevitable once they were found.

Cultivators began contacting their friends and allies, forming groups. In such a dreadful place, being caught alone by the Immortal Yuan Guards spelled certain doom. Not only did these guards possess decent cultivation, but each could also unleash a "Spirit Binding Lock" spell, specifically designed for capture. Once bound by a single lock, three or four more would swiftly follow, forcing even the strongest cultivators to comply.

This led to a peculiar phenomenon: whether from the Vast Heaven Alliance or the Myriad Demon Ridge, isolated cultivators no longer engaged in hostilities when they encountered each other. At most, they would simply pass by, as everyone understood that fighting in this location was genuinely detrimental to all, and reuniting with their own comrades was paramount.

Given its environment, Xianyuan City offered no rare flowers or exotic herbs to collect. However, valuable items could occasionally be found within its various buildings, provided one managed to avoid the Immortal Yuan Guards.

Elsewhere in the city, sounds of fierce combat continuously rang out. A group of cultivators, traveling together, had been discovered by a squad of Immortal Yuan Guards and were locked in battle.

The situation was grim; two of the four cultivators had already been bound, and the remaining two fought like cornered beasts. It was clear they wouldn't last much longer.

Just then, a nearby Immortal Yuan Guard squad leader suddenly turned his head, spotting a lone figure who had appeared and was now looking their way.

"Audacious!" the Immortal Yuan Guard squad leader roared, his body moving as he charged forward.

The figure turned and fled. The ensuing chase quickly vanished from sight.

A short while later, a tiger's roar echoed from that direction. Then... there was nothing more.

In the alley, Lu Ye gazed contentedly at the vacant-faced Immortal Yuan Guard squad leader before him. This squad leader's strength was comparable to Liu Sanbao's. After being lured here, Amber suppressed him, Lu Ye delivered a few saber strikes, and then he was consumed by Amber, transformed into a revenant spirit.

Now his strength was also equivalent to the Ninth Level of the Ordinary Stage, just like Liu Sanbao.

A moment later, Lu Ye returned to the site of the previous battle with the squad leader. Lu Ye walked in front, the squad leader behind, creating the impression that the squad leader was escorting him.

The other Immortal Yuan Guards were still waiting. On the ground, four cultivators were tied up, each looking utterly defeated and forlorn.

Seeing Lu Ye "escorted" back, one of them glanced at him, thinking he was another unfortunate soul. But upon closer inspection, something felt off: Lu Ye wasn't bound. The guard's eyes widened in momentary confusion.

Lu Ye had been observing those Immortal Yuan Guards. As he approached, he saw them standing motionless like wooden posts and immediately understood that these specific guards were mindless. Unlike the squad leaders, who possessed at least some intelligence and could assess situations, ordinary Immortal Yuan Guards lacked such capabilities; they essentially operated solely on their leader's commands.

This could be inferred from their complete lack of reaction or even a glance towards Lu Ye.