Chapter 2890: Three Sages Join the Hundred Battles

Wind Rises in the Nine Provinces

Wind Rises in the Nine Provinces

At this thought, Xue Jiu was startled again.

Indeed, Lu Ye, that fellow, might really have secretly poisoned him. The key was that his potent poison was invisible and extremely insidious, leaving Xue Jiu no way to detect it.

"It seems Blood Master isn't very interested in Xue Yuan's bloodline?"

Just as various thoughts churned in Xue Jiu's mind, Lu Ye suddenly spoke: "Since that's the case, I won't hold back!"

Xue Jiu was startled and quickly said, "How could that be! This Venerable One... I was just overwhelmed with joy, not expecting us to kill Xue Yuan so easily!"

He secretly grumbled to himself that Lu Ye must have seen through his concerns, which is why he deliberately said that, simply to force him to make a quick decision.

What choice did he have?

He had no choice at all!

The primary purpose of this assassination attempt against Xue Yuan was to seize his bloodline. Now that Xue Yuan was dead, how could Xue Jiu give up?

With resolve, Xue Jiu said, "Fellow Daoists, please guard me for a moment while I collect Xue Yuan's bloodline!"

In a short time, he had figured it out. Since there was no choice, there was no point in overthinking. Anyway, he was already deeply poisoned, so a little more wouldn't matter—it was like 'more debts, less worries; more lice, less itch.' Lu Ye would ultimately need his power, so as long as he didn't harbor any ulterior motives, the potent poison wouldn't really affect him much.

As Xue Jiu prepared to collect Xue Yuan's bloodline, Lu Ye and Si Shengya naturally withdrew from the sea of blood and found a nearby spot to recuperate.

Si Shengya had sustained minor injuries in the recent battle, which weren't serious, but his energy consumption was considerable.

As for Lu Ye, it went without saying. During the battle, his consumption of Dao power was even greater, because Xue Jiu was right: he had secretly poured a lot of poison into the sea of blood. He had originally thought that if his attack failed and Xue Yuan forcefully retreated with the sea of blood, he would still have a fallback plan. However, with Si Shengya's arrival, Xue Yuan's intention to flee was thwarted, which saved him some trouble.

He unsealed those storage rings and, as expected, obtained many good things.

Xue Yuan held a high position and significant power among the Blood Clan. His accumulated wealth over countless years was not to be underestimated, and he had naturally brought it all with him from the Origin World.

However, most of the items were of little use to Lu Ye; only the vast quantity of Dao Fish made him extremely delighted.

This meant he wouldn't have to worry about cultivation resources again for a while.

He divided these spoils of war into two and handed one share to Si Shengya, who accepted it after a slight refusal.

He had also lived a hard life in the Origin World. Cage Sea itself was resource-poor, and humanity was targeted by various races everywhere, leaving Si Shengya with few channels to acquire good items in the Origin World.

After finishing these tasks, Lu Ye began to activate the power of his Talent Tree to devour the Profound Yellow Annihilation Axe.

According to his initial plan, he kept the power of this supreme treasure stored in the Talent Tree, and transferred all the remaining nourishment to the Soul Suppressing Bell, allowing the supreme treasure's fruit power to increase again.

Jin Yao was delighted.

Although she was currently only the spirit of a supreme treasure, as the power of her supreme treasure grew stronger, she also benefited.

Xue Jiu only spent a little over half a day to gather the vast sea of blood and incorporate all of Xue Yuan's original bloodline into himself. However, to fully refine and integrate it, further effort would be required later; it wasn't as simple as collecting the sea of blood to completely refine it.

Currently, his strength hadn't grown significantly, but his inherent limits had expanded. In other words, once he fully refined Xue Yuan's bloodline in the future, he would have the chance to break through his original limits and reach a new height.

Now was not the time for him to refine the bloodline.

Although Xue Yuan was dead, there were still three Half-Saints from the Origin World in Star Abyss.

According to Lu Ye's plan, these three couldn't be let go either; they had to be eliminated quickly. Otherwise, if more and more Half-Saints came from the Origin World later, things would become troublesome.

Without much delay, the three figures quickly flew towards the location where the Origin World merged.

There were still several days until the agreed time, so if they were lucky, they might be able to defeat the three Half-Saints one by one.

Upon reaching the location, under Lu Ye's arrangement, Xue Jiu, as before, followed the direction one of the Half-Saints had left to search for their traces. Lu Ye and Si Shengya, meanwhile, hid nearby, awaiting news.

Once Xue Jiu made a discovery, the two of them could quickly go to support him.

And even if Xue Jiu found nothing, when the agreed time arrived, the three Half-Saints would surely return. At that point, it would simply be a direct confrontation.

Three against three, none would fear the others.

Time flew by, and several days passed.

When the appointed day arrived, Lu Ye, who was cultivating, slowly opened his eyes and saw a streak of bloody light flying from a distance.

It was Xue Jiu, who had left earlier.

When he drew near, the bloody light dispersed, revealing Xue Jiu's figure. He slowly shook his head at Lu Ye and said, "Didn't find them! What's the situation here?"

Lu Ye also shook his head: "No one in sight."

Xue Jiu was bewildered: "That can't be right. The agreed time has arrived, so why is no one here?"

Lu Ye pondered for a moment and said, "The news must have leaked."

Xue Jiu frowned immediately upon hearing this: "Are you saying Xue Yuan sent them a message before he died?"

"There's no other possibility!" Lu Ye said. "Don't forget how you contacted Xue Yuan."

Xue Jiu thought for a moment, then nodded slightly and said, "It was my oversight. I didn't expect these guys to have been guarding against me all along."

He had previously been able to easily contact Xue Yuan and locate this veteran Blood Clan Half-Saint because they were both Blood Clan members, and Xue Yuan had left a secret communication art on him.

Just like the secret art he had left on Lu Ye earlier.

Now that he thought about it, Xue Yuan had probably left the same secret art on the other three Half-Saints as well, allowing Xue Yuan to send them messages.

Yet Xue Jiu had been completely unaware of this.

It was natural for Xue Yuan and the others to be wary of Xue Jiu.

Firstly, Xue Jiu's Half-Saint status was acquired illicitly, obtained by seizing the bloodline of another Blood Clan Half-Saint.

Secondly, this was Star Abyss, where Xue Jiu had lived for many years and established deep roots. Xue Yuan and the others, on the other hand, were new arrivals, so of course they had to be wary.

Given the current situation, Xue Yuan must have sent a message to the three Half-Saints before he died. That's why even though the agreed time had arrived, there was no trace of them.

Xue Jiu hadn't found anyone either.

"What should we do now?" Xue Jiu frowned deeply.

If the situation was truly as they suspected, the three Half-Saints must have gathered together by now. Star Abyss was vast; who knew where they might have gone?

Moreover, even if they were found, as long as they weren't alone, it wouldn't be easy to assassinate them.

"Let's go back for now..." Lu Ye pondered and said, "No matter where they are, they must be hiding right now. However, with three Half-Saints gathered in one place, any commotion they make is bound to spread news. You should instruct your Insect and Blood Clan subordinates to watch out for their traces."

Xue Jiu nodded in agreement.

He truly had no personal grudge against the three Half-Saints, but since he had already allied with Lu Ye, he naturally had to stand on the opposing side.

A short while later, the three of them, using the Transit Realm as a relay, returned to Phoenix Nest.

Lu Ye immediately used the Dragon Scroll to contact various Dragon Clans, informing them of the current situation, and asked the Dragon Clans to send people to Scarlet Flame City and Eternal City to warn both parties and tell them to be careful.

In the current major environment, Ten Great City Lords like Ni Chilian and Xiao Qianchen, as long as they were in Star Abyss, must have felt the loosening of their own restraints, and most likely, like Dragon Venerable and Phoenix Lord, were in seclusion, striving to break through to the Half-Saint realm.

Although Ni Chilian had previously refined the Qiankun Cauldron in space, this supreme treasure itself had no sentience, so it shouldn't have taken Ni Chilian much effort to refine it.

Thus, she had most likely already returned to her Scarlet Flame City.

And this time, when Xue Yuan and the other Half-Saints emerged from the Origin World, they had all received instructions from the Abyss's will, so they would likely target the Ten Great Harmonization Cities.

Lu Ye couldn't care less about the fate of Hong Tu and Gu Mingyue, but he couldn't ignore Ni Chilian and Xiao Qianchen.

Putting Ni Chilian aside for a moment—as they had a certain friendship and Starry Sky currently needed Scarlet Flame City to guard it—as for Xiao Qianchen, even without a direct friendship, Lu Ye couldn't let the Half-Saints from the Origin World usurp his position.

As the saying goes, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,' Xiao Qianchen was still worth winning over, after all, he had always been at odds with Hong Tu and the others.

Not long after returning to Phoenix Nest, while Lu Ye was cultivating, Xue Jiu suddenly rushed over: "Lu Ye, I've found those three fellows."

"Where?" Lu Ye quickly opened his eyes.

"Just half a day ago, they went to Hundred Battles City. They charged recklessly, killing their way to the front of Hundred Battles City, alarming Hong Tu, who then welcomed them into the city," Xue Jiu said.

He knew this entirely because there were still many Insect and Blood Clan members in Hundred Battles City. Many cultivators from these two clans had witnessed the event firsthand and then found ways to pass the news to him.

Lu Ye listened, stunned: "Hong Tu... just welcomed them into the city like that? Didn't he know this was 'leading wolves into the house'?"

The Half-Saints had come for a reason; one of their tasks was to collect the core fragments of the Harmonization Orbs. These items were only found in the Ten Great Harmonization Cities.

So, it was natural for them to target Hundred Battles City, because among all existing Ten Great Cities, Hundred Battles City was the closest to the Origin World's merging point.

Therefore, their trip was most likely intended to forcibly conquer Hundred Battles City and then seize the core fragments.

Hong Tu wasn't a fool; how could he not sense their hostility? But if that was the case, why would he welcome them into the city?

"Of course he knew," Xue Jiu scoffed. "But did he have a choice? According to our original plan, after obtaining the Harmonization Orb, we would begin conquering the Ten Great Cities. Now, with three Half-Saints arriving, it would be useless for Hong Tu to resist, even stubbornly. Don't let his three heads fool you; he's actually more timid than anyone else."

Lu Ye couldn't help but frown.

Xue Jiu continued, "Not to mention, what you've done recently is too terrifying. You broke through Asura City, and you broke through Ten Steps City as well. How could Hong Tu not feel a sense of crisis? He has probably been constantly worried lately, fearing that you might come knocking on his door at any time. Under such circumstances, with three Half-Saints suddenly arriving, what do you think he would do?"