Chapter 339: Harvest

"Senior Brother, please don't leave yet. It's rare for you to be back, and I still have some questions for you."

Li Baxian smiled and tapped his battle imprint, saying, "Send me a message anytime."

"Second Senior Sister seems to have made a lot of delicious food."

"It's been a long time since I visited the old man. Now that I'm back, I should go see him."

As he spoke, Li Baxian walked towards the Grand Mechanism Hall.

Lu Ye gave Huaci a look, and Huaci led Yiyi and Jujia to follow him.

A moment later, the group returned to the main sect in Kyushu via the Grand Mechanism Pillar.

Lu Ye stayed behind and placed his hand on the Grand Mechanism Pillar.

After battling and campaigning for so long, repeatedly plundering enhancements from the Grand Mechanism Pillars at Myriad Demon Ridge's strongholds, it was finally time to reap the rewards.

These plundered enhancements could only be converted into corresponding sect merits on one's own Grand Mechanism Pillar. Having experience from the Chess Sea, Lu Ye was very skilled at this.

Using his authority as a Garrison Master, he checked the number of sect merits on the Grand Mechanism Pillar.

There were only a little over two thousand points.

Currently, the enhancements on the Jade Blood Sect's Grand Mechanism Pillar were of only one type: increasing the spiritual energy of the stronghold. There were nineteen such enhancements, each boosting the stronghold's spiritual energy by ten percent. Including the ten percent boost provided by the Grand Mechanism Pillar itself, the spiritual energy within the Jade Blood Sect's stronghold was now twice that of the wilderness.

If the spiritual energy concentration in the wilderness was one, then in the Jade Blood Sect's stronghold, it was three.

He used to think the spiritual energy in the Jade Blood Sect's stronghold was quite abundant, but after visiting various other sect strongholds, Lu Ye realized that the spiritual energy here was insignificant in comparison.

With a thought, the plundered enhancements within his battle imprint shattered, transforming into shimmering specks of light that merged into the Grand Mechanism Pillar. For a moment, the entire pillar looked as if it were engulfed by countless fireflies, a truly beautiful sight.

Meanwhile, the number representing sect merits displayed on the Grand Mechanism Pillar was changing at an astonishing speed.

Fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, one million, two million, three million…

Lu Ye didn't know if other sects' Grand Mechanism Pillars stored such an exaggerated amount of sect merits, but he was certain no sect in the outer or even inner circles had such a terrifying figure. As for the core circle, that was uncertain.

Calculating by a normal ninth-level cultivator's worth of nine merit points, what did three million merits signify? It meant that, given Lu Ye's current cultivation, he would have to kill a staggering 333,333 people.

This number was terrifying. Although Lu Ye had killed many members of Myriad Demon Ridge, it was nowhere near a fraction of this figure.

Of course, merits weren't solely obtained through killing enemies. He had also gained merits by dealing with the insect tide, selling items to the Grand Mechanism Treasury, and through other less common methods.

However, for the general populace, killing enemies was the most common way to acquire merits.

The final number of sect merits settled at over 3.1 million.

Such an exaggerated figure was not unreasonable. It's worth noting that the first allied army led by Lu Ye had successively broken through over a hundred Myriad Demon Ridge strongholds. Except for the first three, which Lu Ye didn't plunder, he had a share in every remaining one.

Because the allied army was assembled by Lu Ye, his share was larger than others', ranging from an additional five to ten percent.

The sects in the inner circle had developed for many years, and the number of enhancements on their Grand Mechanism Pillars was enormous. With such widespread plundering, how could the gains be anything but substantial?

The second allied army broke through fewer strongholds, but still around twenty or thirty.

Especially in the final battle at Golden Cloud Pavilion, he alone claimed all the enhancements.

This accumulation of small gains eventually led to such an astonishing harvest.

He had worked tirelessly for so long, even busily opening a second battlefield when he learned that the two sides' Divine Sea realm cultivators had begun discussing peace talks, all for this very moment.

It was more than enough, with a significant surplus.

Lu Ye didn't rush to boost the sect's spiritual energy. Instead, he directly used his authority as a Garrison Master to issue himself a monthly stipend.

He previously thought the stipend amount was related to the total number of sect merits, not exceeding ten percent of the total. He later understood that it was also tied to his own contribution. Without sufficient contribution, even if the sect had a massive amount of merits, he wouldn't be able to receive any benefits.

This was why issuing stipends to himself and Huaci had been so smooth previously, as those merits had been acquired by him and Huaci in the Chess Sea.

With over 3.1 million merits, the maximum stipend he could issue was 310,000. With a thought from Lu Ye, the battle imprint on the back of his hand immediately grew hot, like a brand searing his skin.

This hot sensation came and went quickly, disappearing in an instant.

Lu Ye checked his own merits, confirmed that 310,000 had been transferred, and only then began to enhance the stronghold's spiritual energy.

The more enhancements purchased from the Grand Mechanism Pillar, the greater the cost. Each successive enhancement cost five hundred merits more than the previous one. When Lu Ye first bought the initial enhancement, it only cost five hundred merits, but now, to buy another, it already required ten thousand merits.

The spiritual energy increase ratio remained constant, so in the later stages of stronghold development, elevating the spiritual energy concentration required an immense amount of merits. One could even say that stronghold development was a bottomless pit.

Lu Ye paid no mind and immediately began purchasing with sect merits. The remaining 2.79 million merits dwindled visibly, while the Grand Mechanism Pillar twisted and changed, emitting a dense, crackling sound from within.

Within the stronghold, the Jade Blood Sect cultivators were still immersed in the joy of Lu Ye's triumphant return when, suddenly, the world around them began to change.

For some unknown reason, the spiritual energy throughout the stronghold became extremely abnormal. Before the cultivators could investigate the source of this anomaly, winds began to stir above the stronghold, followed by large swathes of dark clouds rapidly forming.

The dark clouds resembled thick cotton, blocking out the sunlight and descending slowly from the sky like a colossal beast of shadow.

A suffocating, heart-pounding sensation caused the Jade Blood Sect disciples to panic. What terrified them even more was that the already thick clouds continued to grow denser and more substantial.

Gu Yang, the current Deputy Garrison Master, rushed out of his residence, looked up, and, seeing the dire situation, quickly messaged Lu Ye. Simultaneously, he retrieved the jade token controlling the grand formation and hastily deactivated it.

Regardless of what this anomaly was, if the protective grand formation wasn't removed, the formation itself might collapse once those dark clouds descended.

A moment later, he rushed into the Grand Mechanism Hall and urgently said, "Fifth Senior Brother, something's wrong! You need to come out and see this."

Lu Ye, who was growing somewhat impatient from purchasing enhancements, turned his head. "Hmm?"

"There are some strange phenomena in the sky, I don't know why."

Lu Ye frowned, flashed out of the Grand Mechanism Hall, looked up for a moment, and then waved his hand at Gu Yang. "It's nothing."

He then re-entered the Grand Mechanism Hall and continued purchasing enhancements.

Gu Yang was a little dumbfounded. Such an obvious celestial phenomenon, looking like the apocalypse, how could it be "nothing"?

However, if Fifth Senior Brother said it was nothing, then perhaps... it really was nothing?

While reassuring the sect disciples, he walked into the Grand Mechanism Hall and immediately heard a dense, crackling sound.

Slowly approaching Lu Ye, he asked suspiciously, "Fifth Senior Brother, what are you doing?"

As a former rogue cultivator, he hadn't been the Deputy Garrison Master for long and was naturally completely unaware of this.

"Come, you buy them. It's a good way to get familiar with it," Lu Ye said, raising his hand and gesturing for Gu Yang to take his place.

Gu Yang did as he was told, and after checking the number representing sect merits on the Grand Mechanism Pillar, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

He couldn't believe it and counted carefully again, confirming he hadn't seen wrong.

He turned to look at Lu Ye, seemingly wanting confirmation.

"Buy!"

"Oh." Gu Yang quickly proceeded.

Crackle, crackle…

A dense sound of crackling once again emanated from within the Grand Mechanism Pillar.

Lu Ye also placed his hand on the Grand Mechanism Pillar, connecting his mind to the Grand Mechanism Treasury. With a slight thought, he quickly found what he was looking for.

It was a rare medicinal pill available only in the Grand Mechanism Treasury, not even stocked by the Grand Mechanism Merchant Alliance. Each pill was worth as much as 150,000 merits!

He had previously looked into this pill and was shocked by its exorbitant price. He had thought it would be difficult to accumulate enough merits to purchase such a spiritual pill, originally planning to slowly save up his merits until he had enough. However, his journey to the inner circle allowed him to rapidly acquire sufficient capital.

He was grateful to the sects of Myriad Demon Ridge whose strongholds had been breached!

In the Grand Mechanism Treasury, there weren't many of these spiritual pills, only eight in total. According to Second Senior Sister, when she was still in the Spirit Creek battlefield, there were over thirty of them. But as time passed, people continuously purchased them from here, and the number gradually dwindled.

No one knew where these spiritual pills came from, as no one in all of Kyushu could refine them.

The Grand Mechanism Treasury contained many such treasures that cultivators in Kyushu found difficult to obtain or refine. Some had speculated that these items were remnants from a previous cultivation epoch, which was why their numbers decreased with use.

At 150,000 merits per spiritual pill, Lu Ye didn't even bat an eyelid, directly buying two.

His once vast, almost inexhaustible, merits instantly dwindled to a fraction, though even that fraction amounted to over ten thousand.

He withdrew his consciousness, and two antique wooden boxes, whose age couldn't be discerned, appeared in his hands. Lu Ye opened them to check, ensured the spiritual pills inside were undamaged, and then carefully put them away.

"Fifth Senior Brother, I can't buy any more," Gu Yang's voice came.

Lu Ye placed his hand on the Grand Mechanism Pillar, checked the sect merits, and found that from the original 2.79 million, only 400,000 remained.

As for the spiritual energy enhancements on the Grand Mechanism Pillar, there were a full ninety-nine of them!

Lu Ye tried to purchase more and found that, indeed, as Gu Yang said, he couldn't buy any more.

"Ninety-nine enhancements really are the limit," Lu Ye remarked, raising an eyebrow. He had previously heard Li Baxian say that ninety-nine enhancements were likely the maximum for outer circle sect Grand Mechanism Pillars. However, no outer circle sect had ever managed to purchase so many enhancements for their own pillar throughout history, so no one could be sure if it truly was the limit.