Chapter 389: Voting Rankings

Still airborne, Lu Ye quickly adjusted his posture, landing awkwardly. His legs gave out, and with a thud, he dropped to one knee.

"Oh dear!" a surprised voice exclaimed in front of him. "Why such a grand bow out of nowhere?"

Hearing the voice, Lu Ye's eye twitched. He looked up to see Hua Ci smiling at him.

"Give me a hand, I can't get up..."

A short while later, Lu Ye settled down on the third floor of the wooden house. He had already fallen into a deep sleep while Hua Ci was treating his injuries.

He had been fighting continuously for several days with hardly any time to rest, and was truly exhausted.

The small wooden house in the Myriad Poison Forest had truly become a sanctuary. When he went out, he faced enemies everywhere and would be hunted and attacked by groups of Myriad Devil Ridge cultivators wherever he went. Only upon returning here could he truly relax.

He awoke to the sound of soft snoring and felt something pressing on his chest. Lu Ye looked up to see Amber curled up, sleeping on his chest.

Lu Ye raised his hand, grasped Amber by the scruff of its neck, and gently moved it aside. He then sat up, his thoughts drifting...

He was spacing out.

A tempting aroma drifted in from outside, as if someone was cooking something delicious. Lu Ye snapped back to reality, his stomach rumbling loudly, spurred by the scent.

He changed into a clean set of clothes, dressed neatly, and descended from the third floor to the small courtyard.

In the courtyard, an extra table had been set up, laden with dishes. A cooking stove had also been erected nearby, where Yiyi and Hua Ci were busy chatting and cooking.

Lu Ye stood by the doorway, arms crossed, quietly observing. He watched Yiyi adding firewood and Hua Ci, wearing an apron and headscarf, busily working at the stove. Suddenly, he felt that the mortal world was indeed a wonderful place!

"Lu Ye, you're awake!" Yiyi exclaimed happily when she saw him.

Hua Ci turned, met Lu Ye's gaze, and smiled gently. "Hungry? Sit down and eat."

Lu Ye walked over to the table, sat on a stool, and picked up his chopsticks. He looked at the array of dishes before him, unsure where to begin...

He finally decided to try a plate of mushrooms first; at least he could recognize those. As for the other items, he had no idea what they were.

The only thing he was certain of was that everything on the table came from the Myriad Poison Forest!

A meal like this was truly beyond the means of ordinary people.

Lu Ye took a bite of mushroom and raised an eyebrow. The taste was unexpectedly delicious. He inwardly examined his Origin Spirit Aperture, and as expected, a large patch of burnt gray mist appeared on his Talent Tree...

His appetite was fully roused. Lu Ye no longer cared what the ingredients truly were and ate freely.

Hua Ci soon brought another dish to the table and sat opposite him, eating unhurriedly while occasionally serving Lu Ye.

Yiyi, unable to eat, stood behind Lu Ye, tidying his dishevelled hair.

After a satisfying meal, Lu Ye half-reclined in his chair, patting his stomach, legs crossed contentedly. Yiyi brought him tea, serving him perfectly.

The fatigue of the past few days vanished completely. It had to be said, Hua Ci's cooking might have been a bit poisonous, but it was incredibly nourishing.

In the first few days of his recovery there, Hua Ci's varied methods of nourishment had even given him nosebleeds.

Having just finished eating and drinking, Lu Ye felt disinclined to move for a moment. He said, "Yiyi, please bring down the storage bags from upstairs."

He had killed many people during his last outing and brought back numerous storage bags. He hadn't had time to open them before, so now was a good opportunity to pass the time.

"Okay," Yiyi replied, floating up to the third floor. She soon returned, carrying a large pile of storage bags.

Then came the moment everyone enjoyed.

Yiyi loved watching Lu Ye open the storage bags because, before they were opened, no one knew what treasures lay inside. Often, some bags would bring unexpected delightful surprises.

As each storage bag was opened, Yiyi would take out all the contents and categorize them. When she saw something good, her face would light up with a smile. If a bag didn't contain many treasures, she'd mutter, "What a pauper!"

The wealth of individuals varied. For Lu Ye, apart from the first few months of his cultivation, he generally didn't have to worry about cultivation resources. He always had an endless supply of spirit stones and spirit pills.

However, for most cultivators, life was merely passable.

This was because most cultivators couldn't accumulate wealth by killing enemies as Lu Ye did.

From the day they began cultivating, cultivators constantly consumed cultivation resources. Spirit pills and spirit stones were just the beginning; when their cultivation was low, these items were often insufficient, and any surplus had to be spent on talismans for self-preservation.

Upon reaching the Seventh-Layer Realm, they would need to consider purchasing imperial artifacts.

At the Eighth-Layer Realm, acquiring flying spirit artifacts became a consideration.

And at the Ninth-Layer Realm, they would need to buy Heaven-grade cultivation techniques...

Looking across the entire Spirit Creek Realm, cultivators in the inner circle were actually among the poorest, as there were simply too many items they needed to purchase at this stage.

In the core circle, the situation improved slightly, but as their cultivation advanced, the consumption of resources also increased, leading many to live a rather difficult life.

Aside from the usual spirit artifacts for personal use, the amount of spirit pills and spirit stones accumulated in storage bags was actually not that significant.

This was also why Myriad Devil Ridge cultivators were so eager to kill Lu Ye. On one hand, they truly felt the threat Lu Ye posed to Myriad Devil Ridge; on the other, the benefits of killing him were immense.

As long as Lu Ye could be killed, even if the rewards were to be equally divided among all participants, it would be enough to make any Spirit Creek Realm cultivator instantly rich.

The world bustles, all for profit.

Half an hour later, all the storage bags had been opened. Leaving Yiyi to categorize the items, Lu Ye walked over to the transfer matrix array.

This master array, set up using array flags, was not very stable because Lu Ye's cultivation was still low and he wasn't yet skilled at deploying transfer arrays. It needed to be re-deployed after each use.

Looking at the master array in front of him, Lu Ye felt a headache coming on. He wasn't sure if it was due to his deployment technique or lack of experience, but each time he used it, the teleportation always had some deviation.

During earlier tests, the deviation wasn't too significant, and the landing spot wasn't far from the master array.

This time, however, it was ridiculous. He had teleported back from a hundred miles away, only to land roughly fifty zhang from the master array, a huge deviation, and still in mid-air!

A height of a dozen zhang was tolerable, but what if it were a hundred zhang?

If he teleported back from outside, his condition would certainly be poor. If he couldn't even activate his flying spirit artifact, wouldn't he fall to his death?

He currently had no good solution, so he could only do his best to deploy this master array, hoping that the deviation would be less significant next time he used it.

After a period of busy work.

While he was relaxing comfortably in the Myriad Poison Forest, the Lu Ye Annihilation Alliance was ceaselessly busy. The area where Lu Ye had last appeared had been thoroughly searched by numerous cultivators, but despite all their efforts, not a trace of him was found.

Lu Yiye had simply vanished in a bizarre manner!

On the third floor of the wooden house, Lu Ye swallowed spirit pills to restore his spiritual power while simultaneously activating his Talent Tree to absorb the core fire he had purchased from the Heavenly Secret Treasury.

This time he had bought forty portions of core fire, and he was quite curious to see what spirit patterns he would acquire. He was still looking forward to it.

Looking at his current Talent Tree, large swathes of leaves were burning fiercely. Not to mention the lifelike fire phoenix perched on the treetop, Lu Ye had already mastered nearly twenty common spirit patterns alone!

Undeniably, many of these spirit patterns were not suitable for combat, but a considerable number were, which made his methods more flexible when fighting enemies.

He could use swift, decisive means to kill Ninth-Heaven Realm cultivators beyond his own cultivation level, relying not only on his pure spiritual power and profound foundation but also on the spirit patterns he subtly activated during combat. These various spirit patterns made his fighting style unpredictable and impossible to guard against.

Two days later, Lu Ye had fully recovered and even opened two more spirit apertures.

He was now only dozens of apertures away from the Ninth-Heaven Realm. Once he reached that level, no one in the Spirit Creek Battlefield should be able to threaten his safety anymore.

He was confident in this.

Perhaps it was due to the continuous battles and constant movement he had experienced earlier, but suddenly having two days of leisure made Lu Ye feel somewhat unaccustomed. Moreover, at this time, some unpleasant rumors reached his ears through messages from friends.

Myriad Devil Ridge had been unable to find any trace of him and, likely growing impatient, had spread many disparaging remarks, such as calling Lu Yiye cowardly and afraid of death, in an attempt to force him to show himself.

Lu Ye currently had no intention of leaving the Myriad Poison Forest.

So, after finishing his communications with a few friends, he thought for a moment, then halted his cultivation. He activated his battlefield imprint and connected to the Spirit Creek Ranking!

Now, he was eligible to challenge the Spirit Creek Ranking!

After all, he had fallen from the thirty-third position on the Spirit Creek Ranking.

He hadn't challenged it before for two reasons: first, he wasn't in the mood; second, he wanted to maximize the rewards from the Spirit Creek Ranking!

Ascending the Spirit Creek Ranking came with benefits!

As long as one remained on the Spirit Creek Ranking for a month, the Heavenly Secret would bestow tangible rewards.

The Spirit Creek Ranking only listed one hundred individuals, so staying on it for a month was naturally not easy, especially for cultivators ranked lower. It was common to see the bottom few positions change hands multiple times within a single day.

Those ranked higher were in a better position; even if their rank dropped after being challenged, they still had the opportunity to climb back up.

What Lu Ye needed to do now was challenge the Spirit Creek Ranking and then maintain his position on it for a month!

His Fourth Senior Brother had told him that the benefits bestowed by the Heavenly Secret were very useful, and the higher one's rank, the greater the rewards. Therefore, if he had the chance, he should definitely strive to ascend the Spirit Creek Ranking, secure a position, and reach the highest possible rank he could occupy in the shortest amount of time.

Lu Ye tried it and found that he could currently only challenge the three lowest-ranked individuals. All three were Ninth-Heaven Realm cultivators from different sects.

The cultivators ranked ninety-nine and ninety-eight were both from Myriad Devil Ridge, while the one ranked one hundred was from the Vast Heaven Alliance.

Naturally, he decided to challenge someone from Myriad Devil Ridge. He immediately activated his imprint and initiated a challenge against the cultivator ranked ninety-nine.