Chapter 401: This Guy Did It

Gradually, a rich aroma filled the air as hot oil from the roasting meat dripped onto the bonfire, making crackling sounds.

After eating his fill, Lu Ye continued reading until late into the night, then closed his eyes for a brief nap on the spot until dawn.

The situation remained unchanged on the second day.

This was the most tedious battle Lu Ye had ever experienced. He still hadn't seen his opponent, and Yi Yi hadn't found any trace of them either.

He knew, however, that if this stalemate continued, he would inevitably win. He could eat and replenish his energy at any time, but Ghost Shadow couldn't. To remain hidden, the opponent had to stay concealed constantly; any other movement risked exposing their location.

However, Lu Ye wasn't prepared to prolong this stalemate. While cultivators like Ghost Shadow could easily go a few days without food or drink, and Ghost Shadow might be willing to wait, Lu Ye was not.

Closing the book, Lu Ye stood up. He casually took several formation flags from his storage bag and threw them in different directions, using them to construct the basic framework of a formation. Then, he activated his spiritual energy to complete its internal structure. In mere moments, a formation spanning nearly a hundred zhang was complete.

This formation wasn't very useful, serving only as a simple warning system. Compared to other formations, it was undoubtedly much simpler to set up, covered a large area, and consumed very little of his spiritual energy.

Ghost Shadow had been hiding and not revealing himself, leaving Lu Ye with no means to force him out. This was typical of Spirit Stream Ranking challenges: Heaven's Will ensured basic fairness, and the rest was a contest between cultivators.

No one ever claimed that a test of patience wasn't a form of competition.

The combat arena was only about a dozen li across. If he covered the entire space with warning formations, Lu Ye didn't believe he wouldn't find Ghost Shadow's trace—unless, of course, the opponent also mastered formations and knew how to evade their detection.

Once the first warning formation was complete, Lu Ye began setting up the second, then the third, and the fourth...

Lu Ye spent the entire second day setting up formations. Fortunately, he had previously bought plenty of formation flags from the Heavenly Secret Alliance; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to continue. By the end of the day, the formations he had established covered more than half of the arena.

Ghost Shadow still didn't show himself, perhaps holding onto a sliver of hope that Lu Ye wouldn't have enough formation flags to cover the entire arena, thus leaving him some space to hide.

Lu Ye suddenly realized he had overlooked something. He simply took all his remaining formation flags out of his storage bag and ostentatiously placed them at his feet.

Hiding in the shadows, Ghost Shadow saw the large pile of formation flags. He knew he couldn't hide any longer; if he didn't quickly seize an opportunity to attack Lu Yiye, he would surely be exposed by tomorrow.

After a moment of silence, Ghost Shadow's lips moved as he quietly uttered a sentence, then his figure swiftly vanished from the arena.

Meanwhile, Lu Ye, busy setting up formations, suddenly paused.

He had actually won!

He had expected that after revealing so many formation flags, Ghost Shadow would attempt to ambush him that night. He hadn't anticipated the opponent would concede so readily.

On second thought, a ghost cultivator's strength lies in silently approaching targets. While effective against ordinary people, Ghost Shadow genuinely lacked the confidence to use this method against Lu Ye. Who knew if Lu Ye had already set up formations around himself? An attempt to assassinate him would surely lead to falling into a trap.

It could be said that for ghost cultivators with lower cultivation levels, cautious formation masters were practically their bane!

However, if ghost cultivators cultivated their skills to a certain degree, they could even infiltrate formations silently.

With Ghost Shadow having conceded and left, Lu Ye and Yi Yi quickly set about collecting the formation flags scattered across the arena, a surprisingly busy task.

"Lu Ye, if we ever meet that guy again, we have to beat him to death! He's just too despicable!" Yi Yi grumbled as she worked.

"Beat him half to death, then call Hua Ci to heal him, then beat him half to death again..." Lu Ye muttered fiercely. He would much rather have had a straightforward, open battle with the opponent than go through such a tiresome ordeal only to clean up the aftermath.

The frustrating part was that from beginning to end, he hadn't even seen what his opponent looked like, which was truly irritating.

On the Spirit Stream Ranking, Lu Yiye of the Crimson Blood Sect had already surged to ninth place.

The world was astounded!

This individual had achieved it.

The feat of truly entering the top ten of the Spirit Stream Ranking with only an Eighth-Heaven cultivation undoubtedly signified that he was now among the strongest at the Spirit Stream Realm level.

And he was still only at Eighth-Heaven!

He could still advance to Ninth-Heaven!

This was what truly caused apprehension.

At this point, strictly speaking, Lu Ye only needed one more match to qualify to challenge the top-ranked individual.

However, ever since he began climbing the ranks, he had been systematically challenging cultivators from the Ten Thousand Demon Ridge, so he chose not to take that shortcut.

His next target was the sixth-ranked individual.

The challenge against Ghost Shadow had taken two days, and Lu Ye hadn't even thrown a single strike from beginning to end. Although it concluded with Ghost Shadow's voluntary concession, Lu Ye's unreleased combat intent left him feeling somewhat stifled.

Therefore, he eagerly prepared for his next fight, ready to make an example of the sixth-ranked individual.

He initiated the challenge, the opponent accepted, and once the terrain was chosen, Heaven's Will descended, making Lu Ye's figure vanish—all in one swift motion.

His vision was filled with white light. The sound of crashing waves echoed in his ears, and the air was salty and damp.

This immediately reminded Lu Ye of his days participating in the Spirit Stream Guardian War with Hua Ci. If his guess was correct, the opponent had chosen a battlefield on the open sea.

As his vision cleared, he turned to survey his surroundings. Sure enough, he was indeed on the open sea, standing on a small island.

The island was tiny, only about ten zhang across.

A few dozen zhang away, there was another identical small island. Both were similar in size, appearing like twin islands.

On the opposite island stood a man in loose-sleeved robes, appearing to be in his early twenties. He wasn't particularly handsome, but his expression was resolute.

This person was likely a spell cultivator, and a water-elemental one at that! This explained why he had specifically chosen such an arena.

As everyone knew, Lu Yiye of the Crimson Blood Sect was a weapon master who practiced fire-elemental cultivation techniques. In such an arena, a water-elemental spell cultivator would have a massive advantage, while conversely, this environment would severely suppress a fire-elemental weapon master.

If Lu Ye wanted to get close, he would have to fly across dozens of zhang of sea to reach the opponent's island. But in mid-air, no matter how agile his spirit weapons were, he would still be a mere target.

If he didn't find a way to rush over, he would still become a target anyway. Either way, the spell cultivator held every advantage.

He had exercised the challenged party's right to choose the arena terrain to its fullest extent. Lu Ye admired his ability to find such an unusual terrain among so many possible battlefields.

What surprised Lu Ye even more was that the sea below was far from calm. As various strange sea beasts swam by, massive shadows appeared beneath the surface.

If he were to be knocked down while flying across the sea, it would almost certainly mean death.

In such an environment, it would be difficult for Yi Yi to get close to the opponent.

"Lu Yiye?" the spell cultivator called out, standing on the far edge of his small island, attempting to greet Lu Ye.

His response was nine streams of light from spirit weapons. A whistling sound filled the air as the light streams darted across the sea, yet the spell cultivator stood perfectly still, his expression unchanged.

The spirit weapons stopped less than three zhang from the spell cultivator, and after a slight tremor, Lu Ye retrieved them. It wasn't that he didn't want to attack, but he had reached the limit of his control distance and had to withdraw them, or it would be a wasted effort.

"I've long heard that Lu Yiye of the Crimson Blood Sect possesses spirit weapon mastery beyond his cultivation level, and seeing it today, it's truly well-deserved!" the spell cultivator praised. "But there's no need for further probing, fellow cultivator. We are currently about ninety zhang apart, and your spirit weapons cannot reach me."

Although he appeared composed, he couldn't help but feel a lingering fear. He had tried his best to overestimate Lu Ye's spirit weapon range, but he had still underestimated it.

Just a few zhang more, and Lu Ye's spirit weapons would have hit him!

As he spoke, a water ball suddenly appeared in his hand. With a flick of his wrist, it shot towards Lu Ye like an arrow. While still in mid-air, the water ball suddenly exploded, sending countless tiny water arrows sweeping towards Lu Ye's island.

"Spell arts are different; their attack range is much farther than spirit weapons."

It was common knowledge that spell arts had a greater attack range than spirit weapons, which was why spell cultivators generally didn't need to refine spirit weapons for combat; their spell arts were sufficient.

Then, he saw a Fire Phoenix spell art rushing toward him.

The spell cultivator immediately activated his spell art to meet it. It was still a water ball, but after reaching mid-air, it would transform into various spell art forms: water arrows, water dragons, or other aquatic beasts. The variety of techniques was dazzling.

It had to be said, this person's sixth-place ranking was well-deserved. He stood there like an artillery turret, unleashing a continuous stream of exquisite spell arts at an incredibly fast pace.

Lu Ye hadn't dedicated much effort to the spell cultivator path, yet his casting speed wasn't slow. After all, during the inheritance of the Fire Phoenix spirit pattern, he had personally witnessed the birth and demise of a Four-Symbols Sacred Beast.

His understanding of the Fire Phoenix spell art far surpassed that of ordinary spell cultivators. The power of the Fire Phoenix spell art he now unleashed was several times greater than before.

Fire is explosive, while water is gentle. In terms of the destructive power of a single spell art, the opposing spell cultivator was inferior to Lu Ye. However, in terms of casting speed and frequency, Lu Ye was far outmatched.

After all, the opponent was a specialist.

Furthermore, Lu Ye quickly discovered a problem: the environment here strongly suppressed the Fire Phoenix spell art he cast. Its power was reduced by as much as thirty percent compared to what he normally activated.

"Remarkable, truly remarkable," the spell cultivator exclaimed, slowly becoming excited as he exchanged spells with Lu Ye. "To be able to cast spells to this extent as a weapon master, fellow cultivator, you are the first I have ever seen! But this is pointless, fellow cultivator. If this continues, you will lose!"