Chapter 422: The Last Clue

Name: Lu Yiye.Identity: Disciple of the BiXue Sect.Cultivation: 335 Spiritual Apertures.Location: Lingxi Battlefield.Merit Points: 9,352.

Lu Ye hadn't used his battlefield imprint to check his full information in a long time. Severely injured, he was recuperating in the wooden hut, with nothing to do but cultivate and read.

Looking at the name field, Lu Ye frowned, a wave of sadness washing over him. His name was clearly Lu Ye, yet at some point, the Heavenly Secret recognized him as Lu Yiye. This was true on the Lingxi Ranking and now even in his battlefield imprint information!

More than two months had passed since he advanced to Heavenly Eight, but he had only opened 335 spiritual apertures. His aperture-opening speed wasn't fast, especially recently with the magnetosphere's roar prohibiting spiritual power, preventing him from even using the Gluttonous Meal. This significantly reduced his cultivation efficiency. Only twenty-five more apertures remained until Heavenly Nine, which was not far off!

His merit points weren't exceptionally high, all earned from recent combat. This was also because a large amount of spoils hadn't been sold to the Heavenly Secret Treasury yet. If he sold all those spoils, his merit points would undoubtedly increase several times over. The Lingxi Battlefield was like this: cultivators with insufficient strength found it hard to earn merit points, but for someone like Lu Ye, earning them was incredibly easy. Especially since he was a target for the entire Ten-Thousand Demon Ridge faction; whenever he ventured out, a large group of people would try to kill him, and if they couldn't, they would be counter-killed.

Recuperating daily under Hua Ci's care, his injuries were healing rapidly, but his right arm's condition was not optimistic; it remained severely swollen. Recalling his battle with Lan Ziyi, Lu Ye was incredibly glad he had learned some special techniques from his Third Senior Brother Xiao Xinghe's blade art insights. With those blade art insights, the "Flash" blade art became perfected. He had also learned "Successive Slashes" from it!

Both Flash and Successive Slashes were blade arts and techniques. Used individually, the burden on Lu Ye wasn't too great, but combining them led to his current state. Six or seven days had passed, and his right arm still hadn't recovered. This was with Hua Ci's care; without it, Lu Ye estimated his right arm would most likely be crippled.

Undeniably, combining Flash with Successive Slashes was excessively powerful. Lan Ziyi's spiritual armor protection was very strong; even Flash couldn't easily break through it. Lu Ye ultimately had to use three successive slashes to pierce it. While powerful, the side effects were also significant. The reason for such strong side effects was twofold: first, the final three slashes placed too much burden on Lu Ye himself; second, Lu Ye wasn't skilled enough in executing them. If he were proficient enough, the side effects shouldn't have been so terrifying.

In the past few days, in addition to cultivating with elixirs, Lu Ye meditated for an hour daily, practicing breathing techniques with his Pan Mountain Saber to deepen the connection between man and blade. He also read books he had brought from Madam Yun's place or contemplated his Third Senior Brother's blade art insights.

Time flew by. Inside the wooden hut, Lu Ye and Amber were on high alert, while Hua Ci had gone off to cultivate somewhere. Currently, the spiritual energy prohibition in the world had a huge impact on all cultivators' practice. Only Lu Ye and Hua Ci were not significantly affected; the former primarily relied on consuming spiritual elixirs, while the latter absorbed the poisonous mist in the Ten-Thousand Poisons Forest.

Another month had passed since the last Heavenly Secret bestowal baptism, and the second one was imminent. Having experienced it before, Lu Ye was very much looking forward to this bestowal. It wasn't long before the Heavenly Secret descended, and his vision began to shift. By the time Lu Ye regained his senses, he was already in the Heavenly Secret Pond, surrounded by a dense spiritual mist. With limited time, he hastily set up a spirit-gathering formation in the Heavenly Secret Pond and constructed a small spirit-gathering funnel within his own spiritual apertures. Yi Yi flashed out from within Amber. The two humans and one tiger each found a suitable spot, eagerly absorbing the spiritual mist and feeling its transformative and enhancing effects on them.

Lu Ye's experience was particularly noticeable because his injuries hadn't fully healed. After receiving the previous Heavenly Secret bestowal baptism, he had discovered that the spiritual mist here had the effect of healing accumulated internal injuries. This time, it was even more apparent; his unhealed injuries rapidly mended, and his swollen right arm began to de-swell, slowly returning to its original state. The cool, refreshing sensation was incredibly pleasant.

The only thing Lu Ye regretted was that even as the top-ranked on the Lingxi Ranking, he could only stay in the Heavenly Secret Pond for half an hour! The time was too short. If he could stay longer, he might gain even more benefits. However, upon second thought, the spiritual mist here had limited effects on cultivators; for most, it became ineffective after three or four visits. Since he was only at Heavenly Eight cultivation, he still had opportunities to enter.

Another point: Lu Ye had tried to collect some spiritual mist from here last time to take out, but it seemed to have triggered the Heavenly Secret, making him vaguely suspect that the omnipresent Heavenly Secret might possess its own intelligence. This intrigued Lu Ye; he wondered how he could test this to confirm it. Lu Ye had a faint feeling that if he could communicate with the Heavenly Secret, he might be able to uncover the truth about this cultivation world! Why were there two opposing factions, the Vast Heaven Alliance and the Ten-Thousand Demon Ridge, in this cultivation world? Why did cultivators from different factions gain merit points by killing each other? What was the Heavenly Secret Treasury, and what was the connection between the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance and the Heavenly Secret itself? He believed many cultivators shared these questions and wished to understand them.

Half an hour quickly passed. By the time the Heavenly Secret sent Lu Ye back to the wooden hut, his injuries had completely healed, and his right arm had fully returned to normal. This second Heavenly Secret bestowal baptism made Lu Ye's vitality and spirit even more robust. He could feel that if he were to use the Flash blade art with Successive Slashes again, he would be able to execute a fourth strike, unlike last time when he was limited to three. This was undoubtedly a clear sign of increased strength. However, at the Lingxi Realm level, probably only Lan Ziyi was worthy enough for him to use such a self-damaging blade art that harmed himself as much as it harmed his enemy. Although the Cultivation World of Kyushu was full of talented individuals, there simply weren't that many monstrously powerful figures in the world.

Two days later, the magnetosphere retreated, and the world's spiritual energy resumed its flow. Lu Ye exhaled deeply. As a cultivator, the sensation of having all his spiritual power confined within his body and unusable was simply terrible. During the magnetosphere's roar, almost every cultivator would experience an indescribable sense of crisis because, in that state, not only was spiritual power suppressed, but their own perception was also greatly diminished, as if one had suddenly become blind and deaf, with no idea when danger might strike.

Lu Ye immediately re-arranged the large formations inside and outside the wooden hut. He had been worried about one thing: the talent tree running out of fuel. During this period without the great formation for isolation, he had been living amidst the poisonous mist, Amber had stayed by Hua Ci's side, and even Yi Yi had been confined within Amber's body, unable to move freely. If the talent tree's stored fuel truly ran out, he would have to rely on Hua Ci to survive here. Fortunately, the crisis was now over.

He didn't set up the master teleportation array again, feeling it was no longer necessary. He secretly vowed that he would not leave the Ten-Thousand Poisons Forest until he advanced to Heavenly Nine, even if the sky collapsed and the earth split outside! The Three Saint Academy had long been breached, so the Ten-Thousand Demon Ridge could no longer use it to force his appearance.

With spiritual energy back and his own spiritual power no longer suppressed, his cultivation efficiency greatly increased. However, because Lu Ye spent a lot of time cultivating his blade arts daily, his aperture-opening speed remained steady. His Third Senior Brother's blade art insights had been thoroughly grasped; all that remained was practice and comprehension, which required the accumulation of time and couldn't be rushed.

On the Lingxi Ranking, many familiar names had disappeared, replaced by unfamiliar ones, perfectly embodying the truth that talented individuals emerge across generations, with new waves pushing forward the old. Lan Ziyi had ascended to the second position on the Lingxi Ranking, but she no longer challenged Lu Ye. Her strength was indeed formidable; previously, she had been qualified to contend for the top spot with Lu Ye. However, her greatest reliance was her spiritual armor. Since Lu Ye possessed a means to break through it, she lost the qualification to compete with him. As long as Lu Ye remained at the top of the Lingxi Ranking, she would have to settle for second place! He occasionally exchanged messages and chatted with his Second Senior Sister Shui Yuan, living an extremely leisurely life.

Time flowed by, and more than a month passed in a blink. When Lu Ye, Amber, and Yi Yi received the Heavenly Secret bestowal baptism for the third time, he discovered a problem. The spiritual mist in the Heavenly Secret Pond no longer provided as significant an improvement to himself, Yi Yi, or Amber as it had during the previous two times. During the first and second times, Lu Ye felt his vitality and spirit improved by at least about ten percent. This third time, the improvement was less than half of the previous two. He wondered how much more improvement he could expect next time. It seemed the outside rumors were true: the Heavenly Secret bestowal baptisms became ineffective for cultivators after three or four times.

Returning to the wooden hut, Lu Ye felt refreshed. Checking his spiritual apertures, he had reached 359! Only one more aperture remained until he could advance to Heavenly Nine!

When he first began cultivating, the sect master had told him that opening spiritual apertures would become increasingly difficult towards the end. As a result, many cultivators at the Lingxi Realm level couldn't open all 360 apertures; the maximum number of apertures one could open varied depending on individual aptitude and talent. However, once a cultivator switched to a Heavenly Grade cultivation method and opened 240 apertures, they were all qualified to advance to the Cloud River Realm. So far, Lu Ye had never experienced the increasing difficulty the sect master spoke of when opening apertures; he felt the difficulty was consistently similar each time. This was related to the purity of his spiritual power. Other cultivators, no matter how pure their spiritual power, would accumulate elixir toxins if they consumed spiritual elixirs. The higher their cultivation, the more severe the toxin accumulation. While there were methods to clear these toxins, it was like a cultivator's injury: superficially, the injury seemed fully recovered, but in reality, there were imperceptible hidden injuries.