Chapter 45: We Are So Pitiful

The Wind Rises in Kyushu

Inside the cave, Lu Ye cultivated diligently. He consumed Spirit Accumulation Pills one by one; as one aperture filled, the barrier to the next would break. He slept when tired and ate when hungry.

His days passed uneventfully, even a bit monotonously. Yet, Lu Ye felt the continuous accumulation of spiritual energy within him, knowing this was the path to becoming stronger.

Before reaching the Spirit Stream Realm, he typically opened one aperture every three days, consuming about six Spirit Accumulation Pills.

Now in the Spirit Stream Realm, he could still maintain the pace of opening one aperture every three days, but the consumption was slightly higher, requiring eight or nine Spirit Accumulation Pills per aperture.

The reason he could maintain his aperture-opening speed was due to his increased cultivation, which led to a faster efficiency in refining spiritual pills.

Previously, it took half a day to fully refine one Spirit Accumulation Pill, allowing him to refine only two pills a day. But now, with sufficient concentration, he could refine about three.

In this way, although his consumption was higher, he could still maintain his aperture-opening speed.

Half a month quickly passed, and his last Spirit Accumulation Pill was used up.

Lu Ye checked his cultivation. He was still in the first layer of the Spirit Stream Realm, but he had opened up to fifteen apertures. The fifteenth aperture, however, was not yet full of spiritual energy.

He was only three apertures away from reaching the second layer of the Spirit Stream Realm! If he could advance to the second layer, his strength would undoubtedly increase significantly. For now, however, it wasn't enough. Although his spiritual energy reserves had indeed grown considerably, his newly opened apertures were not yet fully integrated, offering little practical benefit in combat.

He still had ore that could be exchanged for spirit stones. Having gained experience from his previous trip, he decided to go down the mountain to the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance again.

He calmly walked out of the cave. The sun was high, but the forest canopy was dense, allowing only scattered rays of light to pierce through the thick leaves, forming patches of light on the ground.

Lu Ye squinted slightly. After a moment, once his eyes adjusted, he started walking.

He hadn't walked far when he suddenly heard some unusual sounds nearby. Frowning slightly, he quietly crept towards the source of the noise.

Moments later, he was hiding behind a large tree, looking ahead.

In that direction, three cultivators stood as if facing a formidable enemy, looking utterly distraught and tense. One female cultivator was on the verge of tears.

Not far from the three cultivators, a bulky, snow-white tiger paced back and forth. Its amber eyes occasionally glanced at the cultivators, exuding immense pressure.

As it paced, it opened its mouth and spoke: "Open your storage pouches and throw them on the ground, then get out of here, or this Great King won't mind eating you!"

Lu Ye's eye twitched upon hearing this. He had heard this majestic, aged voice once before, and it had ultimately been confirmed to be the trick of the tiger familiar named Yiyi.

The three cultivators were clearly terrified. One of them trembling unfastened his storage pouch from his waist, released its protective seal, and threw it on the ground, staring at the tiger in horror as he pleaded, "Great King, please calm your anger. We meant no offense. Everything is here; please spare us."

The great tiger glanced at the storage pouch on the ground and roared, "Scram!"

That person immediately turned and ran off without looking back.

Following his lead, the other two cultivators also hastily dropped their storage pouches and fled for their lives.

Once certain the three cultivators had run far away, the great tiger slowly began to advance. However, before it could reach the pouches, someone suddenly burst forth and snatched all three storage pouches.

The great tiger startled and leaped backward. From atop its head, a small figure floated out, staring dumbfounded at Lu Ye. "Those are our things!" it cried.

Lu Ye held the storage pouches, briefly inspected them, and frowned.

He found that the contents of these storage pouches were pitifully sparse: just a few Spirit Accumulation Pills and herbs for each person, along with some miscellaneous daily necessities. As for spirit stones, there was no trace of them.

Silently cursing them as paupers, Lu Ye took out the Spirit Accumulation Pills, divided them into two portions, kept one for himself, and tossed the other to Yiyi. "Finders keepers!" he declared.

Yiyi was startled by his actions and pounced at him menacingly. "Give them back!" she demanded.

"Clang!" His longsword was unsheathed. Lu Ye looked at Yiyi, who was lunging towards him, and smiled without a word.

Yiyi froze before the longsword, gnashing her teeth in anger. She let loose a torrent of curses, her small mouth spewing words as if they were smeared with honey.

"Should I go call those three people back?"

Yiyi immediately flinched, retreating unwillingly. She knew that the spiritual pills in Lu Ye's hand were lost to her. She could feel that Lu Ye was much stronger than he had been a month ago; if it came to a fight, the great tiger would be no match.

However, the experience of having her things stolen made her feel incredibly wronged, and she muttered words like "shameless" and "despicable."

"I have a question for you," Lu Ye said.

"I won't tell you anything you ask!" Yiyi gritted her teeth.

"If you answer well, I'll give these back to you." Lu Ye waved the stolen goods in his hand. They were just a few Spirit Accumulation Pills, and he didn't think much of them.

"Hmph!" Yiyi sneered, adopting an air of disdain for wealth. She coiled herself on the great tiger's head, sat up straight, and tilted her head back. "Ask away!"

"I saw many monster cultivators in the market down the mountain. They didn't seem particularly formidable. Why are those people so afraid of you?"

This perplexed Lu Ye. Those monster cultivators were definitely stronger than the great tiger. Logically, cultivators accustomed to seeing monster cultivators shouldn't be so terrified of an untransformed beast, becoming panic-stricken after just a few intimidating words.

"That's something you wouldn't understand," Yiyi said, growing smug. "Transformed monster cultivators and untransformed monster beasts are different..."

After her explanation, Lu Ye finally understood. Not all monster beasts chose to transform, whether due to intelligence, personal choice, or perhaps bloodline inheritance. In any case, a considerable portion of them retained their original forms.

These types of monster beasts couldn't speak when their strength was low. However, once their strength reached a certain level, they could utter human words.

In other words, a monster beast capable of speaking human language was equivalent to a powerful being! As for how powerful they truly were, they were, at the very least, beyond what these low-level cultivators in the outer regions could provoke.

Therefore, the combined intimidating power of the great tiger and Yiyi was terrifying, and many cultivators who ventured into this area suffered for it.

"So that's how it is!" Lu Ye understood, feeling he had learned more common knowledge about the cultivation world.

He raised his hand, tossed the stolen goods back, and turned to walk out of the mountain.

Yiyi checked the items, confirming they were all there, and shouted after Lu Ye's retreating figure, "Are you leaving?"

"None of your business!" Lu Ye's voice came from afar.

"How annoying!" Yiyi muttered, then turned and hugged the great tiger's head, lamenting, "Amber, we're so pitiful!"

"Owoo..."