Chapter 452: Luck

The Wind Rises in Kyushu

“Draw your sword.” Under the big tree, the person leaning against the trunk looked calmly at Lu Ye.

Lu Ye watched him silently.

“I am at the Seventh-level Cloud River Realm. Your cultivation shouldn’t be too high. If you kill me, you’ll gain at least several hundred merit points. Consider it my final gift of gratitude to you, fellow cultivator.”

In the Spirit Stream Battlefield, killing enemies of a higher cultivation level grants rewards that increase exponentially based on a base value. This rule applies not only to the Spirit Stream Battlefield but also to the Cloud River Battlefield and even the entire cultivation world of Kyushu.

Furthermore, Cloud River Realm cultivators inherently represent a much higher base number of merit points than Spirit Stream Realm cultivators.

At the Spirit Stream Realm level, the base value for each cultivation level corresponds to that level. For instance, a Fifth-level Spirit Stream Realm cultivator represents five merit points, a Ninth-level Spirit Stream Realm cultivator represents nine points, a Heaven-level Seven is ten points, and a Heaven-level Nine is twelve points.

Upon reaching the Cloud River Realm, the base value increases significantly.

For a First-level Cloud River Realm cultivator, the base value is twenty merit points, and for every level ascended thereafter, the base value increases by five points.

For example, the dying man before him, a Seventh-level Cloud River Realm cultivator, has a base value of fifty merit points. If Lu Ye, at the First-level Cloud River Realm, were to kill him, he would be defeating an enemy six sub-levels above him. The merit points gained would be seven times the base value, totaling three hundred and fifty points.

Undeniably, this held considerable value for any cultivator.

Three hundred and fifty merit points could purchase one and a half white spirit talismans.

While killing enemies of a higher level offers greater rewards, on the Cloud River Battlefield, there is no penalty for high-level cultivators killing lower-level cultivators. This differs from the Spirit Stream Battlefield.

On the Spirit Stream Battlefield, if cultivators prey on the weak, Heavenly Mechanism will impose penalties by deducting merit points. This serves as a protection by Heavenly Mechanism for lower-level cultivators, which is why the entire Spirit Stream Battlefield is clearly divided into an outer circle, an inner circle, and a core circle.

However, once cultivators reach the Cloud River Realm, they have already passed the initial stages of cultivation. They are always clear about whom to provoke and whom not to provoke. If they provoke the wrong person and are killed as a result, they have only themselves to blame.

Heavenly Mechanism only protects cultivators who have recently entered the cultivation world; for Cloud River Realm cultivators, it lets them fend for themselves.

“No need. I’ve accepted the task, and I will see it through. I will entrust this sword to the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance to be transferred to the Divine Movement Sect.”

Since he began cultivating, Lu Ye had killed many members of the Myriad Demon Ridge. For him, there was naturally no psychological barrier to killing cultivators from the Myriad Demon Ridge. However, actually asking him to kill a dying man who couldn't even fight back truly made him hesitate.

The man gave a bitter laugh and said, "Fellow cultivator, please grant me a swift end. Waiting for death like this... it's too agonizing."

Lu Ye was speechless. Only then did he slowly draw his Pan Mountain Blade.

The man released his longsword and tightly shut his eyes.

As Lu Ye activated his spiritual power, the distance of a few dozen feet was instantly covered, and the Pan Mountain Blade pierced directly into the man's heart.

Perhaps stimulated by the pain, the man's eyes suddenly widened. Instinctively, he raised his hand and grabbed Lu Ye's arm with such force that Lu Ye felt pain.

However, the man's strength quickly dissipated. His raised hand fell limply, and the light in his eyes rapidly faded.

Lu Ye pulled out his blade, drawing a gush of warm blood. Seeing that the man's eyes were still wide open, he raised a hand and closed his eyelids.

Being neither a relative nor a friend, and having no connection, Lu Ye didn't experience much emotional turmoil from killing the man. However, as a fellow cultivator, and seeing that this person, already a Seventh-level Cloud River Realm cultivator, couldn't escape the fate of death on the Cloud River Battlefield, Lu Ye increasingly felt the cruelty of the cultivation world. It also made him secretly reflect that in the future, when traversing the Cloud River Battlefield, he must be extra careful.

This was not the Spirit Stream Battlefield where he could dominate; here, too many people could easily kill him.

Yiyi flashed out, standing beside Lu Ye, seemingly in low spirits.

Lu Ye stepped forward, untied the storage bag from the man's waist, picked up the blood-stained longsword from his hand, and took out a cloth from his own storage bag to wipe the blood from the sword.

He didn't know the significance of this longsword to the cultivator, who, even on the verge of death, sought someone to return it to his sect. Upon closer inspection, two small characters were engraved on the sword's hilt.

Qingyun!

It seemed to be either a sword name or a person's name. Who could say?

Most likely the latter. It might have been a token of love between him and a woman, otherwise there would be no reason for him to be so insistent on having the sword returned.

“Lu Ye, can I bury him?” Yiyi suddenly asked.

Having followed Lu Ye and killed so many Myriad Demon Ridge cultivators, this was the first time she felt the urge to properly bury an opponent.

“Of course,” Lu Ye replied.

Regardless, having taken on the responsibility, burying the man and allowing him to rest in peace was a small effort.

However, Lu Ye dared not linger too long on the spot, as the man had been gravely injured, and he didn't know if powerful enemies would pursue them. Thus, he carried the man's body far away, stopping only when he found a scenic spot with clear waters and beautiful mountains.

Together with Yiyi, he found a spot, dug a large pit, buried the man, and carefully filled it in.

Yiyi then bowed several times before the man's grave before returning to Amber's body.

He had originally planned to rush back to the Spirit Land, but now he had to make another trip to the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance. Along the way, Lu Ye briefly examined the longsword engraved with the characters 'Qingyun.' He found nothing particularly special about it; it was merely a mid-grade spirit artifact with eighteen restrictions, worth a few hundred merit points.

Lu Ye then took out the man's storage bag and attempted to open its restrictive lock.

Come to think of it, ever since he entered the Cloud River Battlefield, he had found his luck to be exceptionally good.

Soon after arriving, he encountered a Heavenly Blessing, and the four-colored auspicious cloud coincidentally hovered directly above him. Although the competition for it didn't go smoothly, and he only obtained a green spirit talisman, the final outcome was surprising: someone delivered a purple spirit talisman right to his doorstep, benefitting him greatly for free.

Later, when he went to a place to rest, he also stumbled upon a rare spirit spring revival, acquiring a spirit land for free.

Tonight was similar. He could have chosen to rest for a night at the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance before returning, but because he was concerned about the Spirit Land, he decided to travel through the night. Just as he was worrying about his cultivation resources, a dying man appeared before him, and now the storage bag was in his hands.

If he had decided to rest for a night at the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance earlier, he would undoubtedly have missed out on such good fortune.

He had never experienced such good fortune on the Spirit Stream Battlefield!

If it were just once or twice occasionally, it would be fine, but the crucial point was that he had only been in the Cloud River Battlefield for ten days, and such fortunate events had happened several times.

This could no longer be explained by mere good luck.

Lu Ye vaguely suspected it was related to the Heavenly Blessing he received when he ascended to the Cloud River Realm.

The Heavenly Blessing had been so grand and resounding, yet the benefits it brought him seemed unsatisfactory. Lu Ye had always felt that the Heavenly Blessing was more like “much thunder, little rain.”

But what if some benefits were invisible?

Like luck or fortune!

Luck was a peculiar thing. Those with good luck could rise quickly, while those with bad luck would even choke on cold water. Lu Ye had always felt his own luck was unremarkable, so there was no reason for it to suddenly change after entering the Cloud River Battlefield.

If linked to the Heavenly Blessing he experienced earlier, then it made sense.

Of course, this was just Lu Ye's conjecture; whether it was true remained to be verified later.

Given Lu Ye's current mastery of Spirit Mark Arts, opening the storage bag's restrictive lock was truly simple. After only a moment, the lock was opened.

Lu Ye began searching.

He found that the man had been right; compared to other Cloud River Realm cultivators, this person was indeed quite wealthy.

Setting aside some rare minerals and exotic spirit herbs that Lu Ye couldn't name, these were likely collected or plundered from enemies during the man's cultivation. This deduction was based on the fact that the storage bag contained more than a dozen mid-grade spirit artifacts alone, and several flying spirit artifacts.

A single cultivator wouldn't need so many spirit artifacts; the only possibility was that they were plundered from slain enemies.

Of course, for Lu Ye, these items had little use beyond being sold to the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance for cultivation resources.

The remaining items, however, would be useful to him.

There were several bottles of healing pills, and over twenty bottles of Yuan Spirit Pills!

The most abundant item the man possessed was spirit stones!

There were not only mid-grade spirit stones but also low-grade spirit stones, and even items suspected to be high-grade spirit stones!

All in all, the total number probably amounted to tens of thousands.

Lu Ye was considered well-traveled and experienced, yet he had never seen anyone with such abundant wealth.

Putting aside everything else, tens of thousands of spirit stones alone constituted immense wealth, even more than Lu Ye possessed.

This discovery certainly resolved Lu Ye's immediate urgent need. Originally, even if he bought a large quantity of Yuan Spirit Pills from the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance, they wouldn't last long, and he had been wondering where to find more cultivation resources. Now, he wouldn't have to worry about this problem for a while.

Transferring all the useful items to the storage space on the back of his hand, Lu Ye then took out a copper piece from the storage bag.

The copper piece was about palm-sized and appeared ordinary. Lu Ye examined it for a while, unsure of its purpose, until he channeled spiritual power into it. Suddenly, a ray of light bloomed from the copper piece, and then Lu Ye faintly felt a pulling force emanating from it, as if guiding him to a specific direction.

This copper piece... seemed to hold some secret!

Lu Ye wasn't sure what lay in the direction indicated by the copper piece, but from the current situation, if he followed its guidance, he would certainly find something.

Holding the copper piece, Lu Ye fell into thought.

A moment later, he put the copper piece away. Regardless of where it pointed, his most important task at this stage was to improve his own cultivation. Only by increasing his cultivation would he have sufficient capital for self-preservation and exploration.

Before the Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance, Lu Ye landed again and leisurely walked inside.

He found a steward and inquired about entrusting the sword for delivery. After learning the full story, the steward offered Lu Ye a solution.

The Heavenly Mechanism Merchant Alliance here would temporarily store the longsword and simultaneously send a message to the Divine Movement Sect, instructing their cultivators to come to this location themselves to claim the spirit sword.

Lu Ye naturally agreed without hesitation, but with one condition: that his information should not be revealed to anyone.