Chapter 453: Cloud River Second Level Realm

After all the back and forth, most of the night had passed. Lu Ye was just wondering whether he should simply stay the night at the Heavenly Secret Trading Post when a message suddenly arrived via his battlefield imprint.

Lu Ye checked it. It was a message from Shen Xiaomao, her tone very urgent: "Return quickly, spiritual land in danger!"

Lu Ye immediately replied, but there was no response from Shen Xiaomao.

Realizing something was wrong, he rushed out of the trading post, summoned his spiritual boat, and soared into the sky.

It wasn't until about fifteen minutes later that another message came from Shen Xiaomao. Lu Ye exchanged a few brief words with her and generally understood what had happened. He was completely astonished, never having imagined things would turn out this way.

He sped onward.

By daybreak, he arrived at the agreed meeting point with Shen Xiaomao and descended, but he couldn't find any trace of her.

He sent a message, but again received no reply.

Searching around, he noticed a few drops of blood on some nearby leaves. Lu Ye frowned, realizing Shen Xiaomao's situation might be quite dire.

Just as Lu Ye wondered where to find the woman, Amber, who had been perched on his shoulder, suddenly leaped down. With light steps, it walked straight in one direction.

Lu Ye quickly followed.

A moment later, Amber stopped in front of a dark cave. It let out a soft cry towards the inside. Lu Ye stooped down and entered, walking all the way to the deepest part. A strong smell of blood immediately assailed his nostrils. At the bottom of the cave, a graceful figure lay in a pool of blood, her face pale and her breathing shallow.

It was indeed Shen Xiaomao. No wonder she hadn't responded to his earlier messages.

The woman's injuries seemed severe. She was clearly in a coma.

Even in her unconscious state, she seemed to sense someone approaching. Her brows furrowed as if trying to open her eyes, but her consciousness struggled to awaken, and her face showed pain.

Lu Ye's expression was grim. After a quick check of Shen Xiaomao's injuries, he confirmed they were indeed very serious. If left unattended, she would very likely die there.

He took out some healing items from his storage space. Lu Ye called out, "Yiyi, help her heal."

"Okay," Yiyi emerged from Amber's body and immediately set to work.

Lu Ye, meanwhile, walked out of the cave and began setting up formations around it.

Tonight's events were completely unexpected. He hadn't imagined that the spiritual land would change hands just because he left for a short while. Shen Xiaomao was also severely wounded. If the woman hadn't been vigilant enough, she would likely be a corpse by now.

Through his brief earlier communication with her, Lu Ye generally knew the cause of the incident. However, he hadn't had time to ask for the specific details. It seemed he would have to wait until she woke up.

What he found even harder to understand was how that person had circumvented the restrictions of the Heavenly Secret Pact.

Did the Heavenly Secret Pact have a loophole?

After setting up simple warning and concealment formations, Lu Ye sat cross-legged at the mouth of the cave. He took out the Heavenly Secret Pact and meticulously examined each clause. However, no matter how he looked, he couldn't find any exploitable aspects in the pact. The numerous clauses on the pact had been drawn up by Shen Xiaomao. It was clear that she was a meticulous person; the clauses were well-structured, logically sound, and interconnected, completely preventing any possibility of exploitation.

He couldn't quite figure it out!

However, this experience had shown Lu Ye the malice in human nature, something he had never encountered in the Spirit Stream Battlefield. There, it was mostly direct combat, with not many schemes or tricks.

Yiyi emerged from the cave.

"Will she live?" Lu Ye asked, putting away the Heavenly Secret Pact.

"She should be fine, but with injuries like those, she'll need at least ten days to half a month of recovery."

"As long as she lives," Lu Ye nodded.

The sky was already bright. After eating a little, Lu Ye took out a white spirit sign and crushed it with force.

In any case, the immediate priority was to improve his cultivation.

Spirit signs were consumed one after another. After Lu Ye used up all his white spirit signs and then one green one, the river of spiritual energy within his body suddenly vibrated. It was as if it had broken through a bottleneck; its scale abruptly expanded, and the speed at which spiritual energy flowed through it became even faster!

Lu Ye felt thoroughly refreshed.

To be honest, cultivation in the Cloud River Realm had never been easy. This was because the entire Cloud River Realm cultivation process involved expanding the volume of the spiritual energy river within one's body. Therefore, during the accumulation process, as quantitative changes led to qualitative shifts, the spiritual energy river always gave a sense of reaching its limit, a feeling of tension.

Only at this moment, with the breakthrough, did that tension suddenly vanish.

However, this state was destined not to last long. As Lu Ye continued his cultivation, that feeling of reaching the limit, that tension, would reappear until he broke through the next bottleneck.

He had reached the second layer of the Cloud River Realm!

Since he began cultivating, Lu Ye had never experienced such rapid advancement!

Even when he was in the Spirit Stream Realm, it usually took him an average of two to three months, often around three months, to break through a minor level.

But how much time had passed since he advanced to the Cloud River Realm?

Only half a month!

Advancing one realm in half a month meant that if he could maintain this speed, he wouldn't even need half a year to reach the ninth layer of the Cloud River Realm.

Of course, this was unrealistic. The reason for such rapid cultivation speed currently was mainly due to the spirit signs. These items significantly boosted a cultivator's speed. Additionally, Lu Ye's cultivation didn't demand high levels of ambient spiritual energy; he primarily relied on consuming spirit pills, which was why he achieved the miracle of advancing one realm in half a month.

He still had one purple spirit sign, two blue, and five green ones. These could allow him to continue improving within the second layer of the Cloud River Realm, though he likely wouldn't reach the third layer.

Naturally, with his cultivation in full swing, Lu Ye continued his efforts.

Time passed quickly. Three days later, Shen Xiaomao had barely recovered. Although her injuries weren't fully healed, she was at least out of danger and could speak.

All the spirit signs in Lu Ye's hand were also used up. His cultivation didn't break through again, but he had advanced significantly within the second layer of the Cloud River Realm, saving a considerable amount of cultivation time.

Deep inside the cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged in front of Shen Xiaomao. She kept her head down. Because the cave was dim, Lu Ye didn't notice Shen Xiaomao's flushed face.

The reason was simple: her clothes had been changed. Moreover, many areas, especially sensitive ones, had been carefully bandaged. Shen Xiaomao naturally assumed this was Lu Ye's doing...

She couldn't bring herself to feel any blame. After all, he had saved her life!

She tried to convince herself that cultivators shouldn't be bothered by such minor details, but then she couldn't help but ponder certain matters.

Lu Ye held a bowl of water, giving Shen Xiaomao a few sips. He then took out a piece of jerky and handed it to her. Shen Xiaomao lowered her head and chewed slowly.

It was a while later before Lu Ye finally spoke: "Tell me, what happened?"

Recalling the events of that night, Shen Xiaomao gritted her teeth and said, "Ruan Qingzhu had planned this all along!"

That night, when Lu Ye was participating in the spirit sign auction at the Heavenly Secret Trading Post, he had communicated with Shen Xiaomao, and nothing had happened yet. It wasn't until late in the night that Shen Xiaomao, who was cultivating, suddenly sensed something abnormal. Before she could investigate, two strangers burst into her room. Both were powerful, and in the ensuing battle, Shen Xiaomao, fighting two against one, was no match. She was severely wounded and fled. As she was leaving, concerned for Ruan Qingzhu's safety, she even tried to call her to escape together. However, she found the woman standing outside, silently watching her, with another figure beside Ruan Qingzhu.

Finally, Shen Xiaomao was pursued by three people. If it weren't for a life-saving item she possessed, she would have likely perished right then and there.

She eventually escaped here, concealed her tracks, sent a message to Lu Ye, and then fell unconscious. When she woke up again, her injuries had been treated, and then she saw Lu Ye.

It was now certain that Ruan Qingzhu was allied with those three strangers. However, bound by the contract of the Heavenly Secret Pact, Ruan Qingzhu could only stand by and watch at the time, unable to lay a hand on Shen Xiaomao.

Those three people were also let in by Ruan Qingzhu. This was because it was Ruan Qingzhu's turn to be on duty in the latter half of the night, and she had the jade token for the grand formation. Otherwise, given the numerous formations Lu Ye had left behind, those three would not have been able to infiltrate silently.

"I just don't understand how Ruan Qingzhu managed to circumvent the Heavenly Secret Pact's restrictions and contact those three," she said.

The Heavenly Secret Pact clearly had a clause prohibiting the private disclosure of the spiritual land's existence and location, yet Ruan Qingzhu had somehow bypassed it to call in three helpers.

Lu Ye had also been pondering this question during his cultivation over the past few days. He eventually came up with only one possibility.

"You're right that she had planned this all along," Lu Ye began. "After signing the Heavenly Secret Pact, she certainly couldn't privately disclose the spiritual land's existence or location. But what if she disclosed it *before* signing the pact?"

Shen Xiaomao was startled. "You mean..."

"Looking back now, when we first met her that day, her hands were clasped in front of her abdomen, hidden within her sleeves. It's likely she was already using her battlefield imprint to send messages externally at that time. The reason she waited so many days to act was simply to await a suitable opportunity, and my departure from the spiritual land provided the perfect one!"

All the formations in the spiritual land were set up by Lu Ye. In Ruan Qingzhu's impression, Lu Ye was an array master skilled in formation arts. With him gone, the power of the spiritual land's formations would naturally be greatly reduced. Therefore, those people only needed to deal with Shen Xiaomao.

The plan was perfect. Had they not underestimated Shen Xiaomao's hidden strengths, Lu Ye would likely be looking at a corpse right now.

"What profound scheming!" Shen Xiaomao thought with a shiver of dread. Recalling her interactions with Ruan Qingzhu over the past few days, how the other woman had affectionately called her 'sister' and shown no hint of anything amiss, she felt an increasing sense of fear and regret.

Not to mention Lu Ye, who had only recently entered the Cloud River Battlefield, even someone like Shen Xiaomao, who had been active there for a while, had never witnessed such treacherous human nature.

With her actions, Ruan Qingzhu had taught both of them a harsh lesson.