Chapter 498: Hunting Ground

The Wind Rises Across Kyushu

Hours later, the purple spiritual circle dissipated. Lu Ye examined his spiritual power, noting an increase in its volume, though it was still far from enough to advance to the fourth level.

After emerging from the Myriad Beast Domain secret realm, he had used nearly 30,000 battle achievements to exchange for spiritual tokens, directly reaching the third level. He had accumulated a significant amount of spiritual power at this level, but the higher a cultivator's cultivation, the more resources are required for advancement.

Based on his own estimation, within the Cloud River Realm, if spiritual tokens represented resources, advancing from Cloud River first level to second would only require one golden spiritual token. From second to third level, two golden tokens would be needed. However, progressing from the third level to the fourth might require three or four, and from fourth to fifth, even more would be necessary.

Therefore, even with his previous accumulation at the third level, one purple spiritual token was not enough to significantly change his cultivation.

Nevertheless, Lu Ye was already quite satisfied.

Since his entry into the Cloud River battlefield, less than two months had passed, and he had already reached the third level of the Cloud River Realm. Such a cultivation speed, if not unprecedented, was certainly rare, appearing perhaps once in a century. There was nothing to be dissatisfied with.

Just as he was about to set off, a humming sound emanated from an unknown source, and the world instantly changed color.

Lu Ye instinctively reached for the hilt of his saber, his senses on high alert.

Before he could ascertain what was happening, a dazzling point of light suddenly rose from a distant spot within his vision, like a new star, intensely bright.

However, what was unsettling was that the dazzling light was blood-red.

The red light ascended to an extreme height, becoming even brighter. At this moment, cultivators within hundreds of thousands of miles could surely see it clearly.

Staring at the ominous red light, Lu Ye frowned, his mind racing through the various intelligence reports he had purchased from the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance.

He didn't know what it was, but such a massive disturbance was clearly not man-made. The Cloud River battlefield was only for Cloud River Realm cultivators, and they didn't possess such power.

Since it wasn't man-made, it must be an manifestation of the Heavenly Secret.

Soon, Lu Ye recalled some information he had seen earlier, and his expression changed immediately. He quickly turned around, not even bothering to summon his spirit boat. He directly activated his Flying Wing spiritual pattern, a fiery red stream of light unfurling behind him, forming a pair of wings. With a flap of his wings, he shot into the sky. Not only that, but he also applied the Wind Walk spiritual pattern to himself.

In that instant, Lu Ye pushed his speed to the limit, completely disregarding the rapid consumption of his spiritual power. He fled frantically, as if some monstrous flood beast were pursuing him.

"Lu Ye, what's wrong?"

Yi Yi's voice came from inside Amber, confused as to why Lu Ye looked like he was being hunted, yet she sensed no enemies nearby.

"Later!" Lu Ye was busy escaping and had no time for lengthy explanations.

If this was truly what he suspected, then this place was absolutely not somewhere to linger. While staying might present opportunities, it primarily brought danger!

As a third-level Cloud River cultivator, it was best for him not to get involved in such matters.

Lu Ye bolted, and behind him, the star-like, dazzling red light hovered in mid-air for at least the duration of an incense stick. During this time, there was no change, until after the incense stick, the red light suddenly exploded. Immediately following, from that red light as the source, visible red spiritual threads radiated in all directions.

Looking out, it was as if a meteor shower was falling from the sky, with streaks of blood-red light cutting through the firmament, covering an immense area.

In the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Lu Ye had flown at least two to three hundred miles, relying on his Flying Wing and Wind Walk spiritual patterns!

Just then, Yi Yi's startled cry came: "Careful!"

A dazzling red light suddenly slid across his vision, landing directly ahead, and abruptly transformed into a red spiritual energy barrier.

Lu Ye's pupils contracted. There was no time to slow down. In a rush, he could only cross his arms in front of him and turn his body sideways.

With a crash, Lu Ye's body slammed into the red spiritual energy barrier. He felt as if he had run into a solid wall. The red barrier remained unmoving, but Lu Ye was directly bounced back, crashing heavily to the ground. For a moment, he was disoriented, feeling pain all over his body.

He picked himself up, battered, and looked at the red barrier in front of him, his heart a mixture of emotions.

He hadn't escaped after all... and it was too coincidental that this red barrier appeared directly in front of him.

He moved his body, ensuring no bones were broken, then turned to look. Above, a layer of red light enveloped the sky, even obscuring the dazzling sun.

If viewed from high above, this red light barrier resembled an overturned giant bowl, completely covering an area of hundreds of thousands of miles, isolating it from the outside. Lu Ye's current position was right at the edge of this inverted bowl.

Well, now that he was trapped here, he didn't need to look for Ju Jia.

Yi Yi flashed out, gazing in shock at the immense red barrier. Red light flowed across its surface, like flowing blood, giving a strong sense of ominousness and slaughter.

"Lu Ye, what is this?"

"A hunting ground!"

Lu Ye said, handing Yi Yi the intelligence jade slip he had bought from the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance. The concept of a hunting ground was complex and couldn't be explained clearly in a short time, so it was better for Yi Yi to examine it herself.

Yi Yi took it, immersing her mind in the information about hunting grounds.

Lu Ye, meanwhile, surveyed his surroundings.

If he had only suspected it before, he could now be certain: this was indeed a hunting ground.

He just hadn't expected to encounter such an event himself.

A "hunting ground" is a term for a sudden event unique to the Cloud River battlefield. Its appearance is marked by the rising of a red star and a sky obscured by a blood-red curtain.

The size of hunting grounds varies, and their appearance is unpredictable. Sometimes, one might not appear for a year or two, while other times, several might occur within a single year.

Their location is completely random, but once a hunting ground appears, there is entry but no exit within the area covered by the blood curtain.

In other words, cultivators can enter the hunting ground from the outside, but they cannot leave until the hunting ground disappears.

Judging by the area covered by this blood-colored barrier, it was undoubtedly a large-scale hunting ground, encompassing hundreds of thousands of miles.

Even for Cloud River Realm cultivators, this was a considerable area, though compared to the entire Cloud River battlefield, hundreds of thousands of miles was just a drop in the ocean.

Since it was called a hunting ground, it naturally involved conflict and slaughter.

Normally, unfamiliar Cloud River Realm cultivators meeting would rarely conflict, as neither knew the other's faction.

However, in a hunting ground, when cultivators approach each other within a certain range, their faction affiliation is revealed.

This was similar to the sect declaration of war on the Spiritual Stream battlefield.

On the Spiritual Stream battlefield, if one sect declared war on another, the cultivators belonging to both sides would reveal their faction when they met, making it easier for unfamiliar cultivators to distinguish friend from foe.

Since entering the Cloud River battlefield, Lu Ye had not killed anyone except for a few Myriad Demon Ridge cultivators during the recovery of a spiritual land.

It wasn't that he had cultivated a peaceful disposition; rather, he simply had no opportunity. Even when encountering other cultivators in the wild, it was difficult to initiate conflict before knowing their faction.

But in a hunting ground, it was different. As long as they were close enough, faction affiliation was clear at a glance, which easily led to conflict and slaughter, especially when there was a significant disparity in cultivation between the two sides.

This was also why Lu Ye wanted to escape quickly when he sensed something was wrong.

As a third-level Cloud River cultivator, even with the ability to kill opponents beyond his rank, if he encountered those at the eighth or ninth level of the Cloud River Realm, he wouldn't just be unable to win; he might not even be able to escape.

Such a sudden event as a hunting ground was too dangerous for him.

Unfortunately... he didn't escape. The hunting ground's range just happened to encompass him. He strongly suspected he was being targeted; otherwise, it wouldn't be such a coincidence, just a few steps short of escape.

Undoubtedly, the emergence of a hunting ground is orchestrated by the Heavenly Secret. One could say, this thing was created by the Heavenly Secret. When he first encountered the Heavenly Secret, Lu Ye felt it was elusive, but as his cultivation improved and his horizons broadened, he gradually realized that the operation of the Heavenly Secret was ubiquitous throughout a cultivator's journey.

While hunting grounds often featured conflict and slaughter, they also offered immense benefits and opportunities.

Among other things, the most common occurrence in a hunting ground was the appearance of Heavenly Gift spiritual tokens, and there was a high probability of finding golden spiritual tokens.

Heavenly Gift spiritual tokens were not always golden.

For instance, when Lu Ye first entered the Cloud River battlefield, the colorful clouds he encountered were only four-colored, so the highest quality spiritual token that appeared was merely purple.

Only five-colored clouds would bring golden spiritual tokens.

Correspondingly, if it was a three-colored cloud, the highest quality would be blue spiritual tokens.

If there were only two colors, only white and green spiritual tokens would appear.

Not only that, but the appearance of every hunting ground would be accompanied by the creation of a Hunting Ground Kill List. Like the Spiritual Stream List, the top hundred would receive rewards from the Heavenly Secret. As for what exactly those rewards were, Lu Ye did not know, as this was not recorded in the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance's intelligence.

Furthermore, every day, the Heavenly Secret would select one person within the hunting ground and bestow a golden spiritual token upon them.

One should not mistake this for a good thing. For cultivators with lower cultivation levels, this was nothing short of a nightmare.

This was because the golden spiritual token bestowed by the Heavenly Secret was a special kind of token that could not be used directly, nor could it even be stored in a storage bag. Only after twelve hours would this special golden spiritual token transform into a normal golden spiritual token, at which point it could truly be possessed and used.

In other words, if a cultivator who was bestowed a golden spiritual token wished to keep it, they would have to hold onto it for twelve hours.

If it were merely that, it wouldn't be too difficult, because if one could find a completely hidden place, they could simply hide for twelve hours. Ghost cultivators were most adept at such things.