Chapter 543: The Family-Annihilating Ye's Preference

The Blood Sect has formed alliances with numerous sects in the inner and core circles. Once disciples reach a certain cultivation level, they can freely choose where to undertake their trials. Recently, Blood Sect disciples have continuously left their stronghold and entered the inner circle. Some choose to attach themselves to other sects' strongholds, while others, like Chen Yu initially, venture into the inner circle alone.

The choice is entirely personal; no one is forced.

Disciples from the allied sects also come to the Blood Sect for training, further strengthening the Blood Sect's power. A few days ago, another insect tide appeared. However, the Blood Sect treated the insect nest as a treasure trove for gaining merits, depleting the vital core energy within the nest before ending the battle.

In the entire outer battle zone, the Blood Sect's stronghold is an undisputed behemoth. Starting from the Blood Sect's stronghold, cultivators from the Myriad Devil Ridge dare not casually step into the thousand-mile radius.

It is rumored that several Myriad Devil Ridge factions near the Blood Sect's stronghold have recently expressed intentions to relocate.

They have no choice; their lives have become untenable. What else can they do but move?

"There won't be another one," Lu Ye said, standing up and stretching after hearing Tao Zhengyu's question.

He wanted to visit another sect, but some things shouldn't be overdone.

This time, regardless of the circumstances, he was essentially bullying those weaker than him, which was different from his situation when he was at the Ninth Heaven Realm.

Of course, the most crucial point was that he didn't know the origins of the Ninth-Level Cloud River cultivators who had besieged him in the hunting ground. Otherwise, he could openly challenge them.

He knew the sects of Tan Sheng and Wei Que only because of Li Baxian and Xia Qianqian.

There was also a swordsman called Xia Liang, seemingly from the Mad Blade Sect. His insights into blade cultivation... seemed to be attainable once again.

"Oh," Tao Zhengyu dutifully replied. Though a bit disappointed, he didn't press the matter.

This time's gains were already substantial enough.

"Yiyi, escort Junior Brother Tao back to the stronghold, and be careful on the way." Lu Ye instructed.

"Understood, you be careful too," Yiyi replied, summoning a flying spiritual artifact.

She also possessed her own flying spiritual artifact but rarely had a chance to use it as she usually followed Lu Ye.

Moments later, Yiyi took Tao Zhengyu and ascended on the artifact, soaring towards the Blood Sect's stronghold.

Both she and Amber could now exert strength comparable to a Ninth Heaven cultivator, so they would encounter little danger in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. Especially since all major sects of the Myriad Devil Ridge were on high alert for Lu Ye's arrival, no powerful cultivators would be casually roaming around.

However, with their current strength, they could handle one or two Ninth Heaven cultivators if they encountered them.

Therefore, Lu Ye had no concerns about Yiyi's and Amber's safety.

Taking out a detailed map to examine, Lu Ye quickly summoned his own flying spiritual artifact, stepped onto it, and leisurely flew in one direction.

He was heading to Heavenly Sword Peak to await the delivery from the Myriad Devil Ridge.

After being busy for so long, it was time for the harvest.

The agreed-upon deadline was ten days, so there was no rush. Wandering around and looking at the sights made him feel carefree.

While he was enjoying his freedom, many cultivators from the Myriad Devil Ridge were suffering.

Almost every Myriad Devil Ridge stronghold had received a message from their respective sects, warning them to be vigilant against Lu Yiye and to immediately retreat to Kyushu if his trace was found.

This led to cultivators in nearly all Myriad Devil Ridge core strongholds waiting in high alert, fearing that "the Sect Destroyer" might suddenly appear at their doorstep.

The sects particularly close to the Yunyang Sect's stronghold were enduring immense torment.

Yet, despite their long wait, no one saw any sign of "the Sect Destroyer." After he broke through the Yunyang Sect's stronghold, he vanished.

Two days later, Lu Ye arrived at Heavenly Sword Peak.

He had been here once several months ago, also waiting to receive "peace money" from the Myriad Devil Ridge. He had thought he would never set foot here again after leaving the Spirit Creek Battlefield, but unexpectedly, he found himself back, doing the same thing as months before.

Truly, life is full of uncertainties.

Landing on the spiritual peak, he found a flat stone, sat cross-legged, and placed his Panshan Blade beside him.

Gazing at the rolling sea of clouds before him, Lu Ye suddenly regretted giving the Myriad Devil Ridge such a long deadline.

In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, he couldn't cultivate because his cultivation level already surpassed the Spirit Creek Realm. Therefore, absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth or consuming spiritual pills was useless.

With no other options, he could only take out the books he brought from Madam Yun and began studying them.

He had read these books more than once, but each re-reading brought new insights. He also learned some interesting spiritual patterns from them. However, since these weren't spiritual patterns from the Talent Tree, constructing them would require extensive practice and carried a risk of failure.

So far, among the spiritual patterns learned from books, the Void Spiritual Pattern was undoubtedly the most useful to Lu Ye.

Without the Void Spiritual Pattern, he wouldn't have repeatedly escaped death in the hunting ground or endured so long under the pursuit of so many powerful cultivators.

This spiritual pattern was very promising. Lu Ye always had a feeling that the Void Spiritual Pattern must exist on the Talent Tree, but he hadn't been able to activate it and didn't know which leaves it resided on.

If he could activate the Void Spiritual Pattern on the Talent Tree, setting up teleportation arrays would be much easier in the future. In that case, he would only need to set up a single master array. As long as he was within the range where the teleportation array could connect, he could activate the Void Spiritual Pattern at any time to return to the master array, without needing to bother setting up sub-arrays.

The pure Void Spiritual Pattern inherently possessed the ability to shift and teleport. The purpose of using it as the core for array arrangements was to make the spiritual pattern more robust and stable.

Without the framework constraints of an array and without human maintenance, spiritual patterns could easily dissipate.

He could even construct Void Spiritual Patterns on his flying artifacts to develop new methods of killing enemies.

Of course, these were all his idle speculations. To achieve such things, he would need to burn the leaves belonging to the Void Spiritual Pattern on the Talent Tree.

As he studied his books on Heavenly Sword Peak, two figures, a man and a woman, flew out from a stronghold in the core circle. The man appeared to be in his thirties or forties, with a dignified and imposing presence, clearly a person of high standing.

The woman was beautiful. From her appearance alone, it was impossible to tell her age; she could easily be mistaken for sixteen or seventeen, or even twenty-four or twenty-five. She was tall, and notably, her figure was exceptionally curvaceous.

Both of them were powerful cultivators at the Ninth Level of the True Lake Realm.

They had never imagined that in this lifetime, they would have the opportunity to enter the Spirit Creek Battlefield and, moreover, be tasked with negotiating with a junior of the Cloud River Realm.

Earlier, the Divine Sea Realm cultivators had discussed this matter and ultimately selected the two of them to come.

The main reason was that this matter was neither too big nor too small; it wasn't appropriate for Divine Sea Realm cultivators to appear personally. If negotiations broke down, it would be awkward, and if a fight ensued, it would be impossible to bring it to an end.

Of course, the most crucial point was that given Lu Ye's hegemon-level strength, the Divine Sea Realm cultivators truly lacked the confidence to defeat him.

If they won, fine, but what if they lost? They were all Divine Sea Realm cultivators; how undignified would it be to be subdued and lectured by a seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth?

Therefore, after much deliberation, it was deemed more appropriate for True Lake Realm cultivators to handle it. Firstly, it would show sincerity, and secondly, True Lake Realm cultivators could better gauge the nuances of the negotiation.

The original plan was for two men, but at the last minute, a Divine Sea Realm cultivator intervened, instructing that one of the men be replaced by the woman.

As they flew on their artifacts, the beautiful flower basket-like flying spiritual artifact, combined with the woman's exquisite beauty and voluptuous figure, was enough to capture the gaze of ninety-nine percent of men in the world.

Standing on the flower basket, Yun Qingyue looked up at the rolling clouds in the sky, her heart filled with a touch of annoyance.

It wasn't just the glances occasionally directed at her from behind but also the senior Divine Sea Realm cultivator's instructions before their departure.

She didn't know where that senior Divine Sea Realm cultivator got the information, but it was rumored that "the Sect Destroyer" had no other preferences than a fondness for women who were "large and round." That was why she had been chosen to replace the original negotiator, in hopes that she would make a good impression.

Firstly, her outstanding figure perfectly matched "the Sect Destroyer's" reported preference. Secondly, her age was indiscernible from her appearance, easily leading others to mistake her for a teenage girl, which might make Lu Yiye lower his guard.

It was normal for a hot-blooded youth of seventeen or eighteen to covet beauty, but among all the female cultivators in the Myriad Devil Ridge, why was *she* the one chosen?

However, with a Divine Sea Realm grand cultivator giving the order, she had no room to refuse. She could only steel herself and go, hoping to avoid too much humiliation.

She privately admitted that she couldn't defeat someone with hegemon-level strength in the Spirit Creek Realm.

As for "the Sect Destroyer's" alleged preference for women who were "large and round," it was said there was indeed evidence.

He had once challenged the Spirit Creek Ranking. Almost all opponents he faced, regardless of gender, had died, except for a woman named Bai Lan, who happened to be "large and round."

The fact that he killed even female cultivators indicated that Lu Yiye was not someone who cherished and protected women. Yet, he specifically spared Bai Lan, which naturally gave rise to much speculation.

"Junior Sister Yun, there's no need to rush. That young man gave a deadline of ten days, and only two have passed. With our pace, it will take just one day to reach Heavenly Sword Peak," Wu Jun, who was following behind Yun Qingyue, said.

Though they didn't belong to the same sect, they had interacted in their youth.

Truth be told, he had also once been smitten with this Junior Sister Yun. After all, in their generation, Yun Qingyue was a Heavenly Maiden who captivated and obsessed all the young men of the Myriad Devil Ridge; few could see her beauty and remain unmoved.

Unfortunately, back then, he was unknown and only qualified to admire her from afar.

Now, he was also a Ninth-Level True Lake Realm cultivator, with prospects of reaching the Divine Sea Realm in the future. He had shed his youthful naivety and humility, gaining a sense of composure. While he still found this Heavenly Maiden pleasing to the eye, he no longer harbored any other thoughts.

Nevertheless, the rare opportunity to journey with the Heavenly Maiden of his youthful dreams was somewhat pleasant, so he was in no hurry to travel and even wished to proceed slowly.