Chapter 560: 刺纹

The Wind Rises in Kyushu

The Wind Rises in Kyushu

Lu Ye had only a sudden thought, deciding to practice on the monstrous wolf. He expected to have to persuade it quite a bit, but he never imagined it would be so cooperative.

However, spirit tattoos require specific materials, and different tattoos necessitate different ingredients. This process involves extremely strict requirements.

The materials are typically a mixture of beast blood and medicinal liquids, which spirit tattoo masters must blend in varying proportions. Different masters use different ingredients and ratios, as each possesses their own exclusive secret formula.

Naturally, Lu Ye's secret formulas for various spirit tattoos came from Madam Yun, and they could be considered exceptionally excellent recipes.

Although he had previously collected beast blood from Lightning Shadows and Venomous Pythons, neither was suitable for the Sharpness Spirit Tattoo. It would clearly be impractical to go out and buy or collect new materials now.

After some thought, Lu Ye had an idea.

Since it wasn't convenient to go out and buy or collect, he decided to summon a Heavenly Secret Pillar directly and use it to purchase items from the Heavenly Secret Treasure Vault.

He had already planned to summon a Heavenly Secret Pillar, but too little time had passed for him to act on it.

While summoning a Heavenly Secret Pillar was expensive, it offered a crucial benefit: if they encountered an absolutely insurmountable crisis, the residents of the spirit land could use it to escape back to Kyushu. This was a life-saving device, making its cost worthwhile no matter how high.

Furthermore, the spirit land was located deep within Mount Taimang, making travel to and from the outside world inconvenient. If they needed to purchase anything—like now—Lu Ye could directly connect to the Heavenly Secret Treasure Vault, eliminating the need to leave and search for the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance.

Typically, large Grade A spirit lands possessed their own Heavenly Secret Pillars, which facilitated the cultivation needs of the cultivators within.

Smaller spirit lands generally lacked the capital to summon a Heavenly Secret Pillar, but today was likely to be an exception.

With his mind made up, Lu Ye immediately respectfully invoked the Heavenly Secret.

Having already summoned a Heavenly Secret Pillar once in the hunting grounds, the second time felt much more familiar and effortless.

As Lu Ye's words fell, a blue light shot up from the back of his hand. Immediately after, an object descended from the sky with imposing momentum, sending shockwaves across the surroundings.

Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan, who were cultivating in their respective rooms, were startled and flashed out to investigate.

When Li Baxian saw another Heavenly Secret Pillar appear before Lu Ye, his eyelid twitched. "Little Junior Brother, you've summoned *another* Heavenly Secret Pillar?"

For a single cultivator in the Cloud River Realm to summon two Heavenly Secret Pillars within just over a month—such an event had likely never occurred throughout history.

Each of these things was worth 100,000 merit points; two would be 200,000...

Which Cloud River Realm cultivator was so wealthy?

He sighed inwardly, thinking, "Little Junior Brother is truly overflowing with wealth; I can't compare." He then recalled when Lu Ye had bought him two Meridian-Mending Pills, spending 300,000 merit points in one go... Compared to him, Li Baxian, as his senior brother, seemed utterly destitute.

"Yes, I need to buy some things," Lu Ye casually explained, then raised his hand to press it against the Heavenly Secret Pillar, his consciousness linking with the Heavenly Secret Treasure Vault.

Feng Yuechan exclaimed, "Truly, when one has a fortune, one acts as one pleases."

To summon a Heavenly Secret Pillar simply to buy items from the Heavenly Secret Treasure Vault—such capriciousness was unmatched.

However, such matters couldn't be compared. While their sect, the Danxin Sect, was a second-grade sect with vast resources, it also had a large number of disciples. Even a favored disciple like Feng Yuechan wouldn't receive an excessive amount of resources, often needing to find ways to acquire cultivation resources herself.

Lu Ye, however, was different. He had almost single-handedly built up the entire Azure Blood Sect, and his status and strength as the Spirit Stream Overlord had brought him immense benefits on the Spirit Stream Battlefield.

The Azure Blood Sect prospered because of him, and no one would restrict him from using a small portion of its resources.

After confirming there were no external enemies attacking, Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan returned to their rooms to continue cultivating.

Lu Ye spent some time in the Heavenly Secret Treasure Vault and quickly purchased all the materials he needed.

Summoning the Heavenly Secret Pillar cost 100,000 merit points, while the materials only cost less than 1,000...

Checking his battlefield information, the number displayed in the merit points section was: 83,520.

On the Spirit Stream Battlefield, he had accumulated nearly 300,000 merit points by selling various resources. However, he quickly spent a large portion of them on earth core flames and other types of fire, then on a spirit storage ring. After entering the Cloud River Battlefield, he bought even more demon cores from monstrous beasts for Amber as snacks. This left him with just over 180,000 merit points.

Now, another 100,000-plus was gone.

All the expenditures were ultimately worthwhile. With a Heavenly Secret Pillar in the spirit land, he could enter anytime from outside in the future, directly appearing within the spirit land itself.

With the various materials in hand, Lu Ye began mixing them according to Madam Yun's secret formula. It was his first time doing such a task, so he was inevitably a little clumsy. Fortunately, the process wasn't complicated. In just the time it takes an incense stick to burn, three large bottles containing spirit tattoo materials of different colors appeared before him.

One was golden, one was earthy yellow, and one was light green.

The monstrous wolf with the blue flower on its head was still squatting beside Lu Ye.

Lu Ye raised his hand, pointed at the golden bottle, and said, "This one is for this!" As he spoke, he formed a Sharpness Spirit Rune in his hand, a faint glow radiating from it and revealing an aura of keenness.

He then pointed to the earthy yellow bottle and said, "This one is for this!"

The spirit rune shifted, transforming into a Guarding Spirit Rune, demonstrating a powerful defensive force.

Finally, he pointed to the last, light green bottle: "And the last one is for this."

The Guarding Spirit Rune transformed into a Windwalk Spirit Rune, making his entire palm feel light and agile.

"So, young fellow, which one do you want?"

Whether it was Sharpness, Guarding, or Windwalk, these were some of the first simple and practical spirit runes Lu Ye had acquired. He had practiced them on himself many times; while he couldn't claim absolute certainty, he had an eighty to ninety percent success rate. These three runes were not complex.

He had originally only intended to test the Sharpness Spirit Rune on the monstrous wolf, but now that he had enough materials, he could offer it more choices.

Although the monstrous wolf couldn't understand human speech, it was undoubtedly intelligent. Lu Ye's gestures were simple, so it naturally understood.

After Lu Ye finished speaking, it raised a paw and tapped the golden bottle.

Lu Ye nodded. Wolves were fierce by nature, and it was only natural for it to pursue the ultimate in attack.

Since it had made its choice, Lu Ye naturally had to fulfill its request. This was, after all, his first customer... even if it was a monstrous beast that couldn't speak.

Lu Ye was determined to give it a good experience.

Deciding where to apply the spirit tattoo was a question.

The Sharpness Spirit Rune was an offensive rune, so there were only two suitable locations: its paws and its mouth.

In recent days, Lu Ye had also observed the monstrous wolves fighting and roughhousing. Their sharp claws and fangs were their natural weapons. Just by the commotion of their play, anyone would assume they were fighting to the death, but in reality, according to Lu Ye's observations, they were merely honing their combat experience through this method.

This particular monstrous wolf with the blue flower on its head was undoubtedly on the weaker side within the entire pack. Its demonic essence aura wasn't particularly potent, roughly at the level of the Cloud River Realm's fourth or fifth layer. It often found itself at a disadvantage when fighting other creatures of its kind.

Carefully examining the monstrous wolf in front of him, Lu Ye made up his mind.

He decided to place the spirit tattoo on its mouth. Compared to its claws, the monstrous wolf relied more on its fangs.

Raising his hand, Lu Ye gently held the wolf's snout, then turned to Amber and said, "Tell it it'll hurt a bit, and to stay still."

Amber immediately let out a low growl.

A look of disdain flashed in the monstrous wolf's eyes, clearly showing it didn't take Amber's warning seriously.

With everything ready, Lu Ye's expression grew solemn.

Although he had tried it on himself many times and had a lot of successful experience, those were merely practice.

This was his first spirit tattoo in a strict sense, so failure was not an option.

Placing the tattoo needles within easy reach, Lu Ye held the wolf's snout with one hand, while with the other, he swiftly picked up a needle, dipped it into the material from the bottle, and injected it like lightning.

His mind was focused to the extreme at that moment. The instant the needle descended, spiritual power subtly surged, and the first fundamental element formed.

He withdrew the needle, swapped it, dipped it in material, and then injected again. The moment the second fundamental element formed, it perfectly interlocked with the first.

Lu Ye's movements were extremely swift yet methodical. As needle after needle descended, a small, golden, arrow-like mark slowly took shape on the wolf's muzzle.

The yin and yang elements that comprised the Sharpness Spirit Rune were not numerous, only a few dozen.

Thus, in less than thirty breaths of time, Lu Ye was finished. As the last needle fell and the final fundamental element formed, the completely established golden mark pulsed with a faint glow.

The monstrous wolf hadn't moved an inch from beginning to end; there wasn't even a flicker in its eyes. Clearly, the pain of the tattooing was nothing to it.

Lu Ye exhaled, releasing the wolf's muzzle.

Looking closely, it now seemed as though the monstrous wolf's mouth had a golden tattoo, giving it a very distinctive appearance.

This was a visible spirit tattoo, and not a permanent one, similar to the Winged Spirit Tattoo Lu Ye had first acquired.

After all, Lu Ye's current mastery of spirit tattooing wasn't exceptionally high; achieving this much was his limit. Only when his skill improved in the future would he be qualified to apply hidden or permanent spirit tattoos. Of course, those types of tattoos would require different materials.

In front of Lu Ye, the monstrous wolf eyed him suspiciously, as it didn't feel any particular change within itself.

"Try activating your demonic energy," Lu Ye instructed.

The monstrous wolf understood and immediately activated its demonic essence. The next moment, the golden mark on its mouth pulsed with light, causing its fangs to glow faintly and appear much sharper. It bared its teeth at Lu Ye, looking magnificent.

Lu Ye patted it aside with a hand. "Go play by yourself."

Having grown familiar with each other, he no longer needed to be overly polite with it.

His first spirit tattoo had been a perfect success, and Lu Ye was in a very good mood. (To be continued)

Chapter List