Chapter 686: I am also a younger sister

It must be said that women possess a wonderful intuition, regardless of their age.

Along the way, Ye Liuli had sensed that Yiyi's attitude towards her was not particularly friendly. Though she lived a pampered life, her mind was sharp, so how could she not understand the underlying reason?

Seeing Yiyi's reaction, Ye Liuli smiled, "It seems I was right." This further confirmed her suspicion.

As far as she knew, her sixth brother used to frequently travel to Huayan Mountain. Now, it seemed the 'traveling' was merely a pretense; visiting this young girl was the real reason. Otherwise, the girl wouldn't have risked her life to rescue them today.

"No... it's not what you think," Yiyi quickly waved her hand, secretly glancing at Lu Ye, who was resting and recovering nearby. She explained with a guilty expression, "My name is Lu Yiyi, I'm Lu... his sister!" She didn't know Lu Ye's name in this secret realm yet, so she found it difficult to state his full name.

"His sister?" Ye Liuli continued to smile, "What a coincidence, I'm his sister too, his biological sister!"

Only then did Yiyi understand the true relationship between Lu Ye and Ye Liuli. However, seeing Ye Liuli's expression, she knew she hadn't cleared up the misunderstanding. She sighed inwardly and decided it wasn't worth wasting more words.

After most of the day passed, when Lu Ye opened his eyes again, he witnessed a surprising scene. Beside him, Ye Liuli was leaning on Yiyi's shoulder, weeping uncontrollably, her face stained with tears. Yiyi had her arm around her, offering continuous words of comfort.

"What's going on?" Lu Ye wondered, bewildered.

He could understand Ye Liuli's distress. The sudden catastrophe and the destruction of her family were undoubtedly a tremendous blow to the young mistress of Overlord Blade Manor. Yet, moments before, the two girls had seemed at odds. How had they become so close now?

Noticing Lu Ye was awake, Ye Liuli wiped her eyes, stood up, and called out, "Sixth Brother."

Lu Ye nodded slightly.

"Sixth Brother, what should we do now?" Ye Liuli asked. Although they had temporarily escaped, the danger lingered. Someone might pursue them again at any moment, and having experienced little hardship, she truly didn't know what to do.

Lu Ye pondered briefly, then said, "Take out the items we collected earlier."

Yiyi and Ye Liuli quickly produced several storage bags. Lu Ye proceeded to unlock them and take out the contents one by one.

"This is..." Ye Liuli suddenly picked up a token-like object, examined it from both sides, and gritted her teeth, "A Divine Will Sect identity plate."

There wasn't just one such plate, but three. In other words, at least three of the five people who pursued them were cultivators from the Divine Will Sect.

The Divine Will Sect and Overlord Blade Manor both belonged to Feng Province and were not too far apart, yet their relationship had always been uneasy. The reason was that the current sect master of Divine Will Sect had suffered a great defeat at the hands of Ye Ying in his youth. The origins of the animosity between the previous generation during their youth were no longer verifiable, but the accumulated resentment had persisted.

Among the information Lu Ye had gathered, there were often minor skirmishes between Overlord Blade Manor and Divine Will Sect. However, the general situation in the Dragon Ascent Realm was different from the Nine Provinces, so such friction was normal. In the Nine Provinces, the Vast Heaven Alliance and the Myriad Demon Ridge were two distinct factions, clashing for thousands of years. Normally, sects belonging to the same faction would aid each other in critical moments, bearing no significant grudges.

While the Dragon Ascent Realm also had numerous sects and family powers, the situation was far more complex than in the Nine Provinces. They had no factional affiliations; their relationships were a tangled web of friendships, grudges, and animosities. Within the network of allied powers, there might be many who were also sworn enemies.

Overlord Blade Manor and Divine Will Sect already harbored grievances against each other. With the former now in decline, it was perfectly normal for the latter to seize the opportunity to inflict further harm. But Lu Ye remembered the body cultivator's earlier remark: "Take money from others, solve problems for others." This implied that their actions were not solely motivated by past grievances. Someone had hired them.

Who could it be?

Although Lu Ye had arrived here with the assigned identity of Young Master Ye Six, and his mind was filled with general information about the Dragon Ascent Realm, he lacked specific details. And Ye Ying's death was also inexplicable.

The Dragon Ascent Realm bore some similarities to the Myriad Beast Domain he had visited before, yet it also had distinct differences. The similarity was that the highest achievement for cultivators in both worlds was the Cloud River Realm; neither world contained cultivators above this level. The difference was that in the Myriad Beast Domain, cultivators could only reach the Cloud River Realm due to inherent limitations of the world; they couldn't cultivate further, as if the path ahead was severed. This might be related to the overall environment of that world. Even with abundant spiritual energy, the world's rules couldn't accommodate or allow cultivators to explore higher paths. It was like the Spirit Stream Battlefield, which couldn't accommodate cultivators beyond the Spirit Stream Realm.

However, the Dragon Ascent Realm was not initially like this. According to the information Lu Ye had received, the Dragon Ascent Realm once had cultivators in the Divine Sea Realm a long time ago. But everything began to change slowly about eight hundred years ago, with the appearance of a celestial rift in the far north. As time passed, Divine Sea Realm cultivators found their cultivation levels not increasing but decreasing, gradually falling to the True Lake Realm. By five hundred years ago, there were no more grand cultivators of the Divine Sea Realm in the entire Dragon Ascent Realm. This situation continued to worsen. Three hundred years later, even True Lake Realm cultivators could no longer be born in the Dragon Ascent Realm. Thus, currently, the Dragon Ascent Realm only had Cloud River Realm cultivators.

He hadn't had time to ponder this suddenly acquired information before. Now, reflecting on it, Lu Ye found it quite incredible what could have caused the continuous lowering of the cultivation limit for cultivators in the entire Dragon Ascent Realm. This situation gave Lu Ye a distinct impression: if this world were likened to a balloon, its size would represent the world's capacity. The larger the capacity, the higher the cultivation limit cultivators could achieve. But for some unknown reason, the capacity of the Dragon Ascent Realm's "balloon" was slowly shrinking. This led to a progressively lower cultivation limit for cultivators, from Divine Sea to True Lake, and from True Lake to Cloud River. Perhaps in a few hundred years, the Dragon Ascent Realm would only have Spirit Stream Realm cultivators left, and given even more time, perhaps cultivators wouldn't exist at all... All these changes began with the inexplicable appearance of that celestial rift.

With the Dragon Ascent Realm's overall environment being as it was, it could practically be seen as a corner of the Cloud River Battlefield. Ye Ying, with his cultivation in the ninth level of the Cloud River Realm and his formidable Overlord Blade Technique, shouldn't have died suddenly unless he was ambushed and killed. It was highly probable that Divine Will Sect was also involved in this matter.

"Let's rest and recover first, then figure out how to get revenge," Lu Ye said.

Revenge was definitely necessary. It wasn't that Lu Ye deeply identified with his identity as Young Master Ye Six, nor that he held profound affection for Overlord Blade Manor. After all, he was an outsider. However, this might be a test from the Heavenly Mechanism, and since he now held the identity of Young Master Ye Six, he naturally had to act according to that role.

Moreover, he was very interested in Overlord Blade Manor's Overlord Blade Technique. He had always struggled because he could only explore his own blade techniques through trial and error, with no one to guide him. If he could reclaim Overlord Blade Manor, not only would he have a place to settle in the Dragon Ascent Realm, but he could also study the Overlord Blade Technique.

This Overlord Blade Technique was not created by Ye Ying himself; he had obtained it from an ancient ruin. It was unknown from which era or sect in the Dragon Ascent Realm it originated. If it were merely a blade technique created by a Cloud River Realm cultivator, Lu Ye might not be interested; perhaps Ye Ying's mastery of blade techniques wasn't even as high as his own. But since it was obtained from a ruin, it held value worth examining. Furthermore, he had seen Ye Liuli in action before, her delicate frame unleashing such an overwhelmingly domineering aura. The Overlord Blade Technique was clearly extraordinary. His own blade techniques also followed a refined and fierce path, sharing several similarities with the Overlord Blade Technique.

Moreover, Overlord Blade Manor didn't just contain the Overlord Blade Technique. Since its establishment, Ye Ying had collected numerous artifacts related to blade techniques, all of which Lu Ye yearned for. Initially, he had been somewhat dissatisfied with the Heavenly Mechanism's arrangement, placing him in the identity of someone whose family was destroyed and who was being hunted. But now, that thought had vanished. The Heavenly Mechanism's arrangement was indeed quite sensible. Since he cultivated blade techniques, it made sense that he was arranged to be Young Master Ye Six.

"Alright!" Ye Liuli, her eyes red, clenched her jaw and agreed. Her hatred was real. Although she didn't yet know the true mastermind behind Overlord Blade Manor's destruction, including the Divine Will Sect in her vengeance was certainly not wrong. Her family's blood feud had evidently become the driving force behind her cultivation and desire for strength.

A day later, in Huayan Mountain, several cultivators were resting, their voices carrying through the air.

"Those two little brats can really hide. There's still no trace of them." They had pursued Lu Ye and Ye Liuli deep into the area, yet they hadn't even seen a shadow of them so far. No one knew where they were hiding.

"A team lost contact earlier; who knows what danger they encountered. Everyone should be careful; this Huayan Mountain is not a benevolent place."

"It's fine. Although there are many fierce beasts in these mountains, if we just team up... Who's there?!" The speaker suddenly turned his head, letting out a sharp cry. At the same time, the other cultivators who had been talking also stood up, looking vigilantly in that direction.

Soft footsteps sounded, and under the moonlight, two figures, one tall and one short, slowly emerged from the darkness. Upon recognizing the faces of the newcomers, the cultivators were overjoyed.

"It's you two little brats!"

"Hahaha, this is truly a case of finding something effortlessly when one had sought it in vain." They had just been fretting over how to find Lu Ye and Ye Liuli, and now, to their surprise, the two had delivered themselves right to them.

Beside Lu Ye, Ye Liuli's expression was anxious, her knuckles white as she gripped her saber hilt. In her perception, every one of these cultivators had a higher cultivation level than both her and her sixth brother. Appearing so openly was clearly not a good strategy, but since her sixth brother had chosen to do so, she could only follow.