Chapter 69: Three Levels

In this fantasy novel:

The amber beast, munching nearby, shrank its head, its chewing sounds becoming much quieter.

Yiyi immediately knew from its reaction that it must have done something wrong.

She pursed her lips and asked Lu Ye, "What did Amber do wrong?"

Lu Ye turned to glare at Amber, then briefly recounted how Amber had charged out impulsively when he went to rescue her. He continued, "Remember the first rule of our agreement?"

Yiyi sat obediently in front of him, back straight, and quickly replied, "Everything revolves around you. If our opinions differ, I'll listen to yours!"

"Good memory!"

Yiyi turned her head and softly commanded, "Amber!"

Amber whimpered, its massive body slowly shuffling towards Yiyi. It looked up at her piteously. Yiyi raised her hand and slapped Amber on the head. "Lu Ye told you not to be impulsive, why didn't you listen? You shouldn't have charged out at that moment; you needed to follow instructions."

She slapped it with each word.

Yiyi knew Amber's impulsiveness had caused some trouble. While Lu Ye had ultimately killed the four cultivators and rescued her, the situation would have been much better if Amber had shown a little more restraint. Perhaps Lu Ye wouldn't have fallen unconscious.

Her escape this time was entirely due to Lu Ye's decisive action. If he had hesitated even a bit when Amber charged out, he would have missed the crucial opportunity.

Yiyi bore this gratitude in mind, and to teach Amber a lesson, she hit it without holding back, causing loud thuds on Amber's head.

"That's enough," Lu Ye interrupted her, looking at her seriously. "I don't want this to happen again."

They had only just begun cooperating and needed a period to adapt to each other. But one such incident was enough. If it happened again, Lu Ye couldn't guarantee his own safety. He didn't want to be killed by his own companions someday.

"Understood!" Yiyi nodded, then looked at Amber. "Did you remember?"

Amber whimpered softly in response.

Yiyi then looked at Lu Ye, genuinely saying, "Thank you!"

This thank you was for both Amber and herself. After all, her escape was at the risk of Lu Ye's life, and the ordeal wasn't over. They were currently trapped in the Rifting Gorge, and whether they could get out was unknown.

Lu Ye waved his hand, checking his own condition. His injuries weren't too serious; a few days' rest would suffice. His spiritual power had been significantly depleted during the previous battle and needed replenishment. However, what surprised him was that the spiritual aperture barrier of his twenty-sixth aperture showed signs of loosening.

He had previously cultivated to the full twenty-five apertures but hadn't yet attempted to break through to the twenty-sixth. Now, he realized it must have been the intense fluctuations of spiritual power during his fierce battle with Zhang Wu that impacted the barrier.

This was a good thing, saving him some cultivation time.

But before that, he needed to fully replenish his spiritual power. In such a perilous environment, maintaining a complete state was crucial. He might encounter another fierce battle at any time, and he wouldn't have time to recover then.

However, he wasn't in a hurry to cultivate. Instead, he gave Yiyi a meaningful look.

Yiyi understood. She patted Amber's head, and the spirit and the beast immediately went their separate ways, heading towards opposite ends of the tunnel.

With them monitoring both sides of the tunnel, Lu Ye wouldn't be cornered and would have room to maneuver if danger arose.

Once Yiyi and Amber had left, Lu Ye looked down at the back of his hand again. When he activated his spiritual power, his hand was covered in a blue glow, forming several large characters.

Name: Lu Ye.Identity: Bloodjade Sect Disciple.Cultivation: Twenty-five Apertures.Merit: Thirty-four.

Lu Ye stared in astonishment at the number thirty-four for Merit, puzzled as to how it had come about.

He had previously gained eight merit points from killing the fair-faced man and Liu Ruoyin in Qingyun Mountain. This time, after killing four people, his merit became thirty-four. In other words, those four people had increased his merit by a full twenty-six points.

Lu Ye wasn't yet sure what merit points were for. He had asked Yiyi, but she seemed equally unclear. Her memory was severely fragmented; some things she knew, but others she was completely ignorant of.

This currency must be useful, but how and where it could be utilized remained to be discovered through further exploration.

Unable to figure it out, he decided not to dwell on it.

Lu Ye popped a Spirit Nurturing Pill into his mouth, refining its energy to replenish his lost spiritual power, which slowly recovered.

Lu Ye had noticed before that the efficiency of recovery versus cultivation, and the consumption of spirit pills, were very different. When merely recovering, the speed was much faster than cultivating, and the consumption was much lower.

For a direct comparison: Lu Ye had now opened twenty-five apertures, consuming nearly two hundred spirit pills over about three months. However, if his spiritual power was depleted in battle and he wanted to replenish it, it wouldn't require two hundred spirit pills, nor would it take three months.

If that were the case, the cost for a cultivator after a battle would be far too great.

During cultivation, much of the spirit pill's energy is wasted, and refining the spiritual apertures is also very time-consuming. From opening a spiritual aperture to filling it, it's a gradual process. But once the spiritual aperture is full, replenishing it becomes much simpler and easier.

Time passed, and spirit pills were consumed one by one. Two days later, Lu Ye was fully recovered, but he only had about twenty spirit pills left.

There was no activity from Yiyi and Amber, suggesting their current location was temporarily safe.

Lu Ye was not in a hurry to leave. He didn't know the situation outside, and leaving rashly would only complicate matters.

He was now only two apertures away from the third level of the Spirit Creek Realm, and the barrier of his twenty-sixth aperture was already somewhat loose. He also had enough spirit pills, so Lu Ye decided to advance his cultivation by one level first.

At the second level, he could cooperate with Amber and Yiyi to kill Zhang Wu. If he reached the third level, his strength would increase further, which would be a great help in their current predicament!

Furthermore, his injuries hadn't fully healed, so he could use these few days to recuperate.

Having made up his mind, Lu Ye continued to consume spirit pills, channeling his spiritual power to assault the barrier of the twenty-sixth aperture.

Five days later, in the tunnel within the mountain, Lu Ye sat cross-legged with a solemn expression. The day before yesterday, he had opened his twenty-seventh aperture and spent some spirit pills to cultivate it to a full state. Today was the time to advance to the third level of the Spirit Creek Realm!

With his two previous experiences, Lu Ye was familiar with the process. Spiritual power began from the nineteenth aperture, following the cultivation route, successively penetrating the twentieth, twenty-first, all the way to the twenty-seventh aperture.

The spiritual power circulated endlessly within these nine great spiritual apertures, repeating itself, accelerating faster and faster until, at a certain moment, it broke through a bottleneck. Lu Ye's body, as he sat, violently shook, and his spiritual power surged around him.