Chapter 697: Dao

Lu Ye's fighting style inherently gave an impression of extreme aggression, though this wasn't due to his temperament but primarily his experiences.

His temperament was actually quite peaceful; he was by no means overbearing.

However, before he began cultivating, he was a mining slave in Evil Moon Valley, a place where people preyed on each other. In such an environment, survival was absolutely impossible without ruthlessness. Sometimes, the struggles between mortals were even more brutal than those between cultivators.

Later, by chance, he was taken in by Sect Master Tang Yifeng and became a disciple of the Jade Blood Sect. Yet, before he even saw the sect's main gate, he was sent into the Spirit Stream Battlefield. Alone and with no one to rely on, he faced all sorts of invading enemies, having no choice but to overcome them with force and no room for retreat.

Therefore, in combat, he always adhered to a philosophy, or rather a habit: to be incomparably brave and utterly imposing. Regardless of whether he could win, he would never lose his momentum or aura first.

And his fighting style undoubtedly coincided somewhat with the essence of the Hegemon Blade Art.

This is also why he achieved such mastery in the Hegemon Blade Art in just half a month. It wasn't solely because he could relieve spiritual pressure with Soul Water; more importantly, the Hegemon Blade Art was compatible with his disposition.

If it were another cultivator with a weaker temperament, they might not achieve the same growth as him, even with abundant Soul Water.

If the compatibility isn't there, even lifelong diligent study would be meaningless.

While the secret transmission of the Hegemon Blade Art only passed down three forms of the Hegemon Blade, and Lu Ye had only practiced the first, the Hegemon Blade Art encompasses far more than just these three forms.

It is inherently a complete system of blade arts.

During the process of practicing the first form of Hegemon Blade, Lu Ye undoubtedly gained an extremely profound understanding and insight into this blade art.

When he acted at this moment, the oppressive feeling was much stronger than before. In the eyes of many Divine Will Sect disciples, Lu Ye was no longer just a person; he was clearly a fierce tiger descending from the mountain or a flood dragon emerging from the sea, ready to devour its chosen prey.

No cultivator could withstand one of his blade strikes and survive.

As blade light flickered, agonizing screams rang out, corpses fell, and blood stained the ground red.

In less than twenty breaths, over ten of the thirty-plus Divine Will Sect cultivators were struck down.

Lu Ye was completely unharmed!

In the Dragon Ascent Realm, cultivators at the eighth or ninth layers who could not advance further indeed had ample time to hone their combat skills. As a result, they were generally stronger in battle than those at the same layers in the Nine Provinces.

However, this certainly did not apply to the Divine Will Sect disciples before him.

The highest cultivation level among these individuals was merely the seventh layer, and there were only three such cultivators. All the others were below the seventh layer, including some at the first or second layers of the Cloud River realm.

With Lu Ye's current strength, eliminating such opponents was effortless; it was like slicing through vegetables, one strike for each foe.

As he moved about, feeling the Mountain-Splitting Blade in his hand and comprehending the might of each swing, Lu Ye's understanding of the Hegemon Blade Art deepened. His aura, far from weakening, grew stronger with each battle.

"Ah!" Finally, a Divine Will Sect disciple, unable to bear it any longer, let out a roar and turned to flee.

They had thought that even if the Third Elder died in battle, their combined force of over thirty people would be enough to take down Lu Ye.

They had thought that after Lu Ye unleashed a Hegemon Blade Art strike, even if he wasn't completely exhausted, he would be at the end of his tether.

Yet, it was ultimately just what they thought...

After suffering more than half casualties, the terror in their hearts finally consumed their minds, and they followed their survival instinct.

However, the moment he moved, a buzzing sound emanated, and several streaks of light, swift as shooting stars, struck him. His protective spiritual energy was breached, and the streaks of light pierced through his body, gushing out hot blood. Under the inertia of the powerful force, his corpse lurched forward several yards before falling to the ground.

"Flee separately!" someone roared.

What if you couldn't defeat the enemy? Naturally, you could only flee.

What if you couldn't escape? Just run faster than your companions.

Everyone thought this way. Under that roar, only eight Divine Will Sect disciples remained alive on the field. These eight fled in eight different directions, each activating life-saving secret techniques. For a moment, various colored streaks of light appeared.

As expected, Lu Ye couldn't chase everyone. While artifacts buzzed from his weapon box, striking at two of them, he himself lunged at another.

After killing that person, he quickly changed direction and lunged at another.

The idea of scattering and fleeing was good, and if used against other cultivators, it might not be ineffective. However, if their speed wasn't fast enough, it was ultimately meaningless.

After approximately fifteen minutes, Lu Ye had chased for thirty li, cutting down the last fleeing Divine Will Sect cultivator with his blade.

By this point, all the enemies who had pursued him were annihilated.

Sheathing his blade, Lu Ye's expression was calm. Divine light flickered in his eyes as he pondered the gains and losses of this battle.

It must be said that practicing the Hegemon Blade Art for the past half month had brought him immense improvement. Compared to half a month ago, his cultivation hadn't increased by much, but his mastery of blade arts had grown significantly.

Most importantly, he now had a system of his own.

He had one before, but it had seemed fragmented, evident in his combat process, and he hadn't been able to generalize or summarize it.

Now, thanks to the Hegemon Blade Art, he had an intuitive understanding of his own blade art system.

This was very beneficial.

Simply put, Lu Ye's previous blade art cultivation was almost like a blind person walking wherever they ended up, occasionally hitting a wall. Even though he had extorted many blade art cultivation insights from the Mad Blade Sect, helping him avoid some detours, he was still essentially blind.

Now it was different. This blind person now had light in his eyes and a road before him—the path of blade arts. As long as he continued cultivating along this path, he could continuously improve his mastery of blade arts.

This was his own path, distinct from the improvement of cultivation realms.

The improvement of cultivation realms was a broad, well-trodden path shared by all cultivators; as long as they cultivated step by step, they could go further and further along it.

However, every cultivator should also have a small path of their own.

It wasn't easy.

He had been cultivating for two or three years, and only today did he finally clearly see the path before him.

Lu Ye couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Taking out a few spirit pills and swallowing them, Lu Ye then contacted Yiyi, confirmed their direction, and began to head north.

One day later, at the border of Fengzhou and Jiazhou, in Ruyi City, they arrived at Tai'an Restaurant.

This was the largest and most luxurious restaurant in all of Ruyi City, packed with guests every day.

On the third floor of the restaurant, Lu Ye, Yiyi, and Ye Liuli sat at a table, eating some of the restaurant's signature dishes.

Lu Ye rarely entered places like restaurants. Throughout his life since embarking on cultivation, he had either been cultivating or being pursued; he had no leisure for such activities.

They came here at Ye Liuli's suggestion.

She remembered that when she was little, traveling north with Ye Ying, they passed through Ruyi City and ate a meal in this very restaurant. However, she was too young then, so many details were unclear.

Now that Ye Ying was gone, and with Lu Ye acting as a father figure, she walked the paths she had walked as a child and ate the food she had eaten back then.

Lu Ye naturally didn't mind and let her have her way.

The restaurant had quite a few cultivators, but even more mortals.

This was the general atmosphere of the entire Dragon Ascent Realm, where the line between cultivators and mortals was very blurred, which struck Lu Ye as novel.

Since entering the Spirit Stream Battlefield, he had not seen a single mortal. All he had encountered were cultivators whose cultivation levels were not far from his own.

He didn't even know what the atmosphere was like in his native Nine Provinces.

Numerous guests gorged themselves, while a storyteller on the side eloquently narrated novel tales, and others engaged in lively discussions.

Restaurants, teahouses, and entertainment venues have always been places where people of all sorts mingled.

"Have you all heard? Three days ago, Senior Li Sa of the Heaven-Sovereign Sect passed away." Someone's voice suddenly rang out. As it did, the noisy restaurant instantly quieted for a moment, and many showed expressions of surprise, clearly not having heard this news.

Information transmission in the Dragon Ascent Realm was not as convenient as in the Nine Provinces. If it were there, such a major event would spread throughout every corner where cultivators existed in less than half a day, let alone a full day.

The Heaven-Sovereign Sect was a sect with an extremely ancient heritage.

The current situation in the Dragon Ascent Realm was quite peculiar. The cultivation limit for cultivators was very low; no matter how they cultivated, they couldn't break through the shackles of the Cloud River Realm. Therefore, almost all sects, big and small, had ninth-layer cultivators presiding over them.

If one's cultivation hadn't reached the ninth layer, they would be embarrassed to establish a sect.

The difference was in the number of such cultivators.

The more ninth-layer cultivators there were, the stronger the sect's power naturally became.

Across the entire world, the Heaven-Sovereign Sect was undoubtedly one of the undisputed overlords. The other two recognized overlords were the Vajra Temple and Haoran Academy.

The three great overlords were established in three separate regions in the Dragon Ascent Realm, powerfully guarding a realm.

While sects were numerous in this world, and some had apparent strengths similar to these three, only these three were recognized as true overlords.

This wasn't solely due to their strength; the more important reason was their heritage.

These three were major sects that had existed for over a thousand years. As early as a millennium ago, they were already the overlords of the Dragon Ascent Realm.

In the Nine Provinces, sects with a thousand-year heritage were nothing special; one could even say they were ubiquitous.

But the Dragon Ascent Realm was different.

The cultivation limit for cultivators was too low. During the generational relay of heritage, it was easy for a lack of successors to emerge. One or two such instances would damage a sect's foundation, and repeated occurrences would inevitably lead the sect to decline and ultimately perish.

Just like the Hegemon Blade Villa, which existed for merely twenty years and was now gone.

Powers that emerged and perished like the Hegemon Blade Villa were countless in the Dragon Ascent Realm.

Major sects in the Nine Provinces wouldn't be like this. As long as there was a Spirit Sea Realm grand cultivator presiding, even if one or two generations didn't produce outstanding talents, there would always be some in the third or fourth generations, and they would always have a chance to rise again.

The Sacred Fire Sect, Golden Cloud Tower, and Hundred Refinements Valley, those three, were forcefully demoted from first-grade major sects to fourth-grade, yet showed no signs of perishing. This was precisely because their foundations were sufficiently profound.

If a sect in the Dragon Ascent Realm suffered such a blow, it would probably have long since vanished into thin air.

Comparing the two realms, the sustainability of sects in the Dragon Ascent Realm was undoubtedly much more fragile. Therefore, those that could maintain their overlord status from a millennium ago until now were truly extraordinary.