Chapter 846: Gold Flood Dragon and Silver Flood Dragon

The first batch of disciples should soon be advancing to the Cloud River Realm. Once they reach the Cloud River Battlefield, they can directly enter the Heaven's Return Valley spiritual land for cultivation. It won't be too late for them to venture out for trials and acquire cultivation resources after they've gained some self-preservation abilities.

Lu Ye himself advanced step by step, but he was blessed by the Heavenly Secret and enjoyed abundant luck. Other Blood Sect disciples don't have his good fortune.

The current efforts will undoubtedly help future junior disciples avoid many detours and grow faster.

As for a scale of a hundred people, it should generally be sufficient.

Most cultivators don't stay in one place for long, cultivating in isolation. They always need to venture out to temper themselves. Therefore, even if many disciples advance to the Cloud River Realm and come to the Cloud River Battlefield in the future, the spiritual land won't have too many people staying there at any given time.

The expansion of the spiritual land will take some time, with effects visible within three to five days.

Li Baxian had already gone to the location of the Heavenly Secret Pillar, apparently intending to exchange the battle merits he acquired on this trip for spiritual talismans for cultivation.

Lu Ye followed behind him, walking while immersing his mind to check his battle imprint.

Name: Lu Yiye.Identity: Blood Sect Disciple.Cultivation: Cloud River Realm, Eighth Level.Location: Cloud River Battlefield.Merits: 116,245 points.Battle Merits: 186,472 points.

Compared to the last check, his merits hadn't changed much, as he hadn't used any recently. However, his battle merit accumulation was quite astonishing.

After exchanging for golden spiritual talismans from the Battle Merit Pavilion last time, he recalled having only 3,232 battle merits left. Although he gained some battle merits from participating in the Cloud River Hegemony, it was only a few thousand points at most.

But now, he had over 180,000. Simply eradicating Corpse Race members wouldn't yield such a massive amount of battle merits. After all, even a Golden Corpse King was only equivalent to a Cloud River Realm Ninth Level cultivator, and it only represented 60 battle merits on its own.

However, killing a Golden Corpse King had extremely significant importance in resolving the Corpse Disaster on Wushuang Continent. Therefore, when the Heavenly Secret of Kyushu coordinated the efforts, it granted an exceptionally large reward.

A single Iron Corpse Commander brought Lu Ye over 10,000 points, but a Golden Corpse King was worth over 100,000. The remaining points were battle merits he accumulated from eliminating a large number of other Corpse Race members.

There were a total of nine members in the Kyushu advance team sent to Wushuang Continent. Lu Ye didn't know how many battle merits the others had received. The only thing he was certain of was that no one would have more battle merits than him, because he was the main force in eliminating the Golden Corpse King during the final battle.

With over 180,000 battle merits, he could acquire more than ten golden spiritual talismans according to the exchange rate at the Battle Merit Pavilion.

He already had twenty golden spiritual talismans from his reward for topping the Cloud River Hegemony, which he hadn't used. Such abundant resources were more than enough to help him advance to the True Lake Realm with some to spare.

The benefits gained from his trip to Wushuang Continent were not limited to the battle merits displayed in his battle imprint.

There was something else.

In comparison, perhaps this particular benefit was the greatest!

Because the moment Lu Ye returned to Kyushu through the portal of the Ziwei Dao Palace, a message exploded in his mind.

The content of that message excited and filled him with anticipation.

"Junior Brother, I'm off to cultivate first."

Li Baxian had already exchanged his spiritual talismans and turned to tell Lu Ye.

Lu Ye withdrew his thoughts. "Go ahead, Senior Brother." After Li Baxian left, he stepped forward, raised his hand, and pressed it against the Heavenly Secret Pillar in front of him. He didn't connect to the Battle Merit Pavilion immediately but instead connected to the Heavenly Secret Treasury.

It had become his habit to occasionally select rare flames and alchemical flames from the Heavenly Secret Treasury.

However, ever since he once spent a large amount of merits to completely buy out the Earth Core Flames from the Heavenly Secret Treasury, it had become difficult to acquire large quantities of them again.

This time, his luck was mediocre. Including various rare flames and alchemical flames, he bought a total of over ten portions, spending nearly ten thousand merits.

These were all resources for his Talent Tree. Due to a lack of resources, there was still a spirit pattern on his Talent Tree that had only revealed its rudimentary form and hadn't been fully ignited.

Lu Ye was still very much looking forward to that rudimentary spirit pattern, because spirit patterns that required many leaves to bear were extremely complex and would undoubtedly be of great use.

The Winged Flight and Fiery Phoenix spirit patterns he controlled were both of this type.

Buying some monster cores for Amber again cost another ten thousand merits.

Next was the main event, and the most anticipated part.

Just as he was about to exit the Heavenly Secret Treasury and connect to the Battle Merit Pavilion, Lu Ye seemed to remember something and quickly searched within the Heavenly Secret Treasury again.

He quickly found his targets.

Flesh and blood of a Crimson-Eyed Silver-Backed Wolf, 5,000 merits. Flesh and blood of a Sky-Devouring Ox Python, 8,000 merits.

He bought four pieces of monster flesh, spending a total of 20,000 merits directly. They were incredibly expensive, and Lu Ye had never even heard of these monster names. Looking at the flesh, it all contained pure power, clearly belonging to True Lake Realm monsters.

Monsters at this level were already at the Monster Commander rank, a level Lu Ye couldn't currently access.

Although it pained him a bit, if his idea worked, he might receive a good return in the future.

"Battle Merit Pavilion!"

Lu Ye silently chanted in his mind. The surrounding scenery rapidly shifted, then froze.

A massive, ancient gate appeared before him, exuding an air of antiquity and desolation. Above the gate, a seemingly rusted plaque bore the three characters "Battle Merit Pavilion".

On the gate's leaves, there were also two dragon-like beings, sleeping with their eyes closed.

Perhaps Lu Ye's arrival disturbed them, as both dragons simultaneously opened their vertical pupils.

A fierce and bloody aura rushed forth, giving an immense sense of awe.

Lu Ye had experienced this once before, so he remained unfazed, his heart rate steady. He even had the leisure to carefully observe the two dragons that seemed embedded in the gate leaves.

Last time, he had been in a hurry and hadn't observed them closely.

This time, Lu Ye consciously paid attention and discovered that while the two dragons appeared similar, they actually had some differences.

The dragon on the left had a golden glow at the center of its forehead, while the dragon on the right had a silver glow on its forehead.

*Golden Dragon, Silver Dragon,* Lu Ye thought to himself. "Greetings, Seniors!" Lu Ye respectfully bowed.

When he came last time, he had made up his mind never to easily offend these two dragons. These two seemed to be sealed here, unable to escape, yet their strength was unparalleled. Lu Ye suspected they were Monster King-level beings.

There's a saying that a phoenix stripped of its feathers is no better than a chicken, but regardless, the Battle Merit Pavilion's gate was guarded by them.

He would likely be entering and exiting the Battle Merit Pavilion frequently in the future, so it was naturally not advisable to offend them.

Not only was it unwise to offend them, but he should even foster good relations. After all, these two had been guarding the Battle Merit Pavilion for an unknown number of years and must know many secrets that ordinary people were unaware of.

In the future, he might have occasion to seek their advice.

"This kid's here again." The golden dragon on the left showed an intrigued expression, its golden vertical pupils scanning Lu Ye up and down.

"He's still alive, surprisingly!" The silver dragon also spoke. The last time Lu Ye came, it had wondered if he would live long. It seemed that in their eyes, entering the Battle Merit Pavilion wasn't a good sign and usually implied a short life.

"And he's grown quite a bit stronger! Interesting, interesting!" The golden dragon's upper body emerged from the gate, circling around Lu Ye. Its massive head was almost pressed against Lu Ye's, its forked tongue flicking in and out.

Lu Ye's expression was calm. "Thank you for your concern, Seniors. I am well, and I've even had a small stroke of luck, so my strength has improved slightly."

"Concern?" A human-like look of astonishment appeared in the golden dragon's eyes, followed by a burst of laughter. It pulled its body back and said to the silver dragon, "He says we're concerned about him!"

The silver dragon spoke, "Strictly speaking, we *are* concerned about him – concerned about when he'll die!"

The golden dragon turned its head, looking at Lu Ye. "Just don't die too soon. We made a bet earlier, betting on whether you'd die within three years!"

Lu Ye asked curiously, "Who bet on me living?"

The golden dragon sneered repeatedly, "It bet you'd surely die within three years. I bet you'd live longer than three years!"

Lu Ye nodded. "I see."

No one bet on him living; they all bet on his death, just with different timeframes.

"Since you two Seniors are having such an elegant pastime, how about I join in?"

"Oh? You want to bet too?"

"I bet I can live for ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred years, or even longer!"

An ill-natured expression filled the silver dragon's vertical pupils. "Kid, since you want to join the bet, what's your stake?"

"How about these?" As Lu Ye spoke, he took out the four large pieces of beast meat he had bought from the Heavenly Secret Treasury. "From now on, every time I come here, I'll bring some food for you two Seniors, as my stake!"

"Mere small favors..." The golden dragon's words trailed off as it closed its mouth, mainly because it was drooling so heavily.

To think, these two dragons had been trapped here for thousands of years. During this time, although some humans had come and gone, they had always been in a hurry, and no one had thought to bring them food.

They also couldn't openly ask people for food. Even though they were imprisoned, they still had their dignity.

Until today...

Having not smelled the scent of blood for thousands of years, the two dragons had almost forgotten what the taste of flesh and blood was like. Especially since what Lu Ye bought this time was not ordinary fare, but monster commander-level flesh and blood, it naturally made their mouths water.

While the golden dragon was speaking, Lu Ye had already thrown out the beast meat. The two dragons each took two pieces and chewed them. The golden dragon even mumbled, picking up its previous sentence: "Don't think you can bribe us!"

"Not bad, not bad. Hmm... truly delicious!" The silver dragon nodded vigorously from the side.

Lu Ye wore a smile on his face, watching this scene with satisfaction.

It was now certain that these two dragons were living beings, merely trapped here for unknown reasons, serving as guards for the Battle Merit Pavilion's gate.

At this moment, they no longer possessed their previous condescending and fierce demeanor. They were utterly like hungry ghosts reincarnated, their eating manners as unsightly as could be.

The four large pieces of beast meat were devoured in a few gulps. The silver dragon then stared longingly at Lu Ye, as if saying, "I want more."

Although the golden dragon didn't express it as explicitly, it clearly had the same intention.