Sage of Humanity

By dawn, Li Baxian had left.

One night's teaching had reaped great rewards for Lu Ye, who finally understood the secret of how his Fourth Senior Brother was able to control hundreds of weapons with his 8th Heaven cultivation.

Only when he truly understood did Lu Ye realize that Li Baxian's method of weapon control didn't entirely suit him, as it required some innate talents that he lacked.

However, learning from others can help one improve, and this night's teaching was enough to elevate Lu Ye's Weapon Control Path by one level.

In mid-air, a sword light streaked across the majestic peak; Li Baxian headed towards the rising sun, controlling his sword, his hand clutching a storage sack.

This was given to him by Lu Ye before he left, claiming it was a gift he was bringing along.

As a gift from his Junior Brother, he naturally had no reason to refuse and accepted it graciously.

The storage sack had no restriction lock, so Li Baxian easily opened it, reached inside, and pulled out a bottle.

The bottle was sealed and had a label attached to it. Li Baxian looked down, and his expression shifted subtly when he saw the three bold characters written there.

Soul Cleansing Water!

Li Baxian's eyelids twitched. Having cultivated for so many years, he naturally knew what Soul Cleansing Water was and was also aware that Second Senior Sister Shui Yuan's rapid promotion to the Divine Sea Realm was related to the Soul Cleansing Water that their Junior Brother had given her.

But he hadn't expected that he would have a share of such a treasure! Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

How much Soul Cleansing Water had his Junior Brother managed to produce?

After opening the bottle and checking it, he found it was half-filled with Soul Cleansing Water. The distinct smell that entered his nose immediately gave him a refreshing sensation, and his perception became a bit clearer.

Such a half bottle of Soul Cleansing Water contained at least over a dozen drops. Such a treasure was extremely attractive to strong cultivators in the Divine Sea Realm.

This gift was indeed too precious.

Lu Ye had brought out about three and a half bottles of Soul Cleansing Water from Xianyuan City. After using a few drops from one bottle, he had given the rest to Shui Yuan.

The other half bottle, apart from what was given to Bai Qian, was used up in the Hundred Arrays Pagoda.

Two bottles remained; one was given to Yiyi. Since Yiyi was a Spiritual Body, the Soul Cleansing Water had the best effect on her. With her cultivation improving over time, she could use it slowly to gradually strengthen her psyche force.

The last bottle was divided into two parts by Lu Ye, one half of which was in Li Baxian's hands, and the rest was kept by Lu Ye for emergencies.

With that, the Soul Cleansing Water he had brought from Xianyuan City had been clearly distributed.

Holding the Soul Cleansing Water in his hand, Li Baxian shook his head and chuckled, realizing that his Junior Brother had given it to him in a storage sack, especially to avoid his possible refusal.

He solemnly stored the Soul Cleansing Water and discovered that there was still something else in the storage sack.

Pulling it out, his expression suddenly became serious when he saw that it was two very antique wooden boxes.

He had seen this kind of wooden box before—more than once!

As he often checked the remaining quantity of such items in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, he had witnessed these treasures, available only in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, gradually dwindle until recently only eight were left, which he could not afford to buy.

Even with Li Baxian's calm disposition, holding the two wooden boxes, his hands couldn't help trembling slightly.

If this item was indeed what he had been watching in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, then its value was immense. Compared to the half bottle of Soul Cleansing Water, these two wooden boxes were what he needed the most.

After taking a deep breath, he opened one of the wooden boxes and saw a well-preserved, sealed elixir pill inside. He checked the other box and found the same thing.

Li Baxian's sword light halted, feeling the weight in his hands, both literally and figuratively heavy.

He confirmed that these were indeed the treasures he had often paid attention to in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault.

Orifice repair pill!

As the name implies, this elixir's function was to repair damaged spiritual orifices.

A cultivator's spiritual orifice could be repaired if damaged; it's just that the cost of repair was far too great. An orifice repair pill was valued at 150,000 merits, a price unaffordable for most.

That was why, after Dong Shuye's spiritual orifice was damaged, he had become dejected, knowing that with his abilities, he would never be able to repair the damage in his lifetime.

Li Baxian's prolonged stagnation at the Spirit Stream Realm for over a decade was due to his damaged spiritual orifice.

Was it that he couldn't ascend to the Cloud River Realm?

It is not so. After a cultivator switches to cultivating a Heaven Rank technique, they can choose to advance to the Cloud River Realm. In other words, the lowest requirement for a cultivator to ascend to the Cloud River Realm is to open two hundred and forty orifices.

However, advancing to the Cloud River Realm in this manner can greatly impact one's strength and one's future potential will not be very great.

Therefore, in the inner circle of the battlefield, one can still see some old cultivators of the Spirit Stream Realm who are of advanced age, but in the Core Circle, such individuals are basically unseen. This is because those who mix in the Core Circle have all switched to cultivating Heaven Rank techniques, and upon reaching a certain age and having opened two hundred and forty orifices, they almost always choose to advance to the Cloud River Realm.

The Nine Provinces cultivation world once conducted a statistic: those who advance to the Cloud River Realm with less than three hundred orifices have only a thirty percent probability of advancing to the True Lake Realm later on, and there is absolutely no chance for them to advance to the Divine Sea Realm. For those above three hundred orifices, the probability to advance to the True Lake Realm is as high as seventy percent, and there's a certain chance to achieve the Divine Sea Realm.

If one can advance to the Cloud River with three hundred and sixty orifices, then as long as one does not fall midway, the chances of advancing to the Divine Sea Realm are as high as eighty percent!

Li Baxian merely had one spiritual orifice destroyed, the other three hundred and fifty-nine orifices had long been opened. If he wanted to, he could have ascended to the Cloud River Realm long ago.

The reason he did not ascend was mainly due to his unwillingness.

After all, he was once a prodigy of the Nine Provinces, with 8th Heaven cultivation controlling a hundred weapons, holding the third position on the Spirit Stream Ranking. How could Li Baxian be willing to advance to the Cloud River Realm in such an imperfect state, reducing his future potential?

For more than a decade, he had been accumulating his own merits, and the number of one hundred and fifty thousand was not far off.

His only concern was that the orifice repair pills would sell out before he accumulated enough merits.

Now, all his worries had vanished because he had already obtained two orifice repair pills in his possession—and not just one, but two!

With a value of a full three hundred thousand merits, it was a tremendously large number. With these two orifice repair pills in hand, he was completely confident in repairing his damaged spiritual orifice and ascending to the Cloud River Realm in the most perfect condition. As for the years he awaited, he could completely make up for them with his talent and speed of cultivation.

For a time, Li Baxian was overwhelmed with emotion. He never expected that the so-called gift from Lu Ye would be so precious.

Whether it was the Soul Cleansing Water or the orifice repair pill, any one of these was worth a city's ransom and certainly not something that a cultivator of the Spirit Stream Realm could offer.

After some thought, he raised his hand and touched his battlefield marking to send out a message: "Junior brother, thank you!"

In the Loyal Heart Sect headquarters, Lu Ye, who was discussing the sect development plan with Shui Yuan, checked the message and smiled faintly. He did not reply, nor did he need to reply. There was no need for such formalities between brothers.

"I noticed that there were two less orifice repair pills in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault just now, was it you who bought them?" Shui Yuan suddenly asked.

"Yes, didn't Senior Sister say before that due to Fourth Senior Brother's spiritual orifice being damaged for too long, one orifice repair pill might not be sufficient? So, I bought two."

When Lu Ye first heard that his Fourth Senior Brother, with 8th Heaven cultivation, had been in the Spirit Stream battlefield for more than a decade, he was quite surprised. After some inquiry, he learned of Li Baxian's damaged spiritual orifice.

This was not a secret. One could easily find out by asking around.

Later, during a casual chat with Shui Yuan, he mentioned it, and she told him that there were elixir pills in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault that could repair spiritual orifices, but they were incredibly expensive. If Li Baxian were still with the Righteous Blood Sect, the sect would have used all of its resources to help him, but things at his current Loyal Heart Sect were complicated. He couldn't get any help from outside, and it was even difficult to accumulate merits, which was why Li Baxian had not gathered enough merits to buy an orifice repair pill all these years.

At that point, Lu Ye became determined.

He remembered how his Senior Sister stood under the punishment of the Soul-Destroying Divine Lightning on top of Golden Light Peak, arriving in time to save his life, and how his Senior Brother used Sword Control from the Core Circle to protect him completely.

Even then, while Li Baxian was still accumulating his own merits, he did not hesitate at all in front of powerful enemies, despite the fact that killing cultivators from the outer circle would deduct a lot of merits for someone with his 8th Heaven cultivation.

Lu Ye still remembered that originally, Weh Ying had warned Li Baxian to be careful not to deplete all his merits with his kills.

Prior to that, Lu Ye had never met either Shui Yuan or Li Baxian. They had simply protected him at great cost because he bore the name of a Righteous Blood Sect disciple.

It was at that time that Lu Ye knew he had people behind him and that he would no longer be alone.

It was then, too, that Lu Ye realized that in the vast cultivation world, he now had a home.

Since Li Baxian's spiritual orifice had been damaged for too long and one orifice repair pill might not suffice, then buy two! What counted the merits spent.

That was also why Lu Ye had been eager to accumulate merits because the amount he needed was so immense. Originally, he planned to slowly accumulate them while seeking vengeance in the inner circle.

But breakthroughs in the Array Path and techniques for array destruction had given him a way to rapidly accumulate merits. That, too, could be considered a stroke of luck.

"You've worked hard," Shui Yuan said, her head lowered so that her expression could not be seen.

Just like Li Baxian, she often kept track of the remaining quantity of orifice repair pills and would not have noticed their depletion had she not been paying attention.

"We're family," Lu Ye shook his head, then changed the subject, "Senior Sister, about the matter I mentioned just now, can it be done? If the sect wants to grow, we definitely can't do it with just the people we have now. Currently, most of the sect disciples come from independent cultivators with not-so-great aptitude. Their future achievements are mostly limited. The sect needs to continuously replenish new blood, especially those disciples with outstanding talents. Only then can our sect have enough cultivators in the Cloud River and True Lake Realms in the future."

"You're right," Shui Yuan nodded in agreement, "I'll take care of it. Let's organize a grand disciple recruitment ceremony. In the past few decades, the Righteous Blood Sect has not taken in new disciples. Every time there are some with decent aptitude in the vicinity, they end up benefiting other sects."

"Then I'll leave this to Senior Sister." As he spoke, Lu Ye took out several storage sacks and handed them to Shui Yuan, "These are spoils of war from when we took over the forces of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge. Senior Sister, see to their disposition. The sect will need a lot of resources for development, and the disciples' cultivation expenses won't be small."