Sage of Humanity

Within the mountain cave, Lu Ye diligently practiced without rest, consuming Spirit-Nurturing Pills one after another. As one spiritual orifice filled up, the barrier of the next began to break. When tired, he slept; when hungry, he ate.

The days passed uneventfully, even somewhat dull and tasteless, but Lu Ye, feeling the continuous accumulation of spirit force within him, knew this was the process of growing stronger.

Before achieving the Spirit Stream Realm, he had managed to open an orifice every three days, consuming about six Spirit-Nurturing Pills each time.

Now that he had reached the Spirit Stream Realm, he could still maintain the pace of opening an orifice every three days, but the consumption had increased a bit, requiring eight or nine Spirit-Nurturing Pills to open each orifice.

The reason he could maintain the pace of orifice-opening was that his cultivation had improved, and he could refine the elixir pills more efficiently than before.

Previously, it took half a day to fully refine a Spirit-Nurturing Pill, refining only two in one day, but now, if he concentrated well enough, he could refine about three.

Thus, even though his consumption had increased, he could keep up the speed of opening orifices.

Time flew, and half a month passed in a hurry. The last Spirit-Nurturing Pill was consumed.

Lu Ye examined his cultivation. His realm was still at the Spirit Stream Level 1, but he had opened up to the 15th orifice, and the spirit force in the 15th orifice wasn't yet full.

He was only three orifices away from reaching the Spirit Stream Level 2! If he could advance to the Spirit Stream Level 2, his strength would undoubtedly see a significant increase. For now, though, although his stores of spirit force had greatly expanded, the newly opened orifices were not yet integrated, unable to offer much help to Lu Ye in combat.

In his hands, he still had ores that could be exchanged for Spirit Stones, and with his previous experience in mind, he planned to make another trip to the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union.

Walking out of the cave leisurely, the sun shone brightly outside. The dense canopy of the forest allowed only sporadic rays of light to pierce through the dense foliage, creating spots of light on the ground.

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Lu Ye squinted slightly, took a moment to adjust, then continued on his way.

He hadn't walked far when he suddenly heard some unusual noises not far away. He frowned slightly and stealthily approached the source of the sounds.

A moment later, he hid behind a big tree and looked ahead.

In that direction, three cultivators stood as if facing a great enemy. Each of them looked like they had lost a loved one, their expressions tense, with one of the female cultivators almost in tears.

Not far from these three cultivators, a robust, snow-white big tiger paced back and forth. With amber eyes that glanced occasionally at the cultivators, it exuded an immense sense of pressure.

As it paced, its mouth opened and closed: "Open your storage sacks and throw them on the ground, then get out of here. Otherwise, this king wouldn't mind eating you!"

Lu Ye's eyes twitched at the sound, recognizing the solemn and aged voice he had heard once before, which turned out to be the trickery of the minion spirit named Yiyi.

The three cultivators were clearly frightened. One of them shakily untied the storage sack from his waist, unlocked the restriction lock, threw it on the ground, and, looking at the big tiger with terror, pleaded, "Great King, please calm your anger. We did not mean to offend. Everything is here; please spare us."

The big tiger looked at the storage sack on the ground and roared: "Go away!"

The man quickly turned around and ran without looking back.

With him leading the way, the other two cultivators also hastily threw down their storage sacks and fled for their lives.

After making sure the three cultivators had run far away, the big tiger slowly paced forward. However, before it could reach the storage sacks, someone suddenly leaped out, grabbing the three sacks in hand.

The big tiger was startled and leaped backward. At the same time, a small figure floated out from atop its head, staring dumbfounded at Lu Ye: "Those are our things!"

Lu Ye, holding the storage sacks, gave them a quick check, and frowned.

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He found that the belongings in these storage sacks were pitifully scarce; each person only had a few Spirit-Nurturing Pills and some herbs, along with a mishmash of household items. As for Spirit Stones, there was no sign of them at all.

Cursing under his breath at their poverty, Lu Ye took out the Spirit-Nurturing Pills, divided them into two portions, kept one for himself, and tossed the other to Yiyi: "Finders keepers!"

Yiyi was shocked by his action, and lunged at him with bared teeth and flailing claws: "Give them back to me!"

"Clang!" Longsword unsheathed, Lu Ye looked at Yiyi who pounced towards him, smiling silently.

Yiyi's form stiffened in front of the Longsword, grinding her teeth in anger, swearing fiercely, and her small mouth was as if smeared with honey.

"Or should I call those three back?"

Yiyi immediately shrank back, reluctantly withdrawing, knowing deep down that she couldn't get the elixir pills back from Lu Ye's hand. She could feel that Lu Ye had become much stronger than he was over a month ago, and if it really came to a fight, the big tiger would stand no chance.

However, being robbed made her feel incredibly wronged, muttering under her breath about shamelessness and despicability, among other things.

"I have a question for you," Lu Ye began.

"I won't tell you anything!" Yiyi snapped.

"Answer well, and I'll give you these items back," Lu Ye said, waving the stolen goods in his hand. A few Spirit-Nurturing Pills were hardly of consequence to him anyway.

"Heh!" Yiyi let out a scornful laugh, sitting proudly on the big tiger's head with the airs of one who considers money as mere dirt, and looking up she said: "Ask away!"

"I saw many demon cultivators in the marketplace at the foot of the mountain, and they didn't seem to be anything special. So why are those people so afraid of you?"

This was something that Lu Ye found quite puzzling. Those demon cultivators were definitely stronger than the big tiger. Logically speaking, cultivators who were used to seeing demon cultivators shouldn't be so terrified of a demon beast that hadn't changed its shape, becoming utterly panicked after a mere few threatening words.

"You just don't understand," Yiyi said smugly. "Shapeshifted demon cultivators and unshapeshifted demon beasts are not the same..."

With her explanation, Lu Ye finally understood. Not all demon beasts choose to shift their shape, whether due to issues with their spiritual intelligence, their own choices, or perhaps because of their Bloodline heritage. In any case, a considerable number of them still retain their original form.

This type of demon beast doesn't speak while its strength is low, but once they reach a certain level of power, they can articulate human speech.

In other words, a demon beast that can speak already counts as a heavyweight! As for how strong they actually are, at the very least, they're not beings that low-level cultivators on the fringe can afford to provoke.

Therefore the combined threat posed by the big tiger and Yiyi was terrifying, and quite a few cultivators who strayed into their territory suffered as a result.

"So that's how it is!" Lu Ye realized, feeling that he had learned some more common knowledge of the cultivation world.

He tossed back the stolen goods and turned to walk out of the mountain.

Yiyi checked them over, confirmed there were no issues, and shouted after Lu Ye's retreating figure: "Are you leaving?"

"None of your damn business!" Lu Ye's voice carried back from the distance.

"Dammit!" Yiyi muttered under her breath, turned to hug the big tiger's head, and said mournfully: "Amber, we are so pitiful!"

"Woo ao..."

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