Sage of Humanity-Chapter 481 - 479: 30,000 Battle Merits (Thanks to Alliance Hierarch pft0 for the reward)

This peculiar Insect Race, once they had lost control of their parasitized hosts, posed no threat to the cultivators whatsoever.

Lu Ye lowered his head and closely examined the insect he had caught in his hand, which was about the same size as the ones he had found before, resembling a cicada but cast in golden yellow, as if made of gold.

"Insect King!" he murmured softly.

"What?" Zhou Hai frowned.

"This is the Insect King!"

A group of people looked perplexed, especially a few from Cloud River Level 9 — Insect King, they had never heard of it. Having muddled through the Cloud River battlefield for so long, they had experienced one secret realm after another and had encountered many Insect Race individuals. However, those were just groups of monster beasts that knew nothing but destruction and slaughter. They had never come across any sort of "Insect King."

"How do you know it’s the Insect King?" Xia Qianqian asked, puzzled.

"I had some sense of it when I was being parasitized earlier..." Lu Ye carefully recalled the sensation from that moment and thoughtfully said, "Kill it, and the crisis in the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain can be resolved!"

Hearing him say this, the others were immediately intrigued. Zhou Hai asked, "How can you be sure?"

Lu Ye organized the information he had received in that instant when he was parasitized and explained, "All the other Insect Race are controlled by this Insect King. If it dies, the rest are just for show, even if they remain parasitic within the demon beasts, they will have no effect on them..."

While being parasitized, he sensed many presences above him, clearly the auras of the insects that were parasitic inside the demon beasts, and millions of life imprints in the direction of Two Worlds City, which were obviously the markings of the Insect Race.

When Amber was parasitized in Two Worlds City, she sensed the location of the Black Tortoise Sect, which was an interaction with the Insect King.

"Does that mean, if we kill this Insect King, we won’t have to deal with those demon beasts anymore?" Shen Xiaomao asked.

Previously, she had been full of worry because even if they killed Niu Meng here, they would still have to face the overwhelming horde of demon beasts once they went out. With everyone’s current condition, there wasn’t much fighting strength left. But if things were as Lu Ye had said, then killing just one Insect King would eradicate the madness afflicting the beast outside.

"Whether that’s the case or not, we’ll find out when we look back," Lu Ye said, as he exerted force in his hand, crushing the golden Insect King amidst its shrill squeals. The golden fluids that burst out were instantly obliterated by his scorching spirit force.

At the same time, on the surface of the Black Tortoise Sect, the demon beasts that were furiously howling and trying to breach underground suddenly quieted down, with the crimson in their eyes quickly fading away.

Not only was this the case at the Black Tortoise Sect, but the situation was the same in the desperately imperiled Two Worlds City, which was nearly breached. The cultivators, who were faced with despair a moment ago, were astonished to find that the demon beasts, seemingly bound by a blood feud just moments before, were now retreating like the tide.

On stretches of ruined walls, the surviving cultivators slowly gathered, watching the withdrawing massive horde of beasts and basking in the joy of surviving a catastrophe.

No one knew why the demon beasts had suddenly retreated, but cultivators from the Nine Provinces vaguely guessed that someone had addressed the root of the problem in the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain.

At this moment, beneath the Black Tortoise Sect, people had already retreated from the sealed insect hive.

After Niu Meng died, the insect hive withered, and the sealed entrance naturally opened a gap.

Toxic mists still lingered inside the insect hive, making no one willing to stay longer than necessary.

However, because they could not ascertain the situation with the demon beasts above ground, they did not dare to go up rashly. They found a place in the underground passage to rest and recuperate.

Poisoning had a significant impact on the cultivators. Even though they had consumed quite a few Detoxification Pills before, they all felt weak and listless, their limbs powerless, and their spirit force depleted.

In such a state, it was necessary to return to the Cloud River battlefield and seek treatment from a healing cultivator. Relying solely on their own cultivation to recover was hardly enough to cleanse their bodies of the insidious poisons.

In the dim passage, Lu Ye swallowed a healing pill and slowly recuperated, while Yiyi had been sent out to probe the situation on the surface. If the situation was different from his expectations, then they would have to fight their way out.

This was undoubtedly something none of them wanted to face.

Looking at the condition of the group, with each one of them seriously injured and poisoned, they couldn’t even muster half of their usual strength.

In the quiet, Pang Dahai suddenly chuckled with a low, heh heh, "Gentlemen, take a look at your battle merits!"

He had clearly discovered something, and his mood was quite cheerful.

Hearing his words, everyone hurriedly took out their inscribed tablets to check.

Lu Ye checked and was shocked to find that his battle merits were nearly thirty thousand points!

Battle merits were distributed by Heaven’s Augury, so there was no chance of embezzlement or discrepancies. Lu Ye had earned just over three thousand points from killing many demon beasts with an array of Formations. While defending Two Worlds City, his merits increased to over five thousand points, which included not just the merits for slaying enemies but also for maintaining the Thunder Roar Array.

And now, he had nearly 30,000 points! In other words, his trip to the Black Tortoise Sect had netted him nearly 25,000 battle merits, the bulk of which surely came from joining forces with others to slay Niu Meng, and a portion from killing that Insect King.

Perhaps there was also the reason of discovering the secret of the Insect Race here...

No matter what, for Lu Ye, a Cloud River Level 2 cultivator, nearly 30,000 battle merits was a huge gain.

Over at the military supplies section of Two Worlds City, a gold-hued spirit fortune stick was only 16,200 battle merits, and Lu Ye almost had enough to exchange for two gold-hued spirit fortune sticks!

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He didn’t know how many battle merits others had, but he figured they wouldn’t be less than his; especially Zhou Hai and Pang Dahai, who had exerted great effort in the previous battles. Niu Meng had died at the hands of Zhou Hai’s flying sword, and Pang Dahai had also made a significant contribution in entangling Niu Meng.

If calculated this way, a single Niu Meng was worth almost one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand battle merits. After his death, based on everyone’s contributions, Heaven’s Augury distributed the battle merits in different proportions.

As bitter as everyone had been when fighting Niu Meng, they were now equally jubilant; in the darkness, smiles were spreading from one to another.

However, there were over a dozen people when they set out, but now only seven or eight lived. The battle with Niu Meng was extremely dangerous; half of the combat cultivators had died, and one physique cultivator, not to mention that the female spectral cultivator had not managed to escape disaster either.

Great gains also meant tragic losses; a cultivator’s life is always filled with crises that are difficult to resolve.

"Aren’t we missing someone?" Pang Dahai suddenly asked.

Lu Ye turned his head to look around and counted the numbers, finding they were indeed one person short. On closer inspection, he realized it was Lan Ziyi who was missing.

This surprised him, as he didn’t seem to have revealed any traces himself, yet this woman was alert, having left the group and hidden herself at some point.

Entering the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain secret realm under Heaven’s Augury’s arrangement and cooperating with Lan Ziyi was not a problem since it was orchestrated by Heaven’s Augury, and moreover, Lan Ziyi was still his Maid in this realm, which was ultimately to Lu Ye’s advantage.

But whether it was Lu Ye or Lan Ziyi, both were aware of each other’s background.

Belonging to two opposing factions, they had already crossed paths on the Spirit Stream battlefield and had felt each other’s strength. If the opportunity arose, Lu Ye would not mind slaying Lan Ziyi, and he believed she harbored the same thought.

He had not revealed such an intent before due to a lack of a suitable opportunity; he was unsure of the affiliations of the others in the team besides Pang Dahai and such an action in front of everyone might not be successful.

The opportunity was favorable now; Lan Ziyi was heavily poisoned and greatly weakened, while Lu Ye was also seriously injured but in much better condition than Lan Ziyi.

If he found an opening, he was confident he could kill this woman in one strike, and even if someone wanted to intervene, Pang Dahai would be able to block them for a moment.

Unexpectedly, Lan Ziyi didn’t give him the chance at all.

It was somewhat regrettable, but he admired the woman’s decisiveness. She evidently knew that, in her current state, it was not wise to appear before Lu Ye.

The disappearance of Lan Ziyi didn’t cause much of a stir; Pang Dahai just asked briefly and did not pursue it further.

All of them were veterans of the Cloud River battlefield; Lan Ziyi’s decision to hide at this moment clearly indicated wariness. Unspoken understanding didn’t require words to be exchanged.

A message came through the battlefield marking, and Lu Ye checked to find it was from Yiyi.

It was confirmed, all the demon beasts on the surface of the Black Tortoise Sect had dispersed. Yiyi had even deliberately sought out a solitary demon beast nearby to observe, finding that it had returned to normal.

"How do we normally leave this kind of secret realm?" Lu Ye asked.

Pang Dahai replied, "Usually, if all problems are resolved, there would be a Heaven’s Augury Pillar at a certain location... In this secret realm, the Heaven’s Augury Pillar should appear in Two Worlds City. As for the exact location, we still need to search for it!"

Lu Ye raised his eyebrows. "When we left Two Worlds City, we did not have the City Lord’s permission. The City Lord even said that if we dared to abscond, we would be branded as traitors to the human race and would never set foot in Two Worlds City again for the rest of our lives."

Pang Dahai chuckled, "That’s why it’ll be somewhat troublesome for us if we want to return to Two Worlds City." He seemed to have experienced such situations before, so he was not at all flustered.

"But we can’t just not go back, the military supplies depot is still in Two Worlds City," Lu Ye said with a headache.

"That’s not a problem. Your battle merits can be exchanged for the resources you want at the military supplies depot in Two Worlds City, or you can take them back to the Cloud River battlefield."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Let’s say this, battle merits are only attainable within certain secret realms and are a level above battle merit. Even if you don’t spend them in a secret realm, you can take them back and just find any Heaven’s Augury Pillar, connect with the Heaven’s Augury treasure vault, and spend your battle merits. A friendly reminder: there are things you can get with battle merits that you can’t with battle merit. For instance, various spirit fortune sticks, but what you can get with battle merit can definitely be obtained with battle merits because whether it’s exchanging battle merits or battle merit, the source of all supplies is actually the Heaven’s Augury treasure vault. Heaven’s Augury is at play in this!"

Lu Ye understood; this was very convenient and made him even more aware of the mysteries of Heaven’s Augury.