Sage of Humanity

Familiar surroundings, a familiar situation, but compared to last time, this time Lu Ye was able to get out of bed and walk around after only three days.

Injuries caused by sharp weapons undoubtedly recovered better, and with the daily care from Hua Ci, the healing cultivator, he felt that he would heal soon.

During these days, he had been busy. With Hua Ci's treatment, he took several healing pills to speed up the recovery of his wounds and refined some small recovery pills to replenish his spirit force.

A few more days passed, and his injuries improved significantly.

Under the moonlight, Lu Ye was practicing with his blade. Not far away, under a large tree, Amber was resting, occasionally yawning widely. Yiyi was sitting with her back against Amber's soft belly, hugging her knees, lost in thought.

After a long while, she sighed and whispered to Amber, "Amber, we're really useless, aren't we?"

The reason for such a sentiment was that she realized since they had followed Lu Ye out of Qingyun Mountain, they could play only a limited role. They found it hard to get involved in the battles Lu Ye faced.

Whether it was the previous pursuit by Dong Shuye or the fight to the death with Senior Brother Zhou, it was always the same.

In the end, it all came down to their lack of strength.

The biggest role Amber served was to carry Lu Ye on the road; her greatest use was keeping guard when Lu Ye rested.

This made Yiyi feel somewhat powerless. If she and Amber could have supported Lu Ye better, he wouldn't have been so severely injured.

"We need to become stronger." Yiyi said again to Amber, "Do you understand?"

Amber opened its mouth and yawned loudly.

"Then it's settled!" Yiyi nodded firmly. Explore new worlds at empire

When the moon was high in the sky, and Lu Ye sheathed his blade, Yiyi ran over to him, looking up and saying, "Lu Ye, Lu Ye."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Hmm?"

"Can you give us some more elixir pills?" Yiyi asked, somewhat shyly.

"What do you want the elixir pills for?" Lu Ye asked, puzzled.

"To feed Amber, so you don't have to worry when you're busy. I can feed it," she said.

"That can be arranged." Lu Ye would not refuse such a small request, and immediately took out a storage sack, putting several bottles of elixir pills into it.

Yiyi joyfully ran back with the storage sack, even finding a sturdy rope to tie around Amber's neck so they could access the pills at any time.

She took out a Spirit-Nurturing Pill from the storage sack and stuffed it into the tiger's mouth: "Eat this, eat more, you need to get stronger!"

...

As the spirit force continuously surged and struck, the spiritual orifice barrier gradually loosened and finally broke, allowing the gushing spirit force to flow into the new spiritual orifice.

The 46th orifice opened!

When he had previously left Mount Ying to find Amber, he had already opened up to the 37th orifice. During those days of searching for Amber, he also cultivated at night. The dual boost from the Bestial Gluttony Feast and the Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes allowed him to open orifices quickly, reaching the 41st orifice by the time he found Amber.

It had been twelve days since his return to Mount Ying. Except for the initial days when Lu Ye didn't cultivate, he hadn't wasted the rest of the time. Healing didn't affect orifice-opening, and he even had more time for cultivation.

By today, he had opened a total of 46 orifices.

Under normal circumstances, the minimum requirement to ascend to Spirit Stream Level 4 is 45 orifices, of course, this is under the premise of only cultivating one Cultivation Technique.

However, because Lu Ye had first cultivated the Yellow Level Golden Cicada Carefree Method and then the supplementary Cultivation Technique, Bestial Gluttony Feast, these two techniques had two spiritual orifices that did not overlap with the ones used in his current cultivation of the Red Lotus Soaring to Sky Technique.

Therefore, if he wanted to ascend to Spirit Stream Level 4, he would need to open two additional spiritual orifices.

In other words, as long as he opened one more orifice, Lu Ye would be able to advance to Spirit Stream Level 4, and at the same time, he could also convert the route for circulating the spirit force within his body to the pathway of the Red Lotus Soaring to Sky Technique.

The two non-overlapping orifices were not useless, as Lu Ye had studied the subsequent spiritual orifices required for the Red Lotus Soaring to Sky Technique and knew that these two orifices were included in the pathway for the Level 5 realm. Thus, when the time came for him to ascend to Level 5, he would need to open two fewer orifices.

Within Spirit Stream Level 9, Level 4 and Level 7 are each a divide; because for the first three levels, merely opening nine orifices each was sufficient for advancement, but reaching the fourth level required at least 18 orifices.

Fully twice the difference in spiritual orifices; once the spirit force managed to circulate through these orifices forming a Minor Circumambulation, the enhancement brought to a cultivator was significant.

Normally, a cultivator at Level 4 realm would not need to exert much effort to kill one from the Level 3 realm, and only someone like Lu Ye who could manipulate spirit runes in combat would be able to bridge the gap in strength brought about by different realms.

Just one orifice short, with Lu Ye's current pace of cultivation, it wouldn't take more than two days.

However, he had practiced for a rather long time today, and though consuming elixir pills posed not much risk, cultivation was ultimately a monotonous affair, and sitting in meditation for extended periods could lead to stagnation of blood Qi.

He opened his eyes and examined his own elixir pills, letting out a slight sigh.

The price of rapid strength increase was massive consumption of elixir pills; currently opening a single orifice would cost him almost fourteen to fifteen pills each, plus the fee for Hua Ci's diagnosis and what he needed to give Amber and Yiyi, his previously abundant stock of elixir pills had dwindled significantly.

After ascending to Level 4, he'd have to visit Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union again, and now he only had six pieces of Origin Magnetic Ore left to sell...

"Lu Ye, Lu Ye," Yiyi, who was standing by his side, came closer.

"What is it?" Lu Ye looked up at her.

Yiyi said, "Are we going to stay here?" These days, she had slowly gotten to know Ruan Lingyu, and the relationship between the two young women had grown stronger.

From Ruan Lingyu, she had learned about the various situations Lu Ye had encountered the last time he was here, and she also knew that Lu Ye had specifically gone back to find her and Amber, which touched her deeply. Having shared hardships and escaped death together, their relationship had undoubtedly become closer.

"Do you want to stay here?"

Yiyi tilted her head and thought for a while, "People here like Lingyu and Sister Hua Ci are very nice, everyone's very nice. It would be nice to stay here, but it's up to you."

"You don't need to consider me, you can stay if you want to, as these people are indeed all quite nice."

"Oh, then we won't stay." Yiyi looked up at him, smiling, "Since we started off together, let's go on together, we'll stick with you."

Lu Ye raised his hand and patted her on the head.

Yiyi was immediately a bit annoyed, "Why are you patting my head, treating me like a child?"

Lu Ye grabbed her head and rubbed it vigorously.

"I'm so annoyed!" Yiyi finally escaped the clutches and ran out stomping her feet.

Very soon, the neighboring room was filled with her and Ruan Lingyu's laughter and chatter.