Chapter 496: A Big Fish  

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Xia Qianqian and the female spell cultivator saw Lu Ye off as he flew away. The female spell cultivator kept waving her hand with a yearning look on her face.

Xia Qianqian shot her a look and said, “He’s already gone, you little wench. You can stop waving your hand now.”

The female spell cultivator immediately deflated. “How can you say that? It was your idea!”

“Yes, and you failed. So useless,” Xia Qianqian criticized in a disappointed tone.

“It’s not my fault! He’s just too resistant to feminine charm…” The female spell cultivator complained in an aggrieved tone. She had already tried her best to win Lu Ye over to her side, but he still chose to leave in the end.

“Whatever. Take good care of them, okay? I’ll send a ward cultivator your way when I find one,” Xia Qianqian instructed before passing the Control Gem to the female spell cultivator and rising into the sky.

“Bye, senior sister!” The female spell cultivator said and waved her hand again.

Lu Ye was still wearing his fox mask as he cut a straight line across the sky. Right now, he felt like there was nowhere he couldn’t go.

Back in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, there was practically nowhere he could go without being recognized and pursued like a rat. It felt wonderful not having to look behind his back every step of the way.

When nighttime came, he landed in a random cave in the wilderness to catch some rest. It wasn’t long before he started a fire inside the cave and began barbequing a large chunk of meat on top of it. A fragrant scent began spreading throughout the cave.

Lu Ye was busy setting up some wards deep within the cave when suddenly, Yi Yi appeared from the ground and reported in a soft voice, “I couldn’t locate the observer.”

Lu Ye nodded. “That’s to be expected. It’s probably that ghost cultivator.”

He was referring to the ghost cultivator he had trounced yesterday, Jiang Chengzi!

Not long after he bade Xia Qianqian goodbye and left the Arcane Glade, Lu Ye suddenly felt as if he was being watched from somewhere. It was a feeling he was very familiar with when he was at the Spirit Creek Battlefield. It wasn’t long before he became certain that it wasn’t his paranoia talking. Someone really was following him in secret. Yi Yi had left the cave earlier in hopes of tracking the person following Lu Ye in secret to no avail. Assuming that their tail was the Fifth-Order ghost cultivator Lu Ye had defeated earlier, then it was no wonder she couldn’t find anything. Even Lu Ye could only spot him if he had activated Insight, and the ghost cultivator happened to be close by.

He should’ve known that Xia Qianqian’s reward wasn’t so easily received. At the very least, it looked like he had caught the attention of her enemies.

Then again, he had defeated two Fifth-Order cultivators as a Third-Order cultivator, not to mention that the Jiang brothers were no ordinary Fifth-Order cultivators. They were both capable of defeating enemies higher than their cultivation level in their own right. Of course he had drawn their attention.

Unfortunately, there was no way Lu Ye could have hidden his strength. His cultivation level was two minor realms below his opponents’, but Jiang Liuzi was a sword cultivator as well. It would be suicidal to hide his strength against an opponent that powerful. Rather than risking his life, he would rather end the fight as soon as possible. At least this way he wouldn’t be showing off too many of his cards.

Lu Ye could’ve sped up and shaken off his tail upon noticing him, but that would make it crystal clear that he knew he was being followed. There were better ways to achieve the same outcome. For starters, he could turn around and give the ghost cultivator the scare of his life—but that would be a bad idea at the moment because he was sure that the ghost cultivator wasn’t operating alone. That Ninth-Order young man had seemed extremely interested in him, and he wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that he was the one who set the ghost cultivator on him. Obviously, Lu Ye was no match for him.

A while later, Lu Ye left the cave and took to the skies once more. In the darkness, Jiang Chengzi watched Lu Ye’s departing figure with a puzzled expression.

As Lu Ye had theorized, the person following him was none other than the ghost cultivator, Jiang Chengzi. Not only that, he was right in guessing that the Ninth-Order young man was the one who instigated Jiang Chengzi to follow him in secret.

Jiang Chengzi couldn’t figure out why Lu Ye had suddenly decided to take off when it was the perfect time to catch some rest. Regardless, he hurriedly sent his companions a message before chasing after Lu Ye once more.

An hour later, Lu Ye landed about fifty kilometers away from his previous location and walked into another cave. In the darkness, Jiang Chengzi also descended on the ground before sending another message.

Tens of kilometers away, the Ninth-Order young man and Jiang Liuzi could be seen flying toward Lu Ye’s latest location. They hadn’t dared to get too close because they didn’t want to warn Lu Ye of their suspicious activities. If Lu Ye found out that they were tracking him, he would surely summon Xia Qianqian to his aid. The situation would become complicated if that happened.

Jiang Liuzi looked much better after a full day’s rest. While following behind the young man, he voiced his puzzlement, “Senior Brother Wei, who is that Foxface? Why do you care so much about him?”

Foxface was unimaginably powerful, and Jiang Liuzi was sure that he was a famous cultivator. However, that didn’t explain Wei Que’s obsession with the man.

Wei Que was soon to ascend to the Real Lake Realm after all. There shouldn’t be many things left in the Cloud River Battlefield that could catch his attention.

Wei Que asked, “Have you heard of the Crimson Blood Sect?”

“Of course I have.”

Who hadn’t heard of the Crimson Blood Sect of Bingzhou? Thirty years ago, they were the strongest sect of the Grand Sky Coalition.

“Have you heard of Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect then?”

Jiang Liuzi exclaimed in surprise, “You’re saying that Foxface is that man?”

“So, you have heard of him,” Wei Que commented with an approving smile.

It wasn’t difficult to find out Lu Ye’s identity. All he needed to do was to find who stood out in the Spirit Creek Battlefield in the last half a year or so, and who among them was a saber-wielding combat cultivator.

Wei Que had sent the message immediately after he left with his people. At first, he didn’t suspect anything. He was just curious about Lu Ye and wanted to know the mysterious young man better. Suffice to say, his mind was blown when he found out his true identity.

Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect was the most wanted man by the Thousand Demon Ridge bar none in the past half a year or so. The combined bounty on his head was enough to make even a Ninth-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator like him turn green with greed. To give an example, he would never have to worry about cultivation resources for the rest of his life if he could kill Lu Yi Ye. As a member of the Thousand Demon Ridge, there was no way Wei Que could say no to the temptation. That was why he immediately ordered Jiang Chengzi to keep an eye on the Arcane Glade. Once Lu Ye left the Arcane Glade, Jiang Chengzi immediately chased after the young man from afar.

Wei Que wasn’t surprised that Jiang Liuzi had heard of Lu Ye. It was because the sword cultivator was still at the Spirit Creek Battlefield when the legendary Battle of Goldentip broke out. However, the Jiang brothers were Heaven-Grade Ninth-Order cultivators, and Lu Ye was just a Fifth-Order cultivator at the time. Astounded as they were at the news, they did not think much of Lu Ye at all. At the time, Lu Ye still wasn’t strong enough to pose a threat against the Thousand Demon Ridge. Two months after the Battle of Goldentip, the Jiang brothers ascended to the Cloud River Realm. They had not left the Cloud River Battlefield since. Naturally, they had almost no idea about the waves Lu Ye had caused not just in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, but in Jiu Zhou as well.

That said, Jiang Liuzi was aware that the sects of the Thousand Demon Ridge had come together to put an unbelievable bounty on Lu Ye’s head. It was because of that bounty that thousands of cultivators had gathered at the Goldentip and became Lu Ye’s first stepping stone to legendary status.

“Are you sure it’s him? Just how fast does he cultivate?” Jiang Liuzi was stunned because it had only been a year or two since the Battle of Goldentip. This meant that Lu Ye had become a Cloud River Realm cultivator in that short amount of time!

Not only that, the young man was a Third-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator already. He and his brother had entered the Cloud River Battlefield at least a year earlier than Lu Ye, but the young man had almost caught up to their cultivation level already!

“If only his cultivation speed is his only merit. I bet you and your brother have no idea what he did on the Spirit Creek Battlefield, have you?” Wei Que shook his head.

To be honest, he himself was shocked when he received the detailed information on Lu Ye.

The two years Lu Ye spent on the Spirit Creek Battlefield were easily some of the worst years the Thousand Demon Ridge had suffered since the day of their founding. This was especially true during the second year where Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect came to rule over the Spirit Creek Battlefield as its one and only overlord. Wherever he went, the sects of the Thousand Demon Ridge quaked in their boots. Even Tier-One sects were unable to stop him in his tracks. In the end, the Thousand Demon Ridge had no choice but to pay him a hefty ransom to buy their safety.

It was even said that the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators cheered like it was New Year when the monster finally ascended to the Cloud River Realm.

Suffice to say, no cultivator had ever managed to trigger such a reaction from an entire faction until Lu Yi Ye. In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, his legend would probably be remembered for at least the next one or two decades to come.

Jiang Liuzi could not help his curiosity. “What on earth did Lu Yi Ye do in the Spirit Creek Battlefield?”

For a moment, Wei Que did not say anything. A while later, he finally let out a sigh and gave Jiang Liuzi a summary.

The summary was brief, but the sword cultivator’s face still burned with shame when he heard it. If he could travel back in time and warn his past self to refrain from asking about the details, he would. To say that Lu Yi Ye had wiped the floor with his faction in the Spirit Creek Battlefield would be an understatement. The second hand embarrassment alone was almost enough to make him consider defecting to the Grand Sky Coalition.

“That is why every top-tier sect had increased the bounty on his head after he ascended to the Cloud River Realm. They were hoping that we could locate the bastard and eliminate him before he became too strong to handle. Unfortunately, you know how the Cloud River Battlefield is, not to mention that it has only been a while since Lu Yi Ye got here. No one has managed to locate him… until now.”

Lu Ye had already displayed a monstrous amount of talent when he was still a Spirit Creek Realm cultivator, and he would only become even more monstrous as time passed. Naturally, the Thousand Demon Ridge wanted him gone as soon as possible.

In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, there was literally no one who was a match for him. That was no longer the case. Here in the Cloud River Battlefield, the Thousand Demon Ridge had a real chance at ending him once and for all.

However, communication between Jiu Zhou and the Cloud River Battlefield was much more inconvenient than the Spirit Creek Battlefield. In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, the Legate could just communicate with their Keeper of Seal through the Battlefield Imprint. This convenience was not available in the Cloud River Battlefield. Not only did someone have to physically enter the Cloud River Battlefield to pass on the message, they had to stay there for an entire month before they were allowed to leave. It was the rule the Heavens had set, and no one could circumvent it. As a result, Cloud River Realm cultivators did not have a convenient way of trading information in and out of the Cloud River Battlefield.

Take Wei Que for example. If Lu Ye hadn’t displayed an unbelievable amount of talent during the fight, he would not have made the inquiry. He would never hear of the young man until he ascended to the Real Lake Realm and returned to Jiu Zhou.

Lu Ye would be shedding tears of fury if he knew about this. Before he wore his disguise, he had been able to strut about without being recognized by any Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator. But after he put on the fox mask, his enemy had dug out practically everything there was to know about him except the color of his underwear. How ironic was that?

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