Chapter 497: He’s Gone  

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Jiang Liuzi asked with a frown, “When did he enter the Cloud River Battlefield?”

“I’m not sure about the exact date, but according to the intel I received, it hasn’t even been two months since he ascended to the Cloud River Realm!”

Jiang Liuzi gasped audibly when he heard this.

The time one ascended to the Cloud River Realm was usually the time they entered the Cloud River Battlefield as well. At most, they would take a short break before departing for the Cloud River Battlefield. However, Lu Yi Ye was already a Third-Order cultivator!

Was it even possible to cultivate that fast?

While it was true that a cultivator was expected to shoot through the cultivation levels at the Cloud River Realm thanks to the miraculous cultivation resources that were Amulets, it wasn’t actually easy to acquire them. Even if someone was lucky enough to stumble upon a Token of Providence event, they would have to compete against hundreds, if not thousands of people to obtain maybe one or two Amulets.

It was also practically impossible to obtain an Amulet that was “above one’s station” so to speak. For example, Purple and Gold Amulets were generally obtained by Eighth and Ninth-Order cultivators. If Jiang Liuzi, a mere Fifth-Order cultivator, tried to lay his hands on something that valuable, his betters would not hesitate to teach him some humility.

With that in mind, just how many Amulets did Lu Yi Ye obtain to make it to the Third-Order already? He could scarcely imagine.

There were few things more hurtful than comparison. For the longest time, Jiang Liuzi believed his cultivation speed was better than most, and he still did. However, he was practically trash compared to Lu Yi Ye.

Suddenly, Wei Que said, “We’re here.”

When they descended to the ground, Jiang Chengzi emerged from the darkness and welcomed them.

“Is he still there?” Wei Que asked.

“Yes. He’s been hiding inside that cave this whole time,” Jiang Chengzi reported while pointing at the cave Lu Ye had entered earlier.

“Wonderful!” Wei Que’s smile widened as he instructed, “Jiang Chengzi, head inside and ambush Lu Yi Ye. If you succeed, then all is well. If you fail, then Jiang Liuzi and I will kill him. When it is over, sixty percent of the bounty will go to me, and forty percent to you both!”

Wei Que was asking a lot here, but he was a Ninth-Order cultivator. He had the right and power to make such a demand, so Jiang Liuzi simply accepted the arrangement.

Jiang Chengzi still didn’t know who Lu Yi Ye was, so he didn’t really understand what Wei Que was saying. [Did that bastard have a bounty on his head?] In any case, if his brother had nothing to say about the arrangement, then he was okay with it as well.

“I’m going in,” Jiang Chengzi said before grabbing a pitch black dagger with his right hand and turning invisible. He then slowly made his way toward the cave.

During the earlier battle, Lu Ye had knocked him out of concealment almost immediately and beaten the crap out of him. Naturally, Jiang Chengzi was displeased with the outcome. Even now, he still thought that Lu Ye had just gotten lucky. Of course he, a ghost cultivator, was going to lose against a combat cultivator in close combat. In his mind, he swore to undo the damage that had been done to his pride. This time, he would teach Foxface the true terror of a ghost cultivator!

Wei Que and Jiang Liuzi got into position after Wei Chengzi vanished. They were ready to assist the ghost cultivator in case anything happened.

For a while, nothing happened at all. Then, a massive explosion erupted from the cave, and a giant tongue of flame shot out of the cave entrance!

This sudden turn of events caught both Wei Que and Jiang Liuzi by surprise. A ghost cultivator’s assassination was supposed to be silent, right? So what was with this explosion?

[Wait, that’s not right. This is…]

“No!”

Jiang Liuzi let out a cry of alarm before flying straight toward the cave. Wei Que also followed behind him with a frown.

A while later, Jiang Liuzi dugout Jiang Chengzi from under a pile of rubble. The ghost cultivator was covered in blood, soot and ash, and every strand of his hair was standing on end. He looked absolutely terrible to say the least. The only silver lining was that he wasn’t dead.

“What the hell happened? Where is Lu Yi Ye?” Wei Que asked.

The cave had collapsed, but Wei Que could tell with his senses that Lu Yi Ye was nowhere to be seen.

Jiang Chengzi panted heavily with a frightened expression, “I didn’t see him when I went inside. What I can tell you was that I was nearly killed by a Heavens-damned Explosive Ward!”

He thought this was the moment he would redeem himself, but he had barely set foot in the cave when the Explosive Ward triggered and nearly killed him!

While most ghost cultivators possessed excellent speed, the cave was exceptionally small and narrow. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to escape the cave in time before the Explosive Ward triggered and buried him beneath a pile of rubble.

As for the Heavens-damned Foxface who was surely behind the ward… he hadn’t seen the man at all.

“I thought you said he was inside?” Wei Que asked with an ugly expression.

“He was! He just vanished somehow!” Jiang Chengzi defended himself. He had seen Foxface entering the cave with his own eyes, and he never saw him leaving through the entrance. There was no denying the fact that the bastard had vanished like a ghost though.

Looking at all the evidence, Lu Yi Ye must have noticed that someone was following him in secret. That was why he had set up an ambush in the cave before sneaking away using a Concealment Talisman Paper or something.

Wei Que’s expression was grim to say the least. He thought this would be easy, but not only had they fallen for their prey’s trickery, they didn’t even know where he was right now!

The Cloud River Battlefield was a massive place. If Lu Yi Ye truly set his mind to hide, who could possibly dig him out of his hidey-hole?

If he could spread the message that Lu Yi Ye was here and mobilize every Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator to action, then sure, the young man would be cornered eventually. However, the Cloud River Battlefield was a much more complicated place than the Spirit Creek Battlefield, not to mention that he wasn’t willing to share the bounty with too many people. He was a Ninth-Order cultivator. If he could locate Lu Yi Ye, he had a one hundred percent chance of killing the young man no matter how exceptional he was.

The only reason he even brought the Jiang brothers with him was because of Jiang Chengzi. He didn’t have a realistic way to follow Lu Yi Ye without being detected, so he needed the ghost cultivator to do the tracking.

Unfortunately, Lu Yi Ye still managed to detect Jiang Chengzi. He even set up a trap for the poor bastard and nearly killed him.

[It wasn’t a fluke after all… just how strong is his perception to detect a Fifth-Order ghost cultivator who was two minor realms above him?]

“Let’s split up. There is no way he could’ve gone far!” Wei Que ordered before leaping into the air, leaving behind the two dumbfounded Jiang brothers.

He wasn’t worried that the Jiang brothers would hide Lu Yi Ye’s location from him if they located him first. They should know from the earlier battle that Lu Yi Ye was not someone they could kill in short order, and that he was the only one in their group who could realistically kill the combat cultivator.

On the other hand, he could claim the full share of the bounty if he located Lu Ye first!

The only thing that worried him was the Jiang brothers notifying their sects about Lu Yi Ye’s appearance. Since their sects were Tier-Two sects, it was inevitable that some Cloud River Realm experts would be mobilized to join in the search. There was nothing he could do to stop this though, so he didn’t even bother to try.

“Who on earth is Foxface anyway? Why does Senior Brother Wei care about him so much?” Jiang Chengzi asked after Wei Que’s departure.

“He is Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect.”

“I feel like I’ve heard that name from somewhere…”

“He’s the guy who fought in the Battle of Goldentip,” Jiang Liuzi reminded his brother.

“Oh. Oh… I still remember the insane bounty on that guy’s head to this day…”

“Now you get why Wei Que cares so much about him.”

Jiang Chengzi’s wounds suddenly didn’t feel that painful anymore. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s search for that bastard already!”

“After we message Senior Brother Lu Shu and the others. Wei Que wants to claim all the bounty for himself. We should give him a run for his money, don’t you agree?” Although they all belonged to the Thousand Demon Ridge, and they definitely stood united when the greater good was on the line, it was inevitable that they would succumb to their baser nature in all other matters.

That was just how humanity was.

It wasn’t long before more people learned that Lu Yi Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect had been spotted in the Cloud River Battlefield. Most Eighth and Ninth-Order cultivators had never heard of Lu Yi Ye because they rarely left the Cloud River Battlefield, but after Jiang Liuzi shared with them everything he knew about the combat cultivator, they were tempted by the ludicrous bounty on his head if nothing else. It was literally the opportunity of a lifetime. They rushed toward Lu Ye’s last known location immediately for fear that someone else would kill the young man before them.

Meanwhile, Lu Ye was sitting inside a cave and enjoying his barbecued meat. It was none other than the first cave he entered after leaving the Arcane Glade. So, how did he cross over from the second cave without being detected or caught by the enemy? By using a Teleportation Ward, of course.

Earlier, he had set up a master Ward in the first cave before flying to the second cave. After flying fifty kilometers to the second cave, he set up a sub Ward and an Explosive Ward before teleporting back to the first cave.

He hadn’t seen Jiang Chengzi entering the second cave and triggering the Explosive Ward, but he was sure that his enemies would attempt to infiltrate it eventually. When that happened, the Explosive Ward would trigger and destroy everything within. The ghost cultivator might survive, but his sub Ward definitely would not. They would never know that he had teleported back to the first cave using a Teleportation Ward.

Coincidentally, he had returned just in time to avoid overcooking his meat. He had been enjoying his dinner since.

It had been a long time since Lu Ye used a Teleportation Ward. To his surprise, the experience did not feel nearly as bad as his initial experiments; the connection between the master Ward and the sub Ward were much stronger.

Obviously, it was because his cultivation level was much higher than before. When he first set up the Teleportation Wards, he was only a Heaven Seven cultivator.

At his current level, he should be able to create Teleportation Wards with a longer teleportation range. This was great news of course. The farther a Teleportation Ward could teleport something or someone, the better it was.

Lu Ye did not stay in the cave for long. He left as soon as he collected his ward flags. He was still holding his barbecued meat when he took to the sky.

Lu Ye wanted to be as far away from the cave as possible because a fifty kilometer distance was nothing to a Cloud River Realm cultivator. His trackers might have a lot of ground to cover, but given enough time and numbers, it was only a matter of time before they made it back to the first cave. They would discover if he took too long.

The night was pitch black tonight. Even with his superior vision, he was unable to spot even a single star in the sky.

Lu Ye did not stop flying in the opposite direction of the second cave until dawn broke, crossing at least a thousand kilometers before descending on a random riverside in the wilderness. Both him and Amber were dusty from the journey, so they took a bath before finding a secluded spot to hide. He then set up a couple of wards before taking a moment to tidy his stuff.

After he recovered his mental strength and Spiritual Power, Lu Ye finally took out a Purple Amulet and crushed it between his fingers. It was the one he had drawn using the Amulet Casket Xia Qianqian gave him.

There was nothing a Cloud River Realm cultivator loved more than an Amulet. He saw no reason to delay using it especially in light of recent events.

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