Sage of Humanity

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On his journey here, he had fought every step of the way with his blade; his own combat style was enough to define his future faction.

Li Baxian nodded, "Combat cultivators form a large faction, among which sword cultivators are held in the highest esteem. It is said that the sword is the king of all weapons and the killing power of sword cultivators is the strongest among combat cultivators. Since you want to become a combat cultivator, have you considered practicing the sword?"

"My senior brother uses a blade."

"I know, but the blade you used before, I've seen it; it's almost like a sword. If you're willing to practice the sword, I can teach you and save you from taking many detours."

After a moment of serious thought, Lu Ye slowly shook his head: "I don't quite get along with swords; I've used one before, but no matter what, it didn't feel right in my hand."@@novelbin@@

Li Baxian persisted earnestly, "These things can be gradually adapted to. You'll get used to it as you practice."

Lu Ye insisted, "There's no need, Fourth Senior Brother, I'm still more comfortable with a blade."

Li Baxian's eye twitched, his persuasion failed... He sighed and said, "In that case, go and prepare a suitable weapon for yourself. Starting tomorrow, I will teach you some things, some very practical things!"

The corner of his mouth slowly curled up, and Lu Ye suddenly had a feeling that things were not going to be good.

The long blade he had originally was completely shattered on Golden Light Peak, but fortunately, it was just a low-grade spirit artifact, so its breaking was not too heart-rending.

Finding a suitable weapon now wasn't easy. He had killed many people on Golden Light Peak, collecting quite a number of storage sacks. In the beginning, he would claim these storage sacks for himself, and no one from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge stopped him.

Later, when Second Senior Sister saw he was too exhausted, she would take care of them after each battle, and no one dared to stop her.

A few days ago, Second Senior Sister gave him the spoils of war; the restrictions on those storage sacks had been opened. However, those guys didn't have much that was good, and Lu Ye got mostly Spirit Stones, elixir pills, and Spirit Talismans from them.

Seeing Lu Ye's dilemma, Li Baxian gave him advice: "Take a look at the jade slip I gave you. You'll know what to do."

"Oh."

Lu Ye then returned to his residence, took out the jade slip, and examined it carefully. The jade slip contained a lot of information, most suitable for someone like Lu Ye who only had a superficial understanding of the cultivation world. It seemed that Fourth Senior Brother had already taken this into account.

The more Lu Ye examined it, the more he felt the mystical wonders of what was called Heaven's Augury.

One could say that although he had been mixing in the Spirit Stream battlefield for half a year, his understanding of the world was only the tip of an iceberg.

Two hours later, he put down the jade slip, slowly digesting the various information in his mind.

After a while, he got up and went to the Heaven's Augury Hall, and entered the Spirit Stream battlefield through the Heaven's Augury Pillar.

When he reappeared, he was inside the Righteous Blood Sect's Heaven's Augury Hall.

Activating his battlefield marking to connect with the Heaven's Augury Pillar in front of him, as taught by his Fourth Senior Brother's jade slip, he silently mouthed, "Low-grade spirit artifact!"

As he spoke, a vortex immediately appeared before him, emitting an irresistible force. Before Lu Ye could react, he was sucked into it.

When he regained his senses, he was standing in an immensely spacious hall, one lined with row upon row of weapon racks that seemed endless; any kind of weapon one could think of was there, and each one was a spirit artifact.

This was Lu Ye's first experience of such an event, and it intrigued him. He sensed quietly for a moment and discovered that his body was still in the Righteous Blood Sect's Heaven's Augury Hall, but his consciousness had entered this place.

The Heaven's Augury treasure vault was a mystical place mentioned in the jade slip by Fourth Senior Brother.

In the Nine Provinces, in the Spirit Stream battlefield, any cultivator with merit could trade with Heaven's Augury. The deal Li Baxian struck to get the Heaven's Augury Pact was a trade, and the pet contract Lu Ye got before was also a trade.

So, if one wanted to buy something, trading with Heaven's Augury was the most convenient, because it had everything one could need. The only downside was that trading with Heaven's Augury could only be done with merit.

This was different from trading with the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, where one could use Spirit Stones. However, trading directly with Heaven's Augury itself was the quickest because as long as there was enough merit, one could buy any unclaimed treasure in the world.

Lu Ye wanted to find a suitable long blade in the short term; no doubt, trading here with Heaven's Augury was the best choice.

What exactly the Heaven's Augury treasure vault is, nobody knows. Just like how cultivators from the Nine Provinces have never found the exact location of the Spirit Stream battlefield, even if someone wanted to target the treasures within the vault, they would not be able to carry it out.

What is known, however, is that there are some connections between the Heaven's Augury treasure vault and the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, as there have been instances where treasures appearing in the treasure vault have been sold by the mercantile union, and items purchased by the mercantile union have appeared within the treasure vault.

Lu Ye was here just for a long blade and had no interest in exploring these secrets.

But facing the seemingly endless rows of weapon racks, he started to feel a headache; sometimes having too many options could be overwhelming.

So he said aloud, "Long blade!"

The surroundings slightly distorted for a moment, and the entire treasure vault abruptly shrunk. Though it still looked vast, at least now he could see the end.

The spirit artifacts displayed on the racks were, as Lu Ye had requested, all long blades in style.

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There were many long knives similar to the one he had before.

He casually picked one up and activated his spirit force to inspect it, only to find that this item was not much better than the long knife he had previously used; he put it down and picked up another to inspect, yet the result was the same.

He thought for a moment and then said, "7th Dao restrictions..." and immediately added, "Focus on reinforcing the blade!"

The quality of a Spiritual Artifact is judged firstly by the materials used in its creation and secondly by the number of restrictions branded within it. 7th Dao restrictions was the limit for a low-grade spirit artifact; any more than that would qualify it as a mid-grade spirit artifact. This was also the information his Fourth Senior Brother had told him through the jade slip.

Spiritual Artifacts are not necessarily better for being of higher quality since it also depends on who uses them. Restrictions need to be activated by spirit force, and the more there are, the greater the consumption when activated. If one's cultivation is too low, even holding a top-grade spirit artifact, they would not be able to activate its restrictions.

With Lu Ye's current Level 5 realm cultivation, a low-grade spirit artifact with 7th Dao restrictions was already sufficient for him to use for a very long time.

As for the focus on reinforcing the blade, it was naturally because he did not need the Spiritual Artifact to be overly sharp; the Sharpness spirit runes could address that need.

The array of Spiritual Artifacts in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault changed again, this time with far fewer appearing, leaving only about ten rows.

Lu Ye began to move among them, inspecting each one.

Soon, he found a suitable long knife. This Spiritual Artifact long knife was almost the same as the one he used before, but it was much heavier. However, for Lu Ye, this was undoubtedly more to his liking since his strength was now much greater than when he first left Qingyun Mountain.

Upon inspecting the interior of the long knife, there were 7th Dao spirit runes branded within it, interconnected in a marvelous way, and of those, seven were for reinforcing the blade while two were for enhancing the lethality of the Spiritual Artifact. These two spirit runes had a high degree of similarity to his Sharpness.

Spirit runes can be connected like this? Lu Ye was puzzled.

After all, his understanding of spirit runes was limited to those he had received from the Talent Tree; he could freely deploy those three runes, but he was clueless about all others.

Suppressing the impulse to investigate further, Lu Ye was undoubtedly very satisfied with this long knife.

To other cultivators, the lethality of this Spiritual Artifact might not be strong enough, but for Lu Ye, this was not a concern. With the enhancement of a Sharpness spirit rune, he could cut through anything.

The price was also marked, glowing faintly on the blade with a few numbers.

One hundred and thirty-eight!

In other words, if Lu Ye chose to take this long knife out of the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, then one hundred and thirty-eight points of merit would be deducted.

He did not know if this price was expensive or cheap, but it was certainly not cheap compared to the cost of a pet contract.

Without looking any further, the gap between low-grade spirit artifacts was not significant, and finding such a knife was already quite good. Lu Ye's surroundings suddenly collapsed.

When he came to his senses, he was already standing within the Heaven's Augury Hall.

He felt a slight weariness of the mind…

This was the price to pay for communicating with the Heaven's Augury treasure vault; the longer one stayed inside searching for items, the more fatigued their mind would become.

He had originally wanted to find another item in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, but now he had no choice but to give up.

Looking down, his hand held the long knife he had purchased for one hundred and thirty-eight merit points. Drawing the knife from its sheath, the blade light did not feel particularly sharp; instead, it felt substantial.

Only then did he notice the two small characters engraved on the handle; after scrutinizing them, he recognized the words "Boulder Mountain."

In other words, this was a named blade, although he did not know who had crafted it.

He swung it casually a few times and found it handled the same as when he had tried it in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, even more comfortably, in fact.

After sheathing the knife, he walked towards the outside of the Heaven's Augury Hall. According to his Fourth Senior Brother's instructions in the jade slip, he had to go to another place within his sect's territory.

Not long after he left, a young-looking cultivator hurried over. He straightened his appearance outside of the Heaven's Augury Hall before stepping inside, and upon looking around, Lu Ye was nowhere to be seen, leaving him puzzled. He turned to another cultivator that had followed him and asked, "Didn't they say Lu Ye came here?"

"I had just seen him here." The follower explained.

"Did he go back again?" The young man was somewhat annoyed. He had rushed over upon receiving the news of Lu Ye's appearance, only to find he was still a step late.

After a moment's thought, he instructed the follower, "You stay here and watch. When he comes again, notify me immediately and, if possible, ask him to wait here for a while."

The man agreed promptly. Read latest chapters on empire

At this moment, Lu Ye had already arrived at another location, an array of small houses that made up a complex. This place was considered a training room for Righteous Blood Sect disciples, where idle disciples could engage in closed-door cultivation. Every sect's territory had such facilities, all tucked away in secluded areas and not unique to the Righteous Blood Sect alone.

However, since the Righteous Blood Sect had not taken in any disciples for decades, the area was overgrown with weeds and lay in desolation.

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