Sage of Humanity
Chapter 869 - 867: Just Say What You Want

Several days later, when all the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks had been completely used up, this arduous cultivation came to an end.

Lu Ye quietly inspected his body.

Compared to before, there was naturally no change in his realm, but the spirit force within him had undoubtedly become more refined, and his strength had clearly increased a bit.

The unique feature of the True Lake Realm lies in this.

In this realm, as long as the cultivator practices, their strength will increase, more or less.

This cannot be compared to the previous two realms.

In the previous two realms, whether in the Spirit Stream or Cloud River, a cultivator's strength only significantly increases when they break through and their realm rises.

But the True Lake Realm is different. In this realm, as the cultivator practices, their strength continuously and steadily improves.

Feeling joyful and satisfied, Lu Ye suddenly sprang up upon opening his eyes, placing his hand on the hilt of his Boulder Mountain Saber at his waist, his body slightly arched like a hunting leopard about to pounce, spirit force bursting forth.

Because a figure was standing quietly one yard away.

He quickly realized that the person standing before him was none other than his superior, the Mountain Pass Chief of Cangyan Mountain Pass, Nian Yuexian.

A cold sweat broke out as he felt a shiver of fear.

Is this the ability of a strong cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm?

Before opening his eyes and seeing her, he hadn't known when she arrived or detected any of her presence.

The numerous formations he had arranged were of no use at all.

When did she arrive?

The secrets of his cultivation and Yiyi's existence—weren't they all clearly exposed to her?

But upon thinking again, neither his cultivation secrets nor Yiyi's existence were really significant issues. At most, his cultivation techniques were just some minor special tricks, nothing shameful. Even if others knew, they couldn't imitate them. As for Yiyi... the Righteous Blood Sect had records of her, and she had the status of a disciple of the Righteous Blood Sect. If Nian Yuexian had any doubts, she could verify with the sect headquarters.

Moreover, since he would reside here long term under the watchful eyes of a strong cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm, these things would inevitably be exposed sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Lu Ye relaxed, released the hilt, and raised his fists in salute: "Madam!"

Nian Yuexian said faintly: "Your Array Path skills are quite impressive, and this bamboo building is nice too."

"Madam overpraises me." Lu Ye thought, no matter how good his Array Path skills were, she still silently infiltrated here.

Thinking this way, his superior's skills in Array Path were likely astonishing.

Is she a ghost cultivator?

Lu Ye realized belatedly.

Lu Ye naturally didn't know what type of cultivator Nian Yuexian was, but based on the current clues, she was very likely a ghost cultivator.

A ghost cultivator like Ying Wuji could intimidate cultivators of the same realm greatly, not to mention a strong ghost cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm. Lu Ye couldn't imagine how powerful she was.

"Madam, is there anything else?" Lu Ye felt pressured as she gazed coldly at him.

Nian Yuexian said nothing more, her figure slightly swayed, and she disappeared.

Lu Ye couldn't see how she left at all.

In the bamboo building, Lu Ye was bewildered: "What does she mean?"

His superior suddenly came just to praise him?

It doesn't make sense.

Yiyi tugged at Lu Ye's clothes: "Lu Ye, does she want this bamboo building?"

Women undoubtedly have more delicate thoughts. Lu Ye was confused by Nian Yuexian's actions, while Yiyi seemed to have a hint.

"Impossible." Lu Ye firmly denied, "If she wanted it, she could easily build one herself, why bother taking mine?"

With her skills as a strong cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm, building a three-story bamboo building would be effortless.

"True." Yiyi nodded, thinking she might have overthought.

But Nian Yuexian's words seemed to have a deeper meaning.

Thinking too much was useless, especially after days of cultivation that were inevitably dull.

"Let's take a walk." Lu Ye said, and taking Amber and Yiyi, he stepped out.

He immediately saw Nian Yuexian sitting on a tree trunk outside, leaning against the tree, gazing into the distance, lost in thought.

Lu Ye raised his eyebrows, puzzled by why she stayed here, or was it that this place happened to be where she usually rested, and he had coincidentally built the bamboo building here?

He walked forward a few steps and called out, "Madam, do you have orders?"

In his imagination, arriving at the Bingzhou guard front line required fighting against the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators and scheming, yet the environment here seemed overly peaceful.

The desolate checkpoint pass had only him and Nian Yuexian, and there were no signs of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators attacking or infiltrating.

Nian Yuexian had given him the role of a Base Lieutenant Colonel, but he couldn't just stay here indefinitely.

As a Bingzhou guard, without orders he couldn't act on his own, making things challenging.

"Do you want a task?" Nian Yuexian returned to her senses, looking down at him.

"If you have one..."

Nian Yuexian nodded, her hand turned, and the guard token appeared. Without any visible action, Lu Ye immediately felt a sensation, quickly took out his own guard token, immersed his mind to inspect.

A moment later, he looked at Nian Yuexian speechlessly.

Bingzhou guard tasks could be verbally transmitted by superiors or issued through the guard token. Nian Yuexian's recent action clearly issued a task through the guard token.

The task was simple: Find a shelter for the Mountain Pass Chief!

Seeing the task content, Lu Ye's eye twitched.

Yiyi was right!

But... if you want it, just say so, how would I know if you don't?

Besides, for a strong cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm, is building a bamboo building that hard?

Where did you shelter before I arrived? You couldn't have been living rough all these years.

Thinking carefully, it's actually possible.

Lu Ye had inspected the castle at Cangyan Mountain Pass and found no signs of inhabitants, and it hadn't been lived in for years. There were no buildings on the nearby spirit mountaintops either.

Which means, all the time Nian Yuexian was guarding Cangyan Mountain Pass alone, she had no fixed abode.

Feeling exasperated and amused, Lu Ye could only vent internally.

"Madam, if you don't mind, the bamboo building behind me has just been built..."

Before finishing, Nian Yuexian flashed into the third floor of the bamboo building, and the next moment, Lu Ye's prayer mat was thrown out and caught by him.

His eyelids twitched even harder.

The abrupt eviction was too excessive!

Lu Ye never expected his superior to be such a strong cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm!

Soon, he noticed something and quickly inspected his battlefield marking, his grievances vanished instantly.

Because the battlefield marking showed a change in the battle merits information.

Originally, after buying the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks at the Hall of Battle Merits, he had 46,672 battle merits, but now it became 42,672.

In other words, he received an extra 2,000 battle merits.

What a good thing!

Lu Ye was astonished.

He knew Bingzhou guards could earn battle merits, which attracted cultivators the most, and the ways to earn them were more than those in the Cloud River battlefield.

Monthly stipends were one way, killing enemies another, and completing tasks another—none of these existed in the Cloud River battlefield.

But he thought those tasks must be related to fighting against the opposing faction. Presenting a bamboo building to the Mountain Pass Chief also qualified?

This seemed strange.

It meant as long as he completed the tasks issued by his superior, no matter what they were, he could earn battle merits, unrelated to fighting against Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators.

Though 2,000 battle merits weren't a lot, building a bamboo building was easy, making it a great deal.

"Madam, a bamboo building is too small to match your status. Would you like me to build a bigger residence for you?" Lu Ye shouted.

Yiyi looked at him in surprise, as if seeing a bootlicking sycophant.

No response...

Lu Ye sighed, feeling a bit regretful.

But there was no way around it.

Having given away the bamboo building, he had to erect another one. Fortunately, it wasn't difficult.

Regarding location, Lu Ye decided not to stay on the same spirit mountaintop with Nian Yuexian as it was pressuring to coexist with a strong cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm.

Finding another nearby spirit mountaintop, he rebuilt a bamboo building with Yiyi after some time.

Just as they finished, the guard token reacted again.

Apparently, another task had arrived.

Lu Ye quickly checked, finding the task was to capture some wild game from the mountain to prepare some food.

This was simple, as Cangyan Mountain had plenty of wild beasts and occasional demon beast traces. With his strength in the True Lake Realm, it was easy to manage.

He darted out, quickly caught some game, and headed straight to Nian Yuexian's spirit mountaintop, lighting a fire below the bamboo building.

It wasn't to show off, the task had specified cooking here.

He skinned and cleaned the animals, washed the meat, threw fresh meat to Amber, and roasted the rest on the fire.

Having done this often, Lu Ye was skilled; the taste wasn't bad.

After half an hour, the aroma filled the air. When he prepared to give Nian Yuexian the best portion, she appeared before him.

Yiyi quickly got up, moved her stool behind Nian Yuexian, sweetly saying: "Sister, please sit."

Nian Yuexian strangely glanced at her but said nothing, just sitting gracefully.

Yiyi signaled Lu Ye, who hurriedly presented the meat: "Madam, please enjoy."

Nian Yuexian nodded slightly, taking the meat and eating calmly.

Without commenting on the taste, she finished everything given, even the bones, leaving Lu Ye and Yiyi astonished.