The independents were allowed to freely use the Crimson Blood Sect outpost in the past because the Sect did not have any acolytes in the Spirit Creek Realm. But with Lu Ye’s induction now being made official, plus him now being the legate-in-charge of the outpost, the fate of the independents’ livelihood here now depended on Lu Ye’s word.
Since news of Lu Ye’s appearance took the entire bazaar by storm, scores of independents were apprehensive as to what his decision would be. Would they be allowed to stay, or would he drive them out the door like a sack of filth?
It was for this reason that Chen Yu had been trying so desperately to meet Lu Ye.
But to his bewilderment, before he could even articulate his purpose for wanting to meet Lu Ye, the latter first shoved a pact into his hands and insisted that he read it.
Chen Yu pored through the contents and once he comprehended Lu Ye’s intentions, he felt relieved.
The terms of the pact were simple: the bazaar would be allowed to carry on, although the Crimson Blood Sect reserved the right to dismantle it and reclaim the area at any time.
Chen Yu was appointed as the person in charge of the bazaar while the independents, should they intend to stay, would have to agree to a levy of two to five Spirit Stones per month, according to how high their ranks were.
This was Shui Yuan’s idea. The price of the levy was a cheap one that all independents could easily cope with and it would provide Lu Ye with a fixed income. In addition, it was a formality that would constantly remind the independents that this place remained a dominion of the Crimson Blood Sect and their stay here warranted compensation and respect to the Sect.
Chen Yu quickly reexamined the terms and without hesitation, he bit his thumb and left a blood-red mark on the pact to seal it.
There was good reason for his good mood. In the past, Chen Yu might be the de facto leader of the independents here but there has not been any proper recognition for the work he has been doing. But with this pact, the Crimson Blood Sect formally acknowledged him as the person in charge of the bazaar, and this would go a long way in making his job easier and much more efficient.
On the other hand, Lu Ye had no reason to send the independents packing. The compound of the outpost was big enough for everyone and he had no need for such a vast space—at least for the time being—hence he would rather keep the status quo than break it and offend everyone.
Lu Ye went back inside the Sanctum of Providence and stood in front of the Divine Opportunity Column. He needed something else.
A quarter of an hour later, he emerged from the Sanctum with a tiny little box barely the size of his hand and hurried to the training chambers.
The richness of Spiritual Qi at the training chamber area was evidently much denser than the rest of the outpost, especially the one that he had used the day before. With all three Glyph: Gathering Spirit circles still operating, the entire area was practically thick with natural energies in the air.
He stepped into the training chamber and sat down with the tiny box still clutched in his hands.
He gazed at it, feeling both relieved and yet sour at the same time.
The Vault of Providence had practically anything—anything that a Cultivator could have asked for and it had just what he needed. That was what made him relieved. But at the same time, seeing how a tiny little box and its contents could cost him two hundred Contribution Points was what wrenched his heart like a punch to his gut. Even Inviolable did not cost this much.
He gingerly removed the lid from the box, revealing a flame the size of a baby’s hand blazing inside the box and the air inside the chamber began to feel sweltry.
It was the cheapest Mystic Flame that Lu Ye found inside the Vault of Providence—a Flame of Earthen Spirits.
At the moment, what Lu Ye needed the most was his Tree of Glyphs’s ability to cleanse the toxins in his body so that he could go on progressing. All along, he had hypothesized that the Tree needed some form of energy or heat to keep its leaves burning so that he could discover more Glyphs.
Although he had not been able to prove whether his hypothesis was correct or not.
Until his first visit to the Vault of Providence. When he realized that the Vault had almost anything that a Cultivator could ever ask for, he knew that he had stumbled upon the only way to validate his hypothesis. Standing amongst the many Mystic Flames and other heat sources up for sale, the Tree of Glyphs that had long been dormant suddenly stirred with life. But it could not absorb the heat from all the heat sources because technically, the items were still inside the Vault even though Lu Ye stood just inches away from them.
But now, as soon as he flipped open the lid of the box, Lu Ye could feel a rousing frisson from inside himself. Next, he could see the illusory image of the Tree of Glyphs extending its tendril-like roots towards the box and into the Mystic Flame.
In just the blink of an eye, the heat was gone and so was the Flame of Earthen Spirits.
Meanwhile, the fourth leaf on the Tree of Glyph burst into flames!
Since the battle that saw him winning a Barrier Penetrating Fruit prior to his departure from Green Cloud Mountain, Lu Ye had noticed this leaf glowing. But without enough sustenance, the Tree could not experience any changes yet.
But with it burning now, Lu Ye expected to have unlocked another new Glyph.
Keeping his excitement and delight restrained, he continued observing, only to watch with his own eyes how the flames went on and on without yielding any results.
The fifth leaf wasn’t even glowing at all, let alone sizzling into flames…
Lu Ye frowned. This was definitely an unexpected disappointment.
But he was at least comforted to find that the Tree of Glyphs could now cleanse the toxins in his body. It began operating almost readily with dull-greyish smog slowly releasing from him.
The toxins inside Lu Ye had reached such a point where the glow of his Spiritual Power had become dim and drab. That was a telltale sign of how the toxins were affecting his strength and his progress.
Since the Battle of Goldentip, Lu Ye had refrained from consuming more Spirit Pills. Shui Yuan might have ways to help expel the toxins from his body and the effects had been quite successful albeit imperfect. There were still residual toxins residing within him.To completely remove the toxins would require a long regimen of conditioning and care.
Unlike the Tree of Glyphs which took only a half-hour to completely purify his Spiritual Power now that its ability has been restored.
Lu Ye could finally exhale with relief after such a long time of apprehension and disquiet.
And it would appear that his hypothesis was correct.
The Tree of Glyphs needed heat or flame-like energies to sustain itself so that it could continue burning its leaves. That would unlock access to even more Glyphs. On the other hand, excess energies would also be stored inside the Tree to be used as fuel to burn away any toxins incurred from the ingestion of Spirit Pills.
This time, only one leaf was set ablaze. Lu Ye surmised that this could be due to the Tree’s need to reserve fuel hence only a tiny fraction of the energy was used to have the fourth leaf burned.
But there was nothing to be worried about; the Vault of Providence has an abundance of Mystic Flames that the Tree could feast on. For starters, this was only one of many Flames of Earthen Spirits that Lu Ye found inside the Vault. All that was needed to get more Mystic Flames was Contribution Points. With enough Points, Lu Ye would be able to purchase more Mystic Flames to unlock the full potential of the Tree.
Lu Ye checked his tally and sighed. Five hundred Contribution Points. To think that just a few days ago, he was so close to breaking a thousand. Contribution Points. Like money, Contribution Points did not grow on trees. Yet they just seemed to flow out of his pockets as easily as a leak.
Without any interest to train yet, Lu Ye centered his spiritual sight on the Tree of Glyphs, specifically on the fourth leaf that was still aflame. He took one deep breath and looked as intently as he could with every shred of will and focus he could muster.
His sight homed in on the leaf and it grew larger and larger. But that also blocked his mind from being able to think. Then all of a sudden, he felt a jolting pain in his mind as if a red-hot piece of iron was shoved into his brain.
The blow nearly knocked him out and by the time he recovered his senses, he was drenched in his own sweat. Shaking his head, he attempted to dispel the terrible discomfort in his mind.
As always, trying to observe the Glyph using his spiritual senses was just as difficult and taxing as before—Fifth-Order or not. But luckily enough, he did not black out as he did the first time.
That was the name of his fourth Glyph.
Upon closer inspection, Lu Ye discovered that this might be an offensive Glyph, but its function was something other than of a direct enhancement of damage, unlike Sharp Edge.
Nevertheless, Lu Ye was confident that if utilized properly, Bloodrage would give him an edge, especially when dealing with a superior opponent!One that would make him extremely dangerous, even to enemies of higher rank.
Every single Glyph on the Tree of Glyphs could very well be a trump card that Lu Ye would rely on, but first, he needed sustenance suitable for the Tree
And for that to happen, he would need Contribution Points. Lots and lots of them.
At the moment, he still had five hundred Contribution Points in reserves. But he wouldn’t be using the Points for another Flame of Earthen Spirits. He needed to keep them in reserve for a rainy day.
He got up and placed Spirit Stones inside the eight cavities around the Circle of Boon. At the eighth cavity, he paused. He stowed away the Stone he was about to put and instead took out the blood-red color scale that he picked from inside the Dragon Spring and placed it in the cavity.
If the Circle of Boon could benefit from having Spirit Stones as catalysts, then it might be able to draw out the energy from inside the scale too.
The last thing he wanted to do was to emulate Amber in taking sniffs off the scale and spending the rest of the day blacked out. After all, he could hardly profess to have the same physical properties as the white tiger.
But if the Circle of Boon could draw out its power, then it could be a safer way for him to consume the energies from the scale without harming himself.
Lu Ye began creating Glyph: Gathering Spirit circles over his Spiritual Points.
Once his preparations were complete, he swallowed a Spirit Pill and began his meditation. Before long, the air swirled with thick curls of Spiritual Qi mixed with a reddish tinge, with the reddish effluence looking more like dragons the more Lu Ye looked at it…
Days went by like an arrow. He would spend his days under the brutal tutelage of Li Baxian, honing his skills and finesse, and suffer being “killed” by Li Baxian again and again. Not one day passed without him being bloodied, and the more holes he collected, the more he felt like a beehive. Fortunately enough, there were always Shui Yuan’s potions to rely on which he would dip himself in for hours to heal himself.
He would stay there until the night when he would return to the outpost to study more about the secrets of the Divine Opportunity Column and the privileges that he was entitled to as legate-in-charge, or he might enjoy another tour inside the Vault of Providence to further see and observe what else was inside, or he would just head back to the training chamber to meditate.
Li Baxian had not been teaching him any techniques. No tricks and no fancy moves; for Li Baxian believed that these had more aesthetic value than actual worth in combat.
The simplest and most direct thrust, slash, or hack was oftentimes the best way to kill.
But what Li Baxian was trying to instill in Lu Ye was the invaluable intangibles—the awareness and “feel” of fighting—by allowing Lu Ye’s body to remember via muscle memory how he got “killed” every time. “Brutal” was a mere understatement to describe the manner of training, but only the Crimson Blood Sect was capable of such training methods. Any other sects or orders trying to replicate this might cause more harm than good to their own acolytes.
On this day, Lu Ye was gobbling down food at the dinner table when he, with his mouth still full of food, mumbled to Li Baxian, “Brother Baxian. How can I collect more Contribution Points?”
“Killing, of course,” Li Baxian answered curtly.
“I know. But didn’t you tell me to keep my head low for the time being?”
The ripples of the Battle of Goldentip that occurred a month ago were still in the throes of subsiding, hence Li Baxian’s advice for Lu Ye to sit tight until things in the Spirit Creek Battlefield got calmer. In the meantime, Lu Ye had been focusing on recuperating and training, hence he had not been outside wreaking havoc yet.
“Well, otherwise, you could always trade items with the Vault.”