Humanity's Great Sage

Chapter 538: Not Much Longer

<>

A Cloud River Cultivator going back to the Spirit Creek Battlefield to pick on his lessers was hardly Lu Ye’s idea of something honorable. 

But if Tan Sheng had triumphed over Lu Ye solely due to his own power and ability, Lu Ye could hardly fault him for that. The latter would have blamed himself and instead just focused on his own progress and development, to pave his way for future retribution. 

But Tan Sheng’s cunning use of the Tracking Disk’s second function had rendered Lu Ye completely exposed which later culminated in how he was cornered and surrounded by virtually every Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivator in the Carnage Colosseum. If that did not happen, then he would not have used up the immensely-valuable Golden Body Token and his painstakingly-gathered one hundred thousand Contribution Points. 

For this he blamed Tan Sheng—fully and the tangled path of payback was what led Lu Ye to the doorstep of the New Moon Sect.

At the same time, it was also meant as a declaration—an unspoken challenge that since they failed to kill him, then the storm of his reprisal would be a tempest to reckon with.

An aura of amethyst lightning enfolded Lu Ye at his first kill. Heavens’ retribution had spared no time at all to punish him for that transgression and the pain was a harrowing ordeal, an agony unparalleled.

He had been anticipating how painful it would be prior to coming here. But clearly, he had underestimated the torment. 

If the taking of a single life could be this painful, then what about killing tens or even hundreds of them?

By Lu Ye’s own reckoning, five or six lives—that must be his limit. Any more beyond that would kill him, or at least he would be paralyzed due to the intense agony. 

The New Moon Sect outpost here might not have been garrisoned by too large a force, but Lu Ye estimated at least one or two hundred men strong. But confronting such odds if he could only kill just five or six of them, made his mission nigh impossible. 

A sudden anomaly rippled forth from inside his spiritual self and interrupted his thoughts. That was when the anguish that once gripped both his flesh and psyche dulled as if eased by an otherworldly touch.

Lu Ye’s heart quivered as he maintained his evasion, weaving around amidst the barrage of attacks raining on him while part of him ventured into his spiritual self to investigate the source of this intriguing disturbance.

With his inner sight, he beheld his Tree of Glyphs, now awash in a cascade of transcendental flames. The very tree seemed to have burst into an inferno, flames ascending in serpentine fervor, incinerating the oppressive shroud of ominous, ashen mist that was engulfing his essence.

The amethyst lightning that coiled around his arms and limbs dissipated before his eyes…

The Tree of Glyphs possessed the power to incinerate the Judgment of the Heavens!

The unexpected revelation elicited a chorus of astonishment from Lu Ye. Upon introspection, however, the pieces fit. Everything made sense. 

The Tree of Glyphs had been proven adept at purifying any intruding elements detrimental to its host—the toxins from the ingestion of Spirit Pills, for example. It stood to reason then that given the requisite fuel, the Tree’s ethereal flames could render Lu Ye impervious to many forms of harm. The Judgment of the Heavens, although retribution ordained by a divine force beyond evasion, shared a similar nature with toxins—an element invasive to his being, harmful in nature.

Thus, the Tree of Glyphs could incinerate the Judgment of the Heavens as well.

However, the magnitude of incinerating the Judgment of the Heavens clearly eclipsed that of ordinary toxins, which would incur a greater cost in terms of spiritual fuel.

In mere moments, a refreshing change swept over Lu Ye’s form, a sensation akin to weightlessness pervading his being. The iridescent shroud of amethyst lightning bolts that once enveloped him now danced away, vanishing like mist. 

He had reservations initially about excessive bloodshed because of the Judgment of the Heavens. Therefore, his original intention had been to eliminate only a select few to intimidate the rest of the New Moon Sect into submission. 

But now that he discovered that the Tree of Glyphs could vanquish even the Judgment of the Heavens, such apprehensions had now dissolved into nothingness. 

All nine flying weapons flowed and interwove with renewed deadliness augmented by Glyphs, eclipsing the performance witnessed mere moments before.

Another chorus of anguished cries pierced the air with more slain enemies spilling blood as they plummeted from the air. 

The fading amethyst lightning once again enshrouded Lu Ye, its luminescent presence snaking all around him. 

A still-heavily injured Tan Li was screaming at the top of his voice,  “Do you have a death wish, Lu Yi Ye, how dare you!?”

Seeing his men being cut down right before his very eyes was a painful loss, but if Lu Yi Ye were to go on killing like this, the latter would just be digging his own grave. 

The deaths of the defenders would have been worth it if Lu Yi Ye were to die—assuming he did not escape. 

With that in mind, Tan Li roared to his men, “Don’t let him escape! The Judgment is killing him!”

The New Moon Sect Cultivators were panicking and balking at Lu Ye being able to so easily slay them despite the superiority of numbers. None of them would dare to gamble away their own life especially seeing how brutal and savage Lu Ye was. But witnessing the burgeoning intensity of the amethyst lightning enveloping Lu Ye and hearing the rousing command of their legate Tan Li reignited their valor.

With the radiant dance of his flying weapons and the cascading glimmers of Inviolable slicing at every enemy around him, Lu Ye weaved through the adversarial throng with the grace of a butterfly. Wherever his presence touched, torrents of violence erupted, painting the surroundings with an unsettling hue of carnage and turmoil.

The silhouettes of slain New Moon Sect acolytes tumbled to the ground like autumn leaves, their final descent a poignant dance of surrender to Death. 

Even Lu Ye found it arduous to repel every enemy attack as a lone invader contending against an entire sect. Fortunately, there was Glyph: Protection to shield his vulnerabilities, causing any blows that struck him to at most inflict superficial wounds. More so, with his remarkable physique that rivaled even the stoutest Body-tempering Cultivators of the same cultivation rank. 

But at the same time, for anyone who took a blow from Lu Ye, it wouldn’t be a matter of mere injury—it would be a question of life or death.

Acolyte after acolyte fell in battle, and Lu Ye was a violet bolt of lightning of death, zigzagging through the expanse with piles of dead in his wake.

Finally, one of them finally broke under the mounting strain and cried out, “Brother Tan! There’s no way we’ll defeat him!”

The entire outpost would have scoffed with disbelief at the notion of a single individual being able to face off against the full complement of an outpost’s defenses alone. Yet, at this very moment, this inexplicable phenomenon was taking place right before their very eyes.

And to think that the individual in question would be none other than the Annihilator of Sects Lu Yi Ye himself, now wreaking havoc and carnage despite being afflicted by the Judgment of the Heavens.

Tan Li’s gaze reddened with bloodshot intensity as he witnessed his fellow acolytes falling one after another, the heartache within him growing unbearably suffocating. But they had come this far; to recall his men and concede their losses would be nothing but condemning all the deaths and sacrifices into vain and needless futility. 

The violet lightning enveloping Lu Yi Ye’s form had grown so concentrated it became an indissoluble maelstrom. Surely the Annihilator of Sects himself must be enduring unimaginable torment and anguish himself?

“He cannot withstand the Judgment much longer! We must hold on!” roared Tan Li.

Lu Yi Ye’s resilience had all but surpassed his expectations. Tan Li had initially assumed that Lu Yi Ye could at most claim a few lives, yet, up until now, the toll exacted by the savage craft and hands of the Annihilator of Sects had surged to nearly thirty.

In one fell swoop, more than two tenths of the outpost’s less than two hundred man strong force were killed—such a grievous toll. Tan Li dreaded how he would explain the losses to the leadership of the Sect if he failed to apprehend Lu Yi Ye here. 

In the meantime, the rest of the outpost’s defenders gritted their teeth with resolve at the command of their legate, maintaining their assault on Lu Yi Ye head-on despite the trepidation weighing on them.

Nevertheless, Lu Yi Ye looked hardly encumbered by the pain of the Judgment of the Heavens. On the contrary, he grew bolder with each enemy he slew. At every swing of his weapon, men would drop dead on the ground. 

The Medical Cultivator tending to Tan Li’s wound broke his silence all of a sudden, “I’ve heard about the Battle of Goldentip, Brother Tan Li. There was this True Lake Realm Cultivator of the Crimson Blood Sect who entered this Battlefield back then and in that battle, she alone killed many dozens of our people.”

Tan Li swiftly turned his head, his pupils suffused with crimson intensity, “What are you trying to say?”

The Medical Cultivator continued, “I am not sure of the effects of the Judgment of the Heavens, but it is said that not even a Divine Ocean Realm Cultivator could withstand its punitive torment. By all rights, Lu Yi Ye should have long been incapacitated by now. Yet even with the Judgment gnawing on him, he doesn’t seem to be affected much. Does that suggest that the Crimson Blood Sect have some unknown methods that allow them to evade the effects of the Judgment?”

“Impossible!” Tan Li dismissed flatly, “This is the punishment inflicted by the Heavens! It’s impervious to any mortal manipulation.”

“But… what if there really is some way to do just that?”

Tan Li’s expression drifted into a momentary trance. [Indeed, what if there really is some sort of trick for that?]

So many had died and so long had elapsed, yet Lu Yi Ye looked fine. If he really was being subjected to the agony of the Judgment of the Heavens, then the pain should have been enough to reduce him to full paralysis because of the pain, if not outright death.

There was Lu Yi Ye, the paragon of death and destruction now, defying the ravages of the Judgment with an eerie calmness that betrayed no hint of pain or distress.

Could it be true that the Crimson Blood Sect does indeed possess some arcane methods to elude the retribution of the Heavens themselves? If that were true, then that would indeed be a perplexing enigma of the highest order.

The Heavens have always been an arbiter of impartiality. Yet why would it seem to favor the Crimson Blood Sect so much?

“Sir,” implored the Medical Cultivator, his words flowing with concern, “It might be imprudent to wager the lives of our men just to ascertain this enigma…”

Tan Li jerked himself back into focus. His men—his comrades and his fellow acolytes—were all charging at Lu Yi Ye, not because they believed they could defeat the latter, but rather, in the belief of his assertion that Lu Yi Ye would eventually crumble under the strain of the Judgment of the Heavens. 

But if Lu Yi Ye could indeed emerge from the torment of the Judgment of the Heavens unscathed, then all the deaths of his men would be for nothing. 

Conviction crystallized within Tan Li’s mind. He leaped to his feet, roaring with unshakable determination, “Sound the retreat! Back to Jiuzhou!”

His decree thundered, impelling the defenders to back off Lu Ye and began filing straight for the outpost’s Sanctum of Providence; even they had begun to notice that Lu Yi Ye wasn’t affected by the Judgment of Heavens. Lu Ye was about to chase after them, but Tan Li’s towering form materialized in a collision course with him, screaming, “Your opponent is me, Lu Yi Ye! Let them be!”

A maelstrom of Spiritual Power and vital essence surged within Tan Li’s being, infusing his very form with an unnatural hue of crimson, emanating a primal and bestial aura resembling that of a rampaging beast, an untamable force of nature both formidable and insolent.

Lu Ye remained steadfast, his stance resolute as he lifted Inviolable, its gleaming edge cleaving through the air in a sequence of three lightning-quick strokes.

Three crescent-like arcs of ethereal radiance bore down upon Tan Li, who met the onslaught with arms outstretched in staunch resistance. The resonant echoes of impact reverberated, and grievous wounds so terrible that one could almost see the white of his bones peeking out of the grotesque flesh marred his forearms. His impetuous charge was halted in its tracks.

Before he even came to his senses, a shadow shrouded in violet blotted his sight of everything else. A blinding dance of gleaming steel ensued, and Tan Li froze as if suspended in time. 

Lu Ye deftly swept past the petrified form of Tan Li, in hot pursuit of the rest of the New Moon Sect, cutting down anyone within his line of sight and leaving a trail of blood and dead bodies leading to the outpost’s Sanctum of Providence. Behind him, stultified despair enshrouded Tang Li’s gaze as life ebbed from him. His once formidable form crashed to the ground with his head rolling off his shoulder even before he hit the earth.

Despite being equal in rank with Lu Ye, he could not even withstand one round of attacks from the latter. 

With the dust of battle now finally settling, Lu Ye stood alone in the Sanctum of Providence. He flicked the bloodstains from Inviolable before returning it to its scabbard. 

Most of the New Moon Sect outpost had been evacuated. Lu Ye came alone and there was only so much he could do. 

But given the circumstances, the outcome had turned out to be acceptable. 

Lu Yi stepped out of the Sanctum of Providence and approached the headless corpse of Tan Li. His hand rummaged around, fumbling for a brief moment before extracting the Control Gem of the defensive ward. He destroyed it and with it, the defensive ward that guarded the outpost faded. 

Only then did he convey a message to Yi Yi to bring forth Tao Zhengyu.

<>