Sage of Humanity

After three days of recovery, Lu Ye finally recuperated, and Li Baxian had also almost fully recovered.

Since the opening of the hunting ground, about ten days had passed, with no knowledge of when it would close.

Generally speaking, each opening of the hunting ground lasts from half a month to a month, with no specific pattern as to its duration, because no one knows when the hunting ground will suddenly close. The closing of the hunting ground signals the settling of the Kills Ranking, and at that time, various rewards will be distributed by Heaven's Augury.

According to Yiyi, who was on guard outside, Lu Ye's ranking on the Kills Ranking had fallen to fourth place. This was normal; although he had been a considerable distance ahead of the others, with no gains for a full three days, those powerful cultivators were sure to catch up and surpass him.

If it had been before, being surpassed would have been fine, but after Lu Ye, Li Baxian, and Feng Yuechan had worked so hard for so long, it would be a pity to be overtaken and lose the first place reward at this juncture.

Now that his body had recovered, he naturally set out to retake the first place on the Kills Ranking.

However, preparations were needed before that. Not to mention anything else, it was essential to set up some teleportation arrays.

The teleportation array in their current hideout didn't connect to any other points. If someone cornered them here, they would be trapped with no way out, just like before.

Lu Ye felt quite helpless about this. Generally, he chose very remote locations for his teleportation arrays, either inside caves or in underground caverns. But if he could find these places, so could others. If someone triggered the explosion magic arrays he left behind, all his arrangements would be destroyed.

The only solution was to set up as many arrays as possible. That way, even if some were destroyed, there would be other alternatives available.

Once the preparations were complete, Lu Ye quietly emerged from the underground cavern.

It should be daytime now, but under the shroud of the blood-colored sky, the entire hunting ground was enveloped in a sinister and eerie atmosphere.

Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan remained below, not following him.

Lu Ye was going to set up teleportation arrays, and naturally, it was more convenient to work alone. Setting aside everything else, he had ways to conceal himself; as long as he was careful, not even cultivators of Level 8-9 would notice him passing by. Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan did not possess such abilities.

He traveled about 30 miles straight, following his previous memory, and arrived at a cave where he had set up a teleportation array, but now the cave was filled with rubble, and traces of spirit force explosion impacts, and even some dried blood on the ground - clear signs of an explosion magic array being activated.

Someone had gotten injured here, which means the person who breached the array and triggered it must not have had very high cultivation. If it had been someone of Level 8-9, they likely wouldn't have been hurt.

After inspecting the cave, which was reasonably sturdy, Lu Ye cleared the rubble from the floor and set up the Formation anew.

Although this place had been discovered by someone else, since they got nothing out of it and had been duped by Lu Ye's array, they probably wouldn't come back to investigate it further.

In less than six hours, all was prepared, and Lu Ye stood on the teleportation array for a test, ensuring this array was not only connected to Li Baxian's location but also to another. Only then did he consider his work done.

He had originally set up as many as twelve arrays, but after so many days, he didn't know how many were left.

Since many of the arrays were interconnected in sequence, he could only check the status of two or three other locations by using one array; it wasn't possible to check them all.

After setting up one teleportation array, Lu Ye left the cave, concealed himself, and headed for another location about 30 miles away.

Finding a suitable spot with Yiyi, he set up another teleportation array. This new array was connected to the location where Li Baxian was, as well as to the first array he set up earlier.

In this way, no matter which teleportation array they were at, there were two ways to retreat; even if one were destroyed, they wouldn't be cornered.

Having learned from his previous mistake, Lu Ye was now even more careful; he did not wish to engage with cultivators above Level 7 again.

Although they had won the battle against Hea Bing, it was incredibly hard-fought, and even after killing Hea Bing, they had wasted a full three days—a loss that far outweighed the gains.

For him, the most profitable targets were those at Level 4-5. They were easier to kill, and the kill points they offered were not few.

After setting up two teleportation arrays in succession, Lu Ye contacted Li Baxian to confirm their situation.

Shortly after, Lu Ye stood on the teleportation array and activated the Formation, his figure fading swiftly.

Returning to the previous underground cavern, he met up with Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan, and the three of them set out.

After walking for more than ten miles, Lu Ye, as usual, began setting up a Formation to hide the presence and figures of Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan. Then, he found another suitable location to lay a trap array in case they encountered an overwhelming enemy.

Once everything was ready, Lu Ye concealed his presence and quietly lay in wait.

During the wait, Lu Ye looked up at the Kills Ranking.

His ranking had fallen again, now to the seventh place. The reward for the seventh place was only three 3rd Dao gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, a huge gap from first place.

The person who still held the first place was that fellow named Tan Sheng, who somehow must have stumbled upon incredible luck; the kill points he had were almost three hundred more than the second place.

It had been known that the gap between these contenders wasn't significant earlier, and a three hundred kill point difference was generally hard to close.

If it hadn't been for Lu Ye's three days of rest, leaving him a thousand kill points ahead of the second place, it would have been enough to make others utterly despair.

Six hours later, a group of cultivators passed by nearby. Judging by their cautious demeanor, their cultivation was not very high, and though they were flying on their weapons, the height above the ground was less than thirty feet.

In this way, should they encounter any danger, they would be able to land quickly and try to find somewhere to hide.

As usual, it was Li Baxian who made the sneak attack to determine the affiliation and cultivation level of the other party, followed by Yuechan's bombardment with her magic and spells, and Lu Ye lying in ambush to make the kill.

The battle lasted less than thirty breaths from beginning to end.

They quickly cleared the battlefield; Lu Ye recovered the array banners and array bases and they retreated along the same route.

Even though the battle went smoothly, maintaining enough vigilance was essential; within the hunting ground, no one knew when they might provoke one of those cultivators from the Level 8-9 realm. Hence, the trio adhered to their earlier principle of never striking in the same place twice.

Back in the underground cave, Lu Ye was in charge of disabling the restrictions on the storage sacks, and the three of them divided the spoils of war evenly. Then, under Lu Ye's activation, they teleported to the location of another teleportation array.

After making some brief repairs, they continued with their actions.

As before, each day Lu Ye's party earned several hundred kill points; by the thirteenth day of the hunting ground's opening, his kill points had reached five thousand four hundred and forty.

His ranking moved up one place, arriving at the sixth position.

But at this rate, reaching the top of the Kills Ranking was not possible, for the gap between him and the first place holder Tan Sheng was significant. With his Level 9 cultivation, Tan Sheng acted unbridled in the hunting grounds, unmatched by anyone except for the strong cultivators of the Haotian Alliance who were also at Level 9. Unlike Lu Ye and his companions, they had to do everything stealthily for fear of being discovered by stronger cultivators.

However, there was nothing they could do about it; the cultivation of the trio was simply too low, an absolute shortcoming.

In fact, the rewards for sixth place were not bad. Although it was only one spot higher than seventh place, the prize of the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks was a full five Dao higher.

In the bottom of the cave where they were hiding, atop the teleportation array, Lu Ye disabled the restrictions on the storage sacks, then divided the numerous storage sacks into three portions for each to choose from.

The division of spoils had always been like this, and what treasures could be found in each person's storage sack was entirely up to luck.

Mostly there wasn't anything significant, with some storage sacks containing spirit fortune sticks, though none of high quality.

These spirit fortune sticks were probably collected in the hunting ground and not yet used, which turned out to be a benefit for Lu Ye and the others.

Opening one storage sack after another, they sorted and stowed away anything useful.

Shortly after, Lu Ye pulled out a palm-sized token from the last storage sack.

On this token was an image of a bell, with a few simple strokes alongside the bell that suggested it was emitting light, which made it look rather amusing to the observer.

Lu Ye had never seen such a token before and didn't know its use; thinking it was some kind of Identity Token belonging to the sect of the deceased, he was about to throw it away casually when Li Baxian suddenly looked over.

"Junior brother, let me see that token," he said.

Hearing this, Lu Ye handed the token to Li Baxian.

Li Baxian took it, looked at it from all sides, and even pinched it with his fingers, then uncertainly passed the token to Yuechan: "You take a look."

Yuechan examined it carefully, seeming to recall something, and her expression turned to one of amazement and doubt.

"Is it that thing?" Li Baxian asked.

"It looks like it; I saw some records in an ancient tome. The image and size match," she replied.

"So, it seems this thing can also appear in the hunting ground. It looks like a stroke of fortune has fallen," Li Baxian mused.

"That should be the case."

"Wonder who was so lucky to encounter it."

"Lucky, but already dead," Yuechan noted.

Their exchange piqued Lu Ye's curiosity.

Once they finished discussing, Lu Ye asked, "Senior Brother, what is this token?"

From the way Li Baxian and Yuechan spoke, it seemed the item was not merely an Identity Token but something entirely unfamiliar to him.

"This is quite a treasure," Li Baxian said, handing the token back to Lu Ye, "It should be a Golden Body Token."

"Golden Body Token?"

"Yes, Junior Brother, you know of the Golden Body Talisman, right? The Golden Body Token works similarly, safeguarding a person entirely. The power of a Golden Body Talisman depends on the quality of the Spirit Talisman, but this Golden Body Token is a blessing from Heaven's Augury. In other words, if one activates this Golden Body Token, one is protected by a blessing from Heaven that is solid and unbreakable, far surer and lasting longer than any Golden Body Talisman. It can endure for at least several hours."