Sage of Humanity-Chapter 1539 - 1537: My Strongest Enemy Is Myself

No fancy collisions, saber lights and saber clashing sound together, with each collision, both Lu Ye and the sculpture-formed figure shake violently, spirit force stirring.

After just a moment of engagement, Lu Ye confirmed one thing: this opponent is another version of himself. He not only has the exact same appearance and saber, but even the strength and combat style are identical.

Is this the trial of that opportunity?

If so, one must pass this trial to obtain that opportunity, meaning he must deal with another version of himself!

This bizarre event is something Lu Ye has never experienced before, and it's a bit novel at first.

But the problem follows: how can one rely on their own strength to deal with another version of oneself?

Many thoughts flashed like lightning through his mind, making Lu Ye's mind steady, his gaze resolute like ice. No matter how similar the figure before him looks, it is ultimately just a likeness, not really him.

This is very likely an incredibly sophisticated Illusory Realm, so sophisticated that his vision cannot see any flaw.

The clash of force and the resonate of sabers seem endless, the dangers of combat cultivator contests being vividly manifest in this moment. With each confrontation, both sides nearly walk the edge between life and death, something Lu Ye could never experience when battling other enemies.

Until now, any enemy he faced, even those with strength matching his, could never have the same combat style, so such a scene was difficult to appear.

But in this battle, it is truly equally matched, and both sides have incredibly aggressive auras. Each saber strike brings the ultimate oppression, as if either the enemy dies or he would perish.

However, despite the intense combat reaching its peak, both figures can perfectly block each other's attack without sustaining any damage.

Lu Ye felt like he was looking into a mirror; this battle, though intense, felt extremely awkward to him.

Until a certain moment, the figure opposite suddenly changed its saber stance, a point of light blossomed, leaving Lu Ye surprised, hurriedly backing off.

Light erupted like a big sun, a Saber Lotus slowly bloomed, each petal's dance was condense of saber light, covering half of the grand hall with Saber Lotus.

Lotus Sun!

Though Lu Ye had guessed when the opponent used Tyrannical Saber Technique that the full Tyrannical Saber 3rd Movement might be displayed, he was still a bit incredulous upon witnessing it firsthand.

This Illusory Realm is too sophisticated indeed; all of his abilities could perfectly manifest in the figure opposite him.

Facing the might of Lotus Sun like this for the first time, it felt completely different compared to when he used it himself. This was experiencing it from the perspective of the attacker, deeply realizing Lotus Sun's horror.

Even though he quickly decided to back off to avoid unfavorable circumstances, he still inevitably got enveloped by the aftermath of Lotus Sun — saber lights cutting all around him, and Lu Ye hurriedly constructed Sacred Guard Spirit Runes to barely resolve it.

Before he could stabilize his posture, points of saber light rushed to kill.

Myriad Stars!

No escape, no avoidance, Lu Ye's skin tightened in chill, reflecting the sight of countless Myriad Stars pouring down upon him.

With one move losing the initiative, Lu Ye found the opponent's offense relentless, intent to leave him dead here. A defeat in such a trial, killed by another version of himself, would be undeniably humiliating.

Even Sacred Guard can't withstand such a continuous violent assault, and Lu Ye knew well about his own attack power, so he fundamentally abstained from defense, instead urging his saber stance — saber lights continuously slash forth.

Sound of Tide Sea arose, layer upon layer, endless.

Myriad Stars fell, Tide Sea breached, Lu Ye only felt a slight pain on his arm, seizing the moment to retreat.

Before he could stabilize his form, a figure emerged from the shattered saber light, enveloped in boundless killing intent, brutally oppressive aura weighing heavy on the heart.

Lu Ye finally realized what his enemies once faced against him; under such tyrannical oppression, if one's mind wasn't composed, it was easy to fall into disadvantage even if one possessed adequate strength that may not be fully exhibited.

He twisted his saber forward, meeting the attack, as it's the only option available for him now.

Both sabers collided again, a loud noise emerged, with both forms trembling. Although the figure opposite held an advantage earlier, Lu Ye now composed his mind, preventing immediate defeat.

But gradually, he noticed some unusual spots, stealing a glance at his right arm where a saber wound remained.

In theory, such a flesh wound should mean nothing to him, with his strong physique and vitality, recovery is merely a matter of moments.

But in fact, this not-so-large wound somehow still hadn't healed. Not only had it not healed, but it even kept expanding, with blood pouring out and staining his clothes red.

Lu Ye clearly sensed that a peculiar force lingered around the wound, hindering its healing, rendering his robust physique and vitality useless.

Lu Ye furrowed his brows slightly.

It was becoming more difficult to determine whether his speculation was correct.

He initially thought that everything here was just an Illusory Realm, just so sophisticated and realistic that he couldn't detect any flaws.

But if it was an Illusory Realm, how could he get hurt? And the injury was so strange.

Could this not be an Illusory Realm?

With this moment of distraction, the hard-won balance was once again broken. Lu Ye only saw a flash of saber light opposite him; even though he dodged immediately, he couldn't avoid it, and a wound was cut on his abdomen.

Raising his saber to block the opponent's attack, he silently felt the condition of the wound on his abdomen and found that it was the same as the wound on his arm, both surrounded by that strange force. Under the influence of that force, not only couldn't the wound heal, but it was also slowly getting worse.

The opponent's saber was peculiar!

Lu Ye immediately understood one thing: although the opponent's saber looked exactly like the Boulder Mountain Saber, it wasn't the real Boulder Mountain Saber. That saber carried a unique force that could interfere with wound recovery, even having the strange property of worsening the wound.

In the short term, such peculiarities didn't have much effect on Lu Ye, but over time, it could be problematic, especially since Lu Ye was facing an enemy that was another version of himself, possessing all his skills. Any slight weakness on this side could become the crucial point of victory or defeat! 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Lu Ye quickly activated the power of the Talent Tree to burn and refine himself. In an instant, the strange force lingering on the two wounds burned away entirely, and under the influence of his strong physique and vitality, the wounds promptly began to heal.

With this problem resolved, Lu Ye relaxed a little, but the situation was still not optimistic. Originally both sides were evenly matched, but just a slight delay had put Lu Ye in a slightly weak disadvantage. He knew well that if he couldn't quickly recover from this slight disadvantage, it would only grow wider! Because his combat style was such that any slight advantage would quickly expand with oppressive force and thus establish victory.

But how to recover from this disadvantage against such an opponent?

Lu Ye couldn't think of what to do. Even facing Moon Jade wasn't as tricky as this battle. Lu Ye suddenly realized something: the hardest enemy to defeat in this world was actually himself!

This was quite absurd.

He considered whether to don the Dragon Throne; he had a Dragon Throne, and it was impossible for the opponent to also have one. As he was about to give it a try, he found that he couldn't open his storage ring.

Startled in his heart, he tried to connect with the red talisman being nurtured inside him, only to find that even the red talisman couldn't be activated.

Lu Ye instantly understood that in such a battle, external forces were inaccessible, and he could only rely on his own abilities.

As the opponent slashed out with a saber, Lu Ye's eyes suddenly lit up. Holding his saber, he immediately met the attack; in this strike, the timing was extremely well-grasped, and he forcibly turned back his slight disadvantage.

So... there were openings in my combat after all!

The enemy's slash just now had a small flaw, or rather an unrefined spot. Such openings were often fleeting and hard to grasp, but everything the enemy displayed was owned by Lu Ye, so seizing that chance wasn't difficult for him!

Lu Ye had never noticed this before, as he had never had such an experience.

Deeply afraid, he thought that if an enemy had seized that opportunity in a battle before, he could have been in big trouble. But since he discovered it now, he naturally wouldn't make the same mistake in the future.

Lu Ye's heart suddenly moved. Such an opportunity was rare, and perhaps he could use this chance to find more of his own shortcomings, correcting if there were any, and encouraging himself if there weren't.

Upon reaching this thought, Lu Ye grew a bit interested in such a battle, fully exerting his power to continuously engage and clash with the enemy in front.

And indeed, he found many of his inadequacies, especially after gaining an advantage, as his sweeping attacks would often give enemies opportunities to exploit.

In the past, he hadn't been overturned by enemies because their strength and insight weren't enough. If they had been, any opportunity could have been enough to bring Lu Ye to ruin.

Secretly sweating, Lu Ye realized he had never noticed these things before, mainly because his cultivation progressed too quickly, and he had never been systematically taught. His saber skills were basically honed instinctively in life-and-death situations.

These were enough for Lu Ye to dominate in front of most cultivators of the same rank. Perhaps some had seen flaws, but against Lu Ye's overwhelming power, they couldn't fight back.

But ultimately, one's fate must be in their own hands, and reliance on the opponent's weakness cannot be the strategy.

Lu Ye found this to be an extremely rare opportunity, a chance to make up for his shortcomings, much like looking in a mirror, finding all his inadequacies from the reflection, and then correcting them.