Sage of Humanity-Chapter 487 - 485: Copper Shard

In the dilapidated spirit ground, tiger roars, laughter, and shrieks continually sounded as clumps of snowballs flew back and forth.

After Lu Ye stuffed a snowball at the back of Yiyi’s neck, the scene became uncontrollable.

For Lu Ye, having a snowball fight on a snowy day was something deeply embedded in his memory, and fortunately, his skills had not grown rusty. Especially now, as a Cloud River Realm cultivator with extraordinary physical qualities, a wave of his hand conjured a snowball with just a summoning of his spirit force.

Big and small clumps of snowballs whizzed around, causing a buzzing noise in all directions.

Amber and Yiyi, connected by telepathy, coordinated flawlessly— one defending against Lu Ye’s attacks, the other counterattacking, heating up the battle spectacularly.

It wasn’t until Amber found an opportunity to knock Lu Ye to the ground and then a huge snowball, as big as a water barrel, engulfed by the strong wind, buried both the man and the tiger.

Yiyi leaped up high, cheering excitedly, "We won!"

Snow surged, and a majestic tiger’s head emerged, shaking off the snow on its body.

Yiyi walked forward, looking down at Lu Ye lying on the ground, and chuckled, "I won!"

Lu Ye, buried in the snow with only his face showing, quietly watched the large snowflakes falling from the sky, his eyes reflecting deep thoughts.

Suddenly, he sprung to his feet, squatting slightly, his hand gripping the saber handle. A clearly discernible heat steamed out of his mouth, quickly melting any snowflakes that neared him. A sharp aura gathered around him, and he seemed to transform into a long saber himself.

The man and the tiger hurriedly jumped aside, assuming a defensive posture.

However, Lu Ye did not move for a long time. He slowly closed his eyes, maintaining his grip on the saber until, at a certain moment, his eyes snapped open and the saber suddenly unsheathed. A bright, fiery-red saber light flashed, and a brilliant streak of saber light slashed out!

The saber light, like a crescent moon, flew from the blade, breaking through spatial constraints, and slashed more than thirty meters, embedding deeply into the rock wall, leaving a profound mark.

After releasing that slash, Lu Ye slowly inhaled, sheathed his saber back, and contemplated his saber skills. Compared to before, he gained a deeper insight.

Who says breakthroughs can only happen through intense and isolated cultivation? That snowball fight was very worthwhile.

But the breakthrough in his saber skills at this time was also related to the accumulation of experiences during this period. This accumulation had reached a limit. All he needed was an opportunity for a breakthrough, which Lu Ye had been seeking without success until now.

It wasn’t until he wholeheartedly engaged in a snowball fight with Yiyi and Amber that the elusive opportunity presented itself.

Indeed, the saying that in cultivation, relaxation should be blended with practice, holds much truth.

"Lu Ye, the house is gone," Yiyi said with a grim expression.

Lu Ye looked up to see that the house where he and Shen Xiaomao had lived was now collapsed, brought down by one snowball after another. The other houses too were reduced to ruins. This spirit ground, already desolate without its Spiritual Spring, now looked even more wretched.

"Where do we live now?"

"We don’t. Let’s find Giant Armor!"

Since the spirit of the spring had been stolen, there was no point in staying. Lu Ye had planned to leave this place after Amber’s promotion to Demon General.

Upon hearing this, Amber’s spirits lifted. It had a great relationship with Giant Armor; they had been inseparable at the Spirit Stream battlefield. Unfortunately, since Giant Armor’s promotion to Cloud River, Amber had not seen him.

With surging Demon Origin energy, Amber shrunk to the size of a small cat and jumped onto Lu Ye’s shoulder.

Lu Ye summoned his spirit ark. Yiyi jumped in front of him, sat cross-legged, and amid the swirling snow, the spirit ark soared into the sky.

Compared to a low-grade spirit artifact, a mid-grade artifact like the spirit ark offered much more comfort, at least protected by a spirit force barrier. Thus, even the fiercest wind and snow could not affect Lu Ye and Yiyi.

Charging in one direction like lightning, Yiyi’s cheerful singing floated along the way, singing the very song Lu Ye had taught her before.

While controlling the weapon for flying, Lu Ye held Amber in his hand to check its changes.

Compared to before, Amber, now a Demon General, seemed to have smoother and glossier fur, and its aura was much more robust.

The promotion of a demon beast to Demon General, similar to a cultivator’s promotion from Spirit Stream Realm to Cloud River, marked a tremendous leap in strength.

However, without a battle outbreak, Lu Ye was currently unsure about the extent of Amber’s strength.

"Awoo!" Amber growled.

Understanding the gesture, Lu Ye retrieved a demonic pill from his storage space. Amber took it in one bite, keeping it entirely in its mouth, and immediately, chewing noises came from within.

Amber could eat elixir pills and even Spirit Stones, but its favorite food was still the demonic pill of demon beasts. Ever since it tasted a demonic pill on the Cloud River battlefield, Amber had been obsessed with them.

Lu Ye didn’t have many demonic pills, having obtained only about a dozen from the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain secret realm.

The thick clouds in the sky dispersed, and sunlight spread out below.

The snow stopped.

"Yiyi, you take control," Lu Ye pointed in a direction for her to control the spirit ark, while he retrieved some materials he had bought from the Heaven’s Augury Mercantile Union from his storage space to craft an array banner.

Lu Ye had previously crafted array banners, but at that time his cultivation was insufficient, and he did so in the Artifact Refining Workshop of the Tianyan Sect headquarters. Now, having reached the Cloud River Level 3, he already possessed the capability to refine array banners in midair without relying on external forces.

While waiting for Amber to advance previously, he had crafted some, but for a cultivator who was skilled in Array Path like him, the more array banners the better, since they were often consumable items.

When night fell, Yiyi found a spot to rest, planning to continue their journey at dawn.

The campfire crackled as Lu Ye took a palm-sized copper shard from his storage space and stimulated his spirit force to examine it.

"Is this from the storage sack of that Blinding Speed Sect member we found last time?" Yiyi came over and asked.

"Yes."

Last time on their way back to the spirit ground from the Heaven’s Augury Mercantile Union, they encountered a grievously injured cultivator from the Blinding Speed Sect, who entrusted Lu Ye with returning his companion sword to the sect while leaving the rest of his possessions to Lu Ye.

This copper shard was found in the cultivator’s storage sack.

When Lu Ye first stimulated his spirit force into it, he detected that something was connected with the copper shard in a certain direction.

However, at that time Lu Ye was not in the mood to explore the secrets held by the copper shard. The reason he had taken it out now was that the direction that had reacted with the copper shard was precisely the direction he was currently traveling.

"What exactly is this?"

"Not sure."

Since the directions aligned, it seemed a good opportunity to investigate, although priority would still be given to meeting up with Giant Armor if the distance was too vast.

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Tucking away the copper shard, Lu Ye then took out some materials and continued refining array banners until late into the night, when he finally rested a little.

Traveling by day and resting by night, they encountered no issues on their way.

Three days later, with the copper shard in hand, Lu Ye controlled the spirit ark to circle over a range of undulating mountains, guided by the shard in his hand that indicated that the place he was searching for should be within this range, though its exact location still needed to be pinpointed.

The ten-part map showed nothing noteworthy about this mountain range, and such ranges were countless throughout the Cloud River battlefield.

Lu Ye saw nothing special in this area, but since the copper shard had led him here, it apparently concealed something.

Only half an hour later, Lu Ye confirmed the precise location and descended to a rock face.

Upon reaching this spot, the copper shard suddenly burst into light and even became somewhat hot to the touch.

"Lu Ye, over here!" Yiyi waved from the side, evidently having discovered something.

Following her voice, Lu Ye walked to the rock face where he saw a recess that perfectly matched the shape of the copper shard in his hand.

Holding the copper shard, he lifted his hand to place it into the recess, with his other hand on the hilt of his saber, secretly stimulating his spirit force as a precaution against any unforeseen dangers.

He did not know what he might find here or if he would encounter any dangers, so naturally he had to remain vigilant.

No danger emerged when the copper shard was set into the recess. Instead, the solid rock face in front of them suddenly surged with spirit light, transforming into a light screen.

Lu Ye hesitated, then called Yiyi to return to Amber before he stepped forward.

His figure moved through the light screen unimpeded and at the same time, the copper shard flashed with golden light and a streak of gold descended toward Lu Ye.

After Lu Ye entered the light screen, the rock face returned to its original appearance, and even the copper shard that had been set into the rock face mysteriously disappeared, leaving only the recess.

Surroundings engulfed in darkness, Lu Ye lifted his Boulder Mountain Saber and created a Sun Blaze Spirit Rune, holding it like a small sun that illuminated every fine detail around him.

There was no scent of living beings, and the place gave Lu Ye a strong sense of familiarity.

He had often entered such places in Evil Moon Valley.

This was unmistakably a mine tunnel.

Looking back, he could not see the rock face they had entered through; behind him lay another deep mine tunnel stretching into the darkness.

After passing through that layer of light screen, Lu Ye seemed to have been transported directly inside.

This made him quite puzzled as to what this place was. He had assumed that following the copper shard’s guidance would lead him to some treasure, yet he found himself directly inside this mine tunnel.

Under the illumination of the Sun Blaze Spirit Rune, the surroundings of the mine tunnel glittered.

Moving forward to examine them, Lu Ye raised an eyebrow in surprise, and Yiyi also appeared suddenly, exclaiming moments later, "Lu Ye, there are so many spirit stones, we’re going to be rich!"

The twinkling objects were indeed numerous spirit stones, exposed and embedded around them.

This was a spirit stone vein!

For all cultivators, spirit stones were indispensable resources for cultivation. Consuming elixir pills would lead to accumulation of pill poison, and drawing nature’s spiritual energy was limited by the environment, so cultivators often held spirit stones in their hands during recovery and cultivation, drawing the spirit force from the stones. Spirit Stream Realm cultivators usually used low-grade spirit stones, advancing to mid-grade ones in the Cloud River Realm because the spirit force provided by low-grade spirit stones was no longer adequate for the cultivators of Cloud River Realm.