translator: ahad
Proofreading: shaheer
Humanity’s Great Sage – Chapter 1030: Holy Master
Atop the spirit peak on the central island of the Jade Blood Holy Land, Jian Guhong and the others returned to report their mission, recounting in detail all they had done and seen.
After Jian Guhong finished speaking, the ghost cultivator elder spoke up: “It’s truly a pity we failed to kill that Starlight Moon Holy Venerable this time. Originally, this old man had a chance to succeed. It’s just that the fellow was too vigilant—he reacted in the very instant I struck. In the end, I only managed to wound him. Ah.”
The Holy Master shook his head. “Every Holy Seed in this world is favored by heaven and earth. One could say they are the children of this world’s fortune. How could they be so easily killed? For Senior Wu Chang to have wounded him is already an extraordinary feat.”
Everyone present knew the fearsomeness of the Holy Seeds. They were absolutely not comparable to ordinary Blood Race members. Take Wu Chang, for example. He claimed he had a chance to succeed, but in truth, failing to succeed was still failing to succeed. Even if he were given that same chance again, he still would not have succeeded.
Jian Guhong had also clashed head-on with a Holy Seed before. Even with the powerful foundation of a sword cultivator, he could only fight that Holy Seed to a draw.
This alone showed the might of the Holy Seeds. One could say that no Blood Race Holy Seed was weaker in strength than any of them.
Yet, such immensely powerful Holy Seeds had a precedent of being beaten to death by a living person.
And the one who had accomplished this was none other than the Holy Master standing before them!
It was precisely that battle that made top-tier powerhouses like Jian Guhong, Wu Chang, and the others wholeheartedly and willingly acknowledge this middle-aged man’s identity and status as Holy Master.
One had to know, whether it was Jian Guhong, or Wu Chang, or the magic cultivator woman and the others—each of them had once been figures who shook the eight directions, whose names resounded across an entire realm. They could all be considered the most elite combatants of humanity. Every single one of them was wildly untamed and rebellious, each the kind of figure whose anger could tilt the heavens, each having suppressed an entire era. To make people like them submit was not something just anyone could achieve.
Before the middle-aged man’s meteoric rise, Jian Guhong and the others were a sheet of loose sand, scattered across the Blood Refining World, opposing the Blood Race individually. Because each was strong enough on their own, because none would submit to another.
It was the emergence of the middle-aged man that gathered these loose grains of sand together, founding the Jade Blood Holy Land here in the Divine Watch Sea and carving out a pure land for humanity.
Standing firm to this day!
But now, the Jade Blood Holy Land had also reached its most critical moment.
“The Blood Race’s troop strength this time is even greater than before. It seems they intend to stake everything on this single campaign,” the Holy Master said slowly. “News has also come back from the eastern, southern, and western fronts. Each battle line has several Holy Seeds in command, with several hundred thousand troops deployed. From all four directions, the Blood Race’s total forces amount to at least one million three hundred thousand—perhaps even more.”
Jian Guhong and the others all furrowed their brows.
This number was far larger than in the past. Before, although the Blood Race had repeatedly raised armies to invade, their numbers had never exceeded a million, which was why the Jade Blood Holy Land had been able to hold them off.
But the Jade Blood Holy Land had also paid an extremely heavy price.
When Lu Ye arrived here, the Jade Blood Holy Land he saw had an elliptical archipelago scattered on the outer perimeter and a large island at the center. But in truth, the original terrain here was not like this.
Originally, at the center of the Divine Watch Sea, the scattered islands were far more numerous—at least four times the current number.
Through battle after battle, those more distant outer islands were shattered and sunk. Only the innermost ring of the archipelago remained.
If this time, even this innermost ring of islands could not be held, then the Jade Blood Holy Land would be left with only the single large central island, and there would be no defensible terrain to rely on.
So this time, the key to preserving the Holy Land lay in whether they could hold the outer archipelago, in whether they could withstand the Blood Race’s fierce assault. If they could hold, all would be well. If they could not, and the Blood Race managed to land on the islands, they would immediately destroy those islands and tear open gaps in the Holy Land’s defensive line.
Judging solely by the troop strength the Blood Race had deployed this time, it would undoubtedly be very difficult for the Holy Land to fend them off and keep the enemy at bay.
“At worst, we few can just break out and leave. The Blood Refining World is vast; we can go anywhere and still kill Blood Race,” Wu Chang said.
Jian Guhong shook his head. “It’s easy for us to break out, but what about the others on the islands? They will inevitably suffer the Blood Race’s wrath. I fear not a single one would survive.”
The human population on the islands was immense—all of them having been relocated here by the Holy Land over the years from the hundred-thousand-li radius around the Divine Watch Sea. Decades of accumulation, with humans living in peace and contentment, had caused the population base to swell even larger. It was precisely this vast human base that could continuously supply cultivators to the Holy Land, becoming the force that resisted the Blood Race.
Cultivators and ordinary mortals had always shared weal and woe, their fates intertwined. This was true whether in the Nine Provinces or in the Blood Refining World.
Wu Chang replied: “You can’t expect us to live and die together with them. There’s no such principle.”
Though he said this, if things truly reached that point, it was unlikely that many of humanity’s top powerhouses would actually choose to flee alone.
The magic cultivator woman, who had remained silent all this time, spoke: “What aid can the homeland provide?”
These people here were not trees without roots or water without a source; they all had some origin.
The Blood Race could never understand how, under the great tide of the Blood Refining World, so many human powerhouses could inexplicably emerge. If it were just one or two, that would be one thing—with the human population so vast, there would always be one or two with good fortune who obtained some lucky chance. But these human powerhouses were not merely one or two—they numbered in the dozens, even over a hundred!
This was the fundamental reason the Jade Blood Holy Land could stand firm and unyielding under the repeated fierce assaults of the Blood Race armies. Because the Jade Blood Holy Land had enough top-tier powerhouses to repel the Blood Race armies’ attacks time and again, inflicting devastating losses upon them.
The Holy Master shook his head. “That is precisely what puzzles me. The day before yesterday, I tried to contact the homeland. The response I received was that the homeland has already sent us aid.”
But he had not seen any aid.
“Already sent?” The magic cultivator woman frowned, then suddenly seemed to realize something. “Could it be…”
Jian Guhong had undoubtedly also realized something. He was just about to speak when the Holy Master suddenly lowered his head and gazed down the mountain, a look of confusion on his face. In the next instant, his figure flickered and vanished from the spot.
When he reappeared, he was already at the foot of the mountain, before a stone tablet.
Lu Ye was standing right before this stone tablet, looking at a line of characters on it and softly reciting: “Jade blood flows through a thousand ages…”
This left him utterly astonished, because at the foot of the Crimson Blood Sect’s mountain gate, there was also a stone tablet just like this, inscribed with this very same line.
However, the Crimson Blood Sect’s tablet could only be considered half a tablet. The other half was with the Devoted Hearts Sect. Only when the two tablets were joined together did they form a complete tablet.
It was said that decades ago, the Sect Master of the Devoted Hearts Sect had personally carved them, then split the tablet in two, gifting one half to the Crimson Blood Sect and keeping the other half at the Devoted Hearts Sect, symbolizing the bond between the two sects.
Yet in just a few short decades, the bond between the two sects had split just like the originally complete tablet, leaving one to sigh with deep emotion.
Lu Ye had never expected to see something similar to what stood before his own sect’s gate here.
After reciting that one line, he could not help but recite the next.
“Devoted hearts shine through ten thousand years.”
He could not help but frown. His sect was the Crimson Blood Sect, and here was a Jade Blood Holy Land. There was also a stone tablet similar to the one beneath his sect’s mountain gate. This coincidence was a bit too striking.
Dao Thirteen’s aura suddenly surged, the pressure of the Divine Ocean Realm spreading outward.
Lu Ye was jolted in alarm, his thoughts interrupted. His hand pressed down on the Inviolable Saber at his waist. Turning his head to look, he saw a middle-aged man with his hands clasped behind his back standing not far from him.
He had not sensed when this person had arrived at all. If not for Dao Thirteen’s reaction, he likely still would not have detected him.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—several figures shot over and positioned themselves before the middle-aged man. It was precisely Jian Guhong and the others.
At the same moment, Lu Ye clearly perceived that from all across the central island, powerful strands of divine sense spread forth, focusing their attention on this place. They had clearly sensed the commotion here.
But very quickly, those divine senses withdrew.
A cold sweat broke out over Lu Ye. Only now did he realize that he had always underestimated the foundation of the Jade Blood Holy Land. Judging by the traces of divine sense涌动 in that single instant alone, the number of Divine Ocean Realm cultivators gathered on this island right now was likely several dozen.
And these were only those who had revealed traces. What about those who hadn’t?
He steadied his nerves and sized up the middle-aged man. At a single glance, he inexplicably felt that this person looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.
Yet Lu Ye knew he had never met this man.
As for the newcomer’s identity… One only had to look at the positioning of Jian Guhong and the others to guess that this must be the Holy Master of the Jade Blood Holy Land.
“A Dao Soldier?” The middle-aged man did not first observe Lu Ye but instead looked at Dao Thirteen. His powerful divine sense surged as he scrutinized Dao Thirteen’s nature from top to bottom.
Dao Thirteen, whose intelligence was still developing, was undoubtedly angered by this unrestrained examination. With a furious roar, he charged forward and smashed a fist toward the middle-aged man.
Lu Ye’s expression changed and he hastily shouted: “Stop!”
But it was ultimately too late.
With a boom, the middle-aged man’s figure remained completely unmoved. He merely raised one hand and effortlessly blocked Dao Thirteen’s full-force strike. A visible shockwave of energy blasted outward, whipping his hair and robes into a wild flutter.
He then raised his other hand and tapped a single finger on a certain spot on Dao Thirteen’s chest.
His movement could not be described as fast—even Lu Ye could see it clearly. Yet there was an indescribable rhythm to it.
What shocked Lu Ye was that Dao Thirteen did not evade this strike.
At the tap of that single finger, Dao Thirteen stiffened as though struck by lightning, his entire body rigid. Then his head drooped, and he slumped to the ground.
Lu Ye’s pupils constricted to the size of needlepoints. A boundless chill surged through his entire body. His hand was on the Inviolable Saber, but he could neither draw it nor leave it be.
He knew Dao Thirteen’s strength. Among Divine Ocean Realm cultivators, he was not at the absolute peak, but he was by no means weak. Yet he had been subdued so effortlessly by the man before him?
Lu Ye did not even know what the man had done.
This fellow… what terrifying cultivation.
“Rest assured, he is merely asleep.” The middle-aged man seemed to sense Lu Ye’s worry and took the initiative to explain.
Lu Ye hastily looked at Dao Thirteen and found that he did indeed appear to merely be asleep—he had even begun to snore. For a moment, Lu Ye was speechless.
“The refinement method for this kind of Dao Soldier has flaws, which is why his intelligence is not high.” The middle-aged man raised his head and looked at Lu Ye. “How is Tai Shan?”
(End of Chapter)