translator: ahad
Proofreading: shaheer
Humanity’s Great Sage – Chapter 1021: Lan Qiyue Returns
The Blood Race was a race adept at war. This was etched deep into their bloodline from birth, and they naturally understood far more than humans ever could.
So upon receiving word that three Blessed Lands had allied to attack them, Thousand Streams Blessed Land swiftly formulated a response.
Yu Lingfeng continuously dispatched Blood Race members to scout the enemy’s movements, and one report after another came back from the outside.
By daybreak, the three Blessed Lands’ allied forces were only a hundred li from Thousand Streams Blessed Land.
Yu Lingfeng was likewise deploying troops and assigning generals. Although his cultivation was not particularly high, he possessed a fair measure of commanding presence. Under his direction, Thousand Streams Blessed Land was arranged in perfect order.
This was largely thanks to having borrowed Dao Thirteen’s strength a few days prior to make an example out of a few troublemakers; now he commanded a certain degree of prestige before the Blood Race under his command.
Another hour passed, and the three Blessed Lands’ allied forces finally arrived at their doorstep.
There was no verbal exchange whatsoever. The three allied Blessed Lands launched their attack directly.
For the Blood Race, waging war and conquering one another was the most natural thing in the world. What need was there for wasted words? Just fight.
The three Blessed Lands’ allied forces outnumbered Thousand Streams Blessed Land’s forces two to one. With the three Blessed Land Masters personally present, morale was thunderous.
The allied forces advanced in a half-encirclement toward Thousand Streams Blessed Land. Very quickly, both sides were exchanging blood technique bombardments. Mysterious spells radiating blood light crisscrossed back and forth, a spectacular sight.
The Blood Race seldom made use of protective arrays, mainly because the Blood Race’s blood techniques possessed an extremely strong corrosive nature against protective-type arrays. In such battles, protective arrays could play very little role and were easily eroded and broken by blood techniques.
The corrosive nature of the Blood Race’s blood techniques was not only targeted at arrays, but at spirit artifacts as well. Lu Ye had already verified this point as far back as the Soaring Dragon Boundary.
Thus, the Blood Race here essentially had no spirit artifacts. Conflicts between Blood Race members were primarily fought using ever-changing blood techniques, or else close-quarters combat.
The Blood Race’s razor-sharp nails were their meticulously tempered spirit artifacts.
The numerical advantage easily allowed the three Blessed Lands’ allied forces to gain the upper hand. Thousand Streams Blessed Land’s side quickly suffered significant casualties. Figure after figure plummeted from the sky, their vitality dissipating.
Dao Thirteen had already single-handedly charged into the enemy ranks. Initially, not many Blood Race members paid him any mind. He was just a Blood Slave, after all, naturally not worthy of entering the Blood Race’s eyes.
Even though Dao Thirteen had now recovered to the Real Lake Realm in cultivation, he was still not worth their high regard.
But very quickly, Dao Thirteen drew the attention of many Real Lake Realm Blood Race members. There was no other reason: the strength Dao Thirteen displayed was simply too terrifying. Even Blood Race members at the same Real Lake Realm, once he closed in on them, could barely survive more than three breaths.
In just a short time, over a dozen Real Lake Realm Blood Race members had gathered around Dao Thirteen.
Under normal circumstances, even if these Blood Race members joined forces, they could not possibly be Dao Thirteen’s match. He possessed the foundation of a Divine Ocean Realm cultivator, after all.
However, the blood techniques of the Blood Race were ultimately exceedingly profound.
Those Real Lake Realm Blood Race members, who knew what arcane technique they activated, conjured a river of blood out of thin air in the blink of an eye, stretching across the midair. Dao Thirteen fell into that river of blood and quickly vanished from sight. Even the Blood Race members who had conjured this blood river all fell into it as well, locked in ceaseless battle with Dao Thirteen.
Lu Ye watched this scene with some surprise but did not go to his rescue. Through his perception, Dao Thirteen’s aura remained quite steady.
He had originally counted on Dao Thirteen to contribute his strength and balance the forces of both sides. But now, with the situation as it was, Dao Thirteen could no longer be relied upon.
And without Dao Thirteen to restrain them, the three Blessed Lands’ allied forces grew ever more imposing. Thousand Streams Blessed Land’s Blood Race casualties continued to mount.
Lu Ye sighed. He could only take out the Sword Gourd from his storage space, channel his spiritual power into it, and in an instant, streaks of sword qi like cascading bolts of silk shot forth from the gourd, reaping the lives of the invading enemies.
Some Blood Race members witnessed this scene and recognized his threat, so they thought to come and stop him.
However, even if those Blood Race members evaded the sword qi’s assault and charged to Lu Ye’s side, a flash of blade light later, they too fell as corpses.
The fierce battle raged on.
Thousand Streams Blessed Land gradually showed signs of decline. The disparity in troop strength was double, especially the huge gap in the number of Real Lake Realm Blood Race members. Under normal circumstances, Thousand Streams Blessed Land simply could not hold.
An hour into the great battle, fewer than half of Thousand Streams Blessed Land’s Blood Race members remained.
Lu Ye felt the moment was about right. Only then did he take out a jade talisman from his chest, channel his spiritual power into it, and activate the might of the grand array he had laid down earlier.
A buzzing sound rang out as the array discs he had buried in advance resonated together. An invisible force enveloped the entirety of Thousand Streams Blessed Land.
In that instant, the Blood Race members of Thousand Streams Blessed Land, forced to fight on the ground, experienced an exceedingly wondrous sensation.
Under the shroud of that invisible force, they discovered that they could very easily link their auras with nearby comrades. Through this linked aura, they could even borrow the power within their comrades’ bodies.
The Same Breath Linked Branches Grand Array!
This was the preparation Lu Ye had made beforehand.
Apart from cultivating, his recent days had been spent entirely researching the Same Breath, Linked Branches Spirit Pattern, and he had refined many array discs containing this Spirit Pattern.
Using each array disc as a node, they were scattered across various parts of the Blessed Land, laying down a Same Breath Linked Branches Grand Array.
This great battle would serve perfectly to verify just how much power this array could exert.
This array itself possessed no offensive power whatsoever. It simply allowed the Blood Race members within the array to link their auras and borrow strength from one another. So long as their coordination was good enough, the Blood Race members of Thousand Streams Blessed Land could display combat strength surpassing their own numbers.
Resisting the three Blessed Lands’ allied assault naturally would not be a problem.
The crux lay entirely in coordination.
The Blood Race members of Thousand Streams Blessed Land were experiencing such a thing for the first time, so for a moment, their coordination was naturally poor.
But very quickly, they grasped the profound subtleties of this grand array. Immediately, they gathered in groups of three to five, led by the strongest Blood Race member in each group, with the others closely following.
For a time, they barely managed to stabilize the situation.
But winning would not be so easy.
Moreover, Lu Ye also discovered that the Same Breath Linked Branches Grand Array he had set up had a massive flaw: it could not distinguish friend from foe.
The array was inanimate, naturally unable to differentiate between friend and foe—even with Lu Ye presiding over it, it was no use.
Thus, when some enemy Blood Race members fell within the array’s coverage, they also very quickly discerned the mysteries of the Same Breath, Linked Branches. With calls to all directions, even more enemy Blood Race members descended into the array.
Lu Ye’s brow furrowed deeply. He turned his head to gaze at the river of blood stretching across the sky.
Dao Thirteen was trapped inside. With Thousand Streams Blessed Land’s most top-tier combatant missing, if they wanted to win this battle, they absolutely had to get Dao Thirteen out.
Or Lu Ye could enter the fray himself.
But he could not leave for too long. He had to protect the human women within the Blessed Land. Although he had activated the protective array he had laid down earlier to guard them, if he left for too long, the protective array could easily be eroded by blood techniques.
Then the fate of those women would be dire.
Just as Lu Ye decided to take action and help Dao Thirteen break free, he sensed a trace of anomaly through his perception.
He turned his head to look in one direction, and saw a streak of blood-red light, like a long rainbow piercing the sun, hurtling over with extreme speed.
The radiance was dazzling, displaying the fluctuations of Cloud River Realm cultivation.
That blood light hurtled into the chaotic battlefield without the slightest restraint and plunged headfirst into the river of blood stretching across the sky.
Lu Ye’s expression could not help but become peculiar.
Because within that streak of blood light, he sensed a faint trace of familiar aura.
It reminded him of a person.
Yet this matter was far too bizarre, leaving him somewhat unable to believe it.
From within the river of blood suddenly came several miserable shrieks. Those shrieks were not only agonized, but even more filled with terror, as if they had encountered something utterly horrifying.
Immediately afterward, the river of blood collapsed, and Dao Thirteen’s enraged figure burst out from within.
There was also a slender, graceful figure, a head of blood-red long hair dancing in the wind. At this very moment, she stretched out one hand. From the tips of her five fingers extended razor-sharp nails over a zhang long. Those nails, like long swords, pierced through the chests of several Real Lake Realm Blood Race members, hoisting them up into midair.
Visible to the naked eye, the auras of those several Real Lake Realm Blood Race members were rapidly weakening. Gushing fresh blood flowed from their wounds but did not drip down; instead, it was completely devoured by some unknown power.
The nails piercing their chests, like long swords, were as crimson as blood. The woman’s eyes were as bright as rubies. But if one looked closely, within those ruby-like eyes were golden pupils.
One of those Real Lake Realm Blood Race members wore an expression of sheer terror and dread. Even though his cultivation was higher than the woman before him, at this moment, he had no power to resist whatsoever. He could only plead from his mouth: “Spare me!”
The woman turned a deaf ear.
Visible to the naked eye, the bodies of the several Real Lake Realm Blood Race members impaled on her nails began to shrivel and wither, as if all the blood in their bodies had been drained away.
The sudden turn of events caused both warring sides to involuntarily halt the movements of their hands, watching the woman who had suddenly charged into the battlefield with shock and astonishment.
When they clearly saw the golden light in the woman’s eyes, all of their expressions changed drastically, filled with terror and unease, as if they had witnessed something that filled them with extreme fear.
On the silent battlefield, only Dao Thirteen vented his fury by killing a few Blood Race members, and those Blood Race members showed no sign of even retaliating.
Up in the air, the woman swept her gaze over the entire scene. When her eyes landed on Lu Ye, who stood at the edge of the battlefield, her gaze halted, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
Lu Ye was astounded.
When this woman had come charging from afar just now, he had felt that her aura carried a faint trace of familiarity, reminding him of a person.
A person who should already be dead.
But he had never imagined that it would actually be this person.
Although her physique had changed tremendously—at this moment, she looked every bit like a Blood Race member, possessing all the characteristic features of the Blood Race—her face had not changed much.
Lan Qiyue!
Over a month ago, Lan Qiyue had gone missing beside the Blood Pool. Lu Ye had also gone down to search for her, but had found nothing.
A human woman, and with only Spirit Creek Realm cultivation at that—falling into the Blood Pool, what good end could there be?
Thus, Lu Ye had almost concluded that Lan Qiyue had already met with misfortune. During this period, he had often felt regret and self-reproach.
Who could have imagined that, in just over a month, Lan Qiyue would return in such a manner, and even more so, in such a form?
(End of Chapter)