Humanity’s Great Sage

“IMPRESSIVE!” the leading Thousand Demon Ridge champion boomed gloriously. 

He too had been thinking that the Blackfyre Cultists must have gone terribly insane to dare challenge the authority of Heavens when he saw the female Cultivator stepping into the ring. Even he did not think of such a masterful stroke as destroying one’s own Spiritual Points to avoid breaking the Sacred Pact. 

As much as it was a loophole, the Heavens ceasing its wrath was sign enough that it acknowledged the sheer ingenuity of the move. 

With the damage to her Spiritual Point, the female Cultivator’s rank had now fallen back to the Sixth-Order, thereby fulfilling the terms of the Sacred Pact. Seeing the Heavens rescinding its punishment was grounds enough for the Grand Sky Coalition side to swallow what discontent and frustrations they had down into their bellies. 

A Seventh-Order who had just been relegated down to the Sixth-Order because of the mutilation of one of her Spiritual Points. That was the final trump card the Thousand Demon Ridge side could play: a Sixth-Order more powerful and more dangerous than ordinary Sixth-Orders.

[Crunch…]

Lu Ye drove his feet into the gravel. Before the leading Thousand Demon Ridge champion finished his utterance of the final syllable of his “Impressive” remark, Lu Ye, his entire person still bloodied and wearied, launched himself at the female Cultivator with every iota of ferocity and doggedness he could muster.

This was not his first time facing up against an enemy Spell Cultivator and a former Seventh-Order—in fact, he had fought in and even managed to survive one such encounter some time ago when he just ascended into the Fifth-Order. Extremely worn out and stuck in a feverish state of fatigued delirium he might be and he could barely tell what was going on, but Lu Ye knew that someone had entered the ring and he knew who it was: a challenger. That was reason enough  for him to attack. 

Seventy meters. That was the distance Lu Ye covered in almost a blink of an eye as he raced forward with the overwhelming ferociousness of a raging predator.

The figure of the female Cultivator was clearly reflected in his red vein-filled eyes.

Thirty meters. Fifteen meters. The broken blade of his saber blazed once more with a red-fiery sheen with flame-like tongues lashing out. He might be weakened, his powers might not be as pure as before, and his weapon might be broken, but he knew that he could always depend on Glyph: Sharp Edge to make his weapon invincible. 

The female Cultivator did nothing to run. There was no way she could ever best Lu Ye in a contest of speed and since she was willing to risk so much to step into the ring and take on Lu Ye, she knew what to do. 

She lifted both her hands and channeled her Spiritual Powers. On her chest was a heart-shaped pendant hanging from a chain over her neck. It rose, levitating in the air and it began glowing with fiery incandescence as she injected her Powers into it. Next second, the pendant expanded rapidly until it was big enough to envelop her inside like a protective cocoon.

Molten lava flowed and dripped down the edges and curvatures of the fiery-red cocoon like syrupy tears of fire. The top of Goldentip felt terribly warm since the moment of its appearance and with the rising temperature, the red-slicked earth was beginning to sizzle with acrid tangs of blood filling the nostrils of everyone nearby. 

“That’s the Molten Heart!” cried a voice from within the Grand Sky Coalition. Someone had recognized what that pendant was. 

The Molten Heart, a Spiritual Artifact the properties of which were carefully guarded secrets of Cult Blackfyre. It was said that only five could be forged in each generation, and only the incumbent Sacred Child—the male or female acolyte who was also the designated future heir of the Cult’s leadership—of that generation could carry one. The Molten Heart had rarely seen use in battle, but those who lived after having witnessed its flaming and impetuous splendor could talk about its incredible defensive ability, that so long as its wielder’s Spiritual Powers remain present, the Molten Heart’s shield would never falter. Only enemies with powers far beyond its wielder could possibly hope to destroy the Molten Heart’s shield with just one blow. After all, what could be used to defend against an enemy of incredibly superior strength and power?

Hence, the possession of the Molten Heart showed who the female Cultivator really was: the sitting Sacred Child of Cult Blackfyre. 

[This is madness! The Sacred Child of the Cult sacrificing her own future just to win this duel!?] thought many of the Grand Sky Coalition Cultivators.

Lu Ye approached the shield quickly to find the searing heat hitting him straight in the face and he immediately felt parched and thirsty. But ignoring the discomfort, he swung his weapon viciously at the red-hot screen of fire.

He had dealt with enough defensive Spiritual Artifacts in the forty-plus rounds before and most, if not all, usually failed to withstand more than a couple of blows from him. 

But the moment his blow struck the fiery shield; Lu Ye sensed something amiss. It was not as hard as he expected, but it remained nevertheless sturdy and resilient enough to endure his abuse. Despite having Glyph: Sharp Edge activated, his saber just couldn’t penetrate through the shield that felt more like rubber than anything metallic. 

But there was no time for hesitation. He swung his weapon for a second time, then a third, and a fourth… 

The hand that gripped the saber was singed incessantly by the flames, but Lu Ye did not let that stop him. Watched by more than thousands of eyes, he went on hacking and slashing like a madman as if he felt no pain at all.

“Oh, no…” Li Baxian murmured. He did not know what the Sacred Child was up to inside that flaming cocoon, but whatever it was, she must be preparing some spell that could cause wide area-of-effect damage. 

The fights where Lu Ye had easily defeated challengers who were Spell Cultivators had allowed the Thousand Demon Ridge side to learn something: Spell Cultivators failed to pose any threats to Lu Ye because of his ability to activate his defensive Glyph freely during combat and the Glyph’s particularly sturdy defense could help ward off most spells without any difficulty. 

If the Sacred Child thought that she could defeat Lu Ye just because she thought that being a former Seventh-Order would make any difference, then she would be mistaken, just like the other Spell Cultivators whom he had slaughtered.

For Spell Cultivators to defeat Lu Ye inside this ring, there would only be one way. That was to use a spell with wide area-of-effect damage that his Glyph: Protection could not fully protect him from.

But area-of-effect spells were hardly the forte of Seventh-Order Spell Cultivators; only those at the Ninth-Order could perform such complex conjurations. But as the Sacred Child of Cult Blackfyre, she must have unique and exceptional talents that allowed her to do just that. 

To that end, she immediately activated the Molten Heart and used it to keep herself safe so that she could have all the time in the world to prepare unhindered.

Lu Ye must have realized this too, for his blows grew swifter and more forceful.

In the meantime, inside the Molten Heart cocoon, the Sacred Child, whose icy expression had barely stirred even during the mutilation of her own Spiritual Point, finally had her imperturbable dispassion broken.

The Molten Heart was sapping her Spiritual Powers quickly to maintain the defensive cocoon. That Lu Ye’s blows could produce such an effect really was something she did not expect. 

This fully exposed the single most glaring weakness of the Molten Heart despite its impeccable defensive capabilities: it required a huge amount of Spiritual Power to function.

It was not that the Molten Heart was fully impregnable, but rather, whenever Lu Ye attacked, the Molten Heart would consume every ounce of Spiritual Power from the Sacred Child as needed to repair its defensive shield at unbelievable speeds just to keep itself intact.

In other words, the greater the damage the Molten Heart sustained, the more Spiritual Power it would draw from its wielder. 

As a veteran of countless battles against Grand Sky Coalition Cultivators of the Seventh-Order, she could have sworn that she had never seen anyone equal to her rank that could deplete her Spiritual Powers through the Molten Heart as quickly as this!

Every blow from this fearsome monster could deplete a sizable portion of her Spiritual Power; then came a couple or more blows and more than one-tenth of her power was gone.

[That accursed saber! It really is sharp beyond belief!] she mused in her horror.

But it was not enough to disrupt her plan—at least not yet. After all, she did not expect this battle to be long since all she needed was only one spell. 

Her powers dipped at an unprecedented pace. In just barely ten seconds, she sensed that she only had barely six-tenths of her Power left. 

[At last, it is time!] she thought. 

She exhaled a gentle breath and pushed both her arms outward. A turbulent wave of searing heat spread out with the motion of her arms, rolling forth with the entirety of the Spiritual Power left in her—every bit of the six-tenths left in her—pushing forward as furiously as a breaking dam!

Just on the other side of the shield still clammy with beads of dripping molten lava, Lu Ye retreated at once. All of a sudden, he could have sworn that he heard a voice deep inside him, urging him to retreat or he would die!

And the premonition was right. He had only just withdrawn when the Molten Heart shield crumbled, not by his doing, but from a terrible and destructive force erupting from inside. 

Right at that very moment, all Lu Ye could see was a gigantic red wall of blazing conflagration rumbling straight at him, threatening to engulf him whole with such force that could reduce all things into mere ashes and cinders.   

In just one instant, the ring of length and breadth of seventy meters each was devoured whole by a fiery inferno. That was not just an ordinary firestorm, but rather one mixed with the full complement of the different myriads of volcanic discharges. The Cultivators who stood by the edge of the ring did not need to be told that they needed to get to safety. The moment they saw the rolling scarlet waves of death and destruction, they immediately bolted.

That was not the only thing on their mind. None of the Cultivators who witnessed the scale of the flames could dispute that there was no way a Fifth-Order would survive such destruction. 

Li Baxian was about to act brashly when Wei Yang seized him. “Calm down,” she urged. “Our little brother-in-arms is still alive!”

Her vision of what was going on inside the ring might be just as obscured as everyone else, but she could still sense him. With an acute sense of the aura of living things, so long as Lu Ye still drew breath, Wei Yang might still be able to save him!

But if Li Baxian were to do something stupid, he might be able to save Lu Ye, but the culmination of what would happen next could be disastrous. 

Li Baxian listened to her advice and restrained his anxiety. 

The fires inside the ring slowly died down, revealing a Goldentip now completely laid waste and scorched, plus fragments of crystallization in the roasted soil. 

Everyone gradually regained their sight of what was happening inside the ring. 

In one corner, the Sacred Child of the Cult tottered unsteadily. Looking like she could collapse any moment, her face was a ghastly chalk-white complexion of utter paleness with blood trickling out her eyes, nose, mouth, and even her ears. The radiation of her Spiritual Power—now completely spent—barely existed.

She had exhausted herself too much. Using the Molten Heart had cost her more than three- to four-tenths of her Spiritual Powers and the final attack was what had bled everything dry. 

It was not a spell meant for a Cultivator of her rank and hence, she barely had any control of it. Using it could have caused serious and devastating drawbacks, but she did not have anything else. She just needed to defeat Lu Ye.

It was only through sheer will and resolve that she managed to complete the spell, although using it had practically crippled and disabled her, causing serious internal damage that could have almost killed her. 

But death might have been more satisfactory; residual flames now burned at every single Spiritual Point in her body. Even at the skillful hands of the best healers, she could never fight again.

Fraught with misery and despondence, she peered forward, hoping to find solace in the fulfillment of her purpose and the death of her opponent. 

Steam roiled and twisted in curling eddies in the ring. Then a lean and taut figure stormed through the white tendrils, stepping out into sight. Scorch marks mottled his bare-chested skin and his hair was a disheveled mess because of the heat. Slick and sodden by sweat and blood, the fabric of his breeches clung to his raw, burned skin. Every step he took left a bloodied footprint that quickly sizzled as the heat evaporated the blood. 

The Sacred Child twisted with shocking disbelief. 

[He’s alive!?]

[How?!]

Lu Ye did have Glyph: Protection to rely on, but what she just used was a spell that the Glyph should not be able to protect him from. So long as he stood inside the ring, he should have been dead by now!

She really had to wonder if Lu Ye had gotten outside help. 

But she did not neglect to notice that the champions from her side did not protest about anything and that spoke volumes. 

However slow he might be, her opponent still endured and he was coming. He was struggling but the distance between them was undeniably closing fast. Once he got near, that would be her doom!