Chapter 262, Growing The Squad

Lu Ye felt much more confident after he saw this.

Next, he turned toward the bound cultivators and raised his hand silently. The Battlefield Imprint immediately shone and revealed his affiliation.

Everyone’s expression changed when they saw this. One of the cultivators forced a smile and said, “We’re from Grand Sky Coalition too, buddy. Please help us.”

The response he got was a flying weapon to his brain. Everyone else died the same way.

One of the cultivators had shouted angrily before he died, “You will die for this!”

Lu Ye couldn’t say he was wrong—no one could predict the future after all—but one thing was for certain, the guy wasn’t going to live to see it.

If these cultivators belonged to Grand Sky Coalition, they would’ve shown him their Battlefield Imprints when he showed off his. Since they had refrained from doing so, they could only belong to Thousand Demon Ridge. Naturally, he wasn’t going to let them live, much less release them from their bindings.

The four sentries had not moved a muscle when he killed the cultivators. It was like they couldn’t see what had happened at all.

With that done, Lu Ye called Amber over and gestured at one of the sentries. The tiger immediately began inhaling the apparition into its stomach. As it turned out, the sentries weren’t so far gone that they lacked even self-preservation instincts. He struggled a little, but his resistance was futile as a matter of course. Soon, the entire squad was remade into Amber’s Ghost Spirits.

After Amber had resummoned the sentries, Lu Ye discovered that their cultivation levels were more or less the same as before. This meant that Liu Sanbao and the sentry leader were weaker, probably because he had attacked them, or because the tiger could not create a Ghost Spirit that was too powerful. 

Amber itself wasn’t particularly strong after all.

He would have to verify this at a later time, though he could not see what he could do about this even if it was the first reason. If he did not attack the apparitions, then Amber would struggle to devour them whole. The ideal outcome wasn’t achievable either way.

Anyway, he now had six Ghost Spirits in total including Liu Sanbao. Suffice to say, no one had ever done such a thing in the history of the Lost City of Xianyuan. Historically speaking, few people had ever profited from this pocket dimension not just because they had to contend against enemy cultivators and the Xianyuan City Watch, but also because the city itself did not contain many valuables. 

The best reward one could get in this city was access to a place called the Soul Cleansing Reservoir. There, a cultivator could use the water of the reservoir to refine their Divine Soul; an invisible, intangible thing that a Spirit Creek Realm cultivator had no use for. The benefits only showed themselves when the cultivator had reached the Divine Ocean Realm and gained their Divine Ego. It was because the root of the Divine Ego was the Divine Soul. Suffice to say, any Divine Ocean Realm cultivator would happily buy the water off their hands if they could procure it. 

Once, a cultivator was lucky enough to receive a few droplets of water and gift it to their elders. For his loyalty and generosity, he was rewarded with an incredible amount of treasures. However, it was also said that the Soul Cleansing Reservoir was located at the heart of the Xianyuan City Watch; the place where most of the city’s military force was concentrated. It was simply impossible for a bunch of Spirit Creek Realm cultivators to break into that place.

Despite Amber’s newfound abilities, the thought of breaking into the Soul Cleansing Reservoir never once passed through Lu Ye’s mind. It was an unrealistic dream at best and a fatal distraction at worst. Right now, all he wanted to do was to convert as many apparitions into Ghost Spirits as possible. This way, he wouldn’t be helpless no matter what kind of danger he faced. If he could make an entire army of Ghost Spirits, then he could even go up against the entire House of Wintry Blossoms party.

Now that he had six Ghost Spirits—and that was before factoring Yi Yi and his own strength—he no longer had to tread every step like he was on thin ice. He began exploring the streets openly and even searched the buildings in hopes of finding some valuables. Unfortunately, he was quickly met with disappointment. While there were a ton of buildings in the city, he could not find anything that was even remotely useful. Soon, he gave up trying to search the buildings altogether. The information was right after all. The Lost City of Xianyuan was a terrible place to look for fortune. He even wondered why it was connected to the Rift of Fortune at all. It just felt like one giant scam.

An incense stick later, he finally ran into a squad of six sentries. The sentry leader immediately pointed at Lu Ye and ordered his soldiers, “Take them down!”

To the sentry leader’s surprise, not only did Lu Ye not try to flee, but started running straight toward him. He quickly found out why. A number of Ghost Spirits immediately flew out of Amber’s body and engaged his soldiers in battle. Now, it was just Lu Ye versus the sentry leader.

The squad leader looked flabbergasted for a second. Then, he erupted with towering rage, “You dare!”

By now, Lu Ye had run past the sentries and arrived in front of the sentry leader. Amber was also lying on top of his shoulder in its cat form. The moment he was close enough, the tiger roared at the sentry leader and blew away both his power and his mind. By the time he came to, a Spirit Shackling Rope was already wrapping around him. The spell had been thrown by none other than the sentry leader Amber had converted earlier.

Caught off guard in more ways than one, the sentry leader couldn’t even attack before he was bound like a spider’s prey. Amber then took a deep breath right in front of his face.

Beside Amber, Lu Ye kept a firm grip on the Inviolable, ready to act at a moment’s notice. His caution was unnecessary though. The sentry leader couldn’t put up much resistance in his bound state, and it wasn’t long before Amber had devoured him completely.

Meanwhile, the sentries were still locked in battle with one another. That was the order their leader had given them.

After Amber had released the second converted sentry leader, he shouted, “Stop!”

Both squads stopped fighting immediately.

Things were simple after that. Amber walked up to the sentries and devoured them one by one.

With this, Lu Ye’s army of Ghost Spirits had grown to twelve in total. There were nine ordinary sentries, two sentry leaders, and one Liu Sanbao. Even better, Amber still hadn’t reached its limit, so Lu Ye continued to roam the streets for more sentries.

The Lost City of Xianyuan was huge, but the same could be said for the Xianyuan City Watch. The fact that they were patrolling everywhere also made it easy to find them.

Sometimes, Lu Ye would run into groups of cultivators. He did nothing to those belonging to Grand Sky Coalition as a matter of course, but the same could not be said for Thousand Demon Ridge. 

To his enemies, he looked like an isolated Grand Sky Coalition cultivator who was trying to meet up with his allies. Of course they were going to seize the opportunity to kill him. However, they quickly discovered that they weren’t facing just one, but two sentry squads!

Once the Spirit Shackling Ropes were thrown out, the poor bastards were usually bound before they could even get close to Lu Ye. After that, well, let’s just say it was some of the easiest kills of his life.

In fact, Lu Ye’s opinion of the Lost City of Xianyuan was changing bit by bit. While this pocket dimension was dirt poor in terms of loot and extremely unfriendly to most cultivators, it was the definition of paradise for Lu Ye. Ambers ability to convert apparitions to Ghost Spirits was just way too useful in this place.

Four hours later, Amber finally reached its limit. Not including Yi Yi, it now had thirty one Ghost Spirits under its control. It was nowhere the city conquering army Lu Ye had dreamed at the beginning, but it was still a formidable force. At the very least, he could not imagine that there were many threats left in the city that could threaten him.

Moreover, Lu Ye was able to confirm through repeated experiments that Amber could not produce a Ghost Spirit that was stronger than Ninth-Order. It was because of its low cultivation level.

Moreover, the more Ghost Spirits it released at once, the faster Amber’s energy ran out. The tiger had visibly shriveled in just a short time when they had fought a big battle against their enemies. Its energy was the source of the Ghost Spirits’ power, afterall. 

They also consumed its energy when recovering from their injuries. Yi Yi was the same as them in the past. Back then, she had to return to Amber’s body whenever she got hurt or used up too much strength.

Of course, she had broken free from this crutch some time ago. She could now cultivate on her own and partake in the joy of growing stronger. In fact, her joy was double that of other cultivators because Amber could consume Spirit Pills to cultivate as well.

Thanks to this, Amber and Yi Yi were able to grow at an accelerated rate. Both of them benefited when one of them grew stronger.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the other Ghost Spirits. They did not possess a mind of their own and could only act according to Amber’s orders. Amber had to give up its own energy to recover their strength or injuries as well.

This was why it wasn’t a bad thing that Amber’s ability had a limit. Otherwise, the tiger would drain itself into a husk trying to sustain its Ghost Spirits.

Lu Ye was no longer actively searching for the Xianyuan City Watch. He did his best to avoid them just like the other cultivators because he could no longer benefit from fighting them. It would only waste his time and his energy.

He kept his gaze low as he strode through a street. For a while now, he had felt like someone was watching him from the shadows. He reckoned that it was a ghost cultivator. They were the only cultivators he knew who possessed such abilities.

He did not panic even though he was certain that someone was watching him; most likely hostiles who meant him harm. He was, despite his appearance, not alone after all. His would-be attackers would surely learn a painful, and perhaps fatal, lesson if they dared to ambush him.

With so many Ghost Spirits under his command, he didn’t even need to fight his enemies in person anymore. He simply needed to wait until they were bound before decapitating them.

Right now, what really troubled him was that he was unable to locate his enemies effectively. If this was the Spirit Creek Battlefield, Yi Yi could easily slip underground and scout out the area. However, there was an enchantment beneath the ground that prevented her, an apparition, from doing so.

It wasn’t just the underground either. There was an enhancement in the sky that limited one’s flight level to just thirty three meters. To fly any higher than that was impossible. It was why no one dared to fly in the Lost City of Xianyuan. Thirty three meters was just too low.

Suddenly, Lu Ye stopped in his tracks and gazed ahead. A group of people led by a tall woman wearing a small shirt that revealed her waist were walking toward him. Lu Ye’s eyes immediately narrowed when he saw this. He had thought it a coincidence when an enemy ghost cultivator began tailing him a while ago, but now he realized that that wasn’t the case. These people had come specifically for him because of that woman!

He had seen her once on the other side of the valley. Unless he was mistaken, she was a member of the House of Wintry Blossoms.

‘Did she recognize me? Is she here to take revenge for her fallen comrade?’

It made sense. Thousands of people had seen his face during the Battle of Goldentip. It was unsurprising that some of his enemies would recognize him.

That wasn’t all. Waves of Spiritual Power suddenly emanated from every direction, and the sound of rustling clothes entered his ears. Lu Ye looked up and found that all the rooftops around him were surrounded by cultivators. Not a single one of them looked friendly.