Sage of Humanity

"Good!" A loud shout came from a strong practitioner within the top twenty in the Spirit Stream Ranking of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

When that female cultivator took her stand on the arena, he had thought the Sacred Fire Order's mad bunch had lost their minds, wanting to provoke Heaven's Augury—little did he expect them to play such a divine stroke of crippling their own spiritual orifice!

This was undoubtedly taking advantage of a loophole in Heaven's Augury Pact, but from Heaven's Augury's reaction, it was a loophole exploited so flawlessly that no one could raise an objection.

By crippling a spiritual orifice, the female cultivator had fallen from a Level 7 cultivator to Level 6, naturally meeting the terms set in Heaven's Augury Pact. Now with Heaven's Augury himself stepping back, even if the Haotian Alliance had a bellyful of grievances, they had nowhere to vent them.

A cultivator who had just dropped from Level 7 to Level 6 would naturally be stronger than an average Level 6! This was the last hope of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

Boom...

As the word "good" from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge strong practitioner fell, Lu Ye, covered in blood Qi, had already pounced toward the Sacred Fire Order's female cultivator, as murderous as ever.

He had slain a Level 6 magic cultivator who had fallen from Level 7 when he himself had just advanced to Level 5. Despite being in a poor state now, and not even sure of what exactly had happened, since the opponent had stepped into the arena and stood before him, then... slaughter!

The twenty-zhang distance was rapidly closed as Lu Ye charged forward like a frenzied beast, exuding immense pressure.

His bloodshot eyes were clear as they reflected the silhouette of the woman opposite him.

Ten zhang, five zhang—the crimson spirit force began to climb up his long saber. Even though Lu Ye's spirit force was no longer as pure, even though his Spiritual Artifact was now broken, the enhancement from the Sharpness spirit runes still made the saber unstoppable.

The Sacred Fire Order's female cultivator didn't dodge because she knew she couldn't compete with Lu Ye in terms of speed. She had willingly crippled her own spiritual orifice and lowered her cultivation to confront Lu Ye in battle precisely because she had her own way to cope.

Raising both hands, the surge of her spirit force triggered a heart-shaped pendant at her chest to slightly float, radiating a fiery red glow. As she madly infused her own spirit force into it, the pendant suddenly unfolded a layer of protection, which explosively expanded and enveloped her within it.

This protection was colored fiery red, resembling magma flowing over it, concealing the woman's figure. Its appearance caused the temperature atop Golden Light Peak to soar rapidly, the blood-soaked ground drying up and emitting a pungent odor.

"Heart of Smelting Fire!" someone from the Haotian Alliance exclaimed, recognizing the origin of the pendant.

This was a unique defensive spirit artifact of the Sacred Fire Order. Only five could be forged each generation, and only their Saints or Saintesses were entitled to possess them. Boasting immense protective power, in a contest of peers, the protection it granted would not break as long as the wearer's spirit force didn't run out.

Only a great disparity in strength could shatter the protective layer in a single blow, but if an enemy that strong appeared, no defensive spirit artifact would be of use.

Having the Heart of Smelting Fire indicated that the female cultivator sent into battle held the status of a Saintess within the Sacred Fire Order.

A bunch of Haotian Alliance cultivators cursed internally, affirming that everyone in the Sacred Fire Order was indeed mad—to win a battle, even their Saintess was willing to cripple her spiritual orifice and degrade her cultivation!

At this very moment, Lu Ye had reached the protective layer. The blistering heat hit him full in the face, parching his mouth and tongue. Without hesitation, he brought his saber down.

In the previous fights, some had sacrificed defensive spirit artifacts, but those often didn't play a significant role and were quickly broken by a few slashes from him.

However, this time, when his saber struck the fiery red protection, he instantly noticed it was different. The defense was not hard but incredibly tough. His Sharpness-enhanced blow felt as if it had struck rubber.

Without hesitation, his second saber strike followed, then the third, the fourth…

His saber-wielding hand was scorched, but as if he didn't feel it, Lu Ye hacked wildly under the gaze of thousands of onlookers.

"This is bad," Li Baxian's expression turned solemn. Although he couldn't see what exactly the Sacred Fire Order's Saintess was doing inside the fire barrier, he was certain she was preparing a powerful and wide-ranging magic spell.

The grizzly deaths at the hands of Lu Ye of previous magic cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge made one thing clear: on this stage, magic cultivators found it hard to threaten Lu Ye because he possessed a kind of defensive spirit rune that could be activated at will, offering outstanding protection that easily blocked every spell.

If this Sacred Fire Order's Saintess engaged Lu Ye in battle like the previous magic cultivators had, even if she was a fallen Level 7, she would not last long.

To win against Lu Ye with magic and spells, one had to resort to a wide-ranging spell, something that Lu Ye's defensive spirit rune could not anticipate and guard against.

A typical Level 7 magic cultivator wouldn't have the qualifications to practice such large-scale spells, which required at least the cultivation of Level 9. But this was a Saintess of the Sacred Fire Order, who undoubtedly possessed exceptional talent.

That's why she'd directly activated the protective strength of the Heart of Smelting Fire, to ensure she wouldn't be disturbed while casting her spell.

Atop the stage, Lu Ye also faintly realized this, so he sped up his saber strikes significantly.

Meanwhile, within the fire protection, the Sacred Fire Order's Saintess, who had calmly crippled her spiritual orifice, showed a faint trace of concern on her face.

Because she felt the spirit force within her body rapidly depleting, which caused a ripple in her usually undisturbed composure, inwardly astonished by the strength of her opponent's attacks.

One must understand that although her Heart of Smelting Fire's protection was exceptional, it had a clear drawback—it was immensely draining.

This expenditure was directly linked to her spirit force. It wasn't that the layer of protection couldn't be broken, rather it continuously mended itself under attack, drawing the power to do so from her spirit force.

The stronger the attack she bore, the faster her spirit force was depleted!

She had fought to the death with a Haotian Alliance cultivator of Level 7, and the rate at which her spirit force was consumed by the opponent's attacks on her Heart of Smelting Fire defenses seemed to be even slower than this time!

Each slash from the opponent could make her reserve of spirit force vanish into thin air, and after a few strikes, a tenth of her spirit force was gone.

That broken saber… indeed had incredible sharpness.

Fortunately, she had no intention of engaging in a protracted battle with Lu Ye. She only had one move, one magic spell, to use against him!

Her reserve of spirit force continued to plummet, and in just a short ten breaths, she was down to barely more than sixty percent of her spirit force.

The outcome was decided!

She exhaled softly and gently pushed her hands outward; as she did so, a hot, violent aura blasted out, and the remaining sixty percent of her spirit force gushed out like floodwaters from a breached dam, draining away madly!

At the same time, beyond that molten lava-like layer of protection, Lu Ye rapidly retreated. Since the very beginning, a strong sense of crisis surged in his heart, as if a voice in his ear was frantically shouting, "Retreat now, or die!"

Almost at the instant he retreated, the protection in front of him shattered—not by his own slashing, but torn apart by some ferocious force from within.

A fiery red filled Lu Ye's field of vision in an instant, accompanied by a breath that seared everything. It embraced him, shrouding him completely.

The twenty-zhang arena was almost instantly engulfed by raging flames, which were no ordinary fire but more like diluted magma. The sudden turn of events forced the nearby spectating cultivators to retreat hastily; for a moment, no one could see clearly what was happening on the arena.

But it was undeniable that a Level 5 realm cultivator enveloped by such a spell could not possibly survive, no matter what.

Li Baxian was about to take action when Weh Ying grabbed him: "Don't be impulsive, little junior brother isn't dead!"

Although she couldn't see the situation clearly, she could feel that on that arena, the aura belonging to her little junior brother had not been extinguished. Her perception of the vigor of life was extremely sensitive. As long as it wasn't extinguished, she could save him!

But if Li Baxian rushed out at this moment, he could indeed rescue his little junior brother, but the subsequent situation would not be optimistic.

Hearing Weh Ying's words, Li Baxian forcefully suppressed the urge to intervene.

The scorching power on the arena was slowly dissipating, and the muddy Golden Light Peak was now dry, even producing crystal-like glaze.

The vague situation began to clear.

On one side of the arena, the Sacred Fire Order's Saintess looked deathly pale without a hint of color, and even fresh blood streamed from her seven orifices; her aura was feeble to the extreme, as if she could fall down at any moment.

Her consumption was too great. The defenses of the Heart of Smelting Fire had drained three or four tenths of her spirit force, and that one wide-ranging spell had nearly drained her dry.

Strictly speaking, that spell wasn't something a cultivator of her realm should even be casting. She couldn't control it perfectly, and there was a high chance it would backlash against her, but to deal with Lu Ye, she had no other choice.

Fortunately, her will was strong enough to barely complete that spell. It left her somewhat drained and caused her some severe injuries without a strong backlash.

At this moment, every spiritual orifice in her was being scorched by the power of the Sacred Fire. If she didn't receive timely treatment, she would either die or be crippled.

She raised her listless eyes, looking ahead to see her opponent's fate.

Through the twisting heatwave, a figure covered with heat and steam violently rushed out. His bare upper body was littered with rotten burn wounds, even his hair was burnt to a mess, and his lower clothing was likewise, clinging to his flesh. With every step he took, a fresh, red footprint appeared on the ground, which quickly dried up due to the high temperature.

The face of the Sacred Fire Order's Saintess finally changed!

He's not dead!

How could he possibly not be dead?

Indeed, the enemy had defensive spirit runes, but even with those, he shouldn't have been able to withstand her spell. As long as he was still in the arena, his death was certain.

At that instant, the Saintess almost suspected someone had secretly aided Lu Ye.

But since her own powerful backers had not spoken up, that meant such a possibility was not likely.

The enemy was not dead and was charging towards her. Although his speed was slow, and his figure staggered, the distance between them was rapidly closing. It was clear to see that when he reached her, it would be her time to die!