Sage of Humanity

The opponent's response left Lu Ye, who was hidden in the shadows, quite helpless.

After observing for a while and confirming that he could not repeat his previous actions at Fenghua Courtyard, Lu Ye simply revealed his figure.

The transmission of messages between cultivators was too efficient; his actions at Fenghua Courtyard must have already been communicated here, or Illuminating Sun Mountain would not have such meticulous preparations.

Lu Ye sighed inwardly, it seemed that this method of infiltrating the enemy's stronghold to snatch the jade cluster could no longer be used in the future.

Members of Surreptitious Palace and Soaring Cloud Palace were launching a fierce attack on the big array under the command of Gu Canyang and Zhou Pei, with a thunderous momentum that was astonishing.

Lu Ye emerged from the darkness, approaching step by step.

Seeing this, Zhou Pei felt a surge of emotion and hurriedly went up to meet him.

"Brother Yiye, you can't get in?"

Lu Ye shook his head.

Not only could he not get in, but even if he did, he would be hard-pressed to accomplish anything on his own. Being able to snatch the jade cluster from Moon Charm was primarily due to the fact that no one had ever attempted such a feat before. Fenghua Courtyard was completely unguarded against this, which allowed Lu Ye to brazenly approach within three zhang of Moon Charm.

If Moon Charm hadn't been cautious and quick to react at the last moment, she would probably be dead.

Now, the situation was different. After the news that he could infiltrate the protective array spread, Illuminating Sun Mountain had tightened its defenses, even surrounding the governor with several cultivators. In such a situation, it was no longer possible for Lu Ye to snatch the jade cluster again.

"Ah, this..." Zhou Pei's expression was bitter.

If they could successfully take over Illuminating Sun Mountain's base, Soaring Cloud Palace would have much better days ahead. Just taking Surreptitious Palace as a comparison, although Fenghua Courtyard's losses in cultivators were not significant during the assault on their base, the loss of the Heaven's Augury Pillar's enhancement was something that could not be compensated for in a short period of time.

With insufficient enhancements, the spiritual energy of nature within the base would not be strong, and even if Fenghua Courtyard reset the protective array, its power would not be as great as before.

In other words, Fenghua Courtyard would only be able to be at the mercy of Surreptitious Palace from now on, possibly never able to turn the tables again. It goes without saying that Surreptitious Palace would never give Fenghua Courtyard another opportunity.

Fenghua Courtyard was settled, and Zhou Pei was counting on arranging Illuminating Sun Mountain in a similar way, but things had not gone as hoped, which inevitably led to his disappointment.

"If it doesn't work, then we'll attack forcefully!" Gu Canyang spoke up from the side.

An assembly of eight hundred cultivators from both sects could indeed launch a powerful attack, but it would take time, perhaps several days of effort before slowly breaking through the big array of Illuminating Sun Mountain.

In the past, such a thing would not have happened because nearby forces of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge would definitely come to support or take other actions. But who amongst Ten Thousand Demons Ridge would dare to make a move so easily now?

The lesson learned from Fenghua Courtyard served as a warning to others. No one dared to make hasty moves, all hunkering down in their own territories to prevent any mishaps, lest they be robbed of their base by Lu Yiye while attempting to support others, with nowhere to even cry.

"There's still one method we can try."

Lu Ye slowly began to speak.

Zhou Pei's eyes lit up, he asked eagerly, "What method?"

"I can't guarantee this method will definitely succeed, but there's a certain chance."

"A chance is good enough. Please tell us what to do, Brother Yiye."

"Then find ten... no, nine physique cultivators. I need the strongest physique cultivators from both of your sects, and have them wear any defensive spirit artifacts that they can."

Although Gu Canyang and Zhou Pei did not know what Lu Ye intended to do, since he had made a request, they naturally obliged.

Soon, nine physique cultivators chosen from both sects stood before Lu Ye. He looked them over and saw that each of them was robust with ample blood Qi, and there were even two demon cultivators among them.

At this moment, these nine carried defensive spirit artifacts and wore defensive treasure armor, each looking formidable.

Lu Ye called over Giant Armor.

Giant Armor stood to the side, and the gazes of the nine physique cultivators towards him turned fervent. In terms of size, Giant Armor was not the biggest among the ten, but in terms of blood Qi, he was the most abundant. Even the strongest of the nine had less blood Qi than Giant Armor.

With a reputuation like Giant Armor's, he naturally attracted the admiration of physique cultivators from the nearby big sects. No one would look down on him for being an independent cultivator.

A saying spread across these thousand miles: without Giant Armor, Sima Yang would have died countless times by now. It was only with Giant Armor's staunch protection that Sima Yang could live so comfortably.

Now, many knew that Sima Yang was dead. Even among the cultivators of the Haotian Alliance, many celebrated, happy that Giant Armor had shaken off that burden.

The only downside was that Giant Armor followed Lu Ye instead of being recruited by their sect.

Leading ten physique cultivators, including Giant Armor, Lu Ye went straight to the node of the big array, arranged them to the side, and gave detailed instructions.

The cultivators all responded eagerly, with Giant Armor even slightly lowering his body, assuming a posture ready to charge.

Lu Ye glanced at him but did not stop him, then immediately raised a hand and covered it over the light screen of the big array.

How could Illuminating Sun Mountain not be prepared for such obvious movements on his side?

Immediately, more than eighty cultivators under the direction of Illuminating Sun Mountain's governor hurried to the area, standing across the light screen of the big array, confronting Lu Ye and the others from afar. Each of these cultivators quietly urged their spirit force, with the glow of their Spiritual Artifacts flickering in their hands, ready to deliver their strongest strike at any moment.

Seeing Lu Ye placing his hand on the light screen of the big array, the cultivators from Illuminating Sun Mountain felt their hearts rise to their throats.

They had all heard that this fellow named Lu Yiye could infiltrate someone else's protective array undetected, so seeing Lu Ye's actions, they all wondered if he was about to employ that strange technique.

Feeling tense and uneasy, they also were very curious about how exactly Lu Ye would manage to infiltrate, so they watched unstintingly.

Outside the array, ten physique cultivators were ready to erupt, while inside, eighty cultivators were ready to engage. Compared to the roaring commotion elsewhere, this silent confrontation here held an even greater sense of oppression.

Spirit force gathered in Lu Ye's eyes, augmented by Insight Spirit Runes, and the world in his vision immediately altered, revealing the Yin-Yang Primordial Elements flowing and changing on the big array.

When spirit force gushed out from around him, centering on the spot under Lu Ye's large hand, elements quickly connected and spread, covering a three-zhang area in the blink of an eye. To the observer, it appeared as though Lu Ye had laid a spirit membrane on the light screen of the big array.

Seeing this scene, the cultivators of Illuminating Sun Mountain's hearts beat even more violently, all of them inwardly exclaiming, Could this really be the method Lu Yiye uses to infiltrate protective arrays?

A nervous cultivator immediately activated his weapon control, transforming it into a beam of light that struck their own protective array.

His action triggered a chain reaction, with at least half of the eighty cultivators immediately following suit. A series of luminescent attacks struck, causing ripples to surge across the light screen of the big array.

Lu Ye looked at the opposing cultivators expressionlessly and dispersed the spirit force from his hands.

The hastily acting cultivators from Illuminating Sun Mountain also realized their mistake, with awkward expressions.

The first attempt had failed.

It was precisely because he was not certain of breaking the array in this manner that Lu Ye had not made any promises to Zhou Pei beforehand.

Strictly speaking, Lu Ye's current actions were the true attempt at array destruction, the original direction of his research. However, during his time at Surreptitious Palace, his research direction had shifted. He eventually developed a method that, without breaking the array, involved disguising oneself to deceive and infiltrate the array. Compared to the former, the latter was undoubtedly easier.

While the research direction had changed, the method was correct. The problem was that Lu Ye was unable to seize the fleeting opportunity, as the elements on the light screen of the array were constantly changing, with the array becoming more volatile and changing more rapidly the more vigorously its power was employed.

Take the current array of Illuminating Sun Mountain, for example, which was undoubtedly stimulated to its limit.

The frequency of change had reached a level of altering every three breaths!

In other words, for Lu Ye to achieve his objective, he would need to discern the composition of elements at the node of the array within three breaths. Then, he would need to urge his own spirit force to construct completely opposite elements to blend with them. By doing so, he could directly break a hole at the node and thus succeed in destroying the array.

To discern the composition of hundreds, if not thousands, of elements and to construct their complete opposites within only three breaths was extremely difficult.

Even though Lu Ye had strong control over his spirit force and possessed a high talent in the Path of Spirit Runes, achieving such a feat would still require some luck.

Of course, his biggest assurance was having eyes augmented by Insight Spirit Runes. Without the Insight Spirit Runes to penetrate the various changes of the array, with his current proficiency in the Array Path, he would need several more years of cultivation to break through such a protective array.

One failure didn't matter; there would be a second time, a third time. He could fail countless times without any loss, but as long as he succeeded once, what awaited Illuminating Sun Mountain would be a catastrophe.

After briefly stabilizing his spirit force, Lu Ye continued to observe the changes in the array. Shortly after, he made another attempt and failed again.
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The time he was given was too short.

Initially, every attempt made by Lu Ye caused the eighty cultivators of Illuminating Sun Mountain to be on tenterhooks, but with the number of attempts increasing, they had almost become numb. It wasn't that they thought Lu Ye couldn't break the array, but rather the tormenting nature of this process was too much to bear.

Their hearts would rise and fall with every move Lu Ye made, and their mental states were long blown apart.

As Lu Ye failed in another attempt at breaking the array, Giant Armor slowly straightened up beside him; having been bent over for a long time, he was a bit tired. But soon, he bent down again, assuming the posture of readying to charge into battle.

Perhaps due to spending too much time with Sima Yang, he usually lacked initiative. However, if given a clear directive, he could execute it meticulously.

Lu Ye made several more attempts, still without success. He had reached his limit, but simply couldn't meet the requirement of breaking the array within three breaths.

Perhaps, after he later switched to cultivating a Heaven Rank technique, he would have the ability to do so. After all, a cultivator's control over their spirit force experiences an exaggerated improvement after switching to a Heaven Rank technique, which is why cultivators experience such a drastic increase in strength post-transition.