Sage of Humanity

The village was full of small courtyard-style buildings, each household was like this, not too close to each other, with a bit of distance in between.

In terms of living environment, it was undoubtedly quite good.

"You two will stay here from now on. Since it's your first day, take a rest," the village chief instructed.

"Thank you, village chief," Lu Ye expressed his gratitude.

The village chief nodded, turned around, and left.

Lu Ye watched him leave and then led Dao Thirteen into the courtyard.

He hadn't expected to be assigned a place to live immediately upon arrival.

But as soon as he stepped into the courtyard, Lu Ye frowned.

The courtyard was in complete disarray, with a lot of bloodstains that hadn't dried, suggesting someone had died here. Judging by the scattered bloodstains, it wasn't just one person; at least five or six had died.

When the village chief assigned this courtyard to Lu Ye, he wondered where the original occupants had gone.

Now he finally understood.

The original occupants had met with misfortune, and the entire family had been wiped out!

Judging by the dryness of the bloodstains, it seemed to have happened in the last two days. Lu Ye was increasingly puzzled about what hidden dangers lurked in this seemingly prosperous village.

Or perhaps the villagers themselves were the danger?

If so, Lu Ye wasn't afraid. Although his and Dao Thirteen's cultivation was suppressed to the Spirit Stream Level 3, their mental consciousness remained intact, and Dao Thirteen's body was at the Divine Sea Realm. Even a True Lake Realm couldn't stir trouble before him.

If the villagers truly meant harm, they would surely hit a hard wall.

He worked with Dao Thirteen to tidy up the messy house and settled down.

After a while, Lu Ye took Dao Thirteen out of the courtyard, intending to find the village chief to gather some information.

However, they found the village eerily silent. Even the children who had been playing outside were nowhere to be seen, and every household had shut its doors tightly.

Lu Ye looked up at the sky; the sun hadn't even set...

Speechless for a moment, he didn't know what the villagers were hiding from.

He walked forward and stopped in front of a courtyard about a hundred yards away. Earlier, he saw the village chief enter this courtyard, which should be the village chief's residence.

The courtyard door was tightly closed, and Lu Ye knocked on it.

Inside, there was a flurry of activity, and he could faintly hear a child's scream briefly before it was muffled.

Soon after, the village chief's trembling voice sounded, "Who is it?"

"Village chief, it's me," Lu Ye said.

"Who are you!"

"The one who escaped here today."

As soon as Lu Ye finished speaking, there was a long exhalation from inside, and the village chief's voice became calmer, "Let's talk tomorrow. It's already late today. Go and rest quickly."

The sun hadn't even set; rest for what reason?

Since the village chief said so, Lu Ye couldn't insist and had to take Dao Thirteen back the same way.

The village remained silent like a spectral domain, with the occasional sound of a child crying from homes quickly silenced by adults who didn't dare to make a sound. Lu Ye frowned, increasingly unable to comprehend the ways of this world.

The night passed without words.

The next day, as light flooded the sky, the villagers gradually emerged, and children playing around could be seen all over the village.

Before Lu Ye could seek out the village chief, the village chief found him.

His eyes still red, suggesting inadequate rest, he looked at Lu Ye with some displeasure, "Don't wander around at night. You're a grown man; how can you not understand such a simple rule?"

Lu Ye wanted to ask why, but doing so would reveal his ignorance, so he could only nod and say, "I understand, thank you for your concern, village chief."

The village chief's expression finally relaxed a bit, and he said, "No matter where you're from before, now that you're in Cangnan Village, you're one of us. What did you do in your previous village?"

Lu Ye tentatively asked, "What can we do here?"

"Plant spirit fields, hunt in the mountains. The world is as it is, but we still have to survive."

He appeared to express the hardships and difficulties of life.

Lu Ye immediately understood that the village chief was here to assign them work. After all, now that they were in Cangnan Village, they couldn't live idle here without contributing.

"Then... hunting in the mountains?"

He had never done spirit field farming, and hunting in the mountains seemed easier. Along the way with Dao Thirteen, they had killed several beasts.

The village chief nodded, "You two have cultivation; planting spirit fields would waste your talents. You should join Brother Zhang Wu's team to go into the mountains today."

He waved them over, "Follow me."

Following the village chief to the village entrance, several teams were gathering, all intending to hunt in the mountains. The village chief led them to a team, whose leader was Brother Zhang Wu, whom he'd mentioned.

Brother Zhang Wu was a dark-skinned man, looking quite young, not yet thirty.

"Brother Zhang Wu, from now on, these two will be with you," the village chief said.

Brother Zhang Wu did not refuse and nodded, "Alright!"

"It's getting late, everyone go now. Make sure to return before the sun sets," the village chief advised.

The teams immediately dispersed, entering the mountain from different directions.

Lu Ye and Dao Thirteen were in Brother Zhang Wu's team.

There were about ten people in the team, each with some level of cultivation, but all were at the Spirit Stream Realm, with Brother Zhang Wu having the highest, just at Spirit Stream Level 5.

The others in the team were silent, their expressions solemn, as if hunting in the mountains was dangerous work.

Only Brother Zhang Wu, as the captain, took care of the newcomer Lu Ye, speaking a few more words to him: "Our hunting team needs to enter the mountain every five days. Not counting today, in five days, you'll gather again at the village entrance."

"Got it," Lu Ye nodded.

There were still many beasts in the mountains, occasionally even some low-level demon beasts appeared. The team's hunting went smoothly, and by the afternoon, they returned with full loads.

During this time, Lu Ye quietly reminded Dao Thirteen not to stand out too much, as he was currently only Spirit Stream Level 3. If he suddenly displayed the physique strength comparable to the Divine Sea Realm, it would be too shocking.

Before the sun set, everyone returned to the village with various sizes of prey, where the village chief waited at the entrance. Seeing the team's return, he finally showed a hint of a smile, appearing somewhat relieved.

Other teams also returned one after another, and soon, the village entrance was filled with various beasts.

The village chief oversaw the distribution. Lu Ye and Dao Thirteen were also given over twenty pounds of beast meat, which they carried back to their dwelling.

Dao Thirteen set up a bonfire in the courtyard to roast the meat.

Lu Ye lay on a Taishi Chair nearby, lost in thought.

Suddenly, a knock at the door was heard. Lu Ye looked up to see the village chief holding a bag. With just a sweep of his Mental Consciousness, Lu Ye knew it contained Spirit Rice grown in the village.

It seemed that they had worked today, so they received this reward.

The village chief handed the Spirit Rice to Lu Ye and left. As the sun started to set, the bustling village became quiet again.

The aroma of roasting meat wafted over. Lu Ye glanced over to see Dao Thirteen staring fixedly at the roasting meat.

He walked over, took a piece of roasted beast meat, and started eating it voraciously.

Dao Thirteen looked on eagerly, feeling somewhat at a loss. If it were before, he would have greeted him with a punch, but now, with the Soul Taming Divine Runes planted by Lu Ye, he dared not offend Lu Ye.

Helplessly, he could only place the remaining beast meat on the fire to roast.

Lu Ye leisurely continued eating the beast meat. It must be said, although Dao Thirteen was a bit dull, his meat-roasting skills were quite good, and the food was delicious.

As he ate, he suddenly moved, sitting upright, and sensed his own body.

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he clearly felt the confinement force within him dissipating slightly faster.

This confinement force from the Nine Provinces Heaven's Augury would slowly dissipate on its own, but at a very slow pace. Relying solely on its natural dissipation, Lu Ye had no idea how long it would take to restore his cultivation.

For the past two days, he had been pondering how to dissolve this confinement force, but he had no clues.

Until now.

He quickly finished the remaining beast meat in his hand, activated the Bestial Gluttony Feast, and a humming sound arose from within his stomach. Upon sensing, it felt like his stomach had turned into a grindstone, grinding the consumed beast meat.

The confinement force dissipated faster...

But soon returned to its original state, as the essence of the consumed beast meat was depleted.

Eating meat can accelerate the dissipation of the confinement force? Lu Ye was unsure of the principles behind this, but from the current experience, it seemed to be true.

He immediately looked at another piece of roasting beast meat on the fire.

Dao Thirteen tensed up, meeting Lu Ye's gaze. In his muddled understanding, he sensed an unpleasant feeling.

And then he watched as Lu Ye grabbed the not-yet-fully-cooked beast meat and devoured it ravenously.

Within moments, Lu Ye had eaten it all.

Staring at the empty grill, Dao Thirteen frowned, uncertain where the issue lay...

But Lu Ye showed a look of joy because he found things were indeed as he thought—they could accelerate the dissipation of the confinement force by eating meat.

He immediately took out a large quantity of beast meat from his storage sack.

Because of raising Amber, and due to his own appetite, he always had a lot of beast meat in his storage sack.

These beast meats were undoubtedly of much better quality than those hunted from the mountain during the day.

Since eating meat can accelerate the dissipation of the confinement force, the matter becomes simple.

Upon seeing Lu Ye take out so much beast meat, Dao Thirteen immediately relaxed his frown and joined Lu Ye in placing the meat on the fire to roast.

Moments later, both master and servant ate with juice running down their chins.

But Lu Ye frowned.

Because this time, the confinement force within him had no reaction at all.

Just now, eating meat had indeed accelerated the dissipation a lot, so why was there no reaction this time?

Unconvinced, he ate a few more pieces, and found indeed still no reaction.

For now, he didn't understand why.