Sage of Humanity

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Lu Ye had in his hand what appeared to be the core of a fruit.

Moreover, he had one of these himself.

Taking his own fruit core out and comparing the two side by side, they looked almost identical, as if carved from the same mold.

Breath Fruit Core!

The Breath Fruit Core is the inner kernel of the Breath Fruit, which is unique to the Chess Sea and whose flesh can quickly restore a cultivator's spirit force. The use of the core is diverse and peculiar.

Back when Lu Ye was at the Spirit Stream Level 5 realm of cultivation, he and Hua Ci had participated in the Spirit Stream Defense Battle together. Utilizing their unique abilities, they led the governors from the various big sects of the Haotian Alliance to turn the tide, eventually securing the central area of the Chess Sea where a Breath Fruit Tree bore many fruits.

Because Lu Ye and Hua Ci played an essential role throughout the Spirit Stream Defense Battle, one of the fruits was given to Lu Ye, and the rest were auctioned off.

The Breath Fruit he acquired was later given to Shui Yuan, who refined it into Breath Fruit wine, which has now been fully consumed.

The Breath Fruit Core became his key to enter the Mirage Realm to hone himself.

However, not all Breath Fruit Cores can lead a cultivator into the Mirage Realm, after all, their functions are bizarre and varied. Li Baxian once told him that a sect from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge obtained a core which greatly enhanced the power of their Formation, making their base in the Spirit Stream battlefield impregnable.

There are also Breath Fruit Cores with no special purpose, but they can be sold to Heaven's Augury treasure vault, starting at a price of at least one hundred thousand merit points.

And there are some Breath Fruit Cores that, when carried by a cultivator, can improve their perception, subtly altering their aptitude...

Some are even associated with rich veins of Spirit Stones.

All in all, there's no telling what function a core might have; they can possess any sort of peculiar use.

When Lu Ye first heard about these properties, he only found the Breath Fruit Core to be miraculous and didn't think much further.

But as his cultivation and experience grew, he started to realize that the wide variety of uses of the Breath Fruit Core were likely not inherent to it, but bestowed by Heaven's Augury.

Take the core Lu Ye possessed, for example. It was merely a key, and every time he used it, he entered the Mirage Realm, allowing him to fearlessly temper himself.

Lu Ye's saber skills came partly from fighting to the death with cultivators from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge and partly from training within the Mirage Realm. Each of those trainings ended in death, and the experience memorized with his life and body was undeniably invaluable.

That one of the spoils of battle turned out to be a Breath Fruit Core was a surprise to Lu Ye, and he wondered whose misfortune it was.

"This storage sack." Yiyi lifted the storage sack in her hand, and Lu Ye glanced at it without any recollection.

Storage sacks, the kind that don't have any particularly trendy designs, are mostly similar, maybe adorned with some patterns or images by a few female cultivators.

Of course, male cultivators have them too, mostly crafted by female cultivators who have a fondness for them.

Yiyi's storage sack bore no special marks, so Lu Ye had no clue about its original owner.

There was no need to delve too deeply into this matter. What made Lu Ye curious was what special function this unintentionally acquired Breath Fruit Core had.

Thinking this, Lu Ye picked up the core, channeled his spirit force into it, and prepared to investigate.

No matter its use, since it had been carried by someone, it certainly wasn't something useless.

His mind immersed, his vision blurred, and when Lu Ye came to his senses, he found himself in a closed, small space with nothing around him except for a door, upon which the words clearly read, "To enter the Mirage Realm, one must expend one hundred merit points."

Lu Ye frowned. Had he grabbed the wrong one?

This was exactly the function of his own Breath Fruit Core.

He did not push the door open, because once he did, unless killed, there would be no way to leave.

Opening his eyes, he picked up the other Breath Fruit Core, again channeling spirit force into it.

Just like before, in the next instant, he found himself in a closed, small space with nothing but a door bearing the words, "To enter the Mirage Realm, one must expend one hundred merit points."

Lu Ye was astounded as he stared fixedly at the door.

He could be sure that he had not grabbed the wrong one just now; both Breath Fruit Cores had the exact same function, offering entry to train in the Mirage Realm.

This left Lu Ye somewhat amused and disappointed.

He had thought he acquired something valuable, only to find it was a duplicate of what he already had.

This brought up some unpleasant memories for him.

Back when he was in the Spirit Stream Realm, he had once entered this small space and encountered a cultivator from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge who killed him several times...

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Ever since then, each time Lu Ye activated the Breath Fruit Core to enter this place, he was extremely vigilant, fearing another encounter with that person.

At that time, he speculated that the other party must also possess a Breath Fruit Core with the same effect as the one he had. However, back then he had not yet received the Heaven's Augury Bestowment, and the other party's figure was shrouded in dense fog, so he could not see their appearance clearly; he could only confirm that the person was from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge and had a much higher cultivation than his own.

The reason the two could meet in this small space was clearly because they had activated the Breath Fruit Core at the same time, an event with a very small probability, which was why, to this day, Lu Ye had only encountered the other party once.

After being killed several times, Lu Ye also secretly vowed to seek revenge someday...

So, the original owner of the Breath Fruit Core he obtained this time was the cultivator from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge he'd encountered here before?

If that was the case, it would be too much of a coincidence.

However, such an event occurring to him didn't come as a surprise to Lu Ye. After all, he was someone favored by Heaven's Augury, a person of vast fortune. Although sometimes he was quite unlucky, overall his luck was not too bad.

The only regret was that Lu Ye did not know who the original owner of the Breath Fruit Core was, so even if he had taken his revenge unintentionally, it felt somewhat uninspiring.

The other party possessed a Breath Fruit Core, clearly of no ordinary origin, undoubtedly a cultivator from a big sect, and judging from the traces left when the other party killed him last time, that person was a combat cultivator.

Given that, the original owner of the Breath Fruit Core should have been a combat cultivator with quite decent strength, definitely of Level 8 realm or even Level 9.

Lu Ye immediately remembered that in the mine, he had indeed killed a Level 9 combat cultivator. Normally, he would probably not be the opponent's match, but at that time the person's body was corroded by a potent poison, significantly diminishing his fighting capacity. Even so, it took Lu Ye a full ten breaths to dispose of him.

This was because the man's combat skills were very sophisticated, clearly honed through countless trials.

The match was right.

The original owner of the Breath Fruit Core must have been the Level 9 combat cultivator who had perished inexplicably at his hands. The other party was used to tempering his combat skills in the Mirage Scene, which explained why his performance just before dying was more exceptional than that of other Level 9 cultivators and why his combat skills were more adept.

However, no matter how many skills you have, they are no match for a single toxic bead.

Lu Ye had not expected that the grudge formed in this small space would end in such a manner.

But now with two Breath Fruit Cores of the same kind, well, once he had the opportunity, he could give one to his fourth senior fellow brother. Training in the Mirage Scene was very useful, and there was no need to worry about actually dying—the worst that could happen was a moment of pain at the instant of death.

With his mind withdrawing from the small space, Lu Ye placed the two Breath Fruit Cores into the storage space on the back of his hand and continued to work hard with Yiyi.

As days passed by, there finally came a moment when the restriction lock on the last storage sack in Lu Ye's hand was broken.

Tossing the storage sack to Yiyi, Lu Ye stood up and stretched his body.

He was finally free.

A moment later, Yiyi pushed nearly a hundred storage sacks in front of Lu Ye. Almost every single one of them was packed full.

Yiyi divided the nearly hundred storage sacks into three parts, pointing to one part and saying, "These contain elixir pills, Spirit Stones, and demonic pills from demon beasts that you can use."

Pointing to the middle pile, she said, "These can be taken back to the sect." Some items Lu Ye could not use, but the junior brothers and sisters in the sect could. These were placed in the storage sacks to be taken back to the sect and stored in the sect's treasure vault for future use.

She then pointed to the last pile, "These aren't of much use; they can be sold to Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union or Heaven's Augury treasure vault."

With Yiyi, a capable manager at his disposal, many things did not require Lu Ye's attention, undoubtedly saving him a lot of time.

Lu Ye nodded, and then sat back down, taking out the items from the first two piles of storage sacks and putting them into his own storage space.

His storage space was formed by a Void Rune Tattoo etched by Madam Yun, and it was quite large. Even so, after stowing all necessary assets, the entire space had little room left.

It must be said that the amount of loot he obtained this time was simply staggering, after all, it was the equivalent of over two million Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators.

"Call a Manager for me," Lu Ye said as he looked at the unprocessed storage sacks on the ground, instructing Yiyi. It was best for him not to appear in person to avoid revealing his whereabouts; Yiyi had no such concerns when dealing with this matter.

Yiyi complied and walked out the door.

Before long, Yiyi led a mercantile union manager back into the room.

Upon seeing the storage sacks piled up like a small mountain in the room, even the veteran middle-aged Manager couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his eyes.

A storage sack is something that a cultivator normally carries two or three of; four or five is considered a lot. Any more than that, and it's spoils of war gained from killing.

The number of people carrying dozens of storage sacks to the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union were few and far between in a year.

But how many storage sacks were piled up before him now? The middle-aged Manager, with sharp eyesight, barely glanced over them and estimated there might be as many as four or five thousand.

What he saw was not just the storage sacks stacked like hills, but a multitude of lives lost.

He thought it was just an ordinary transaction, but the scale of it was beyond his imagination.