Sage of Humanity

After checking the Talent Tree, Lu Ye then woke Yiyi, took out the many spirit fortune sticks he had obtained earlier, and as time passed, each spirit fortune stick was crushed, releasing dense and pure Spiritual Energy, which both the human and spirit devoured eagerly in their cultivation.

A day later, all the spirit fortune sticks were used up. Lu Ye silently sensed his own body; the improvement to his cultivation was not very significant, after all, the duration these spirit fortune sticks maintained together could not compare to a single gold-hued spirit fortune stick.

At his level of cultivation, it was no longer possible to make breakthroughs with just one or two gold-hued spirit fortune sticks.

But such is the nature of cultivation, a gradual accumulation that leads to a qualitative change.

Without spirit fortune sticks, Lu Ye then consumed elixir pills and continued to cultivate.

He showed his face in the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, which caused a stir. Although he wore a mask the whole time and did not reveal his true appearance, to those Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators who were certain he was hiding in the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, it was enough for them to make some judgments through various clues.

Currently, outside the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, there were surely many strong members from the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge waiting.

For the time being, Lu Ye had no plans to leave this place.

Time flew, and several more days passed.

Long periods of cultivation could be quite boring, especially since Lu Ye's method of cultivation was different from others.

When other cultivators absorbed nature's spiritual energy, they needed to immerse their psyches, focusing their attention. During cultivation, it was difficult to perceive the passage of time, and perhaps after one session of cultivation, several days might have passed.

This was also why those cultivators with higher cultivation levels would often close off for training for one or even more years at a time, as they did not perceive the passage of time.

Lu Ye was different; his cultivation mainly relied on consuming elixir pills and did not prevent him from doing other things, so it was easy for him to feel bored over time.

Usually in such situations, Lu Ye would pause his cultivation and wander around.

However, given his current situation, it was not advisable to walk around freely. After some thought, Lu Ye decided to enter the Mirage Scene to hone his saber skills.

Cultivating saber skills was undoubtedly much more difficult than advancing in cultivation. While it was possible to feel the progression of cultivation, it was not the case with saber skills. Until a breakthrough was made, progress in saber skills could be exceedingly slow, with possibly no noticeable change for a long while. However, once a breakthrough was achieved, it would lead to an entirely new realm.

Lu Ye focused his psyche into the storage space on the back of his hand, preparing to take out the Breath Fruit Core.

However, a moment later, when the Breath Fruit Core appeared in the palm of his hand, he paused.

The Breath Fruit Core looked somewhat different from before.

Although the Breath Fruit Core was indeed the inner core of the Breath Fruit, at first glance, it looked just like a sapphire. The first time he encountered it, Lu Ye was curious about why a fruit core would look like that, thinking the world was full of wonders.

But he later understood that it wasn't strictly a fruit core; it was a vessel endowed with a special ability by Heaven's Augury, a key to opening the Mirage Scene. Thus, its external appearance wasn't the focal point.

The current Breath Fruit Core clearly differed from before.

The sapphire-like core now had many complex patterns on it, looking extremely intricate.

Even though Lu Ye had considerable expertise in the Path of Spirit Runes, he could not decipher what these patterns meant. Moreover, as he observed them, he even momentarily felt as though his entire psyche was being sucked into the Breath Fruit Core.

The Breath Fruit Core had changed from before…

What puzzled Lu Ye even more was the other Breath Fruit Core. Where was it?

He initially had one, and had acquired another from spoils of battle some days ago, making a total of two, which looked almost identical, and he had placed both in the storage space on the back of his hand.

But now, only one remained…

There wasn't any issue of oversight; the storage space on the back of his hand was formed of Void Rune Tattoos. Although the space wasn't small and was filled with many items, Lu Ye could easily find what he wanted by immersing his psyche.

Now, with only one Breath Fruit Core remaining, the other had vanished, and the core in his hand had many intricate patterns on its surface.

This led Lu Ye to make some guesses.

Could these things… merge with each other?

The two Breath Fruit Cores had been placed together, and unbeknownst to him, they seemed to have merged into one. While it sounded far-fetched, it was the only explanation.

Still unconvinced, he searched again but still could not find the second Breath Fruit Core.

It seemed like the two Breath Fruit Cores really had merged into one.

The original Breath Fruit Core allowed for the honing of one's saber skills inside the Mirage Scene. What use did the new Breath Fruit Core have?

Regardless of its use, trying it would reveal the answer.

Lu Ye held the Breath Fruit Core in his palm, channeling spirit force into it, immersing his psyche.

His vision blurred, and he found himself in a sealed small space with an ancient-looking door in front of him, and a line of characters caught his eye: "To enter the Mirage, you need to expend a hundred merits."

It appeared exactly the same as what he had seen before, seemingly unchanged.

Just as Lu Ye thought this, the corner of his eye suddenly spotted another door to the side. He turned his head, his face full of surprise.

Because in that direction, there was indeed another door, which also had a line of characters: "To enter the Mirage, you need to expend ten thousand merits."

One hundred and ten thousand, a difference of a hundredfold!

It can be affirmed that previously, within this closed-off small space, there was only one door, the one requiring a hundred merits. Upon pushing open this door, one would enter into an environment shrouded by thick fog. From within that fog, cultivators and various beings from the Insect Race would constantly rush out, allowing one to hone their own skills and enemy-killing techniques.

Where does this door that requires ten thousand merits lead to?

Why did such a change occur after fusing two Breath Fruit Cores of the same efficacy?

Lu Ye suddenly felt that the Breath Fruit Core was not as simple as he thought. Heaven's Augury had endowed those two Breath Fruit Cores with the ability to access the Mirage Realm, and when they fused, they not only retained their original effects but also gained another effect that Lu Ye had never encountered before.

Judging solely by the merits consumed, the place that the second door led to must be fraught with danger.

Of course, it might not be the case; everything required exploration.

Under normal circumstances, Lu Ye might not have entered the second door, after all, he was only a Cloud River Level 5 cultivator for now, and places that were too dangerous were not his to meddle with.

But this was the Mirage Realm, where even if one died, they would not really perish, experiencing only some pain instead.

As for ten thousand merits... other cultivators might not be able to come up with that, but for Lu Ye, it was not really a big deal.

Thus, after contemplating the second door for a moment, Lu Ye made up his mind.

He would go in and see, regardless of where the second door led or what dangers were inside. One could only know by seeing with one's own eyes.

It was just a matter of losing ten thousand merits and then being killed and sent out.

With his decision made, Lu Ye immediately walked up to this newly appeared second door and pushed it with his hand.

The back of his hand warmed slightly as ten thousand merit points were deducted. The heavy door was slowly pushed open, and Lu Ye stepped inside.

As he crossed the threshold, Lu Ye suddenly felt an unreal sensation as though he suddenly freed himself from some bondage and became much stronger.

However, he had no time to ponder this as every unfamiliar environment required one to conceal themselves and stay alert to avoid sneak attacks!

So, as he passed through the door, Lu Ye built up Concealment and Breath-concealing Spirit Runes on his body, while simultaneously placing his hand on the hilt of his Boulder Mountain Saber, ready to unleash his power!

Almost at the moment Lu Ye stepped through the new door and entered this unknown space, Amber, who was sleeping deeply, and Yiyi, who was cultivating, simultaneously sensed something strange and opened their eyes to look towards Lu Ye.

Both a spirit and a tiger felt an extremely peculiar sensation as if Lu Ye had suddenly disappeared.

But he was clearly right in front of them.

Yiyi felt somewhat panicked. Even though she knew it was not the right moment to disturb Lu Ye, she couldn't help but softly call out, "Lu Ye?"

She received no response.

Yiyi stood up, went beside Lu Ye, and observed him closely for a moment before tremblingly placing her hand under Lu Ye's nose to test. She suddenly burst into tears crying out, "Lu Ye!"

She could not feel Lu Ye's breath!

And she could sense that Lu Ye seemed to have lost something extremely important.

Being a Spiritual Body, although her cultivation was not high, only on par with Lu Ye's, her sensitivity to the psyche was quite acute.

At this moment, there were clearly no traces of the psyche in Lu Ye's body, which meant that Lu Ye was left with nothing but a physical body here, and moreover, he was breathless.

Amber was also frightened, hurriedly running to Lu Ye's side, tapping him with its paw.

"Lu Ye is dead!" Yiyi collapsed onto the floor, crying uncontrollably, overwhelmed by intense grief.

Amber was terrified and growled lowly at Lu Ye, but received no response, wondering how Lu Ye could suddenly have died when he was just cultivating moments before.

But then it thought, that wasn't right. If Lu Ye had died, what would become of its tiger life? It turned and growled at Yiyi again.

Yiyi, capable of discerning Amber's thoughts, came to a realization upon its reminder.

Not only had Lu Ye and Amber established a pet contract, but they had also formed the Life Origin Method. As Lu Ye's destiny demon beast, if Amber were to die, it would harm Lu Ye, but if Lu Ye were to die, Amber could not possibly survive on its own.

And Yiyi, as Amber's companion minion spirit, would definitely not survive if Amber were to die.

Hence, Lu Ye's life and death not only concerned himself but also involved the survival of a spirit and a tiger.

Since both Amber and Yiyi were unharmed, it could only mean one thing.

Lu Ye was still alive!

Realizing this, Yiyi quickly suppressed her grief, choking back sobs, and extended her hand to test Lu Ye's breath again.

It was very faint, very faint, but it was indeed breathing.

The emotional rollercoaster nearly left Yiyi utterly weak.

But she really couldn't understand what Lu Ye had done to suddenly become like this; in her perception, Lu Ye was nothing but an empty shell left here, with his psyche nowhere to be found.