Sage of Humanity

The mysterious woman clearly noticed Lu Ye's gaze, but she didn't mind, only the corners of her mouth slightly lifted.

Lu Ye's gaze passed over her, looking toward a not so distant place, where a black-robed man stood quietly, not particularly tall, but extremely solidly built.

This person stood perfectly still with hands hanging low, the arrival of the woman and Lu Ye didn't draw much of his attention, he only glanced once then lowered his gaze, continuing to stand there quietly.

Another one in the Divine Sea Realm, and a physique cultivator as well.

Lu Ye felt a slight apprehension in his heart.

However, something about this person felt odd to Lu Ye, his expression was wooden, and there was a dimness in his eyes, making him seem a bit dull. It wasn't clear if this was just an illusion.

Beside him, the mysterious woman finished stretching and casually called out to Lu Ye, "Let's go."

Stepping forward, Lu Ye had no choice but to follow.

Almost at the same moment Lu Ye was led into this secret realm by the mysterious woman, elsewhere in Bingzhou, high in the sky, Thang Yifeng suddenly paused in his rapid flight.

He was holding a tracking disc, the pointer had been consistently pointing in Lu Ye's direction, but just now, the needle suddenly began spinning rapidly, showing no sign of stopping.

With the needle spinning erratically, he couldn't accurately track Lu Ye's location.

The sect master frowned, studying the tracking disc for a moment, his heart cautiously guessing. He then checked his battlefield imprint and found the imprinted mark of Lu Ye in a state of uncontactable status.

Immediately he understood, Lu Ye must have entered a closed secret realm, which was why the tracking disc couldn't trace Lu Ye's movements, and why the battlefield imprint was in a state where contact wasn't possible.

Fortunately, the imprint hadn't disappeared, meaning Lu Ye's life wasn't in danger.

His heart filled with worry, yet there was nothing he could do.

Elsewhere, the members of D-9 squad continued trying to contact Lu Ye, but regardless of how many messages they sent, there was no response, until this moment when Lu Ye completely lost contact.

Yiyi burst into tears, while Feng Yuechan and Lin Yinxiu hurried to comfort her.

Xiao Xinghe and Li Baxian exchanged worried glances, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.

They were right there when Lu Ye was captured. But faced with a powerful Divine Sea cultivator, all their resistance was futile, and they could only watch Lu Ye being taken away, naturally causing them great distress.

Now they had no idea where Lu Ye was or if he was in danger, and even if they wanted to rescue him, there was no way to do so.

"Let's return to Haotian City first and have Lord Department Chief and the sect master intervene," Xiao Xinghe quickly decided. Given the situation, there was nothing they could do, only by asking Qian Wudang and Thang Yifeng to step in could they have a chance to save Lu Ye.

...

"Who was that just now…" Lu Ye, inside the Nameless Secret Realm, trailed behind the mysterious woman, trying to gather information.

He didn't expect her to tell him anything, but to his surprise, she spoke, "You can call him Dao Thirteen."

"Dao Thirteen?" Lu Ye frowned, finding the name peculiar. If it's merely a name, it's fine, but if this thirteen is a number, it becomes intriguing.

Where there's a Dao Thirteen, could there be a Dao One, a Dao Two, and so on?

The woman wasn't planning to explain much to him; she continued walking while speaking, "From now on, you'll stay here, no one will limit your freedom, do whatever you want, understood?"

Lu Ye looked puzzled, "You brought me here just to imprison me?"

What grudge or grievance?

"Someone wants to meet you."

"The person behind you?" Lu Ye guessed.

"Just wait!" The woman impatiently said, now she had reached a wooden house by the lake and walked straight in, shutting the door behind her with a bang.

Leaving only a lingering fragrance in the air.

Lu Ye stood in place, pondering briefly, and quickly turned, rushing towards the entrance of the secret realm. As expected, the woman made no move to stop him, and soon Lu Ye reached the entrance, giving a glance at Dao Thirteen, who stood there like a door deity: "Open the exit, I want to leave!"

Opening the entrance and exit of a secret realm required special methods, naturally, Lu Ye didn't know how to do it, but since Dao Thirteen was guarding here, he surely knew.

This person seemed not very bright, and Lu Ye wanted to try if he could persuade him to let him out.

Despite the slim chances, how would he know if he didn't try?

Dao Thirteen slowly lifted his gaze, looking at him expressionlessly, a hoarse voice coming from his mouth, "Command token!"

Lu Ye didn't have any command token!

He directly grabbed the guard token at his waist, infused it with spirit force, and shook it in front of Dao Thirteen: "Open the exit!"

"The hand seal is incorrect!" Dao Thirteen's hoarse voice rang out, and then he lowered his eyes, standing there like a wooden stake.

Lu Ye's eye twitched, observing his demeanor and behavior, he even doubted if this guy was alive, or perhaps like his master's doppelganger, an automaton?

But even his master's doppelganger named Little Butterfly was much more lively than this Dao Thirteen. Dao Thirteen gave Lu Ye the impression of not only being wooden but also rigid.

Without the hand seal, there was naturally no way to have Dao Thirteen open the secret realm.

Still, it wasn't all in vain, at least it was confirmed that Dao Thirteen really could open the secret realm.

This approach was not feasible, so Lu Ye turned his head to look at the wooden house of the mysterious woman and began to explore this secret realm.

After about half an hour, Lu Ye basically understood the environment here.

This was a small secret realm, similar to the one he had visited at the Sword Weapon Sect, but about twice its size.

The sky within the secret realm had no sun or moon shining, only a murky light, making it look like an overcast day.

The boundary of the secret realm was a void, just looking at it gave an extremely ominous feeling, and Lu Ye naturally dared not venture thoughtlessly.

Who knew what the outcome would be if he ventured in.

The environment here was also extremely monotonous, with only a lake and sparse forest around it, without any beasts or birds in sight.

The mysterious woman entered the wooden house by the lake and did not appear again. She must have been tired from the run and was probably resting.

Lu Ye thought for a moment, then went to the nearby woods to cut down a few trees and personally built a wooden hut by the lake.

Unable to leave here for the time being, he could only make do with what he had.

He was also very curious about who was behind the woman and why they had captured him here.

Not knowing how long he would stay here, he had to have a place to live.

Building huts and bamboo houses was something Lu Ye was well-practiced at since he had done it many times before, and in less than an hour, a two-story wooden house took form, facing the mysterious woman's house across the lake.

Though the mysterious woman had not shown any great malice toward him from beginning to end, one could never be too cautious. His cultivation was not as high as hers, so it was better to be careful.

Lu Ye then set up some formations around his hut, mainly for alarm and isolation; for protection...there was no need.

If she really intended to harm him, with her strength, a protective formation wouldn't stop her, so he didn't bother wasting his energy on it.

In the following days, Lu Ye spent some time each day walking around the secret realm, and he could always faintly sense a Mental Consciousness quietly watching him, evidently from the mysterious woman monitoring him.

Lu Ye didn't mind. The Nameless Secret Realm was only so big, and with the woman's high cultivation, unless he stayed in his hut, everything he did was basically under her watch; hiding from her wasn't an option.

Only the hut, which he had isolated with formations, could block her Mental Consciousness detection.

Besides exploring the secret realm, Lu Ye spent the rest of his time activating the power of the Talent Tree, devouring fire spirit stones.

Being captured alive this time by a strong cultivator from the Divine Sea Realm had made him feel a sense of crisis. As his cultivation improved, encounters with Divine Sea Realm would become more frequent, and if it were someone like Liew Yuemei or the mysterious woman, he'd have no chance of resisting with his current strength.

In fact, he already felt a crisis when being chased by Liew Yuemei, but with the sect master's protection, that feeling diminished a lot, until now…

The sect master couldn't always protect him, and relying on Qian Wudang was even less reliable.

If he couldn't defeat others, at least he had to run fast, thus increasing his hope of survival.

Relying solely on the wings spirit runes wasn't enough. With his current True Lake Level 5 realm cultivation, even with the wings and Move-Like-The-Wind, he couldn't outrun a Divine Sea Realm cultivator. This was proven when Liew Yuemei chased him.

Lu Ye urgently needed a new method, one that could help him escape the pursuit of a Divine Sea Realm cultivator.

He had a hope in mind, but to achieve this, he needed to rely on the Talent Tree; as long as that particular spirit rune could be activated on the Talent Tree, he could escape from future enemies.

He had been longing for that spirit rune for a long time, devising all sorts of imaginative uses and plans for it, but unfortunately, it had not been activated.

But he was sure the Talent Tree had that spirit rune; it just hadn't been the right time.

So he began devouring fire spirit stones, hoping to try his luck.

No new spirit runes had been activated during this time, mainly because he had activated seven spirit runes at once last time, which took him a while to digest, until recently when Lu Ye understood the real use of the Single-Stalk Twin Lotus.

Following the principle of not biting off more than one can chew, Lu Ye hadn't put much effort into the Talent Tree.

Now that the real use of the Single-Stalk Twin Lotus was clear, it was naturally time to activate new spirit runes.

He already had a large number of fire spirit stones, and over the past few months, he had been refining Explosive Fire Spirit Stones for the Justice Department, gaining even more. Activating a few new spirit runes shouldn't be a problem, but whether he would get the one he wanted was entirely up to luck.

On this day, Lu Ye had just returned from patrolling the secret realm. While passing by the mysterious woman's wooden house, she opened the window and her charming face came into view, looking at him with a smile: "You spend your days not resting calmly, what are you searching for?"