Sage of Humanity

Until Lu Ye cut it down with his blade, only then did he completely see the figure's appearance.

Spanning less than four feet in height, the figure was gaunt and seemed almost malnourished at first glance. However, the skin exposed outside was engraved with extremely complex patterns. Those patterns crisscrossed and were all jet black, exuding an exceedingly bizarre aura.

Without a doubt, these patterns were tattoo runes, and they were visible tattoo runes.

In the Nine Provinces, there are cultivators who enjoy tattooing visible rune tattoos on themselves to demonstrate their unique style, and these tattoos can often serve special functions.

Especially physique cultivators and ghost cultivators, they love doing such things. Physique cultivators use defensive tattoo runes to enhance their defensive capabilities, while ghost cultivators use special tattoo runes to boost their explosive power and stealth ability.

Lu Ye also had a tattoo rune on him, the Void Rune Tattoo on the back of his hand, which his master tattooed for him back in the day, using this tattoo rune as the core to construct a storage space.

Yet, the tattoo runes in the Nine Provinces differ significantly from what Lu Ye is witnessing now.

The tattoo runes in the Nine Provinces are man-made, whereas the ones he's seeing in front of him are natural.

To put it another way, this dead fellow was born with these tattoo runes. It's not just him — every member of his race is born this way.

Specter Race!

Among the major factions within the cultivation world, ghost cultivators are most adept at concealment and stealth attack, whereas the Specter Race is naturally the forefather of this method.

According to Yang Qing, the human race developed the ghost cultivator faction by gradually learning from the Specter Race.

Therefore, when it comes to the various races in stellar space, the most proficient in stealth and attack must be the Specter Race.

Lu Ye had only heard of it before, but this time he truly witnessed the prowess of the Specter Race. When his doppelganger was attacked, he couldn't react in time, and the enemy fled swiftly after striking. If not for him promptly spreading out the Blood Sea, he really would have failed to catch them.

He had seen various ghost cultivators in the Nine Provinces, and Wuchang was the strongest among them. Even against Wuchang, before he ascended to the Constellation Realm, it was not so simple to attack and kill him.

Lu Ye's powerful psyche rendered his senses sharp. Although winning a battle relaxed his mind to some degree, he shouldn't have been caught off guard by someone approaching him from behind without noticing.

In this world, within the same realm, only a cultivator from the Specter Race could achieve such a feat. If it were any other race, no matter how proficient they were in stealth attacks, it would be impossible.

This encounter served as a subtle reminder to him, despite his current success and significant gains, he must not underestimate other cultivators. In battles of this level, any disrespect could lead to catastrophic consequences.

He dealt with the corpse of the Specter Race, as usual, not gaining much in terms of spoils — just a seemingly inconspicuous yet extremely sharp spirit treasure dirk.

The Specter Race is small in stature and since adept at surprise attacks, they don't use large weapons. Dirks or daggers are their standard arsenal.

The quality was decent.

Glancing to the side, his doppelganger's chest had a large hole, and the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit was stained red. If it had been a regular person, such an injury would have been life-threatening, but the doppelganger was nonetheless unharmed.

The essence of the doppelganger is based on half of the Talent Tree, condensing Lu Ye's blood Qi, spirit force, and Divine Soul Power. Strictly speaking, it is a pure energy body, so unless it is completely obliterated, the doppelganger will not die.

The penetrating wound on the chest had long healed; however, the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit could not be repaired, so it appeared somewhat pitiful.

The recent experience was undoubtedly dangerous. If the target of the Specter Race's stealth attack had been the real body instead of the doppelganger, it would likely have severely injured the real one!

Lu Ye wasn't worried about dying. Although his doppelganger could essentially perform all his skills, their physique strength differed markedly.

A doppelganger, as an energy body, couldn't possess his strong physique. Even if the Specter Race were to attack his real body, they wouldn't achieve the result of penetrating his chest in one strike.

From this perspective, the Specter Race probably discerned something and deliberately targeted the doppelganger, knowing that even if they attempted to strike the real body, they might not succeed.

After all, everyone picks the softer target.

The doppelganger changed into a new outfit and quickly departed. It was a shame about the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit, which came from the Hall of Battle Merits and was a protective treasure garment Lu Ye was fond of. It was also the iconic attire of sword cultivator Li Taibai. Now damaged beyond repair, it could only be put away as a memento.

The vast Blood Sea had been retracted by Lu Ye, though not completely. Around him, dense blood-red still lingered.

Looking around, it resembled a small patch of blood cloud, spanning about ten feet in diameter. Since it was more condensed, the blood cloud was entirely crimson, akin to flames.

Standing within the Blood Sea, Lu Ye quietly sensed the surroundings.

When he was searching for traces of the Specter Race earlier, he vaguely felt something unusual, but at the time, he was solely focused on finding the Specter Race, so he didn't have the time to discern it carefully.

Now, with a calm mind to investigate, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary.

This left him puzzled.

With his cultivation at this level, his intuition was unlikely to be wrong; it was merely a matter of being vague or clear. He carefully recalled the scene from before, slightly raised a hand, and gently brushed it across.

Ripples rose, spreading outward around the Blood Cloud.

He originally thought it was due to the methods he used at the time, but after trying again now, he found that wasn't the case, as there still wasn't any anomaly.

Unable to figure it out or clarify it, Lu Ye couldn't dwell on this issue forever, so he could only put away the Blood Sea and prepare to continue on his way.

However, just then, that strange feeling appeared once more—vague, indescribable—like there was something in a direction of the Taichu Realm that had formed a hidden connection with his Blood Sea.

Lu Ye was greatly astonished. Was there a valuable treasure belonging to the Blood Race emerging in this Taichu Realm? Otherwise, how could it give him such a feeling?

He hurried to discern it carefully, finally determining the direction from which that trace of connection came; it pointed to the left front.

Without further hesitation, he urged a piece of his Blood Cloud to swoop in that direction.

During the journey, he continuously sensed it. The guidance from that direction came intermittently, sometimes detectable for a long time, sometimes several times in half a day, and the guiding position was not constant.

The general direction didn't change; it was still to the left front, but the specific position kept changing.

Lu Ye guessed he was probably wrong; it likely wasn't a valuable treasure of the Blood Race emerging but a different situation.

This couldn't help but stir his heart. If the situation was indeed what he suspected, then things would get interesting.

Since entering the Taichu Realm and encountering the first Blood Race Zhou Sifang, Lu Ye had been contemplating how to make something out of the Blood Race cultivators participating in the Divine Sea contest. After all, with his current skills, slaying the Blood Race was the most handy, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't find a good method. The area was too vast, making it initially hard to meet other cultivators, let alone specific members of the Blood Race.

But if it truly was a different situation, that would be an unexpected delight. There was no need for him to do anything special; others had brought the matter to him.

As Lu Ye set off, at the platform where cultivators from various realms gathered around the Reincarnation Tree, at the very edge, an elder with white hair and beard stroked his beard, "Nephew, your friend is quite something. To achieve this level at Divine Sea Level 8, if not a first of its kind, is truly unprecedented."

Duu Lang looked at Lu Ye's name on the pillar to the right of the portal and chuckled, "I didn't expect him to be this formidable either."

They, the old and the young, were originally prepared to leave and return to Red Sky Continent, but after Duu Lang discovered Lu Ye's name appeared in the eleventh position, the elder decided to stay.

As he saw it, Duu Lang seemed interested to see what this so-called "friend" would end up achieving.

Naturally, Duu Lang complied, thinking it was just a matter of two months, and there was no rush.

Now on the top hundred ranking list on the right, Lu Yiye of the Nine Heavens had jumped further up to seventh place, a leap of four ranks from before.

Clearly, this wasn't a result from killing just one person. At least two, perhaps even three, were needed for such an advancement.

Duu Lang could ascertain that this Lu Yiye was indeed the one he met in the Spirit Jade Vein, but truly did not expect him to be this capable.

He couldn't help but feel secretly relieved that he hadn't harbored any ill intentions due to Lu Yiye's lower cultivation. Given Lu Yiye's current performance, if he had harbored such intent, he might be resting under a grassy mound right now.

"If this lad can make it out alive, he'll certainly become someone great in the future. Nephew, such a person is worth befriending," the elder slowly said.

Duu Lang's response was noncommittal. Before befriending Lu Ye, he hadn't known about Lu Ye's capabilities or future potential. To him, if he thought someone was worth befriending, he would do so. If their personalities clashed, no matter how much potential they had, he wasn't willing to flatter them.

He felt slightly regretful.

Because of his heavy responsibilities, he couldn't participate in the upcoming competition anymore. Otherwise, he could have fought alongside Brother Lu, experiencing his prowess up close and seeing where he stood compared to these top-tier prodigies.

As the elder and the youth in Red Sky Continent paid attention to Lu Ye's rank changes, other powerful beings from various realms also naturally noticed.

With thousands of Divine Sea Level 9 cultivators, only one at Level 8, achieving such a high rank, it was hard not to attract attention. Initially, many believed Lu Ye's temporary eleventh place might have had a significant element of luck. But when his ranking suddenly shot up by another leap, everyone knew this wasn't something that could be explained by luck alone. This was a display of strength. If it were purely luck, the ranking would constantly fall, and it wouldn't be able to rise.

To think of Yang Qing's bold act of tossing a 9-star treasure into the treasure pond earlier, it was simply a display of immense confidence in his junior!