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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
The leader of the group immediately realized that they were in big trouble. He did not know what exactly had befallen the group, but they had been poisoned by a deadly and nigh undetectable poison. None of them had noticed it coursing through their veins until it was too late.
It was scary to say the least.
His first reaction was to leave the place immediately, but the thought had just crossed his mind when he felt his Spiritual Power falling apart against his will. He instinctively grabbed Hua Ci’s arm and said, “Save—”
His eyes widened in shock. He saw two dozen red dots flying into the back of the medicine cultivator’s hand. It was a scene he was all too familiar with. The Contribution Points of his dead allies had been absorbed into her Battlefield Imprint, meaning that she was the one who poisoned them!
His eyes were full of disbelief as he blurted, “You…”
He cut himself off and looked down on his arm. He had instinctively grabbed Hua Ci’s elbow just a moment ago, but now he had lost all feeling in it. At the same time, he recalled what the medicine cultivator had said to him earlier. As it turned out, she had meant what she said literally.
“Why are you doing this?” The young man asked through gritted teeth. He just could not understand why she would go so far against a group of strangers.
Hua Ci smiled kindly. “Did I not introduce myself earlier? I am a disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect!”
The young man’s pupils contracted into needles. He looked like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of the truth.
A disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect! He had brought a medicine cultivator of the Crimson Blood Sect into the Myriad Poison Forest with them to search for Lu Ye! No wonder she had poisoned them all!
He deeply regretted not checking Hua Ci’s affiliation before accepting her into his party, but then again, how could he possibly anticipate that a Crimson Blood Sect disciple would be bold enough to waltz right up to an entire defense line full of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators?
“I’ll kill you!” As his consciousness blurred, the young man made a desperate final attempt and launched a palm strike. However, Hua Ci easily dodged the attack just by jumping a few steps to the back.
Thump…
The young man hit the ground, and the last red dot flew into the back of Hua Ci’s hand.
Hua Ci felt like she was living a dream as she stared at the bodies around her. She knew that her inheritance was powerful, but this outcome was beyond even her greatest expectations.
In the past, she could only use her mushrooms to fight against the enemy. Not only that, it grew increasingly ineffective as her opponents grew stronger, not to mention that she needed to plant the mushrooms on the ground. There was little her mushrooms could do against a flying opponent.
After she claimed the remaining portion of her inheritance though, her mushrooms weren’t her only methods of killing anymore. If she wanted to, she could poison a target anywhere, anytime.
These Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators had operated with her for a long time. Naturally, she had all the time in the world to poison them.
She stared at her shivering hands and felt the rapid beating of her heart. It wasn’t fear that was gripping her right now.
[Who says medicine cultivators cannot kill?!]
With that done, she dispelled the protective Spiritual Power around her and inhaled the surrounding fog deeply. The poisonous fog was so deadly that even the cultivators of the Core Circle could not withstand it, but to her, it was better than even World Spiritual Qi. She felt like she was inhaling the sweetest air in the world…
After she had calmed herself down, she hummed a small tune while picking up the Storage Bags around her.
Finally, she put the swiftly rotting corpses behind her and continued deeper into the forest.
…
Deep within the Myriad Poison Forest, Lu Ye was receiving Yi Yi’s care when suddenly, he felt a strange reaction from his Battlefield Imprint. It wasn’t quite like what he normally felt when he received a message.
As it turned out, it wasn’t. It was a challenge request!
This reminded Lu Ye that it had been three days since he ascended the Scroll of Supremacy. In fact, his second senior sister had mentioned this when he was conversing with her via messaging.
When a cultivator first ascended the Scroll of Supremacy, they were given three days to prepare themselves. When three days had passed, they would gain the right to challenge a higher ranker and be challenged by a lower ranker.
In other words, a cultivator who first ascended the Scroll of Supremacy would not be able to challenge or be challenged during the first three days.
Besides that, he could not challenge or be challenged by those who were more than five ranks above or below him. For example, Lu Ye was ranked thirty-third right now. This meant that the highest ranker he could challenge was the twenty-seventh ranker, and everyone between the thirty-eighth spot to the thirty-fourth spot could challenge him. The thirty-ninth ranker would not be able to challenge him because he was six spots away.
The challenge rules were one of the most interesting things about the Scroll of Supremacy. It was because the Heavens were directly involved in it, and why it had all kinds of unbreakable rules.
The challenge did not need to be issued face-to-face either. While most Spirit Creek Realm cultivators were active in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, there were some who lingered in Jiu Zhou for one reason or another. If the challenge had to be issued face-to-face, a ranker might choose to hide in their Outpost or their Jiu Zhou headquarters permanently to avoid being challenged.
To issue a challenge, all a ranker needed to do was to use the Battlefield Imprint. It was incredibly convenient since the Heavens did most of the heavy lifting.
Take Lu Ye’s first challenge for example. The challenger’s identity was unknown, but Lu Ye was given four hours to prepare for the challenge. It allowed him to adjust himself to the best condition before facing the opponent.
When the time came, the Heavens would teleport Lu Ye and the challenger into an exclusive battlefield. Not only that, the challenged ranker was allowed to choose the battlefield from a vast selection of terrains.
Since Lu Ye was the one being challenged here, he could choose a terrain that best enabled his qualities. The choice would be in the other person’s hands if he was the challenger.
Of course, the challenged ranker could choose to reject the challenge. However, rejecting the challenge was the same as losing the challenge, so the challenger would claim his rank.
Lu Ye had never experienced this before even though he had heard many things about it. Naturally, he was surprised to receive a challenge.
Now that he thought about it, the Thousand Demon Ridge was probably wondering why he wasn’t dead yet and getting impatient. They couldn’t check his status in person either since he was hiding in the Myriad Poison Forest. That was probably why they were challenging him through the Scroll of Supremacy. If he was stupid enough to accept the challenge and enter the battlefield, then even better. This way, they could kill him without risking their lives in the Myriad Poison Forest.
He inspected all the information he received through the Battlefield Imprint carefully and found that they were exactly as his second senior sister had told him. Now, he had two choices. He could either accept the challenge or reject it.
Lu Ye thought over the options for a second before accepting the challenge. He immediately felt the Heavens’ invisible power descending on him and granting him even more information.
He now had four hours to prepare for the challenge. He could also decide the terrain he wished to fight his challenger at while preparing.
As Lu Ye browsed through the list, he also received the rough information of the terrains. It showed him pictures, size, unique features and so on.
There were roughly a hundred terrains he could choose from. There were ruins, heaths, deserts, forests and even the sea.
Each terrain differed not just in type, but also in size. Some were a few kilometers wide, and some were only the size of an arena…
Since this was the first time he experienced this, Lu Ye wanted to acquire as much information as possible.
He tried checking the challenger’s information to no avail. For whatever reason, the Heavens decided that the challenger could use some invisible protection.
He checked the Scroll of Supremacy next and eyed the five rankers between the thirty-fourth spot to the thirty-eighth spot.
Three of the five rankers belonged to Thousand Demon Ridge, and they were all Heaven Nine cultivators. His challenger had to be one of the three Thousand Demon Ridge rankers.
Yi Yi had been watching his odd behavior curiously. “Are you talking to someone, Lu Ye?”
“No. Someone on the Scroll of Supremacy issued me a challenge,” he replied distractedly.
“Really?” Yi Yi exclaimed in surprise, “Did you accept it?”
“I did.”
“But you’re still not recovered yet…” She said worriedly. Three days had passed, but Lu Ye was still suffering from the side effects of using Fire Phoenix. It would be incredible if he could unleash even half of his normal strength.
“I’m not actually going to fight them. I just want to check out the place.”
Just because he accepted the challenge didn’t mean he must meet his challenger in battle. He could simply forfeit the battle once his four-hour preparation time was up. Sure, he would lose his placement as a result, but it was a small price to pay compared to his life.
After assuring Yi Yi, Lu Ye moved on to check the top ten rankers on the Scroll of Supremacy. Every single one of them belonged to a Tier-One sect in Jiu Zhou. In fact, the top fifteen rankers all came from a Tier-One sect.
Cultivators from Tier-Two sects only appeared starting from the sixteenth spot, and Tier-Three sects starting from the fifty-first. Not only that, there weren’t many Tier-Three Sects on the Scroll of Supremacy in general.
Speaking of which, Yu Lianzhou was ranked seventh on the Scroll of Supremacy. It was quite impressive.
The champion of the Scroll of Supremacy was a man named Shi Guang from the Way Profound Sect, Tian Zhou. Lu Ye wondered if he was the former third runner-up of the rank list.
Yan Xing was dead, and Feng Yuechan and Li Baxian had both ascended to the Cloud River Realm. Since the Three Tumors occupying the top rung of the Scroll of Supremacy were finally gone, the third runner-up should automatically ascend to the first place. If that was true, then Shi Guang owed Lu Ye a thanks at the very least. If he hadn’t bought Li Baxian two Point Restoration Pills and sent him on his way, he would never have taken the first place.
After Lu Ye was done figuring out the intricacies of the Scroll of Supremacy, he withdrew his mind and continued recovering. He didn’t waste his time doing nothing either. He studied a book he had taken from Lady Yun’s study and consumed Spirit Pills to cultivate at the same time.
The existence of the protective ward actually prevented him from constructing a Circle of Boon or Gathering Spirits inside his Spiritual Points. If the World Spiritual Qi in the area flowed too quickly, it would cause the poisonous fog to corrode the ward much faster than normal.
Thankfully, his cultivation speed remained pretty quick even though he was just consuming Spirit Pills. In fact, consuming Spill Pills had always been his main method of cultivation.
Four hours came and went just like that. Lu Ye connected his mind to the Battlefield Imprint and forfeited the battle immediately.
He checked the Scroll of Supremacy once more. He had dropped from the thirty-third spot to the thirty-seventh spot, while the former thirty-seventh Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator had taken over his position.
Lu Ye narrowed his eyes slightly as he memorized the guy’s name and origin.
Before he could withdraw his mind though, he felt yet another challenge request entering his Battlefield Imprint.
Just like the last time, he accepted the request before leaving it to dry.
At the same time, a message was spreading across the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators like wildfire. It was said that Lu Yi Ye was probably in a bad state because he had repeatedly refused the challenge requests of the Scroll of Supremacy!
Dropping to the bottom and then a meteoric rise, classic and enjoyable.