CH 229

It was all smiles and giggles as the Crimson Blood Sect host marched on their way back to the outpost with Lu Ye. Everyone was definitely ecstatic. 

The day of fighting had been surreal, to say the least. It was as if everyone had stepped into a swashbuckling fairy tale and those who survived would live to enjoy the spoils and have a great tale to tell. 

It all started with the extermination of their own insectoid infestation, followed by a northbound expedition to assail the Redoubt of Wrath outpost where they had annihilated a several-hundred-strong force and invaded the outpost. 

Next, they veered south, heading to the Clan Feng outpost, and took it before putting to the sword another several hundred enemy acolytes. 

All these were done just within sixty miles of the Crimson Blood Sect’s own outpost. 

In barely an hour, the entire host arrived back at the outpost. Even from afar, they could spy the swarm of insectoids crawling all around the square just outside the outpost’s Sanctum of Providence. 

The insectoid infestation from the Redoubt of Wrath area had reached these parts. 

Standing out of the vast and endless sprawl of insectoids was the monstrous Beaky flapping its wings and swooping down again and again to give any insectoid it found a fatal peck. Every now and then, it would seize a handful of these monsters and crush them with its talons. 

Then everyone noticed: all over the square, it was not just living insectoids, but even carcasses as well. Beaky had not been idle in their absence. 

And Lu Ye was pleased that everything had worked out well. 

That he could entrust the outpost to Beaky was the main reason he could empty literally every man and woman from the outpost. Any intruders who dared to foolishly infiltrate the outpost would find themselves facing the wrath of the monstrous eagle.

In the meantime, Lu Ye had expected the outpost to be overrun with insectoids. The entire Crimson Blood Sect had been outside for far too long and with the Redoubt of Wrath wormhole just barely tens of miles from here, this hardly came as a surprise.

For this reason, Lu Ye had already been making arrangements during the Crimson Blood Sect host’s march back to the outpost. The insectoid horde was mainly comprised of Third- and Fourth-Orders, with the rest of the bulk being made up of Fifth- and Sixth-Orders. His predictions turned out to be spot-on: there were no Seventh-Orders, this being an outer-ring area infestation. Despite the presence of Seventh-Orders at the beginning, the commotion created by Lu Ye would have enticed them to the Clan Feng area, or they could still be concealed within the underground nest chamber.

To that end, the entire host had not been moving like an unruly mob; in neatly arranged ranks and files the host pressed forward in an orderly fashion, steadily mowing down any insectoids in its path and the ruckus was attracting more insectoids their way.

Lu Ye kept a hand on the hilt of his saber as he stood outside the Sanctum of Providence. A tiny red spark wheezed around him, striking down any insectoids approaching the Sanctum. 

Hua Ci rushed inside. She placed a hand on the Divine Opportunity Column and applied the enhancements that she looted from the Redoubt of Wrath and Clan Feng Columns. 

Lu Ye might not have an exact figure of how much was gained this time, but the enhancements plus Contribution Points looted from the two enemy orders must be more sizable than what his exploits during the Battle Royal of the Legates yielded. Both the Redoubt of Wrath and Clan Feng were orders having decades of presence in the Battlefield and the enhancements on their Divine Opportunity Columns must be substantial. That made the gains, despite having to share the Clan Feng loot with the Atheneum of Finality, easily outweighed whatever losses incurred in this whole episode. 

Hua Ci emerged from the Sanctum. 

“I got it.”

“Is it expensive?”

“Very!” Hua Ci grimaced as the cost involved a real pain. 

“Not that we have a choice. Everyone else has one, so we gotta have one too. We can’t leave all the workload to Beaky after all and some form of preparation never hurts. Do you know how to set it up?”

“I don’t,” said Hua Ci. “But she knows,” she added, tugging at Feng Yue who was just beside her.

Dazed like a lost doe in the woods, Feng Yue was still very much a real and experienced legate of an outpost; which was more than what anyone could say of Lu Ye and Hua Ci, the inexperienced legate and prolegate still wet behind the ears.

The corner of Feng Yue’s lips twitched the moment her eyes locked with Lu Ye’s in what was a vain attempt to force a smile. But the notion of Lu Ye running his saber through her hand replayed vividly in her mind and the best she was able to do was a stiff and awkward smirk. 

“Let’s go then!”

Lu Ye called, leading Hua Ci and Feng Yue elsewhere. There was no need to worry about the others. The rest of the Crimson Blood Sect force had all become experienced bug exterminators after their recent adventures. They were more than enough to deal with the insectoids even without Lu Ye’s help now.

Meanwhile, Lu Ye, Hua Ci, and Feng Yue reached one of the corners of the outpost’s compound. Hua Ci extracted a tiny box from inside her Storage Bag. Almost the size of a man’s face, the rectangular object barely looked like it was furnished from wood or gold. 

Tiny and intricate runes and patterns festooned every inch of its surface. A closer inspection would have shown that these were actually some sort of glyph.

These were ward keystones that would mark the corners and outer perimeters of a defensive ward.

Every sect and order had its own defensive ward to guard the safety of its outpost, like the ones used by the Redoubt of Wrath and Clan Feng outposts. But ward keystones were usually destroyed the moment a defensive ward was brought down, hence Lu Ye could not recover their keystones for his own use here. 

As suggested by its name, the Spirit Creek Battlefield was a dimension that only Cultivators of the Spirit Creek Realm could freely enter. Yet the skill and power to forge a ward keystone or erect a defensive ward that could encompass an entire outpost were simply too demanding for any Cultivator of the Spirit Creek Realm. 

That raises one pertinent question: if so, from whence would ward keystones come? Naturally, there would only be one place where the keystones could be procured: the Vault of Providence, although the cost of a ward keystone was not one that any individual Cultivator could easily bear. 

“How much does it cost for one of these?” Lu Ye asked offhandedly.

“Eight hundred and eighty-eight!”

Lu Ye nearly felt his heart skip a beat.

“And how many of these do we need?”

“Sixteen!”

Lu Ye made a quick calculation. The sum turned out to be an insanely huge one.

Fortunately enough, they had reaped equally huge rewards this time, enough to cover the cost. Knowing that the defensive ward would be strong enough to keep the outpost safe made it all worth it.

“Um, so we just leave this one here?”

“There’s no time. We’ll come back later to bury it or to hide it.”

“Surely not. I’ll have someone come here and guard it.”

The ward keystones were not cheap and if left here unguarded, someone might come and steal it away. Lu Ye sent word and within moments, a group of Cultivators came over from the direction of the Sanctum of Providence, all of them drenched in slick-green hemolymph. 

“Two of you, watch this thing and make sure no one comes near it, all right?”

“Yes, sir!”

“The rest of you, come with me.”

At Feng Yue’s instruction, Hua Ci placed the ward keystones at corners around the outpost’s compound. At every spot, Lu Ye assigned two Cultivators to keep watch. 

When the work was finally done and the ward keystones were all set, the defensive ward was ready to be activated. At the same time, the rest of the Crimson Blood Sect host had finished ridding the outpost of the insectoids. More were still coming from outside but to fully eradicate the insectoid threat would require another expedition into the Redoubt of Wrath wormhole to extract the Nucleus of Life from the insectoid nexus there. Only that would truly solve the problem. 

But the extent of the infestation had long passed beyond what outer-ring-area orders and sects could handle. Even Lu Ye would never dare to recklessly enter the wormhole now. 

In the meantime, Hua Ci was holding a tiny jade-hewn disc in her hand. Barely as large as a saucer, the eldritch power swirled in every notch and groove of the engravings, giving the disc a pulsing luminescence. That was the ward nexus, the instrument that would enable an individual power and control of a defensive ward. One could destroy a ward’s keystone and that would only weaken the ward. But if the ward nexus were to be destroyed, then the ward would collapse.

Feng Yue dutifully explained to Hua Ci the ways of using the ward nexus. Hua Ci bobbed her head as she channeled her power into the instrument. All of a sudden, from all corners of the outpost, a loud hum resounded like a gong, and the emanation of Spiritual Power from every point around the perimeter of the outpost where the ward keystones had been placed resonated with each other.

Next, the emanation turned into torrents of light from all sixteen ward keystones—separate regurgitation of Spiritual Power that eventually conjoined with one another before spreading upwards into the sky. 

All it took was minutes, and the spread of Spiritual Power formed a dome that enclosed the whole compound of the outpost. 

It was done.

A defensive ward that kept the inside safe from any outside threats. 

With its protection, those inside the outpost would not have to worry about being invaded by insectoids. The infestation might be attracted to the Spiritual Power that sustained the defensive ward, but so long as their numbers were kept below a certain threshold, the dome-like shield of the ward would still be able to repair itself in perpetuity.

But Hua Ci intentionally left a few openings in the shield to allow insectoids through. Those who still wished to slay more bugs could stand together and man the openings and cut down any insectoids they could find. 

This also helped to relieve the pressure on the defensive ward. 

On the other hand, the rest of the other Crimson Blood Sect Cultivators busied themselves with clearing up the place and getting ready to take turns manning the openings. Everything was done in a very orderly manner. 

Many of them had been hurt and Hua Ci led her people in helping to heal them. With just one Medical Cultivator, there really was only so much she could do. 

But not that they had Feng Yue…

Feng Yue was not liking it one bit. She was confused with thoughts of how she had a hand in the massacre of her own brethren and how here she was, fraternizing with the enemy faction and helping to heal their wounded. 

But Lu Ye had been very good at persuading her. More so since it was not so much cajolery as coercion with his hand on the hilt of his weapon. It was this menacing exudation of his charms that finally swayed her to join the sacred vocation of saving lives. The lives of Crimson Blood Sect Cultivators.

The wounded were quickly tended to and given medical attention. All that they needed then was  to visit the training chambers, and the mess hall for something to eat, and everyone was back in action. 

With Chen Yu being made the captain of the defense, the Sixth-Orders all led several squads in dealing with the insectoids and the extermination went on rewardingly. 

But that came no closer to solving the problem. 

Fresh insectoids were always ready to refill the ranks that kept on filing towards the openings in the ward’s shield. 

While all was still peaceful and orderly at the Crimson Blood Sect outpost, the same could not be said elsewhere. 

Word began to spread that the Crimson Blood Sect had ignored the insectoid infestation in their area and instead launched consecutive attacks on both the Redoubt of Wrath and Clan Feng outposts. That was what led the insectoids in both their areas to grow rampantly like an epidemic so strong that no outer-ring-area orders and sects have the power and wherewithal to deal with it anymore. 

The Thousand Demon Ridge expressed sympathy and condolences to both the Redoubt of Wrath and Clan Feng, and at the same time, issued threats and abusive language at the Crimson Blood Sect legate and prolegate for what they had done. Scores of enemy factions thronged as one, complaining that how things were calm and harmonious before Lu Ye’s appearance here at the Crimson Blood Sect outpost had wrecked both peace and order and how the infestation was beginning to threaten even the safety of other outposts in the area, including a few Grand Sky Coalition ones. Lu Ye should be arrested and punished harshly, if not executed, for his crimes, so they said.

Within the Grand Sky Coalition was a rather different atmosphere. Most of them were exultant at Lu Ye’s performance. Successful invasions between outer-ring-area forces were often hard to come by, never mind Lu Ye’s victories in capturing two enemy outposts and the slaughter of all their acolytes, leaving just a meager few surviving. That would imply that the present generation of Spirit Creek Cultivators from both the Redoubt of Wrath and Clan Feng had nearly become extinct.