Sage of Humanity

In such a fierce slaughter, the flames of life of cultivators from both sides were being snuffed out at every moment, Dao Bones scattering everywhere, with no one to collect them.

Zi Ying's arrangement could be called near perfect; after all, going to such lengths just to receive the isolated force led back by Yan Hong wasn't actually that hard.

Just as they were about to break through the enemy's line, Lu Ye suddenly felt a stir in his heart and turned his head to look to the side.

In that direction, a blood mist exploded; one of the human race cultivators returning with them was reduced to nothing, not even bones left, in an instant.

Within the blood mist, a Blood Race figure flashed, directly appearing in front of him, reaching out with one hand to grab him. On those fingers, the sharp nails gleamed with a chilling cold light.

Lu Ye raised his fist and smashed it out.

At the instant fist and claw collided, Lu Ye's expression changed, because the Dao force surging at him from the other side had the feel of at least the 14th–15th Dao.

Ever since that time he escaped the enemy encirclement, he had been maintaining the strength of the 12th Dao over these past few months, so he was caught off guard by this sudden blow.

A sharp pain came from his fist; clearly, it was already injured.

Fortunately, though there was a gap between their strengths, it hadn't reached the level of total suppression.

That Blood Race who struck had obviously not expected Lu Ye to have such power. His original intent was to kill Lu Ye and then go ambush Yan Hong, but this strike had actually failed to take him down.

Just as he was about to exert a bit more force to finish Lu Ye, a long spear thrust back from the front—it was Yan Hong, who sensed something wrong and lent his aid.

A fierce look flashed across the Blood Race's face, his expression shifting slightly. In the end, he still forced down the killing intent in his heart and hurriedly pulled back!

To him, no matter how strong Yan Hong seemed, he was ultimately just at the Beginner level, merely relying on the Dao artifact in his hand. Killing him would be easy.

But he had a more important mission this time; if he exposed his existence just to forcefully kill Yan Hong, it would be a loss.

"Brother Lu!" In the midst of the chaos, Yan Hong spared a moment to glance at him. On this bloody way back, of all the 9th Dao cultivators, Lu Ye had helped him the most. He had vaguely sensed that Lu Ye also possessed a Dao artifact—he was by no means an ordinary 9th Dao.

He had always admired someone like Lu Ye, who had no family background and clawed his way up step by step from the bottom, and he naturally wanted to befriend him.

"I'm fine. That Blood Race… around the 14th–15th Dao."

Yan Hong nodded slightly. "Then he must have the very finest Dao artifact at his side."

They exchanged a few quick words, then charged into battle once more.

Moments later, the many alliance guards finally linked up with the reinforcements, and with the two forces attacking from front and rear, the enemy troops in this direction either died or fled, actually tearing open a gap in what had once been a seamless defensive line.

"Don't get attached to the fight, return to Blue Water at once!" Yan Hong took the lead in front, shouting loudly.

Everyone followed closely behind.

After another short while, they finally returned to Blue Water Battle Planet. A quick tally showed that of the six hundred alliance guards, nearly a hundred had died in that recent bout of slaughter, and even the reinforcements who came to receive them had taken losses.

The fallen were gone; for those who survived, they could at last breathe a little easier.

But the grand war was far from over. As long as the enemy didn't give up on attacking the planet, the fighting would have to continue.

"I must go pay my respects to Governor Zi Ying. If not for Lord Governor this time, we would have had no chance of fighting our way back. Brother Lu, when there's time later, we'll talk again." Yan Hong didn't bother greeting the others—they'd only met by chance on the road and banded together for mutual support. Now that he had brought them back to Blue Water, his duty was done. Only when leaving did he say a word to Lu Ye, then they exchanged their authority waist tablet imprints, so they could contact each other in the future.

"No problem." Lu Ye nodded. From Yan Hong's words, he finally confirmed that this fellow's background was no small matter; otherwise it would be impossible for a 1-star governor to put in so much effort for him.

Lu Ye was very willing to befriend such a person. When the chance arose, he might be able to probe him about a way to leave.

Watching Yan Hong depart, Lu Ye turned around, intending to ask after the situation of Kang Xing and his two companions, only to see the three of them staring at him in amazement.

"What is it?" Lu Ye asked.

Kang Xing said, "Brother Lu, did you know this Yan Hong before?"

"No." Lu Ye shook his head. "We just worked together this time, that's all."

"I see." Kang Xing understood. "But it doesn't matter. From the look of it, Yan Hong thinks very highly of Brother Lu. And that makes sense—Brother Lu is a capable man. Gold will always shine. To earn Yan Hong's regard, Brother Lu's rise to success is just around the corner. Allow me to congratulate Brother Lu in advance."

Lu Ye said, "This Yan Hong, his background is very impressive?" He had suspected as much, but had no idea exactly what that background was. From Kang Xing's expression, he seemed to know.

"More than impressive." Kang Xing sighed with emotion. "Brother Lu has only just arrived, so you probably haven't heard the names of the few great clans within the battle alliance…"

After listening to Kang Xing's explanation, Lu Ye finally learned that within the battle alliance there were several top-tier human race clans, which were the main pillars of the alliance. The Dao Fusion ancestors of these clans were among the first batch to fall into Branlan back in the day. Over countless years, they put down roots here and each developed a family of their own.

Among them was a Yan family!

Yan Hong was a cultivator of the Yan family, and at the Beginner level, he was quite well-known.

Lu Ye didn't know much about the information within Banlan, so now that he was hearing Kang Xing talk about it, he listened carefully.

"But although Yan Hong is formidable, he's not the most formidable one." Kang Xing clearly knew a lot of intel in this area.

Lu Ye's interest was immediately piqued: "Yan Hong actually isn't the most formidable one?"

By his estimation, Yan Hong had roughly the strength of the 14th–15th Dao, about the same as that Sharp Claws Blood Race he had killed before, and the one that had just ambushed him.

But then he thought of the previous owner of that carapace shard… that guy was stronger than Yan Hong, a Beginner who could exert nearly 20th Dao strength—utterly outrageous.

"The Huang family has someone called Huang Zhihuan, he's the strongest at the Beginner level, and he's been famous for several hundred years. He's the master of the Dao artifact giant ant."

"Giant ant?" Lu Ye frowned. What kind of strange name was that?

Kang Xing smiled: "Taken from the saying that even a giant ant's strength can shake a tree. This is the most formidable Dao artifact within Banlan. It's said that with that Dao artifact, Huang Zhihuan can exert nearly 20th Dao strength!" At this point, Kang Xing sighed, his face full of emotion: "Nearly 20th Dao— that's the Dao Fusion level."

Lu Ye couldn't help but blink: "That giant ant… what kind of Dao artifact is it, to be so formidable?"

"I heard it's a Dao artifact shaped like a carapace shard." Jyang Yuning interjected from the side.

Lu Ye's expression did not change: "Fellow Daoist Jyang has seen this Dao artifact?"

Jyang Yuning smiled: "Of course I haven't. There's only one giant ant in the entire battle alliance, it's always been in Huang Zhihuan's hands. I'm afraid that other than his closest people, no one else has ever seen it. You're asking how I know, right? It's simple—many people know this information; it was deliberately disseminated by those great families."

"Why is that?" Lu Ye was completely puzzled. With such a Dao artifact, shouldn't it be kept secret? Why would they spread the news?

"Because there's more than one giant ant." Kang Xing picked up the thread. "And the giant ant isn't something that can be refined at the current stage; it's an ancient relic of Banlan. No one knows where it might have been left behind. If someone came across it but didn't know its value, wouldn't that be a tragic waste? That's why this news was deliberately spread."

Lu Ye thought of the carapace shard at his chest. It was indeed ancient and unadorned. If he hadn't already been primed to suspect it, if he saw this thing somewhere else, he would only think it was a fragment of some magic treasure and wouldn't pay it any mind.

"The major families have all said that whoever hands over a giant ant will receive a massive reward. To say nothing of other things, guaranteeing your promotion to Dao Fusion is no problem."

Lu Ye said slowly: "If someone got their hands on such a treasure, I'm afraid they might not be willing to hand it in."

Kang Xing shook his head: "Brother Lu should know that while this treasure is indeed precious, it's also a source of disaster. Without some real ability, you can't keep it. If I got it, I definitely wouldn't keep it for my own use."

That made sense. As the saying goes, 'a commoner is innocent, but possession of jade is a crime.' The great families had the ability to protect a treasure like the giant ant, but ordinary cultivators did not. Once it was exposed, it might well bring fatal trouble.

After this conversation, Lu Ye unexpectedly gained some extra insights.

Looking back now, because he killed that Sharp Claws Blood Race, the Insect Matriarch had sent a clansman who possessed the giant ant to kill him, and in the end that one was instead killed by him, and he seized the Dao artifact.

With such a precious Dao artifact lost, the enemy naturally couldn't tolerate it, so the battlefield had been so chaotic for a while afterward.

Thinking of this, Lu Ye couldn't help but be stunned again. Could this enemy assault on the battle planet be related to the giant ant?

Because they couldn't find his whereabouts, they launched a full-scale attack on the planet?

He couldn't rule out the possibility… If it really was like that, then Lu Ye felt a bit torn between laughing and crying. After all, he had never expected that such a battle would be stirred up because of him.

The giant ant was indeed formidable, able to boost that Insect Race member's strength by about 10 Daos, but for him this thing seemed a bit tasteless. Should he hand it in or not?

Yet the great families were powerful, and he had no real background. If he rashly handed it over, he might not get much benefit.

Maybe he could find an opportunity to talk with Yan Hong. As someone of the Yan family, he could represent the side of the great families.

But this matter wasn't urgent; he could wait until this battle was over before considering it.

A battle planet was like a nail driven into the battlefield. It was because of this nail that nearby cultivators had a place to rest and could retreat to the battle planet to hide when they encountered danger.

Every battle planet had various supporting facilities; whatever the battle alliance had, the battle planet basically had as well.

After finally fighting their way back to the battle planet, by the rules everyone had one day of rest. Kang Xing and the others needed to go to the Hall of Battle Merits here to tally their battle merits and also exchange some supplies.

With nothing better to do, Lu Ye went along. It was a good chance to take out some of the useless Dao Bones he'd accumulated and convert them into battle merit.

He didn't dare take out too many, yet even so, Kang Xing and the others were utterly shocked.

This accumulation of battle merit raised Lu Ye's alliance guard rank from Iron Guard to Bronze Guard. With just a bit more accumulation, he could become Silver Guard, at which point he would qualify to exchange for a Dao artifact.

Although he already had the giant ant, the giant ant seemed different from other Dao artifacts. In the end, he still needed to exchange for an ordinary Dao artifact to study it. If he could truly imitate it, then when he returned to stellar space in the future, he could look into refining them.

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