Sage of Humanity

Anyway, if someone is really an important family descendant, they shouldn't be on the battlefield killing enemies. Those families wouldn't let such people take too much risk, and naturally, wouldn't need giant ants.

Disciples like Yan Hong who dare to fight and strive are actually quite rare.

Forget about others, take Huang Zhihuan as an example, he has been famous for hundreds of years, but even though his affinity with giant ants is high, he has never appeared on the battlefield.

In these hundreds of years, he did only one thing: explore relics!

Lu Ye suddenly realized that his situation was quite different from those family Dao Fusions.

"Alright!" Lu Ye nodded.

Eighteen hundred is not much different from two thousand, and it's not easy to come out once, so let's leave it at that. He didn't want to fuss about it anymore.

Seeing that he agreed, Yan Hong finally breathed a sigh of relief. This task wasn't easy to handle, and he knew that eighteen hundred was a bit low, but as a member of the human race, he was entrusted with the battle alliance's mission, so he couldn't say much.

Thinking back to the recent noisy meetings of Dao Fusions, Yan Hong couldn't help but sigh.

Even though Lu Ye previously killed a Dao Fusion from the Insect and Blood Races under everyone's gaze, there were still many people who doubted his stance.

There are even some shameless people who say that if Lu Ye truly has a heart towards the human race battle alliance, he should contribute the giant ant to prove his loyalty, rather than demanding compensation through trade.

"Brother Lu, after this, I should enter seclusion. For future giant ant transactions, Xiaowu will contact you."

Lu Ye nodded, "Then I wish Brother Yan an early advancement to Dao Fusion."

Yan Hong was going into seclusion, surely aiming for Dao Fusion advancement. Huang Zhihuan was already one step ahead, so naturally, Yan Hong wouldn't fall behind.

"Thanks for your kind words." Yan Hong smiled.

"Xiaowu, give me your star map." Lu Ye turned to look at Yan Xiaowu.

Without hesitation, Yan Xiaowu immediately took out his star map and handed it to Lu Ye. Lu Ye received it and made a mark on the star map, "This position!"

He couldn't point out all the locations of remaining giant ants at once; he could only do it step by step. Although bothersome, it was safe.

As for who the second giant ant would go to, Lu Ye didn't care. The families would naturally decide internally; he just needed to come and receive the Dao Bone when the time came.

Yan Hong watched with intrigue.

Yan Xiaowu didn't know about the situation of that giant ant, but he was clear about it. That day, he and Uncle Yong dug thousands of feet deep, nearly pulverizing that piece of floating land, before finding the giant ant hidden within.

He could confirm that it wasn't left behind by Lu Ye in advance, but had been buried there for many years.

Now Lu Ye marked another position on the star map. If another giant ant could be found, it meant Lu Ye could sense the locations of these lost giant ants.

But how did he manage to do it?

The more Yan Hong interacted with Lu Ye, the more he found him mysterious.

Remembering Blue Water Battle Planet, where he unexpectedly killed a Blood Race Dao Fusion, it was strange because that Blood Race Dao Fusion had no defense.

In hindsight, it wasn't the Blood Race's negligence. Clearly, Lu Ye broke their defense, allowing him to succeed easily.

In other words, Lu Ye was already hiding his strength back then...

"Brother Lu, are you now a Dao Fusion or entering the Path?" Yan Hong couldn't resist asking his question.

Lu Ye thought for a moment and said, "You can see me as a Dao Fusion."

Lu Ye had left, returning the way he came, quickly disappearing.

Yan Hong carefully pondered the words Lu Ye left behind, his expression bewildered.

To be seen as Dao Fusion undoubtedly indicated Lu Ye wasn't a Dao Fusion, yet he had the power to kill Dao Fusions—how incredible!

In the insect hive, Lu Ye returned, and Dark Butterfly was very pleased.

Lu Ye didn't roam recklessly again, it seemed the incident last time taught him a lesson, which is undoubtedly what Dark Butterfly hoped for. Now the entire Banlan only had this insect hive as his home. When he acknowledged this, he would be thoroughly bound to her, beyond just the Chains of Life.

Before returning, Lu Ye had already refined the two thousand Dao Bones from the Yan family cleanly.

Harvesting plenty, originally planning to polish the Dao Bones after returning, but unexpectedly, Dark Butterfly had left him four hundred Dao Bones.

Previously, Lu Ye had noticed a regular supply of Dao Bones sent to the insect hive core for Dark Butterfly to refine and replenish consumption. Due to the Chains of Life, he also shared some benefits.

This time, Dark Butterfly did not use it all for herself; she still remembered the power of incineration from the Talent Tree, so she deliberately left some behind.

According to her agreement with Lu Ye, these four hundred Dao Bones could give her five breaths worth of burning.

The time was short, but Dark Butterfly wasn't in a rush. Having lived countless years, with endless future time, there was no need for haste; slowly accumulating would be more interesting.

Putting a leaf of Enlightenment Tea into his mouth, Lu Ye began polishing the Dao Bones.

The leaves of Enlightenment Tea could assist cultivation, notably increasing efficiency. But for Lu Ye, its greatest use was reducing Dao force consumption when polishing Dao Bones.

For ordinary Enter the Path cultivators, this reduction might not be significant, but for him, it was quite considerable, as polishing Dao Bones required excessive Dao force consumption.

A year passed quickly.

Within the insect sac where Lu Ye resided, he closed his eyes in focus. As the power of the path continuously consumed the leaves of the Talent Tree, another Dao Bone shone with gold light, successfully polished.

His strength underwent massive changes during this year.

Nowadays, the Dao Bones within his body glimmer brightly, and the power he can wield has reached precisely 160 paths, increasing from 120 paths one year ago to the current level, an increase of a full 40 paths in power.

This enhancement goes unnoticed by the Dark Butterfly. In her perception, Lu Ye remains the same 100th Dao cultivator as before.

Perhaps she can sense Lu Ye's strength has improved, but she would never imagine such a terrifying enhancement.

160 paths of power, according to Lu Ye's own estimation, is already equivalent to an 8th-9th Order Dao Fusion strength, provided one does not employ Dao soldiers.

If Dao soldiers are utilized, a 7th Order Dao Fusion can possibly exhibit such strength.

Those Dao Fusion experts, upon reaching their own cultivation bottleneck, focus their energy on nurturing Dao soldiers, allowing their strength to improve even if cultivation no longer advances, a strength enhancement brought precisely by Dao soldiers.

In fact, Lu Ye has considered whether he should start nurturing Dao soldiers.

At his current level of strength, each increase in power of the path requires enormous consumption. Now, enhancing one power of the path requires consuming as much as eight to nine thousand Dao force.

Compared to enhancing himself, with the same Dao force expenditure, nurturing Dao soldiers undeniably provides greater improvement.

But after trying, he ultimately gave up.

His Dao force isn't cohesive enough, unsuitable for nurturing Dao soldiers.

Finally, he understood why only Dao Fusion experts possess their own Dao soldiers, which has a great connection to the nature of Dao force.

This year, the giant ants traded with the battle alliance reached six pieces, excluding the initial ones given to the Yan family.

The initial efficiency was swift since the locations Lu Ye pointed out were within human race battle alliance territory; each family just needed to dispatch personnel to collect the giant ants following Lu Ye's directions.

The last two pieces of giant ants were scattered within Giant Race territory, making them difficult to find, even if humans and the Giant Race are allies, searching for giant ants in their land still requires stealthy actions.

Six giant ants yielded over ten thousand Dao bones in trade.

Additionally, income obtained from the Dark Butterfly, along with the benefits Lu Ye derived from the Dark Butterfly during her cultivation, resulted in his vast growth.

With the first experience, the Dark Butterfly now trusts Lu Ye more, assured every time Lu Ye returns shortly after entering the relic.

She also inquired what Lu Ye does in the relic, but Lu Ye naturally didn't speak the truth, always making casual excuses, leaving the Dark Butterfly helpless.

As long as Lu Ye doesn't leave, everything else is negotiable.

She doesn't want to engage in another battle of wits with Lu Ye or resort to self-harm to force Lu back.

This year, Lu Ye's progress extended beyond just strength.

His understanding of the Path of Artifact Refining also greatly advanced, especially in the way of crafting Dao artifacts.

Jiu Ying isn't easy to deal with; every time it teaches Lu Ye these things, it intentionally withholds information.

Lu Ye couldn't push too hard, and had to patiently negotiate with it. If Jiu Ying truly wished to teach, how could it take a year?

Now, Lu Ye no longer can extract more information about artifact refining from Jiu Ying. He knows well that Jiu Ying hasn't imparted everything, but reaching this stage requires breaking ties with it to learn more.

Lu Ye understands the timing is close.

His exchanges with Jiu Ying don't solely focus on the Path of Artifact Refining; there's another matter, or rather a plan, one he's been perfecting—this year of stability was only for that moment!

"Dark Butterfly!" Lu Ye restrained his bright gaze and spoke slowly.

"Yes, Brother Ye." The Dark Butterfly responded immediately.

Lu Ye's performance this year has left her very satisfied, along with the benefits brought by the Talent Tree's power of incineration, making her warmer towards Lu Ye than before.

"Do you want to leave Banlan?"

Lu Ye's voice wasn't loud, but it exploded like thunder in the Dark Butterfly's ears, causing her to momentarily react blankly: "What did you say?"

The words sounded familiar. When she forced Lu Ye back and trapped him within the Illusory Realm, Lu Ye had asked her this.

Lu Ye chuckled softly: "Weren't you always curious why I kept running back to the relic?"

The Dark Butterfly's voice began to tremble: "Did you find a way to leave the relic behind?"

Lu Ye remained silent, unable to answer as the Dark Butterfly could detect if he was lying.

He maintained his silence, while the Dark Butterfly grew excited.

More than a year ago, the Dark Butterfly had realized Lu Ye knew how to leave Banlan, but such matters can't be forcibly demanded, so she had never brought it up.

Until today, when Lu Ye initiated the topic.

This led the Dark Butterfly to associate many things.

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