With a single slash, Lu Ye's right arm, which wielded the saber, swelled and turned sour, while the skin on his entire right arm beca as red as cooked shrimp shell, emitting billows of hot steam.
His entire right arm was sore and swollen, trembling uncontrollably.
Lu Ye opened and closed his fist many tis in succession before his right arm slowly began to recover.
Recalling the slash from just now, Lu Ye had a sense of sudden clarity as if parting the clouds to see the moonlight.
His cultivation had always relied on self-effort and fumbling, not knowing what was right and what was wrong. Insights from his third senior brother's saber skill cultivation had undoubtedly shown him a clear path.
A tea ti later, Lu Ye felt that his right arm had fully recovered, so he slashed out with the saber just as he had done before.
After four to six hours, Lu Ye switched the saber from his right hand to his left and continued practicing.
He executed each slash ticulously and without compromise.
At night, when Hua Ci returned from her external cultivation, she saw Lu Ye standing motionless in the courtyard, his arms hanging naturally at his sides, with the Boulder Mountain Saber stuck in the ground beside him.
As their eyes t, Lu Ye called out softly, "Save !"
Hua Ci took a closer look and saw that his arms were swollen to the size of his thighs, which shocked her.
She hurried forward to inspect and confird it was just an accumulation of blood Qi with no serious harm. She finally relaxed and asked Lu Ye what had happened. Upon learning that he ended up in such a miserable state from practicing saber skills, she couldn't help but feel helpless.
The swelling was due to the accumulation of too much blood Qi and not dissipating it in ti, so it wasn't a big problem. After Hua Ci patted, massaged, and applied Blood Moving Technique to reactivate his blood circulation, by the end of the night, Lu Ye's arms had returned to normal.
The following day was the sa!
However, having learned from his previous experience, Lu Ye was a bit more cautious while practicing saber skills, so the situation was sowhat better than the first day.
In the days that followed, Lu Ye practiced his saber skills during the day and had Hua Ci treat him at night. While his mastery of the saber skills grew by the day, the side effects of using the Blood Moving Technique gradually diminished.
One day, while Hua Ci was treating Lu Ye's arms, she suddenly asked, "Haven't you been paying attention to the Spirit Stream Ranking recently?"
"No, why?"
He used to follow the Spirit Stream Ranking closely when he was fighting for rankings, but ever since he beca the top of the Spirit Stream Ranking, he hadn't paid much attention to the list because there were few who could threaten his position at this stage.
"Take a look."
Lu Ye connected his mind to the Spirit Stream Ranking and scanned it from top to bottom. There were so changes in the ranking, with several familiar nas disappearing, apparently having been promoted to Cloud River.
As he continued looking downwards, he noticed sothing amiss after the seventieth place.
Among the thirty people ranked from forty to seventy, there were only a few from the Haotian Alliance; the rest were all from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.
This situation seed familiar!
The last ti Lu Ye fought for rankings, he had caused a similar situation because all the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators ranked ahead of him had been wiped out by him.
This made Lu Ye's gaze fix on the na ranked at thirty-eight.
Lan Ziyi!
This was a na he had never seen before, which affird that she must have entered the Spirit Stream Ranking not long ago.
"Do you see it now?" Hua Ci asked.
"When did she start fighting the ranking?"
"Yesterday!"
Lu Ye was surprised.
Reaching the thirty-eighth place on the Spirit Stream Ranking in one day—such speed was not inferior to his own past efforts, and perhaps even a bit faster.
"That person must be very strong; you should be careful, it's very likely she is targeting you," Hua Ci warned.
"Endless Island..."
Lu Ye pondered. It seed like he had so encounters with soone from this force.
If he rembered correctly, Luo Ji, whom he t in Sky-Splitting Gorge, was from Endless Island.
Truly, as a 1st grade sect, their foundation ran deep. First, there was Luo Ji whom he t before— a direct cultivator of a Heaven Rank technique—and now suddenly, there was Lan Ziyi...
Hua Ci said there was a high chance she was targeting him, and it wasn't without reason.
After nurous targeted attempts by Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, including ambushes by various forces, all attempts had fallen through, and now that he had hidden in Ten Thousand Poisons Forest, they were helpless against him. If they wanted to kill him, the only way was through a Spirit Stream Ranking challenge.
But the strength of Lu Ye, ranking first on the Spirit Stream Ranking, was not to be underestimated. He had almost always bested the strong cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge on the Spirit Stream Ranking, and not even the likes of Szi Guang were a match for him.
Perhaps only the deceased Yan Xing was qualified to defeat Lu Ye.
Now, at this crucial mont, a Lan Ziyi appeared out of nowhere from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge. Her way of fighting the ranking was exactly like Lu Ye's, challenging and defeating the Haotian Alliance strong cultivators one by one, leaving them powerless to retaliate. In just one day, she reached the thirty-eighth place...
In the midst of conversation between Lu Ye and Hua Ci, Lan Ziyi's ranking sprang up two places, securing the thirty-sixth spot, while the one who was originally thirty-sixth vanished without a trace, evidently dead.
Imitating Lu Ye's thod of climbing the ranking, and choosing such a delicate timing, no one would believe she wasn't targeting Lu Ye.
"Isn't it about seven or eight days until Heaven's Augury reward?" Hua Ci asked another question.
Having calculated, Lu Ye nodded, "Seven days!"
Twenty-three days had passed since the last baptism by Heaven's Augury.
With each baptism by Heaven's Augury, Lu Ye's strength increased by a notch, so if this Lan Ziyi was truly targeting him, then she would undoubtedly challenge Lu Ye before this ti, refusing to give him any chance of growing stronger.
Judging by the speed of her rise in the rankings, she would probably qualify to challenge Lu Ye the day after tomorrow.
Lu Ye was suddenly filled with anticipation.
Because as he looked across the entire Spirit Stream battlefield, he could find no one to test his own strength, it was easy for him to start a fight—just leave the Ten Thousand Poisons Forest, and as soon as his whereabouts were revealed, countless Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators would swarm him—but that would inevitably lead to a situation where many cultivators ganged up on him.
But single combat—that was difficult...
And the best way to gauge his own strength was to fight one-on-one with a strong opponent.
With such a rapid climb in the rankings, Lan Ziyi's strength certainly wouldn't be weak. Lu Ye had been practicing his saber skills extensively these recent days and had learned a lot. Yet practice was just practice. The outco of practice still had to be seen in actual combat. If Lan Ziyi was truly strong, she would be an excellent whetstone for him.
At this mont, Lan Ziyi—the rising new star—had also drawn nurous cultivators' attention from both camps.
Before Lu Ye's teoric rise, no one had ever killed so many opponents during the challenge for the Spirit Stream Ranking, and he did so by challenging them one by one. This approach undoubtedly aggravated the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side imnsely.
Yet this man progressed irresistibly, finally ascending to the top of the Spirit Stream Ranking in one fell swoop.
All the various actions taken by the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side against him ended in failure.
Righteous Blood Sect's Lu Yiye had beco a mountain weighing heavily on the heads of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, leaving them breathless.
But as of today, the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge had produced a talent akin to him!
Her rise through the rankings wasn't the slightest bit slower than Lu Yiye's—in fact, it was even faster, and quite a few strong cultivators from the Haotian Alliance had died by her hand.
Everyone was waiting, waiting for Lan Ziyi to qualify to challenge the leader of the Spirit Stream Ranking, waiting for the showdown between these two to determine who was the strongest in the current Spirit Stream Realm!
Outside in the courtyard of the wooden hut, Lu Ye was still practicing his saber skills.
A ssage suddenly arrived on his battlefield marking, Lu Ye looked down to check it and saw it was from Han Tiejun: "Be careful of that woman, she's very strong! And she's got a lot of tricks up her sleeve!"
Lu Ye understood the assessnt of 'very strong'; her rise through the rankings spoke for itself, and Lan Ziyi's strength must be considerable. Lu Ye had never underestimated her.
But what did he an by 'a lot of tricks'...?
Moreover, from Han Tiejun's words, it seed as though he had already had an encounter with Lan Ziyi?
Lu Ye checked the Spirit Stream Ranking and saw that it was indeed the case. Han Tiejun had been ranked third but now had fallen to fifth, replaced by Lan Ziyi who took the third spot.
"Are you okay?" Lu Ye replied.
"Severely injured!"
"Impressive!"
"I'm the one who's severely injured!"
"..."
"Just be careful with that woman. She might not be weaker than you. I wasn't able to push her to reveal all her strength. From beginning to end, I felt as if she was treating the fight with as so kind of ga."
"Understood."
After ending the conversation with Han Tiejun, Lu Ye gave it so thought and sent a ssage to Hua Ci, then stopped practicing his saber skills.
Although after these days of practice, he wouldn't end up with swollen arms as on the first day, this kind of practice was still very draining on his stamina.
Not knowing when Lan Ziyi would co to challenge him, he needed to maintain his condition.
Hua Ci quickly returned and helped him treat his arms.
Lu Ye went back to the third floor, sat down with his legs crossed, swallowed a few elixir pills, then placed the Boulder Mountain Saber on his knees and started breathing slowly and deeply.
Lan Ziyi had surged to the third place in the Spirit Stream Ranking, and the much-anticipated battle was about to begin. At this mont, both Haotian Alliance cultivators and Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators were paying close attention to the Spirit Stream Ranking, eager to know which of the strongest cultivators from their own camp had the upper hand.
The battle between Lu Ye and Lan Ziyi had not yet begun, but various pieces of information about it were already flying everywhere outside.
The Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side was clamoring that Lu Yiye had already received a baptism by Heaven's Augury, making the upcoming battle unfair for Lan Ziyi.
The Haotian Alliance imdiately retaliated, saying that Lan Ziyi was at 9th Heaven cultivation while Lu Ye was only at 8th Heaven—indeed, that was unfair...
As this argunt spread, the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge side was suddenly silenced.
They realized a terrifying fact: Lu Yiye ... was still at 8th Heaven cultivation.
Hence, even if he lost this battle, it could not prove Lan Ziyi was the strongest in the Spirit Stream Realm, because Lu Yiye could still advance to 9th Heaven and co back for another round.
Conversely, if Lan Ziyi lost, she would have truly lost.
If she couldn't defeat an 8th Heaven while being at 9th Heaven, then would she still be a match for Lu Yiye once he advanced to 9th Heaven?
Therefore, there was only one opportunity—if Lan Ziyi couldn't ascend to the top of the Spirit Stream Ranking this ti, she would likely forever be overshadowed by Lu Yiye.
While the outside world buzzed with various ssages, suddenly, in the wooden hut, Lu Ye's eyes snapped open.
His battlefield marking stirred again. His mind delved in to check.
The challenge for the Spirit Stream Ranking had arrived!
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