Sage of Humanity

It cannot be denied, Lan Ziyi was strong.

Her strength, just like Lu Ye's, surpassed what one would expect from the Spirit Stream Realm. Perhaps only the three scourges on the Spirit Stream Ranking from a few months ago could claim the right to surpass them, but those three had settled in the Spirit Stream Realm level for more than a decade, a testament to the time which had granted them such formidable strength.

Their situations were not the same as Lu Ye's and Lan Ziyi's.

Powerful people all had their secrets, and Lan Ziyi was no exception.

Her secret was something no one could possibly know. Although she was only at the Spirit Stream Realm in her cultivation, her vision far exceeded that realm, and the various techniques she mastered were certainly not within the reach of an ordinary Spirit Stream cultivator.

Lifting her thumb, she gently wiped the corner of her mouth, looked down, and saw that, indeed, she was bleeding…

She was somewhat puzzled. How could there be someone in this world within the Spirit Stream Realm capable of injuring her?

The faint smile that had lingered at the corner of her mouth faded, her expression turning serious. She lifted her greatsword, grasping the hilt with both hands, and held it upright in front of her.

In an instant, the charming woman gave off an impression of an impenetrable fortress, as though, with her standing there, no attack could ever bring her down.

Naturally, Lu Ye wouldn't give her any time to catch her breath. He forcefully pushed off the ground, creating two pits where he had stood, leaving afterimages as he lunged towards Lan Ziyi.

Before he could get close, Lu Ye saw the woman suddenly split her hands, the greatsword that had been held upright in front of her turned into two longswords in a blink!

The greatsword was actually made up of two combined longswords.

Lu Ye was surprised. This woman really had a lot of tricks, but this didn't slow down his advance or his determination to kill her.

The distance between them closed rapidly.

Lan Ziyi suddenly struck a strange pose, pointing one sword towards the heavens and the other towards the earth. She spun her lithe, tall figure slightly and slashed out with one sword.

It met Lu Ye's strike head-on.

With a clang, sparks flew, and Lu Ye's rushing momentum was halted; however, the force transmitted through the Spiritual Artifact made Lu Ye realize something—the power contained in the opponent's sword had weakened.

Because of this collision, he clearly had the upper hand.

He sensed something was amiss and did not follow through with his attack. Instead, he took a step back.

As he stepped back, Lan Ziyi's figure spun again, and the other longsword came crashing down.

Clang…

Lu Ye took another step back.

Clang clang clang…

With each sound, Lu Ye stepped back again.

When wielding the greatsword, Lan Ziyi's power was extremely fierce, although her attacks were somewhat clumsy.

Now that the greatsword had become two swords, her power seemed somewhat restrained, but the nimbleness and speed of her attacks were incomparable to before.

With two different sword forms, Lan Ziyi's style of combat was drastically different. Shockingly, she could perfectly control and switch between these two styles with ease!

Being tall naturally, the longswords in her hands were half a foot longer than ordinary swords. As she spun like a top, with her at the center, everything within several meters became her attack range.

The sword light swept through, cutting through the Void, and carried deadly Sharpness with it.

Lu Ye suddenly thought of a scenario: If this woman were surrounded by a large number of enemies, relying on this technique, she could probably kill all enemies encircling her cleanly.

Where she passed now was like unleashing a storm of death.

Initially, Lu Ye managed to block each of her strikes, but as he kept retreating, her spinning speed increased, and the frequency of her attacks grew higher. After only a dozen or so steps back, Lu Ye found it hard to keep up with her rhythm. Often, out of five swords she swung, he could only block four, and one would inevitably strike him.

Fortunately, he still had Defense Spirit Runes to activate, but even with the Defense Spirit Runes, he could only defend passively!

Another dozen steps back, and Lan Ziyi's attack speed further increased. The ringing sounds of their weapons clashing were incessant, filling his ears without end.

Occasionally accompanied by the shattering light of Defense Spirit Runes and scenes of blood spraying.

In just a few breaths, Lu Ye's body had accumulated over a dozen wounds, varying in depth.

He knew he couldn't keep retreating. The combat field was only so large, and once he reached the edge, there would be nowhere left to go. When the storm of death swept through, if he couldn't withstand it, he would likely be diced into pieces in an instant.

Should he use Single Flash? He had already used it once, and even with the Double-Sharpness Spirit Runes enhancing Single Flash, it hadn't broken through her layer of protection.

Lu Ye still didn't understand how she had blocked that strike, nor what that layer of protection was.

Without understanding this first, it would be unwise to recklessly use Single Flash.

As he contemplated, spirit light burst forth from the Boulder Mountain Saber in Lu Ye's hand, and his retreating figure suddenly stopped. He lunged forward again toward Lan Ziyi.

Blood splattered, and in that instant, the newly formed Defense Spirit Runes shattered, adding several wounds to Lu Ye's body as his flesh turned over.

However, Lu Ye's saber also, taking advantage of the momentum, slashed onto Lan Ziyi's body. The moment the longsword became one with him, Lu Ye's eyes, with the aid of the Insight Spirit Runes, were more divine than ever.

That invisible protective layer appeared again, blocking the strike.

But after blocking this strike, the protection disappeared without a trace, eerily elusive. Even with the aid of the Insight Spirit Runes in his eyes, Lu Ye could not see clearly what the protection really was.

At the cost of sustaining a slash, the strike forced Lan Ziyi to retreat; the woman floated back more than ten feet, standing still, with one longsword pointing at Lu Ye and the other behind her.

Compared to Lu Ye's disarray, Lan Ziyi was undoubtedly more composed at this moment. At least she was without injuries. In contrast, Lu Ye's clothes were somewhat tattered, his whole body enveloped in a thick mist of blood Qi.

Since challenging the Spirit Stream Ranking, Lu Ye had never been in such a dire state.

The woman before him was definitely the strongest he had encountered in the Spirit Stream Realm.

Lan Ziyi finally realized something was amiss; despite the many wounds Lu Ye had suffered, not a single drop of fresh blood came out. Moreover, the more severe his injuries, the thicker the blood mist that enshrouded his body became.

Lan Ziyi cocked her head, a look of puzzlement on her face. The tall and charming woman struck a somewhat silly and cute pose.

In her eyes, Lu Ye at this moment resembled an injured ferocious beast, with its innate fierceness fully aroused.

Two figures flashed simultaneously on the spot; in the next instant, where there was nothing before, both figures appeared, saber and sword colliding...

Lan Ziyi let out a surprised yelp because the power Lu Ye displayed this time was much greater than before, and his speed was also much faster! Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire

The Bloodstain Spirit Runes were taking effect!

In the previous exchange, Lu Ye had been cut to a point where he started to doubt his life, even though he had forged the Bloodstain Spirit Runes, they took effect slowly and did not immediately yield results.

By now, the more blood Lu Ye had shed, the greater the enhancement the Bloodstain Spirit Runes could bring him.

The blood mist that enveloped his body was the manifestation of the Bloodstain Spirit Runes.

The Boulder Mountain Saber was almost danced into a whirl of sword light, while Lan Ziyi's twin swords were indescribably fast. At this moment, in terms of power, Lu Ye undoubtedly held the absolute advantage, for with every collision, the longswords were forced backward.

But in terms of speed, even with the boost from the Bloodstain Spirit Runes, Lu Ye was still not as fast as Lan Ziyi.

The opponent's twin swords stabbed, slashed, and cut from all sorts of unimaginable angles, continually adding to the wounds on Lu Ye's body.

The Boulder Mountain Saber also constantly struck the opponent's body, but each time Lan Ziyi's body would produce that invisible protection, blocking his attack.

Gradually, Lu Ye understood.

Though he didn't know how that protection formed, he realized it wasn't invincible. With each slash he delivered, there were signs the protection weakened. However, his attacks weren't enough to destroy that layer of defense, so up until now, he hadn't truly harmed Lan Ziyi.

Without breaking that defense, Lan Ziyi would remain undefeatable!

As if sensing Lu Ye's intent, Lan Ziyi suddenly spoke amidst the combat, "It's a spirit robe; as long as my spirit force isn't exhausted, the spirit robe will always exist. If you want to defeat me, you need to drain my spirit force entirely."

With her 9th Heaven cultivation, Lan Ziyi naturally had more spirit force stored than Lu Ye, and in such an intense battle, Lu Ye was the one consuming more spirit force.

Before Lu Ye's spirit force was completely exhausted, it was impossible for Lan Ziyi's to run out.

Lu Ye didn't believe that the opponent suddenly sharing this information with him was out of kindness. Revealing one's cards to the enemy in a life-and-death struggle was undoubtedly a psychological tactic.

By clearly stating to him that as long as her spirit force lasted, the spirit robe could not be broken, it was apparent that she aimed to beat down Lu Ye's confidence. If another cultivator heard these words, they would probably immediately think of retreating, and once that thought emerged, death wouldn't be far off.

The one thing Lu Ye could be sure of was that Lan Ziyi wasn't lying; this so-called spirit robe was indeed closely related to her spirit force.

This reminded him of the last fight he had at Golden Light Peak.

It was a battle against a Saintess of the Sacred Fire Order who used a Spiritual Artifact to create a layer of protection. It was also the kind that couldn't be broken as long as spirit force remained. However, it proved one thing—there was no defense that couldn't be broken, only attacks that were not fierce enough!

To break this type of defense, one had to use a method that exceeds its defensive capabilities.

Did he have such a method?

Single Flash had already been used, but even with the Double-Sharpness Spirit Runes enhancing it, it couldn't break through the opponent's protection.

It seemed, then, that he had no choice but to use another type of saber skills!

In these days, he had benefited from observing his third senior brother's saber skills cultivation insights; and it wasn't just Man-Sword Synthesis and the Blood Moving Technique that he had learned.

In those insights was a simple technique of saber skills that Lu Ye had tried while cultivating Single Flash with the help of the Blood Moving Technique and had found it very easy to master.

This saber skill technique could be used in conjunction with Single Flash...

Lu Ye had never tried it; he didn't know if, with his current strength, he could perform it, but this was his last hope. If he couldn't execute it, he would most likely have to call upon Yiyi and Amber to gang up and mob Lan Ziyi.

This was a challenge for the Spirit Stream Ranking, and the position of number one on the list affected the pride of two major camps; this was not a place for talking about righteousness.