Sage of Humanity

Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, Liu Quan courteously escorted Lu Ye to the door, as most cultivators from the outer circles are quite impoverished, except for those disciples from big sects.

Therefore, a transaction involving several dozen spirit stones was not easy to come across, and since Lu Ye was quite straightforward in nature, Liu Quan naturally wanted to get to know him better for future business opportunities.

Watching Lu Ye's figure disappear, Liu Quan turned around only to be greeted by a fragrant breeze, with someone standing behind him.

"You scared me!" Liu Quan said with annoyance, "Why are you standing behind me instead of attending to the guests?"

The person behind him whined in a delicate voice, "I missed you."

Liu Quan, with a guilty conscience, glanced left and right to make sure no one was paying attention to this side before he lowered his voice and said, "I'll come to find you after I'm off work tonight."

"Okay..." The woman responded with a smile.

As if nothing had happened, Liu Quan walked back to the main hall to greet other customers, while the woman stood there, quietly watching the direction in which Lu Ye had left, her eyes thoughtful.

When night fell, the two shared an intimate embrace. After their lovemaking, they chatted casually. The topic was subtly steered by the woman towards the day's transaction. Liu Quan felt somewhat sleepy and responded sporadically, soon falling into a deep slumber.

The woman lay in his arms but was having trouble falling asleep.

If she wasn't mistaken, that customer from the day was the same person she had served half a month ago, who had sold a lot of ores and bought some elixir pills before leaving.

She had not expected that in just half a month, he would return to sell ores again.

Seeing that customer's appearance, he was undoubtedly an independent cultivator. It was naturally intriguing that an independent cultivator, alone and without support, could amass a wealth of several dozen spirit stones in such a short time.

Working at Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union like her, even counting the extra income, she would at most earn twelve or thirteen spirit stones per month. This reminded her of her days as an independent cultivator. By comparison, she couldn't help feeling a bit sour and let her thoughts wander for a long while before feeling drowsy, but she couldn't sleep soundly.

Meanwhile, in the cave at Qingyun Mountain, Lu Ye was cultivating.

After completing his transaction at Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union earlier that day, he had bought a lot of food with the remaining spirit stones and hurried back without a pause, just making it back here before nightfall.

With enough elixir pills at hand, he immediately began his medicinal cultivation.

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Pill by pill, the spirit force in the 15th orifice gradually filled up, moving onto the assault on the 16th orifice.

...

Twelve days later, inside the cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged, calm and focused.

Today was a big day; if all went well, he would advance to Spirit Stream Level 2.

Since returning twelve days ago, he had continuously consumed over thirty Spirit-Nurturing Pills and finally opened the 18th orifice, also bringing the spirit force of the 18th orifice to full capacity.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Recalling the path of cultivation from the Golden Cicada Carefree Method, Lu Ye activated his own spirit force, starting from the 10th orifice, sequentially passing through the 11th, 12th... until the 18th orifice.

When he had achieved Spirit Stream Level 1, he had done this before, so now he was familiar with the process and encountered no difficulties.

The spirit force smoothly passed through the 9 major spiritual orifices, flowing gently like a stream. With Lu Ye's actions, the spirit force circulating through these 9 major spiritual orifices sped up continuously, moving in a circular cycle.

Until a certain limit, Lu Ye only felt a surge throughout his body as the spirit force flowing in his 10th to 18th orifices began to circulate on its own.

Spirit Stream Level 2 had been achieved!

Having experienced this once already, Lu Ye did not feel much excitement but merely the natural progression of events.

He was no longer the cultivator at the 3rd orifice who had been cast away to the Spirit Stream battlefield over two months ago.

If reaching Spirit Stream Level 1 had given him the qualifications to survive in the outer circle of the battlefield, then at Level 2, he was now qualified to travel through it. Of course, there was still a gap compared to cultivators with higher cultivation, but Lu Ye was already very satisfied.

Compared to achieving Spirit Stream Level 1, his promotion to Level 2 took even less time. It had taken him roughly forty days to advance from having opened the 3rd orifice to the Spirit Stream Realm, but it took less than a month to move from Level 1 to Level 2.

This was mainly because he had an ample supply of cultivation resources. Even so, this pace of cultivation was terrifying.

You must know that cultivators in the early stages of their cultivation need about ten days to open each orifice, primarily because they cultivate by absorbing nature's spiritual energy. With their cultivation not being high enough, the efficiency of the absorption is low, so naturally, the pace of cultivation isn't fast.

This situation would improve slightly only after reaching Spirit Stream Level 4.

In other words, for a typical cultivator at the beginning of their cultivation journey, advancing one level every three months was normal. But for Lu Ye, averaging one level a month, this was the joy of pill-assisted cultivation.

At Level 1, Lu Ye only had a Minor Circumambulation cycle of spirit force from his Root Spiritual Orifice up to his 9th orifice. However, after reaching Level 2, he now had another cycle that started at the 10th orifice and ended at the 18th orifice, giving him two spirit force circulation systems within his body.

Consequently, he could mobilize more spirit force in a short period, and naturally, the destructive power of his spirit force was stronger.

Upon reaching Level 3, he would have three Minor Circumambulation cycles, and so on. A cultivator at Spirit Stream Level 9 would have nine such circulation systems within their body.

There were still thirty Spirit-Nurturing Pills left. Although Lu Ye wanted to continue his cultivation, he also knew the principle that haste makes waste.

First, he ate something, then stepped out of his mountain retreat to find a mountain spring for a bath and changed into a clean set of clothes. Afterward, amidst the trickling sounds of the spring water, he took out the Golden Cicada Carefree Method to study.

Next, he needed to work towards reaching Spirit Stream Level 3. He had to familiarize himself with the positions of the spiritual orifices after the 18th, which would facilitate his subsequent cultivation.

The wilderness was serene, with occasional sounds of birds and insects. Mottled sunlight filtered through the leafy canopy, illuminating the young man's profile like a scene from a painting.

"What are you sneaking around for?" Lu Ye called out without even lifting his head.

From behind a large tree, a small head peeked out. With her disheveled appearance, she would certainly startle anyone unaware of the situation.

Yiyi glanced at the manual in Lu Ye's hands, and when she saw that it was a low-level Cultivation Technique, she turned up her nose in disdain.

"Is there something you want?" Lu Ye suppressed the urge to punch her and asked, tilting his head.

"When are you leaving?" Yiyi asked.

Although Lu Ye hadn't gone out hunting again during this time, it was still her and Big Tiger's territory. How could they allow others to snore next to their couch? If it weren't for her wariness of the Spirit Talisman in Lu Ye's hand, she and Big Tiger would have worked together to drive Lu Ye away a long time ago. However, having suffered a loss at Lu Ye's hand before, Yiyi didn't dare act rashly.

Moreover, Yiyi could tell that in just two months, Lu Ye had grown much stronger.

Lu Ye closed the book, stood up, and stretched, "Tired, I'm going back to sleep!"

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Yiyi said angrily. But she got no response and could only grit her teeth and curse, "You rogue, you disgusting thing! You're really making me mad, wahhh..." She scratched and clawed at a nearby tree, causing bark and splinters to fly.