Chapter 257: Kindred Spirit

A blood-red streak tore across the sky.

Just skimming past Heavenwaste Sect was enough to send every figure within into a frenzy—their eyes turned blood-red.

Every single person—even the spiritual beasts within ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the sect—rushed out in a mad chase after Lu Ye.

There were many pursuers already; adding another sect’s worth didn’t make a difference.

Lu Ye zipped past five different sects in succession, drawing a massive loop through the region before circling right back to Heavenwaste Sect.

He dove into the sect’s grand array. Lu Ye was quite familiar with it—the Heavenwaste Nine Extremes Array, which combined attack, defense, entrapment, and illusion.

The moment he entered, he began altering the array.

He didn’t need to change much—just enough that the original members of Heavenwaste Sect would no longer be able to enter easily.

Four incarnations of Lu Ye moved simultaneously.

Unfortunately, for his sixth life, he only had Ghostwood Vine and Embersoil Essence in hand. His original plan was to form the sixth life upon breaking into the Sky-Piercing Realm.

But before he could find the third treasure—Wind-Soul Sand—he’d already rushed off in pursuit of Anli.

No matter. The Fourth Heaven was vast. Wind-Soul Sand had to exist somewhere.

He just didn’t know where.

At that moment, a figure appeared outside Heavenwaste Sect. Without hesitation, they charged into the array.

The Heavenwaste Nine Extremes Array instantly exploded with unprecedented light. Within the formation, killing intent flooded every inch of space.

Nine streams of terrifying light tangled together, twisting and crushing as they slammed toward the intruder.

A second powerhouse appeared.

Then a third.

Each of them plunged into the array without hesitation.

And one after another, they fell.

Countless spirit stones vaporized. The array’s cores exploded under the strain.

The formation was being pushed to its absolute limit—it was on the verge of total collapse.

But so what?

It wasn’t Lu Ye’s formation.

Let it shatter—Heavenwaste Sect could deal with the consequences.

Each of Lu Ye’s incarnations had a clear role. The Human Emperor Banner was placed inside the array to harvest souls the instant a powerhouse died.

The souls were then used to plunder their storage rings. With so many souls at his disposal, Lu Ye didn’t care about burning through them.

More and more enemies kept flooding in.

Explosions of raw power detonated endlessly.

Even the original creator of the Heavenwaste Nine Extremes Array probably never imagined it would one day endure this many high-level cultivators attacking it at once. What kind of catastrophic mistake would it take to trigger this level of carnage?

The array’s cores shattered one after another.

Lu Ye replaced them immediately.

One of his bodies ransacked Heavenwaste Sect clean while the others fought.

Eventually, the entire formation began to collapse.

Lu Ye recalled his incarnations, grabbed the Human Emperor Banner, downed a huge mouthful of pills, and vanished again.

Boom!

So many powerhouses had gathered that there was barely room to move—it was starting to feel like a zombie apocalypse.

Another desperate chase began.

Lu Ye arrived at a new sect. But its members were already hollowed out—driven insane by the scent of his Dao and now entirely fixated on hunting him down.

But Lu Ye hadn’t chosen these sects at random.

When he had appeared at the Ascension Pool, he’d briefly scanned the crowd of attackers. Some of them he recognized—from his previous life.

Once, they had been friends.

Now? They chased him like rabid dogs.

After losing his Dao of Protection, not a single person remained on his side.

But Lu Ye didn’t feel lonely.

Because cultivation is loneliness itself.

Only during his time at Grand Dao Sect had he had the chance to form friendships. And he had chosen to walk away from them.

What he had now was enough.

He had the System, his Sword, the Tree, the Banner, his Dao, and his goal.

Unlike in his past life, when he had suffered from love-starved weakness, this life’s Lu Ye only needed a little—and he was satisfied.

The Eternal Sect’s Ancient Array activated!

Lu Ye was even more familiar with this one.

Others, he had helped refine.

But this array? He had personally broken it.

The Eternal Sect had rebuilt it over and over—and he had broken it over and over, until finally, the entire sect had been wiped from the heavens.

That’s why he could now unleash every ounce of the array’s power.

Another slaughter unfolded.

Sect after sect saw their soul-lamps go dark.

The Fourth Heaven was divided into four regions: Eastern Wilderness, Western Barrens, Northern Chill, and Southern Wilds.

Lu Ye was currently operating at the border between Eastern Wilderness and Northern Chill.

He had been on the run for quite some time.

And yet—there was still no sign of him being killed.

Major powers across the realm were beginning to feel deeply conflicted.

They just couldn’t understand it—how could Lu Ye, who had only just ascended from the Third Heaven, be this hard to kill?

Did the Great Sage of the Ninth Heaven divide the heavens into nine layers just to prepare a path for this guy?

A group of Heaven-Earth Realm titans were chasing a Sky-Piercing Realm ant.

And they couldn't kill him.

Keep chasing? They were just feeding him more victims—one by one, their own were dying to the arrays.

Stop chasing? He was already this strong after just ascending—if given time, the entire Fourth Heaven might fall into his hands.

And this guy—how was he maintaining that Blood Evacuation Technique for so long?

In truth, Lu Ye was already near his limit.

The constant use of Heavenly Demon Blood Evacuation had left his face pale as a ghost.

Even with blood-pills, the technique consumed not just blood essence, but life-force.

That life-force—your vital essence, your mind and spirit, your soul all merged—was nearly impossible to replenish quickly.

No matter how many pills you swallowed, you still needed time.

Lu Ye estimated he could only run for one more day. Then the technique would collapse.

No big deal.

Worst-case scenario? He dies again.

Then resurrect and run some more!

Unless he killed off every single one of his pursuers—or escaped the Fourth Heaven altogether—Lu Ye knew he would never find peace in cultivation.

But he refused to back down.

If he had to slaughter every cultivator in the Fourth Heaven to do it, so be it. After that, he’d move on and purge the demonic and wicked cultivators from the outer realm.

Then the Fourth Heaven would finally be equal for all.

All cultivators began as the weak.

So if this generation’s powerhouses died, another would rise in a few decades or centuries.

No one would care who these dead titans had been.

People would only remember that there had been a savage madman in the Fourth Heaven—a man who slaughtered so many elites while hiding inside the Ancient Eternal Array—and still didn’t fall.

Lu Ye continued to recover his strength.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen! Lu Ye—please stop, stop! I, this humble Daoist, will mediate! There is no mortal blood feud here—there's no need to keep killing!”

A robed elder flew out, keeping a safe distance, and shouted toward Lu Ye.

Lu Ye glanced over from afar.

Eh?

That aura... it felt awfully familiar!

Wait a second—it’s him!!!

Daoist Shouren!

Lu Ye knew him well. No—more than well. He knew him very well.

Because they walked the same path.

Daoist Shouren also cultivated the Dao of Protection...

Shouren looked at the Ancient Eternal Array—now a living meat grinder—devouring life endlessly, and his face was full of sorrow and urgency.

These were the pillars of the Fourth Heaven.

Now so many of them were dying here... If a true calamity struck in the future, the Fourth Heaven would be doomed!

They were all humans, weren’t they?

How did it come to this? How could it have come to this...?