Humanity's Great Sage

Chapter 476: The True Nucleus of Life

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In the Myriad Poison Forest, a bored Hua Ci was counting the Omnipoison Pills she had created in her room, “Eight, nine, ten…”

Hua Ci’s cultivation method was different from everyone else’s. Ever since she accepted the inheritance in full, she grew her strength by consuming and refining poison. That was why she stayed at the Myriad Poison Forest. The poisonous fog here was basically an all-you-can-eat buffet, not to mention the countless poisonous flora and fauna that lived in these lands.

However, her cultivation couldn’t go higher after reaching Heaven Nine, and ascending to the Cloud River Realm now meant she would miss out on the Myriad Poison Forest permanently unless she was willing to pay the Contribution Points to re-enter the Spirit Creek Battlefield. That was why she had no choice but to reduce her cultivation level by creating Omnipoison Pills.

Lu Ye thought that the Omnipoison Pill was just a trump card Hua Ci created to attack her enemies, but in reality it was the culmination of her cultivation. When she was done with the Myriad Poison Forest, and she was ready to ascend to the Cloud River Realm, she could simply reabsorb the Omnipoison Pills and convert them back into her cultivation.

Every time Hua Ci finished creating an Omnipoison Pill, her cultivation level would drop to Heaven Eight. This was why the orb was so potent as to affect even a Cloud River Realm cultivator.

The good news was that they were all Cloud River Realm cultivators. If they were at the Spirit Creek Realm, then they would probably perish within seconds after being enveloped by the fog.

Of all the cultivators present, Lu Ye was the only one who was completely immune to the poison. When he realized that the footsteps behind him had grown heavy and discombobulated, he abruptly spun around and charged toward the noise.

The four Black Tortoise Sect cultivators had pushed him so hard that all he could do was run. Now, it was finally time to fight back.

He only ran a couple of steps when a pair of scarlet lights abruptly emerged from the fog. Without hesitation, Lu Ye wreathed his saber in flames and swung it where he thought the enemy’s neck was.

The attack was empowered by two Sharp Edges, and his vitality was joined with Amber’s. As a result, the attack was even faster and stronger than normal. There was a dull thud and a splashing sound when the attack connected. The scarlet light residing in the cultivator’s pupils faded completely before it even hit the ground.

As it turned out, the poison was incredibly effective against the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators. They were mindless creatures who could only act according to their instinct in the first place, and the poison had slowed their reaction speed to a crawl. As a result, the cultivator Lu Ye had just killed was unable to respond to the attack in time.

Not one to give up his momentum after seizing it, Lu Ye ran right into the middle of the enemy group, dodged all of their attacks, and beheaded yet another powerful foe. The headless corpse instantly lost all of its energy and collapsed limply on the floor.

Lu Ye was about to extend his kill streak by one more when a heavy object collided into his side and pushed him at least thirty meters away from his original position.

Kitty Shen’s battlefield was right next to Lu Ye’s, and she was currently wrapping her enemies with her ribbon and tossing them left and right. That was what had collided into Lu Ye earlier; an enemy cultivator she had tossed away with her ribbon.

Kitty Shen’s problem was that she was so affected by the poison that she was incapable of unleashing even half of her normal strength. Moreover, her Spirit Artifact was more suited for binding an enemy than killing them. As a result, she was unable to kill her attackers even though the poison affected them more than it affected her.

It was at this moment she saw that she had accidentally hit Lu Ye with her attack. This gave her an idea, however. She flicked her wrist and caught an enemy cultivator with her ribbon instantly. Then, she tossed him in Lu Ye’s direction.

Lu Ye had just caught himself when he saw yet another body flying toward him. Realizing Kitty Shen’s plan, he immediately brought down his saber and successfully decapitated the enemy.

“Let’s do this!” Lu Ye yelled while breaking into a run.

Although they hadn’t verbally communicated their plan, they knew exactly what the other person was thinking almost as if their minds were connected. Kitty Shen tossed her ribbon at an enemy cultivator in Lu Ye’s path and immobilized him completely, allowing the combat cultivator to decapitate with insulting ease. Without pause, he dashed past Kitty Shen and blocked an incoming attack that was directed at her head.

The two cultivators passed each other again and again as they worked together to annihilate the attackers around them. From time to time, Kitty Shen would deliver a bound attacker right in front of Lu Ye like a gift.

A moment later, Lu Ye stopped beside Kitty Shen and panted a little. The woman’s complexion was unnaturally green, but her eyes were filled with deep relief as well. Just a moment ago, it looked like they would be overwhelmed by their attackers. Now, all their enemies were dead. There was no time to rest though. Together, they rushed toward the next closest battlefield.

The next battlefield belonged to their surviving body-tempering cultivator. The last time Lu Ye saw him, he was fending off four cultivators by himself. The only reason he was still alive was because he was a powerful Seventh-Order cultivator. Right now, he was doing his best to block the enemy’s frenzied assault with his Shield Spirit Artifact.

His skin and his aura were eerily green just like Kitty Shen, but unlike her he was a durable body-tempering cultivator with a massive reservoir of vitality in his body. That was why his symptoms were a lot milder. Not only that, the headless body lying beside his feet suggested that he had taken out one of the attackers on his own. Even if Lu Ye and Kitty Shen hadn’t come to his aid, he probably could’ve held out long enough to kill them all.

Ribbon and saber danced through the air as Lu Ye and Kitty Shen hit the attackers from behind. The body-tempering cultivator did not hesitate to launch his counter attack as well.

A moment later, the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators lay dead at their feet. Without pause, the trio moved to the next battlefield…

Like a snowball that grew bigger and bigger as it rolled down a snowy hill, the group kept growing in size, and their enemies kept falling like flies. Finally, the scattered group was joined once more.

Everyone looked like shit, and not just because the poison turned their auras and their skin as green as a plant. Not even the strongest among them, the Great Elder and Xia Qianqian, were able to avoid taking some injuries.

Not only that, their symptoms were slowly but surely worsening over time. Although they had consumed an antidote, the poisonous mist was thinning at an excruciatingly slow rate because the insectoid nest was sealed. This meant that the poisonous mist had nowhere to go except into their bodies. This was why everyone—even their Ninth-Order cultivators—were having trouble resisting the poison.

That said, the poisonous mist had cleared up enough that Xia Qianqian noticed something unusual. Everyone’s aura and skin was as green as a plant because of the poison, but not Lu Ye. Not only did the young man look perfectly fine, even Amber was untouched by the poison, though that was because Lu Ye had protected it with his Spiritual Power this whole time.

Xia Qianqian had been wondering who was the culprit behind the poisonous mist since it was conjured. At the beginning, she thought that it was caused by the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators or the insectoids. It wasn’t until she noticed that the poisonous mist was affecting her attackers as well that she realized she was mistaken.

Now that she saw that Lu Ye was completely untouched by the poison, she had a feeling she knew exactly who the culprit was. It made sense that the one person who wasn’t affected by the poison would be the poisoner himself, no?

Technically speaking, Xia Qianqian should berate Lu Ye for his decision because it was a monstrous trump card that affected everyone except the poisoner himself. However, she could not deny that it was the right choice. Considering the earlier situation, they would’ve died one by one if nothing had changed. Sure, they weren’t in the best condition right now, but they weren’t going to drop dead in the short term either. Assuming that they survived this crisis, they would eventually recover from this ordeal.

Meanwhile, Zhou Hai and Pang Dahai were still fighting against Niu Meng, the sect master of the Black Tortoise Sect. The situation didn’t look good though. One of Pang Dahai’s arms was broken, and one of Zhou Hai’s legs was bent in an unnatural manner. Even worse, Niu Meng looked as fresh as ever even though he was taking multiple hits by the second.

The sect master was expressionless, but his violent, cruel eyes told a different story. His attacks were simple and practically monotonous, but there was so much force behind them that Zhou Hai and Pang Dahai felt like death was breathing down their necks the whole time.

Technically speaking, they should be overwhelming Niu Meng because their cultivation levels were equal, and they outnumbered the sect master two-to-one. He was also fighting mindlessly because he was being controlled by a parasite. In reality, the duo was just barely keeping Niu Meng at bay. Something clearly wasn’t right about this.

What concerned Lu Ye even more was the fact that Niu Meng looked completely unharmed. He was sure Niu Meng had taken a wound from Zhou Hai when he made his first move, so why…?

Lu Ye quickly figured out the answer. Zhou Hai was aiming at Niu Meng’s arm and successfully scored a hit that penetrated all the way to the bone, but the wound had wriggled and healed in just a matter of seconds!

It was such a stunning sight that no one could say a thing for a couple of seconds. It should not be possible for anyone at the Cloud River Realm level to recover so quickly, and yet there was no denying the reality that happened right before their eyes.

“His life energy…” Xia Qianqian suddenly blurted out in realization, “He’s the core of this nest! The true Nucleus of Life!”

Every insectoid nest contained a core. The easiest way to destroy a nest was to destroy the core not just because it was where most of the nest’s life energy was concentrated, but also because it held the Nucleus of Life. So long as the core remained, the nest could theoretically produce an infinite amount of insectoids. Only by destroying the core could they wither the nest and destroy its ability to produce insectoids.

Usually, the centermost flesh sac in the nest was the core. Since the nest hadn’t withered even though Niu Meng had ripped open the flesh sac and stepped into the open, not to mention that he was overflowing with an impossible amount of life energy, it could only mean that he was the true core of the nest.

Xia Qianqian’s outburst hit everyone like a thunderbolt. The reason Niu Meng was overflowing with life energy was because he was the true core of the nest. No wonder the sect master had regenerated from his wounds instantly.

The revelation wasn’t something to be happy about, however. It meant that the only way to destroy the insectoid nest was to kill Niu Meng. They couldn’t even escape because the nest was completely sealed. However, how could they kill an enemy that could regenerate from his wounds instantly? Besides decapitating the sect master, the only other way they could defeat him was to grind down his life energy bit by bit.

There was a silver lining though. Niu Meng was just as green as the rest of them, meaning that he was poisoned as well. The fact that he felt a lot weaker than he was at the beginning of the fight was proof of that.

They were all affected by the poison, but it looked like Niu Meng was affected harder than most.

“I’m going in!” The Seventh Order body-tempering cultivator declared before joining Zhou Hai and Pang Dahai.

The Great Elder was right behind him.

No one else stepped forward because they weren’t body-tempering cultivators. Judging from the explosive power Niu Meng had displayed earlier, he could probably annihilate anyone who wasn’t a body-tempering cultivator in one hit. Not even a Ninth-Order cultivator was safe from him. For example, someone like Xia Qianqian might die in one hit because she was a frail spell cultivator.