Sage of Humanity

Lu Ye didn't rest for too long, with a longsword still embedded in his leg, the intense pain stimulating his nerves.

Moreover, the location of the injury was rather delicate, and if it had hit something vital, that would have been the end of him.

So, after catching his breath for a moment, he began to check his wounds, tearing open the clothes at the injured spot to carefully examine it, and felt relieved when he saw that his heart wasn't in his throat.

The injury looked gory, but it was actually just a flesh wound.

He didn't blindly pull out the sword, because he knew that once he did, he'd face a situation of massive blood loss, which could potentially cause him to faint in a short period if not treated properly.

First, he tore off his clothes into long strips, tightly binding them at the root of his thigh, and then completely ripped open the clothing around the injured area, revealing the wound.

Then he cast his gaze to Manager Yang's corpse at his waist, where there was a palm-sized cloth sack.

Lu Ye recognized this object—it was called a storage sack by cultivators.

The healing pill that Manager Yang had given him to take, along with the longsword stuck in his leg, were both taken out from this storage sack by Manager Yang.

The storage sack of a cultivator usually stored all of the cultivator's belongings.

Lu Ye dragged over Manager Yang's corpse, took off the storage sack around his waist, and examined it with surprise.

This small sack seemed to have quite a bit of space inside, able to contain many items.

Having been in the Nine Provinces for over a year, although Lu Ye didn't know much about cultivation, he had heard quite a bit about the things in the cultivation world.

It seemed that every cultivator's storage sack had a mysterious, invisible lock that only the cultivator themselves could open, while others, even if they got their hands on it, wouldn't be able to easily unlock the sack unless they had some special means to break that lock.

Cultivators called that kind of lock a restriction!

The storage sack in his hands looked like a cloth pouch, but it was actually made from an unknown type of beast hide, and Lu Ye silently prayed that the storage sack wouldn't be locked.

Opening the mouth of the sack, Lu Ye reached in with one hand, his heart pounding…

Soon, his face showed joy—he had managed to open it, and his hand had touched some items inside.

It made sense, as when he had suddenly attacked, Manager Yang had hastily taken a longsword from the storage sack to confront him; with the interference from the origin magnetic field at that time, how could he have had any strength left to lock his storage sack.

He was saved!

Lu Ye's heart steadied as he continually pulled items out of the storage sack.

He was looking for blood Qi pills and the healing pills that Manager Yang had given him before.

Upon pulling out the sword later, he would surely lose blood; with blood Qi pills to replenish his blood Qi energy, the risk would be reduced, and the healing pills were undoubtedly useful, especially suited for the current situation.

Soon, Lu Ye's side was piled up with a mess of things...

Bottle after bottle, jar after jar, and many edible items, several huge water bladders, and even some books and toilet paper.

Lu Ye was speechless.

But considering that Manager Yang had come here seeking refuge, it wasn't too much to bring some extra items with him.

He searched among the various bottles and jars and soon found the blood Qi pills and healing pills he needed.

There were a lot of blood Qi pills—ten bottles, with about twenty to thirty pills per bottle; as for the healing pills, there was only one bottle, still containing seven or eight pills.

As Manager Yang was in charge of the exchange of blood Qi pills for the mining slaves, it was natural for him to carry many blood Qi pills, which greatly pleased Lu Ye.

In the past, he needed to save ten points of contribution to exchange for blood Qi pills, managing only thirty pills in a year; now by killing Manager Yang, he got two to three hundred pills at once.

He had struck it rich!

He took out a blood Qi pill to consume, thought for a moment, then added two more, popping them into his mouth. He didn't want to eat more, not because he didn't want to, but because eating too many at once wouldn't be useful.

He then took out a healing pill and swallowed one.

Following that, he grabbed a huge water bladder, opened the mouth, first gulping down two mouthfuls for himself, and then used the clean water to wash the wound.

A cool sensation came from the wound, which, while tugging at the injury, also brought a touch of coolness, causing sweat to bead on Lu Ye's forehead.

Once he cleaned the wound, he took out another healing pill and placed it aside for later use.

Having done everything that needed to be done, he took a deep breath, grabbed the hilt of the longsword, and yanked it out fiercely.

At that moment, Lu Ye trembled all over, but still, he bit his teeth and didn't make a sound.

With no time to waste, he hurriedly took the healing pill he had set aside, crushed it with his hand, ground it into powder, and sprinkled it on the wound.

He wasn't sure if the healing pill would be effective when applied externally, but it was worth a try.

He untied the clothing around the root of his thigh and bandaged the wound.

After the flurry of activity, Lu Ye was almost soaked in sweat and lay directly on the ground, not wanting to move, slowly drifting off to sleep.

When he woke up again, he didn't know how much time had passed; struggling to sit up, he leaned against the rock wall and pressed around his thigh wound.

Pain came through, but without the feeling of inflammation.

It was a good sign that Lu Ye could finally relax his mind since it seemed that the healing pills he applied externally and took internally had taken effect, helping him to survive the most dangerous moment.

His stomach started growling. Before encountering Manager Yang, Lu Ye hadn't eaten for a good half day. He had planned to exchange the mined ores for some food after delivering them, but Manager Yang had coerced him into the depths of the mine and he ended up in a fight to the death with him, resulting in injuries.

Luckily, Lu Ye found plenty to eat in Manager Yang's storage sack. He took out a piece of dried beast meat and started to eat it bite by bite with some clean water.

As his hunger slowly faded, this place seemed rarely visited by others and was temporarily safe, kindling Lu Ye's interest in Manager Yang's belongings.

While eating, he began to inspect the items he had taken from Manager Yang's storage sack.

He recognized the blood Qi pills and healing pills, but there were some pills he had never seen before and didn't know their uses. Some of them even emitted a pungent fishy smell, obviously nothing good.

Setting these pills aside, Lu Ye casually picked up a book, and with the flickering firelight nearby, he opened it, his eyebrows immediately dancing with delight.

It seemed that Manager Yang was a man of character; the book was not only rich in content but also illustrated. He didn't know who had drawn it, but it was indeed brilliantly done, lifelike...

Now, feeling weak and frail, it wasn't appropriate to look at such a thing; he tossed it aside and picked up another book. This one had characters on the cover—upon closer inspection, it was the Sword Saint Chronicles.

Lu Ye became interested, but after flipping through a few pages, he discovered it was just a storyteller's book.

Discarding this book, he picked up a third one, and after reading the words on its cover, his heartbeat slowed for a moment.

Golden Cicada Carefree Method!

He hurriedly flipped it open, his expression growing increasingly excited.

This was actually a Cultivation Technique! Just like the first book, it was illustrated and easy to understand. It seemed to be the very Cultivation Technique practiced by Manager Yang himself.

After the excitement subsided, Lu Ye realized a very practical problem.

He hadn't yet opened his spiritual orifice, so even with such a Cultivation Technique before him, it was of no use.

He sighed softly and put down the Golden Cicada Carefree Method.

Since he couldn't cultivate, reading it was pointless. Over the past year, he had tried several times to open his spiritual orifice but always ended up with no clue.

Feeling dejected for a moment, Lu Ye picked up Manager Yang's storage sack again; there were still some things inside that he hadn't taken out.

He reached in and pulled things out one by one.

He didn't find anything else valuable, but there were many rare ores, including several pieces of fist-sized origin magnetic ore.

These ores must have been Manager Yang's private stash, though Lu Ye knew not for what purpose.

Having mined in this place for a year, Lu Ye was familiar with many rare minerals, so he recognized these ores. Even if he didn't know their names or uses, he had seen them all, until he pulled out a human-head-sized dark red ore...

He had never seen such a thing before, nor did he know which mining slave had excavated it, only for it to end up with Manager Yang.

This was strange indeed, yet as things are valued for their rarity, Lu Ye, having never seen such a thing, deemed this object to be extraordinarily valuable.

Just as he was about to set the ore aside, his spirit momentarily faltered. Then, a blurry shadow appeared before his eyes, taking the form of a tree.

It was the Shadow Tree!

Lu Ye was greatly surprised, as the appearance of the Shadow Tree had one condition: he needed to concentrate, and it wouldn't appear every time—sometimes it would and sometimes it wouldn't.

This time, the Shadow Tree had emerged on its own.

While Lu Ye was puzzled, the vague shadow of the tree's roots suddenly sprouted with tendrils that burrowed into the dark red ore in his hand.

The next instant, the ore cracked with a crunching noise, splitting apart.

A glint of orange light struck Lu Ye's eyes, startling him, for after the ore split open, a ball of fire appeared inside!

Instinctively, he tried to throw the fireball away, but it clung stubbornly to his hand, refusing to be cast off.

After a brief panic, Lu Ye realized that the change in the dark red stone must have been related to the Shadow Tree.

What was even more bizarre was that he felt no sensation of being burned.

The orange flame quickly diminished as if being absorbed by something, and in just a few moments, the fireball disappeared from Lu Ye's sight.

Just as he was marveling at this, a scorching power suddenly surged at the site of his Dantian, drawing his blood Qi energy towards that spot.

An indescribable pain washed over him, and Lu Ye felt as if his lower abdomen was being churned by a massive force, as if it would tear him apart.

Unable to help it, he let out a muffled groan as his clothes were instantly soaked with sweat.

Just when he thought he was about to die, there came a faint popping sound from his lower abdomen area. At that moment, he felt as if something had been shattered.

The pain quickly vanished, and to Lu Ye's eyes, the entire world underwent a marvelous change.

He felt a surreal sensation and, checking the area of his Dantian, clearly detected a mysterious force gathering there.

Overwhelmed with immense surprise...

He had actually opened his spiritual orifice!