Sage of Humanity-Chapter 583 - 581: The Secret of the Fox Demon

The grand array at this place was a concealment array and a protective array, perfectly combined. It was evident that the person who arranged the Formation was quite skilled in the Array Path, more so than Xie Yunhan, yet still somewhat inferior compared to himself.

Therefore, infiltrating such a Formation was not difficult for Lu Ye.

Once the array banner was embedded, spirit force ceased to flow. Raising his hand, Lu Ye collected the array banner and, with a flash, entered, his figure surging into the heart of the big array.

After he left, the spirit force on the light screen of the array began to flow slowly with the interference of the array banner gone.

Having entered the big array, Lu Ye immediately concealed his form and observed his surroundings alertly.

No danger presented itself; within this forbidden land, everything was clear at a glance.

For this was merely a not-too-large space.

Within an area of about twenty zhang in radius, an isolated grave stood; in front of the grave, there was a stele, and not far from the burial ground, there was an ancient altar, only a few zhang tall, appearing akin to something used for sacrifices.

Is this the forbidden land?

Lu Ye's brows furrowed. Even with the support of Insight Spirit Runes, he didn't see anything particularly noteworthy.

He walked forward, stopping in front of the stele of the burial mound, and looked up. Under the moonlight, the inscriptions on the stele caught his eye.

"Tomb of Master Lei Zhengyin."

There was only this single line of text. Lei Zhengyin was likely the name of the person buried in this mound, but the word "Master" inevitably sparked some conjecture.

According to what Xie Yunhan had previously stated, one could glean that this forbidden land had existed for at least a dozen years, and thus the person in the grave had been dead for at least as long.

However, the headstone appeared quite clean, without a speck of dust, just as the grave itself bore no trace of weeds—it seemed as if someone regularly came here to mourn and tidy up.

In the entire Fox Fairy Valley, the only one who could enter here was that Fox Demon.

Lu Ye's gaze flickered for a moment before shifting away from the grave and toward the altar.

The altar was evidently ancient and simple. Lu Ye stepped onto the altar and looked around, only to see the surface covered with complex interwinding patterns—it seemed to be shrouded in a sophisticated big array. He observed it intently for a moment but failed to ascertain what kind of Formation it was exactly.

He had some proficiency in the Array Path as well, and even if he encountered an array he was unfamiliar with, he could usually discern something of its nature.

If he could understand nothing, then either these complex patterns were not an array at all, or their profundity completely surpassed his comprehension.

After a careful examination for a while, Lu Ye suddenly noticed that there was a notch at each of the four corners of the altar.

This was something Lu Ye was familiar with.

Generally speaking, such notches required placement of a Spirit Stone, like the Spirit Gathering Arrays found within many sects.

Hence, if one wanted to understand the purpose of the altar, one would simply need to place Spirit Stones in the notches.

However, Lu Ye naturally would not act so rashly. Doing so could likely alarm the cultivators within Fox Fairy Valley, and surely result in him being caught red-handed.

He couldn't help feeling somewhat disappointed.

The Fox Demon had marked this place as a forbidden land, and he had thought it concealed some formidable secret—only to find an isolated grave and an ancient altar. Yet, he couldn't even confirm what the altar was truly for.

A wasted trip!

Visit freewebnoveℓ.com for the best novel reading exp𝒆rience.

Just as he prepared to leave, an unusual sound suddenly reached him. Lu Ye's expression changed, and he immediately applied both Concealment and Breath-concealing Spirit Runes to himself, standing on the altar without daring to make the slightest move.

The figure of a seductive Fox Demon suddenly appeared before him. It was none other than the one from the valley.

Lu Ye cursed his bad luck inwardly. He knew from the unspoiled state of the headstone and the weedless grave that someone often came here to mourn; yet he had not expected to encounter anyone in the middle of the night.

Now, if not for the augmentation of spirit runes, he would have been discovered.

Under the moonlight, the Fox Demon came to a halt before the stele, looking down, her expression slowly shrouded by sorrow.

After a while, soft sobbing echoed as tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, leaving deep tracks on her face. The Fox Demon collapsed onto the stele, wailing in grief, mumbling something indistinctly.

Lu Ye could only catch words like "Master," "Xian'er," and "I'm so tired," but the rest was unclear.

He felt fortunate that the Fox Demon was engulfed in sorrow and probably hadn't expected anyone to defy her orders and visit the valley in the dead of night; otherwise, such proximity could have possibly led to his exposure despite the Breath-concealing and Concealment Spirit Runes.

After a lengthy period of crying, the Fox Demon finally raised her hand to wipe her eyes, then carefully cleaned the polished headstone, took a deep breath, and her full chest heaved.

The sadness on her face vanished, replaced by bitter rancor and resentment. Even her originally sultry voice turned quite grim, "Master, it won't be long, just another month and I will avenge you. This time, I will not fail!"

Possibly due to her intense emotions, as she spoke these words, her body surged with Demon Origin, and in the moonlight, several fluffy tails formed from Demon Origin appeared behind her alluring figure. From Lu Ye's perspective, this scene had a sinister beauty.

She gazed tenderly and reluctantly at the stele for a moment longer. Once her emotions had settled and the Demon Origin calmed, she turned and departed, crossing through the array that shrouded this place, her figure disappearing from sight.

Lu Ye stood silently on the altar, without stirring.

It wasn't until an hour had passed that he softly called out, "Yiyi!"

Yiyi's figure appeared, "It's safe outside."

Lu Ye nodded and immediately walked outside.

When he had come in from the outside, he had needed to use techniques to sneak in, but leaving this place, the formation posed no hindrance.

In just a moment, he quietly returned to his own loft.

Reflecting on the scene he had just witnessed, Lu Ye's brow furrowed deeply. Based on the term "Fox Fairy Valley," he had surmised that the Venerable One's true form was that of a fox demon. Today, after seeing the anomaly caused by her turbulent Demon Origin, he was even more certain of his initial conjecture.

It was indeed a fox demon, but not an ordinary one, for she had not just one tail but a full six!

A member of the Celestial Fox clan perhaps? And a Six-tailed Celestial Fox at that!

No wonder she possessed the eerie ability to bewitch the minds of others. If she was from the Celestial Fox clan, then it all made sense.

Although Celestial Foxes were not on par with the Four Auspicious Sacred Beasts, they were a kind of exotic beast with innate divine abilities. To Lu Ye's knowledge, a Celestial Fox of the Cloud River Realm would generally have only two or three tails. So even with their special innate divine abilities, they couldn't control a person's psyche to any significant extent, only slightly bewilder it. As long as one's psyche was strong enough, they could quickly break free.

To have six tails would mean that the fox demon was an anomaly within the Celestial Fox clan. Under normal circumstances, the strength of a Six-tailed Celestial Fox could be comparable to that of the Divine Sea Realm!

Although this trip didn't yield any tangible gains within the forbidden land, he had serendipitously uncovered the true identity of the fox demon, which was a gain in itself.

However, this discovery didn't provide much help in the current situation.

"Lu Ye," Yiyi suddenly spoke up from the darkness, "that fox demon seems very pitiful."

"What's pitiful about her?" Lu Ye retorted without much patience, "The pitiful ones are the cultivators trapped here, bewitched by her, utterly devoted to her cause."

"Her master died," Yiyi's eyes reddened, "She wants to avenge her own master."

Lu Ye turned to look at her, feeling that this young girl was overly sensitive. The fox demon's master had been dead for at least a decade—why the tears?

Yiyi sniffled, saying, "If one day you died too, Amber and I would definitely do everything we could to avenge you!"

Lu Ye chuckled, "Amber and I have performed the Life Origin Method. If I die, so does Amber, and so would you. What vengeance would there be to speak of? It would be a neat and tidy journey to Huang Quan together, and we wouldn't be lonely on the road."

Yiyi puffed her cheeks, "Anyway, that fox demon is just so pitiful."

Having said that, she stamped her foot and dived into Amber's body, refusing to deal with Lu Ye any further.

Lu Ye, speechless, let his eyes gradually sink in the darkness.

The fox demon had said that within a month she'd be able to avenge her deceased master—the question now was… who was the enemy?

Lu Ye hadn't been very clear on what the fox demon had been gathering so many cultivators to do, but now, it was quite obvious.

She had always been trying to find a way to avenge her master. Relying solely on her own strength wasn't sufficient to exact that vengeance, which is why she needed to recruit cultivators who ventured into the Great Wilderness Mountain.

And with the years that had passed, the fox demon must have acted more than once before, likely with previous attempts that had all ended in failure. The deaths of her subordinated cultivators must certainly be related to this.

Currently, the cultivators of Fox Fairy Valley numbered over eighty, of which fifteen were of Level 9. Aside from Lu Ye and Li Baxian, the rest were all above Level 6.

Such a force, if deployed, might not sweep the Cloud River battlefield, but certainly could dominate a region and reign supreme without issue.

But the fox demon had yet to make her move, either due to a lack of confidence or because she was waiting for the right moment.

Whichever it was, her enemy's strength had to be extraordinary. Looking over the entire Cloud River battlefield, there was only one possibility for an enemy who would necessitate such caution on her part!

Lu Ye quickly pulled out the ten-part map and examined the annotations. After a moment, his gaze settled on a line of notes.

An Overlord-class demon beast, the Berserk Giant Ape!

A twitch passed across Lu Ye's eyelids.

If things were as he suspected, it meant trouble.

The strength of an Overlord-class demon beast of the Cloud River Realm was unknown to him.

But the strength of an Overlord-class demon beast of the Spirit Stream Realm was something he had personally experienced—power that completely surpassed the boundaries of the Spirit Stream Realm.

He had once been considered an Overlord-class presence among cultivators, essentially unmatched within his own realm.

The strength of Fox Fairy Valley was indeed impressive, but pitting such a force against an Overlord-class demon beast, it was genuinely hard to say who would have the last laugh.

One month… Lu Ye suddenly felt a headache coming on.

Should he try knocking Li Baxian unconscious and just take him away? Even if he discounted the chances of success, a mishap would inevitably expose some of his own secrets, potentially dooming them both.

Even if he did manage to knock Li Baxian out, the Psyche Secret Technique—if unbroken—would always be a cause for concern.