Chapter 52: Changes in Contribution

Translator: Asuka

Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys

This knife was not a standard machete. It was longer than most swords, but the blade was very narrow. It was similar to the legendary Embroidered Spring Blade. ????????????ℯ????????????xt.????????????

Lu Ye waved the knife around a few times and discovered that it felt very natural in his hands. [This is a pretty good result. I can no longer use that sword, but I immediately received a new weapon through an exchange of hands. It saves me the trouble of going out to buy another weapon.]

Then, he tried pouring Spiritual Power into the knife. A faint glow immediately appeared on the knife blade. The glow did not give off a sharp feeling but a feeling of solidness. What surprised him even more was that he could feel that there was something hidden in the blade. Closing his eyes, he sensed through the flow of his Spiritual Power and gradually figured out the secret inside the blade. There was a Spiritual Pattern inside the blade of this knife!

[Is this… a Spirit Artefact?] An astonished expression appeared on his face. He had gone in and out of the city many times, so the knowledge he now had was no longer comparable to when he first entered the Spirit Creek Battlefield back then. He had heard of Spirit Artefacts. It was a special weapon for cultivators. A good Spirit Artefact would oftentimes be of great help to its owner.

The sword he had been using before was just an ordinary weapon. It had been made sharper than most, but there was nothing special about it. On the contrary, Spirit Artefacts were different. Each Spirit Artefact had its own unique strengths depending on the type of Spiritual Pattern carved into them.

For example, this knife contained a Spiritual Pattern inside its blade. Pouring his Spiritual Power into the Spiritual Pattern, he easily stimulated the power of the Spiritual Pattern so that the knife was endowed with the unique characteristics of the Spiritual Pattern.

After several experiments, he confirmed that the Spiritual Pattern had the effect of reinforcing the knife blade. Thanks to that, this Spirit Artefact would not break easily during a battle against an enemy. He suddenly had an epiphany. [No wonder I couldn’t slice this knife in two even though I blessed my longsword with the Sharp Edge Spiritual Pattern…]

This was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Although strengthening the knife blade did not sound very useful, it was still an extremely practical Spiritual Pattern. What’s more, since he himself had mastered the Sharp Edge Spiritual Pattern, he could bless this Spirit Artefact with the Sharp Edge Spiritual Pattern to greatly improve the sharpness of his weapon at any time.

With a Spirit Artefact like this in his possession, his strength would be enhanced by 10% or 20%, at the very least. Furthermore, he could hack and slash to his heart’s content without worrying about the damage to his weapon the next time he encountered another enemy. Nevertheless, a Spirit Artefact with only one Spiritual Pattern was probably the lowest ranked Spirit Artefact out there.

“Come in!” Lu Ye sheathed his knife and returned to a cross-legged sitting position.

A small figure slowly drifted in from the entrance of the cave. Stopping in front of Lu Ye, Yi Yi gave him a flattering smile and obediently reported, “The other person’s corpse has also been disposed of.”

Lu Ye casually tossed a Storage Bag over to her. It was the one that had belonged to Liu Ru Yin.

She caught it, rifled through the contents, and exclaimed in surprise. “This much!?”

There was more than one bottle of Spirit Pills in there, not to mention several Spirit Stones.

“I split everything evenly between us. Thank you so much for your help this time.” He gave her a grateful nod. Although he had enough Spirit Talisman Papers to kill that fair-skinned man on his own, he would not have been able to open the other party’s Storage Bag if he did that. Furthermore, there would have been some risks involved.

When he came looking for Yi Yi and the tiger, he had fully intended to borrow their power. Fortunately, Yi Yi was smart enough to understand what she was supposed to do with just one sentence from him. It had been an easy and pleasant cooperation effort between them.

The fair-skinned man did not have much in his Storage Bag. The only valuable thing he had was that weapon of his. On the other hand, Liu Ru Yin was richer, though not by much.

More importantly, the Spirit Talisman Paper in Liu Ru Yin’s hand had been activated at the last moment. If the tiger had not taken the brunt for him, he would have needed to face the power of the Spirit Talisman Paper on his own. That would have added a bigger element of danger for him.

Everything else was divided evenly, but he took the Spirit Artefact for himself. Therefore, it could be said that he profited the most from this entire incident.

Yi Yi never expected him to be so generous. Hence, she looked at him with a complicated expression before she finally thanked him.

“Wait,” Lu Ye stopped her.

She looked back at him.

“You probably heard everything the woman I killed earlier said.”

“Yes.”

“This matter began from her personal actions, so she deserved to die. Be that as it may, she is still a member of the Divine Trade Association. I don’t know how the Trade Association will react to her death, but it would be best if you move to a different location. This place is too close to the city. If the Trade Association investigates the cause of her death, their investigation will easily lead them to you.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“I will be leaving this place soon.” This incident had taught him a lesson. All the Spirit Pills he currently used for cultivating had come from selling the Yuan Metal ores and his only channel for selling them was the Divine Trade Association. He had only gone there on three separate occasions, but it was enough for Liu Ru Yin to target him. Who could say if another Liu Ru Yin was hiding in the Trade Association? He could not remain in this place any longer.

If being in the First-Order Spirit Creek Realm gave him the qualifications to survive in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, then being in the Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm gave him the capital to travel around.

He could not control what decisions Yi Yi and the tiger would make. The Spirit Creek Battlefield was too vast. There might not be a chance for them to meet again in the future. It was only out of morality that he kindly gave them a word of advice.

After Yi Yi left, Lu Ye did an inventory of the supplies in his possession.

There were 93 Spirit Restoring Pills, of which 81 were purchased from the Divine Trade Association while the other 12 were obtained from the spoils of war he shared with Yi Yi; 4 Spirit Stones, all of which were obtained from the spoils of war since he had used all of his Spirit Stones to buy food; and 7 Healing Pills, of which four were his own while the other three were taken from the fair-skinned man’s Storage Bag. Liu Ru Yin’s Storage Bag did not contain any Healing Pills. She probably never imagined that there would come a time when she would need to use a Healing Pill.

There were also less than 30 Spirit Talisman Papers in total; a total of 26 Yuan Metal ores of various shapes and sizes; a Spirit Artefact of the lowest rank; and the Golden Liberation Technique.

His strength would be increased once he advanced into the Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm, and the current amount of Spirit Pills was enough for him to reach it. While it was not enough for him to go wild in the Outer Circle of the battlefield, it would at least increase his chances of survival.

He could not shake the vague feeling that he had forgotten something important. After ruminating over it for some time, he finally remembered and immediately poured his Spiritual Power into the back of his right hand. The Spiritual Power rippled and transformed into a blue Spiritual Pattern, which then wriggled and transformed into several lines of words that appeared in his field of vision. ‘Name: Lu Ye. Identity: Disciple of Crimson Blood Sect. Cultivation: Twenty-One Spiritual Points. Location: Spirit Creek Battlefield. Contribution: Eight.’

The information regarding his name, identity, and location remained the same as the first time he checked the Battlefield Imprint. However, his cultivation had changed from ‘Three Spiritual Points’ to ‘Twenty-One Spiritual Points’. That was the result of his hard work over the past two months, so it was nothing to be surprised about. Rather, what interested him was the ‘Contribution’ column! He had been very curious about what the ‘Contribution’ represented and how to obtain it since he first saw the ‘Contribution’ column.

It wasn’t until this moment that he had a faint realisation: He could only accumulate ‘Contribution’ by killing people. He recalled that a small red speck of light had emerged from the back of the fair-skinned man’s hand at the time of death and flew into the back of his hand. The same thing had happened with Liu Ru Yin. It was just that the light that came from her was yellow.

[Do the different colours represent different factions? In that case, the fair-skinned man I just killed probably belonged to the Thousand Demon Ridge. Is the Divine Trade Association a neutral party? That’s probably why it can do business with both sides.]

As for the ‘Contribution’… He currently had no idea what it was used for, so he could only figure it out slowly in the future.