Sage of Humanity
Chapter 1054 - 1052: Plague of Insects

The insect pall in the distance hovered in the air for a while, losing Lu Ye's trail before finally settling back down.

Lu Ye's expression was grave.

Earlier, when he had just returned to the Nine Provinces, he had been immersed in the joy of returning to his homeland, without paying much attention to other matters. Now, he finally noticed something unusual.

The most direct change was in Liyuan.

Liyuan is a vast plain, considered a strategic buffer zone for the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge in Bingzhou. It is devoid of human habitation, yet, as a plain, naturally it should be teeming with life.

At the very least, when Lu Ye followed Nian Yuexian here the last time, looking down from high above, Liyuan was a sea of waving greenery.

But now Liyuan showed no trace of green; what met the eye was desolation, devoid of vitality.

Combining this with the insect pall just witnessed, Lu Ye could clearly discern the root of all these circumstances.

Wherever the Insect Race went, not a blade of grass survived; life was completely extinguished.

The battlefield marking contained a lot of information, which Yiyi had just transmitted. As Lu Ye continued to investigate, he grew more and more astonished.

He hadn't expected that during the two years he was away from the Nine Provinces, such major events would occur.

An Insect Plague swept across the Nine Provinces!

And this Insect Plague's magnitude and intensity was the most ferocious and terrifying ever recorded in Nine Provinces history.

Every patch of land, every corner of the Nine Provinces was besieged by the Insect Race.

The last time the Misty Sea Insect Plague erupted, many sects had to exert a lot of effort before quelling it, but the scale was limited and the impact was not significant.

But this time, the situation was completely different—it wasn't an Insect Plague, but a full-scale insect disaster.

Not only were the numbers overwhelming, but among the diverse Insect Race varieties, there were many that rivaled the Divine Sea Realm.

The insect disaster erupted exactly two years ago, almost the moment Lu Ye departed from the Nine Provinces.

The origin was an earthquake that swept across the Nine Provinces.

The entire world was in upheaval; deep, unfathomable ground fissures appeared nationwide and overnight, the Nine Provinces became a paradise for the Insect Race.

Due to the insect disaster, the conflicts between the Haotian Alliance and the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge two factions calmed significantly, and now basically all cultivators were fighting against the Insect Race.

Cultivators understood clearly that whether it was the Haotian Alliance or the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, they were ultimately the human race, while the Insect Race was an alien species. Under such a crisis, internal feuds could be set aside temporarily; eradicating the alien race was the urgent priority.

According to Yiyi, these insects came from deep underground, unseen and unknown to humans, as cultivators typically wouldn't venture too far underground due to the interference from the origin magnetic field. The deeper one goes, the more spirit force gets suppressed.

Thus, the deep underground has always been a forbidden zone for cultivators.

But after that earthquake, creating fissures all over the Nine Provinces, the insects emerged from underground.

No one knows how many years these insects have been proliferating, the species are many and their numbers vast. Over the past year, Nine Provinces cultivators have courageously battled the insects, yet they remain inexhaustible.

Unable to eliminate the insect hives.

The insect hives are deeply buried underground, extremely difficult to find, and even strong teams of Divine Sea Realm experts returned empty-handed, for the deeper one goes, the more numerous the Insect Race becomes, and their cultivation is suppressed even more significantly. In such an environment, once a battle erupts, it becomes endless. Success is elusive unless achieved with one decisive strike.

This is a disaster.

Yet for the Nine Provinces cultivators, it's also a feast.

Because killing the Insect Race can earn battle merit.

Lu Ye checked his battle merit and indeed noticed an increase of several hundred points.

For Nine Provinces cultivators, merit and battle merit are lifelong pursuits in cultivation; especially the latter is extremely important as it can be exchanged for spirit fortune sticks for cultivation.

Normally, the avenues to gain battle merit are limited; provincial guard battle merit is usually dispensed through monthly salaries, with a fixed amount unless assignments are undertaken.

But now killing the Insect Race yields battle merit—how convenient!

This led to a phenomenon where the number of cultivators in the Cloud River battlefield greatly decreased!

Almost all Cloud River Realm cultivators with ambition and background left the Cloud River battlefield to return to the Nine Provinces and kill insects. Now on the Cloud River battlefield, it's rare to see cultivators above Cloud River Level 5 realm.

All have returned to the Nine Provinces.

The powerful insect beings they cannot deal with, but the biggest advantage of the Insect Race is their sheer numbers. While strong insect beings exist, their numbers are minuscule compared to the total headcount.

Thus, as long as one's luck isn't too bad, casually wandering anywhere can yield results.

No need to mention the True Lake Realm cultivators; over these two years, many Nine Provinces cultivators have fallen, but those who survived managed to reap substantial rewards. Previously, they had to calculate their battle merit to exchange for spirit fortune sticks for cultivation; now that's unnecessary. If lacking battle merit, they'd go kill insects and earn some through the battles.

Take Team D-9 for instance—the squad's overall cultivation soared remarkably over these two years.

Two years...

This timing is quite coincidental, and Lu Ye can't help but think about it.

What concerns him even more is that on his way back to the Nine Provinces, he vaguely spotted many figures of the Insect Race on a piece of floating land. However, at the time, it was just a glimpse, and he couldn't be entirely sure that what he saw were indeed Insect Race.

But if those were really the Insect Race gathering on a floating land, do they have anything to do with this insect disaster?

Unable to confirm.

As expected, Team D-9 is now led by Third Senior Brother Xiao Xinghe as the captain. At present, they are stationed in a city, safeguarding its safety together with other cultivators.

This is unavoidable because the insect disaster sweeps across the Nine Provinces. Regardless of their strength, all sects have their means of self-protection.

But such cities, where many ordinary people gather, are not capable of protecting themselves and need nearby sects to allocate manpower to assist in defense. Some sects have good resources and can send enough people, but some sects with weak foundations have no one to spare and must seek help from Haotian City.

Team D-9 was dispatched under such circumstances. In two years, the squad has traversed most of Bingzhou and is currently at their seventh city for co-defense.

Through the information conveyed by Yiyi, Lu Ye roughly understands the current situation in the Nine Provinces.

"Take care of yourselves; I'll return to Haotian City first and then come to find you," Lu Ye sent a message.

"Okay, you be careful too," Yiyi replied.

On the city wall of Red River City, Yiyi ended the transmission, showing a relieved smile.

Lu Ye has returned, that's great!

Beside her, the members of Team D-9 gathered, always listening to Yiyi relay Lu Ye's words. Xiao Xinghe laughed heartily, "With Junior Brother's return, we should celebrate with insect blood. Everyone, follow me to kill some bugs?"

"As Senior Brother commands, this junior will naturally follow!" Li Baxian stood up.

Moments later, under the leadership of Xiao Xinghe, the squad sped out of the city to battle.

On Liyuan, Lu Ye used the Thousand Faces Spirit Runes to change his appearance and altered the color of the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit to white, put away the Boulder Mountain Saber, and hung the sword gourd at his waist.

In an instant, a dashing sword cultivator emerged!

This was ultimately the territory of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, and acting with his original appearance could be troublesome. Although he has now ascended to the Divine Sea realm, in the vast Nine Provinces, many are still stronger than him. He wouldn't arrogantly think he's invincible.

Reducing trouble as much as possible is naturally wise to keep a low profile.

He conjured a streak of sword light, speeding forward.

Along the way, he frequently encountered scattered Insect Race, and quite a few of them were of considerable strength, giving Lu Ye a slight realization of the severe degree of the insect disaster in the Nine Provinces.

Even the desolate Liyuan had such scenes, letting one imagine the situation in places bustling with people.

After advancing for two hours, he gained several hundred points of battle merit.

This made him sigh, though the current overall environment in the Nine Provinces is harsh, it is now much simpler for cultivators to earn battle merit than before. Of course, relatively, the risk is also greater.

But cultivation is like this; to gain, one must give and take risks.

The Insect Race he had slain along the way, many were at the True Lake Realm, though he hadn't encountered any at the Divine Sea Realm; it didn't mean they didn't exist.

Just like the initial mosquito-like Insect Race he encountered, a single Insect Race wasn't much, but once they gathered into an insect pall, even he had to avoid them.

Sensing a fluctuation of spirit force from a direction, Lu Ye turned his head and saw several cultivators fleeing desperately with a Mantis Insect Race hot on their heels.

Cultivators encountered in such a place naturally belonged to Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

If it were before, Lu Ye probably wouldn't care about the life or death of these people. The opposition of factions destined him and the people of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge only to become enemies.

But his journey in the Blood Refinement World left him with many insights.

The biggest one was that cultivators from two major factions could coexist peacefully and unify for a common goal.

In the Blood Refinement World, he received much favor from many senior ancestors, half of whom were from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.

Of course, this had to do with the special situation of the Blood Refinement World and also with the mindset of the ancestors. Having reached their level, many grudges from their youth could be laughed off.

Before leaving, many ancestors gave him their tokens, saying that if he encountered their disciples bullying him, he could take out these tokens to show those disciples. But from another perspective, weren't those ancestors also subtly implying for Lu Ye to lend a hand when their disciples were in danger?

Some words are just hard to say outright.

Their acknowledgment of Lu Ye's abilities assured them that as long as Lu Ye was given enough time, he would certainly reach their heights, perhaps even surpass them.

Truly at that point, who in the Nine Provinces would be his adversary?

Each token was a gesture of trust and an intangible responsibility.

The journey in the Blood Refinement World caused a subtle shift in Lu Ye's mindset. Previously, upon seeing cultivators of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, his first thought would be how to kill them.

But now, not anymore.

Who knows if among the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge cultivators, there were descendants of those senior ancestors, even if the probability is small.