Sage of Humanity

Brushing past the two beasts entangled in battle, Lu Ye had not yet steadied himself when a reddish snake tail whipped towards him like a lash, the force of the wind bearing down on his face.

Unable to turn around in time, Lu Ye could only hurriedly muster his spirit force to protect his body.

With a loud smack, he was flung away, a sour ache in his shoulder as he rolled several times on the scorching ground.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Getting to his feet, he looked up, somewhat surprised.

The sharp blow he had fortified failed to sever the snake in one strike, merely slicing halfway through its body, blood pouring out as the snake demon writhed in pain on the ground.

Big tiger took the opportunity to break free from its hold, courageously and recklessly lunging at the wound and sinking its teeth in.

Violently, it tore off a large chunk of flesh.

The snake's head reared back, its mouth opening wide with a hint of red light brewing within, aimed straight at Big Tiger as the temperature in the cave suddenly shot up.

Big Tiger's animal instincts alerted it to the danger, it growled lowly and sprang agilely to the side.

In the next instant, a blast of Raging Flames burst forth from the snake's mouth, distorting the air in front of it with searing heat.

Seeing this, the corner of Lu Ye's eye twitched, knowing full well that the snake demon was far more powerful than Big Tiger, and he was lucky that Big Tiger had captured its enmity; otherwise, he would have had to use a Golden Body Talisman to withstand such a fiery attack.

Big Tiger evaded just in time, the flames missing it completely, while Lu Ye seized the moment to strike from behind the snake demon, aiming a strike at the base of its head.

This strike, too, only cut halfway through the snake's body, the blade hindered by the snake's bones. With two losses under Lu Ye's hands, the snake quickly turned its head, setting its sights on Lu Ye as red light began to gather in its mouth again.

Lu Ye did not retreat, but instead thrust his blade directly into the snake's mouth and fell backward.

As the flames surged out, the long blade pierced through the snake's head and emerged from the back of its skull.

A white shadow leapt from the side, slamming into the snake's body, knocking it sideways so that the blast of flames missed its target and scorched empty space instead.

Lu Ye, who had fallen, quickly got up and took out a Spirit Talisman from his storage sack, holding it in his hand as he fixed his gaze and remained on guard.

But soon he stowed the talisman away, standing silently at his original spot to wait.

His final strike had pierced through the snake's head, a fatal blow. The snake writhed on the ground, clearly not going to survive. The long blade, stuck in its mouth, caused more damage as it twisted, with snake blood spattering everywhere on the ground, sizzling as it evaporated from the extreme heat.

Big Tiger also got up, shaking its body, its white fur in disarray and visibly singed in places, looking incredibly disheveled.

From the beginning of Big Tiger's attack to this moment, no more than a dozen breaths had passed. The outcome had been decided, life and death pronounced, yet within this extremely brief time, the exchange had been perilous to the extreme.

Lu Ye was surprised to find that his first cooperation with Big Tiger was nearly perfect.

Especially at the last moment—when Lu Ye made that fatal thrust, he was already falling backward, attempting to dodge the enemy's fiery breath. However, Big Tiger's collision ensured Lu Ye's safety.

Against such a snake demon, Lu Ye mused that if he had come alone, he would have undoubtedly faced a tough battle, possibly even using several Spirit Talismans.

But with Big Tiger's cooperation, they brought it down in just a brief moment.

He suddenly felt that agreeing to Yiyi's request hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

"Well done," Lu Ye said to Big Tiger with a nod, sparing no praise.

Big Tiger let out a roar in response. Although it couldn't speak and wasn't particularly powerful, through their several encounters, Lu Ye found that it possessed high spiritual intelligence, understood human speech—quite impressive indeed.

When the snake finally lay still, Lu Ye walked over and kicked it, assuring himself it was indeed dead.

Looking at the long knife stuck in the snake's mouth, Lu Ye found himself in a dilemma; the knife had been heated red-hot by the snake's raging flames, and he feared that picking it up now would leave him with a serious burn.

He had no choice but to wait a while.

In the meantime, Lu Ye walked over to the Barrier-Breaking Fruit Tree and carefully picked two fruits, storing them in his storage sack.

As for the tree itself, Lu Ye decided not to disturb it, as he wouldn't be able to keep it alive even if he took it with him.

Just as Lu Ye was about to retrieve his knife, his mind suddenly blurred for a moment, as something inside him stirred.

This feeling involuntarily took him back to an experience a few months ago...

He hurriedly said, "Amber, you go ahead, I will find you guys later."

Big Tiger let out a howl and raised its paw to pat the dead snake.

Lu Ye immediately understood, "I know, this is valuable stuff; how could I possibly leave it behind?" Read latest chapters at empire

Only then did Big Tiger leave contentedly, and before it left, it even carried off a piece of flesh it had torn from the big snake earlier.

Once Big Tiger's figure had disappeared, Lu Ye looked back at the Barrier-Breaking Fruit Tree.

That stirring sensation came again.

He quickly focused his mind, and to his surprise, he didn't see the shadow of the Talent Tree in his vision this time; instead, there was something unusual in his Root Spiritual Orifice.

He hurriedly closed his eyes to sense more carefully.

Faintly, he seemed to see a phantom of a large tree within his Root Spiritual Orifice, the very Talent Tree.

The roots of the Talent Tree extended tendrils, just like what happened a few months ago in the mines of Evil Moon Valley.

The tendrils penetrated an unknown place, and the next moment, a fiery red force was drawn up along the tendrils.

As this fiery red force flowed in, he clearly saw a leaf on the Talent Tree start to glow with fire, and then it burst into flames.

Then came the second leaf...

By the time of the third leaf, it only emitted a glow and did not catch fire.

The tendrils slowly disappeared, and when Lu Ye opened his eyes, he found his hand was on the Barrier-Breaking Fruit Tree without knowing when.

The fruit tree had withered completely, and the once scorching cave had changed entirely, no longer carrying any trace of searing heat.

Lu Ye fell deep into thought.

He recalled the first time the Talent Tree underwent a change; he was inspecting the belongings of Manager Yang at that time, having found an unknown ore. Then the Talent Tree grew tendrils that penetrated that ore, which cracked open to reveal an orange-yellow flame.

After absorbing the power of that flame, a leaf bearing Sharpness spirit runes on the Talent Tree flared up fiercely.

This time was even more incredible, the Talent Tree drew upon some unknown power, causing two leaves on the tree to burn, and the third leaf showed a significant change.

It appeared that his guess from a long time ago was correct—the Talent Tree indeed needed to absorb some sort of flame or scorching force to change, a theory that his recent experiences undoubtedly confirmed.

The energy required by the Talent Tree undoubtedly lay beneath the floor of this cave, and having been absorbed by the Talent Tree, the place was no longer hot.

The habitat of the Barrier-Breaking Fruit Tree had been destroyed, and naturally, the tree itself died too. It could even be said that the fruit tree also contained some searing power within, which was entirely drained by the Talent Tree, so how could it continue to live?