Battlefield Divisions

Half an hour later, Lu Ye rose and set off toward Green Cloud Market. Behind him, Yiyi floated in midair, enthusiastically seeing him off.

To Yiyi and Big Tiger, Lu Ye was an uninvited guest who had barged into their territory. Over these past days, he had killed far too many beasts, already affecting the stability of this area. That was why they had gone looking for trouble with Lu Ye before.

If Lu Ye continued to stay, it might not be long before all the food in this area was hunted clean. Then they would have to seek another place to survive. Yet there were far too many Monster Beasts in this mountain range; rashly entering another territory meant facing unknown dangers.

So, after realizing that sending Lu Ye away was a good thing, Yiyi obediently cooperated. Otherwise, why would she have been so compliant?

Of course, before leaving, Lu Ye had warned them that if he failed to find Green Cloud Market smoothly, or if they had given him any false information, he would return.

In response, Yiyi patted her flat chest and guaranteed that everything she had said before was absolutely true.

As he traveled, Lu Ye reflected on all the information Yiyi had revealed.

It was not only information about Green Cloud Market. Lu Ye had later asked her many things about the Spirit Stream Battlefield. It had not been easy to encounter someone he could communicate with and keep in check, so naturally he had to make the most of her.

Yiyi, too, answered every question and held nothing back!

Although the Jade Slip the Sect Master had given him recorded some information about the Spirit Stream Battlefield, the situation at the time had been too urgent. Moreover, the Sect Master had not known where Lu Ye would appear after entering the battlefield, so the information he left behind was not detailed.

The information Lu Ye obtained from Yiyi, on the other hand, was better suited to his current situation.

According to Yiyi, the entire Spirit Stream Battlefield was a circular region of immense scale, as vast as an entire Continent. More specifically, it could be divided into three major regions.

The Outer Circle at the very edge, the Inner Circle in the middle, and the Core Region at the very center.

The farther inward one went, the denser the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy became. Some special areas also produced miraculous resources, such as rare mineral veins and precious Spiritual Fruits. These were all cultivation resources that cultivators would fight desperately to seize.

Every major sect in the Nine Provinces had its own Camp within the Spirit Stream Battlefield. The higher a sect's rank, the farther inward its Camp was located.

The Camps of First, Second, and Third Rank Sects from the various Continents were located in the Core Region. The Camps of Fourth through Sixth Rank Sects were generally scattered throughout the Inner Circle. As for the Camps of Seventh through Ninth-Rank forces, they could only occupy the outermost ring. Naturally, there were also the greatest number of sect forces at this level, which was why the Outer Circle was the largest region.

The good news was that Lu Ye was currently in the Outer Circle. Whether in terms of Spiritual Energy density or resource production, it could not compare to the other two regions, so it was unlikely that he would encounter particularly formidable Spirit Stream Realm cultivators.

But the bad news was that he did not know the precise location of the Crimson Blood Sect's Camp. The Crimson Blood Sect was a Ninth-Rank Sect, so its Camp was naturally also in the Outer Circle. If he was lucky, he would not be too far from the Crimson Blood Sect's Camp. But if luck was against him, and he and the Crimson Blood Sect's Camp were scattered along the central axis of this circular Spirit Stream Battlefield, then following the War Imprint would force him to cross the entire battlefield and enter the Inner Circle and Core Region.

With his Spirit Stream First Layer cultivation, he barely had some means of self-preservation in the Outer Circle. But if he ventured into the Inner Circle or Core Region, there would surely be no good end for him. The Spirit Stream Realm cultivators there must be as numerous as clouds, all of them powerful.

The best course now was to take an arcing route and travel along the Outer Circle. That way, he could avoid encountering enemies that were too powerful.

On the Nine Provinces Continent, war raged endlessly between the Vast Sky Alliance and Myriad Demon Ridge. Sects rose and fell in succession. It could be said that cultivators of the Nine Provinces grew amid war and slaughter. Generally speaking, disciples of all major sects, regardless of which faction they belonged to, would be sent into the Spirit Stream Battlefield to temper themselves once they achieved the Spirit Stream Realm.

But the gap in strength between the first and ninth layers of the Spirit Stream Realm was simply too vast. Even disciples from those First Rank Sects did not possess much of an advantage when their cultivation was low. Thus, the Core Region and Inner Circle were not suitable places for low-cultivation cultivators to temper themselves.

This gave rise to a tradition.

All sects would send their low-cultivation disciples to the Outer Circle, allowing them to temper themselves here, where the great waves washed away the sand.

As for the means of sending them over, it was naturally through the Heaven's Mystery Pillar.

The Heaven's Mystery Pillar possessed all sorts of functions, one of which was fixed-point teleportation.

After paying a certain price, the medium- and large-sized sects in the Core Region and Inner Circle could use the Heaven's Mystery Pillar to send their low-cultivation disciples to the Camps of small sects allied with them, allowing them to gain experience in the Outer Circle.

In return, these medium- and large-sized sects would protect the safety of those small sects when appropriate, such as when their sect Camps came under attack.

Thus, the ties between sects throughout the Nine Provinces Continent were extremely close. A major sect often sheltered dozens or even more small sects, while a small sect would also maintain good relations with several major sects.

As he digested this information, Lu Ye gained a clear understanding of his current circumstances.

It had to be said that his luck was indeed good enough. The location where he had appeared after the Sect Master sent him into the Spirit Stream Battlefield was the Outer Circle, and that gave him the capital to continue surviving.

As for Green Cloud Market... there was actually more than one. Green Cloud Mountain was enormous, and there were several markets at its foot, all called Green Cloud Market.

The markets gathered cultivators from all over the Nine Provinces, a mingling of fish and dragons. Not only were there cultivators from the Vast Sky Alliance, there were also those from Myriad Demon Ridge.

The markets had no owner. They were places where cultivators gathered of their own accord, places to trade and rest.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, the markets were fairly safe. Rashly making a move here could easily trigger a massive brawl between cultivators from both sides. There had been several such precedents in the past, where the grievances of one or two people had sparked chaotic battles involving hundreds or thousands, leaving countless dead and wounded. After that, anyone who dared to fight in a market would be besieged and killed by nearby cultivators in an instant.

This was also an unwritten rule, one that cultivators entering the markets generally observed.

Of course, if one had the ability to silently dispose of others without anyone noticing, then one could naturally act without restraint.

But the cultivators in the Outer Circle were not highly cultivated. Who could possess such skill?

This was undoubtedly good news for Lu Ye. At the Spirit Stream First Layer, he had only just met the threshold for entering the Spirit Stream Battlefield. It would not be wrong to say that he was among those with the lowest cultivation in the entire battlefield; whoever he fought, he would not have the advantage.

Following the clues Yiyi had given him, Lu Ye first crossed a small river, then passed through a Chaotic Stone Forest. Only when he reached the foot of the mountain did a region spanning several miles, filled with all kinds of buildings scattered like stars across it, come into view.

Green Cloud Market had arrived!