Sage of Humanity

The beast-taming faction is an interesting school, but the beast-tamers of the Nine Provinces have always taken a misguided path, focusing on beasts, where cultivators are eager to subdue demon beasts, nurture them, and mostly let the demon beasts fight their battles. As a result, the cultivators of the beast-taming faction generally possess rather weak personal power.

This has led to a situation where cultivators of the Nine Provinces' beast-taming faction mostly have more than one demon beast under their command, some have several, and some even ten or twenty.

In the early stages of cultivation, sheer numbers can often easily secure victory after victory, causing cultivators to lose themselves along this incorrect path, investing too much energy in nurturing demon beasts and thereby neglecting their own cultivation.

Therefore, looking across all the Nine Provinces, there are no particularly powerful experts among the beast-taming faction's cultivators, not even comparable to the cover armorers, who, though also obsessed with external things, at least create things that provide support to themselves.

In contrast, the beast-taming faction in the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain is completely different from that of the Nine Provinces.

In the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain, cultivators from the beast-taming faction only ever have one demon beast, which is their natal demon beast bound by life origin and the Beast Seal.

If the beast-tamers of the Nine Provinces focus on beasts, then those in the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain focus on humans, which is the correct direction for the development of the beast-taming faction.

And Beast Transformation is the strongest technique within the beast-taming skill set.

In the secret realm of the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain, within the insect hive of the Black Tortoise Sect, Niu Meng, whom Lu Ye and others encountered, appeared before them in a beast transformation state, and being at the core of the insect hive with vigorous vitality, he almost annihilated the entire squad formed by Lu Ye and the others with his own strength alone. It was only because the Great Elder reminded them to break his Beast Seal and end his beast transformation state that they could even manage to fight.

Being at the same Level 9 cultivation, whether Zhou Hai, Pang Dahai, or Xia Qianqian, their strengths were certainly not weak; especially Zhou Hai, a sword cultivator known for his killing prowess, yet together they were still tremendously battered by Niu Meng; such was the terrifying enhancement brought by beast transformation.

Within the secret realm of the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain, Lu Ye had formed both a life origin bond and a Beast Seal with Amber but had never been able to enter that state until now.

Because that state could not be stimulated so casually; it required a long period of buildup.

The battle against Hea Bing had created an excellent opportunity for him; the instincts to survive, the resolve to kill the enemy, united efforts with Amber, the mingling of each other's blood Qi, spirit force, and demonic power, and the sufficient length of the battle - all were inducements for entering the beast transformation state.

Differently from Niu Meng's transformation that entirely exhibited the traits of a demon beast, representing a deeper level of beast transformation, Lu Ye's current beast transformation wasn't as pronounced, so he did not exhibit any specific demon beast traits; he was merely enveloped in an orange glow that formed tiger ears and a tiger tail.

This sudden change not only startled Hea Bing but even Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan were baffled.

It had only been twenty days since the secret realm of the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain was accessed, and although Lu Ye had sold the Beast Seal Method to the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union where cultivators could buy the secret technique with merits, no cultivator from the beast-taming faction had entered the beast transformation state before this.

Naturally, none of them had seen such a state, and no one knew what was happening.

But instinctively, Hea Bing sensed trouble; post-transformation, Lu Ye's already strong aura climbed to new heights, and his entire presence emitted a wildly fierce feeling. Standing there, with his blood Qi surging and spirit force billowing, he seemed like an ancient ferocious beast just released from its cage, exuding endless ferocity.

In the cave, Yiyi, holding the Nine Arrays Diagram, had been maintaining the operation of the array diagram. The moment Lu Ye entered the beast transformation state, the diagram suddenly rippled, and images within it started showing signs of breaking through the diagram, startling Yiyi. It was a sign that the space within the Nine Arrays Diagram was under too much pressure.

It wasn't that the Nine Arrays Diagram was inadequate, but that her strength wasn't enough to unleash its full potential.

Yiyi quickly increased the output of her own spirit force, smoothing over the ripples and stabilizing the operation of the Nine Arrays Diagram once again.

In the chaotic stone forest, Lu Ye, surrounded by billowing spirit force, felt a strange sensation...

Everything had changed.

Everything around seemed to slow down, he clearly saw the doubt and panic flash across Hea Bing's eyes, saw the blood streaming down Li Baxian's forehead, saw the slow formation of Feng Yuechan's magic and spells...

It wasn't that they had slowed down, but that he had sped up; to be precise, his thought process had quickened, which was why everything else seemed so slow in comparison.

Suddenly, Hea Bing thrust his spear, Li Baxian was sent flying back, and the long spear shot towards Lu Ye like a dragon.

He felt the unease.

Originally, Lu Ye's strength enhancement was already abnormal; he had thought that as long as he could stabilize the situation, he could win, but now with this sudden turn of events, Lu Ye's strength seemed to have increased again and he didn't dare to hold his ground anymore, immediately changing his strategy to take proactive action. He didn't hold Li Baxian or Feng Yuechan in high regard, given the clear gap in their cultivation; it was especially Lu Ye, who, despite the even larger gap in cultivation levels, filled him with immense dread.

"Here it comes, here it comes, quickly strike him down!"

Just as Hea Bing thrust his spear, a voice suddenly rang out deep within Lu Ye's mind. That voice sounded like that of a toddler, milkily fierce.

Lu Ye had just lifted his Boulder Mountain Saber ready to block the spear, startled by this sudden voice, the force he had been gathering abruptly drained by a third.

With a clang, sparks flew, and Lu Ye's figure drifted backwards.

Seizing the advantage, Hea Bing didn't relent, his long spear fluttering with spear flowers as he covered Lu Ye with attacks, his heart slightly settled. Initially seeing Lu Ye in such a posture, he thought his strength had greatly increased, but after crossing hands, he realized the other party was only so-so.

He had made a mountain out of a molehill.

Clang clang clang, after a failed move, Lu Ye kept retreating, his Boulder Mountain Saber slashing, lifting, and stabbing, blocking the attacks coming from Hea Bing, looking quite beleaguered.

While he was fighting, the voice in the depth of his mind kept ringing continuously.

"Left side, left side..."

"Here comes the right, oh, that cut was hideous..."

"Chop him, not his spear. What's the use of chopping the spear? It's driving me crazy."

"Stab him, stab his belly, pierce his chest, do you even know how to fight!"

"Great opportunity, bite his neck, quick, quick, quick..."

That fiercely fierce voice chattered on and on. Every time Lu Ye made a cut, there was a comment. Initially, Lu Ye hadn't understood what was happening, but when the voice told him to bite the neck, he immediately realized.

"Amber?"

"Huh?"

It really was this guy!

Lu Ye had never imagined that after his transformation, he could clearly hear Amber's voice—or rather, it wasn't Amber speaking aloud, but a form of mental activity.

When Amber shape-changed years ago, it chose to change its physical size. Although it couldn't transform into a human form or speak human language, it was very perceptive and could understand human speech. Now, in Lu Ye's beast transformation state, he could clearly perceive all these mental activities.

He was caught between laughter and tears. After spending so much time with Amber, he never knew it had such a personality.

"Shut up!"

"Oh!"

Amber complied and fell silent.

At that moment, a ferocious smile appeared on Hea Bing's face. He had thought his opponent had used some terrifying secret technique that greatly increased his power, but upon actually crossing spears, he realized that was all there was to it.

Under the oppressive might of his storm-like spear technique, the combat cultivator could only defend without any chance to counterattack.

If it weren't for that magic cultivator and sword cultivator distracting him, Hea Bing was confident he could take the life of the combat cultivator within ten spears.

Just as he thought this, Lu Ye suddenly lashed out with his saber, the fierce spirit force exploding and directly deflecting Hea Bing's long spear.

Feeling the force transmitted through his spear, Hea Bing's expression subtly changed.

Before he could react, Lu Ye had closed in, charging forward. In Hea Bing's reflected vision, he felt that what was rushing towards him was not a man, but a fierce tiger descending a mountain.

The relentless brutal onslaught turned Hea Bing's expression from suspicion to terror, as the combat cultivator seemed to have transformed into a completely different person, exhibiting even greater strength than before.

Swords clashed with the spear, blood splattered, some from Lu Ye, and some from Hea Bing.

Before this fight, except for a scar left by Li Baxian on Hea Bing's face, Hea Bing hadn't been injured, until now.

The enhancement brought by the Bloodstain Spirit Runes gave Lu Ye the strength close to a Level 5 realm, nearly a match for Hea Bing.

Under the beast transformation, with a further increase, he naturally surpassed Hea Bing.

Moreover, within the state of beast transformation, Lu Ye's mentality was influenced by Amber's animalistic nature, each strike more wildly ferocious than ever before, a fight-to-the-death style that left Hea Bing struggling to cope.

With the tide of battle turning, Feng Yuechan and Li Baxian's eyes brightened, and they hastened to use their magic and spells and flying swords to cover Lu Ye.

This further complicated Hea Bing's situation.

Before, it was he who had relentlessly pressured Lu Ye, but now the situation had completely reversed, and he was forced to retreat by the trio.

Sensing the danger, Hea Bing hurriedly spoke, "Must we fight to the death? How about we stop here?"

He had never expected to find himself asking for a truce in this battle, which he thought was like meat delivered to his mouth. But now, these three pieces of 'meat' could actually threaten his life.

By this point, he could no longer underestimate Lu Ye and the others.

Hearing Hea Bing's words, Lu Ye remained silent. The battle had come to this point, it was naturally a matter of life or death. Besides, the beast transformation state definitely couldn't last much longer. He was relying on the beast transformation and Bloodstain Spirit Runes to fight Hea Bing. If they were to stop now, once the effects wore off and he returned to the strength of Level 3, what if Hea Bing went back on his word? How could he hold him accountable then?

Moreover, he didn't want to reveal the secret of the teleportation array, and Hea Bing had also recognized Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan. Letting him live would only increase their own risks.

So no matter what, Hea Bing must die!