Dong Shuye had originally wanted to search for Lu Ye's body, but the message from the battlefield marking left him in a state of chaos. How could he still care about Lu Ye?
Cao Ye sent another message, containing only three simple words.
"Danger, return immediately!"
He had previously received a message from Cao Ye, informing him that the Xuanmen cultivators had come to attack the Nine Stars Sect camp. However, he was not panicked, as attacking a sect's camp was no simple matter. According to his estimate, even if Xuanmen deployed all its forces, their own camp's big array could hold for a day or two.
This time was sufficient for him to kill Lu Ye and then rush back.
But in such a short time, Cao Ye had unexpectedly sent such a message, which showed that the situation at the camp must indeed be dire.
He hurriedly made his way back, while attempting to contact Cao Ye to get a clearer picture of the situation. However, it was like a stone dropped into the sea, with absolutely no response at all.
Beneath the water, Lu Ye was groggy, his spirit force nearly depleted, with a large amount of blood water churning around him, along with some broken limbs and flesh.
Only after entering the water did he discover that there was actually another person underwater, apparently collecting something.
Both were startled upon seeing each other.
Lu Ye had no time to explain anything to this person. After steadying himself underwater, he immediately activated the Defense Spirit Runes above his head. Then, several Golden Arc Slashes penetrated through the water layer and attacked.
The unfamiliar cultivator did not even make a sound before he was chopped to pieces, truly suffering an unwarranted disaster. The Defense Spirit Runes above Lu Ye's head also shattered explosively after blocking one strike, but fortunately, the remaining Golden Arcs did not hit him.
The attack soon stopped, but he dared not surface, unable to ascertain Dong Shuye's movements. Fighting back exhaustion and pain throughout his body, he moved stealthily underwater for several moments until he nearly ran out of breath, then he awkwardly surfaced.
Barely taking a deep breath, he swiftly dived down again, continuing to struggle forward underwater.
After several such occurrences, Lu Ye was utterly exhausted. However, what made him feel fortunate was that Dong Shuye seemed to have stopped attacking him.
A quarter of an hour later, just as Lu Ye was surfacing again, a strong force suddenly came from behind, and he was fiercely struck by something.
He already had injuries on his back, and given his extremely poor condition, this impact almost knocked him unconscious.
Instinctively thinking that Dong Shuye had come to attack again, Lu Ye pulled out the long knife from his waist and hacked back.
There was no person, only a piece of dead wood, which he split into two. It was this piece of dead wood that had hit him.
Looking around, he could no longer see Dong Shuye.
Lu Ye held the knife in his hand, bewildered. Where is this guy? A Level 7 cultivator came to hunt him down, pushed him to a dead end—there's no reason for him to just give up...
But after searching for a long time, he still didn't see Dong Shuye, and he could be certain that this guy really had left.
He quickly realized something. Earlier, under that pool, a cultivator was killed by Dong Shuye. Could it be that he thought he had succeeded?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Moreover, with Xuanmen already attacking the Nine Stars Sect camp, Dong Shuye probably hadn't the mood to carefully investigate the underwater conditions and, confirming he had killed a person, left in a hurry.
Did that let him escape this calamity?
Gathering his thoughts, Lu Ye felt a weight lift off his chest. An overwhelming tide of fatigue and pain swept over him, and his body uncontrollably sank back into the water.
He quickly raised his hand and grabbed the piece of dead wood, laboriously floating up.
His consciousness was fading, at any moment he might fall unconscious. However, Lu Ye knew that if he passed out now, he might never wake up again, as he was severely injured this time.
Trembling, his right hand fumbled in his storage sack for a jade vial. Opening the mouth of the vial, not caring how many healing pills were inside, he dumped them all into his mouth, chewed them up, and swallowed.
He wanted to switch his cultivation technique to the Bestial Gluttony Feast to speed up the absorption and refinement of the pill energy, but his spirit force was nearly depleted, each spiritual orifice had dried up, and even the Golden Cicada Carefree Method had ceased to operate. How could he have any energy left to switch cultivation techniques?
All he could do was use all his strength to tie his clothing around a dead tree.
Hopefully, he wouldn't drown and become a joke.
As his last thought emerged, darkness enveloped Lu Ye's vision, and he completely lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, Lu Ye found himself face down on a bed. After a brief moment of confusion, an indescribable pain swept over him.
Surprisingly, there was someone sitting beside him, a faint fragrance lingered at his nostrils, and from the corner of his eyes, he could tell by her voluptuous figure that it was a woman.
Not only did he feel pain on his back, but there was also a tingling sensation, along with faint ripples of spirit force and flashing green light...
Had someone saved him? He remembered binding himself to that dead tree with his clothing before he passed out; he should have drifted with the currents, yet here he was in this place, clearly saved by someone.
He made no sound because he didn't know who had saved him, quietly sensing the state of his own body.
The situation was dire. His spirit force hadn't recovered, and his injuries were severe; not only did his back have a deep gash, but his chest and hands were all burned.
Such injuries would have been fatal for an ordinary person, but as a cultivator, he could still hang on, especially since he had consumed several healing pills just before losing consciousness, and they had indeed taken effect.
But the situation was still not hopeful.
"Your breathing has changed," a pleasant voice suddenly entered his ears, very soft in its feel, "Being cautious of strangers is proper, but if I wanted to kill you, you would have died long ago."
Lu Ye was somewhat embarrassed, at a loss for words, unsure of what to say.
A fair hand suddenly stretched out in front of him as the woman said, "Even though I saved you, I still need to confirm which faction you belong to."
As she spoke, a pale blue light emanated from the back of her small hand, showing her allegiance proactively.
This made Lu Ye feel relieved, and he slightly stimulated the sparse remaining spirit force inside him, causing a pale blue light to appear on the back of his hand as well.
"Then I haven't saved the wrong person," the woman said in a gentle tone.
But Lu Ye was certain that if he hadn't shown the battlefield marking's luster just now, or if the light it emitted had been red, she would have definitely dealt him a lethal blow!
In the Spirit Stream battlefield, belonging to different factions was reason enough for conflict, and there was absolutely no room for sympathy or mercy.
The tingling sensation on his back became more apparent, and the green light flickered even more frequently.
It took a while for the fluctuations of spirit force behind him to cease, followed by the woman applying something to his wound that caused Lu Ye to sweat profusely from the pain.
After applying it, she attached something to the wound on Lu Ye's back; he couldn't see it, but it was probably something like a plaster.
Having done all this, the woman finally stood up and said, "You're severely injured; don't move around for now, it will affect the recovery of the wounds."
The woman said, "It was Spirit Jade who found you and brought you back." With that, she left.
Only then did Lu Ye get a glimpse of the woman's profile. Perhaps out of gratitude for being saved, she seemed as beautiful as a fairy, especially with her full, high bosom. Her hands poised in front of her lower abdomen, she moved with grace.