With a flip of her hand, a tracking disc appeared in her palm. She raised her hand to bite her fingertip, writing the three characters of Lu Yiye on the tracking disc. The needle spun a bit and pointed in a certain direction.

That direction was precisely where Bingzhou was located.

The tracking disc was rare and difficult to obtain, but not entirely unobtainable. Most top big sects in the Nine Provinces had tracking discs as spares.

The one in Yu Daiwei's hand was bestowed by the Venerable Lord. If it weren't to capture that boy quickly, she would be reluctant to use it.

Pointing toward Bingzhou was also normal, as Lu Yiye was from Bingzhou. Now, having returned to the Nine Provinces from some small secret realm, he would definitely head to Bingzhou.

She did not think this mission would be too difficult. Nowadays, with the world in turmoil and cultivators scattered everywhere, capturing a True Lake Realm cultivator herself wasn't a challenging task—something she had done once before.

Yu Daiwei activated her spirit force and hurried towards Bingzhou. With her cultivation at the Divine Sea Level 8, her speed was quite fast.

At this moment, on a spirit mountaintop, Mount Tai stood with his hands behind his back, observing the clouds rolling and gathering below.

He, as powerful as he was, was caught off guard by the various changes in the Nine Provinces in the past two years. The sudden outbreak of the insect plague forced him to make many changes to his plans.

But the core of his grand plan remained unchanged and unalterable.

The outbreak of the insect plague was a crisis for the Nine Provinces. Without the large number of Nine Provinces cultivators, the world might already have been in ruins.

But for him, it was an opportunity!

A great opportunity to win over people's hearts.

The Nine Provinces, plagued by insects for two years, brought both commoners and cultivators to their wits' end. If someone or a force could emerge at such a time to solve the insect plague, they would surely gain immense prestige.

He wanted to create a third faction beyond the Haotian Alliance and Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, to eliminate the endless strife between the two major factions, which required the courage and strength to break the existing order.

He had courage, and although he lacked a bit of power, it was not a significant issue. The key was timing.

The outbreak of the Nine Provinces' insect plague indeed disrupted his original plans, but it also presented a great opportunity in front of him.

However, before executing this plan, he needed the assistance of one person, because only that person had the ability to use that exotic treasure, get Heaven's Augury's permission, and establish the third faction.

Last time, he wasn't qualified because the timing wasn't right. But now the timing has come; there's no need to test, as Mount Tai also knows that person already has the qualification to use that exotic treasure.

This was a feeling in the midst of mingming; at his level of cultivation, many times, feelings were the truth.

As long as he brings him over and explains the situation, borrowing his power to create Chaos, and using Chaos as the capital to solve the Nine Provinces' insect plague, Chaos will be qualified to stand in the world. He believed the Haotian Alliance and Ten Thousand Demons Ridge wouldn't be so base as to turn against them after crossing the bridge.

Establishing Chaos is just the first step. There are too many cultivators in this world tired of the endless confrontation between the two major factions. Once the name of Chaos is out there, coupled with the great merit of solving the insect plague, who's afraid that no one will join?

By then, slowly eroding the foundations of the two major factions will gradually change the landscape of the Nine Provinces.

This is not something that can be accomplished in a short time; it's a long-term plan that requires lasting for hundreds of years, even a few centuries.

Mount Tai has ambitions and has long been accustomed to waiting.

In the Heaven's Augury Hall at the Dark Moon Forest Pass, Lu Ye spent a large amount of merit to exchange for some Spirit Stones and elixir pills. These cultivation resources were usually not much use to him, at most just recovery after a big battle. However, having experienced the Blood Refinement World, Lu Ye knew it was better to have more of these things, as one never knows when they might come in handy.

In addition, he also bought many spiritual and magic artifacts, all meant for the sword gourd to devour.

The Sword Qi within the sword gourd was running low. As Li Taibai now, to use sword cultivator methods, the sword gourd was his most reliant object.

Nearly a million points of merit, leaving only a hundred thousand as reserve, the rest were spent in a short amount of time.

Then Lu Ye connected with the Hall of Battle Merits.

Soon he stood in front of the heavy door, and the gold and silver flood dragons immediately awoke. The silver flood dragon poked its head out from inside the door, extremely eager: "Little guy, why haven't you visited us for such a long time? Haven't you forgotten about us?"

In these two years, the two flood dragons had been extremely anxious, not because they coveted the food Lu Ye brought each time, but because they didn't want to lose the one person they had finally waited for. Not seeing Lu Ye for two years, the two flood dragons thought he had encountered some misfortune.

Finally seeing Lu Ye appear, the silver flood dragon was naturally delighted, and even the usually more stable gold flood dragon's eyes showed concern.

Lu Ye smiled and said, "How could I forget you two, seniors? It's just that I've been caught in a predicament recently, unable to escape, but now that I'm free, I've come to pay a visit to you both."

"At least you have a conscience," the silver flood dragon relaxed.

However, the gold flood dragon sensed something amiss: "Did you encounter a strong enemy? Why has the method we left in your Divine Sea been broken?"

"You could say that," Lu Ye didn't bother to explain in detail.

The gold flood dragon was even more surprised: "You... have advanced to the Divine Sea?"

It's not been that long since Lu Ye last came here at True Lake Level 5. Even knowing Lu Ye is favored by Heaven's Augury, the speed of his cultivation is terrifying.

Lu Ye took out the beast meat he had just bought from his storage sack and tossed it to the two flood dragons. The silver flood dragon immediately started munching it, mumbling indistinctly, "Delicious, really delicious."

It always looks like a famished ghost reincarnated, whereas the gold flood dragon is undoubtedly much more composed.

"You two enjoy your meal first. I'll go check inside," Lu Ye said with a slight smile, not mentioning the idea of having the two flood dragons set up the Twin Dragons Guarding the Sea technique in his Divine Sea again.

No need anymore.

Previously, he hadn't ascended to the Divine Sea, and though he had luckily nurtured a soul body and awakened a Mental Consciousness, it wasn't a true Divine Sea realm, and couldn't be compared to a real Divine Sea realm.

When the flood dragons applied their technique, it was more effective at repelling some Mental Consciousness attacks from strong cultivators in the Divine Sea realm.

But now that he's ascended to the Divine Sea, he doesn't need external assistance anymore. Moreover, his Divine Sea houses the Soul Suppressing Pagoda, so ordinary Mental Consciousness attacks are nothing for him to worry about.

Pushing open the grand doors, Lu Ye stepped into the Hall of Battle Merits.

This time, he didn't have any particular needs, spending 30,000 battle merit points to replenish the consumption of the Mental Consciousness Destruction Sword.

In the Blood Refinement World, the Mental Consciousness Destruction Sword was a great help. Without it, Lu Ye couldn't have torn through Dao Thirteen's psyche defense and planted the Soul Taming Divine Runes on him. In such an environment, his cultivation was suppressed, and he likely faced several dangers that were difficult to resist.

At least in the early stages of the Blood Refinement World, having Dao Thirteen helped him avoid many unnecessary troubles and made things much easier for him.

Since he has now ascended to the Divine Sea, he will inevitably have to contend with Divine Sea realm cultivators in the future, so the Mental Consciousness Destruction Sword becomes even more crucial. However, though it is sharp, it is a one-time exotic treasure and needs to be replenished at the Hall of Battle Merits afterwards, which is quite inconvenient.

He spent 30,000 of his more than a million battle merits, not even a fraction of the total, and then Lu Ye prepared to exchange some gold-hued spirit fortune sticks.

Thanks to the senior experts of the Blood Refinement World, his cultivation in the Divine Sea Level 1 realm had long been solidified, so Lu Ye planned to further enhance his cultivation. Of course, there's no need to rush; he'll go with the flow.

However, before Lu Ye could exchange for the gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, he keenly noticed that there had been some changes in the number of stone platforms inside the Hall of Battle Merits.

Having repeatedly entered and exited the Hall of Battle Merits, though he hadn't counted the number of stone platforms, he had a clear sense of their arrangement.

At a particular position, there were now more stone platforms than before.

This wasn't the first time such a thing happened; as Lu Ye's cultivation enhanced, the Hall of Battle Merits often housed items he had never seen before, all of considerable value.

Lu Ye usually just looked without much interest. Firstly, although he earned battle merits easily, their consumption was also considerable, and his rapid enhancement in strength relied heavily on pouring battle merits into it.

Secondly, although these treasures are valuable, they are ultimately external items.

Comparatively, Lu Ye prefers exchanging gold-hued spirit fortune sticks to boost his cultivation.

Relying on external force is normal for a cultivator, but one shouldn't overly depend on external force, which is why besides the Boulder Mountain Saber, he has only the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit. The original reason for exchanging the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit was considering the body expansion during beast transformation state.

If it weren't for this consideration, he wouldn't have exchanged for even the Crimson Dragon Battle Suit.

Though he doesn't intend to exchange anything this time, there's no harm in taking a look, just to broaden his horizons. If someone uses these items against him in the future, he'll at least know what they are and better target them.

He stepped up to those stone platforms and gazed at one of them, raising his eyebrows.

Because placed on the stone platform was a saber!

Its style was plain and ordinary, much like a machete that could be found anywhere in the mundane world.

Seeing such an item, Lu Ye instantly lost interest. Undeniably, the saber placed here is of far higher quality than the Boulder Mountain Saber, possibly reaching the level of a spirit treasure.

But Lu Ye is accustomed to using the Boulder Mountain Saber, already having formed a bond with it. With one saber in hand, he can unleash his full strength, whereas switching to another unfamiliar saber, even if its quality is superior, even if it looks identical to the Boulder Mountain Saber, it's useless if it doesn't feel right when wielded.

In the Hall of Battle Merits, there are several sword-type treasures, all superior to the Boulder Mountain Saber. If Lu Ye wanted to switch, he would have done so long ago, not waiting until today.

So upon seeing that it's a saber, Lu Ye lost the will to investigate further.

Yet before he could avert his gaze, the saber suddenly wriggled and morphed into a mass of jet-black fluid, not liquid, appearing much denser, akin to the state of certain metals once melted.

The fluid continued to wriggle and transform, in the blink of an eye taking on the shape of another saber.

Lu Ye was greatly intrigued.

He observed intently for a moment, noting that the object was constantly changing forms, albeit always in the shape of a saber.

Only then did Lu Ye become genuinely interested, investigating the specific information about this object.