Yang Ye gains were extremely abundant. There were over 7,000 energy stones, and the amount of King Rank Inner Cores even shocked Yang Ye slightly because there was an entire 236 of them. In other words, around half of the corpses lying on the ground had the qualifications to participate in the second round of the competition!

If they weren’t greedy and returned to the Imperial Capital, then they would probably bad quite a good future ahead of them. Unfortunately, they were unable to return forever, and all their hard work during these days had benefitted Yang Ye instead!

Of course, Yang Ye didn’t feel any guilt. What a joke! If he wasn’t at the Grand Myriad Mountains and if he didn’t possess the Darkbeast army, then perhaps it would be him, Yang Ye, who was unable to return!

Besides the energy stones and Inner Cores, there was one more thing that pleasantly surprised Yang Ye. It was a technique in Nangong Yan’s spatial ring, and it was the low-grade Earth Rank technique that Nangong Yan had executed earlier — Invisible Arc!

It was a low-grade Earth Rank technique! So, how could Yang Ye not be delighted? After all, he possessed very few combat techniques now. The Energy Split Sword Technique and Sword Qi Finger were already insufficient against those monstrous geniuses while only his Reactive Strike, the Sword Control Technique, and the Dragonbreaker that he’d never executed were still offensively viable!

Since he participated in the Ascension Rankings, Yang Ye noticed that only Earth Rank techniques were suitable to be utilized against those geniuses from the top powers of the southern territory. Moreover, since he participated in the Ascension Rankings, his Reactive Strike that had never failed in the past had practically never succeeded against the geniuses of those top powers.

On the other hand, practically all the combat techniques utilized by these geniuses were Earth Rank techniques while their Dark Treasures were of the Earth Rank as well. Just like Wenren Yue’s Earth Rank defensive Dark Treasure. If he didn’t utilize his full strength, then he would probably be unable to injure her at all even if she just stood there and allowed him to attack her.

So, besides the fact that they really possessed extremely great natural talent, the reason that the Ascension Rankings was a stage that was practically exclusive to the genius disciples of the six great powers and Grand Qin Empire was because of their cultivation techniques and combat techniques!

To put it simply, while the strengths of an independent cultivator and disciple of a sect were more or less the same, but the difference in their equipment was like the difference between the heavens and the earth, then who would be superior in battle?

Yang Ye shook his head, restrained his thoughts, and flashed towards the south.

He’d originally decided to go around plundering, but he’d changed his decision now. There was still half a month of time before the first round of the Ascension Rankings came to an end. He intended to utilize this period to learn the Earth Rank movement technique and the Invisible Arc he’d just obtained. He’d met practically all the monstrous geniuses that would be participating, and he’d even fought some of them. Truthfully speaking, even if he possessed the Enlightened Sword Heart and Sword Intent at the 3rd level, he still wasn’t confident in his ability to defeat those monstrous geniuses!

Especially Yuan Tong. Yuan Tong was already so formidable after just revealing the tip of the iceberg. If he were to encounter Yuan Tong during the second round, then it was clearly impossible to defeat Yuan Tong by relying solely upon his Sword Intent. So, Yang Ye had decided to utilize this half a month of time to learn those two Earth Rank techniques!

Before long, Yang Ye found a place to cultivate at.

Yang Ye was at a bamboo forest, and there was a precipitous mountain at its south. A pool resided at the bottom of the mountain and water surged down from above, causing water to spray into the surroundings.

As he stood at the side of the pool. Yang Ye was just about to cultivate. However, right at this moment, the violet mink on his shoulder suddenly flashed and appeared in front of him. It waved the Spirit Rank Inner Core in its hand, and then pointed at itself before finally pointing at Yang Ye’s stomach....

“You intend to absorb the energy within that right now?” asked Yang Ye.

The violet mink hurriedly nodded.

Yang Ye pondered deeply for a moment, and then he said, “Don’t do anything dangerous and don’t be impatient. Take it slow. Understand?”

The violet mink blinked, and then it flashed to the front of Yang Ye’s head before it touched its forehead against Yang Ye’s forehead, and then it transformed into a strand of violet light that entered Yang Ye’s Vortex Dantian.

After it entered his Vortex Dantian, the violet mink descended into the pool of golden profound energy amidst the envious gazes of all the other Darkbeasts in the surroundings. After that, a strand of violet light suddenly appeared around it before strands of seemingly material energy from within the fist sized Spirit Rank Inner Core and golden profound energy from the pool surged swiftly towards the little fellow.

In next to no time, the violet mink seemed like a vortex that caused the golden profound energy and energy within the Spirit Rank Inner Core to surge madly towards it.

When they witnessed this scene, the envy in the eyes of all the other Darkbeasts grew even deeper!

Yang Ye opened his eyes, shook his head and smiled. Looks like I was being too worried. Even though the little fellow is unreliable on many occasions, it ought to not act rashly when it comes to things like improving its strength.

Of course, that might not be the case when it was towards Yang Ye....

Yang Ye restrained his thoughts, and then he waved his hand, causing the four Shadowhunter Leopards to appear in front of him. He gazed at them and said in a low voice, “Stand on guard in the surroundings. Don’t allow any human or Darkbeast to enter here!”

They were fully aware of this human’s status in the violet mink’s heart, so the four of them didn’t dare offend Yang Ye. They exchanged glances before they ran towards the surroundings.

After he watched them leave, Yang Ye walked slowly towards the pool, and then he sat down cross-legged and withdrew the Earth Rank movement technique, the Clone Illusion Technique. Presently, he lacked movement type techniques the most. If his Gale Steps didn’t possess the boost provided by the Gale Shoes, then it would be entirely useless before those monstrous geniuses!

So, the first thing he chose to cultivate was the Clone Illusion Technique!

Time gradually flowed by, and in the blink of an eye, 10 days had passed.

In the bamboo forest, Yang Ye’s eyes closed slightly. At a certain moment in time, he suddenly opened them, and then his right leg moved slightly. In an instant, his figure transformed into an afterimage as he shot explosively towards a bamboo around 20m away. Because his speed was too swift, the bamboo all along his path seemed as if they’d been struck by a gale and swayed from left to right!

When he arrived 3m away from that bamboo, Yang Ye’s eyes narrowed as he shouted. “Split!”

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure suddenly shook before a clone that was exactly similar in appearance to Yang Ye appeared on his left. Yang Ye twisted his wrist, drew Violet Spirit, and swiftly slashed at the bamboo in front of him; on the other hand, his clone acted in exactly the same way!

Bang!

Along with a flash of sword light, the bamboo in front of Yang Ye was instantly split into two, and a deep mark of the sword appeared on the ground!

Right at this moment, the clone on Yang Ye’s left suddenly started becoming illusory, and it grew more and more translucent before it finally dispersed in the air after two breaths of time had passed.

Yang Ye shook his head and laughed bitterly as he gazed at the clone that had dispersed into the air. Regardless of whether it was movements or appearance, the clone wasn’t much different from him, and the only difference was in terms of imposing aura. Since he’d comprehended Sword Intent, he possessed a sharp and fierce imposing aura, but the clones didn’t.

Simply speaking, the clone had form but no spirit! If he encountered someone who was truly formidable, then that person would definitely see through the clone!

However, at this moment, Yang Ye couldn’t do anything about it. Earth Rank techniques were difficult to learn. As a genius disciple of the Origin School, Yuan Ye had probably obtained this technique a very long time ago. However, he’d merely been able to cultivate it to the 4th level and formed four clones, whereas, Yang Ye had merely cultivated it for 10 days of time. It was entirely because of his golden profound energy that he was able to form a clone in 10 days of time!

Because the formation of clones had an extremely high requirement for the quality of profound energy one possessed. If one’s profound energy wasn’t pure, then it was extremely difficult to form a clone! On the other hand, the purity of his golden profound energy just happened to conform very well to this technique’s requirements. So, that was the reason why he was able to form a clone in 10 days of time, but that was the extent of it.

Yang Ye hadn’t arrived at the level of being able to cultivate something that others needed a few years to cultivate in just 10 days of time.

As for the Invisible Arc technique, it was just like the Clone Illusion Technique. He’d merely gained elementary proficiency. Even though it was merely elementary proficiency, the might revealed by it pleasantly surprised Yang Ye. Because when it was boosted by his Sword Intent, the Invisible Arc’s might and speed weren’t inferior to Nangong Yan! Especially its mysterious ability to go invisible. When it was utilized in conjunction with the Hidden Sword, then in terms of mysteriousness, it was already completely on par with the violet mink’s violet light!

In short, these 10 days of bitter cultivation allowed him to gain extremely great gains!

Yang Ye took a deep breath and immersed his mind into the Vortex Dantian within him. The violet mink was still absorbing the golden profound energy and the energy within the Spirit Rank Inner Core. During these 10 days of time, the violet light that enveloped the violet mink had turned dark violet, and the terrifying aura that flowed out from within it caused all the Darkbeasts that were originally near the pool to retreat far away!

Obviously, he wasn’t the only one that had obtained pretty good gains in the last 10 days, and the little fellow had as well!

Roar!

Right at this moment, a furious roar suddenly resounded from afar on the right!

That’s the roar of a Shadowhunter Leopard! Yang Ye’s eyes narrowed. A human or Darkbeast has come here?