Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-101

Fei Ling Mountain finally quieted down, the flying dust had gradually settled, and so the scene at the mountain top also appeared in front of everyone’s eyes.

Right now, the cultivators were mainly divided into four groups.

Zhen Ling Group had 29 cultivators left; they occupied the east side of the cave-dwelling.

Xuan Ling Group had 32 cultivators, and they were west of the cave-dwelling.

Hai Yan-Shui Yan Group and several familiar cultivators formed the third group. They had 20 cultivators and were on the south side.

Lastly, about 30 cultivators from the other sects were standing on the north.

Several cultivators had also scattered around the cave-dwelling, and more cultivators were still entering Fei Ling Mountain from the other parts of Fei Ling Island.

The array formation of this cave-dwelling was definitely stronger than Lu Ping had ever seen before. It was so formidable that its light cloaked the cave-dwelling entirely; no one could see through it.

Therefore, the cultivators couldn’t pinpoint its entrance. They could only try their luck to occupy a position nearby, hoping that the entrance would be in front of them.

This array was different from Fei Ling Mountain’s protective array formation. The latter was highly durable; not only would it not break even if an opening was made, but it would also gradually repair the gap and restore itself. On the contrary, this array formation would shatter wholly when a point was broken through.

The cultivators locked in a stalemate surrounded the cave-dwelling, and no one was willing to attack first. Bored, Lu Ping shifted his focus to his surroundings at the mountain top.

He noticed that the source of the water stream came from the center of the peak not far away from their position. The spiritual energy there was highly concentrated—the large spirit vein’s main branch was seemingly located there.

Lu Ping suddenly understood why he was able to encounter seven spirit herb gardens and an Early Core Forging Realm cave-dwelling on his way here. The water stream was filled with the spirit vein’s spiritual energy, which attracted the Fei Ling cultivators to cultivate their spirit herb gardens on the banks.

Lu Ping’s heart trembled. The spiritual energy in the water stream was particularly concentrated, especially at the source. The concentration of spiritual energy was far beyond that of the spring in his cave-dwelling. He decided to bring back some water for his spirit herb garden, otherwise, it’d be a waste for the spirit water here to just flow through the stream for nothing.

Lu Ping took out a jade bottle mystic instrument, which he looted from the Cultivator Sharing Union cultivators back during his time in the Blood Refining Realm. The jade bottle was only low grade, so its defensive and offensive capabilities were lacking. However, it was a rare storage mystic instrument, even though the capacity wasn’t large either.

The only reason he’d kept this low-grade mystic instrument until now was because it had a special feature—it could prevent the leakage of spiritual energy from the contents stored inside. Because of this feature, Lu Ping had been using it to hold the spirit spring water to water his garden and the like.

Lu Ping cast up the jade bottle and filled it to the brim with spirit water from the source. He couldn’t help feeling regretful—he should have upgraded the jade bottle into a mid-grade or even high-grade mystic instrument earlier. That way, he could store more spirit water inside it.

Long before Lu Ping reached the mountain top, he had already let Dabao loose. But unfortunately, the mountain was under the double-layered protection from the island’s forbidden array formation and the mountain’s protective array formation.

Therefore, Dabao wasn’t able to penetrate through the array formation and go deep underground. Lu Ping’s plan to collect more Spirit Gathering Pearls had failed before it took flight. He quietly comforted himself that it wasn’t possible for one to have all the good things in life.

Some time later, the stalemate before the cave-dwelling was finally broken. It happened too quickly, no one knew who started attacking the array formation first, but one thing they knew with certainty was that they couldn’t afford to fall behind.

All kinds of mystic instruments and spells were cast to attack the array formation; the noise from the attacks and the shouts from the cultivators reverberated through the mountain top while the cave-dwelling’s array formation shuddered.

This time, Lu Ping chose to keep a low profile; he only joined the attacks with his mid-grade Flying Swallow Sword.

Suddenly, Wei Zi-Heng conducted his voice to Lu Ping alone and said, “Junior Brother Lu, your arcane energy is the strongest among the martial siblings. When the array formation breaks, you will take the lead to gather valuables in the cave-dwelling. The rest of us will help you obstruct the other cultivators. This plan is only known to the eleven of us from Zhen Ling Sect, no one else knows about it.”

Lu Ping nodded silently. He knew that when faced with the temptations of the Core Forging Realm’s cave-dwelling, even the allied cultivators in the group weren’t reliable anymore. Perhaps, Wei Zi-Heng and the rest already noticed this when they were exploring the previous cave-dwellings.

As Fei Ling Island’s closing time was drawing nearer, all of the cultivators gave their best effort. In just two hours, the protective array formation was extremely weakened. At the same time, the atmosphere between the cultivators grew increasingly tense and the air stiffened up.

Unknown to the rest of Zhen Ling Group, Lu Ping was silently moved to the front of the formation by the Zhen Ling cultivators.

No one knew who delivered the final blow—a loud explosive noise rumbled in their ears and the array formation shattered like an egg shell before their eyes. Then, the cave-dwelling was finally revealed in front of them.

The entrance was on the south side, much to the joy of the Hai Yan-Shui Yan Group. Lu Ping had already shot out like a nocked arrow let loose.

The Hai Yan cultivators and Shui Yan cultivators no longer cared about the friendly relationship between their sects. They hurried to the entrance and started competing to enter the cave-dwelling first.

Behind them, the other cultivators were naturally unwilling to fall behind, they too were rushing towards the entrance. No one knew who threw the first punch, but a few dozen mystic instruments were hurled towards the two leading sects. Although the group of cultivators were prepared, the sudden seige still left five bodies behind.

The situation plunged into chaos again. The settled dust was blown off the ground and everyone’s vision was covered again. The surroundings became blurry and obscure.

While Lu Ping rushed out, his martial siblings from Zhen Ling Sect followed closely behind him. They blocked any incoming attacks from the front and the sides.

Lu Ping had a mid-grade water-element defensive mystic instrument that he looted from a slain cultivator and cast it above his head. Casting the Soaring Wing Swords in front of him, he blocked any attacks that slipped past the Zhen Ling cultivators’ defenses.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the front of the cave-dwelling, but they weren’t headed for the entrance.

Lu Ping waved his left hand and like a battering ram with unstoppable momentum, Landslide crushed a big hole in the cave-dwelling’s wall. He rushed through the hole into the front hall and immediately encountered two cultivators. They were cultivators from Hai Yan Sect and Shui Yan Pavilion, and also the first ones to enter the cave-dwelling.

Lu Ping saw there were three pathways that led diagonally down to the deeper parts of the cave-dwelling. He didn’t hesitate and chose to rush down the middle pathway, completely ignoring the pair.

Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted from the wall to the west. Clearly, the Xuan Ling Group was inspired by Zhen Ling Sect’s method. The Hai Yan Sect and Shui Yan Pavilion cultivators exchanged glances and each chose a pathway to go into.

Closely behind them was Zhang Wei-Qing who entered through the hole on the west wall. He looked at the three pathways and instinctively chose the middle pathway—it was commonly known that the greatest harvest would be found there. But suddenly, he thought of something and chose the pathway on the left instead.

Hai Yan and Shui Yan cultivators rushed in from the entrance, the Zhen Ling cultivators entered through the east hole, and soon both were tangled in a chaotic battle. The Xuan Ling cultivators entering through the west hole quickly joined the battlefield.

The other cultivators also broke through the walls and intermingled with the other cultivators battling in the front hall. It was a chaotic scene, and no one had control over the situation.

Meanwhile, Lu Ping rushed down the middle pathway while releasing Dabao out from the spirit pet pouch. After traveling 30 feet through the dark, a sudden glimpse of light shone from the front.

The middle pathway led him to an underground cave a few dozen feet wide. It was far bigger than Lu Ping’s entire cave-dwelling. Spotting a tiny palace built against the wall, he directly broke in.

The furnishings in the tiny palace were extremely simple and dull, far from matching the palace’s gorgeous appearance. By the looks of it, this was clearly the cave owner’s residence and cultivation place.

A stone platform was built inside the palace, which was an obvious spot for cultivation. In the center of the platform was a gray-white putuan, and on the putuan was a purplish jade scroll, a jade bottle made of Jade Marrow, and a silken box with many layers of seals. There was nothing else inside aside from these items.

Lu Ping took the four items, including the ordinary-looking putuan. Then, he spread out his divine sense and meticulously checked the palace to make sure he didn’t miss anything. After he walked out, Dabao appeared in front of him and dragged him to the side.

Lu Ping’s divine sense had already discovered a spirit herb garden on the other side which he planned to go to next. But since Dabao was dragging him in the opposite direction, Lu Ping was curious about what it discovered and followed its lead.

A moment later, Lu Ping looked at the half-acre garden in front of him, his expression caught between laughter and tears. Although there were a few 1000-year spirit herbs in the garden, they weren’t important enough to be harvested first.

He listened to the noise outside of the cave that was growing louder and closer. He thought for a split second—it would be a waste of time to turn back now so since he was here, he might as well harvest this spirit herb garden first.

His decision made, he stepped into the spirit herb garden. In that instant, his vision blurred for a split second and he suddenly found that the half-acre small spirit herb garden had turned into a five-acre large spirit herb garden!

How was that possible? Could this be a spatial array formation?

While Lu Ping was marveling at the wonders of this spatial array formation in his heart, he heard the squeaks of a mouse behind him. Dabao had also entered the garden.

Lu Ping was about to praise Dabao when suddenly, Dabao rushed towards him and tried to drag him out of the spirit herb garden again. Lu Ping said, “Dabao, this is a large spirit herb garden, I have to harvest the spirit herbs first. We don’t have any time to waste.”

But Dabao was still reluctant to let go. It continued to pull on Lu Ping’s legs to drag him out. Lu Ping was helpless, but he also wanted to see what Dabao was trying to tell him.

Lu Ping took a step backward and reappeared outside of the half-acre small spirit herb garden. But this time, Lu Ping clearly felt something was wrong. The teleportation didn’t feel like it came from a spatial array formation, but more of a spatial mystic instrument.

Dabao led Lu Ping to dig in the ground, and when he saw what was underneath it, he finally understood everything. It was really a spatial mystic instrument that allowed cultivators to enter and exit freely. This was something that only Avatar Realm Great Ancestors could do, so did that mean the cave-dwelling belonged not to a Core Forging Enlightened Master but an Avatar Realm Great Ancestor?

But Lu Ping quickly shook his head. If that was the case, the North Ocean cultivators definitely wouldn’t miss it 4,000 years ago. After all, Fei Ling Sect’s Great Ancestors were numerous, all of them well-known and famous. The North Ocean cultivators surely wouldn’t miss out on one of their cave-dwellings.

Lu Ping looked at the spatial mystic instrument; it was a large book that lay open on the ground, and the spirit herb garden was on top of the pages.

Lu Ping surged his arcane energy into the book as he tried to refine the mystic instrument, but he soon realized that the book swallowed all of his arcane energy like a bottomless pit.

The noises from the cultivators were approaching the cave. It was obvious that the cultivators were obstructing each other in the front hall, which slowed their progress.

On the other hand, Lu Ping had acted quickly and the Zhen Ling cultivators were intentionally hindering others from reaching the middle pathway. Lu Ping was able to take the lead and gain the biggest benefit in the cave.

But as the cultivators continued to swarm into the cave-dwelling, the Zhen Ling cultivators were faced with more pressure, and they couldn’t hold everyone back anymore. Lu Ping was running out of time.

He quickly consumed two Spirit Regenerating Pellets and accelerated the refining process on the book mystic instrument. He managed to finish refining the book right before the cultivators entered the cave.

A loud rumble was released from the book mystic instrument. The half-acre spirit herb garden hovered up from the ground and slowly folded together as the large opened book closed. Then, the large book shrunk into the size of a brick half-an-inch thick. The book’s cover was purple in color and the title was “Tome of Thousand Millets”.