Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-107

Among the unearthed cave-dwellings on Fei Ling Island, inside the only one that belonged to a Late Core Forging cultivator, Lu Ping found five treasures. The first one was the Core Forging Pellets whereas the second treasure was the Book of Thousand Millets, a large spatial mystic instrument.

The true body of the Book of Thousand Millets was actually a spirit herb garden. However, the cultivators of Fei Ling Sect had forged a book mystic instrument to house the spirit garden inside of it, a truly incredible feat.

The spirit herb garden in the spatial mystic instrument was five acres, but only one acre was planted with spiritual herbs. There were about 40 thousand-year spirit herbs and more than 300 500-year spirit herbs inside.

During the bet, Lu Ping didn’t take out the spirit herbs in the spatial mystic instrument, so the Enlightened Masters were not aware that Lu Ping was in possession of such an incredible mystic instrument.

After returning to the cave-dwelling, Lu Ping reactivated the mystic instrument and placed it above the spirit herb garden he had cultivated. However, the spirit herb garden in the mystic instrument could not be expanded anymore.

The Book of Thousand Millets could be connected to the spirit veins to draw spiritual energy directly from them and nurture the spiritual herbs inside it. However, besides supplying sufficient spiritual energy for Lu Ping’s cultivation, the spirit veins in the cave-dwelling were inadequate to also support the consumption from the mystic instrument.

Hence, the spirit herb garden was still only an acre in size. Lu Ping had already harvested the matured spirit herbs and replanted new spirit herbs.

The third treasure was the gray-white spirit mat1 Lu Ping was currently sitting on. This mat was technically a formation chassis of a spirit gathering array. The spiritual energy that could be gathered by this mat was far beyond the previous spirit gathering mat that Lu Ping had robbed from Lin Sheng.

The fourth treasure was a jade box covered in seals. Lu Ping had tried to break the seals but all his attempts had failed. Using either his divine sense or arcane energy, the seals had remained unaffected and unresponsive. Clearly, Lu Ping’s cultivation base was not strong enough which made him quite despondent.

Finally, the fifth treasure was the jade scroll Lu Ping was now holding in his hands. This jade scroll contained a cultivation method known as [Flying Spirit Ocean Treading Scripture]. It was very attractive to Lu Ping because he realized this cultivation method was of the same origin as the [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] he was currently practicing. Both cultivation methods were similar, but their final manifestations were very different.

The [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] focused on the accumulation of arcane energy, with its arcane energy similar to the stream of a great river that flowed into the sea. It was also like a great ocean, containing vast energy underneath the calm waves on the surface. The ideology of this cultivation method was to understand the water, making it a regal cultivation method.

Whereas the [Flying Spirit Ocean Treading Scripture] took a different approach. It focused on the fury of the arcane energy, with its arcane energy similar to a flooding torrent that cleared everything on its path. It was like an enraged sea, creating huge waves and destroying everything. The ideology of this cultivation method was to harness the water, making it a dominant cultivation method.

Lu Ping continued to study the two cultivation methods and concluded that they had the same root, and that there must be a close connection between them. Perhaps, they might actually be separated from a greater cultivation method.

Could it be that Zhen Ling Sect’s [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] was inherited from Fei Ling Sect? When he recalled that the [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] only appeared in Zhen Ling Sect 3,000 years ago and was gradually perfected by an Avatar Realm Great Ancestor not long after the destruction of Fei Ling Sect, he grew more confident in his guess.

However, Lu Ping was puzzled as to why the unknown greater cultivation method was divided into two cultivation methods? He decided to cultivate them and find out for himself.

As Lu Ping practiced the two cultivation methods in his body at the same time, he found that the cultivation methods were perfectly compatible with each other. The arcane energies produced by each method merged together like bodies of water from a common origin.

As the merged arcane energy flowed in his body, a trace of thicker and purer arcane energy was extracted and flowed into the Condensed Blood Beads in his heartspace.

Not only was this trace of arcane energy purer than any arcane energy he had cultivated before, but there was also a destructive power imbued inside of it. This destructive power was clearly due to the characteristic of the [Flying Spirit Ocean Treading Scripture].

Right now, Lu Ping was certain that these two cultivation methods were actually two parts of a greater cultivation method.

However, as the cultivation methods were incorporated together in his cultivation, the circulation speed of arcane energy in his body had slowed down by one-half. Furthermore, even though every new trace of arcane energy cultivated was much purer and stronger than before, it was only half of the usual amount cultivated when he practiced the [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] by itself.

In other words, when Lu Ping cultivated both cultivation methods at the same time, the powers of the arcane energy spells he cast would be twice as strong, but his cultivation progress would be four times slower.

Lu Ping was hesitant!

Merging the two cultivation methods together would give him a more solid foundation and a greater combat power, but the downside was that his cultivation progress would be heavily dragged down. This was a difficult decision for cultivators who were always racing against time in pursuit of greater longevity.

So, this was the reason why his predecessors separated the unknown greater cultivation method into two parts.

Lu Ping weighed his options and finally decided to merge the two cultivation methods into one. His thoughts were, why use the inferior one when there was a better one?

Lu Ping went into closed-door cultivation in order to merge the two cultivation methods into one. At the same time, he had to reorganize his cultivation base which had been cultivated to the Third Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

This meant that he had to recondense his three Condensed Blood Beads which were cultivated from the [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] with the greater cultivation method which Lu Ping named as the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture].

This also meant that Lu Ping’s cultivation would not make any progress in the near future.

But Lu Ping only had the cultivation method of the [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture] up to the Blood Condensation Realm, while the [Flying Spirit Ocean Treading Scripture] he obtained went up to the Avatar Realm.

Therefore, Lu Ping could only merge the two cultivation methods and perfect the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] up to the Blood Condensation Realm. At the same time, the [Wave Listening Eight Ultimates] also became the [North Ocean Twelve Ultimates].

This was because there were also eight ultimates in the [Flying Spirit Ocean Treading Scripture], but four of them were the same as the ones contained in the [Wave Listening Eight Ultimates], leading to twelve ultimates in total. This further strengthened Lu Ping’s basis that the two cultivation methods were of the same origin.

Lu Ping reconditioned his cultivation base with the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture], replacing the [Sea Coast Wave Listening Scripture]’s arcane energy in his three Condensed Blood Beads with the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture]’s arcane energy. This was a process that required an extended period of time and great patience.

In fact, Lu Ping's previous cultivation progress was considered fast amongst his peers and so he wasn’t in any rush. Hence, he was comfortably living a reclusive life in his cave-dwelling under the protection of the Ice Age Slaughtering Array.

Under the accumulation of the huge amount of hundred-year spirit herbs, Lu Ping's skill in alchemy finally had a breakthrough again. He had stabilized his alchemy mastery, with a 50% success rate for Late Blood Refining Realm medicinal pellets. As a result, the Blood Refining Realm medicinal pellets sold in Huang Li Island’s Charms and Pellets Pavilion, were all concocted by him.

Following the sea ban lift, the cultivators finally passed the initial trial stage, and a large number of cultivators began to flock to the separation zone. As this momentum was building up day after day, Huang Li Island began to flourish. The group of cultivators that visited the island also gradually shifted from the Blood Refining Realm to the Blood Condensation Realm.

Therefore, Lu Ping, Hu Lili and Chen Lian's stores began to make a profit. Lu Ping also gradually began to recover his investment of almost 20,000 spirit stones.

The Li Zi-Ming father and son duo along with Lin Sheng, who had initially ridiculed Lu Ping for his investment had shut up and regretted not renting a few stores themselves in the first place. It was too late now, as keen-eyed cultivators and merchants had already rented all the stores in the Huang Li Island’s marketplace.

Hu Lili who was also skeptical of Lu Ping's decision at first witnessed as Huang Li Island got more and more prosperous. But following his expedition to Fei Ling Island, Lu Ping immediately went into closed-door cultivation, not caring about the stores at all.

Therefore, Hu Lili had no choice but to take charge over the stores, and was soon hooked by the feeling of earning spirit stones. Eventually, she managed three stores, including Chen Lian's smith shop, in an orderly manner.

There were several times that Chen Lian joked about Hu Lili appearing more and more like the boss's wife; Hu Lili would blush at first, but later on she quickly let it go. It had gotten to the point where she would sneer back at Chen Lian, saying that she would be willing to become the boss's wife if she could have so many spirit stones, which left Chen Lian speechless.

The Li father and son duo were very keen on the three friends' properties in the market. They knew that even though these three stores nominally belonged to the trio, Lu Ping was in fact the one behind the stores.

Therefore, after Lu Ping went on the expedition to Fei Ling Island, they had hoped that Lu Ping would die there. That way, they could easily take over those three stores through certain unscrupulous means.

Later, they were disappointed to hear about Lu Ping's safe return from Fei Ling Island. But they had quickly come up with another plan.

They reported to the sect that the marketplace on Huang Li Island was becoming very prosperous, and that they hoped the sect could take back the stores that were rented out to individuals. Then, the sect could assign sect cultivators to help manage the stores making the profit belong entirely to the sect.

The Li father and son were devious, they knew that the large stores on the island belonged to the influential powers in the sect, and so they didn’t mess with them. They only mentioned the smaller stores that were rented out to the individuals, who belonged to ordinary cultivators like Lu Ping.

As for who would be assigned to manage these stores after they were taken back by the sect, who else could it be other than Li Zi-Ming, the actual manager of Huang Li Island?

After Lu Ping heard about this from Hu Lili, he only smiled disdainfully and said, "Let them do what they want, don't bother with this."

Sure enough, after Li Zi-Ming's report was submitted to Xuan Qi Island, Master Immortal Liu had sent their message to Enlightened Master Qu, who casually threw it away without even reading it. Li Zi-Ming didn’t even get a reply for his proposal.

After Lu Ping returned, he gave Hu Lili all the jade scrolls he had scavenged on Fei Ling Island as a gift to her, along with Shui Yan Pavilion cultivator’s piece of formation chassis and mystic instrument. Hu Lili was very happy, and hurriedly took these things back to her cave-dwelling to study them.

As for Chen Lian, Lu Ping had directly sent him some of the spirit materials he harvested on Fei Ling Island as samples for him to improve his smithery skills. This made Chen Lian look at Lu Ping suspiciously and ask, "Have you been massacring innocent people on Fei Ling Island for their goods?"

Although Chen Lian’s guess was half right, it still made Lu Ping feel depressed for a while. Lu Ping had originally wanted to give Chen Lian the high-grade furnace mystic instrument too, but now he planned to wait for the time being.

This was not just because Chen Lian would be suspicious but also due to his smithery mastery. Whilst Chen Lian's mastery wasn’t low, it was still inadequate for him to use a high-grade furnace mystic instrument with his Second Layer Blood Condensation Realm cultivation base.

Furthermore, he wasn’t strong enough to protect a treasure like that from the prying eyes of other cultivators.