Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-119

The Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator looked at the fast approaching blood sacrifice mystic instrument and laughed, "I knew you still had something up your sleeves."

He threw out a low-grade mystic instrument that was filled with arcane energy. The mystic instrument collided with Lu Ping's mid-grade mystic instrument midair.

A large explosion occurred, shattering the mystic instruments into numerous pieces. The cultivator braced himself and hid inside of a clam-shell shaped high-grade mystic instrument. The high-grade mystic instrument blocked the shrapnel, allowing him to come out unscathed. He chased after Lu Ping’s tail.

When the effects of Lu Ping’s Water Escape Charm wore off, he leaped out of the sea. Lu Ping looked back and saw the cultivator following him closely.

Without wasting any words, Lu Ping used another Water Escape Charm and continued to flee.

In fact, back when he was in the First Layer Blood Condensation Realm, Lu Ping had escaped from a Xuan Ling Sect Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivator. But at that time, he had a topnotch Blood Escape Charm with him and that Xuan Ling Sect cultivator was also no match for this Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator. Additionally, he was still injured.

When Lu Ping leaped out of the sea again, a cluster of seaweed suddenly rose above the sea's surface and wrapped around Lu Ping's body. Lu Ping quickly turned his head and realized that the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator had not been left behind, but rather had come even closer to him, by tens of feet.

Lu Ping waved the Soaring Wing Swords under his feet and quickly broke free from the cultivator’s seaweed confinement. However, that momentary delay was long enough for the pursuer to catch up with Lu Ping.

The Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator raised a plate in front of him and blew out a breath containing his arcane energy onto the plate.

Immediately, small particles placed in the plate flew out and transformed into dandelion shaped objects. Although the dandelions were slow, they filled the sky, making it impossible for Lu Ping to dodge them.

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Lu Ping was injured and his arcane energy was constantly depleting. He couldn’t afford to stay and be tangled in another battle for even a short moment.

Hence, he cast the Soaring Wing Swords, one in the front of him and one behind him. The dual swords parried the incoming dandelions coming towards him. At the same time, the Auspicious Cloud was charged with arcane energy and cast using the [Treading Waves Art], as he rushed out of the sea of dandelions.

Lu Ping tried his best, but was unable to avoid all of them.

A few dandelions landed on Lu Ping’s body and instantly, tiny white roots penetrated through Lu Ping’s clothes. Luckily, Lu Ping’s inner vest stopped them in their tracks, so they were unable to reach his skin.

However, two dandelions landed on Lu Ping’s arms. Immediately, he felt an itch on his arms and felt faint traces of his arcane energy being siphoned out of his body, through the roots that penetrated his skin.

At the same time, Lu Ping felt his body become very sluggish, as if he was submerged in dense water, requiring him to use a lot of energy to move around.

With great effort, Lu Ping managed to move away from the dandelions. He quickly circulated his arcane energy and shook the dandelions off from his arms.

When he noticed that the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator was about to catch up again, Lu Ping threw all caution to the wind. He reversed the circulation of arcane energy in his body, and spurted out a mouthful of blood.

Using the blood as a catalyst, Lu Ping cast the [Blood Spirit Escape]. Along with the Auspicious Cloud and [Treading Waves Art], Lu Ping vanished in the blink of an eye, only leaving a fading red light behind him.

The Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator's face changed and he quickly pointed at the surface of the water. A wooden boat appeared on the surface of the sea. The cultivator stepped on the wooden boat and set sail in the direction Lu Ping had gone.

Lu Ping stacked the powers of the mystic instrument, spell, and art all at the same time. He vanished for tens of miles in one breath.

When the [Blood Spirit Escape]’s effect expired, Lu Ping resurfaced from the water. Having already been injured before this, casting the secret technique worsened his condition. He couldn’t suppress his injuries anymore and spewed out a mouthful of blood.

So as to not waste this mouthful of blood, and to be on the safe side, Lu Ping used this blood to cast the [Blood Spirit Escape] again. But this time, he didn’t use any other arts in conjunction with it.

A moment later, Lu Ping appeared a dozen miles away. As soon as he resurfaced, he heard a sharp chirping sound coming from above.

It was a monster bird that noticed Lu Ping intruding into its territory, and rushed down to peck his head. Lu Ping probed the monster bird with his divine sense and found out that it was in the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

If he was in a better condition, he wouldn’t be afraid of this monster bird at all. Unfortunately, he was now severely injured and the monster bird had the advantage of flight. Hence, he could only turn around and continue to flee.

Lu Ping was chased by the monster bird for dozens of miles, before finally returning to its territory.

Lu Ping was only able to rest for a short while, because less than a few miles later, a huge wave erupted and smashed down towards him.

A huge fish leaped out of the water. It was a strange creature with a big mouth that took up half of its body!

Lu Ping sidestepped the huge wave while the big fish opened its big mouth and shot out a water pillar filled with arcane energy towards Lu Ping.

Lu Ping probed the monster fish with his divine sense and learned that it was a Fourth Layer Blood Condensation Realm monster beast.

Lu Ping was severely injured, especially after two times casting the [Blood Spirit Escape]. He was only a fine line away from death by exhaustion.

It was urgent for him to find a safe place to heal. Additionally, the monster race waters were danger-ridden, so he didn’t really have the mood to stay and fight the monster.

Lu Ping quickly mustered the last bit of arcane energy left in his body and tried his best to steer the Auspicious Cloud to avoid being entangled by the monster fish. He chose a random direction and continued to escape deeper into the monster race sea.

During his run, Lu Ping encountered and was attacked by numerous Blood Condensation Realm monster beasts. Sometimes this was every ten miles, other times he wouldn’t encounter any monster beasts for a hundred miles.

Perhaps, this was because Blood Condensation Realm monster beasts occupied a different size of territory according to their respective prowess.

Each time, Lu Ping would rely on his huge divine sense range and Auspicious Cloud's nimbleness, to evade the monsters’ attacks.

Finally, in a place unknown to Lu Ping, he encountered a one-foot large crab monster beast in the Second Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

After some thought, Lu Ping released Lu Dagui out of the spirit pet pouch and used his divine sense to instruct Dagui.

Monsters would gain cognitive abilities after reaching the Blood Condensation Realm. Although they weren’t able to speak yet, they could make simple communication with human cultivators through their divine sense. Lu Dagui, as Lu Ping's spirit pet, was naturally very obedient towards Lu Ping's instructions.

Lu Dagui’s shell was almost a foot in radius and floated on the water. Its long neck stretched out of its shell, and sent a low hiss towards the monster crab. This was a call of challenge amongst monsters.

The monster crab's cultivation base was higher than Lu Dagui. The only thing it feared was the human cultivator. However, Lu Dagui's provocation had ignited the monster crab’s fury, making it throw away its caution.

The monster race followed a more rigid class system than the human race. Strong monsters always dominated weaker monsters, where the only law they followed was the law of the jungle.

Therefore, Lu Dagui's provocation was completely unforgivable in the monster crab’s eyes. It felt that this lowly monster turtle must pay the price for its insolence, with its life.

The monster crab waved its two large pincers and charged towards Lu Dagui.

Lu Dagui panicked and only managed to use its limbs to raise a water wave to defend.

Lu Dagui, who advanced to Blood Condensation Realm thanks to Lu Ping's help and resources, clearly lacked combat experience.

The monster crab's large pincers effortlessly broke through the water wave and flipped Lu Dagui, who was floating on the surface, vertically.

Then, the monster crab lunged forward and swiped its other large pincer towards Lu Dagui’s neck.

Lu Dagui instinctively recoiled its neck back into the turtle shell, and at the same time dived down towards the sea. As a result, the large pincer only struck its turtle shell making, producing a loud screeching sound.

In just a few moves, Lu Dagui was on the defensive, and let the monster crab attack everywhere on its body without fighting back.

Fortunately, as a monster turtle, he had an impenetrable shell as a natural means of protection. Hence the monster crab was unable to do any serious damage to it.

Lu Ping simply watched the battle from the sidelines, with no intentions of interfering yet.

This was a chance Lu Ping deliberately gave to Lu Dagui for it to hone its combat skills. Since it was now his spirit pet, he didn’t wish to see it become just an ordinary sea ride. After all, spirit pets often fought alongside cultivators.

However, Lu Dagui’s performance was a great disappointment for Lu Ping. Except for its hard turtle shell, Lu Dagui didn’t have any other commendable traits. However, it wasn’t too much of a surprise either.

This was related to Lu Dagui’s cultivation base at the First Layer Blood Condensation Realm, in addition to its ordinary bloodline and heritage. Compared to the three Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes, it was far worse in every aspect.

Lu Ping, barely cast the Soaring Wing Swords and chopped down the monster crab’s pincers, who was unable to put up a fight against him. Lu Ping kept the monster crab’s two three-foot long pincers as they were the only parts he had a little interest in.

Lu Dagui saw its master coming forward to help, and its morale was boosted. The submerged turtle was suddenly lifted by a wave of water in mid-air. Its huge turtle shell rapidly spun and rammed into the crippled monster crab.

After a loud banging sound, Lu Dagui smashed into the sea, while the monster crab’s eyes were crushed and its blood splashed everywhere.

Lu Ping saw that the monster crab had lost the ability to fight back. He waved his hand and let Lu Dabao and the three little snakes out from the spirit pet pouch.

The five monsters cooperated with each other, and in a short while there was nothing left of the monster crab.

At this time Lu Ping had already found the monster crab's nest under a coral reef. He cast a spell to clean up the nest.

He was badly injured and needed a safe place to recover. This was why he had ordered Lu Dagui to challenge the monster crab, so Lu Dagui could replace the monster crab as the lord of this small piece of territory.

As Lu Dagui was also a monster, it would act as a perfect cover to his presence. The changes of the territory lords by another monster were common in the monster race. Hence, this wouldn’t attract the other monster beast's attention.

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This way, Lu Ping could recover from his injuries without getting discovered and disturbed.

He instructed Lu Dagui to patrol within the monster crab’s territory so as to declare Lu Dagui's status as the new lord of this territory. Then, he also instructed Lu Dabao and the three spirit snakes not to carelessly move around in Lu Dagui's territory.

After that, Lu Ping swallowed a top-quality Spirit Regenerating Pellet that was worth nearly a thousand spirit stones and began to recover from his injuries.