Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-123

Using its monster identity, Lu Dagui, as a “traitor” to the monsters, had provided intelligence about the monsters in the nearby areas. For two years, Lu Ping had secretly infiltrated into the territories of those Mid Blood Condensation Realm monster beasts and used the Starvation Pellets and other means to kill them.

Over two years, Lu Ping had killed a total of 81 Mid Blood Condensation Realm monsters. Of these, only 20 of them had Condensed Blood Beads left in their heartspace to harvest, showing just how rare Condensed Blood Beads were.

From the 20 Mid Blood Condensation Realm monsters, Lu Ping obtained 93 Condensed Blood Beads. Fortunately, the monsters at sea were mostly water-element in nature. Hence, more than 60 of them were water-element, making them suitable to be concocted into the Blood Spirit Pellets for him to use.

With these Condensed Blood Beads, Lu Ping's alchemy had improved by leaps and bounds, with his success rate in concocting Mid Blood Condensation Realm pellets, reaching more than fifty percent.

If Lu Ping's previous success in concocting Blood Condensing Pellets signified that he had successfully become an Alchemist, then his proficiency in alchemy now, was on par with that of an experienced Alchemist.

Blood Spirit Pellets were medicinal pellets of the highest quality among medicinal pellets of the same rank. Therefore, in these two years, Lu Ping's cultivation had maintained a steady speed due to the support from enough Mid Blood Condensation Realm Blood Spirit Pellets. Not long ago, he had finally succeeded in breaking through to the Fifth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

During this breakthrough, Lu Ping’s foundation bloodline had devoured the wood-element Luan bloodline in his body. His foundation bloodline was as dominant as ever, swallowing up all the arcane energy in the Luan bloodline, whilst not being tainted by a single characteristic of the Luan bloodline itself.

The first thing Lu Ping did after his breakthrough was to seek revenge on the flying bird monster beast that almost killed him whilst he was on the run. Lu Ping had fought with this monster bird several times after entering the Mid Blood Condensation Realm.

Although he was able to secure the upper hand in their battles, the monster bird had wings which allowed it to move agilely in the air. It also cultivated the wind and fire-element which further added to its combat power. There was simply nothing much Lu Ping could do.

This time, Lu Ping used a Starvation Pellet as bait and finally captured the monster bird. However, he didn’t expect the Starvation Pellet would also attract the attention from two cultivators, Cheng and Huang, who were coincidentally passing by.

In order to conceal his true strength, Lu Ping performed the [Cloud Moving Rain Falling Art], one of the [North Ocean Twelve Ultimates], to raise a water cog and captured the monster bird out of their sight.

Speaking with Cultivator Huang and Cultivator Cheng, Lu Ping obtained a general understanding of the situation of the North Ocean in the past five years. What surprised Lu Ping the most was the rise of the Ocean Overturning Gang.

The gang that intended to kill Lu Ping and the other sect cultivators four years ago, in Lu Ping's eyes, was just a group of sea pirates who plundered cultivators in the monster race waters for a living.

Lu Ping never expected that four years later, not only was the Ocean Overturning Gang not destroyed by the siege from the sects, but had also become very powerful. Its influence reached all the monster waters bordering the North Ocean sects.

The sects had in fact dispatched their Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters to handle the affairs with the Ocean Overturning Gang. But just when the North Ocean cultivators thought that gang of sea pirates would be dealt with, a surprising news came out.

The Ocean Overturning Gang was also actually backed by some Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, who stated that the Ocean Overturning Gang was going to set up its base in the North Ocean.

The North Ocean cultivators were in an uproar when they heard this. They all expected the Avatar Realm Great Ancestors of the North Ocean sects to come out and resolve the issue. But to their disappointment, as if there was a tacit agreement behind the scene, the Great Ancestors ignored the matter.

The Ocean Overturning Gang also curbed their murderous pirating and began to clean up they’re act, as if they had really changed for the better.

The North Ocean cultivators were disgusted by the Ocean Overturning Gang's previous actions, but feared the Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters behind Ocean Overturning Gang, and so they didn’t dare to retaliate openly. They were only able to adopt the strategy of boycotting the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators, isolating them from the rest of the North Ocean cultivators.

The Ocean Overturning Gang were also self-aware about their previous actions and didn’t mind being isolated by the North Ocean cultivators, and only doing their own thing. Despite this, there were still some gang members that were attacked by the North Ocean cultivators from time to time.

But soon, the North Ocean cultivators found out that the Ocean Overturning Gang's cultivators were not only stronger in cultivation, but also owned excellent mystic instruments. In the fights between cultivators of the same rank, it was often the North Ocean cultivators who were defeated terribly.

After several fights, whilst the Ocean Overturning Gang lost some of its members, the North Ocean cultivators suffered higher casualties. After some time passed, the two sides were able to make peace, but the Ocean Overturning Gang was still boycotted by the North Ocean cultivators.

Lu Ping’s intuition told him that the Ocean Overturning Gang wasn’t as simple as it appeared on the surface. Otherwise, with the power that it had shown, which could definitely affect the existing status quo amongst the North Ocean sects, the Great Ancestors of the sects surely wouldn’t ignore it and let it continue existing.

This left only one possibility – the faction that was backing Ocean Overturning Gang was far greater than the sects, to the point where even the sects’ Avatar Realm Great Ancestors were afraid.

Lu Ping couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air at his own speculation.

When he thought of the disgusted expression on the duo’s faces when Cultivator Huang talked about Ocean Overturning Gang, Lu Ping couldn't help but feel like laughing.

After hearing that Lu Ping was seriously injured because of the Ocean Overturning Gang's pursuit and was trapped here for several years, Cultivator Huang gave Lu Ping a jade token without hesitation. He then invited Lu Ping to participate in an operation against the Ocean Overturning Gang.

Lu Ping initially wanted to return to Huang Li Island to find out who had leaked his whereabouts. However, after hearing that the orchestrator of the operation against the Ocean Overturning Gang was the eldest son of North Ocean Xi Ling Island’s Ai Clan, Lu Ping was interested in participating. He remembered his friend, Ai Shutao, whom he met on Fei Ling Island, was a member of the Ai Clan. Additionally, he really wanted to get revenge on the Ocean Overturning Gang, so he accepted the jade token.

While he was thinking about the Ocean Overturning Gang, Lu Dagui came to Lu Ping's training room.

Lu Ping frowned, knowing that without important matters, his spirit pets wouldn’t disturb his cultivation without permission.

After Lu Dagui entered the Blood Condensation Realm, it had completely awakened its cognitive ability; although it couldn’t speak yet, it was still able to convey simple messages through its divine sense.

Lu Ping recollected his divine sense after the short conversation and pondered.

"A Late Blood Condensation Realm monster?”

Lu Ping shook his head with a bitter smile. It seemed that his recent hunting of monsters had attracted the attention of the higher-level monsters in the Blood Condensation Realm.

However, Lu Ping was always cautious when hunting. He would always go to different locations to hunt, as well as not targeting any specific kind of monster. Hence, there was no way he could be traced.

Furthermore, he hid himself in the territory of the Early Blood Condensation Realm monster beasts, and used Lu Dagui as a cover. Therefore, Lu Ping didn’t worry about the monster beasts finding him in the short term.

However, Lu Ping couldn’t head out to hunt for the time being now, and it would be even better for him to leave here.

With his mind made up, Lu Ping returned to his own things again.

After the badly wounded monster bird was thrown in a corner of the temporary nest, Lu Ping ignored it.

At the beginning, this Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm monster bird still looked ferocious, even though it was seriously wounded and dying, it remained disdainful of Lu Ping.

The only thing that surprised the monster bird was Lu Ping's several spirit pets.

Firstly, there was Lu Dagui.

Even though this monster bird wasn’t an aquatic monster, as a monster that lived in the monster race waters, it knew that Lu Dagui was just an ordinary monster turtle, with the lowest qualifications in the monster race. Therefore, when it first saw Lu Dagui, it secretly ridiculed Lu Ping for not knowing how to choose a spirit pet.

But later, it saw Lu Ping casually throwing a medicinal pellet to Lu Dagui as if it was a sweet.

For monster beasts, alchemy was harder for them to learn and practice compared to humans. This made medicinal pellets far more precious among the monster race. Additionally, every monster had a natural instinct for things which could enhance their prowess, especially medicinal pellets.

Therefore, when the monster bird saw Lu Ping giving Lu Dagui medicinal pellets, it was secretly mourning for these precious medicinal pellets being wasted on an ordinary monster turtle.

Whilst it secretly cursed Lu Ping for being prodigal, it couldn’t help but also secretly speculate about Lu Ping's identity.

The next thing that surprised it was that with the help of three Blood Condensation Pellets, Lu Dabao finally made a difficult breakthrough to the Blood Condensation Realm.

In the monster bird's understanding, the Spirit Seeking Mouse was a lowly monster beast species with low-purity bloodlines. Hence, they were mostly in the Early Blood Refining Realm, with a few occasionally being in the Mid Blood Refining Realm.

However, this Spirit Seeking Mouse's cultivation level could actually advance into the Blood Condensation Realm. So, how could it not be surprised!

After its breakthrough, Lu Dabao hopped up and down excitedly in front of Lu Ping, eventually annoying him. Lu Ping reprimanded Dabao and gave it a bottle of Thousand Ginseng Pellets for it to calm down.

If the monsters were to describe Lu Dabao, it would definitely be, ‘a chatterbox’. Now that it had stepped into the Blood Condensation Realm and cultivated divine sense, which allowed it to communicate simple messages, this little mouse had actually become friends with the captured monster bird in just a few days.

The monster bird also had the intention of understanding Lu Ping's situation from Lu Dabao. But after learning about it, the monster bird was even more surprised to find out that this human cultivator that captured it, was actually an alchemist. No wonder he would casually feed precious medicinal pellets to his spirit pets.

Lu Dabao had been with Lu Ping for the longest time. It had the deepest feelings for Lu Ping, and also understood his mind the most. Dabao’s small eyes moved excitedly when it revealed to the monster bird that it had been following Lu Ping for only eight years, yet had already reached the First Layer Blood Condensation Realm from the First Layer Blood Refining Realm, with its ordinary talent.

This made the monster bird more dumbfounded than it ever thought it could be. It had a clear understanding of the Spirit Seeking Mouse’s status and talent in the monster race. Yet, not only did this Spirit Seeking Mouse break through to the Blood Condensation Realm, it only took eight years to do it.

The monster bird self-proclaimed that it was considered a good talent among the monsters, but it still took more than ten years to break through to the Blood Condensation Realm.

However, the next thing that made it even more amazed was when Lu Dabao told it that the three Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes were only born five years ago, yet their cultivation had already reached the Second Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

The big monster turtle only followed Lu Ping six years ago, and had already reached the peak of the Third Layer Blood Condensation Realm from Ninth Layer Blood Refining Realm. Soon, it would break through to the Mid Blood Condensation Realm.

The monster bird’s perception of the cultivation world was completely turned upside down after communicating with Dabao and it was in complete shock for a few days. Even when Dabao brought the top-quality healing medicinal pellet, it requested from Lu Ping, to the monster bird, the monster bird swallowed the medicinal pellet without thinking much.

Lu Ping, who was secretly manipulating the situation, noticed that the monster bird gradually lost its original arrogance. Its sharp eyes gradually became more lax and full confusion; he knew that now was the time for the final push.

During the next month, Lu Ping made ten cauldrons of Blood Spirit Pellets in the nest. He used up all of the Condensed Blood Beads that were obtained recently, regardless of whether they were water-element or not.

This batch of concocting Blood Spirit Pellets also enhanced Lu Ping's alchemy to a new stage. He was now finally able to maintain a success rate of above sixty percent for the Mid Blood Condensation Realm pellets.

Each time he finished concocting a cauldron of Blood Spirit Pellets, his five spirit pets would move around excitedly.

The monster bird, whose injuries were gradually improving under the treatment of the top-quality healing pellets, watched as Lu Dabao, Lu Dagui, Lu Bi, Lu Hai and Lu Ling walked past it. Each of them had a medicinal pellet with a fragrance and spiritual energy flowing in their mouths. Its eyes finally emitted a sense of desire.

When Lu Ping appeared in front of it again, the monster bird finally bowed its haughty head before Lu Ping.