Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-130

Lu Ping didn’t bother trying to understand why this white-faced Xuan Ling cultivator wanted to kill him. The Primal Giant Crocodile seemed to be determined to target Lu Ping, after delivering one blow, he was chasing after him again.

Lu Ping was afraid that if he was too slow in escaping, he would be surrounded again, so he had to bring out the Auspicious Cloud and flew across the sea to the southwest.

Right after he fled, a giant monster crocodile suddenly floated up on the sea surface where Lu Ping had just been, and looked at Lu Ping's distant back with huge interest.

Then, it swung its huge tail backward, and propelled its large body into the water to chase in the direction of Lu Ping.

The female Giant Croc behind saw that her little brother had left the battlefield and was chasing after a human cultivator alone. She hurriedly stopped him, "Where are you going, little brother?"

The giant crocodile didn’t even look back as he replied, "This human looks delicious, I want to catch him and then eat him."

The female Giant Croc persuaded, "That cultivator has used a kind of medicinal pellets that make us hungry, he isn’t necessarily delicious!"

Giant Croc was already far away, leaving only his eerie laughter, "That’s why I want to catch him. I want his medicinal pellets, I like the feeling of appetite."

The conversation between the two traveled far out over the sea, and entered Lu Ping’s ears.

He didn’t think that using the Starvation Pellets to disrupt the monster army formation would attract the attention of a Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm Primal Giant Crocodile. So, when he heard the conversation, he quietly mourned his bad luck inside his heart.

One human and one monster; the human relied on his exquisite flying mystic instrument to flee and the monster chased closely behind relying on his high cultivation base to equal the human in speed.

In the blink of an eye, the chase had spanned across 3,000 miles, and they were the only ones left in the nearby sea.

Lu Ping hadn’t expected that this monster was so dead set on him, not giving up even after chasing him for over thousands of miles.

After running so far away from the cultivators, the sea around them now was quiet and unpopulated. Lu Ping noticed that there was no one around, and he also wanted to test the limits of his prowess after having cultivated hard for the past five years.

As a result, this Giant Croc behind him suddenly looked like a good test subject.

So, Lu Ping stopped running and stood quietly on the sea surface. He turned to look at the approaching Primal Giant Crocodile with no expression on his face.

This Primal Giant Crocodile was ninety feet in size, with a long-flattened mouth in front taking up a quarter of his body length.

When the Giant Croc saw Lu Ping suddenly stop running, he thought Lu Ping had some tricks up his sleeve and so he was cautious to approach Lu Ping.

After noticing there was no danger in the surroundings, the Giant Croc rose up from underwater and turned into a half-humanoid monster with a height of ten feet.

He asked, "Brat, why did you stop running? If you are afraid, I can offer you a chance to surrender and be my pet. As long as you can provide me with medicinal pellets, I will help your cultivation, how about that?"

Lu Ping originally thought that this monster was only after the Starvation Pellets, he hadn’t expected that the monster had guessed his identity as an alchemist.

Lu Ping couldn’t help but be impressed by this monster’s intelligence. Even though this Primal Giant Crocodile looked simple from his appearance, he was clearly exceptionally shrewd on the inside.

Lu Ping sneered, "Are you sure you can beat me?"

Giant Croc laughed and made a scratching motion with his non-humanoid forepaws, he replied, "What do you think?"

Lu Ping's face suddenly changed, the Auspicious Cloud flashed in a blue light and rose high into the sky.

At the same time, the sea beneath Lu Ping's feet suddenly froze into ice, and a sharp ice pick shot out from the ice.

Thanks to Lu Ping's quick detection and fast reactions, he managed to evade the sneak attack in time. Otherwise he would have been made into a human meat skewer.

Lu Ping didn't think this Primal Giant Crocodile would be so cunning, so he stopped talking and cast his Soaring Wing Swords to return the favor. Lu Ping wanted to test his skills, so naturally he didn't rely on Auspicious Cloud's nimbleness to fight. Instead, he landed on the sea and moved around with the [Treading Waves Art] to fight against the Primal Giant Crocodile.

Lu Ping used the Soaring Wing Swords and cast the [Stormy Waves Crashing Shore Sword Art], the [Disarrayed Rocks Puncturing Sword Art], and the [Green Jiao Sea Haunting Art] that he had already mastered.

At the same time, he also used other arts from the [North Ocean Twelve Arts] to supplement him in fighting against the Primal Giant Crocodile.

The Primal Giant Crocodile species had the same status as the Emerald Sea Spirit Snake species in the monster race. These monsters had always been tough to beat amongst monsters and cultivators of the same cultivation layer.

Therefore, this Primal Giant Crocodile was surprised to see that Lu Ping, who was just a Fifth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, was able to fight against him.

The Giant Croc stirred up huge waves which turned into all kinds of aquatic animals, such as water snakes, water birds, water crocodiles, and numerous types of fish. These aquatic animals all flew towards Lu Ping as if wanting to consume him.

Lu Ping didn't panic. He moved like a flash of light using the [Treading Waves Art], and left nine identical clones on the sea’s surface by using the [Sea Crossing Concealment Art].

At the same time, a Water Jiao rose from the sea, and the Soaring Wing Swords flew over and attached onto the Water Jiao as its wings. The winged Water Jiao then roamed across the sea killing and beheading the rest of the aquatic animals.

The few aquatic animals that were lucky enough to escape the Water Jiao’s slaughter and managed to attack Lu Ping’s clones, found that these Lu Ping’s were only figurines formed from seawater.

As they tried to move to another target, the water clones would swallow these water animals and transform them into a pool of seawater.

Just like that, Lu Ping broke the Giant Crocodile's spell. As the Soaring Wing Swords shook, the Water Jiao released a long whistle and lunged at the Giant Croc in front of it.

The Primal Giant Crocodile disdainfully curled the corner of his mouth, and with one huge bite, he gnawed the Water Jiao's body in half.

The Soaring Wing Swords slashed horizontally on the Giant Croc, who used his front claws to parry the swords.

Two loud dins were heard as the attacks collided. The Soaring Wing Swords were sent flying backwards and Lu Ping quickly recalled them, whilst the Giant Croc’s front claws suffered two cuts.

However, the Giant Croc was not bothered by such wounds at all. He looked at Lu Ping with a passionate gaze, a look which Lu Ping understood. This was a feeling of excitement when one met an equal opponent in battle, who could make them give their all.

Lu Ping looked serious as the Soaring Wing Swords hovered around him, poised to strike.

The Giant Croc roared and swung his long tail, sweeping a giant water wave towards Lu Ping.

It was that same move again!

Although Lu Ping had blocked this move before, he didn’t dare to be careless. After all, previously he had the Water Avoidance Shield with him, not to mention that the Great Force’s power in this move couldn’t be taken lightly.

Lu Ping performed the [Water Manipulation Art] to weaken the Giant Croc's control over the giant wave, while the Soaring Wing Swords crashed into the wave and performed the [Disarrayed Rocks Puncturing Sword Art] to finally disarm the attack.

As the huge wave splashed apart mid-air, the water droplets that scattered in all directions suddenly froze into sharp ice weapons, such as knives, arrows, thorns, and thistles, raining down towards Lu Ping in an overwhelming manner.

Lu Ping felt as if he was taking the brunt of a collapsing iceberg, and had no way to run except to brace for his demise by the ice attacks.

Great Force, it was the Great Force again!

Lu Ping tried his best to break free from this feeling of being unable to resist. He threw out several Blood Condensation Realm charms, such as the Water Shield Charm, Giant Wave Charm, Water Wall Charm, Gale Charm, Wooden Vine Charm, Earth Wall Charm, and many others, in order to defend from the incoming ice spells.

At the same time, Lu Ping cast two water-element defensive mid-grade mystic instruments that he obtained some time ago to protect himself. The Soaring Wing Swords flew in front of him and slashed into a ball of sword light.

With all this, he finally managed to carve out a path of survival from the barrage of ice spells. But only one of the two mid-grade defensive mystic instruments remained in front of him as the other one had shattered into many pieces.

Lu Ping didn’t have the time to mourn for the loss of his defensive mystic instrument as he suddenly felt a chill on his neck. He hurriedly cast his divine sense and launched the Soaring Wing Swords to the back.

Peng! Peng! Peng!

Immediately, a series of loud noises could be heard coming from behind him.

Unbeknownst to Lu Ping, the Giant Croc had reached his rear and had opened his big mouth full of sharp teeth, biting towards his neck. When the Soaring Wing Swords arrived behind him, they slashed the Giant Croc’s teeth off from his mouth.

Lu Ping dashed forward with the [Treading Waves Art], while hurriedly moving his last remaining mid-grade defensive mystic instrument to protect behind him. The defensive mystic instrument was met with the Giant Croc’s front claws and shattered into pieces.

Thinking that he had escaped from the Giant Croc’s killing moves, Lu Ping turned around when he saw the Giant Croc spitting out the broken teeth towards him.

Quickly, Lu Ping’s divine sense told him that the 72 incoming teeth weren’t the ones broken by his Soaring Wing Swords. Instead, they were the teeth that the Giant Croc had forged into low-grade mystic instruments. These mystic instruments formed from teeth, had sealed every part of space, preventing Lu Ping from dodging.

Lu Ping was truly shocked, but it was too late to activate another defensive mystic instrument anymore, and so he was forced to cast the Soaring Wing Swords using the [Green Jiao Sea Haunting Art] to try and protect himself.

At the same time, he also cast the [Cloud Moving Rain Falling Art], creating a downpour of rain in front of him. Each rain droplet was filled with Lu Ping’s arcane energy, and continuously struck the 72 teeth mystic instruments in an attempt to deflect or knock the teeth off-course.

After he finished casting the [Cloud Moving Rain Falling Art], Lu Ping retreated dozens of feet away. His clothes were torn and his limbs were cut with many wounds, but thanks to the spirit snake scale inner vest armor’s protection, Lu Ping’s injuries were all superficial.

The Giant Croc was first stunned to see that Lu Ping had blocked his full attack, and then quickly became enraged, for no one had ever been able to escape from his killer moves. Even monsters and human cultivators with better cultivation than himself were often defeated by his killer moves, so how could this Fifth Layer Blood Condensation Realm human cultivator not die?

The furious Giant Croc slapped his claws on the sea surface, and the 72 teeth low-grade mystic instruments knocked down by Lu Ping were recalled and combined with each other. In an instant, the teeth formed a high-grade mystic instrument serrated blade.

An abundant arcane energy flowed on the surface of the blade, with the serrated teeth shining with a cold bloodthirsty light. This indicated that this music instrument was the Giant Croc's natal mystic instrument made from his own teeth that he shed.

The Giant Croc roared in anger waving his blade towards Lu Ping.

However at this time, Lu Ping, who was standing motionless a few dozen feet away, suddenly let out a long exclamation and laughed happily, "So this is the so-called 'Great Force'!"

First there was the Giant Croc’s tail attacks, then there was the Xuan Ling white-faced cultivator’s wind-style sword attack, and lastly the Giant Croc’s barrage of ice spells. These scenes kept flashing through Lu Ping's mind, and dawned on him. He finally pierced through the

last barrier holding him back from attaining the state of Force’s third and final stage – Great Force!

With that, Lu Ping swung a sword attack out with the power equivalent to that of a great river. This was a sword attack cast with the power of the Great Force!