Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-132

After Dagui swam to Lu Ping, it was already eager to jump onto Lu Ping. Dabao climbed onto Lu Ping's shoulders on all fours and showed him what it was holding in its hands.

Fortunately, Dabao could finally shrink its body size after entering the Blood Condensation Realm. Otherwise, Lu Ping's shoulders really wouldn’t be able to hold Dabao's growing body.

Seven Condensed Blood Beads with thin layers of red energy glowing on their surface, rolled into Lu Ping's hands. The red hue was one of the signs of Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators.

Lu Ping couldn’t help but feel incredibly lucky this time.

He had expended a lot of effort to kill the Primal Giant Crocodile. From setting up Lu Dagui ahead of them in advance, to stall the giant crocodile, and ending the fight using the top-grade mystic instrument, Verdant Dawn Sword, to swiftly behead the Giant Croc in one blow.

All of this was to ensure that he could kill the Primal Giant Crocodile as fast as possible, so there wouldn’t be time for the Giant Croc to self-destruct his own heartspace. However, Lu Ping didn’t expect the plan to go as smoothly as it did.

Feeling the abundant spiritual energy in the Condensed Blood Beads, Lu Ping grinned from ear to ear. He finally had the greatest support to help him breakthrough to the Late Blood Condensation Realm. The Primal Giant Crocodile was indeed a monster species of the same status as the Emerald Sea Spirit Snake.

Dabao, Dagui, and Snake Trio were also covetously looking at the seven Condensed Blood Beads in Lu Ping’s hands. However, they knew that with their current cultivation base, they couldn’t even take half of the bead’s spiritual energy, let alone a whole bead.

On the contrary, Lu Qin the Verdant Luan, who was in the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, was strong enough and qualified to consume these Condensed Blood Beads. But sadly, its cultivation was wind and fire dual-element, so the water-element Condensed Blood Beads weren’t suitable for it.

Therefore, the proud Verdant Luan only took a quick glance at the Condensed Blood Beads and landed before landing on Dagui's back to groom its feathers.

Poor Dagui. First, it was used to stall Primal Giant Crocodile and was knocked away, making it the only injury of the fight. Then, after all that, Dabao still rode on its back to get to Lu Ping and now Lu Qin used it as a resting place.

Lu Ping distributed five Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets to his five spirit pets and also gave a Jade Cleansing Pellet to Lu Dagui for its injuries. Then, he smiled and said, "We all contributed a lot to the killing of this Primal Giant Crocodile, but Dagui was the one that contributed the most. This crocodile's blood is more than enough, I will use it to concoct Bottleneck Breaking Pellets to help Dagui breakthrough to the Mid Blood Condensation Realm."

The other spirit pets showed an envious expression when they heard him. The blood of a Late Blood Condensation Realm monster, contained arcane energy that was not any weaker than Mid Condensed Blood Beads.

Bottleneck Breaking Pellets were medicinal pellets specifically used to assist a cultivator’s breakthrough to the Mid Blood Condensation Realm. When concocted with the blood of this Primal Giant Crocodile, the pellets would naturally be of the highest quality.

In other words, Lu Dagui’s advancement into the Mid Blood Condensation Realm was no longer an issue.

After that, Lu Ping kept the spirit pets back into his spirit pet pouch and went on to handle the Primal Giant Crocodile’s huge carcass. The giant crocodile’s body was full of treasure. Lu Ping naturally wouldn’t let it go to waste!

In addition to the hundreds of pounds of crocodile meat that Lu Ping wanted to keep for his spirit pets as rations, the rest of the crocodile skin and bones were good spirit materials for forging high-grade mystic instruments.

In particular, its four huge claws and the tail bone of nearly ten feet long, were high-grade spirit materials that could be used to forge rare mystic instruments with special uses.

Other than that, there was a palm-sized drum and sixteen drumsticks. Lu Ping recognized them as the battle drums used to command the monster army formation. They were a set of mid-grade mystic instruments.

On top of that, there was also a formation diagram which recorded an array formation known as the Four Prison Interlocked Great Formation. This was the array formation used to train the monster army formation or Dao army formation, which was the precise formation used by the Primal Giant Crocodiles’ monster army.

These two uncommon items attracted a lot of interest from Lu Ping. He planned on discussing their uses with Hu Lili when he returned. Additionally, there was a map of the North Ocean monster race’s faction distribution. This was an unexpected surprise which Lu Ping solemnly kept away.

Apart from those items, there was nothing else.

Lower-realm monsters before the Core Forging Realm had few possessions. This was because monsters would swallow every spirit material, spirit stone, and spirit herb they came across.

But it was also because of these swallowed items, that the flesh and bones of monsters were strengthened, making them perfect materials to forge mystic instruments. This was primarily why human cultivators were so enthusiastic about hunting monsters.

After Lu Ping scavenged the Giant Croc’s body, he flew off in a hurry towards the west.

Not only could the Giant Croc’s three siblings come at any time, just from the Primal Giant Crocodiles’ demeanors and the well-trained monster army that accompanied them; Lu Ping could easily tell that they were definitely backed by the monster race’s Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters.

Lu Ping knew that Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters all had some mystical and inexplicable abilities. Perhaps, the Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters behind this Primal Giant Crocodile had already noticed his death the very moment he was killed!

Regardless, if Lu Ping was slow to escape, the other three Late Blood Condensation Realm Giant Crocs might catch him. By then, he would be in huge trouble as he definitely wouldn’t be able to handle all three Primal Giant Crocodiles at the same time.

Sure enough, Lu Ping's caution was spot on.

Just four hours after Lu Ping left, the three Giant Crocs who had waited too long for the return of their little brother finally realized that something was wrong.

When the three monsters used their secret techniques and traced their little brother’s tracks to the battlefield, the only thing left on the calm sea was the scent of death left by the Primal Giant Crocodile when he died.

However, one thing that Lu Ping didn’t know was that the identity of this Giant Croc was much higher than he had estimated. After this event, Lu Ping's portrait was circulated amongst the monster race. In the future when he stepped into the monster race sea again, he would be faced with the monsters’ endless pursuit

In the following days, Lu Ping made his way back towards the direction of the North Ocean Archipelago.

Along the way, he sorted through the various spirit materials he had collected in the past five years, as well as two interspatial pouches from the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators who he had killed.

The biggest gain was a high-grade earth-element flying sword from the Ocean Overturning Gang’s Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm cultivator.

Originally, Lu Ping intended to see if he could find some information about the Ocean Overturning Gang from their interspatial pouches. But unfortunately, there were no jade scrolls or anything similar that could be traced back to the Ocean Overturning Gang. This point alone showed that the Ocean Overturning Gang was a force to be reckoned with!

Other than that, there were a dozen bottles of good medicinal pellets and 25,000 spirit stones. He couldn’t help but praise in his heart that whilst these sea pirates were definitely bad people, they were also really wealthy!

Especially the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm cultivator who had a high-grade spirit stone which made Lu Ping very happy for quite some time.

When spirit stones reached high-grade, their uses would increase and not only be limited to just cultivation purposes.

As far as Lu Ping knew, he had seen several pellet recipes that required high-grade spirit stones in conjunction with spirit herbs to concoct.

Additionally, Lu Ping also knew from Chen Lian that some high-grade and top-grade mystic instruments also required high-grade spirit stones as spirit materials.

Hence, high-grade spirit stones could be said to be extremely useful for a cultivator.

…

Qiu Yun Island was a small island located to the south of the North Ocean Archipelago. The island had a small spirit vein and was occupied by the Qiu Clan, a medium-sized independent clan on the island, who served as the de facto owner of Qiu Yun Island.

It was rumored that the Qiu Clan had four Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, one of whom was even a Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master.

After the sea ban was lifted, Qiu Yun Island became the front line operating base for the human cultivators in the south North Ocean Archipelago, due to its close proximity to the buffer sea and monster race waters.

Naturally, the head of the Qiu Clan seized this opportunity and after several years of dedicated management, the Qiu Clan, which initially had been on a slight decline before the sea ban lifted, experienced significant growth.

Lu Ping had been in the monster race sea for five years. During that time he had no idea where he was. It was only after meeting Cultivator Cheng and Cultivator Huang that he found out he was far away from Zhen Ling Sect, and had arrived in the southern region of the North Ocean Archipelago.

This Qiu Yun Island was the nearest island occupied by humans to Lu Ping’s location.

In the past five years, Lu Ping had been training intensely, fighting endlessly with monsters, and covering his tracks at all times. He had been in a state of constant tension, prepared for danger at any time. This took an unimaginable toll on his mind and spirit.

After arriving at Qiu Yun Island and seeing the endless stream of humans passing by, Lu Ping suddenly felt a sense of returning home. Feeling at ease, wave after wave of exhaustion struck him, both mentally and physically.

Lu Ping found an inn, and without even waiting for the server to accommodate him, he directly placed a mid-grade spirit stone on the counter, and asked for the best room. He instructed the server strictly that he was not to be disturbed, and instantly went to bed. The server was left standing alone at the door giggling at the mid-grade spirit stone in his hand.

It was only when the inn manager heard the news and stomped up the stairs, snatching the mid-grade spirit stone from his hands, did the server wail and chase after the manager. After some pleading, the server finally received five low-grade spirit stones from the manager.

Lu Ping slept for three days and three nights. In fact, with his cultivation base, Lu Ping could easily recover from his exhaustion by cultivating for a while, he didn’t actually need to sleep like mortals.

However, the mental fatigue weighed on Lu Ping heavily, which warranted him to recover through the most primitive and relaxing way to rest, sleep.

Three days later, when Lu Ping walked out of the room in high spirits, the clever server had already been waiting at the door.

Seeing the server’s resourcefulness, Lu Ping directly instructed him to lead him to Qiu Yun Island’s market. The server was so happy that he hurriedly notified the manager and quickly led Lu Ping for a stroll on Qiu Yun Island.

The server talked non stop along the way, explaining the people and things on Qiu Yun Island.

Although Lu Ping wasn’t very talkative, it didn’t mean he was an introvert . In fact, it was quite the opposite, he actually liked to listen to other people, and enjoyed the lively atmosphere of gathering with people.

Especially since Lu Ping had been living in the monster race sea for five years and could only interact with his spirit pets. So now, in the presence of a chatterbox, Lu Ping felt very comfortable.

Additionally, the server seemed to be familiar with explaining the island’s situation to the guests, so he was able to tell some interesting stories and anecdotes, which made the conversation very enjoyable.

In the past few years, Lu Ping had killed a lot of monsters and harvested a lot of spirit materials. So, except for some of the high-grade spirit materials that Lu Ping wanted to keep for Chen Lian, he sold the rest for spirit stones in the market.

Lu Ping had no way to earn any spirit stones in the monster sea. As a result, the number of spirit stones he had was gradually decreasing as he used them to cultivate. Even with a collection of 100,000 spirit stones, he still felt overwhelmed by his consumption overtime.

After selling this batch of spirit materials in the market for nearly 30,000 spirit stones, in addition to the remaining spirit stones he already owned, Lu Ping was at ease knowing that he finally had some cultivation resources in his hands again.

At noon, Lu Ping took the server and dined at a restaurant on the island dedicated to cultivators. After the meal, he ordered a pot of mid-grade Misty Rain Tea, which cost five mid-grade spirit stones.

Lu Ping's extravagant spending shocked the server who was only a Second Layer Blood Refining Realm, and was a real eye-opener to him.

After a short break, Lu Ping instructed the server to lead him to visit the spirit herbs stores on Qiu Yun Island. In the stores, Lu Ping selectively bought some spirit herbs according to the price.

Over the last few years, Lu Ping had hunted a lot of monsters. But because Condensed Blood Beads were hard to obtain, Lu Ping's medicinal pellets were barely self-sufficient. He had used up every spirit herb he owned except for the thousand-year spirit herbs, of which he had only a hundred remaining.

When the sun was setting, Lu Ping ended his day of shopping and they headed back towards the inn.

It was at that moment, Lu Ping's divine sense suddenly picked up on something. Lu Ping turned his head to the server next to him, "Little brother, I still have some things to do, you can go back first."