Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-151

Li Zi-Ming looked at the young man and young lady walking down from the cloud, his face twisted into an ugly expression.

Li Zi-Ming had spent most of his time on Huang Li Island all these years. Although his cultivation improved to the Eighth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, he hadn’t fought as many actual battles and so he was inexperienced with monster beasts.

Thus, after seeing the Verdant Luan, he didn’t verify matters with his divine sense first before leaping out to launch an attack.

Lu Ping had thrown back the same words that Li Zi-Ming used to mock him in the past.

After arriving at the scene, Lu Ping and Hu Lili ignored the red-faced Li Zi-Ming and greeted Liu Zi-Yuan, Du Zi-Sheng and Fang Zi-Yan, who were the three master immortals of Patrol Team One. They then took their positions behind them.

Shi Lingling swiftly jumped down from the sky with a peal of laughter. As soon as she landed, she immediately asked Lu Ping as if no one else was present, “Junior Brother Lu Ping, where did you catch this big bird? It’s so beautiful, I want to catch one too next time!”

It turned out that Lu Ping and the others had caught up with Shi Lingling. At that time, she had used up the power of her talisman treasure. Naturally, when she saw Lu Ping and his huge spirit pet, she was reluctant to waste her talisman treasure anymore and hopped on with the rest.

When the master immortals heard Shi Lingling, they were quite surprised and looked at Lu Ping in amazement as they initially thought that the Verdant Luan was given to Shi Lingling by her elders.

It was truly unexpected that this Verdant Luan was the spirit pet of a Mid Blood Condensation disciple. Just how was this possible?

One must know, this Verdant Luan was agile and fluctuating with strong arcane energy—even the Late Blood Condensation master immortals weren’t sure that they could capture it alive.

In other words, wouldn’t this mean that Lu Ping’s prowess was stronger than Late Blood Condensation cultivators?

Some cultivators had already heard about Lu Ping’s identity as an Alchemist and Enlightened Master Liu Xuan-Ling’s official disciple. It suddenly dawned on them—a talented disciple under a famous teacher, no wonder he could tame a Verdant Luan!

Lu Ping ignored the gazes of the master immortals, and instead, he casually dealt with Shi Lingling’s questions.

Beside him, Hu Lili knew Lu Ping’s low-key personality and that he didn’t like drawing unwanted attention to himself. So, she pulled Shi Lingling to Zheng Jie, who had just gotten off the Verdant Luan’s back. In a short while, the three women were already chattering nonstop on their own.

Lu Ping quickly gave Hu Lili a grateful look for her understanding. It was as if they shared the same thoughts; Hu Lili also happened to look back at Lu Ping.

The two smiled warmly when their eyes met, and both read the other’s meaning in their eyes.

Suddenly, a loud roar of arcane energy could be heard rumbling from the sky. A huge flying boat swiftly sailed forward with the wind and waves.

Accompanying it was a puppet chariot that rivaled the flying boat’s pace.

Then, a Fire Kirin Horse suddenly galloped out from the back of the flying boat, its rider shouting loudly. The rider was naturally Yao Yong.

As they approached the master immortals, the passengers disembarked from the flying boat and puppet chariot, both parties arguing about how far ahead they were and which side had arrived first.

“Junior Brother Lu, when did you get ahead of us?”

Suddenly, Yao Yong’s surprised exclamation instantly silenced the two arguing patrol teams.

The cultivators’ first reaction was to think that it was impossible for anyone else to get ahead of them.

However, to their disappointment, they clearly saw Lu Ping and the others standing behind Patrol Team One’s three master immortals.

“Oh, I have a spirit pet that’s good at flying,” Lu Ping replied. Lu Qin had already returned to Lu Ping’s spirit pet bag before the cultivators arrived.

Since someone else had already arrived before them, there was no point in arguing for first place anymore. Hence, the cultivators returned to their respective patrol teams.

Li Yu and a few others looked at Lu Ping in hatred for stealing their limelight, while Lu Ping didn’t even care to look back at them at all.

However, there was a person who came down from the puppet chariot that had piqued Lu Ping’s interest.

When this disciple alighted from the puppet chariot, he only looked at Lu Ping once, but this one simple glance had somehow caught Lu Ping’s attention.

This disciple’s gaze didn’t reveal any obvious signs of cynicism, envy, admiration and other emotions like the crowd of cultivators. Instead, his gaze was deep and quiet like a pool of still water, his intentions deeply hidden underneath.

Lu Ping’s eyes lit up and he suddenly recognized this disciple. His name was Yuan Zhan; he had lost to Lu Ping in the competition at Zhen Ling Side Hall back then.

I didn’t expect him to come to Huang Li Island too!

Lu Ping looked at Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Yuan Zhan as he walked expressionlessly to the middle of his patrol team.

For some reason, Lu Ping felt that there was something hidden in the glance Yuan Zhan gave him, but he couldn’t tell what it was. He could only secretly keep the matter in his mind.

Shortly after their arrival, the rest of the cultivators who were chasing behind also arrived one after another.

Chen Lian, Du Feng and the others were only slightly slower than Yao Yong and the rest, which once again reminded the cultivators of Patrol Team One’s overall prowess.

After all of them arrived, the disciples were about to ask the master immortals for further instructions on their next task. But they suddenly noticed that the master immortals were looking in the direction of the monster race sea.

While everyone was confused, they heard Liu Zi-Yuan laugh and say, “These monsters have sharp senses to find us so quickly. Good, good. Then it’s not a waste of time that we waited here for so long.”

The master immortals of the other teams also echoed their agreement.

Lu Ping spread out his divine sense and picked up countless monster auras in the direction of the monster race sea. It was obvious that a large number of monster beasts were swarming in fast towards them.

Before Lu Ping could wonder what the master immortals had used to attract so many monsters, Master Immortal Liu Zi-Yuan shouted, “Patrol Team One, form the Three Essence Five Element Formation, prepare for war!”

Lu Ping, on hearing this, quickly joined up with Zhang Zi-Cheng and Hu Lili, and the three of them formed a small Three Essence Formation at the east corner of Patrol Team One.

The other team members also formed a small Three Essence Formation in groups of three. These three formations occupied a corner each in the west, south and north.

The three master immortals, Liu Zi-Yuan, Fang Zi-Yan and Du Zi-Sheng, formed their own Three Essence Formation in the center of the patrol team.

Then, Patrol Team One’s five teams formed a larger Five Element Formation in preparation for the battle against the monster beasts.

The Three Essence Five Element Formation, this was Zhen Ling Sect’s Dao army array formation!

Lu Ping had once witnessed the monster army array formation of the Primal Giant Crocodiles, and also the Dao army array formations of the Ocean Overturning Gang, Xuan Ling Sect, and Xi Ling Island’s Ai Clan.

Be it the monster’s or human’s army array formations, they were all indeed very powerful.

Zhen Ling Sect named theirs the Three Essence Five Element Formation.

All Zhen Ling disciples were required to practice it after entering the Blood Condensation Realm and become inner disciples of the sect. Lu Ping was naturally no exception, but this was his first time using it.

The other five sea patrol teams had also carried out the formation.

Six Dao army array formations moved at the same pace, slowly pushing forward. Their aim was clearly not to stay still and brace for the enemy’s attacks, but to strike out and engage the monsters in a head-on battle.

Fang Zi-Yan noticed the Three Essence Formation formed by Lu Ping, Zhang Zi-Cheng, and Hu Lili, and he felt a little uneasy.

In Patrol Team One’s Dao army array formation, the Three Essence Formation formed with the master immortals was naturally the strongest component.

This was followed by two Three Essence Formations that had two Seventh Layer Blood Condensation disciples each.

The fourth Three Essence Formation had Zhong Jian and Ma Yu, a couple in the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm who also practiced a mystical combined art.

Lastly, in the fifth Three Essence Formation, not only were there two Fifth Layer Blood Condensation disciples, but even Lu Ping, who led the formation and was the strongest member, was just in the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

Fang Zi-Yan wanted to remind Liu Zi-Yuan about this group’s lacking abilities and to have them reassigned, but unexpectedly, Liu Zi-Yuan laughed silently and said, “Don’t bother.”

Fang Zi-Yan had no choice but to look at Du Zi-Sheng, but to his surprise, Du Zi-Sheng’s thoughts were also aligned with Liu Zi-Yuan.

Left with no choice, Fang Zi-Yan could only pay more attention to Lu Ping’s group formation to avoid them being broken by monster beasts.

However, just shortly after they clashed with the incoming monster beasts, Lu Ping’s group of Three Essence Formation gave Fang Zi-Yan a huge surprise.

Lu Ping took the lead in the forefront, wielding a pair of high-grade flying swords and deflected most of the monster beasts’ attacks from the group.

Whereas Hu Lili and Zhang Zi-Cheng firmly concentrated on protecting Lu Ping’s back, they even left the sides unattended for him to defend on his own.

These monster beasts were mostly in the Blood Refining Realm and Early Blood Condensation Realm, but although their strength wasn’t high, they heavily outnumbered the Zhen Ling disciples.

Throughout the battle, the three Master Immortals in the center of the Three Essence Five Element Formations were always ready to rescue their team members from danger.

Meanwhile, among the four small Three Essence Formations in Patrol Team One, Lu Ping’s group was the most solid and secure from the risk of a dangerous situation.

Fang Zi-Yan had been paying close attention to the group’s situation several times, yet he didn’t see any problems that required his interception.

At present, Lu Ping was besieged by monsters, six at the Early Blood Condensation realm, and one at Mid Blood. Lu Ping pointed out his hands, and the Soaring Wing Swords sprinkled sixty-four sword strikes to the front.

The sword strikes were powerful and fast, the monsters couldn’t even react fast enough before their blood splashed all over the sea surface.

In one sweep, three of the seven monsters were slain and the remaining four severely injured!

At this moment, two pieces of seaweed suddenly burst out from underwater, entangling the two injured and retreating monster beasts behind Lu Ping.

The two monster beasts struggled hard, but they couldn’t break free in such a short time.

A mid-grade flying sword flashed across the space silently and pierced through the body of one of the monster beasts. This Third Layer Blood Condensation monster fish turned belly-up and floated lifelessly along with the waves.

By the time the flying sword came back around to slay the second monster, the monster prawn had already broken free from Hu Lili’s entanglement spell. But it was still too late. Zhang Zi-Cheng’s flying sword had suddenly accelerated and slashed the fleeing monster prawn into two pieces.

A swing of swords, a wave of attacks; natural like a river that flows back into the sea; unstoppable like a torrential river that breaks a dam! This is the epitome of comprehending the state of Force to perfection.

He can already slash sixty-four sword strikes in one swing, this means he’s not far from achieving eighty-one sword strikes. Legend has it that to attain the sword skill’s State of Intent, the first stage is to achieve Sword Complexity, and the minimum requirement for this stage is to slash eighty-one sword strikes with a swing of the sword.

His sword skill is only just one step away from achieving that state—the Sword Intent.

Fang Zi-Yan watched with emotion as Lu Ping performed his sword skill in battle.

No wonder the cultivators would assign these seemingly lacking three to form a Three Essence Formation.

No wonder Senior Brother Liu Zi-Yuan told him not to bother about a group that seemed weak compared to the others.

It was all because Lu Ping’s prowess was far stronger than could be evaluated based on his cultivation base alone.

Fang Zi-Yan thought that even if he tried to compare against Lu Ping, they would probably only know who was actually stronger after a proper battle.

The monster beasts’ siege only lasted for an hour before they were defeated by Zhen Ling Sect’s six sea patrol teams of ninety Mid and Late Blood Condensation cultivators.

The cultivators obviously wanted to wipe out this wave of monster beasts, and the six sea patrol teams changed their formations again.

Initially, Patrol Team One’s fifteen cultivators had formed into five Three Essence Formations. But now, the cultivators were reformed into three Five Element Formations in groups of five, each group was led by a master immortal.

At the same time, other Zhen Ling Sect patrol teams also did the same, while quickly moving out to the sides and encircling the remaining monster beasts from both flanks.

Patrol Team One was in the center-front of the encirclement and worked with the other five teams to form a larger formation.

Then, the master immortals who were all in the Eighth and Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm also launched their attacks at the same time.

In just a short while, none of the monster beasts in the encirclement survived.

After the battle was over, the victorious Zhen Ling cultivators let out a shout and cheered at the top of their lungs.

Then, the cultivators began to dismantle the monster beasts’ corpses and harvest the useful spirit materials.

The harvests gained from this wave of monster beasts were estimated to be worth tens of thousands of spirit stones to the cultivators.

Although after distributing the harvest, there would only be a few hundred spirit stones for each cultivator, this was their first battle since the operation started and they ended the battle without much difficulty.

Ahead of them in their operation in the monster race sea, lay countless more monster beasts, and there would naturally be greater harvests for them to reap.