Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-153

Chapter 153 – Wake Up

It was always an exciting time to clean up the battlefield after a victory. Among the twelve monster sharks, six were in the Late Blood Condensation Realm.

Many parts from the monster sharks were valuable resources. The teeth alone were top notch materials for making mystic instruments.

Niu Dazhuang, who had received 72 sharp teeth as his share, was already pestering Chen Lian to help him forge a high-grade wolf-teeth club mystic instrument. It really couldn’t be helped; after all, this guy was only interested in manly and violent weapons like these.

The monster shark’s fins and tails were also valuable materials. At the very least, Lu Ping’s Soaring Wing Swords couldn’t inflict significant damage to them.

Especially the dorsal fin that Lu Ping had chopped off with all his might, which he stored away for his own use.

Moreover, the shark fins were also delicious ingredients for cultivators, and Lu Ping knew of several medicinal pellets that required shark fins.

“Haha, look at this!”

Zhong Jian and Ma Yu—assisted by Chen Lian—had killed a Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Great White Shark. After the battle, they found seven Condensed Blood Beads inside its corpse. One must say, the trio really had some luck there.

Zhong Jian and Ma Yu were at the peak of the Sixth Layer, just one step away from breaking through to the Late Blood Condensation Realm.

Although these Condensed Blood Beads didn’t match their cultivation method, they could always exchange them for the ones they needed.

It was almost a certainty that after this hunt, they would be able to break through to the Late Blood Condensation Realm.

Ever since the patrol teams went their separate ways, Patrol Team One had concealed their tracks for several days, until they came across this school of monster sharks and annihilated them.

Naturally, Lu Ping and the other members quickly realized that Liu Zi-Yuan and the other patrol leaders were leading the teams on a secret mission.

Zhong Jian and Liu Zi-Yuan were both under the tutelage of Enlightened Master Guo Xuan-Shan.

Although Zhong Jian was only a registered disciple, Liu Zi-Yuan took good care of him and they shared a close relationship.

After the members harvested the spoils, Liu Zi-Yuan instructed the team to take a rest on a coral reef.

Zhong Jian took advantage of this small break and came up to ask, “Fourth Senior Brother, is this school of monster sharks the reason we hid our tracks these past few days?”

The other members were meditating to recover their arcane energy. They had also been thinking of this matter for a long time, so hearing Zhong Jian speak out, they quickly shifted their attention onto Liu Zi-Yuan.

Liu Zi-Yuan laughed and scolded, “Everyone here is sensible enough to know the answer already, but you’re the only one who can’t hold your patience!”

Zhong Jian laughed back shyly. Next to him, Fang Zi-Yan smiled and said, “Since the mission is completed now, it doesn’t matter anymore if we tell you the truth. Do you remember Han Wei-Yun’s famous battle, after which Xuan Ling Sect promoted him as one of the North Ocean 18 Warriors?”

Everyone in the patrol team laughed when they heard Fang Zi-Yan bring this up.

It turned out that after Han Wei-Yun led the Xuan Ling disciples and escaped from the Primal Giant Crocodiles’ encirclement, Xuan Ling Sect had packaged him into a heroic leader who had saved the disciples’ lives.

As a result, he succeeded in becoming a North Ocean 18 Warrior resulting in Xuan Ling Sect occupying two seats in this prestigious group, just like Zhen Ling Sect.

Han Wei-Yun was also a good cultivator. After his promotion, he scored a few outstanding merits in subsequent operations in the monster sea. So, his reputation slowly grew and gained respect from others.

However, the Ocean Overturning Gang’s Furious Sea Division soon spread the news about the truth of their escape.

They said that Han Wei-Yun and the Xuan Ling disciples were only able to escape because Han Wei-Yun had left behind dozens of rogue cultivators that followed him, using them as bait to attract the attention of the monster soldiers.

By contrast, Xi Ling Island’s Ai Bo-Tao didn’t leave any of his rogue cultivator followers behind, and his reputation as a North Ocean 18 Warrior was well deserved.

When the news broke, the North Ocean cultivation community was in an uproar.

Many cultivators refused to accept Ocean Overturning Gang’s words, given its notorious reputation. Not to mention that Xuan Ling Sect was the head of the North Ocean Alliance, so it surely wouldn’t promote such a disciple to the top.

However, the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators swore publicly that they were telling the truth. Moreover, other than Xuan Ling Sect, there was another party at the scene—Xi Ling Island’s Ai Bo-Tao, one of North Ocean’s 18 Warriors.

Ai Bo-Tao naturally knew the truth of the matter. After all, Xuan Ling Sect had “kindly” warned the Ai Clan to keep their mouths shut when they were promoting Han Wei-Yun to the top.

In return, Xuan Ling Sect praised Ai Bo-Tao’s merits, raising his reputation even higher in the North Ocean, and accordingly, Xi Ling Island’s Ai Clan also gained a lot of benefits.

However, after the truth about Han Wei-Yun’s most famous and meritorious battle was exposed, Ai Bo-Tao had no choice but to remain silent in response to the many questions from fellow cultivators.

This was because many of the rogue cultivators who escaped with Ai Bo-Tao had decided to follow him.

Firstly, it was because they were grateful towards him for not giving them up and saving their lives.

Secondly, Xuan Ling Sect had already started to build up momentum for Han Wei-Yun’s promotion. These rogue cultivators who knew the truth could only seek refuge with the Ai Clan in fear of being silenced by Xuan Ling Sect.

After all, dead men tell no tales.

So, should Ai Bo-Tao side with Xuan Ling Sect and deny the truth now, then these rogue cultivators would surely be disappointed in him.

Worse, they might even leave thinking that Ai Clan would compromise with Xuan Ling Sect and hand them out as scapegoats.

More importantly, the Ocean Overturning Gang only chose to disclose the truth a year after the incident.

Over the year, as Ai Bo-Tao’s reputation grew, the number of rogue cultivators following him also increased. That battle was one of his biggest merits, and almost all of his followers knew the truth behind it.

So, if Ai Bo-Tao intended to keep his followers, then he couldn’t deny the truth.

As a result, Ai Bo-Tao’s silence was taken as a tacit acknowledgement. Han Wei-Yun had indeed fled the battle by casting away rogue cultivators.

Han Wei-Yun naturally faced accusations from the North Ocean cultivators. Zhen Ling Sect and several other sects were of course quietly manipulating things behind the scenes, and Xuan Ling Sect’s reputation in the North Ocean once again took a hit.

The relationship between Xi Ling Island’s Ai Clan and Xuan Ling Sect was in decline, and Xuan Ling Sect naturally made things difficult for the Ai Clan.

Ai Bo-Tao also had a hard time, but he still won the support of the rogue cultivators who followed him.

Later on, there was another piece of news that Han Wei-Yun’s success in the operations in the monster race sea was also false.

Every time he went out to hunt monsters, several Ninth Layer Blood Condensation experts would follow him without fail—more than half of his merits were only possible due to their help.

After the Ocean Overturning Gang stirred up more conflict in the North Ocean, they quickly disappeared again.

The reason Fang Zi-Yan mentioned Han Wei-Yun’s story was because the monsters outside of Qiu Yuan Island have continued running rampant ever since their success in ambushing the human cultivators. They madly attacked human cultivators and collected their blood and flesh.

As a result, there were hardly any cultivators that dared to venture outside Qiu Yun Island anymore.

Lately, these monster cultivators began spreading to the other waters in the North Ocean. They gathered a large group of monsters and planned a massive hunt on the human cultivators that entered the monster race sea.

Many half-humanoid monster cultivators even repeatedly called for a human feast.

Zhen Ling Sect had its own sources and learned that the monsters’ mass actions were intentionally driven by a mastermind behind the scenes.

These monster beasts had been hunting human cultivators on a large scale, collecting human blood and flesh and selling them to many of the monster Enlightened Masters in various parts of the North Ocean.

This particular school of monster sharks that Zhen Ling Sect had ambushed was one of the monster teams under a monster Enlightened Master.

After learning the truth about the operation, Lu Ping and the others began to concentrate on recovering their arcane energy.

Hu Lili’s injuries weren’t serious thanks to the golden inner vest. Moreover, Lu Ping had given her some Essence Recuperating Pellets to recover her injuries. In addition, she only assisted Lu Ping during the battle which didn’t consume much of her arcane energy.

Therefore, Hu Lili was responsible for keeping vigilance.

Half a day later, not only had Lu Ping recovered his arcane energy, he also cultivated a little of his [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture].

In the recent days of battles with the monsters, Lu Ping noticed that every battle stimulated his potential and improved his arcane energy.

After a short period of cultivation, Lu Ping who was largely satisfied with his progress, opened his eyes. As soon as he did so, he was shocked to find a dozen pairs of eyes staring at him with envy and jealousy. Even Master Immortal Liu Zi-Yuan, who was always-calm and steady, was no exception.

Lu Ping turned his head to look at Hu Lili, only to see Hu Lili playfully stick out her tongue and make a funny face.

She has always shown a mature and graceful side in front of Lu Ping, so this rare girlish attitude was a huge surprise.

She was so… beautiful.

Zhong Jian cleared his throat twice and waved his hands in front of Lu Ping’s eyes. “Ahem, ahem, Junior Brother Lu? Are you back yet? Wake up!”

Lu Ping calmly turned his head and looked at Zhong Jian without the slightest embarrassment on his face. Agitated, Zhong Jian jumped up and said, “Junior Brother Lu, Senior Sister Hu Lili isn’t going anywhere, so you can stare at her anytime you want. It’s not like this is your last chance, so don’t give me that look!”

Lu Ping helplessly looked at Ma Yu next to Zhong Jian. Ma Yu laughed while saying, “Alright, that’s enough. We shouldn’t make jokes about Junior Brother Lu anymore.”

After saying that, she turned to Lu Ping and asked, “Junior Brother Lu , your cultivation is way too extravagant. We know that Junior Brother is wealthy, but can you really afford to cultivate like this?”

Apparently, after everyone resumed their meditation, Lu Ping had placed a white putuan underneath him. Engraved with a complex array formation, it was obviously a high-grade spirit-gathering putuan.

Then, Lu Ping placed a water-element Blood Spirit Pellet in his mouth and held a mid-grade spirit stone in each hand before he began to cultivate.

But that wasn’t all.

When Lu Ping started circulating the arcane energy in his body, an ancient jade pendant hanging around his waist suddenly emitted a purple glow.

Purple smoke was released from the pendant and surrounded Lu Ping, attracting spiritual energy and emitting a calming aura around him. This allowed cultivators to enter the cultivation state more quickly and enhance the effects of cultivation.

Compared to Lu Ping’s luxurious cultivation measures, the rest of Patrol Team One only swallowed a medicinal pellet. There were some who also used a mid-grade spirit stone, and some that only used a handful of low-grade spirit stones.

Even the Master Immortals, Liu Zi-Yuan, Du Zi-Sheng, and Fang Zi-Yan, only consumed a medicinal pellet and used two mid-grade spirit stones to assist their cultivation.

They also noticed that Lu Ping’s recovery and cultivation time was much longer than everyone else’s, despite his luxurious cultivation measures.

This meant that Lu Ping’s arcane energy was stronger than theirs, and thus took longer to recover.

Once again, the crowd was left speechless at Lu Ping’s prowess.

No wonder he was able to survive alone in the monster race sea for five years.

No wonder he was valued by Enlightened Master Liu and Enlightened Master Jiang, and was accepted by Enlightened Master Liu as an official disciple even when he was just in the Mid Blood Condensation Realm.

No wonder he was a match for the Eighth Layer Blood Condensation Great White Shark.

Lu Ping was embarrassed by all the stares and was secretly wary of appearing too flashy.

The good thing was that Patrol Team One was now acting alone. Yao Yong, Zhong Jian, and the others were his close friends, and even the Master Immortals were in good relations with him.

If he had cultivated like this in front of outsiders, it might really bring him some unwanted attention.

Liu Zi-Yuan was sharp to notice Lu Ping’s discomfort, so he took out a jade scroll and said, “This was found on the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation monster shark. Monsters rarely use jade scrolls to communicate. Only after they have attained a human state and become Enlightened Masters will they use jade scrolls. It looks like we’ve seized a huge prize in this operation.”

Sure enough, the group’s attention all shifted to the jade scroll and they urged Liu Zi-Yuan to check its contents.

Liu Zi-Yuan used his divine sense and broke the seal on the jade scroll. But suddenly, he shouted out loud in shock, “Not good!”

A ball of light burst out from the broken seal and shot out like a shooting star to the east.

It was so sudden and happened so quickly that Liu Zi-Yuan and the other two Master Immortals had no time to stop it.

Liu Zi-Yuan looked at the jade scroll in his hand and hurriedly said, “This is a jade scroll engraved with a divine revelation, but it was camouflaged with a sealing array formation engraved with a divine sense. Once the sealing array formation is broken with a divine sense, the divine revelation in the jade scroll will turn into a Warning Charm and trigger automatically. The ball of light just now was the Warning Charm, it’s aim is the monster Enlightened Master in the vicinity. We must leave quickly, right now, or it will be too late, and the monster Enlightened Master will catch up to us!”