Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-154

When jade scrolls were written by Enlightened Masters with their divine revelation, an ordinary cultivators’ divine sense wouldn’t be able to check the contents held within the jade scrolls. The divine sense could also trigger a mechanism left behind by the Enlightened Masters’ divine revelation.

Hence, not only did Liu Zi-Yuan fail to obtain the contents inside the jade scroll, he even triggered the jade scroll’s alarm mechanism, releasing a Warning Charm, alerting the Enlightened Master.

Master Immortal Liu, Du and Fang hastily lead everyone in leaving this place, for fear that they would be caught by the monster Enlightened Master who would come to check the alarm.

The cultivators traveled south in a panic, but unfortunately they were still too late.

In less than 15 minutes, a low hiss, which was gradually becoming louder, could be heard underneath the water.

The hissing sounded like commands. Every monster that heard the hissing would have to come out and try and stop the crowd.

The monsters were mostly in the Blood Refining Realm, with the strongest ones only in the Early Blood Condensation Realm. However, even though the crowd were able to easily kill them, the countless monsters that kept coming managed to slow down their escape.

After Liu Zi-Yuan killed another Mid Blood Condensation Realm monster that tried to stop them, a cultivator donned in a green robe emerged from behind the crowd.

The cultivator had eight azure tentacles on his back that swayed up and down. He casually walked towards the crowd.

After only taking one step, the distance between the green-robed cultivator and the crowd was pulled closer by a large margin.

Liu Zi-Yuan's pupils shrunk when he saw this. He looked at the tentacles behind the cultivator and said in a cold voice, "Divine revelation materialization… He is a Core Forging Realm monster!"

Seeing that the monster Enlightened Master had almost caught up with them, Liu Zi-Yuan gave an order, "Formation!"

At the same time, he took out a message sword from his interspatial pouch, spoke a few words, and then sent it out to the sky.

The message sword shot out and disappeared. It was apparent that this message sword was made by a Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master.

The monster Enlightened Master didn’t make a move to stop the message sword. Instead, he stopped in front of the array formation and said with interest, "Did you kill the messengers of Golden Jiao Island?"

As he spoke, an overwhelming pressure descended on the crowd. All of a sudden, it became difficult for the crowd to breathe.

Previously, Lu Ping had faced off against Enlightened Master Xuan-Jing’s suppressive aura before, a Mid Core Forging Realm cultivator who was much stronger than this monster. Hence, this Enlightened Master’s aura naturally didn’t affect Lu Ping.

Liu Zi-Yuan said gruffly, "The juniors here did kill a few monster sharks."

The monster Enlightened Master said, "So the jade scroll for me, from Golden Jiao Island’s Island Lord, is also with you?"

Liu Zi-Yuan knew that there was no point in denying, "That’s right!"

The monster Enlightened Master laughed happily, "You have some guts. Now, you have two options:

"Option one, return the jade scroll back to me, and I might just spare your lives, taking you as slaves. That is, if I’m happy. The second option is that you little ones can stay in your array formation. You’ve just sent out a message sword to call for help. Let's see if you can hold out under my attacks before your reinforcements arrive."

Liu Zi-Yuan didn’t even need to think and said, "These Juniors will take the second option!"

The monster Enlightened Master laughed, "I knew that you wouldn’t shed tears until you saw your coffins!"

He casually waved his hand, and the eight tentacles behind him merged into one. The combined tentacles suddenly grew longer and smashed fiercely towards the cultivators in the array formation.

Liu Zi-Yuan was the tip of the array formation. The arcane energy of the cultivators in the Three Essence Five Element Formation, gathered together empowering his strength.

His cultivation in the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm swiftly climbed to the peak and his aura became much more powerful.

When he saw the giant tentacle coming, Liu Zi-Yuan raised his top-grade mystic instrument, the Mountain Cleaving Axe, and swung out five times in a row at five different parts of the giant tentacle.

All of a sudden, it felt as though he was equal in power with the monster Enlightened Master.

The monster Enlightened Master let out a soft exclaim in surprise as the power of this array formation was somewhat beyond his expectation. But still, it was just a small surprise, and nothing more than that.

The monster Enlightened Master casually raised his hand and the giant tentacle agilely evaded to the side, missing the Mountain Cleaving Axe’ slashes and heading straight towards Hu Lili.

It turned out that in just one glance, the monster Enlightened Master already knew that the injured Hu Lili was the weakest point of the array formation.

Liu Zi-Yuan immediately realized the monster Enlightened Master’s intention, and quickly changed the array formation’s position. He pointed a finger at the water below. A stream of seawater morphed into a water python that lunged out and wrapped around the giant tentacle.

With just a shake, the giant tentacle shattered the water python turning it into a rain of water. But that was all Liu Zi-Yuan needed.

Even though the giant tentacle took less than a second to destroy the water python, Liu Zi-Yuan had already moved the array formation away from the tentacle’s range, causing its attack to fall short.

The monster Enlightened Master let out another soft exclamation,, "I see, so it’s the Zhen Ling Sect's Dao Army array formation – the Three Essence Five Element Formation. This is getting interesting. Little ones, if you hand over the jade scroll to me now, I will let you go. How about it?"

The monster Enlightened Master was obviously afraid of the Zhen Ling Sect's power and decided to take a step back.

But Liu Zi-Yuan declined firmly, "Please forgive me senior, this is absolutely not possible!"

The Enlightened Master’s face changed, "I offer you my goodwill and you refuse it? Do you really think that I can't break your annoying little array formation?"

He was obviously furious. The giant tentacle behind him split back into eight tentacles. Then, a grayish-white layer covered the surface of the tentacles. Suddenly, the tentacles were waving gently and silently, without the fierce momentum they previously had.

Liu Zi-Yuan saw the changes and his face turned grave, "It’s the Mind-Weapon Oneness. It seems that this monster Enlightened Master has yet to forge his natal mystic treasure. However, the Mind-Weapon Oneness is also not inferior at all to the power of ordinary mystic treasures."

As soon as Liu Zi-Yuan's words fell, the eight tentacles waving around came crashing down towards their Three Essence Five Element Formation from different directions.

Liu Zi-Yuan slashed his Mountain Cleaving Axe horizontally, parrying two tentacles in a row.

Although the Mountain Cleaving Axe was powerful, the tentacles were soft and resilient. The force from the axe was easily absorbed leaving the tentacles unscathed. The changes to the tentacles were most likely because of the grayish-white layer that covered their surface.

Liu Zi-Yuan was shocked to find that his attacks were now useless against the tentacles.

To make matters worse, each tentacle was equivalent to a top-grade mystic instrument, so eight tentacles meant eight top-grade mystic instruments. In the state of Mind-Weapon Oneness, where the monster Enlightened Master combined his divine revelation with the tentacles, each tentacle would be equivalent to a mystic treasure

Which meant that they were now facing eight mystic treasures!

Liu Zi-Yuan hurriedly turned his head to look at the others.

Master Immortal Du and Master Immortal Fang had combined their strength to parry away two tentacles. But there was a strange force coming from the tentacles which affected the arcane energy in their bodies, causing them to nearly lose control of it.

The Master Immortals parried four tentacles, leaving the remaining four tentacles for the others to handle.

Yao Yong, Du Feng, and a few others parried two tentacles. Although they suffered internal injuries in the process, and were bleeding from the corners of their mouths, they managed to hold their positions in the array formation.

When Lu Ping waved his Soaring Wing Swords, an overwhelming wave of arcane energy surged into his body. He knew that this was the effect of the array formation, which allowed every member to temporarily borrow arcane energy from others.

The Soaring Wing Swords fluttered like two dancing butterflies around the tentacle that was curling towards Hu Lili. The swords shimmered as they slashed towards the tentacle.

Although the tentacle was extremely resilient in cushioning forces and repelling attacks, after consecutively taking more than a hundred sword attacks the tentacle was swerved away from its initial trajectory.

Just as Lu Ping was knocking back a tentacle, he heard several shouts behind him.

Lu Ping's heart pounded heavily. When he turned his head to look, he saw Niu Dazhuang, Zheng Jie, Zhang Zi-Cheng and Hu Lili being thrown away by the monster Enlightened Master as they were trying to defend themselves against the final tentacle.

Niu Dazhuang and Zhang Zi-Cheng took the brunt of the attack. They spurted out mouthfuls of blood, and the mystic instruments they used to defend themselves were shattered into pieces.

Zheng Jie and Hu Lili fared better, but their mystic instruments also got destroyed.

Hu Lili was still protected by the inner vest, so she was injured the least.

Suddenly, eight tentacles made from seawater rose up from the sea, tangling up with the incoming tentacles.

The monster’s grayish-white tentacles twisted, and with a hard shake, instantly shattered the seawater tentacles.

At the same time, Liu Zi-Yuan and the others capitalized on the opportunity, and rescued Niu Dazhuang and the other four.

Lu Ping who was holding the Water Crystal Bowl, quickly regrouped with Liu Zi-Yuan and the others.

The Three Essence Five Element Formation had been broken, and Niu Dazhuang and the rest were seriously injured.

Left with no other options, Lu Ping, Liu Zi-Yuan, and the remaining few, formed an imperfect array formation.

Then, Lu Ping used the top-grade mystic instrument, Water Crystal Bowl, that he plundered from the Ocean Overturning Gang’s Yuan Shi-Kong, to attack from the side. But he only managed to hold off one tentacle.

The monster Enlightened Master saw Lu Ping and the others still continuing with their stubborn resistance, and he said contemptuously, "Know your place!"

The eight tentacles behind him attacked the crowd from different angles, this time with full force.

Just as the crowd was ready to fight to their deaths, thunder resounded in their ears.

A lightning bolt fell down from the sky and hit the eight grayish-white tentacles, stunning the tentacles.

The monster exclaimed in surprise and retreated backwards.

Sparks of blue lightning discharged on the surface of the tentacles and as soon as they broke free from being stunned, the monster recalled the tentacles back to its side in a defensive stance.

Lu Ping and the others, who were intending to fight with their lives on the line, down to the last moment, were surprised by the burst of lightning. Suddenly, a three-foot-long mahogany sword appeared in front of the crowd.

A burst of lightning flashed out from the tip of the sword as it pointed at the retreating monster Enlightened Master.

"Who is it?" The monster Enlightened Master asked in a stern voice.

"Humph!"

A cold snort sounded out, followed by a flicker of light that appeared in front of the crowd. After the light vanished, a Zhen Ling Sect cultivator in his thirties was already standing in front of them.

The mahogany sword was quivering, making a soft noise, as it hovered happily above the cultivator’s head.

Lu Ping and the others were overjoyed. They recognized that the cultivator was none other than Enlightened Master Yang Xuan-Mu, whom they had met on Huang Li Island.

"Zhen Ling Sect, Xuan Mu Palace, Yang Xuan-Mu. I suppose you must be the North Ocean monster race’s Enlightened Master Zhang Bao? It seems that you have no regard for our agreement, since you are actually fighting against Blood Condensation Realm cultivators!"

Enlightened Master Yang Xuan-Mu questioned in a cold voice.

"What a joke!" The monster Enlightened Master replied harshly, "What is the big deal with killing a few Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. If you try to stop me today, I’ll kill you too!"

The eight tentacles behind the monster shot out towards Enlightened Master Yang Xuan-Mu.

The eight tentacles moved orderly as if they were part of an array formation, and encircled Enlightened Master Yang Xuan-Mu.

The auras from the Enlightened Masters burst up into the sky. They were so overwhelming that even the clouds were split.

Liu Zi-Yuan quickly shouted, "Move back!"

Lu Ping pulled Hu Lili to his side. The other injured people were supported by Yao Yong and rest. They all quickly moved away from the area where the two Enlightened Masters were fighting.

Just as the group retreated a hundred feet away, a deafening roar of spells came from the center of the battlefield.

The effects of the fight had spread to the surroundings. The small islet where the crowd had just rested on was destroyed, collapsing below the surface of the sea.

The shockwaves from the fight caused huge waves, tens of feet high, that swept towards the crowd like a tsunami.

Lu Ping and the others retreated more than five miles before they finally exited the area influenced by the two Enlightened Masters' battle.

From this distance, it was already difficult to see the Enlightened Masters. The crowd could only see eight huge tentacles whipping around, and bolts of lightning that kept crashing down all over the place.