Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-183

While Lu Ping was hiding underground, enjoying his spoils and waiting for the Heaven of Seven Stars to close, the domain was immersed in a bloodbath even more intense than before.

Although the forty-nine treasures from the Seven Star Palace had been claimed, not all of them belonged to the large forces. Many had been secured by smaller forces and even rogue cultivators. They were now being hunted down, forced to flee and hide wherever possible.

Over time, many of these treasures changed hands and were eventually obtained by the medium and large forces. Only a lucky few managed to escape pursuit and keep their treasures.

Immediately afterwards, several large human forces and monster forces attacked certain secret hideouts as if under a tacit agreement.

These hideouts sheltered the rogue cultivators and several small forces, resulting in the deaths of a majority of their number, their possessions reaped.

Other rogue cultivators began to feel the weight of danger, thinking that these large forces were going all out to clear the field for their gains.

After eliminating a few hideouts, news slowly spread among the Heaven of Seven Stars that these locations belonged to the Ocean Overturning Gang.

The various forces inside the Heaven of Seven Stars had been disturbed by the Ocean Overturning Gang before, and so the forces decided to work together to wipe them out before the domain closed.

Some hideouts may not even belong to the gang, but were unfortunate to have their cultivators hiding among the crowd. The large forces didn’t care to distinguish them and settled on eliminating them altogether. They would rather kill the wrong people than to let the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators escape.

Of course, there were cases where the large forces took advantage of this manhunt to raid the innocent hideouts for other purposes. Naturally, those involved in these shady operations wouldn’t reveal such matters to outsiders.

As the organizer of this mass operation, the shrewd Qi Zi-Cai naturally held back certain information from the forces.

The Ocean Overturning Gang had three major hideouts, two more of a smaller size, and several others that were deemed insignificant.

Qi Zi-Cai kept to herself the location of the two minor hideouts, which were led by Ocean Overturning Gang’s Division Masters. She only informed the other forces of the three major and insignificant hideouts.

The three major hideouts were each guarded by one Core Forging Enlightened Master. Despite sealing their cultivation base to the Blood Condensation Realm, they could still undo the seal at any time and deliver a final blow to their opponents before being ejected by the great formation.

Hence, when the large forces such as Xuan Ling Sect and the monster race’s Golden Jiao Island went to besiege the major hideouts, they were faced with Ocean Overturning Gang’s Enlightened Masters.

While the latter was forced to deliver that final blow, the two groups’ own Enlightened Masters were also bound to resist in order to protect their forces.

In the end, the Enlightened Masters of all three groups were all teleported out of the Heaven of Seven Stars. But the aftermath from their battles resulted in a large number of casualties.

After that, the large forces swiftly eliminated the hideouts and cleaned up the battlefield. But they were disappointed to find that their spoils of war weren’t as bountiful as they expected.

After interrogating the captured Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators, they learned that most of the treasures were in the hands of the Enlightened Masters. So, those treasures had also left the domain when the Enlightened Masters were teleported out.

Meanwhile, Qi Zi-Cai was leading the Zhen Ling Sect to eliminate the two minor hideouts. These were overseen by Late Blood Condensation Division Masters. In the first hideout, Senior Brother Cao found a mystic treasure and in the second, Senior Brother Sun discovered a jade box which was clearly from the Seven Star Palace.

As someone who stayed underground the entire time, Lu Ping naturally had no idea what was happening above. At the moment, he was inspecting the six bright pearls in one hand, and reading the contents in the purple jade scroll on the other hand.

This purple jade scroll was from the sealed jade box that Lu Ping obtained on Fei Ling Island, which he later unsealed with the Seal Breaking Charm he bought from the auction.

The jade scroll contained the refinement method of a peculiar but absolutely powerful natal weapon, known as the Natal Life Primordial Star Chart!

Initially, Lu Ping had no idea what to choose as his natal weapon. Chen Lian also explained to him the importance of natal weapons and advised Lu Ping to choose carefully.

In the meantime, Chen Lian suggested that he look for spirit materials to forge his natal weapon. In his case, Class 2 or even Class 3 spirit materials with a pure water-element.

As long as the natal weapon was forged when he advanced to the Core Forging Realm, it would not affect the weapon’s potential upgrade from a mystic instrument to a mystic treasure.

Although Lu Ping was wealthy with more than twenty pieces of top-grade spirit materials, only three of them were ranked a Class 2–the Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron, Thousand-Year Lightning Struck Spirit Pine Wood, and Thousand-Year Frost Jade.

Unfortunately, the Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron was used to upgrade Landslide, and the Thousand-Year Lightning Struck Spirit Pine Wood was of the wood and lightning-element which didn’t suit his pure-water cultivation method.

As for the Thousand-Year Frost Jade, although it was a water-element spirit material, it was more suitable for supportive and defensive mystic instruments. Thus, Lu Ping asked Old Man Chen to forge it into the Spirit Mediate Pendant which now hung on his waist.

But now, Lu Ping had found the right spirit materials for his natal weapon. Not only were these spirit pearls very compatible with his water-element, there were also six of them in his possession.

More importantly, these six pearls were actually Class 3 top-grade spirit materials!

Six pieces of Class 3, pure-water, top-grade spirit materials!

In fact, these six pieces were condensed from heaven-and-earth spirit waters that had lost their spirituality!

The overjoyed Lu Ping only had one thought: other than his natal weapon, how else would he use these six pearls, as decorative souvenirs?

But there was a problem.

The [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] had recorded several methods for natal weapons that matched the cultivation method, but they were mostly just one weapon or for pairs like the dual swords. It didn’t have a refinement method for a set of six weapons.

Lu Ping racked his brain and finally remembered the jade scroll, taking it out from his interspatial ring. But after reading the refinement method of natal weapons recorded within, he felt an oncoming headache again.

The refinement method was certainly difficult, but Lu Ping knew that the more complicated the method, the stronger the resulting natal weapon.

The problem was, the refinement method required twelve identical spirit pearls, which meant that he needed to find six more spirit pearls of the same quality as the ones he had now!

On top of that, this set of natal weapons required a huge amount of arcane energy to cast. Lu Ping might have abundant arcane energy thanks to the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture], but he estimated that even after entering the Ninth Layer, he still wouldn’t be able to cast this set of natal weapons for long before running out of arcane energy.

Lu Ping flipped his hand and stored away the jade scroll and spirit pearls. Then, he rubbed his chin and pondered.

The immense amount of arcane energy needed to cast the natal weapon set was just a small hiccup. After all, why bother cultivating the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] if he didn’t make use of the accompanying increase in abundant energy?

Furthermore, as an alchemist, he knew that there were many medicinal pellets that could increase one’s arcane energy. Although these medicinal pellets were incredibly precious, and the pellet recipes were often kept as secrets in the hands of the alchemists, he believed he would eventually come across some in the future.

Once refined, the power of this set of natal weapons was not to be underestimated. If he could cast it and destroy his enemies in a short time, the heavy consumption of arcane energy might just be an acceptable exchange.

In the end, Lu Ping made up his mind to forge this set of natal weapons.

Hence, there was only one problem left to solve—where to find six more spirit pearls of the same quality? Although the remaining six bright pearls were in Young Master Jin’s hands, Lu Ping didn’t think he was his opponent yet, at least not at the moment.

This meant that he would have to find a way to get six more water-element Class 3 spirit pearls!

What were the odds of coming across another chance like that?

As for the Natal Life Primordial Star Array Formation mentioned in the jade scroll, it required an array diagram. This was a problem worth considering only after he advanced to the Core Forging Realm and upgraded his twelve natal Primordial Star Pearls to mystic treasures. As of now, Lu Ping didn’t even dare to think about it, he was afraid that it would dampen his confidence.

Twelve pure-water Class 3 top-grade spirit pearls!

Twelve pieces of Natal Life Primordial Star Pearls!

What a coincidence!