Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-198

Despite the cultivator's best efforts to resist, Lu Ping wasn’t an ordinary cultivator. His Verdant Dawn Sword cut through the cultivator's defenses making a huge hole on his back.

"You’re not Zhang Wei-Qing! Who are you!?"

The cultivator tried his best to contain his injury while asking in a shocked voice. A hint of panic flashed across his face, which was quickly picked up by Lu Ping's eyes.

Lu Ping remained silent and pressed forward with another sword strike that released 162 sword lights. The sword lights moved in groups of three forming the Three Essence Formations. With each group of sword lights led by a sword light that had Sword Spirituality.

The cultivator was shocked, he hadn’t expected that Lu Ping's sword art would be so strong. A green light flashed in his hands. Thousands of green branches grew in front of him, forming a wooden wall to protect him.

A talisman treasure?

From the looks of it, the talisman treasure was forged by an Early Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master.

Lu Ping furrowed his brow. However, he wasn’t worried. After all, even if the talisman treasure could defend his attack once, he could always follow up with a few more strikes until the talisman treasure eventually broke.

So, Lu Ping continued to thrust out his Verdant Dawn Sword another two more times!

Although Lu Ping was confident, he still treated the talisman treasure seriously, as he had used them before and so knew how strong they really were.

However, after attacking, he was surprised to see the outcome.

When the first sword strike struck the wooden wall, the sword lights actually destroyed it and tore the branches into pieces.

Then, the second sword strike shattered the cultivator's defensive mystic instrument.

The third and final sword strike dismembered the cultivator's body into 54 pieces, sending a rain of blood to the surroundings.

Lu Ping looked at the scene in front of him in a daze, and didn’t know how to react for a long time. Whilst he was confident he could break the talisman treasure's spell, he never expected to do it so easily, with just one sword strike.

Lu Ping couldn’t help but praise the state of Sword Spirituality for being so strong!

On the other hand, Lu Ping was a little speechless seeing how the cultivator died. Although he didn’t have any weird fetish of shredding his enemies into pieces, this wasn’t the first time he had done it.

After the cultivator died, a translucent muslin robe fell to the ground. Lu Ping recognized that the cultivator was Hai Yan Sect's Senior Martial Brother Zhao, who had pursued him before.

The robe could be used together with aegis energy. It could blur out the wearer's figure and even had an invisibility feature. This was why Lu Ping didn’t recognise Senior Martial Brother Zhao until now.

Lu Ping was silent as he looked at Senior Martial Brother Zhao, a once formidable enemy who had now died so easily by his own hands.

A moment later, Lu Ping wore the robe and activated it together with his aegis energy. In an instant, Lu Ping's figure turned blurry with a faint gold colored outline. From afar, he looked fairly similar to Senior Martial Brother Zhao.

…

On an unnamed coral island in the northeast region near the monster race sea, the trees and bushes on the island were becoming frosted.

A dozen Early Blood Condensation Realm monsters, led by several Mid Blood Condensation Realm monsters, were circling the island.

Suddenly, a dozen flying fish monsters leapt up from the water and flew to the island.

As the flying fish monsters entered the island, a burst of cold wind blew onto them. The water droplets around the monsters started to freeze into ice.

However, the monsters didn’t panic, as the surging arcane energy in their bodies kept them from freezing, allowing them to continue forwards. Although it was getting colder, their movements weren’t affected at all.

The center of the island was only a couple hundred feet away. The monsters thought they could easily reach the center before they froze, but after flying for a long time, they realized they were still nowhere near the island center.

Eventually, they used up all their arcane energy in resisting the cold wind, and so their bodies froze up and fell to the ground. Then, two jasper-colored jade hairpins flew out and reaped their lives.

"It seems like this woman is still holding on."

"Isn't this better? We don't have to take a risk ourselves to clean up those monster beasts and get discovered."

"Do you think Lu Ping will really come?"

"According to the news from Huang Li Island, he has indeed gone out to sea."

"He’s really slow, we've deliberately left so many clues for him to track us. It's already been three days and he still hasn't come yet."

"The sea is turbulent and ever changing, those clues could easily have been destroyed."

"We arrived here in advance to ambush him because we had information from our insider in Zhen Ling Sect on Huang Li Island. However, I never actually thought his lady would still be alive and even set up an array formation on the island. She’s held her ground under the attacks of dozens of monster beasts, and even killed a number of monsters."

"This woman is not to be underestimated just like him. When Lu Ping arrives, we’ll kill both of them together, there must be no loose ends."

"He won't be able to escape this time as long as he comes."

"Don't be careless, did you forget how he escaped from you guys a few years ago?"

"If the Ocean Overturning Gang hadn't intervened that time, he wouldn't have gotten away. This time there are so many of us against him, it's the highest treatment a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator can get."

"It's true that it's a bit of a fuss for all of us to come together just for a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator. Junior Brother Ouyang Wei-Jian said Lu Ping is only equivalent in strength to him. Although it's a little challenging, our strength is far beyond Lu Ping, let alone the fact that he has just newly entered the Late Blood Condensation Realm."

"On that topic, how come Hai Yan Sect's Zhao Chang-Yun, who led the chase last time, is still not here yet?"

"Hai Yan Sect is in the southernmost part of the North Ocean, it's normal for them to arrive last."

"There! Here he comes, that is Hai Yan Sect's famous Mirage Robe!"

Several invisible Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators were hiding on the vast sea around the small coral island. They surrounded the coral island and communicated with their divine sense.

At this time, Lu Ping who pretended to be Hai Yan Sect's Zhao Chang-Yun, inadvertently glanced over the surroundings. He saw the coral island and the array formation inside, along with the presence of the cultivators surrounding the island.

Then, the Mirage Robe flicked and turned invisible, making Lu Ping disappear from their vision.

"Brother Zhao, you're late!"

A wave of divine sense rippled over.

"Hmph!"

Lu Ping imitated Zhao Chang-Yun's voice and coldly snorted. He recognized that the voice belonged to Xuan Ling Sect's Zhang Wei-Qing.

"Brother Zhao, did you notice his whereabouts when making your way here? Also, why are you still covering yourself with the Mirage Robe? It's not like we don't know your appearance, right?"

This time, it was Zhou Wei-Long who spoke. Lu Ping didn’t expect that Zhou Wei-Long was here, and was also sharp enough to suspect his identity already.

Lu Ping didn’t panic, he continued to imitate Zhao Chang-Yun's voice, and said, "Brother Zhou came early. To be frank, I am not confident about this operation at all. His arcane energy is far beyond ordinary. I am keeping a low profile, so in case our operation fails, he won't come looking for me."

The others were silent, thinking that what he said made sense.

A while later, a calm voice said, "Brother Zhao is being too worried, his strength is only about the same as my Junior Brother Ouyang. I am close to Ouyang and know his prowess very well, so I’m confident we’ll be able to take down this 'Zhen Ling Sect moneybag'!"

Lu Ping's eyelids thumped, he didn’t know who had just spoken, but he guessed that he must be a Xuan Ling Sect disciple. So, Lu Ping sneered and said grimly, "You talk big, but I guess you can't be blamed. After all, your Xuan Ling Sect is so damn strong to be able to secure three spots among the North Ocean 18 Warriors. You can naturally speak these big words."

Everyone present clearly noticed the sarcasm laced in the words. They knew that this was because Hai Yan Sect's Peng Chang-Qing, a former North Ocean 18 Warrior, was killed and replaced by Xuan Ling Sect's Ouyang Wei-Jian.

"Hahaha. Xuan Ling Sect's Senior Brother Miao, and Hai Yan Sect's Junior Brother Zhao, we are all here for the Zhen Ling Sect moneybag, let's not break the peace between us just because of other matters."

Lu Ping said in a surprised tone, "Shui Yan Pavilion's Senior Sister He Li-Xin? I didn’t expect to see you here as well. Senior Brother Miao from Xuan Ling Sect… so it must be Senior Brother Miao Wei-Dong, right? Hahaha, Senior Brother Miao and Senior Sister He are both North Ocean 18 Warriors, it seems like Lu Ping really has no chance at all this time!"

He Li-Xin giggled, "This Lu Ping has set me up in the Heaven of Seven Stars, so of course I will get my revenge. Junior Brother Zhou specially asked Senior Brother Miao, who cultivates under the same teacher as him, to join us in the operation. This Lu Ping has really attracted a lot of attention lately!"

The cultivators were hiding and were far apart from each other. They couldn’t see each other and could only distinguish one another from their divine sense and voice. Hence, Lu Ping could only identify four people and not the remaining five.

Lu Ping had encountered Zhao Chang-Yun before, so he could barely imitate Zhao Chang-Yun's divine sense and voice, so the others didn’t see through his cover. On top of that, the Mirage Robe, which belonged to Zhao Chang-Yun, added a lot of credibility to his cover.

"What is this formation used for?" Lu Ping deliberately asked.

Zhang Wei-Qing gritted his teeth and said, "This Frosty Forest Array is set up by Lu Ping's little girlfriend. Thanks to the array, she has lasted under the siege of the monster beasts until now. We coincidentally came across her, and knowing that Lu Ping would definitely come to rescue her, we decided to use her as bait and set up an ambush for him. We even left clues behind, so he could meet his death faster!"

"Humph, it's just a petty array, anyone can take charge of it. Why let her live to become a threat that might risk our plan? I will go in and take her life, and then pretend to be her when Lu Ping arrives, giving him a nasty surprise."

Lu Ping said coldly.