Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-205

But it was too late—a flying sword had already broken past Senior Brother Wu's aegis energy, cutting his throat.

After witnessing Lu Ping kill Senior Brother Wu so easily, the other cultivator instantly knew that he was outmatched. Without hesitation, he ran towards the entrance of the crypt to alert the others.

At that moment, the cultivator suddenly panicked to see an iron stamp seal swinging downwards above his head. Too alarmed to shout, he hurriedly opened an umbrella mystic instrument to cover himself.

However, the stamp seal continued its strong momentum, shattering the umbrella and smashed the cultivator into minced meat.

When Landslide slammed onto the ground, the crypt shook and dirt flew everywhere.

Lu Ping collected the cultivators' interspatial pouches, turned around and was about to walk out of the crypt when suddenly, the teleportation formation behind him started to glimmer again.

Lu Ping's heart thumped; he immediately knew who was coming. Without the slightest hesitation, he used the Verdant Dawn Sword to slash out a sword light and destroy the teleportation formation.

Lu Ping looked at the destroyed remains and sighed helplessly. It was his only known path to return, but it needed to be destroyed. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to return anytime soon.

Lu Ping carefully moved out of the crypt, wondering what might be out there.

He used the [Spirit Hiding Art] to conceal his cultivation level, lowering it from the Eighth Layer to the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm. Then, as he was just a step away from leaving the underground crypt, he suddenly picked up the faint scent of blood.

So, Lu Ping cautiously wore the Mirage Robe and used the [Shapeless Sword Art] to hide his presence. Only then did he carefully peek out.

The underground crypt was located in the backyard of an ordinary mortal's courtyard, and he saw several corpses lying just a few steps away from the entrance.

They were all wearing the same silver uniform as the two cultivators he just killed, their bodies obviously searched and their belongings taken away.

Lu Ping looked back at the entrance of the underground crypt only to see a patch of grass. Clearly, there was an illusionary array formation hiding the entrance away.

Lu Ping thought for a moment—there wasn't a spirit vein in the courtyard, so the illusionary array formation must have been hosted on a formation chassis and powered by spirit stones.

He slashed at the grass bush which instantly ripped into pieces like paper, revealing a dark hole underneath which was the crypt's entrance.

Lu Ping searched the entrance and found the formation chassis. On the chassis, there were more than a hundred small holes which were delicately connected by lines and formed magnificent patterns.

From the lines and patterns, Lu Ping could tell that the array formation engraved on the chassis was definitely a complicated and powerful one. But sadly, he was not an expert in array formations and could only storr it away for Hu Lili to study in the future.

The small holes on the chassis would encase the spirit stones needed to power the array formation. But because he had just destroyed the array formation, the spirit stones were damaged and had disintegrated into powder.

Lu Ping looked at the chassis and thought of Hu Lili. He wondered if she had returned safely to the sect. Yuan Zhan would definitely set up backup measures to stop them from getting back to the sect.

Fortunately, Yuan Zhan didn't know Lu Ping had already seen through his calculations and told everything to Hu Lili. Lu Ping thought with Hu Lili's cunningness, she might be able to cover her tracks and smoothly sneak back to the sect.

Lu Ping quickly collected his composure and looked around—this was not a safe place to be, he must not stay for long!

He looked at the corpses and thought that whoever killed these cultivators were definitely amateurs. They didn't even clean up the battlefield!

Lu Ping mulled for a second, then he released the snake trio from his spirit pet pouch. The snake trio hissed and searched everywhere before Lu Ping put them back again.

Turning to the corpses, he incinerated them into ashes, then he adjusted the battlefield, making it seem as if the killers were not only responsible for the death of the silver-uniformed cultivators, but that they also found the crypt and destroyed the teleportation formation.

After all that, Lu Ping disappeared from the courtyard in a blue light.

…

I'm in the East Ocean!? How unexpected…

Lu Ping read a jade scroll he’d taken from the cultivators he killed in the crypt, which showed the map of the East Ocean.

However, the map only marked islands of small sizes and above. It would have taken him some time to determine his location in the vast ocean if not for the mini island he was on now, which had been deliberately marked on the map.

Right now, Lu Ping was heading to the nearest medium island, Three Clans Island.

As the name suggested, the island was jointly controlled by three cultivator clans—the city on the island was known as the Three Clans City.

Other than the cultivators from the three clans, the rest were mostly rogue cultivators. So, Lu Ping was not afraid to draw any attention when entering the city.

He was immediately attracted by the architecture of the East Ocean buildings, which were very different from the ones he had seen in the North Ocean.

Other than that, the bustling marketplace attracted his attention the most. Even with his wealth and the various precious resources he owned, he was still amazed by the numerous items available in the marketplace.

This was only a medium island run by three medium-sized cultivator clans, and yet, its prosperity was just a fine line below that of the Di Kun Island run by a large sect like Zhen Ling Sect.

Furthermore, from the East Ocean map Lu Ping saw, the Three Clans Island was located in the northernmost part of the East Ocean, which was not a superior location.

So, the rumor was really true. The East Ocean was the richest place in this cultivation world.

At this time, a female cultivator in the peak of Late Blood Condensation Realm led more than a dozen cultivators behind her, and they hurriedly walked through the city gates.

Two of the cultivators were so seriously injured, they had fallen unconscious and had to be carried by the other cultivators with levitation spells.

Lu Ping sidled out of the way, and he heard the cultivators beside him whispering.

"Isn't that the Li Clan's young lady?"

"I heard that Young Lady Li reached the peak of Late Blood Condensation Realm, and she’ been preparing to condense her golden core for the Core Forging Realm, is that true?"

"It is. That’s why Young Lady Li went to sea to hone her cultivation base, to look for precious cultivation resources for her golden core condensation."

"So that's why! But it seems like the expedition didn’t go very smoothly!"

"Seems like it. This team of Li Clan cultivators are all in the Late Blood Condensation Realm, with five of them even in the Ninth Layer. Who would expect to see two of them seriously injured into unconsciousness?”

"The Endless Sea is not a child's playground, that territory belongs to the monster race. Look at them, could it be that Young Lady Li's team ran into the monster Enlightened Masters?"

"It's hard to say ......"

Lu Ping listened to the chatter from the surrounding cultivators and looked at the team of Li Clan cultivators from afar. He rubbed his chin with his left hand, his expression changing subtly.

Suddenly, he softly patted the spirit pet pouch on his waist to comfort the restless snake trio inside.

After that, Lu Ping reached out and called over a guide to bring him to a cultivators' inn.

In every city, there were always some young rogue cultivators with low cultivation bases who could easily be found near the city gates. They worked as guides for the new and unfamiliar cultivators to earn some spirit stones for their cultivation.

The guide led Lu Ping to an inn which was owned and operated by the Li Clan.

There was a small spirit vein on Three Clans Island, but the three clans had it divided into three mini spirit veins. Over time, the three mini spirit veins were nurtured into the level of small spirit veins again.

Naturally, the three clans occupied the center of the spirit veins and kept the best spots for themselves.

Then, the rest of the areas would be turned into the cultivators' inns.

The inns were actually just small cave-dwellings opened up near the spirit veins, so the spiritual energy in these inns would be slightly higher than usual. As a result, cultivators would often opt to stay in their inns.

Through the conversation with the guide, Lu Ping had some understanding about the situation of Three Clans Island.

So, when he saw the guide leading him to Li Clan's inn, he couldn't help but ask in puzzlement, "Didn't you just say Zhang Clan's and Wang Clan's inns are better because they have better spirit veins?"

The guide quickly replied, "That's correct, Senior Lu. But their inns have always been in short supply and incredibly expensive. It's almost impossible to book a slot without acquaintances in the clan. On the contrary, although Li Clan's inn is also quite sought after, it is more affordable, and always available as long as there is a slot."

Lu Ping nodded understandingly. Then, he followed the guide to the inn's counter. The innkeeper welcomed him and asked, "Dear guest, are you here to rent a cave-dwelling?"

The innkeeper was direct, so Lu Ping also nodded straightway.

The innkeeper quickly summoned the server to prepare some tea and he said, "Our cave-dwellings are divided into three classes. The nearer to our Li Clan's spirit vein, the more expensive. The three classes are top, middle, and bottom, and they correspond to the Late, Mid, and Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators."

Lu Ping took a sip of spiritual tea. The tea was the lowest grade of spiritual tea, so the spiritual energy in it was almost negligible. Even though it was still okay to be served this drink, it was far from Lu Ping's own spiritual tea and spiritual spring water in his cave-dwelling on Huang Li Island.

Thus, Lu Ping frowned obscurely after the first sip. He quietly put down the tea cup and didn't drink anymore.

But the innkeeper was perceptive; he noticed Lu Ping's reaction and immediately knew he would be a big customer. So, he discreetly asked, "Dear guest, are you looking to rent a middle-class cave-dwelling?"