Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-206

Lu Ping smiled and asked, "Can I rent one of your top-class cave-dwellings?"

The innkeeper got excited for a second, but suddenly remembered something and spoke hesitatingly, "To be frank, top-class cave-dwellings are only for Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. Furthermore, the earliest slot will only be available a month later. Dear guest, if you can wait for it, you can rent a mid-class cave-dwelling first. Mid-class cave-dwellings are also good."

"A month later?"

Lu Ping was hesitant. Although he had escaped the pursuit, he had also suffered severe injuries which required being treated timely.

Additionally, the continuous battles had taken a toll on his body, forcing him to consume a lot of medicinal pellets to sustain his condition. As a result, medicinal toxins had been accumulating in his body. They had to be expelled before causing permanent damage to his body and affecting his cultivation foundation.

Hence, Lu Ping urgently needed to settle down and treat his injuries and body condition. A cave-dwelling with a higher concentration of spiritual energy, would undoubtedly aid the process and expedite the recovery time needed.

Suddenly, a cultivator wearing a red cloak hurriedly walked to the counter. He glanced over and urgently spoke, "Innkeeper, I'm checking out now. Check the bill and give me the refund."

"Right away." Innkeeper Li was obviously experienced, and said, "Dear guest, you've booked a year's rent, but it's only been five months. Our inn bills every six months, so we will be charging you half a year's worth of rent. Here is your refund of 1,200 spirit stones. We look forward to your next visit."

The cultivator was clearly in a rush. He took the spirit stones, returned a token to the counter, and left hurriedly without looking back.

Lu Ping remained at the side as the exchange happened.

After the cultivator left, Lu Ping stared intensely in the cultivator's direction without any expression on his face. Then, he turned to the innkeeper, and said, "That cultivator was in the Late Blood Condensation Realm, so he must've rented a top-class cave-dwelling, right? Can you rent the top-class cave-dwelling he just checked out of, to me?"

Innkeeper Li hesitantly said, "That's against the rules. The cave-dwellings have always been rented according to the cultivators' levels. Dear guest, if…"

Lu Ping didn't wait for the innkeeper to finish his sentence and already placed an interspatial pouch on the table. He pushed the interspatial pouch to Innkeeper Li, "This is 3,000 spirit stones. The yearly rent for a top-class cave-dwelling is only 2,400 spirit stones. Including an extra month, that will only come to 2,600 spirit stones. I believe that Innkeeper Li should be able to find a way around the rules and rent the top-class cave-dwelling to me."

Innkeeper Li's divine sense swept across the interspatial pouch and was excited.

As long as he reported to the clan that the top-class cave-dwelling was extended for another half a year, no one would know that the tenant had changed, and so he could also keep the extra 600 spirit stones to himself.

Innkeeper Li passed the token to Lu Ping and said to the guide behind them, "Little Sima, lead the guest to the cave-dwelling, you know where it is."

Little Sima nodded embarrassingly, "Senior Lu, please follow me!"

Lu Ping smiled. He didn't know that Little Sima was actually working with Li Clan's inn. Judging from the conversation, this was not the first time that Little Sima had introduced people to the inn.

The top-class cave-dwelling rented to Lu Ping was located underground, in a huge manor at the west corner of the city.

According to Little Sima, Li Clan's spirit vein was equal to two small spirit veins. So, the inn was opened as a way to attract and make friends with the rogue cultivators in the city.

The other two clans, the Zhang Clan and Wang Clan, also had their own inns. Their spirit veins were even stronger than the Li Clan's spirit vein.

After reaching the cave-dwelling, Lu Ping tipped Little Sima with 20 spirit stones and instructed him to come back five days later.

Little Sima was only in the Third Layer Blood Refining Realm, so 20 spirit stones were a huge sum of wealth for him. He patted his chest and assured Lu Ping that he would be back here in five days.

Lu Ping watched as Little Sima hopped away happily. He couldn't help but remember his time in the Blood Refining Realm, earning spirit stones and cultivating, so he understood Little Sima's joy well.

After Little Sima left, Lu Ping finally had time to think.

He never thought that the cultivator in the red cloak was the first person he would recognize in the East Ocean. That cultivator was none other than the Ocean Overturning Gang's former Furious Sea Division Master, Hong Shi-Kui.

Back then, Lu Ping saw Hong Shi-Kui together with Yuan Shi-Kong, who he had killed, on the nameless island. He saw Hong Shi-Kui leaving in the teleportation formation to return to the 'palace' they had been talking about.

So, even though Lu Ping knew Hong Shi-Kui would be in the East Ocean, he never thought he would unintentionally run into him today on the island.

Suddenly, Lu Ping remembered the death of the cultivators with silver uniforms on the mini island. Lu Ping's heart moved and a thought flashed in his mind.

Could it be that Hong Shi-Kui was in a hurry to leave because he was alerted by the incidents on the mini island?

However, Lu Ping wasn’t worried as he was confident that he had already covered his tracks and made sure that no one would notice that the teleportation formation had been activated before.

The investigations would only show that the courtyard was raided by a batch of cultivators, who killed the cultivators in silver uniforms, discovered the underground crypt, and destroyed the teleportation formation.

On the other side, in the North Ocean, the Ocean Overturning Gang and Qiu Clan also wouldn't find out what had happened, as the monster tide would've ravaged the island and destroyed everything.

That left only Enlightened Master Jin who knew the truth.

However, Enlightened Master Jin was probably also not in the North Ocean anymore!

Lu Ping sneered coldly. Although he didn't think that just by destroying the teleportation formation, he would kill Enlightened Master Jin, the disruption during teleportation would still greatly affect him.

Lu Ping also wondered how the situation in the North Ocean was right now, and whether Hu Lili had returned safely to Zhen Ling Sect.

The North Ocean monster race had clearly prepared for this tide years ago. So, if the North Ocean Alliance was not well-prepared, they could be hit hard.

However, when he thought about it, he and the others had attracted a part of the monster tide southward, which inadvertently weakened the monster tide in Zhen Ling Sect's direction, while adding more pressure on Xuan Ling Sect, Yu Jian Sect, and Ling Gu Sect in the south.

Furthermore, Lu Ping disappeared in the vicinity of Qiu Yun Island, so the monsters that chased after him would probably only vent their anger on Qiu Yun Island. This in turn would also have a serious impact on the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators on the island.

However, Lu Ping was now in the East Ocean, so the situation in the North Ocean was not part of his immediate concern for the time being.

Another thing that surprised Lu Ping was that the people that killed the cultivators in silver uniforms were actually Li Clan's young lady and her followers.

Lu Ping had released the snake trio to identify the residual aura and scent of the cultivators in the courtyard. So, when Young Lady Li and her followers entered the city, the snake trio immediately recognized their scent and alerted Lu Ping.

Although Lu Ping had cleaned up the battlefield on their behalf, he wondered if the cultivators in silver uniforms had planted any tracking spells on Young Lady Li and her followers.

Given that Young Lady Li and her followers were amateurs who didn't even clean up the battlefield, he felt that they wouldn't even know if they had been planted with tracking spells.

However, after they returned to the clan, Li Clan's Enlightened Masters would definitely notice if there were any tracking spells and erase them.

As a result, things were getting increasingly interesting and he was intrigued.

The mysterious 'palace', Ocean Overturning Gang, Hong Shi-Kui, and the cultivators in silver uniforms. They all clearly belonged to the same powerful force which had its influence span across the East and North Oceans.

Yet, the Li Clan, a medium-sized clan of cultivators on a remote island, actually had the guts to raid the mysterious force's outpost?

Lu Ping never thought he would see so many strange things here in the East Ocean.

Lu Ping stopped pondering and shut the cave-dwelling. He found that the cave-dwelling did indeed contain a faint surge of spiritual energy. This was the difference between a spirit vein and a spirit stone.

Unlike spirit stones which contained a sum of spiritual energy that had to be extracted and potentially wasted in the process, spirit veins would subtly emanate a steady flow of spiritual energy which was more efficient.

Lu Ping let out all his spirit pets. Generally, when no one was around, Lu Ping would always release them from the pouch and let them play.

Therefore, although his spirit pets were mischievous, they weren't gloomy and lifeless, and were instead very intimate with him.

The cultivation session lasted five days. Lu Ping eventually managed to expel the medicinal toxins and temporarily stabilize his injuries. During this process, he also found that his cultivation base had improved a small amount.

The refreshed Lu Ping walked out, and found Little Sima already waiting outside of the cave-dwelling's protective array formation.

Little Sima's eyes lit up and he hopped in front of Lu Ping, and asked, "Senior Lu, where are we going today?"

"Take me to all the places on the island that sell spirit herbs."

For some reason, Lu Ping had a natural affinity to Little Sima. Perhaps it was because Little Sima was very similar to his younger self.

Little Sima brought him around the city and Lu Ping bought almost every 500-year spirit herb he saw.

Although there were a few hundred 500-year spirit herbs, most of them were ordinary spirit herbs, with none of them suitable to be used as main ingredients for medicinal pellets.

However, this was already good enough. After all, rare spirit herbs often only grew in extreme conditions, so they were always snatched up by the three clans whenever they appeared in the market.

Lu Ping knew that the large-scale buying of spirit herbs would definitely attract the attention of some people, but he didn't really care.

After all, he was an alchemist.