Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-224

Inside the Li Clan's residence, Li Mao-Lin stood respectfully behind his father.

"Do you know who lives in that cave?"

"Father, according to third brother, it's the alchemist, Lu Jiu. The spiritual energy has been flowing to his cave-dwelling for more than an hour now. Besides that, there are no other signs, so it doesn't look like it's a breakthrough to the Core Forging Realm."

The old man was expressionless, he only looked in the direction of Lu Ping's cave-dwelling, his thoughts a mystery.

After a long time, the old man suddenly said, "Create an opening in the direction of the cave, let the spirit vein's spiritual energy flow to him."

Li Mao-Lin's face was surprised and hesitantly said, "Father, why do we have to do that? He is just a rogue alchemist. Once the spirit vein's spiritual energy leaks out of the residence, it will take a month to recover, delaying the cultivation of our disciples."

The old man waved his hand, "A month won’t affect anything, just do it!"

Seeing that the old man's mind was already made, Li Mao-Lin helplessly left to execute the order.

At this time, Lu Ping had already used up 700 mid-grade spirit stones. Some of the spiritual energy was absorbed and refined to regenerate his arcane energy, whilst the majority was used to refine the Nascent Life Primordial Stars.

The Primordial Stars were like twelve bottomless abysses. Not only did they swallow the spiritual energy from the spirit stones, they also devoured the surrounding spiritual energy.

Lu Ping gritted his teeth and took out two milky-white spirit stones from his interspatial ring. Whenever there was a very high concentration of spiritual energy in a spirit stone, it would be milky-white in color.

Clearly these spirit stones were from the four high-grade spirit stones he had obtained from the underground trade fair.

Right now, Lu Ping couldn't afford to save them. As the high-grade spirit stones shattered in his hands, a burst of spiritual energy filled the cave-dwelling. This spiritual energy was much higher in purity and quantity than the earlier 200 mid-grade spirit stones.

Having finally obtained a short time to catch his breath, he hastily stuffed a Triple Turning Spiritual Pellet into his mouth.

The Triple Turning Spiritual Pellet was a half-step Core Forging Realm pellet used to recover a cultivator's arcane energy.

It required six pieces of thousand-year spirit herbs, making its difficulty comparable to concocting Beauty Everlasting Pellets.

This was the pellet recipe that Lu Ping had exchanged for using his final two Blood Condensing Pellets in the underground trade fair.

With Lu Ping's current alchemy level, he could easily achieve a 60-percent success rate when concocting the Triple Turning Spiritual Pellets. He had already concocted a few and was saving them for emergencies, unaware that he would need it so soon.

The Triple Turning Spiritual Pellet melted on his tongue, turning into a thick and pure spiritual energy that was quickly refined into his arcane energy in a matter of seconds.

This was thanks to Lu Ping's special cultivation method, which allowed him to consume the pellet without fear. If it was someone else, they would have to at least be in the peak of the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm in order to fully digest the pellet's spiritual energy.

Seeing that the spiritual energy in the cave-dwelling was about to run out again, he began to consider if he should stop the refinement now and continue after recovering.

However, the interruption of the refinement process would inevitably leave some flaws in the nascent weapons. This would make the Nascent Life Primordial Stars even more difficult to master, and also mean that he would have to spend more time refining them in order to eliminate the flaws.

At this moment, the Li Clan's great protective array formation suddenly revealed itself, with a hole opening in the direction of Lu Ping's cave-dwelling.

Immediately, a surge of spiritual energy, far more concentrated than the outside, rushed out.

The cultivators in the nearby cave-dwellings suddenly realized that the spiritual energy around them had suddenly become more concentrated. After a brief clamor, the cultivators grabbed the opportunity to cultivate, without thinking too much about the Li Clan's motive.

Although some of the surging arcane energy was consumed by the other cultivators, most of it flowed into Lu Ping's cave-dwelling.

When the cultivators noticed this, they all quietly cursed Lu Ping for his strength. He was clearly not breaking through to the Core Forging Realm, yet he was still able to snatch away the majority of the spiritual energy.

There were also some clever-minded cultivators that quickly understood that the Li Clan was most likely trying to help this mysterious alchemist in whatever he was doing.

Regardless of the Li Clan's motive or what the other cultivators thought, the spiritual energy was undoubtedly a blessing for Lu Ping.

He quickly used his arcane energy and sped up the refinement process.

After two hours passed, the flow of spiritual energy in the city finally slowed down. It seemed that everything was coming to an end.

The Li Clan's great array formation quietly turned transparent and disappeared, while the spiritual energy also stopped surging out.

In the past two hours, the cultivators in Li Clan's inn had been showered with a high concentration of spiritual energy. Hence, their cultivation progress has seen a huge increase during this time.

The concentration of spiritual energy in the area remained at a relatively high level for the next few days, causing cultivators to fight over a cave-dwelling in the Li Clan's inn. This allowed Innkeeper Li to earn a large amount of spirit stones.

Lu Ping sat in the cave-dwelling, recovering the large amount of depleted arcane energy, while sending his divine sense into his heartspace.

In his heartspace, there were two circles. The inner circle was formed from eight Condensed Blood Beads, while the outer circle was formed from the twelve Nascent Life Primordial Stars that rotated around the Condensed Blood Beads.

This demonstrated that Lu Ping had finally succeeded in crafting his nascent weapons.

The Nascent Life Primordial Stars absorbed spiritual energy from the surroundings, purifying it and releasing this purified energy back into his body and Condensed Blood Beads.

At the same time, the large amount of spiritual energy stored inside them during the refinement process, was also going through a similar purifying process.

Initially, Lu Ping thought that the Nascent Life Primordial Stars would quickly release the stored spiritual energy. However, the release of the purified spiritual energy just wouldn't slow down, causing Lu Ping to continue with his closed-door cultivation session.

After all, the Nascent Life Primordial Stars had stored spiritual energy from at least 700 mid-grade spirit stones, two high-grade spirit stones, part of an Enlightened Masters' vortex of spiritual energy, Lu Ping's own arcane energy, the spiritual energy of a Triple Turning Spiritual Pellet, and finally the spiritual energy from the Li Clan's spirit vein.

It was hard to imagine just how enormous the spiritual energy stored in the twelve Nascent Life Primordial Stars was!

Right now, the stored spiritual energy was slowly but steadily flowing from the Nascent Life Primordial Stars into Lu Ping's body.

This was a normal phenomenon after a cultivator had successfully crafted their own nascent weapon. It was just that as Lu Ping's nascent weapons were so special, leading them to absorb a ridiculous amount of spiritual energy, the time for this process to complete became several times longer than usual.

Just like that, three months passed, and the transfer of spiritual energy from the Nascent Life Primordial Stars finally stopped.

However, Lu Ping continued to cultivate because he had reached the peak of the Eighth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, and was just a fine line away from the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm!

Another three months went by. Lu Ping's foundation bloodline finally began to prey on the remaining Wind Peng Bloodline in his cultivation base.

But this time, the breakthrough was not as smooth as before. The remaining Peng Bloodline demonstrated its strength and fought as equals with his foundation bloodline.

His blood was in turmoil, like two rivers clashing together, causing it to feel as though his body was being torn apart.

Lu Ping knew that this was the final hurdle to overcome to reach the peak of the Blood Condensation Realm.

According to the legends, Prime Peng was the strongest among the Heaven Cleaving Seven Primes. Hence, other than the cultivators who had the Peng Bloodline as their foundation bloodline, the Peng Bloodline would always be the final and most difficult bloodline that a cultivator would face during their breakthrough to the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

Hence, the Peng Bloodline was also known as the final obstacle before the Core Forging Realm. Only those that had overcome it and entered the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, would have the qualification to challenge the Core Forging Realm barrier.

The Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm was also referred to as the peak of the Blood Condensation Realm.

When Lu Ping fused his divine sense into his foundation bloodline, he felt a sense of anger, as if a king's majestic position was being challenged by a lowly subject.

It felt as though the other bloodlines could only bow and wait for their fate of being devoured by his foundation bloodline.

The sense of superiority, the sense of nobility, it all felt so natural, as if this was how it should be done.

Lu Ping cast the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture]. His foundation bloodline finally got serious and lunged at the Peng Bloodline again.

This time there was no more suspense, with his foundation bloodline finally devouring its last opponent. The Peng Bloodline's spiritual energy was sucked dry and laid to waste!

A ninth Condensed Blood Bead gradually formed in his heartspace, growing to about one-third the size of the other eight Condensed Blood Beads.

Lu Ping opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of green blood. This was the discarded Peng Bloodline that had lost all its spirituality and been ruined. Lu Ping's foundation bloodline was stronger than ever.

Just after the ninth Condensed Blood Bead formed, the twelve Primordial Stars suddenly shook and rotated around the Condensed Blood Beads a little faster.

Slowly, a small vortex of spiritual energy formed in his heartspace. This vortex attracted the spiritual energy around him to gather in his body, be refined by his bloodline, and then finally be absorbed into his heartspace to grow the ninth Condensed Blood Bead.

This was another benefit of nascent weapons!

Nascent weapons had a natural spirit gathering effect that not only helped with cultivation speed, but also nurtured themselves.

After the foundation bloodline devoured all the other bloodlines, it became Lu Ping's only bloodline.

It seemed to have taken on the qualities of the other six bloodlines it had devoured, and was brimming with energy as his blood gushed like a river flowing through his veins.

The Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm had been attained, with the Core Forging Realm next to come!