Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-244

NETS – Chapter 244 – High-Grade Honey Tea

After that, Lu Ping turned his attention to the pond of Kui Water.

Kui Water was a rare and peculiar water-element, heaven-and-earth item formed by the essences of flower dew in Hundred Flowers Land. It exists to nurture the growth of the Ninth Rank White Lotus, and even helps in awakening its cognition.

After Lu Ping harvested the Ninth Rank White Lotus, he placed three lotus seeds back in the pond. However, the seeds wouldn’t need much Kui Water in their first few hundred years, hence it would be a waste to leave it unattended.

Lu Ping had cultivated his aegis energy from the [Water Sky Curtain] which was part of the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture]. He then enhanced it with the Million Poisons Ominous Energy, adding on corrosive powers.

However, the Million Poisons Ominous Energy didn’t affect the toughness of his aegis energy, which was why it often shattered when under attack. By contrast, the Kui Water’s only effect was making one’s aegis energy as tough and durable as possible.

So, Lu Ping passed another three months enhancing the second layer of his aegis energy with the Kui Water. This added a glowing blue light on the surface of his golden aegis energy.

His aegis energy could now withstand the attack of a top-grade mystic instrument by a cultivator of the same rank.

Lu Ping ended up using two-thirds of the Kui Water for this achievement, but he wasn’t worried. After all, the lotus seeds wouldn’t require much of the water for the first hundred years.

Not far away from the Golden Nut Tree, a huge beehive had been built. After departing from Hundred Flowers Land, the Amethyst Bees had now grown to the size of quail eggs, with many already in the First Layer Blood Refining Realm.

The Amethyst Bees were currently flying in and out of Tome of Thousand Millets to collect honey from the spirit flowers and spirit herbs.

They were extremely picky about the honey they collected, as they would only look for spiritual nectar sources. In the process of collecting the spirit nectar, they would absorb part of the spiritual energy for their cultivation.

Hence, they often took action individually to look for nectar sources, since it was rare for a singular area to have hundreds or even thousands of spiritual nectar sources like Hundred Flowers Land.

Lu Ping looked at the small jade bottle in his hand which contained the Amethyst Bee Honey produced from the past few months. In fact, more than half of the Amethyst Bee Honey in the bottle was produced from the nectar of Hundred Flowers Land.

As he observed the swarm of bees, he wondered when a queen bee would emerge among them. By then, they would be able to produce royal jelly!

Royal jelly was a natural ingredient that could be used to improve the success rate of concocting Core Forging Realm medicinal pellets.

But upon a further look at the sparse amount of Amethyst Bee Honey produced, even if a queen bee appeared, how much royal jelly could be produced? Not to mention that the queen bee itself would need to feed on the royal jelly too.

It seemed like having a large spirit flower garden was necessary for the overall development of the Amethyst Bee swarm. Lu Ping was also looking forward to training the Amethyst Bees to form his own Dao army array formation.

However, building a large spirit garden would not be an easy task. Only established parties had the resources to build and manage a large spirit garden.

To be officially acknowledged as a party, one of the general requirements was to have a Core Forging Enlightened Master in the party.

Although Lu Ping had three islands and more than thirty Blood Condensation Realm cultivators under his command, the islands were still nominally owned by Three Clans Alliance.

Hence, if he were to form a party of his own with those islands, Three Clans Alliance would be the first to come and destroy his party.

Another method would be to ask other parties to give him access to their spirit gardens. However, such a request would most likely be rejected, and even if they did approve, Lu Ping wouldn’t dare to reveal the Amethyst Bees to others.

An Amethyst Bee buzzed in front of Lu Ping, as if to report something to him.

Lu Ping smiled, walking out of the Tome of Thousand Millets and into his cave-dwelling.

He took out four Black Spotted Bamboo Cups from the wooden table in the room, placed some spiritual tea leaves and added four drops of Amethyst Bee Honey in each cup.

Then, he poured a pot of boiling spiritual water into the cups. Immediately, the fragrance of tea filled the room.

Outside the cave-dwelling, Hong Ying’s loud voice could be heard saying, “Young Master—Hong Yu, Ye Bu-Qi, and Wu Yan are here to report.”

After receiving Lu Ping’s permission, the three entered the cave-dwelling where they were immediately entranced by the tea fragrance in the air.

Among the three, Hong Ying was the oldest and most knowledgeable, and had the highest cultivation base. He looked at the tea and said nostalgically, “High-grade spiritual tea? Usually, only Enlightened Masters can enjoy such tea, but, but this spiritual energy…”

Ye Bu-Qi looked at the spirit tea on the table and remained silent, while Wu Yan swallowed his saliva.

Wu Yan had tried spirit tea before, albeit the lowest grade, yet it still cost him a considerable amount of spirit stones.

Lu Ping waved his hand and the cups slowly floated towards the trio.

Ye Bu-Qi received the tea cup and drank it all in one go; he immediately closed his eyes and began to digest the spiritual energy.

Lu Ping rolled his eyes, speechless at the sight—this Ye Bu-Qi really didn’t know how to enjoy such a valuable tea.

He had served them a high-grade spirit tea he found in Enlightened Master Jin’s interspatial ring. It was contained in an exquisite jade box, but only half of the tea leaves were left. Even so, it was enough for Lu Ping to drink for quite some time.

Hong Yi took a sip of the spirit tea and remarked, “This is a high-grade spirit tea… The last time I had some was a decade ago, when I had just broken through to the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm. To celebrate, I went to Qian Yuan Island’s tea house and ordered a cup, which cost me a hundred spirit stones. But, Young Master, there’s something else in this spirit tea that makes it taste far superior, and the spiritual energy is much thicker than I remembered. Am I mistaken, or is this actually a top-grade spirit tea?”

Wu Yan was holding the cup with both hands and sipping it little by little, like a novice learning to drink wine for the first time.

When he heard Hong Ying’s words, he choked and almost coughed out the spirit tea in his mouth. However, he quickly thought of the spirit tea’s value and resisted the urge, forcibly swallowing it down.

Lu Ping picked up the cup and took a sip, savoring its rich spiritual energy, and laughed happily, “How can that be? Top-grade spirit tea is not that easy to obtain. Only Late Enlightened Masters and Great Ancestors can get their hands on them. It’s because I’ve added something else in the tea that not only increases its spiritual energy, it helps remove any impurities accumulated in the body during the cultivation process. Your arcane energy will also be purified.”

Ye Bu-Qi, who had finished digesting the tea, opened his eyes and affirmed, “That’s true, I can feel the effects!”

Lu Ping ignored the Ye Bu-Qi who didn’t know how to enjoy tea, and he said, “Sit down. What’s the matter?”

The trio sat down, and Hong Ying impassively reported the situation outside of Fallen Rift.

Every once in a while, the three islands would send out a caravan outside of Fallen Rift to trade cultivation resources. Hong Ying was in charge of the caravan most of the time, so he was the one most familiar with the situation outside.

“So, you’re saying that cultivators have started to go to Qian Yuan City? Are they there for the Northern League’s Alchemy Conference?”

“The Alchemy Conference is one of the events in the Northern League’s centennial celebration. There’s also the Smith Conference, Charm Conference, Array Formation Conference, and an Artistry Conference. The Artistry Conference is for the rare and uncommon skill sets mastered by few. Because these skills are not popular, some of which are even unheard of, the Northern League combines them all in one conference.”

“The conferences are organized as a way to attract talents. The Northern League would then reward the talents and even offer them a spot in the league. The other parties will be doing the same. Hence, this is an opportunity for rogue talents to show their value and find better futures.”

Lu Ping remembered that he had promised the Li Clan to go to the Alchemy Conference on their behalf. But because he had come to Fallen Rift, he had yet to meet them at Qian Yuan Island.

But when the time came, Lu Ping would surely go to the city on Qian Yuan Island, which was said to be the largest and most developed city in the northern part of the East Ocean.