Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-254

Hong Shi-Kui was eager to run away because of Lu Ping, but because of the crazy lady that wouldn’t stop attacking him, he was forced to slow down and defend himself.

Suddenly, his divine revelation sensed an overwhelming danger from under the water. He quickly cast out a crystal shield to defend against Chilian Ying’s attacks, while he grasped the Fire-Ice Dual Rings tightly, staring deeply at the bottom of the sea.

Suddenly, a one-horned Golden Jiao broke out of the water and lunged towards Hong Shi-Kui.

The Golden Jiao’s horn was naturally the Golden Scale Sword, its four claws and eyes each made up of nine spiritual sword lights, seventy-two gleaming sharp teeth made of spiritual sword lights, and another thirty-six formed a ring of sword-shaped marks around its throat.

After Lu Ping’s recent breakthrough in swordsmanship, the [Green Jiao Sea Haunting Art] was much stronger than before, especially with the Golden Scale Sword.

Hong Shi-Kui could tell the immense strength inside the Golden Jiao. He solemnly stacked the Fire-Ice Dual Rings and pressed them firmly together. The two rings combined and turned into a new jade ring.

The jade ring was quickly set ablaze. The flames burned as white as snow, and instead of releasing smoke, the fire actually froze the fumes into ice crystals.

When Lu Ping swept his divine sense across the jade ring, the flames burned higher, as if fueled by his interference. He felt a strange sensation, part burning and part freezing, both at the same time. A sharp pain burst in his head, followed by his divine sense burning away.

The jade ring flew out to wrap around the Golden Jiao, but after experiencing the ice-fire’s strength, Lu Ping naturally wouldn’t sit idly by. The Golden Jiao tumbled and rolled violently as it attacked the jade ring with its teeth and claws.

With each blow, dozens of sword lights broke away from its body and dropped into the sea as frozen swords. The swords, upon touching the seawater, released billows of white smoke as if a fire had been extinguished.

With each strike, the Golden Jiao gradually became smaller and Hong Shi-Kui’s jade ring wasn’t looking good as well. Lu Ping noticed that for every strike on the jade ring, Hong Shi-Kui’s face would turn slightly paler.

This simply meant that the jade ring’s great power came with a deep cost—it was actually a final move that required extensive effort to cast and was difficult to control.

Eventually, the jade ring still managed to circle the Golden Jiao’s neck, strangling it fiercely. The Golden Jiao rolled desperately as if under great pain, but its resistance was futile. In just seconds, the Golden Jiao shattered apart.

Upon shattering, the thirty-six spiritual sword lights on its neck shot out and struck the jade ring. Then, the Golden Scale Sword turned back around and slashed down.

Dang—

The Golden Scale Sword was knocked back by the impact, while the jade ring split back into the Fire Jade Ring and Ice Jade Ring—the white fire was no more.

Hong Shi-Kui’s face was as white as a sheet, then quickly flushed crimson. He suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood; he looked at Lu Ping with eyes full of fear and resentment.

Lu Ping wasn’t faring so well either. At the moment of impact, the jade ring’s bizarre white fire burned every last bit of arcane energy he’d attached to the Golden Scale Sword.

The Golden Scale Sword’s quality was higher than the Fire-Ice Dual Rings. After all, Enlightened Master Jin Li had used it as his nascent mystic treasure, and the sword still had much more potential. Hence, wielding it was a huge burden for Lu Ping.

On the other side, Chilian Ying finally saw an opportunity when Hong Shi-Kui was hit hard by Lu Ping. She knocked away the crystal shield in front of her, then swiftly moved in and threw a golden snake straight at Hong Shi-Kui’s face.

“Golden Wisp Snake!”

Hong Shi-Kui used his divine revelation to form a hand, a bizarre white fire burning on its palm. With a swipe of the hand, he slapped the Golden Wisp Snake to the side, then vigilantly looked around for the next attack.

Sure enough, a fine silver light flashed behind Hong Shi-Kui and lunged towards his back.

Hong Shi-Kui was prepared—the Fire Jade Ring and Ice Jade Ring shot out a ring of fire and ice each. They combined into a ring of fire-and-ice that slashed at the silver light.

Without warning, a flash of golden light appeared in the vicinity. The Golden Wisp Snake had returned, shattering the ring of fire-and-ice with a swing of its tail.

But before shattering, the ring froze the Golden Wisp Snake for a split second and charred its tail. The snake hissed in pain from the wound.

The silver light took the opportunity to lunge onto Hong Shi-Kui’s body. Now revealed to be a silver snake, it bit the other’s left hand. Hong Shi-Kui’s aegis energy was unable to stop it from piercing his flesh.

His expression changed drastically, he instantly retrieved the Ice Jade Ring and severed his entire left hand at the wrist. His left hand shattered into ice flakes while the Ice Jade Ring froze the wound to stop the bleeding.

It was at this time, the invisible flying sword came out from the side again. Caught by surprise, Hong Shi-Kui was unable to dodge the attack and it stabbed him directly on his waist.

Golden Wisp and Silver Thread, I certainly didn’t think Chilian Ying would own such rare monster beasts!

Lu Ping looked at the two small snakes coiling in front of Chilian Ying and wondered how they compared to his Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes.

The Golden Wisp Snake and Silver Thread Snake were often found in pairs.

The Golden Wisp Snakes were hard as iron and extremely difficult to be killed; there were rumors that they could survive a full blow from mystic treasures.

The Silver Thread Snakes were masters of sneak attacks. Immensely difficult to detect, their bites could ignore a cultivators’ aegis energy, and their poison was deadly. It was rumored that their poison could even affect Avatar Realm Great Ancestors.

Generally speaking, Silver Thread Snakes were more poisonous than Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes. However, ever since the snake trio absorbed the Million Poisons Ominous Essence, they could be deemed as poisonous—or even more poisonous.

“Do you really think you can kill me? At worst, I’ll make sure to drag you both down with me! The Crystal Palace will find out about this, and your people will suffer their merciless retaliation!”

Hong Shi-Kui was ruthless in his declaration.

Chilian Ying snorted coldly. “A true cultivator should be aware of death the moment they begin cultivating. What’s wrong? Do you really think only scumbags like you can kill, but not the other way around? Is that what the Crystal Palace teaches its disciples?”

Lu Ping lifted his hand and a flying sword, glimmering with a faint cold light, suddenly appeared in his hand. He carefully felt the characteristics of this flying sword and was satisfied.

This was the top-grade flying sword he plundered from the Crystal Palace cultivator he killed in Hundred Flowers Land. It was an assassination sword that went by the name of Water Specter and possessed the ability to become invisible, which made it a perfect match for Lu Ping’s [Shapeless Sword Art].

Lu Ping casually turned his hand and Water Specter suddenly disappeared from their sight. Hong Shi-Kui’s heart palpitated heavily—he knew quite well the invisible sword’s strength, so he couldn’t help focusing warily on his surroundings.

Suddenly, Chilian Ying spat out another mouthful of blood again. Lu Ping turned his head to look, and saw a huge pair of scissors rising above her head. The scissors’ long blades opened wide and closed down, as if cutting into the void.

Suddenly, Hong Shi-Kui’s right shoulder was sliced off from his body. Hong Shi-Kui screamed in pain and terror, “You too have a mystic treasure?!”

The terrified Hong Shi-Kui had lost his spirit to fight. He used the blood from his bleeding wound to cast an escape skill and fled.

Chilian Ying struggled to make another hand sign, barely motioning the scissors to snip again above her head.

Hong Shi-Kui who had just cast his escape skill, suddenly let out another scream. His escape skill interrupted, he was bisected from the waist.

Lu Ping looked at Hong Shi-Kui and the scissors, feeling a chill travel down his spine. Those scissors were far more powerful than his pestle mystic treasure.

The pestle had two identical Mystical Inscriptions, so for the scissors to be stronger, it either had two different Mystical Inscriptions, or maybe even three Mystical Inscriptions.

After being cut in half, Hong Shi-Kui’s upper body suddenly exploded into a mist of blood. A dull golden light flew out from his heart and sped to the distance, the jade rings protecting the Golden Core in the center.

By now, Chilian Ying had already lost all of her strength and couldn’t stop the Golden Core—she could only look at Lu Ping with a pleading gaze.

Lu Ping smiled and pointed his hand at the Golden Core. A huge silver stamp seal suddenly descended from the sky, and with a loud bang, the jade rings that had lost the support of arcane energy were knocked away by Landslide.

Before Landslide could even get to the Golden Core, the impact had already shattered it into a cloud of highly concentrated spiritual energy, which quickly diffused into the atmosphere.

——