Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-262

Suddenly, Lu Ping waved his hand. The heavenly giant sword above him exploded into a rain of sword lights, causing the mirror lake to quake and the sky to tremble. He then quickly changed to another sword art, one that he had not practiced before.

Unlike the other marvelous and complicated sword arts, this one was simple and unwieldy. But as the saying goes, simplicity was the ultimate sophistication. The sword art’s bearing resembled that of a vast and bottomless ocean; one that could contain the stars and accommodate all rivers.

The sword lights flowed back up into the sky like a stream returning to the sea. This was the [River Unification Ocean Sword Art], the strongest and most profound sword art in [North Ocean Twelve Ultimates].

It was only at this moment that Lu Ping was finally able to grasp this sword art. This proved that this sword art could only be cultivated at the Core Forging Realm, when his State of Sword Intent had reached a new height.

After carefully feeling the immense power in the sword art, Lu Ping suddenly remembered another spell art that he had not yet mastered. He blew out a breath of true energy, and the two flying swords suddenly disappeared from the sky.

Then, Lu Ping raised his hands, the sword lights in the sky washed down like a waterfall and replaced the mirror lake beneath him. The sword lights were undulating like a real lake, and as Lu Ping flipped his palms, they surged up high and rippled outward in waves, doubling the size of the sword lake.

He then pressed his hands down, the ground shook with a deep rumbling sound, and a rock arose from the bottom of the sword lake, changing the entire terrain and forming an island in the middle of the lake.

Lu Ping waved his hands again. This time, the sword lake rippled with endless waves after waves and in mere seconds, had turned into a boundless ocean that stretched to the horizon. Then, the ocean trembled violently, tides rising high as islands formed.

It felt as though Lu Ping had orchestrated the evolution of an ocean.

This was the [Vicissitudes of Ocean Art], a true and veritable heavenly spell—a divine ability.

Lu Ping was so excited, the Primordial Stars—now mystic treasures—flew out to the sky to form the Nascent Life Primordial Star Chart Array Formation. The Primordial Stars looked incredibly small and insignificant within the vast ocean, but when grouped into the array formation, the undulating tides suddenly calmed down into a flat plane, resembling a mirror.

Then, the twelve Primordial Stars began to rotate, an inexplicable force manifested in the center and formed a deep abyssal vortex within the ocean of sword lights. The seawater sunk into the maelstrom together with the shattered pieces of islands.

The ocean fell apart and everything Lu Ping created abruptly disappeared—he was back in the initial mirror lake. A burst of dizziness suddenly struck him, and he was consumed by darkness.

…

Lu Ping opened his eyes; the world was spinning and his mind felt disoriented. It took a moment for him to come to his senses—it had all been just a dream. But the dream felt so real, the touch of the wind, the smell of the ocean, the sound of the waves, and… the heavenly strength he possessed!

The Reverie Pellet gave Lu Ping a preview of what it was like to be a Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master. Whenever he recalled the sensation, everything had been so vivid and impressive. It clarified his cultivation doubts and guided him in the right direction of his cultivation journey; this greatly boosted his confidence in achieving the Core Forging Realm.

Lu Ping, who had been sitting quietly for days, suddenly raised his left hand. A translucent flying sword appeared in front of him. Then, he casually waved his hand and 1,296 sword lights opened like a folding fan.

Finally, he had fully mastered Sword Complexity!

The Reverie Pellet was truly impressive. Lu Ping couldn’t help giving praise in his heart.

He looked down and realized that the remaining three Reverie Pellets in his hand were already depleted as well.

Depending on the cultivators’ endurance, a Reverie Pellet could last two to three days. He initially planned to consume one pellet, two at most, while waiting for the Alchemy Conference to commence. But unexpectedly, he had unconsciously finished all four pellets to maintain the efficacy, which also meant that close to twelve days had passed.

Lu Ping circulated the arcane energy in his body, immediately noticing it had become thicker and more pure. He submerged his divine revelation into his heartspace to inspect. Unknown as to when, Lu Ping’s nine Condensed Blood Beads had spontaneously formed a circle.

The twelve Primordial Stars had formed a larger circle around the Condensed Blood Beads, orbiting slowly to draw spiritual energy into his body. The Primordial Stars refined the spiritual energy into arcane energy to gather around the Condensed Blood Beads.

The alignment of the beads signified the emergence of the Golden Core. Should Lu Ping decide to condense his Golden Core now, the Condensed Blood Beads would converge the arcane energy to the center, fusing it together to form the Golden Core.

Lu Ping was only one step away from condensing his Golden Core to achieve the Core Forging Realm.

When he left the cultivation room, he saw Wu Yan, who was like an ant on a hot pot, moving anxiously back and forth in front of the door.

Wu Yan was overjoyed to see him, hurriedly saying, “Young Master, the Alchemy Conference has begun. Tomorrow is the day the alchemists will compete. Li Clan has repeatedly asked for your presence, but Hong Ying has deferred his requests. Today, two female Enlightened Masters came to invite you out. If it wasn’t for the lady, Hong Ying wouldn’t have been able to stop them from rushing into your room.”

Lu Ping naturally knew who these two females were, and that Chilian Ying was the ‘lady’ Wu Yan was referring to. When he learned that Chu Ting and Li Xiu-Zhu tried to break in while he was cultivating, his face immediately turned gloomy.

The longer the Reverie Pellets last, the deeper the attainments of the Core Forging Realm, and the further one’s cultivation progress could go. So, if they had succeeded, Lu Ping would have suffered a huge loss of cultivation attainments, effectively delaying his advancement.

In the cultivation world, the biggest hatred often comes from impeding a cultivator’s cultivation progress. It came as no surprise that friends and families had turned into enemies because of this.

Hence, if Lu Ping’s cultivation had been disturbed today, he might have gone all out to kill Chu Ting and Li Xiu-Zhu. Although it hadn’t happened, Lu Ping wasn’t about to let this go.

Lu Ping walked towards the meeting room in the cave-dwelling, while Wu Yan carefully followed behind, he was shivering from the coldness brewing coming from Lu Ping’s body.

The ladies were chatting joyfully in the meeting room, when they heard Lu Ping’s footsteps, they suddenly became quiet and looked at him.

Lu Ping’s overwhelming aura revealed a hint of killing intent which the ladies keenly sensed. At that time, they obviously realized something was not right.