Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-277

Great Ancestor Hong Ye exclaimed, “What an exquisite Jiao.”

Yan Wu-Jiu smiled, “A rogue cultivator with an unknown origin, has attained such great alchemical and cultivation attainments. I’m afraid the other alchemical geniuses, including your disciple, will not allow him to surpass them.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye didn’t answer, but he was looking closely at the intensifying battle.

The ones who could last to the end would naturally be stronger, as not only were their battle pellets of higher quality, their strength was also greater.

At the highest section of the sky, the seven battle pellets weren’t having a chaotic battle. Instead, they took turns to battle against Lu Ping’s pellet.

How could a rogue cultivator concoct such a powerful sword pellet and stand on par with them, the alchemical geniuses from major sects? The monster alchemist was an exception, because he had a Grandmaster Alchemist as his teacher.

They were seen and raised as future Grandmaster Alchemists, and had always received the best education and treatment from their teachers. So, if a rogue cultivator with access to far inferior resources, was able to stand on par or even surpass them, wouldn’t that mean that their talent was actually inferior to him?

Even though the geniuses were unconvinced, they had been raised and taught to maintain their sects’ dignity. Hence, they didn’t work together to take Lu Ping down, and had instead tacitly chosen to take turns.

“We won’t bully you. Each of us will make one move. If you still remain at the top afterwards, we will naturally acknowledge your position. Otherwise, you will have to gain some self-awareness and go back down to where you belong.”

After the Sky Cleaving Sword Sect’s alchemist finished speaking, he unleashed the first strike. As a sword sect disciple, he clearly knew more about swordsmanship than the others. Lu Ping had concocted a sword pellet just like he had, except it was clearly stronger.

Even the sword geniuses in his sect couldn’t have done any better than Lu Ping. This was hard for him to believe, so he naturally had to test it out for himself.

Little did he know that Lu Ping’s swordsmanship was actually much stronger than this!

The Sky Cleaving Sword Sect alchemist reached his hand out and drew a semicircle in the air. The sword lights from his pellet gathered into a ball above him, with seven Sky Cleaving Sword Lights shooting out from the ball towards the Sword Jiao.

Lu Ping had long since wanted to compete with the famous Sky Cleaving Sword Lights. So, the coiling Spiritual Sword Jiao only spit out seven spiritual sword lights to make the fight even.

The fourteen spiritual sword lights fought fiercely in the sky. The aftermath of the clash spread out far, displacing the surrounding clouds. A few moments later, the spiritual sword lights clashed for the final time, before splintering at the same time!

Lu Ping and the opposing alchemist looked solemnly at each other. The Sky Cleaving Sword Sect alchemist hadn’t thought that the rogue cultivator’s swordsmanship would actually be able to fight evenly against his Sky Cleaving Sword Lights. Furthermore, he was also shocked by the thick arcane energy within those sword lights!

On the other hand, Lu Ping was amazed by the sharpness of the Sky Cleaving Sword Lights. Every time the spiritual sword lights clashed, there was a cutting sensation that not only impacted his sword lights, but also directly affected his arcane energy. Even his divine revelation was also slightly affected. Perhaps, the Sky Cleaving Sword Lights could even impact divine revelation when cultivated to a stronger stage.

After the brief clash, the Sky Cleaving Sword Sect alchemist decisively withdrew the remaining Sky Cleaving Sword Lights and ordinary sword lights back into his sword pellet. Clearly, he had recognized Lu Ping’s strength.

Suddenly, a huge crystal palace appeared above the sword Jiao, with a flash of spiritual light. The Crystal Palace’s alchemical genius, Ning Shi-Ze, coldly said, “Suppress!”

The first layer of the palace lit up. Lu Ping suddenly felt that the sword Jiao’s body had become heavier, as if a huge mountain was pressing down on its body.

“Seal!”

As Ning Shi-Ze spoke again, the second layer of the crystal palace also lit up. This time, an invisible barrier appeared, stopping the sword Jiao from leaving the bottom of the crystal palace.

“Crush!”

Ning Shi-Ze spoke again. Another invisible force wormed its way into the sword Jiao’s body, trying to destroy it from the inside.

Lu Ping coldly snorted. He didn’t wait for Ning Shi-Ze to light up the fourth layer of the crystal palace, and quickly cast a sword skill.

“[Green Jiao Sea Haunting Art]”

The sword Jiao withstood the crystal palace’s suppression and lunged upwards, ruthlessly knocking the crystal palace’s invisible barrier with its horn. Then, the sword Jiao used its claws to tear a huge hole in the barrier.

Ning Shi-Ze’s face changed drastically, but he couldn’t do anything to stop the sword Jiao from leaving the crystal palace’s suppression.

Lu Ping changed to another sword art, causing the sword Jiao to release a silent roar, turn back around, and pounce towards the crystal palace.

Ning Shi-Ze was shocked, and quickly shouted, “Stagnate!”

The fourth layer of the crystal palace immediately lit up. A crystal light covered the whole palace, defending it from the sword Jiao’s tail attack.

The palace shook, and the light flickered, before popping like a bubble. The fourth layer that had just been lighted up, was rapidly dimming.

Ning Shi-Ze’s face turned pale. He quickly consumed a pellet to treat his injuries, and said, with a weak voice, “Recover.”

The sixth layer of the crystal palace lit up, causing spiritual lights to flow from the top layer to the bottom layers, stabilizing the trembling palace.

On the central cloud, Enlightened Master Kun Shan snorted coldly when he saw that Ning Shi-Ze was injured.

Lu Ping, who had just regained his footing, suddenly heard a thunderous snort in his ears. He was stunned, with his body swaying uncontrollably for a slight moment. He quickly gathered his divine revelation, that was no weaker than Early Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, and forcibly eradicated the discomfort from his body, recovering from the impact almost instantly!

There was no mistake, this must be the work of an Enlightened Master. Lu Ping had immediately guessed where it had come from, so he glanced in the direction of Enlightened Master Kun Shan. However, he was surprised to see that the Enlightened Master was pale faced and wore a shocked expression!

There were many Enlightened Masters on the central cloud, so Enlightened Master Kun Shan’s actions naturally hadn’t escaped their notice. However, they didn’t say anything because he was from the East Ocean’s only colossal sect, the Crystal Palace.

But, Enlightened Master Kun Shan had forgotten that this was the Northern League’s home ground. Not only was Enlightened Master Qin hosting the conference, but Great Ancestor Hong Ye was sitting right beside them. Hence, the Northern League naturally wouldn’t allow Enlightened Master Kun Shan to get away with such behavior.

Immediately after he caused trouble for Lu Ping, Enlightened Master Kun Shan felt a cold wind casually blowing on his back. He suddenly felt weak, as if he was about to fall sick. But, he was an Enlightened Master as well as a Master Alchemist, so there was no way he would randomly get sick.

Enlightened Master Kun Shan naturally knew that his actions had offended the Northern League and that he had just received a small warning from Great Ancestor Hong Ye, causing his face to turn pale. Although Ning Shi-Ze was a highly-valued genius, Crystal Palace still wouldn’t want to offend a Great Ancestor, especially one that was also a Grandmaster Alchemist, for him!

Lu Ping had no time to figure out why Enlightened Master Kun Shan looked like that, as two geniuses were taking advantage of his momentary weakness. The violet charm and lighting chains were attacking his sword Jiao together!

Lu Ping was infuriated. He made nine hand signs in a row, causing the sword Jiao to immediately release another silent roar and recover from the impact. Then, its horn flew out and shattered two of the five violet lights on the violet charm. This outcome scared the violet charm, leading to it halting its attacks, instead creating a defensive formation with its three remaining violet lights.

Twelve of the lightning chains bundled into a larger chain and whipped towards the sword Jiao, trying to rope around it and pull it down. Instead of evading the attack, the sword Jiao lunged forward and tangled with the large lightning chain.

The lightning and fire on the chains charred the sword Jiao, breaking many of its golden scales. Even though the sword Jiao was silently roaring in pain, it didn’t let go and continued to tighten itself around the chain.

Eventually, the lightning chain couldn’t withstand the pressure and broke apart, making the sword Jiao lift its head up and roar victoriously!

Finally, after defeating four alchemical geniuses, no one came forward to challenge Lu Ping. On the other side, the Northern League’s alchemist, Zhou Chuang, was fighting with the monster alchemist.

The gray deadly gas was trying to decompose the towering tree, whilst the tree had raised an emerald light barrier to ward off the deadly gas’s attack.

Suddenly, the spells in the sky disappeared, returning the sky to its previous calm.

The world spun rapidly in Lu Ping’s vision. His body became numb he struggled to move whilst fighting off a wave of dizziness. After recovering from the brief dizziness, he realized that he and a dozen other alchemists were already in a cloud palace.

In front of him, Great Ancestor Hong Ye was sitting on the highest seat, with Yan Wu-Jiu and Enlightened Master Qin beside him, followed by the other four Master Alchemists. Lu Ping immediately felt a sharp gaze coming from one of the Master Alchemists. He looked over and saw Enlightened Master Kun Shan’s pale face.

Next to Lu Ping were fifteen other alchemists, which included the five alchemical geniuses, the young monster alchemist, Senior Martial Brother Qi, Senior Martial Brother Ye, and Yue Jiang-Rui.

“Congratulations, you all are in the top-16 of the Alchemy Conference.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye smiled, and said, “Our Northern League will select the strongest eight amongst you to enter the Mauve Moon Minor World. The minor world has now become a place full of danger and opportunity. Only the strongest Blood Condensation Realm alchemists can obtain the most and make it out alive. That was why I made the battle pellets as the test for the previous round.”

The Great Ancestor paused for a moment, allowing them to digest the information, before continuing, “Is there anyone here who wants to quit?”