Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-279

Enlightened Master Kun Shan, who had just been disciplined by Great Ancestor Hong Ye, became pale faced again upon seeing Ning Shi-Ze take out a Golden Core.

“A monster Golden Core? Hehe.”

The anger brewing in Yan Wu-Jiu’s words was clear.

Enlightened Master Kun Shan quickly smiled, and explained slowly, “Yes, it is. Nephew Ning traded it from some overseas adventurers.”

Yan Wu-Jiu sneered coldly and didn’t answer, while Enlightened Master Kun Shan heaved a long sigh of relief. He thought in his heart, Nephew Ning is too careless to bring that out. Fortunately, this is the human’s territory, so Yan Wu-Jiu held back his anger. After all, Crystal Palace’s fame isn’t really effective for the monster race, nor is Yan Wu-Jiu someone we can easily provoke.

While Yan Wu-Jiu was clearly unhappy, Great Ancestor Hong Ye and the other Master Alchemists watched from the sidelines and didn’t help Enlightened Master Kun Shan out of his awkward situation.

Great Ancestor Hong Ye smiled, and asked, “Looks like the youngsters are showing all their cards now. Old friend, what have you prepared for Nephew Luan Yu?”

“I’m not wealthy enough to prepare a spirit fire for my disciple like you have, neither will I give him a human Golden Core.”

Yan Wu-Jiu paused for a moment and gazed deeply at the embarrassed Enlightened Master Kun Shan, before continuing, “But Great Ancestor, don’t forget about his origin.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye replied, “The Wood Luan’s naturally inherited divine ability, [Fire in Wood]?”

The Great Ancestor continued, this time with some incredulity, “Could it be that Nephew Luan has collected three top-grade fires and achieved that divine ability?”

Yan Wu-Jiu shook his head, and laughed, “How can it be so easy. He has high expectations so he didn’t want ordinary fires, insisting on only having Grade 2 fires. At this rate, I guess he won’t even achieve the ability before the Core Forging Realm

Although Yan Wu-Jiu spoke as such, he was rather happy that his disciple was aiming high.

Just as Yan Wu-Jiu finished speaking, Luan Yu took out a half-charred wood, and spit out a white fire from his mouth. He then took out an orange fire from a jade box, and placed the fires on the wood.

As the fires were brought together, a crackling sound could be heard. Luan Yu quickly made a few hand signs, causing the fires to merge together and burn vigorously on top of the half-charred wood.

Lu Ping clearly saw that when the fires merged together, a huge wave of spiritual energy was stimulated and released from the half-charred wood. This must be a 1,000-year Wutong Wood, that was most likely also a Grade 2 variant.

The wood was burning on one end, making it look like a torch. Luan Yu used it to heat up his cauldron.

Up until now, Enlightened Master Qin had only announced the rewards for the top 8 alchemists. Nothing more had been mentioned about further rewards. However, given that the geniuses were getting serious and pulling out their trump cards, Lu Ping gathered that the rewards were very attractive.

Lu Ping also had the intention of competing with them in alchemy. However, the Azure Spirit Fire was too precious. If he used it in public and didn’t have anyone to back him up, he might not even walk out of Qian Yuan City alive.

Lu Ping’s expression had changed several times, while the others had already started their second cauldron. Suddenly, Lu Ping’s expression became firm, as he thought, I already owe her a favor by using her cauldron, I might as well also use her fire.

Then, he made 18 hand seals, and a bright yellow stream of fire came bursting out of the high-grade cauldron in front of him.

Although the spirit fire wasn’t as powerful as the rest, it still attracted quite a bit of attention from the alchemists and cultivators.

“That’s a Grade 3 spirit fire. A heaven-and-earth spirit fire that has lost its spirituality.”

Luan Yu’s eyes lit up as he looked at Lu Ping’s flame and muttered, this was exactly the kind of top-grade fire that he had always been searching for.

“It seems that East Ocean really has some undiscovered talents.” Enlightened Master Ji Ya-Kong of Sky Cleaving Sword Sect said.

“Enlightened Master Ji, I think you value his swordsmanship more than his alchemy, right? Although his sword lights aren’t as sharp as the Cleaving Sword Lights, they have been consolidated and hold a lot of strength.”

Enlightened Master Yu Hai of Violet Charm Pavilion, said with a smile. Enlightened Master Ji didn’t deny it.

“Apart from the alchemical geniuses from our major sects, he’s the most talented alchemist in this time’s Alchemy Conference. Given some time, he’ll definitely become an Enlightened Master, and afterwards, a Master Alchemist. It’s not just Enlightened Master Ji that has a love for talents.”

Thunderous Wind Island’s Enlightened Master Feng Lian-Ying spoke straightforwardly. Enlightened Master Ji still didn’t say anything, she didn’t even look back.

Yue Jiang-Rui’s heart sank when he saw Lu Ping casting the bright yellow fire. However, he quickly shifted his focus back to his alchemy, seemingly unaffected by Lu Ping.

With the experience of successfully concocting the first cauldron of Essence Extension Pellets, in addition to the high-grade cauldron, his divine revelation, modified purification technique, the Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly, and the Grade 3 spirit fire, Lu Ping’s second cauldron went smoothly.

The other alchemists were equally doing their best as well.

A day later, the fragrance of pellets filled the air, as everyone was beginning to finish their alchemy.

Senior Martial Brother Qi was the first one to finish. This time, he concocted three pellets, one extra compared to the first cauldron. However, this also meant that unless Senior Martial Brother Ye or Lu Ping failed miserably in their second cauldron, the Wang Clan that he represented would lose the competition amongst the three clans for the division of the spirit stone mine!

The Wang Clan Head also realized this, and his face turned slightly gloomy. Wang Yi-Shan looked towards Lu Ping with a pair of squinted eyes, and was clearly calculating something in his mind.

Senior Martial Brother Ye completed his alchemy second. Because this was his home ground, he didn’t have to be wary about his safety. This gave him the luxury of using his essence to cast a secret technique that improved the quality of his spirit fire. Although he would have to take some time to recuperate his lost essence, the secret technique allowed him to concoct four pellets this time.

Yue Jiang-Rui had merged twelve fires together, which was already his limit. However, the fires had different qualities making the combined fire less effective. Hence, he only concocted five pellets, one more than his first cauldron.

The three alchemical geniuses from the Violet Charm Pavilion, Sky Cleaving Sword Sect, and Thunderous Wind Island did their best. But in the end, they only concocted the same number of pellets as Yue Jiang-Rui.

Yue Jiang-Rui was a rogue cultivator. Although he was older and more experienced, it was still a huge achievement to be able to tie with the alchemical geniuses from the major sects. However, he didn’t look happy at all.

Ning Shi-Ze had concocted six pellets. After he collected the pellets, he carefully sealed the Golden Core again and placed it inside a jade box.

Luan Yu pulled the Wutong Wood out from the bottom of the cauldron and kept the fires away. After that, he casually collected six pellets inside a jade bottle.

Zhou Chuang had attracted the most attention with his Million Bone Phosphorous Fire. Everyone had their eyes on him as he was opening the cauldron lid.

At the same time, Lu Ping was also opening his cauldron lid. Although Zhou Chuang had started earlier, heaven-and-earth spirit fires took more time to purify spirit herbs to their limits.

Zhou Chuang had concocted seven pellets.

However, he was not the one who garnered the most attention. The cultivators shifted their attention to Lu Ping, the young alchemist who entered the Bet of Cauldron with Yue Jiang-Rui.

Lu Ping had also succeeded in making six pellets. Whilst it wasn’t as good a result as Zhou Chuang, it was still on par with Ning Shi-Ze and Luan Yu!

A rogue cultivator and alchemist, that was as proficient in alchemy as the alchemical geniuses who practiced under Grandmaster Alchemists like Ning Shi-Ze, Luan Yu, and Zhou Chuang. Just how impressive was this!

All of that sudden, Yue Jiang-Rui seemed to have aged tens of years. He caressed the cauldron in front of him like an old man reminiscing about his lost belongings.

Li Mao-Lin and Li Xiu-Zhu rejoiced inside their hearts. Their Li Clan would get half of the ten percent share of the spirit stone mine’s production allotted to the three clans. This would be followed by the Zhang Clan, and finally the Wang Clan, who would take the smallest share.

Enlightened Master Wang Hua’s face turned cold, but he didn’t dare vent his anger on Senior Martial Brother Qi, afraid that he would offend Crystal Palace by doing so.

Lu Ping was also a little dumbfounded looking at the six pellets in his jade bottle. He smiled happily at his alchemy breakthrough. Right now, his alchemy was good enough for him to try his luck at Core Forging Realm pellets!

When Lu Ping first concocted half-step Core Forging Realm Beauty Everlasting Pellets, people used to call him a Quasi-Master Alchemists to flatter him. But now, Lu Ping was truly worthy of being called a Quasi-Master Alchemist!

While the Alchemy Conference still hadn’t ended, all eyes were already on Yue Jiang-Rui, who was still touching his cauldron.

That was a high-grade cauldron, almost as valuable as mystic treasures. Whenever the alchemists thought that Yue Jiang-Rui would have to smash the cauldron to fulfill the Bet of Cauldron, their hearts ached in pain for its loss.

Could they really bear to see the cauldron being smashed into a pile of junk?