Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-280

The five alchemical geniuses, Luan Yu, Yue Jiang-Rui, and Lu Ping were judged the eight best alchemists for this Alchemy Conference.

After a round of discussion between the Master Alchemists, Zhou Chuang was announced as the final winner. Lu Ping was positioned at fourth, and Yue Jiang-Rui the fifth, outcompeting the other three alchemical geniuses with his decades of experience.

Just when the crowd was looking forward to Yue Jiang-Rui fulfilling the Bet of Cauldron, the top eight alchemists, along with the Master Alchemists, Yan Wu-Jiu, and Great Ancestor Hong Ye, suddenly disappeared before their eyes!

…

In a place surrounded by clouds, the top eight alchemists found themselves separated from the crowd and only the Master Alchemists and Grandmaster Alchemists faced them.

Enlightened Master Qin didn’t start by listing out the rewards, instead, he smiled at Lu Ping and said, “Junior, due to the special nature of Mauve Moon Minor World, I’d like to ask you to postpone the Bet of Cauldron, do you think you can do that?”

Lu Ping answered politely, “Anything you wish to do, sir.”

Enlightened Master Qin smiled and nodded. “Little Yue’s teacher and I were friends for many years, back when we were still just rogue cultivators. I was lucky enough to join the Northern League, but not quite so for him. As time passed, he aged and left this world not long after. Fortunately, he handed down his alchemical knowledge to Little Yue before his passing. Little Yue has always been a little too narrow-minded, so this will serve as a good lesson for him to change his mindset. It’s just a pity that such a nice cauldron had to be smashed to fulfill the bet.”

Lu Ping immediately understood the meaning behind Enlightened Master Qin’s words. He nodded and said, “It’s truly a pity. To be frank, the bet happened only because of our arrogance, it wasn’t necessary at all. Even now, after winning, I’m thinking of letting this matter pass.”

However, he still felt reluctant deep in his heart. If he had lost, would anyone stand up for him like Enlightened Master Qin did for Yue Jiang-Rui? He knew no one would. He was just a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator, there was no place for him to bargain with Enlightened Masters, even more with Master Alchemists!

Fortunately, Lu Ping never planned to have Yue Jiang-Rui fulfill the Bet of Cauldron to the end in the first place, he actually had a bigger plan. Otherwise, why would he rashly agree to the bet without full confidence of his victory? He would surely make the most out of this agreement.

The only surprise was Chu Ting’s willingness to lend him her high-grade cauldron and spirit fire. Otherwise, Lu Ping might have used his Azure Spirit Fire, which would inevitably be risky to his safety.

Enlightened Master Qin laughed and said, “Little Friend Lu, you worry too much. The Bet of Cauldron is a heavy promise for an alchemist, and a defeat is a defeat. This is a fact that no one can negate, not even me. Little Yue is left wholly to your disposal—all I ask is that my old friend’s inheritance to be passed on.”

Yue Jiang-Rui was already more than a hundred years old, but he was just a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator, so he aged well. On the contrary, even though Enlightened Master Qin looked like a middle-aged man, he was actually much older than Yue Jiang-Rui.

So, Yue Jiang-Rui didn’t feel uncomfortable being addressed as a junior, not to mention that Enlightened Master Qin was an old friend to his teacher. Yue Jiang-Rui had always been proud of himself. Sure, he couldn’t accept his defeat, but what he couldn’t stand more was to deny said defeat and run away from fulfilling the bet!

But when Yue Jiang-Rui heard Enlightened Master Qin talking about his teacher’s legacy, he suddenly hesitated. Enlightened Master Qin was clearly hinting him to bear the shame and live on, so his teacher’s legacy could continue. In the end, he eventually gave in and said, “I accept my defeat, I’m at your disposal.”

Lu Ping pretended to ponder for a moment before he finally revealed his plan, “In that case, Yue Jiang-Rui, will you accept serving under me for ten years?”

Without waiting for an answer, he continued, “I’ll be preparing for my breakthrough to the Core Forging Realm after the conference, so any time to concoct my own medicinal pellets will be limited. Ten years of your time, that’s all I will ask for. After ten years, you are free to leave at your own discretion.”

Enlightened Master Qin smiled and nodded but didn’t step in to interfere. Yue Jiang-Rui’s expression changed several times before he acquiesced. “It’s a deal.”

…

Mauve Moon Halo was a mystic treasure with eight spatial Mystical Inscriptions. Together, they formed an interspatial dimension known as Mauve Moon Minor World, where the Northern League kept its alchemical heritages.

However, the halo was now broken, and its eight spatial Mystical Inscriptions were now detached from the mystic treasure. As a result, the minor world collapsed into eight broken spaces, and continued to collapse at a rate quicker than expected.

The Northern League tried to save as much of the heritages as possible, yet many were still lost in the collapsing minor world. This forced the Great Ancestors to step in and temporarily stabilize the broken spaces.

However, the broken spaces were fragile and unstable, at risk of complete collapse at any moment. Only the Blood Condensation Realm cultivators were allowed to enter as their prowess would not overly strain the broken spaces.

Even so, the minor world could only hold up for another three days at this rate, which meant that they only had three days to save the heritages and explore.

“After three days, no matter the situation, you must leave the minor world, or be shrunk into nothingness along with it.” Enlightened Master Qin reminded them again and again, “Your task is to place the formation chassis in the specified location. Whatever you gain in the minor world will be your reward for winning the Alchemy Conference.”

The top eight alchemists were happy to hear this, but they were also slightly dissatisfied at receiving the same treatment, especially the top three winners.

Enlightened Master Qin seemed to read their thoughts, he laughed and explained, “The minor world has broken into eight spaces, but the opportunities found in each one are naturally different. The broken spaces assigned to you will be based on your rankings—those of you with higher rankings will enter the spaces with more heritages than the rest.”

It was only then that the winners nodded with satisfaction. Since Lu Ping won fourth place in the conference, he was assigned to the broken space with the fourth most heritages. This made much more sense.

…

In a chaotic and seemingly directionless space, a small area suddenly rippled like water and a young man walked out of it.

Lu Ping was a little surprised at what he saw.

Using this piece of broken space as a reference, he could vaguely imagine what the minor world might look like in its complete form. Even so, it would be nowhere close to Heaven of Seven Stars, which was another minor world that had existed for eons.

Lu Ping was rather fortunate—he entered the broken space to a wrecked spirit herb garden. Although the spirit herbs were ordinary, they were growing in abundance, and most were already blooming with fragrance.

Due to the instability of the broken space, Lu Ping didn’t dare to use the Tome of Thousand Millets’ interspatial dimension like he normally would. Instead, he meticulously opened a small gap for the Amethyst Bees to come out. After that, he left the bees to their own devices and steered himself to his destination using the map given by Enlightened Master Qin.

Right now, most of the Amethyst Bees were already in the Third Layer Blood Refining Realm, with each half the size of a fist. A few had even advanced to the Fourth Layer. There was now a queen bee, also in the Fourth Layer, but she could only brew enough royal jelly for herself.

While Lu Ping was navigating his way forward, a wound suddenly appeared on his arm. The cut was so sharp that it sliced right through his aegis energy without warning!

Beads of cold sweat rolled down Lu Ping’s forehead, and his heart palpitated heavily.

This must be the space rift that Enlightened Master Qin had repeatedly warned them about. The space rifts came in different sizes, but they were all difficult to detect. Lu Ping was lucky he merely passed by the space rift and only received a small wound on his arm. If he had walked into it directly, he might have lost an arm or a leg, or even his life!

This was much more difficult to deal with than the grand protection formation on Fei Ling Island.

Lu Ping released his divine revelation and compressed it to half its usual range for twice the strength. Only then could he vaguely sense the space rifts in his proximity.

As he walked around, he paid close attention to his surroundings. If it wasn’t for the minor world’s collapse, Lu Ping would never get a chance to learn the Northern League’s alchemical heritages, so he naturally wouldn’t let this golden opportunity go to waste.

Suddenly, Lu Ping pondered for a moment and brought Dabao out of his spirit pet pouch. For safety reasons, he instructed Dabao not to leave the coverage of his divine revelation. As a spirit mouse, Dabao was naturally timid, so he wouldn’t leave his proximity without his command anyway.

Sure enough, Lu Ping soon found a jade scroll in the grass, followed by a jade box that Dabao plowed out of the ground and hurriedly brought over.

The jade scroll was a recipe for Flowing Cloud Pellet, a type of Late Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellet which Lu Ping could make use of now. He happily stored it away in his interspatial ring.

Lu Ping assumed the jade box would contain some spirit herbs, but he was surprised to find two exquisite high-grade mystic instruments inside. One was a jade shovel and the other was a jade hoe. These were tools to plant and harvest the spirit herbs.

Lu Ping had a spirit herb garden in the Tome of Thousand Millets. For years, it had produced many spirit herbs for his alchemy. The addition of these two mystic instruments would surely increase their production!

Due to the space rifts, Lu Ping didn’t dare to travel too fast, let alone fly in the sky. Hence, it took him half a day to reach the place of heritage.

Along the way, Lu Ping found many good harvests scattered around the world. Most were pellet recipes, mystic instruments, medicinal pellets, and spirit herbs. The only noteworthy items were a bottle of Disguise Pellets, two spirit fires, and a low-grade cauldron.

A Disguise Pellet was a type of half-step Core Forging Realm pellet. It could change one’s appearance and not even a Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master could see through the disguise. Lu Ping’s only regret was that he found the pellets but not its recipe.

The spirit fires were mid- to low-grade, not even on par with his Scarlet Ibis Fire. However, they could come in handy when used to concoct certain pellets. So, it was always a good idea to collect as many spirit fires as possible.

Lastly, although the cauldron was just a low-grade mystic instrument, it still came as a big surprise to him. After all, Lu Ping only had three cauldrons so far, one of which was the River Inclusion Cauldron that he couldn’t even use at all.