Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-281

Chapter 281: Place of Inheritance

Within this broken space, the place of inheritance was situated in a basin surrounded by five mountains. These mountains contained the alchemy heritages of five Master Alchemists.

The basin itself was a huge array formation which was the destination of Lu Ping’s mission. He only had to place the formation chassis given by Enlightened Master Qin into the array formation, then activate the teleportation charm to leave the broken space.

However, in order to gain access to the array, Lu Ping would have to go through the first round of tests located on each mountain.

In fact, all five of the heritages required the cultivator to finish a series of tests in order to receive the complete heritage. However, Lu Ping had no intention of doing this; he was afraid that the Northern League wouldn’t let him leave so easily if he were to receive a heritage.

Furthermore, he believed that the Northern League had some means of monitoring the situation in the broken spaces, so his actions naturally couldn’t escape their eyes.

Sure enough, on Qian Yuan Mountain, Great Ancestor Hong Ye and Enlightened Master Qin were watching the participants through a bronze mirror. Great Ancestor Hong Ye was presently swiping his fingers on the mirror surface to switch views between Lu Ping and the others.

Beside him, Enlightened Master Qin hesitated for a moment before asking, “Junior Uncle, the Northern League may adhere to the principle of treating every cultivator equally, but is it not a bit inappropriate to let the disciples of other sects enter our place of inheritance?”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye laughed. “That’s all already ancient history. Mauve Moon Minor World is the oldest spatial mystic treasure we have. Back then, the Northern League was young and weak, and the minor world was still incomplete. Our predecessors had to go around the six major sects in the East Ocean, asking for their help to provide us with six of the eight spatial Mystical Inscriptions for Mauve Moon Halo. As a result, the Northern League owed them a favor. Thousands of years later, only four of the six major sects remain. Giving them access to the minor world can be considered returning that favor owed by our ancestors.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye paused and continued, “Although these juniors must go through the tests placed by our predecessors, they will never receive the true heritages. And the rewards will still be valuable enough for them. So, what is there to lose for the Northern League?”

Enlightened Master Qin still felt it was a pity to let outsiders access their heritages, while Great Ancestor Hong Ye said, “The most precious heritages are naturally the Grandmaster Alchemists’ heritages. However, there are only four in the minor world, two in Zhou Chuang’s broken space, one in Luan Yu’s, and the other one in Lu Jiu’s.”

Enlightened Master Qin was surprised. “In that case, wouldn’t this make my words a lie, especially to the Crystal Palace?”

With a sly smile, Great Ancestor Hong Ye asked, “Did you? You merely mentioned the quantity of heritages, did you say anything about their quality?”

Enlightened Master Qin laughed with relief. Then, the two continued to observe the alchemists through the bronze mirror. Right now, all eight had already found the place of inheritance in their respective broken space.

“This Lu Jiu owns a lot of good stuff despite being just a rogue cultivator. A high-grade cauldron, a top-grade spirit fire, a lowly Spirit Seeking Mouse that he raised to the Mid Blood Condensation Realm, and a swarm of legendary Amethyst Bees. No wonder he possesses Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly.”

Enlightened Master Qin praised, “I didn’t even come close to his wealth when I was at that level back then.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye shook his head. “The high-grade cauldron and spirit fire belongs to the Li Clan and the Amethyst Bees are his, but they’re only in the Third Layer Blood Refining Realm. He most likely lacks a queen bee to brew royal jelly. He should have found the royal jelly and the bee eggs together.”

Enlightened Master Qin hesitated for a moment and asked, “Junior Uncle, then should we…”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye eyed Enlightened Master Qin. “Recruit him into the Northern League?”

Enlightened Master Qin froze for a split second, then immediately said, “Exactly, exactly my thoughts! Invite him to join the Northern League, like I was many years ago.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye smiled inexplicably. “He is an alchemist hired by the Li Clan, so don’t you think they would invite him first?”

Enlightened Master Qin was a bit puzzled and asked, “The Li Clan is just a medium-sized party under the Northern League. It may serve under the Northern League, but it is not part of Qian Yuan Mountain, so how can it be…”

“The Li Clan,” Great Ancestor Hong Ye waved his hand and interrupted Enlightened Master Qin, he said, “It’s not as simple as you see on the surface.”

Enlightened Master Qin thought about it and said, “Indeed, that’s true. How can a medium-sized party with less than three hundred years of history so easily procure a high-grade cauldron and spirit fire? Its heritage must be greater than we know.”

Great Ancestor Hong Ye shook his head slightly, he knew Enlightened Master Qin did not understand his meaning, but for reasons unknown, he couldn’t tell the truth directly. “In another few days, Melodious Inn’s Enlightened Master Mei will be accepting the Li Clan’s young lady as her direct disciple. I have received her invitation to witness the disciple acceptance ceremony. I intend to have you represent me.”

“Enlightened Master Mei?” Enlightened Master Qin froze, momentarily puzzled.

Suddenly, he realized that Great Ancestor Hong Ye could be hinting at something. However, after being nominated to attend the ceremony, his expression immediately became delighted.

Enlightened Master Qin was about to turn and leave when he heard Great Ancestor Hong Ye mumbling softly as if to himself, “The disciple acceptance ceremony is a traditional culture practiced by the colossal sects in Central Plain. The sects in the North Ocean have also followed this tradition. Old rules and old customs from the old, old days.”

Enlightened Master Qin stood dumbly for a moment, then bowed and left to entertain the four Master Alchemists from the other major sects.

…

Lu Ping started with the shortest mountain. Halfway up the mountain, he came across an invisible light barrier that stopped him short. In front of the light barrier, there was a pagoda with doors made up of red lights.

Lu Ping reached out his hands and pushed on the light doors, which swung open like physical doors. Beyond the entrance, a black flame abruptly poured down towards Lu Ping.

“Black Prison Poison Fire?”

Lu Ping was overjoyed, he didn’t expect to encounter a rare fire so quickly. This fire was categorized as a heaven-and-earth strange item due to its poisonous nature. Most fires, when used in alchemy, could reduce or even eliminate the toxins in spirit herbs. However, the Black Prison Poison Fire would only infuse more toxins to the pellets.

Hence, the fire was never used to concoct medicinal pellets, but was exceptionally suitable to concoct poisonous pellets!

Lu Ping cast a fire manipulation spell with his abundant arcane energy—the gushing fire halted for a second, then continued to slowly advance towards him.

He then cast out his divine revelation, and under the protection of arcane energy, he used his divine revelation to compress the gushing fire into a thin line of flames. It was soon revealed that the source of the fire was from a spirit gathering chassis inside the pagoda.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Lu Ping’s mind, and he cast his arcane energy to come in contact with the Black Prison Poison Fire. Immediately, the flames reacted vigorously with the Million Poisons Ominous Essence in his aegis energy. In that instant, he almost lost control and had to quickly retract his aegis energy.

It seemed like his assumption was correct, but now was not the time to test it thoroughly. Hence, Lu Ping suppressed the Black Prison Poison Fire back into its spirit gathering chassis, which was placed on a table along with a pellet recipe, and a jade box.

The pellet recipe was for the Million Poisons Pellets, one of the most significant poison pellets to ever exist in the history of alchemy.

The simplest Million Poisons Pellets could be concocted with just less than ten pieces of 100-year spirit herbs. However, pellets like these could only kill Early Blood Refining Realm cultivators.

But, if the pellets were concocted with dozens of 500-year or even 1000-year spirit herbs, they could even kill a Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master!

The first test for this mountain’s heritage, was to use the Black Prison Poison Fire and concoct the Million Poisons Pellets to the level of half-step Core Forging Realm. This would require fourteen pieces of 1,000-year spirit herbs and around twenty pieces of 500-year spirit herbs. This pellet could kill any Blood Condensation Realm cultivator, and even severely damage an Enlightened Master’s true energy.

Fortunately, Lu Ping’s divine revelation was abnormally strong. He could even utilize Chu Ting’s spirit fire to concoct Essence Extension Pellets without refining it, so the comparably inferior Black Prison Poison Fire would naturally not be an issue.

The spirit herbs, or rather, the poison herbs required were contained in a jade box beside the pellet recipe. Lu Ping took out the herbs and his mid-grade cauldron. This time, he didn’t use Chu Ting’s high-grade cauldron because it would be immoral to contaminate someone else’s cauldron with the pellets’ leftover toxins.

Four hours later, Lu Ping successfully concocted six Million Poisons Pellets. Picking one up, he placed it in the hole on the spirit gathering chassis. With a click, the chassis detached itself from the table.

Lu Ping knew that this was his reward. He carefully picked up the spirit gathering chassis and put it inside his interspatial ring together with the jade scroll. He also kept the extra poison herbs in the jade box for himself.

The jade scroll contained the pellet recipe for different levels of Million Poisons Pellets. Two of which were in the ranks of Core Forging Realm poison pellets, which he could only concoct after becoming a Master Alchemist.

After passing the test, the invisible barrier had dispersed and the pathway up the mountain was now accessible. There would be a few more tests ahead before he could finally reach the summit to receive the true heritage.

However, Lu Ping didn’t continue up the mountain, but turned and left instead. The heritages were meant for the Northern League disciples, which he was not, nor did he intend to become one.

With a loud bang, the pagoda’s light doors slammed shut, and Lu Ping made his way to the second mountain.