Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-321-30041322

After years of care from Lu Ping, the queen bee finally advanced to the Blood Condensation Realm, and the colony was finally able to reproduce and expand. Currently, the queen bee was in the Third Layer Blood Condensation Realm, commanding a colony of five hundred bees, including a dozen Blood Condensation Realm Amethyst Bees.

The fist-sized bees gathered themselves to form a Dao army array, which boosted their strength, in order to battle dozens of Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators at once. After a few moments, a few cries of death could be heard inside the Dao army array, and the bees devoured the bodies of the Wang Clan cultivators entirely with no traces left behind.

"Dong! Dong! Dong!"

Under Wu Yan’s command, the bee swarm pressed forward into the depths of the island.

…

A few miles away from Ashen Mountain Island, there was another battle heating up.

Enlightened Master Wang Hua could not believe that four First Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters could actually force him into such a situation.

Among the four, Hong Ying’s attack was the most monotonous with just the pestle mystic treasure; his other attacks weren’t as effective to Enlightened Master Wang Hua.

By contrast, Chi Lian-Ying’s water sleeves were the most difficult to handle. Even though his Mystical Wooden Ruler was much stronger compared to water sleeves with only one condensed Mystical Inscription, he still found it difficult to break past her defenses. Not to mention, Qiao Wei-Ying was lurking on the side, which forced him to divide his attention on the other.

Qiao Wei-Ying had been schemed against at a young age, which resulted in an injury that cost him his cultivation base, and he even became paralyzed. It wasn’t until Lu Ping concocted the Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet that not only helped him recover from the injury, he even broke through to the Core Forging Realm.

However, those few years of paralysis had changed his temperament drastically, and the massive amount of negativity accumulated within him made him vicious and resentful. As a result, his attack style became unbridled, and he would even take on hits just to strike his target, which forced Enlightened Master Wang Hua to avoid him as much as possible.

However, the greatest threat was not from these three, but the shy and awkwardly-acting Luan Yu. The heritage from his Wood Luan bloodline had taught him a divine ability known as the [Fire of Wood].

The [Fire of Wood] required three types of spirit fire and the Wood Luan’s cultivation method to practice. Luan Yu already had two spirit fires in his hand, and after his Core Forging Realm advancement, he had condensed a fire in his Golden Core. Hence, he had just enough spirit fire to cultivate the divine ability.

The [Fire of Wood] was extremely effective against any wood-element targets. Coincidentally, Enlightened Master Wang Hua’s Mystical Wooden Ruler and Mystical Wooden Shield were both wood-element mystic treasures. Hence, the [Fire of Wood] could directly burn them, forcing Enlightened Master Wang Hua to exert a large amount of true energy to eradicate their flames.

Fortunately, Enlightened Master Wang Hua was in the Third Layer Core Forging Realm. His cultivation base and experience, as well as mystic treasures, were all far superior than the four of them combined. As a group, they couldn’t actually defeat him, so all they could do was prevent his escape.

Several miles away, two Enlightened Masters who were concealed by stealth spells, were observing the battle from a distance.

Enlightened Master Zhang Feng looked at the fight and seemingly spoke unintentionally, "Brother Li, I hear that your daughter is very close to a female alchemist with the surname Chu. I initially thought the two would help Master Alchemist Lu Jiu, but I didn’t expect he would bring out four other Enlightened Masters of his own. I guess the saying is true, alchemists aren’t easy targets to mess with."

"Brother Zhang, you must be joking. In order to establish one’s own power, one must achieve it by oneself, such is the rule laid down by the Northern League. Surely the Li Clan doesn’t intend to interfere and break this rule just to help Master Alchemist Lu Jiu!"

Zhang Feng and Li Mao-Lin smiled together, each appearing to read the other’s thoughts. Soon after, they turned their attention back to the battlefield.

"Wang Hua should have noticed their intentions bynow."

"It matters not, Lu Jiu isn’t here yet either."

As they predicted, Enlightened Master Wang Hua’s expression changed as he suddenly realized he was being detained from leaving. But it was all too late now, a series of rumbling noises could be heard coming from the direction of Ashen Mountain Island.

The island’s protective array formation has been breached, how is that possible!

In panic, Enlightened Master Wang Hua raised his voice and shouted, "How dare you… how dare you! You think this will defeat the Wang Clan? What a bunch of clowns! I was saving this for the Zhang and Li Clan, but you brought this on yourselves. This is your ticket to death!"

An aura far more overwhelming than before burst out of his body. Hong Ying was immediately suppressed and couldn’t wield his pestle mystic treasure anymore, while the other three quickly retreated backwards.

Chilian Ying’s expression changed, and she exclaimed in shock, "Mid Core Forging Realm! You’ve been hiding it all this time?"

In the distance, Zhang Feng and Li Mao-Lin’s expressions turned grave.

Zhang Feng sneered coldly, "What a cunning schemer, we’ve all been fooled."

Li Mao-Lin said in surprise, "So this is the card he was saving for us. Hmph, if the Wang Clan wasn’t Crystal Palace’s only pawn in this region, it would’ve been kicked out of the game a long time ago."

"The Crystal Palace is the only reason the Wang Clan still exists. Wang Yi-Shan and another clansman’s breakthrough to the Core Forging Realm increased the Wang Clan’s Enlightened Masters from four to six. Wang Hua’s advancement to the Mid Core Forging Realm is no coincidence either. The Crystal Palace must have provided a heaven-and-earth wonder item."

"They’re in trouble, should we help?"

"Patience, Lu Jiu is still not here, let’s see what else he has up his sleeves! It would make him a better neighbor too, if he had one or two less people."

The tide of battle had changed the moment Wang Hua revealed his true prowess. The four of them were forced to gather together to defend from his attacks, having already given up trying to keep him on the battlefield.

Now it was Wang Hua who didn’t want to leave. After all, Ashen Mountain Island had been breached, a move the enemy had clearly planned for a long time. Even if he rushed back now, there was nothing he could do to reverse the damage done. The better option was to stay and kill the four of them to avenge his disciples’ deaths.

The gap between each stage in the Core Forging Realm was huge, the reason being the heaven-and-earth wonder items that Enlightened Masters fused into their Golden Core, which would partially manifest in their true energy and divine revelation. One’s prowess would then carry the miraculous effects of the wonder items.

The four of them struggled to defend themselves, while Wang Hua casually made his attacks. The weakest of the four, Hong Ying, already had blood spilling out of his ears, nostrils, and mouth. Worse still, his cultivation base started showing signs of instability, as if it could falter back to the Blood Condensation Realm at any moment.

Wang Hua looked contemptuously at them, as if they were lambs waiting to be slaughtered and served on a table. He swung his sleeve and sent out two message swords, one to the east and another to the west.

However, just after the message swords flew up into the sky, the one heading to the west suddenly exploded and scattered like fireworks.

"Come out, you creep!"

Wang Hua’s expression darkened as he cast out a ball of lightning that burst into a field of green lightning, covering the western side.

The four cultivators were instantly dismayed—that was definitely a mini divine ability. Although Wang Hua had suppressed them, he clearly had yet to use his full abilities. If he had, one of them could’ve been killed by now!

Suddenly, a high tide rose from the calm sea beneath them. It was clearly some type of skill or spell, not just because of its sudden unnatural rise. As the tide crashed down from above, the tip of the tide suddenly split apart like the fearful, gaping maw of a voracious beast.

At this time, Wang Hua’s green lightning field hadn’t expanded to its fullest, and the tide swooped down from above and swallowed the expanding field into the depths of the sea. The lightning field erupted underwater and lit up the dark waters, undulating the calm surface before returning to tranquility.

Then, from the sky, a golden flying sword appeared out of nowhere, followed by 1,296 sword lights which lunged towards Wang Hua.

"Peak of Sword Complexity and Sword Spirituality! Who are you? Why are you against the Wang Clan?"

Enlightened Master Wang Hua’s expression changed drastically, there was a subtle trace of fear in his enraged voice!

Weekly Chapters (1/5)

Editor: MilkBiscuit