Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-348-30041322

Unless Ouyang Wei-Jian could pull out another great divine ability, the outcome of the battle was determinative. Although Lu Ping’s great sword divine ability only lasted for a split second, it was still enough to secure his victory.

While the surrounding cultivators were shocked, the Enlightened Masters from the top sects wore different expressions. Among the Zhen Ling Sect’s Enlightened Masters, the martial siblings were surprised and excited, with even Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling smiling happily.

Xuan-Tian turned to Li Xuan-Ru, and asked, "Junior sister, since when has Junior Brother Xuan-Ping cultivated a great divine ability? What a great surprise; an Early Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master that has attained a great sword divine ability, no wonder he challenged Li Xuan-Liang. It looks like the North Ocean Prodigies have to be revised again. Even I can’t defeat him anymore."

Li Xuan-Ru laughed, "Elder brother, you must be joking. Little ninth is usually best in hiding things up his sleeves. I don’t think even teacher knows about this, let alone me. But if you say that even the eldest brother can’t defeat him, that would be too overestimating him."

Xuan-Tian said seriously, "It’s not a joke, the great divine abilities are not just related to the cultivator’s prowess, but also often related to the cultivator’s potential to achieving Avatar Realm. Both teachers are the best of their peers, they have cultivated their great divine abilities in the Mid Core Forging Realm and later on smoothly advanced to Avatar Realm. It is not known how many great divine abilities they have cultivated and to what extent they have mastered the great divine abilities, but the great divine abilities sure played a role in their advancements to Avatar Realm.

"For myself, I’ve only my first great divine ability when I advanced to Late Core Forging Realm, and now just starting to grasp the second great divine ability. But little junior martial brother already grasped his first great divine ability whilst still in the Early Core Forging Realm. How embarrassing of me!"

Wang Xuan-Jing murmured on the side, "Elder senior martial brother is not making sense, at least you are cultivating your second great divine ability now, I haven’t even grasped my first yet! If I am to compare myself with little ninth, then I’d better find a hole and hide my face inside of it!"

Second Senior Martial Brother Xuan-Guo who doesn’t talk much suddenly said, "The teachers and little ninth are all prominent talents of their generation. We shouldn’t compare ourselves with them, we just have to be ourselves."

After him, the martial siblings stopped talking and calmed their hearts and minds from the overflowing thoughts and emotions.

"Brother Ouyang, thank you for the swordplay."

Lu Ping put away the Golden Scale Sword, clasped his hands and said with a smile.

Ouyang Wei-Jian was also worthy of being Xuan Ling Sect’s leading young talents, he quickly got rid of the desperate and resentful emotions, although his face still looked pale, his expression had recovered. Then, he clasped his hands back and forced a smile out on his face, "Brother Lu’s swordsmanship is admiring, I’ve learned a lot."

Ouyang Wei-Jian’s quick recovery made Lu Ping look at him differently, This Ouyang Wei-Jian is also not a stubborn blockhead. After all, time doesn’t stop for anyone, the others are also improving while I am. If not for my preliminary mastery of the great sword divine ability, I’m no match for Ouyang Wei-Jian in pure swordsmanship.Unless…

Lu Ping thought of the Water Specter Sword that was getting upgraded to a mystic treasure. If he had the invisible sword to fight in stealth, together with the Golden Scale Sword to fight in the open, the perfect pair of swords might just allow him to defeat Ouyang Wei-Jian without using the great sword divine ability.

Sure enough, this was all just in the context of swordsmanship. In a real fight, Lu Ping wouldn’t be dumb enough to restrict his full prowess and just rely on swordsmanship.

When the duo returned to the hall, they bowed at Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling, then sat back on their seats.

Lin Xu-Qing said, "Junior Nephew Lu sure is talented, to comprehend a great sword divine ability in the Early Core Forging Realm, I don’t seem to recall North Ocean ever had any precedence like this before. In time, you will be the number one cultivator of your generation, your potential is limitless, and you will be carrying the sect’s future on your shoulders!"

Lu Ping has seen Lin Xu-Qing before, but perhaps it was because of Feng Xu-Dao’s dominance, Lin Xu-Qing didn’t leave any impressions to Lu Ping. Hence, Lu Ping wrongly assumed Lin Xu-Qing was a humdrum and gentleman, but now he learned that Lin Xu-Qing was in fact, a nefarious schemer.

When words get out, every other cultivator in his generation would turn a hostile to him. Although Lu Ping was at the top of his generation, he was still far from being the number one cultivator. Surely, there would be many who would question his eligibility to own the title. Furthermore, even if he was indeed the number one cultivator, there would still be many who would came to challenge him to take his position.

Even though Zhen Ling Sect’s clout influence would scare away many cultivators from challenging him, but that wouldn’t stop the schemers from plotting at him. Lu Ping really didn’t want to constantly live in caution for the rest of his life, worrying that he might get backstabbed anytime anywhere.

Furthermore, the prestige of any well-established sect doesn’t rely on any single cultivator, but built upon the names and sacrifices of countless cultivators that have ensured the sect’s continuation.

Hence, Lin Xu-Qing’s subtle implication that Lu Ping would take over Zhen Ling Sect’s power would surely spike some the people of interests in the sect to be hostile towards Lu Ping. Although Lu Ping was backed by Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling, there would always be ways for them to obstruct him within the sect in many ways.

As Lin Xu-Qing said that, the cultivators in the hall went into silence, not even Fei Yu Sect’s leading Enlightened Master said anything to support Lin Xu-Qing. This was because these words were far more consequential, they could potentially lead to Lu Ping’s death in the worst case, which could make Zhen Ling Sect backtrack to this date and take revenge on them for Lu Ping’s death.

Xuan Ling Sect was long rivalry to Zhen Ling Sect, and as the number one sect, it naturally wasn’t afraid of Zhen Ling Sect, but Fei Yu Sect didn’t think it could resist Zhen Ling Sect’s revenge.

After noticing Lin Xu-Qing’s scheme, Lu Ping also talked back and said, "Senior Lin has overestimated me, the cultivation world is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, many are far more superior than I am. After all, not everyone is Great Ancestor Dao-Sheng, who stood as the one and only pillar that supported Xuan Ling Sect for hundreds of years, none has ever truly come close to the Great Ancestor’s reputation!"

Lu Ping was insinuating that Xuan Ling Sect has no other notable figures other than Great Ancestor Dao-Sheng, implying that Xuan Ling Sect’s next generations have been disappointing and not up to standard.

Even so, this still wouldn’t change a thing about Lu Ping’s situation now.

After all, Great Ancestor Dao-Sheng resembled the summit of all North Ocean cultivators, monsters and humans, no one was stronger than him in prowess. But Lu Ping was just a rising star, he still wasn’t strong enough to protect himself from all the hidden plots from the schemers.

After Lu Ping and Ouyang Wei-Jian, there were another few sparring sessions, but none was as exciting as the duo’s swordplay. Most of them were reserved and stopped after briefly expressing their points. The less insightful cultivators were bored to see the sparring sessions, but the insightful ones were satisfied as they have each learned something.

These cultivators were all discerning and could often draw useful insights from the tiny details that were overlooked by others. Lu Ping was not the best, but was still one of the better ones thanks to his [Tri-Pristine True Vision] that allowed him to see things clearer. From time to time, he would carefully ponder the details of the cultivators’ sparring and felt that he has benefited a lot.

After the sparring sessions, the main agenda has started, which was Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling’s personal forum. This was also the most important event for the forum, and the gift returned to the guests for coming to the forum.

Although Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling would only be sharing her experience in the breakthrough in general instead of every detail, the experience would still be extremely precious due to the scarcity of Great Ancestors. Furthermore, Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling just broke through, her experience was still fresh at its most profound moments, which made her experience even more precious to the Enlightened Masters, especially those in the Late Core Forging Realm.

While Lu Ping was ready to listen carefully to the teacher’s sharing, he was gently touched from behind, he looked back and saw the second senior martial sister gesturing to him. Although he was quite unwilling, he still followed her out of the hall.

Outside of the hall, the second senior martial sister wasn’t the only one there, there were also all the Core Forging Realm disciples in Chong Hua Palace and Liberal Palace.

Lu Ping froze for a moment and knew that something big had happened.

Sure enough, Elder Senior Martial Brother Xuan-Tian looked at the crowd with a serious face and said, "The monsters have launched an attack on the outer islands of the sect, the higher-ups have ordered us to gather in Tian Ling Hall and prepare to reinforce the outer islands through the teleportation array to fight off the monster invasion."

Lu Ping was shocked and quickly asked, "Senior martial brother, is the monster race advancing in full force, or is it just in the sect’s border?"

Senior Martial Brother Xuan-Tian froze for a moment, then said, "Only at our sect. Junior brother has other thoughts?"

Lu Ping shook his head and said, "I can’t be sure. I just hope the monster race is not taking advantage of the teacher’s Avatar Forum."

The crowd heard his words and their hearts tightened, but didn’t say anything. Then, they proceed to Tian Ling Palace which was just nearby Chong Hua Palace. By the time they arrive, there were already some twenty Enlightened Masters gathered in the hall.

When the crowd saw the three Enlightened Masters giving the orders, they were bestirred in spirit and calmed down greatly, but they also knew it must’ve been a serious situation for these three leaders to appear together. Especially Lu Ping, he was surprised to see the three leaders, and the premonition in his heart brewed stronger.

Among the three leaders, Guo Xuan-Shan was the lead and assisted by Liang Xuan-Feng and Xuan-Yin.

They were all part of the Seven Sages of Zhen Ling Sect, they were:

Earth Sage, Enlightened Master Guo Xuan-Shan;

Wind Sage, Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng;

Shadow Sage, Enlightened Master Li Xuan-Yin.

Other than these three, the other four sages were:

The Liberal Sage, Enlightened Master Jiang Xuan-Lin who was now Great Ancestor Jiang Tian-Lin;

The Water Sage, Enlightened Master Liu Xuan-Ling who was now Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling;

The Fire Sage, Enlightened Master Qu Xuan-Cheng who was stationed in Xuan Qi Island at the forefront of the battle with monster race;

Lastly, an unknown sage who was never mentioned to the new generation of disciples before.

After seeing the crowd was almost here, Guo Xuan-Shan decided not to wait further and said in his deep voice, "The monster invasion has hit us hard and fast, all the small islands in the eastern border are caught in war at the same time, they all need help. Senior Martial Sister Tian-Ling’s Avatar Forum is happening on Tian Ling Mountain, we have many guests in the sect, we mustn’t lose a single island or the guests will look down on us."

The Enlightened Masters frowned, they quickly realized the seriousness of the problem.

Then, Liang Xuan-Feng continued, "The monster invasion is only happening to Zhen Ling Sect, it is undoubtedly a scheme targeting at the sect. We cannot mobilize the guardians and securities, so you are all the only available help we can get at this time. I want you to hurry to the small islands and fight off the monster invasion."

Lu Ping raised his eyebrows in concerns, he watched as the Enlightened Masters walked out of the hall and head towards the teleportation formation, then he used his divine revelation to ask Liang Xuan-Feng who he was most familiar with, "Junior martial uncle, are you not afraid that it’s a trick to lure us away from the mountain?"

Liang Xuan-Feng glanced at him and smirked smugly, "The three of us are here!"

Lu Ping startled for a second, then also smirked smugly and left towards the teleportation formation.

After Lu Ping left, Guo Xuan-Shan looked out of the hall and said, "So this is Senior Martial Sister Tian-Ling’s ninth disciple? Quite sharp and meticulous, he is able to guess that the monster race might sneak in to attack Tian Ling Mountain directly, and he is bold to speak out directly."

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Editor: Immortal BloodRogue