Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-350-30041322

In most cases, protective formations typically came in the form of light barriers made from spiritual energy. Hence, these formations could easily regenerate whenever an opening was made on the barrier. However, this was at the cost of large amounts of spiritual energy, requiring someone to replace the used spirit stones with new ones.

As a result, the typical way for monsters to seize an island was to continually make holes in the barrier, allowing monsters to infiltrate the island. After that, they could then disable the protective formation by destroying the formation chassis. This was exactly what the monster Enlightened Master was attempting to do at Xuan Qi Island.

Besides this, there was a second option which was much harder to achieve. Every protective formation has a limited capacity that they can withstand. When this is exceeded, the protective light barriers are shattered, temporarily disabling the formation. This was what Lu Ping did to get past the Li Clan’s protective formation on Flying Lightning Island.

Lu Ping scanned the vicinity with his divine revelation and heaved a sigh of relief after noticing that the protective formation wasn’t under any major threats. Whilst there were a few monsters that were often able to infiltrate the island, they would be quickly killed by the island disciples.

Meanwhile, the Golden Scale Sword was just a foot away from the monster Enlightened Master’s throat, when the monster Enlightened Master recovered from his dizziness, and immediately cast his mini aegis divine ability.

Ding—

The Golden Scale Sword pierced through the mini aegis divine ability but it was ultimately stopped by a blood-red neck ring. The sword slipped to the side, slicing away a large chunk of flesh from the monster Enlightened Master’s shoulder.

Although monster cultivators in the Core Forging Realm could take a human form, the injury caused the monster Enlightened Master to let out a monstrous cry, unleashing his primal bestiality.

The monster Enlightened Master broke away from Lu Ping’s attack range. A spear appeared in his hand which he hurled like a shooting star towards the island’s protective formation.

The spear was so fast that Lu Ping’s Golden Scale Sword didn’t have time to block it.

Bang!

A huge hole was pierced open on the light barrier causing the monster cultivators to cheer loudly for the monster Enlightened Master. Five Late Blood Condensation Realm monsters landed on the island before the hole could close.

The island disciples formed five simple Three Essence Formations and surrounded the five monsters. Suddenly, the monsters were miraculously diced into dozens of pieces. The disciples looked at Lu Ping excitedly, as he was the only one present capable of such a feat.

The monster Enlightened Master looked at Lu Ping with cold eyes. He raised his hands as two more spears were hurled at the protective formation.

This time, Lu Ping was prepared. The Golden Scale Sword spewed out a sky of sword lights that rained down onto the two spears.

Ding… Dang… Ding—

Amidst the metal clanking noises, Lu Ping’s expression suddenly changed. One of the spears had actually made it through the rain of sword lights and had penetrated the protective formation again. This time, an unlucky disciple was caught in the spear’s trajectory and his body was pierced through; it didn’t look like he would survive this.

After that, the spear disintegrated into spiritual energy and disappeared. The spears weren’t mystic instruments, but rather some kind of mini divine ability!

Whilst he was distracted by the death, Lu Ping’s heart suddenly thumped, and he finally moved out from the island’s protective formation.

Dang—

The monster Enlightened Master hurled another two spears, but Lu Ping only managed to block one of them. The other hurtled forwards making an opening on the protective light barrier and impaling another Late Blood Condensation Realm disciple.

The monsters roared happily after seeing Lu Ping leave the protective formation, as they no longer had to worry about getting killed by him inside the light barrier. A couple of them seized the opportunity and entered the island through the opening and fought with the island disciples.

However, the monsters didn’t get to be excited for long. A buzzing sound that was gradually getting louder was heard as a purple cloud flew over, wrapping around a Late Blood Condensation Realm monster.

The monster cultivator roared with confidence to begin with. It then let out cries of pain, before finally whimpering in fear as the purplish cloud gradually calmed down.

The cloud dispersed and gathered above the cultivators, leaving the monster cultivator’s skeleton on the ground.

The cultivators then noticed that the cloud was actually a swarm of purple bees the size of fists.

The disciples also noticed that there was a low and deep drumming sound inside the swarm.

Whenever monsters infiltrated the protective formation of the island, the drum would bash violently, causing the swarm to fly forwards and consume the intruders until they were left with just a skeleton.

Meanwhile, Lu Ping was dashing towards the monster Enlightened Master. He finally understood why Enlightened Master Qu Xuan-Cheng brought the fight outside of the island.

Although the island’s protective formation was the most important line of defense to stop Blood Condensation Realm cultivators from entering the island, it was also a stationary target for Enlightened Masters. They could break the formations given enough time and strength.

Additionally, an Enlightened Masters’ attacks could penetrate a protective formation. Although their attacks would reduce in power after passing through, they could still easily kill the disciples inside.

As a result, staying inside the protective formation, without the effective means to fight back, meant a slow death. So, it was no surprise that Qu Xuan-Cheng would make the main battlefield away from the island.

At the same time, Lu Ping also realized this was a method for the sect to train its disciples, and the relationship between the sect and its disciples.

In the Blood Refining Realm, disciples were protected and given ample room for growth. On the other hand, in the Blood Condensation Realm, disciples were given enough protection whilst also executing certain duties.

In return for the sect’s shelter and protection, when the disciples advanced to the Core Forging Realm and became Enlightened Masters, they would have to contribute and be the supporting pillars of the sect. In the Avatar Realm, the Great Ancestors would have to uphold the sect’s status and continuation in the cultivation world.

When the monster Enlightened Master saw Lu Ping coming for him, his expression changed as he hurriedly turned around and retreated. He wasn’t afraid when Lu Ping was in the formation as he was held back by his responsibilities of protecting the disciples. However, now that Lu Ping had come out, he knew that he stood no chance.

Lu Ping immediately became furious. He couldn’t let this monster Enlightened Master, who had just killed two Zhen Ling Sect disciples in front of him, run away. This would not only bring shame to his reputation, it would also demoralize the disciples.

The monster Enlightened Master was a seasoned fighter; he didn’t lose his composure whilst he was retreating. But suddenly, he heard a cold hum from Lu Ping as a cold breath of air immediately appeared to his left.

The cold breath reminded the monster Enlightened Master about the monster beasts that were mysteriously chopped into pieces, This must be it!

Immediately, the monster Enlightened Master cast up the blood-red neck ring once again and covered himself like a shell. However, as soon as he cast his defense, the cold breath suddenly disappeared while the atmosphere turned dense with a shadow looming over him.

The monster Enlightened Master sensed the hefty force above him, and quickly turned his arms into a large pair of metal arms, lifting a clam shell that glimmered with a metallic dark glow above him. He then merged his mini aegis divine ability with the clam shell mystic treasure to enhance his defense!

Dong—

The impact caused the waves to ripple and also forced the monster Enlightened Master to his knees. Everyone on the battlefield was shaken by the attack, momentarily pausing their fighting in that moment.

Landslide’s power had increased tremendously since its upgrade. Although it only had one Mystical Inscription, it was high quality and specialized in brute power.

In his half-human form, the monster Enlightened Master struggled. He cast his mini aegis divine ability to the limit, causing his body to start glowing with an eerie blood-red color.

But that wasn’t all as two clear clanking sounds were heard with the appearance of two jade rings. A freezing breath and burning fire froze and torched the blood-red shell at the same time making the shell quiver.

This threw the monster Enlightened Master into a panic; he could sense the depletion of his true energy inside the blood-red shell and knew that he would lose control of it soon. At this rate, he might actually be killed. He had to act now!

His eyes’ turned ruthless as his body shone brightly with blood-red lights. His strength multiplied and he actually lifted Landslide upwards. He just had to stabilize the blood-red shell and then he would be able to…

The monster Enlightened Master suddenly paused in confusion, before he then touched his neck where a faint thin red line had started to show. He looked with desperation and horror at Lu Ping, opening his mouth to shout in sorrow. Blood erupted from his neck as his head rolled off.

The monster beasts attacking the protective formation whined sadly and immediately retreated. It turned out that the monster Enlightened Masters final shout was an order to retreat. Lu Ping quickly used this chance and threw a small turtle with three little snakes on its leg into the army of retreating monsters.

Behind him, in the protective formation, the island disciples cheered loudly for their victory. Suddenly, three long whistles could be heard coming from afar from three different directions. It was three Core Forging Realm monster Enlightened Masters!

Lu Ping’s expression changed as he realized that this was a set up. The previous monster Enlightened Master was just bait!

The only unexpected situation was that even though the bait had managed to lure him out of the protective formation, the bait was killed before the main forces could arrive.

However, Lu Ping’s expression had not changed because he was afraid of the three monster Enlightened Masters, but because he was worried about Junior Martial Uncle Qu Xuan-Cheng!

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