Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-370-30041322

Lu Ping followed Qu Xuan-Cheng to his cultivation room and saw him shake the pouch on his waist causing a dozen items to appear in front of him.

Qu Xuan-Cheng said, "Our cultivation journey’s are polar opposites. I don't have many things in my collection that are suitable for you, with many having been exchanged for resources that I needed. Hence, over the past few hundred years, I only have these items left. See if any of them suit you and pick a few for yourself. This is my gift to you."

Although Lu Ping was known to be wealthy and resourceful, that was only when he was compared to the cultivators of his generation. His wealth was still far away from cultivators like Qu Xuan-Cheng who casually kept more than a dozen precious resources in a small interspatial pouch to randomly give out to a junior as a reward.

Amongst these items, there was even a Mystic-class mid-grade wonder water, known as the Luminant Water. There were also two peculiar waters and a Grade 3 spirit material that had been degraded from a wonder water.

Additionally, there were two violet jade scrolls, three jade boxes each containing 50 pieces of thousand-year spirit herbs, four pieces of Grade 2 mutated spirit materials, three mystic treasures, a mid-grade cauldron mystic treasure, a few glimmering charms, and a jade box.

These were just the things that Qu Xuan-Cheng had in his collection that he thought might be suitable for Lu Ping.

Qu Xuan-Cheng, who was a fire-element cultivator, naturally wouldn’t have many things that were water-element in nature. Secondly, from his words, Lu Ping could tell that these were things that Qu Xuan-Cheng had no use for.

So, it wasn't hard to infer that Qu Xuan-Cheng was much wealthier than this. As a result, Lu Ping didn't reject his offer and stepped forward to inspect the items.

To Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, wonder items were the most important resources and were crucial for their cultivation stage advancements. However, because Lu Ping already had the Magnificent Wave Water, he didn't care about the Luminant Water.

Instead, it was the two peculiar waters that attracted his attention. One of them was suitable for him to fuse with his aegis energy, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough of it as he would need at least twice the current volume to enhance his aegis energy with it.

Lu Ping ignored the Grade 3 spirit material as he was already fully occupied by his own nascent weapons; he didn't think he would be forging and nurturing another mystic treasure anytime soon. The same applied to the rest of the spirit materials, spirit herbs, charms, and mystic treasures.

The violet scrolls surprised Lu Ping a little. The first scroll was the heritage jade scroll of an alchemist, whilst the second scroll was about a sword art that could be cultivated to the level of a mini divine ability.

When Lu Ping shifted his gaze onto the final jade bottle and probed it with his divine revelation, his expression suddenly changed as his bloodline became agitated, causing his true energy to rage like boiling water.

Fortunately, he was able to almost instantly suppress his bloodline and keep it in check. He then quickly realized that his true energy was flowing slightly faster than normal, speeding up his cultivation speed ever so slightly with no side effects

Lu Ping turned solemn. He slowly and carefully probed his divine revelation into the bottle again, meticulously feeling the changes in his body.

When his divine revelation came into contact with the jade bottle, his bloodline became agitated once again, causing his blood circulation to pick up speed and circulate his true energy faster. As this happened, the spiritual energy in the room rippled slightly, attracting Qu Xuan-Cheng's attention.

Qu Xuan-Cheng looked at the jade bottle, and said, "This is just a Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master's Golden Core. If it wasn't for the fact that a water-element Golden Core is hard to come by, I wouldn't have kept it. I had actually almost forgotten that I still had it after acquiring it more than a hundred years ago. It's not very useful, even if you use it for alchemy, it can only be used for a bottle of Core Forging Realm pellets and nothing more. I wouldn't have taken it out if I had anything else better than this."

Lu Ping looked up with a normal expression, and said, "I can sense the Jiao water-element bloodline in the Golden Core, what's so special about it that junior uncle has kept it for so long?"

Qu Xuan-Cheng was quiet for a moment as he tried to recall his memories. He said, "Back then, I had just advanced to the Late Core Forging Realm and was journeying in the Central Plains. Me and a couple other cultivators were exploring a ruin when we were suddenly ambushed by some monsters. In the ensuing clash, I killed a Mid Core Forging Realm deer monster."

"Deer monster?" Lu Ping was surprised, and wore mixed emotions on his face. Qu Xuan-Cheng didn't notice this as he was still lost in thought.

"That's right, a deer monster who was only in the Fifth Layer Core Forging Realm. Even though he didn’t have the highest cultivation amongst the attackers, he was one of the strongest, killing two Sixth Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters on his own. If it wasn’t because he was already worn out from the battle, I wouldn't have been able to kill him even though I could defeat him. It was rare to see a deer monster with a water-element Jiao bloodline so I kept it in my collections, but I eventually forgot about its existence until now."

After hearing Qu Xuan-Cheng, Lu Ping thought for a second, and then said with a smile, "Who knows, it might really have something special inside and I might just happen to discover it. Even if that isn’t the case, its water-element Jiao bloodline fits me perfectly, so I can still use it to enhance my cultivation."

Qu Xuan-Cheng laughed, "You want to test it out to see if it's going to be helpful in your breakthrough to the Mid Core Forging Realm? You'd be disappointed if that's what you’re hoping for. Each cultivation stage represents a chance to improve yourself.

"In the Blood Condensation Realm, cultivators consolidate their foundation bloodline to perfection. In the Core Forging Realm, cultivators enhance the spirituality of their Golden Cores. Finally, in the Avatar Realm, Great Ancestors transcend Avatars as their incarnations.

"In essence, the cultivation journey is all about perfecting our flaws, with each cultivation stage similar to an evolution. Legend has it that after going through nine evolutions, we will attain the realm of True Spirit and become immortal. Hence, the famous term Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit.

"When an Enlightened Master dies, the spirituality in the Golden Core will also fade away and eventually disperse. As a result, the remaining essence in the Golden Core will be the true energies and foundation bloodlines. The former is a large sum of spiritual energy that can be used for many purposes, while the latter is extremely helpful in perfecting one's foundation bloodline.

"However, Enlightened Masters have moved past the stage to perfect their foundation bloodline, so this function is only helpful to Blood Condensation Realm disciples. For thousands of years many cultivators have thought about the possibility of perfecting their foundation bloodline even in the Core Forging Realm, but no one has ever succeeded in doing so."

Lu Ping thought about it again, and said, "I'd still like to have it. I have a few spirit pets that are at a bottleneck, it might come in handy to them."

After seeing Lu Ping's persistence, Qu Xuan-Cheng didn't insist and casually waved his hand, "In that case, just take it as a freebie."

Lu Ping smiled happily, "That's good news!"

After that, Lu Ping looked at the items again and eventually picked the Luminant Water, the violet jade scroll containing the mini sword divine ability, and finally a flying mystic treasure.

The wonder water was the most valuable resource out of the items, so he was naturally going to select it.

The mini sword divine ability was chosen because Lu Ping needed more references to hone his sword skill. Although he was now able to cast a great sword divine ability, he wasn't actually able to unleash its full prowess because of his cultivation base.

As for the flying mystic treasure, he had selected it simply because he lacked one. Coupled with the mini escape divine ability, he would be able to guarantee his safety even more.

After Lu Ping finished his selection, Qu Xuan-Cheng casually kept the rest back into the interspatial pouch. Then, he wore a serious look, and asked, "How confident are you in your plan?"

Lu Ping ran the calculations again in his mind, tand said, "Taking it down is not an issue, but securing it is! After all, Huang Li Island is small and remote. Without support, we cannot hold the monster race back for long."

"Without a small spirit vein, it will cost more time and effort to establish the island's protective formation. This lengthy process will deter the sect from dispatching additional help, let alone investing a small spirit vein on the island only for it to be lost soon after."

Qu Xuan-Cheng continued to question Lu Ping.

Lu Ping smirked cunningly, "Don't worry about the small spirit vein, I have it covered. As long as we can hold off the monster race for three days, everything will be fine."

Qu Xuan-Cheng nodded with satisfaction, and said, "Proceed at ease. This operation will serve as the signal to finally fight back for the North Ocean Alliance. It will definitely boost the human race's morale greatly, especially our Zhen Ling Sect.

"On top of that, Huang Li Island's strategic position will be useful to our future plans. Fret not, we will hold off the monster experts for you little ones, but that's all the help you’ll get. You’re on your own to take down Huang Li Island and the rest."

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