Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-372-30041322

Bang—

The ice wall shattered like a mirror.

Chiak—

The yellow cloth was shredded into pieces. A defensive mystic treasure had broken just like that.

Enlightened Master Yu Hua didn't have time to mourn over this loss and quickly raised a silver sword to parry the incoming golden sword.

Enlightened Master Yu Hua saw the ambusher and immediately recognized the man, causing him to suck in a deep breath of cold air.

As one of the thirteen Enlightened Masters involved in Mo Wei's plan to ambush and trap Qu Xuan-Cheng, Yu Hua naturally recognized the young man who had foiled their plans. However, this time, the young man was wearing crude and simple stone armor that looked like it was made by an amateur.

Seeing this young man reminded Yu Hua of Qu Xuan-Cheng which led him to the conclusion that this was a revenge operation stewarded by Qu Xuan-Cheng, who was also potentially here.

All these thoughts occurred in an instant just as their swords struck together. To Yu Hua's shock and disbelief, his silver sword was chipped in the clash, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

Without saying a word, Yu Hua waved his hand up and swung out a glimmering charm. The charm exploded in the sky into a dozen lights that scattered across the horizon. Yu Hua's feet shone brightly as he attempted to flee from the island.

Just as he was about to leave, the shadow of a cuboid covered him. The cuboid was Landslide which had been upgraded with a second Mystical Inscription!

Krong—

Just by looming over Yu Hua, the overwhelming pressure had already started to crush his internal organs together. Yu Hua spat out another mouthful of blood to release the build up of pressure inside his body, using the blood essence to enhance his flying skill.

The green light on his feet turned red and his flying speed multiplied, allowing him to extricate himself from Landslide's pressure zone.

In response to this, Lu Ping just raised his right hand up and pushed forward. Instead of falling vertically down, Landslide now also moved forwards, falling diagonally onto Yu Hua.

Bang—

"Argh—!!"

A mini tsunami rippled out from impact zone as Yu Hua let out a painful cry. However, he still managed to escape and disappeared in an instant.

A moment later, several lights flew from different directions and landed around Lu Ping.

Yao Yong looked at Yu Hua's direction, and said regretfully, "What a pity. If you killed him here, your rank in the North Ocean Prodigies would soar higher."

Shi Lingling glared at Yao Yong for being so attached to the rankings, and then said, "That’s a Fifth Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master, while Junior Brother Lu is still in the Third Layer Core Forging Realm. Being able to severely injure him is already an achievement to be proud of."

Yao Yong laughed awkwardly, while Lu Ping quickly interjected, "He’s strong. Even with this set of stone armor that can hide from divine revelation detection allowing for the element of surprise, I still didn't manage to kill him. However, he’s severely wounded and used part of his blood essence. He will take years to recover from this."

Hu Lili nodded at Lu Ping and then quickly walked into the cave-dwelling that he had opened on the island before it was taken from his hands. Hu Lili’s junior martial sisters arrived with the materials needed for the array formation, under the protection of Lu Ping and the others.

Naturally, Lu Ping was in charge of the easternmost direction as this was the side closest to the monster race. The one that he was protecting was Hu Lili's Fifth Junior Martial Sister.

Enlightened Master Xuan-Chen was the only Master Formationist in the sect; she had many disciples, but only the eldest and Hu Lili were in the Core Forging Realm.

Although Hu Lili and her three senior martial sisters were not on good terms, she was close to her younger junior martial sisters because of her kind and friendly personality compared to the other senior martial sisters. As a result, she was able to obtain help from her junior martial sisters for this operation

"Junior Sister Qiu, rest assured, you will be safe."

Junior Martial Sister Qiu nodded with a red face. She started to place down the materials and set up the node for the array formation.

After Yu Hua fled, the monsters on the island naturally stood no chance and also escaped back to the monster race in a hurry. As Lu Ping and the others had surrounded the island to set up the protective formation, many of the fleeing monsters bumped into them and were casually killed.

The strategy that Lu Ping had planned was as follows:

Lu Ping was protecting the east;

Ji Xuan-Xuan and Yin Xuan-Chu were guarding the northeast and southeast, protecting Lu Ping's flank;

Yao Yong guarded the south, protecting the second most dangerous direction as the monster race had large forces in the southern region that could be mobilized;

Du Feng was at the southwest, protecting Yao Yong's flank together with Yin Xuan-Chu;

Chen Lian was protecting the north, while Shi Lingling was protecting the northwest;

Lu Qin and Jiang Xuan-Xuan were to the west, responsible for the safest side.

Zhong Jian and Ma Yu were a mobile team, providing emergency relief.

Finally, Zhang Cheng and Zheng Jie, the only two Blood Condensation Realm members, volunteered to stay behind and purge the remaining monsters from the island. Dabao, who’s abilities were suited for this, was assigned to help them scour the island for any hidden monsters.

Hu Lili walked into Lu Ping's cave-dwelling and noticed that it was surprisingly well-maintained. This was because Yu Hua had taken it as his temporary cave-dwelling. Hu Lili took out a huge formation chassis that was at least fifty feet in diameter, and placed it down in the center of the cave-dwelling.

This was the formation chassis that she had begun forging after she advanced to the Core Forging Realm. She had specially made it for Lu Ping, knowing that he would one day need it. In the process of forging this formation chassis, she even enlisted Enlightened Master Xuan-Chen's guidance and help.

Under Lu Ping's request, the formation chassis was even more complicated and powerful than Xuan Qi Island's protective formation.

This was because Huang Li Island's strategic location meant that it would constantly be under siege by the monster race. But unlike Xuan Qi Island that was guarded by a Peak Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master, Huang Li Island didn’t even have a Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master.

As a result, the formation had to be durable enough to withstand the monster race's attack until help arrived from the sect. This was why Huang Li Island's protective formation was specially designed to be tough and durable, resisting continuous strikes and substantial impacts.

In order to achieve this, the protective formation required a large amount of spiritual energy to resist the attacks and repair the damages. Consequently, the formation chassis was larger than usual, with additional slots to accommodate more spirit stones.

The outer rim had over a thousand slots for low-grade spirit stones, the middle rim had more than six hundred slots for mid-grade spirit stones, while the center had 36 slots for high-grade spirit stones.

As Hu Lili determined the best location to place down the formation chassis, a loud and long whistle could be heard from the east.

Hu Lili's heart tightened and she hurried up. She placed down several mid-grade spirit stones on the chassis in a fixed order, and surged her true energy into the chassis while making several hand signs. A moment later, the slots linked together and lit up with a soft glimmer.

Compared to the huge chassis and the numerous slots it had, these few activated slots were insignificant. There was still a long way to go until the formation chassis was fully activated.

Hu Lili bit her tongue and sped up even faster, ignoring the toll on her divine revelation and true energy. Now wasn’t the time to hold back, the fate of the entire operation rested on her shoulders.

Whilst it was true that Hu Lili's individual prowess wasn’t outstanding, that was only because she was never meant to be on the front lines like the others. She had always been the strategist of the group from the beginning, which was part of the reason why she chose to specialize in array formations, establishing a base for the group to operate and fall back on.

Today was the day where all those years of hard work and effort would finally bear fruit.

If she was able to set up this protective formation, they would be able to secure Huang Li Island and make everything worth it.

However, if she failed, and the monster race invaded them with their overwhelming strength, not only would they have to give up on Huang Li Island forever, they would also have to face the repercussions from this failure.

In the east, Lu Ping frowned deeply while the Golden Scale Sword flew around him like a fish.

Judging from the aura of the whistle, the approaching monster Enlightened Master was much stronger than the one he had just defeated.

At this moment, Lu Ping slightly regretted that he had chosen a flying mystic treasure from Qu Xuan-Cheng instead of a defensive mystic treasure. This would have allowed him to stall for more time in a battle like this.

Whilst thinking about this, Lu Ping looked into his heartspace with his divine revelation.

In the center of the heartspace was his Golden Core which was now hovering above a white lotus. At the innermost rim was twelve orbiting Primordial Stars, followed by a rugged-looking banner.

This banner was the Water Manipulation Banner that he found in the Pavilion of Smith's place of inheritance. It was once a Spirit Nurturing mystic treasure but it had now been degraded because of irreparable damage done to it.

Despite this, the six Mystical Inscriptions inside it still made it difficult for him to wield it easily, as it would cost him a great deal of true energy.

If he could use it, he wouldn’t have to worry so much about the current situation.

Weekly Chapters (5/5)