Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-377-30041322

Zhen Ling Sect's counter-attack on the monster race had thoroughly shocked the North Ocean. Was this a signal that the human race had decided to start fighting back?

The person who led the counter-attack, Lu Xuan-Ping, the Water Sword Immortal, became famous once more with his stunning achievements of defeating a Fourth Layer and Fifth Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master.

As a result, Lu Ping's ranking in North Ocean Prodigies rose to the twentieth position, surpassing Ouyang Wei-Jian yet again.

Yao Yong, Chen Lian, and the others involved in the operation also rose in the ranks. Yao Yong was very excited, going as far as to say that his serious injuries were all worth it now.

However, the most striking figure wasn’t Lu Ping or his friends, but Jiang Xuan-Xuan. No matter the means, she managed to fight a Fourth Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master and force them to retreat. Hence, she also made an appearance on the North Ocean Prodigies at Rank 83.

Naturally, her background as the child of two Great Ancestors was quickly exposed, making her a larger target to the monster race.

Hu Lili was only unconscious for a day. After she woke up, her cultivation base gradually recovered, but it would still take years before it was fully recovered. Additionally, her cultivation foundation had been permanently damaged, affecting her cultivation potential.

Despite this, the first thing she did after waking up was to instruct her junior martial sisters to set up the teleportation formation on the island to connect to Di Kun Island. With the teleportation formation in place, Zhen Ling Sect would be able to quickly dispatch reinforcements to the island.

In fact, Zhen Ling Sect had no precedent of setting up a teleportation formation on any of its mini islands due to the cost. However, this wasn’t the case for Lu Ping's Huang Li Island.

Firstly, Lu Ping was wealthy enough to fork out the costs to build the teleportation formation from his own pocket.

Secondly, given Huang Li Island's strategic location, it would attract a large number of cultivators who wanted to obtain and sell resources when they went out to hunt monsters. This would gather a large amount of cultivation resources, causing the island to prosper.

A few days later, Yao Yong and others returned to the sect. Chen Lian stayed for a few extra days because he was stationed on the nearby Xuan Qi Island, so he didn't have to hurry back as quickly. Even Hu Lili was sent back by Lu Ping so that she could recover from her injuries.

In the initial plan, Hu Lili was going to stay with Lu Ping and guard Huang Li Island, but because of her serious injuries, Hu Lili knew that she couldn’t help out for the time being. In fact, she would only become a burden to Lu Ping in the case of a monster invasion. Hence, they both agreed that it would be better for her to temporarily return to Tian Ling Mountain.

After Chen Lian had also left, Lu Ping was alone on the island. In the following days, cultivators started to come through the teleportation formation, arriving on the island.

"In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity."

No one understood this phrase better than cultivators.

However, as cultivators gathered on the island, it became increasingly difficult for Lu Ping to maintain order. Although he was a renowned Enlightened Master, so the cultivators didn't dare to be too bold, conflicts still occurred daily.

Lu Ping had no patience to handle all these affairs, making him miss Hu Lili more than ever. If Hu Lili was here, she would have arranged everything without him ever having to interfere.

Fortunately, Lu Ping asked Lu Qin to stay when Little Junior Martial Sister Jiang Xuan-Xuan returned to Tian Ling Mountain. Hence, Lu Qin patrolled the island and maintained its order for him.

Lu Ping's original intention was to let Lu Qin deter the cultivators from acting recklessly, forgetting that Lu Qin herself was a reckless little girl. Whenever she witnessed a conflict, she would go and beat them up instead of stopping them. Although Lu Qin was careful, she still managed to seriously injure the cultivators every day.

In the end, Lu Ping had to step in to treat their injuries. Feeling slightly guilty, Lu Ping would also give some medicinal pellets to these injured cultivators, helping them to recover from their injuries and also improve their cultivation.

Unexpectedly, the cultivators started to deliberately provoke each other in front of Lu Qin, so that they would be able to receive medicinal pellets from Lu Ping after Lu Qin beat them up.

Lu Ping soon noticed their intentions, causing him to be speechless. From then on, he no longer treated the cultivators and just instructed Lu Qin to hold her punches.

Lu Qin also became more careful and started to punish the cultivators with all kinds of mischievous moves. Since then, some cultivators couldn't stand to be repeatedly harassed and began to leave the island.

Lu Ping realized that letting Lu Qin manage Huang Li Island was simply a mistake, so he threw her into the Golden House for her to cultivate.

Fortunately, the first batch of cultivators had started to return with bags full of resources from the monster sea. As time passed and word got around, many more cultivators began to flock to the island, using it as a resupply base and a place to collect resources.

The monsters tried to organize a counter-attack to re-take Huang Li Island, but because of the combined efforts of Lu Ping and the other cultivators on the island, along with the island's protective formation, they resisted the monsters.

The fiercest moment of the battle was when a few of Mo Wei's Core Forging Realm subordinates came to attack Huang Li Island. However, the island's specially enhanced protective formation was strong enough to withstand their attacks, buying time for Zhen Ling Sect's Core Forging Realm reinforcements to arrive through the teleportation formation.

After the invasion failed, Huang Li Island proved its toughness and resilience against the monsters. This attracted even more cultivators to flock to the island as there was now a sense of security.

Although this caused the island to prosper, he grew helpless over maintaining stability and order on the island. Hence, he had to seek help from the sect.

Zhen Ling Sect dispatched two teams of six Blood Condensation Realm disciples. Fang Tao, who used to manage Lu Ping's stores on Huang Li Island, was one of the cultivators in the group.

After the island fell to the monster, Fang Tao returned to the Fang Clan. Years later, when he heard that Lu Ping had returned, Fang Tao tried to get in touch with him but they didn't get to meet because Lu Ping was in closed-door cultivation.

When he heard that there was an opportunity to return to Huang Li Island, Fang Tao immediately applied.

Lu Ping was initially troubled over the lack of a trusted acquaintance to whom he could hand over the island's affairs to, so he was naturally extremely happy and relieved to see Fang Tao.

Several years had passed since they last met, but Fang Tao's cultivation remained in the Early Blood Condensation Realm. Behind him, a young boy and girl following Fang Tao caught Lu Ping's attention.

Looking at the somewhat restrained twins behind Fang Tao, Lu Ping's eyes lit up, "Old Fang, I didn't expect that after several years your children's cultivation had also broken through to the Blood Condensation Realm and are about to catch up with you."

Fang Tao was a modest person, but he couldn’t help but smile proudly when he heard Lu Ping's appraisal, "Young master, it's all thanks to you. If not for the Blood Condensing Pellets you left for them, they wouldn't be where they are right now so soon. I know my limits and won’t be able to advance further, the future is up to them to fight for."

Lu Ping naturally understood Fang Tao's little thoughts, but he didn't mind as they had known each other for a long time and he appreciated Fang Tao's loyalty and service. Hence, he laughed happily while taking out two items, and said, "Here, your junior uncle doesn't have many good things with me right now, take these two high-grade mystic instruments. They used to be mine, now I’m entrusting them in your care."

Fang Wei and Fang Xia looked with joy at the high-grade mystic instruments that softly landed in their arms. They politely bowed and inspected the instruments affectionately.

The two of them had long heard that Enlightened Master Lu Xuan-Ping was wealthy, but they didn't know he was so wealthy that he could casually give out two high-grade mystic instruments.

The Fang Clan was a small clan under the jurisdiction of Zhen Ling Sect. Even the strongest clan head only had a top-grade mystic instrument and that was regarded as the clan's most important heritage.

Sure enough, Fang Wei and Fang Xia were overjoyed. These mystic instruments would be enough for them to use until the Late Blood Condensation Realm.

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