Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-40

Lu Ping refined the cauldron and immediately put it inside his new interspatial pouch.

After that, he moved around the alchemy room as if he was looking for something. Finally, he found a piece of rock that looked different from the rest in front of the putuan that the cauldron was placed on.

He placed his hand on the rock and the stone slabs on the floor began to retract, revealing the chassis of an array formation. In the center of the chassis, there was a ball of blue fire the size of an egg.

Lu Ping was overjoyed. This was the seed of the Mystic-class spirit fire, Azure Spirit Fire. One could say this was Cultivator Sheng Tao’s most valuable possession. Hence, it would naturally be Lu Ping’s biggest reward for this trip.

Spirit fires were born in nature. According to their uses, they were classified into three classes: Heaven, Earth, and Mystic. However, their numbers weren’t directly proportional to the classes. Perhaps, there were even more Earth-class spirit fires than Mystic-class spirit fires in the cultivation world.

However, no matter what class the spirit fires were, they were extremely rare and hard to find. One could even say that half of Sheng Tao’s fame as an alchemist was due to this Mystic spirit fire he owned.

These spirit fires could be used to concoct medicinal pellets in alchemy and also to forge equipment in smithery. But because the spirit fires were rare in nature, most alchemists and smiths were forced to use their arcane energy as arcane fire. Although arcane fire would also work, it took up a lot of cultivation time. And so, this became one of the difficulties that both alchemists and smiths had to face.

The array formation underneath Azure Spirit Fire was called the Spirit Kindling Array. With this array formation, the alchemist only had to insert spirit stones into the array and he could then kindle the Azure Spirit Fire to concoct the medicinal pellets. However, since a hundred years had passed, the spirit stones in the array formation had long lost their spiritual energy and turned into piles of dust.

Lu Ping sealed the spirit fire and stored it in a jade bottle. He then put away the entire array formation chassis into the interspatial pouch.

Lu Ping was now numbed by this veritable treasure trove in the cave-dwelling. He could no longer stir up a response to all the wealth in front of him.

Lu Ping returned to the entrance of the cave-dwelling and placed a few spirit stones on the inconspicuous sunken holes on the stone wall in front of the cave. The spirit stones flickered with light and Lu Ping disappeared from the spot.

It seemed that a small teleportation array had been placed in front of the cave-dwelling’s entrance.

Inside a large enclosed cave, there was a sudden flash of light and Lu Ping miraculously appeared in the cave.

He could already feel the spiritual energy surrounding him in the air. Lu Ping’s heart thudded with happiness—it seemed like Senior Sheng Tao had been correct.

Many years ago, Sheng Tao discovered a mini spirit vein inside this very cave. Excited, Sheng Tao decided to make this place into his personal base for cultivation. He sealed off the cave completely and placed a Spirit Sealing Array to contain the spiritual energy inside.

After that, he built his cave-dwelling above the cave and left a secret teleportation array that linked to the cave beneath it. Sheng Tao also planted a half-acre spirit herb garden for his alchemy and cultivation.

A hundred years had gone by since Sheng Tao’s passing. Lu Ping wondered about the current condition of the spirit herbs in the garden now.

The walls were inlaid with light stones to illuminate the cave. Underground water seeped through the stone walls and dripped onto the ground.

Lu Ping moved forward a few steps and a lush spirit herb garden appeared in front of his eyes.

The spirit herb garden was divided into three parts. On the outermost perimeter were the spirit herbs used to concoct Blood Refining Realm medicinal pellets. Most of them were already fully grown but had no one to take care of and harvest them. Overtime, the seeds from the fully-grown spirit herbs fell to the soil and grew into new spirit herbs. Hence, these spirit herbs sprouted from all over the place.

In the inner perimeter were the spirit herbs used to concoct Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets. These spirit herbs normally took 500 years to fully grow. Sheng Tao planted the spirit herbs more than a hundred years ago, but because he had discovered the cave and coupled with his secret growth stimulating technique, some of these spirit herbs were already fully grown as well.

Among them, 18 out of the 24 types of spirit herbs used to concoct the Blood Condensing Pellets could be found here. However, these spirit herbs were clearly harder to grow compared to the rest—only five out of about fifty herbs were fully grown. The rest had yet to reach a 500-year maturity.

In the center of the spirit herb garden were three clusters of Golden Marrow Grass. Sheng Tao had diligently nurtured them with his blood, sweat and tears.

Golden Marrow Grass was the main spirit herb used to concoct the Golden Marrow Pellet. Core Forging Realm medicinal pellets mostly required matured spirit herbs of a thousand years and above, but these three spirit herbs were still far from that stage—they were only close to 500 years.

Right below the spirit herb garden was the mini spirit vein. Spirit veins were even rarer than spirit stone mines. Although they couldn’t produce spirit stones, they could provide a continuous flow of spiritual energy for cultivation. Furthermore, spirit veins would never be depleted unless they were deliberately destroyed.

On top of that, spirit veins could be nurtured to become larger and stronger. For example, the spirit vein on Zhen Ling Island was initially a middle-sized spirit vein. But under Zhen Ling Sect’s meticulous care for more than ten thousand years, it was now a large spirit vein.

In order to prevent others from discovering this place, Lu Ping harvested every spirit herb that was already fully grown. Two hours later, the teleportation array flickered with a bright light and Lu Ping reappeared in front of the cave-dwelling.

Lu Ping placed his hand on his chin and after a moment’s deliberation, began bombarding the island with all kinds of spells, ravaging the deserted island one more time. After that, he destroyed the cave-dwelling and wiped away all traces of himself from the island.

He looked at the time and figured that if Hu Lili and her friends had reported the situation to the sect, it would be about time for Xuan Qi Island to dispatch their cultivators to inspect the island.

And so, he cast out his small skiff mystic instrument and travelled north, back towards Huang Li Island.

Not long after Lu Ping returned to Huang Li Island, a few rays of light flashed across the sky and landed on the unnamed island. Among them were Hu Lili and her friends, and three more Blood Condensation Realm master immortals from Xuan Qi Island. If Lu Ping were here, he would recognize two of them: Master Immortal Liu, and Master Immortal Shang who had acted against him before.

Although Hu Lili and her friends were prepared, they still couldn’t contain their shock at seeing the deserted island in ruins. All three Master Immortals carefully inspected the surroundings with solemn faces, even expanding their divine senses to search the seas nearby. In the end, they couldn’t find anything noteworthy.

Master Immortal Liu was the strongest of the three, being in the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm. Hence, he was the leader of the group. Master Immortal Shang looked at the other two and asked, “Senior Martial Brother Liu, what do you think?”

Master Immortal Liu said pensively, “By the looks of it, this sea snake has a water-style cultivation method and condensed the spirit Jiao bloodline. It is definitely in the mid-stage Blood Condensation Realm.”

The other master immortal agreed. “That’s right. Judging from Junior Martial Niece Hu’s description, that Xuan Ling Sect disciple’s last item must have been a talisman treasure. But how strange, even if the talisman treasure was from the weakest Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master, it should be strong enough to deal severe damage to the sea snake.”

Master Immortal Shang smiled. “Then it makes sense. I think the sea snake was badly injured, thus lost its temper and destroyed the island. That’s why we can’t find anything useful nearby.”

Master Immortal Liu said solemnly, “That should be it. But regardless, five Xuan Ling Sect disciples have died here. We have to report this to Enlightened Master Qu so he can make preparations. We must be wary of Xuan Ling Sect, they might use this as an excuse to attack us. Furthermore, the monster race is also involved this time. I wonder if the North Ocean monsters intended for this to happen.”

The other two master immortals nodded in agreement. They flew towards Xuan Qi Island, leaving Hu Lili and her friends behind. From their arrival to departure, Hu Lili and her friend never spoke a word. When they saw the master immortals leaving, they had no choice but to follow after.