Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-432

“My name is Qing Jian, and I’ve been cultivating for over nine hundred years. It has been over two hundred years since I advanced into the Law Avatar Realm. However, my talent determined this was as far as I could go, so I started burning my cultivation to live for as long as possible. In the end, I was left with no choice other than to put everything on the line for a final chance. If this gamble is where I meet my maker, the person who stumbles upon my heritage may take what was once mine.”

This was the information Lu Ping acquired on the front page of the jade scroll. Qing Jian left this message behind before he forced an advancement to the mid-Law Avatar Realm. After this message was all of Qing Jian’s knowledge, going from the Blood Condensation to the early-Law Avatar Realm. Aside from the essence of his knowledge, Qing Jian also left behind answers to various questions that a cultivator might encounter at various cultivation levels.

Although this cultivation heritage was not something Lu Ping could easily absorb and accept, the knowledge it contained was very impactful to his future cultivation. This heritage was a cultivation path that led straight to the mid-Law Avatar Realm, making it even more significant. Despite only achieving the early-Law Avatar Realm, the heritage was still an incredible addition to the Zhen Ling Sect’s foundation.

The jade scroll also contained crucial information about the cave’s structure and layout. However, unlike the heritage, the information about the cave was fairly simple and seemed to have been recorded hastily. Judging from the clues he acquired, Lu Ping concluded that Qing Jian was relaxing when the lethal test of his cultivation level advancement descended upon him.

Lu Ping recalled the items Zeng Wu and his companions obtained from the hall, containing fragments of destroyed equipment. These fragments had remnants of the top-tier formation’s presence, causing Lu Ping to link it with the lethal test Qing Jian went through. “Are the fragments pieces of equipment that were destroyed in the test? If they are, then the place where Qing Jian took his final challenge is in the hall above us right now.”

Lu Ping started going through the documents stored on the racks, beginning with the jade scrolls that Qing Jian left behind. To his disappointment, the documents had eroded due to the passage of time. The documents were rotten and falling apart, rendering them barely readable. After careful consideration, Lu Ping salvaged as much as he could and stored them in a jade box inside his interspatial ring.

The jade scrolls on the rack contained information about everything Qing Jian had built over the years. There weren’t many jade scrolls, but their information was very significant.

One of the jade scrolls recorded the recipes of five mid-Core Forging Realm pellets and three late-Core Forging Realm pellets. There were also two pellet recipes that were halfway into the Law Avatar Realm along with a Law Avatar Realm pellet recipe. This discovery enlightened Lu Ping because he had been searching for various recipes to aid him in his slow cultivation speed. The recipes in the jade scroll were all new to Lu Ping, and the concoction style recorded was completely different from the concoction style in the North Ocean. As the North Ocean’s pellet concoction skills originated from the East Ocean, this foreign concoction style indicated that it was not from the North Ocean or East Ocean.

The two half-Law Avatar Realm pellet recipes were for cultivators who had achieved an extraordinary Golden Core quality and for cultivators who were trying to advance into the Law Avatar Realm, respectively. However, while one of the pellets could help a cultivator advance into the Law Avatar Realm, it was more like a secret technique that forcefully helped a Sixth Grade Golden Core cultivator advance to the Law Avatar Realm.

The Law Avatar Realm pellet shocked Lu Ping. It was called the Little Core Forging Pellet and was an imitation of the Core Forging Pellet, a supreme pellet that the now-extinct Fei Ling Sect once possessed. Although this pellet was not as powerful and efficient as the Core Forging Pellet at boosting a Golden Core’s grade, it could assist the smothering of wonder items in the process of achieving a Golden Core.

It was widely accepted that a cultivator could only achieve a Seventh Grade Golden Core using one or multiple Heaven-class wonder items. The difference between the two was that using multiple Heaven-class wonder items would build a more robust foundation, leading to a brighter future.

The Little Core Forging Pellet’s concoction required up to 36 different types of 3,000-year-old spirit herbs. On the other hand, the legendary Core Forging Pellet required up to 49 kinds of rare 3,000-year-old spirit herbs and the very precious Splendiferous Jade Dew, which Lu Ping still had no idea about. Instead of the Splendiferous Jade Dew, the Little Core Forging Pellet’s concoction needed a special liquid called the Essence of Life, modulated from a couple of rare spirit herbs, granting it an efficacy similar to a three-year Longevity Pill.

Created a thousand years after the Fei Ling Sect’s extinction, the discovery of the Little Core Forging Pellet gave Lu Ping an insight into Qing Jian’s age, which was at most 3,000 years old.

The other jade scrolls also recorded information that piqued Lu Ping’s interest. For example, there were recordings of various exotic plants, knowledge about identifying wonder and exotic items, and Qing Jian’s experience in the Central Plains. There were also multiple techniques and information on smithing, formations, charms, puppet controlling methods, and other expertise that Qing Jian had accumulated throughout his life. This knowledge was incredibly vast; a cultivator couldn’t master all of it even if they dedicated their entire life to it. However, things were not the same for Law Avatar Realm cultivators. They were the only ones that could acquire such knowledge and achieve above-average achievements in these areas.

Qing Jian’s foundation was far more significant than the Law Avatar Realm cultivation techniques he left behind. With this accumulated knowledge, Lu Ping could easily build a massive and prosperous clan in the North Ocean if he wanted to.

Scanning around with his divine revelation and using Tri-Pristine True Vision, Lu Ping failed to discover anything else. With that, he focused on the jar that Da Bao had seemingly found out of thin air.

From its appearance, the jar appeared ordinary. After taking a closer look, the tea leaves inside the jar caused Lu Ping’s eyes to sparkle with excitement.

He carefully took out some of the tea leaves and sniffed them. The tea leaves belonged to a spirit tea called the Spirit Soothing Tea. This was a type of tea that was extremely good at helping a cultivator to soothe their mind. It could even aid in the cultivation of a divine revelation. This tea was so rare in the North Ocean that it was almost impossible to find. Only Law Avatar Realm cultivators who were enthusiastic about the art of tea possessed a small amount of it.

To keep the tea in good condition and prevent it from rotting, the jar also had to be something special. After careful examination, Lu Ping realized that this jar possessed a similar function to the Splendiferous Jade Bottle presented in the North Ocean Palace. Similar to the Splendiferous Jade Bottle, this jar could preserve anything it contained perfectly.

This ordinary-looking jar turned out to be yet another Spirit Emerging Mystic Treasure. However, it was a waste to use it as a mere container. Lu Ping transferred the tea leaves to another jade box before placing the jar into his interspatial ring, trying to figure out the best way to utilize it.

After packing away everything, Lu Ping headed straight toward the central palace, which was most likely the core area of the cave. At the same time, rumbling sounds could be heard coming from two different directions. While Qiao Wei-Jie and Han Fei’s violent attacks were still happening, they were surpassed by Qian Shu and Yang San-Yang.

On the other hand, there were no longer any movements from Shui Xiu’s direction. The deeper they advanced, the harder it was to lift the seals and clear the traps left by Qing Jian. Lu Ping figured that Shui Xiu, a cultivator who excelled at seals, would find herself in an advantageous position after progressing deeper.

Lu Ping figured that Shui Xiu was working together with Qian Shu and Yang San-Yang because this was the only explanation for why Qian Shu and Yang San-Yang had been surpassed.

Lu Ping had the snake trio and the Verdant Luan prepare themselves for the seals’ counter-attacks before channeling his energy into the Golden Scale Sword and sending a strike in the central palace’s direction.

There was a saying that after reaching the peak of sword arts, a person could ruthlessly destroy everything in his path with just a swing of his sword. If a person achieved this level, he would also be granted the exaggerated title “The Destroyer of All.” This title was based on the legends of the Heaven Cleaning Seven Primes. In these myths, Prime Peng had the strongest cultivation, with Prime Jiao ranked second having achieved the peak of sword arts. With his expertise, Prime Jiao stood above Prime Hu and Prime Yuan, who were all on the same cultivation level as him. Prime Jiao was so powerful that even Prime Peng, who was also a sword master, had to rely on the Seven Elemental Lightning Gourd to gain the upper hand.

Although Lu Ping’s attack was not on the level of “The Destroyer of All,” the seals before him were also not on the same level as the powerful seals described in the legends. As a result, Lu Ping was capable of leveling the seals with the Golden Scale Sword. The retaliation launched by the seals was then repelled by the snake trio and the Verdant Luan, but not before their pace was disrupted. The violent retaliation caused some of the Verdant Luan’s feathers to be scraped off, while the snake trio were left in rugged states with their scales ripped off.