Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-436

After making sure Qiao Wei-Jie and the others had left, Lu Ping released Zeng Wu. He told Zeng Wu to return to Nucleus Island and use the teleportation formation to travel to Huang Li Island and meet up with his companions. After arranging everything with Zeng Wu, Lu Ping returned to the cave once more.

“So, this is a Water Repelling Pearl?”

A limping Da Bao handed the Water Repelling Pearl he robbed from Qiao Wei-Jie to Lu Ping. Although Da Bao managed to slip away in time, it was a dangerous move because Qiao Wei-Jie was a Core Forging Realm cultivator. As a result, Da Bao was injured by the attack launched by an angry Qiao Wei-Jie.

Lu Ping had not expected the pearl to be such a well-known item.

A Water Repelling Pearl was an item bred by heaven and earth. They were a type of peculiar item, but no cultivator was willing to infuse a Water Repelling Pearl into their aegis energy.

It would be a great waste if they infused it into their aegis energy because the pearl only had one function, repelling water.

A cultivator could easily repel water with a simple spell, but deep in the ocean, a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator would have to push themselves to the limit to withstand the pressure. Hundreds of feet deep, a Core Forging Realm cultivator could only maneuver safely using a water-repelling spell, while a Law Avatar Realm cultivator could only go thousands of feet deep in the ocean.

Some items could enhance a cultivator’s ability to dive deeper, but the massive water pressure reduced the efficiency of these items at greater depths.

However, this did not apply to the Water Repelling Pearl!

With this pearl, a cultivator could dive as deep as they wished without worrying about being crushed by the pressure.

Of course, the danger and threat posed by monsters and beasts lurking around would have to be dealt with by the cultivator themselves.

The vast ocean was an endless treasure. It was so vast that even the Monsters who called it home couldn’t guarantee they knew it well. There were places in the ocean that even monsters were too afraid to step into. Dangerous places like these were often rich in resources. With the pearl in possession, Lu Ping had bagged himself unlimited tickets to these dangerous areas. As a result, the Water Repelling Pearl was far more significant than other items despite only having a single function.

For some reason, the Water Shuras did not make an appearance when Lu Ping returned to Qing Jian’s cave. With his divine revelation, Lu Ping covered every inch of the surroundings and activated the Tri-Pristine True Vision, only to find no traces of the Water Shuras.

Suddenly, the ground started trembling. Lu Ping headed straight to the central palace and realized that the spiritual energy flowing in the air was rapidly decreasing. It turned out that the Migration Formation Chassis implanted in a small spirit vein had suddenly erupted, moving the entire spirit vein from its position and pulling it to the Xuan Ling Sect.

Afterwards, the formations planted in the other spirit veins activated, transferring the spirit veins back to the various sects. As for the two spirit veins Lu Ping had marked, he sent one back to Huang Li Island and the other to Tian-Xue on Nucleus Island.

Lu Ping couldn’t take both spirit veins for himself because, without Tian-Xue and the other Law Avatar Realm cultivators keeping each other at bay, Lu Ping and the group would not have been the only cultivators taking part in the exploration.

Lu Ping chuckled softly before retrieving a jade-like stone stele. The stele had ‘Qing Jian Residence’ engraved on it.

When Lu Ping first entered the central palace, he could tell something was off. He had entered his teacher’s residence plenty of times, especially after Liu Tian-Ling advanced to the Law Avatar Realm. Her residence had been transformed into a spatial equipment. Even though it was placed in the middle of the lake in Tian Ling Mountain, Lu Ping would still be sent to the mountain peak whenever he entered the residence.

When he entered the central palace, Lu Ping felt it shared the same feature as Liu Tian-Ling’s residence. His guess was confirmed earlier when Da Bao did not heed his summons.

If the central palace was a spatial item belonging to Qing Jian, there had to be a stone stele functioning as the central control of the residence. This was exactly what Lu Ping found in the training chamber.

After exiting the palace, Lu Ping channeled his energy into the stone stele. Upon doing so, the entire mountain rumbled as the massive central palace shrank to the size of the Golden House and flew into Lu Ping’s hand.

Lu Ping gave it a thought and placed the entire central palace into the Golden House. Compared to the massive space inside the Golden House, the central palace was like a toy.

After Lu Ping stowed away the central palace, the cave rumbled again. The seals and traps left behind in the cave were activated, and the formation barricading the cave started to crumble.

“Oh no!”

Lu Ping suddenly realized that the central palace was keeping all the formations together. The seals and formations within the cave crumbled when he removed the central palace. As a result, the cave collapsed and was being flooded with water.

It was a pity that the cave would be destroyed like that. After all, Qing Jian had spent a great deal of time and effort building it. The collapse of the cave did not pose any danger to Lu Ping, with the Water Repelling Pearl in his possession. Even without it, Lu Ping would still be safe because the cave was not very deep in the ocean, posing no threat to a cultivator specializing in water-elemental techniques.

Lu Ping summoned Da Bao and released the snake trio before leaping into the water pool in front of the palace.

As soon as he leaped into the water, it started rumbling before returning to its previous calm. A few seconds later, the ocean water came crashing down, and the cave was submerged.

Inside the pool, Lu Ping was immediately snuck up on by two Water Shuras, but an angered snake trio immediately struck them down.

The two Water Shuras were seemingly the only ones left because Lu Ping and the snake trio did not run into another Water Shura throughout their journey. Lu Ping continuously scanned his surroundings, and even after condensing his divine revelation around himself, he failed to locate any traces of a Water Shura.

“Perhaps they retreated after realizing they can’t eliminate us?”

The more Lu Ping thought about it, the more confident he was about his guess. Since the discovery of the Ice Shuras on Ice Frozen Island, Lu Ping had started hearing people talk about how late-Core Forging Realm cultivators would return to the sect, looking grim and dangerous, after returning from a secret mission. There would also be some late-Core Forging Realm cultivators who mysteriously suffered from some injuries and would angrily tell every person who approached them about their injuries.

This was the case for the top ten sects and the other stronger clans. The late-Core Forging Realm cultivators of these factions would be dispatched on a secret mission from time to time. At first, people thought these cultivators were sent to deal with the Monsters, but there had been barely any response from the Monsters. A large-scale siege like this would attract plenty of attention, and the fight would be incredibly intense. Yet, the population of both sides saw no fluctuation, and there was no fierce fight.

“Are they searching for the Shuras’ traces?”

Lu Ping couldn’t help but start thinking this way after recalling the knowledge he had learned about the Shuras from his teacher. This was probably why the Water Shuras retreated because late-Core Forging Realm cultivators were bound to arrive on the scene when news about their presence here was sent back to the sects. If the Water Shuras were too persistent and lingered, they would no doubt be destroyed.

Lu Ping continued diving deeper into the pool. The water pressure intensified, but it was still within his abilities. Besides, Lu Ping did not plan on wasting his energy by resisting the water pressure after acquiring the Water Repelling Pearl.

The Water Repelling Pearl floated silently above his head and glowed gently, forming a colorful barrier around Lu Ping as he traveled deeper.

Without having to worry about the water pressure, Lu Ping continued heading downwards and finally reached the end of the pool. Here, he found a massive hole leading to an unknown area.

The traces and marks around the hole were fresh, indicating that the hole had been recently opened. This was clearly also Water Shuras’ path when they snuck into Qing Jian’s cave.However, Lu Ping’s attention was not drawn to the hole. Instead, he was staring at a couple of man-made-looking pillars, erected at the bottom.

With a wave of his hand, Lu Ping cleared the mud around the pillars, revealing a long-range teleportation formation.

Lu Ping gasped out of both surprise and happiness.