Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-439

Zhang Shi-Jie, a disciple of the Crystal Palace, was given the title of the strongest disciple aside from the elite disciples, albeit mockingly.

Like other elite mid-Core Forging Realm disciples in the Crystal Palace, Zhang Shi-Jie had fused at least two Earth-class wonder items. He cultivated a water-elemental technique, but when he advanced into the mid-Core Forging Realm, he opted for a substitute wonder item after failing to find a suitable one. While the substitute item was also a water-elemental wonder item, it was not the best choice. As a result, despite being outstanding and powerful, Zhang Shi-Jie failed to obtain acknowledgment from many seniors and elders of the sect. No matter how hard he tried, the sect wouldn’t focus any resources on him.

After all, fusing two different wonder items of the same element affects the future of a cultivator. While the effect was barely visible in the Core Forging Realm, it would start heavily impacting a cultivator’s strength after they advanced into the Law Avatar Realm.

However, Zhang Shi-Jie did not surrender to fate. He might have made a wrong decision because of his impatience, but deep down, he believed in himself. He did not think he was weaker than anyone else and was eager to prove himself to attract the attention of the sect.

The trip to the North Ocean was a waste of time in the eyes of the other elite disciples from the Crystal Palace. From their point of view, the North Ocean was a barren land with barely any resources or talent. They felt they would not gain anything from the trip and risked humiliation if they couldn’t win against the North Ocean sects.

Unlike those disciples, Zhang Shi-Jie saw an opportunity. He had already run into a worthy opponent – Ouyang Wei-Jian, the strongest swordsman in the younger generation of the Xuan Ling Sect. Although the Xuan Ling Sect avoided sending Ouyang Wei-Jian to compete with the Crystal Palace’s strongest disciple to protect their reputation, Zhang Shi-Jie noticed that Ouyang Wei-Jian’s strength was on par with their elite disciples.

During their stay in the Xuan Ling Sect, Zhang Shi-Jie privately challenged Ouyang Wei-Jian to a fight. After an intense battle, Zhang Shi-Jie eventually managed to win narrowly. However, he was well aware that the only reason for his victory was because he was at a higher cultivation level. If they were on equal footing, Zhang Shi-Jie reckoned he wouldn’t have been able to win. At the same time, Zhang Shi-Jie learned about the existence of another talented individual named Lu Xuan-Ping, the Water Sword Immortal.

Zhang Shi-Jie had to admit that there were talents in the North Ocean, but he couldn’t bring himself to agree with the title of Sword Immortals given to Ouyang Wei-Jian, Lu Ping, and some others.

“These titles are only given to powerful cultivators in the Law Avatar Realm in our region. I can’t believe Core Forging Realm cultivators are bold enough to call themselves Immortals! If they dared to call themselves Immortals in the East Ocean, they would be swarmed by endless challengers trying to teach them a lesson! Ha! Water Sword Immortal? What a joke!”

With these thoughts in mind, Zhang Shi-Jie, the last of the Crystal Palace disciples to participate in the competition, openly challenged Lu Ping. His statement caused an uproar among the Zhen Ling Sect disciples. The disciples were all eager to witness the battle between the most talented Water Sword Immortal of the Zhen Ling Sect and the disciple of the greatest sect in the East Ocean.

“Ming-Shan, this young friend here….” Guo Xuan-Shan inquired.

“Oh,” Ming-Shan replied. “He’s not the best in our sect, but the gap between his strength and our top disciples isn't huge. Speaking of which, he challenged Ouyang Wei-Jian to a private match and narrowly won because of his higher cultivation base. I didn’t expect him to lose control and openly challenge Lu Ping. Please forgive this foolish brat for his childish behavior.”

Although Ming-Shan appeared to be criticizing Zhang Shi-Jie, his expression suggested otherwise. Guo Xuan-Shan knew exactly what Ming-Shan was thinking, and said, “It’s okay. This is just the younger generation trying to have some fun.”

Lu Ping momentarily paused in his tracks toward the teleportal and chuckled at Guo Xuan-Shan’s comment. He then proceeded to insert a few spirit stones into the formation.

“Am I not worthy enough? Or is he too afraid to accept my challenge? I remember Ouyang Wei-Jian saying that Lu Ping is a powerful cultivator titled the Water Sword Immortal! I heard Lu Ping has never experienced defeat in fights against those at his level. Bah! It seems like he’s nothing but a fraud!” Zhang Shi-Jie grew impatient after receiving no response.

Instantly, the Zhen Ling Sect cultivators were furious and started reprimanding Zhang Shi-Jie. However, as a Crystal Palace disciple, a powerful sect that stood on par with the sects in the Central Plains, Zhang Shi-Jie felt no fear against the Zhen Ling Sect as it couldn’t even be considered a proper sect in the actual cultivation world.

Just as Zhang Shi-Jie wanted to mock Lu Ping again, his smirk froze as an ear-piercing noise sounded out. A golden sword whistled through the air and flew straight at him.

Lu Ping could no longer sit back and watch Zhang Shi-Jie continue taunting him. During his second provocation, Lu Ping sneered and gave Zhang Shi-Jie what he wanted.

When the Golden Scale Sword came crashing down, Zhang Shi-Jie was struck by happiness and shock.

Zhang Shi-Jie was happy because, from the clamoring of the Zhen Ling Sect’s cultivators, he learned that the sword belonged to the reputed Lu Xuan-Ping. He was glad that he finally had the chance to stomp over a well-known Sword Immortal in the North Ocean.

He was equally shocked because when he shrouded the Golden Scale Sword with his divine revelation, he found no traces of it being yielded by a person. He could only determine an enormous spiritual energy fluctuation that his divine revelation could not reach.

There was only one explanation for this, the talented swordsman of the Zhen Ling Sect had surpassed Zhang Shi-Jie in divine revelation. Given that Zhang Shi-Jie was already in the mid-Core Forging Realm, Lu Ping’s divine revelation had to be in the late-Core Forging Realm.

“So what?” Zhang Shi-Jie thought.

The further away a person was from a sword, the more energy was needed to manipulate it. Additionally, this would lower the strength of the sword. As a result, Zhang Shi-Jie reckoned he could easily fend off the attack and give chase.

With a smirk, Zhang Shi-Jie summoned a massive crystal chakram and hurled it straight at the Golden Scale Sword.

Right as the chakram was about to slam into the sword, the Golden Scale Sword vibrated and morphed into an endless sword rain, avoiding the chakram and shooting toward Zhang Shi-Jie.

Zhang Shi-Jie turned the chakram around and made it quickly spin, creating a whirlpool that sucked in the sword rain and held it in place.

After nullifying Lu Ping’s attack, Zhang Shi-Jie immediately tried to retaliate. However, he found that the sword rain started going on a rampage. It turned out Lu Ping had exploited the chakram’s momentum, transferring it to the sword rain and unleashing a ruthless power at Zhang Shi-Jie. If Zhang Shi-Jie hadn’t retreated in time, he would have been swept away by the counter-attack.

“How is this possible? He’s so far away, but his attacks are so intense! Is he so powerful that he’s no longer affected by distance?” Zhang Shi-Jie thought.

However, this thought only appeared in his mind briefly before being discarded. Lu Ping’s powerful counter-attack turned into a powerful force field that continuously crashed onto the jade chakram, suppressing it and creating numerous sparks.

“You’re not the only one that’s mastered a great divine ability!” Zhang Shi-Jie roared. Anger flooded his mind after being suppressed.

“Heavenly Jade Chakram!” Zhang Shi-Jie shouted.

The jade chakram suddenly split into thirty-six smaller chakrams before coming together again to form a massive jade sphere. The sphere started rolling around, trying to flatten Lu Ping’s attack.

This was the same move Zhang Shi-Jie used to defeat Ouyang Wei-Jian. Much to his delight, he saw himself gaining the upper hand against his opponent when using the same move.

With the jade sphere slowly nullifying the sword rain, Zhang Shi-Jie started walking toward Lu Ping’s direction to find out what kind of a person would be so bold to attack him from so far away.

However, before he could fully nullify Lu Ping’s attack and charge toward him, the Golden Scale Sword breached the jade sphere, giving Zhang Shi-Jie a scare.

“Sword formations! Those are all sword formations!”

After reaching the peak of swordsmanship, a cultivator could easily launch a perfect sword formation with every swing of their sword.

Zhang Shi-Jie was forced to stop. The attack launched by Lu Ping turned into a massive whirlpool made from conjured swords. The attack formed a powerful sword formation that slowly engulfed Zhang Shi-Jie’s weapon.

Zhang Shi-Jie’s face flushed. He tried his best to retreat from the lethal pressure of the sword formation. Unfortunately, a couple jade chakrams were sucked into the sword formation whirlpool. The moment they were sucked in, a loud noise was emitted as the chakrams were shredded into pieces. The massive chakram remained strong as it was the Crystal Palace’s great divine ability and because Lu Ping was casting his attack from far, placing him at a disadvantage. Hence, after the sword formation disintegrated three small chakrams, its strength was strength.

Everyone could tell who had the upper hand during the exchange. The Zhen Ling Sect cultivators celebrated happily, and the lower-level cultivators cheered passionately.

Ming-Shan wore an awful expression, but he still managed to force out a smile. “Your sect has an amazing disciple. The sword arts he displayed are simply incredible! I wish to take back what I said just now. Such marvelous sword mastery has surpassed Ouyang Wei-Jian of the Xuan Ling Sect!”

He admitted he was wrong about Lu Ping, but his words had another meaning. While recognizing that Lu Ping had surpassed Ouyang Wei-Jian, he spoke nothing about how Lu Ping compared to the Crystal Palace disciple. It was obvious that Ming-Shan was confident in the strength of the disciples from his sect.

The remaining jade chakrams combined into one again. When Zhang Shi-Jie saw that his weapon was no longer glimmering, he realized that he had lost and deemed it a disgrace. Not only did he lose against the well-known Water Sword Immortal of the Zhen Ling Sect, he didn’t even see his opponent’s face and failed to sense Lu Ping’s existence. In other words, Zhang Shi-Jie would never be able to recognize Lu Ping if he did not reveal the Golden Scale Sword! Zhang Shi-Jie’s expression turned awful.

Shing—

A glimmering jade tower suddenly appeared above Zhang Shi-Jie’s head. After making its appearance, the jade tower started pouring its energy into the jade chakram. As the energy was channeled into the chakram, the damaged chakram shone again while Zhang Shi-Jie advanced toward where the Golden Scale Sword had been sent from.

His motive was simple. He wanted to take a look at the person who defeated him effortlessly. He needed to do this so that he could make Lu Ping his new target. He reckoned that by capturing Lu Ping’s face or presence, he would be able to lessen the humiliation of his defeat.

Lu Ping sensed Zhang Shi-Jie’s intention, leading him to swing the Golden Scale Sword in an arc, unleashing hundreds of golden sword energy attacks at him.

Unwilling to yield, Zhang Shi-Jie raised the jade chakram and slammed it against the golden swords. The moment they clashed, sparks flew, and Zhang Shi-Jie was pinned onto the ground. Through sheer willpower, he summoned the strength to put up a resilient fight.

Zhang Shi-Jie let out a battle cry. The jade tower shone once more, shooting a light pillar at himself. With the light pillar protecting him, he stopped parrying the attacks and allowed them to land on him as he focused on drawing out all the strength in his jade chakram.

Lu Ping was no stranger to the jade chakram. He had witnessed it during the Northern League Alchemy Conference. The jade tower he saw back then was the product of the Belligerent Pellet concocted by the talented alchemist Ning Shi-Ze. The jade tower was called the Aqua Tower of Vanquish and was a cultivation technique. Legend had it that after conjuring an Aqua tower of Vanquish with six levels, a cultivator would be able to cast the ultimate technique of the Crystal Palace, a technique far greater than the Heavenly Jade Chakram released by Zhang Shi-Jie. It was also said that there was an even more powerful technique that was not known to many.

Although Zhang Shi-Jie had yet to reach a legendary level, he had engraved a couple of Mystical Inscriptions on his tower, turning it into a Spirit Emerging Mystic Treasures. In terms of defense alone, it was far more capable than an ordinary Spirit Emerging Mystic Treasure.

Suddenly, the Golden Scale Sword abandoned the jade chakram. After maneuvering an abnormal path in the air, the sword conjured a ferocious-looking dragon with a large pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.

The dragon immediately lunged at the Aqua Tower of Vanquish that was floating above Zhang Shi-Jie’s head. It wrapped its body around the tower, attempting to crush it with the power of its energy body. Under its brute force, the tower started trembling vigorously and appeared as if it was about to be leveled soon.

Zhang Shi-Jie’s expression twisted as he suffered an injury and spurted out a mouthful of blood. Immediately, he felt a cold and sharp object pressed against his neck before it quickly vanished.

All his senses and emotions froze as he was reduced to a depressed state. Zhang Shi-Jie suddenly recalled something and directed his gaze toward the Aqua Tower of Vanquish, where he saw what he had anticipated. The dragon crushing the tower was no longer visible; all that was left was a tower in ruins.

With a wave of his hand, Zhang Shi-Jie stowed the jade chakram and Aqua Tower of Vanquish away before vanishing into thin air. Zhang Shi-Jie arrived at a teleportation formation where the light dimmed with no one in sight.