Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-446

Tian-Hu waited for seven days. He realized something was off after Lu Ping showed no signs of appearing. After all, a batch of pellets wouldn’t take such a long time. Liang Xuan-Feng’s situation was deteriorating rapidly and he couldn’t last much longer. As a result, Tian-Hu decided to check on Lu Ping’s progress.

The moment he entered the Land of Heritage, he witnessed a torrent of spiritual energy flowing to the center of the land toward Lu Ping, who was sitting beneath the River-Inclusion Cauldron.

“He’s advancing to the next level? Luckily for him, the spiritual energy here is far more condensed and powerful, not anybody has the qualification to cultivate here.”

Tian-Hu caught a glimpse of the jade bottle sitting quietly beside Lu Ping. With a wave of his hand, Tian-Hu covered the bottle with his energy and pulled it to him.

“Ha. To be able to use a Mystic Tool Cauldron, one has to be in the late-Core Forging Realm and a top master alchemist. I didn’t think this little one could do so at his level.”

Tian-Hu opened the bottle and sniffed its contents. Surprise flashed across his eyes as he hurriedly extracted a Little Core Forging Pellet from the bottle. His expression changed after setting his sight on the pellet. Happiness washed over him as he placed the pellet back into the bottle. Tian-Hu glanced at Lu Ping with a complicated expression and silently left the Land of Heritage without disturbing him.

With that, only Lu Ping was left in the Land of Heritage, vigorously absorbing the spiritual energy in the air, stirring up the surroundings.

The spiritual energy that was absorbed turned into a ghostly blue energy before flowing into his heartspace with a Golden Core floating at its core. His divine revelation started being generated by the Golden Core, fusing into the core alongside the ghostly blue energy.

As the divine revelation merged into the Golden Core, a strange-looking Jiao-Dragon started taking form on its surface, starting with a serpent body and reptilian limbs, slowly forming antlers and a beard. This was the fifth Jiao-Dragon on his Golden Core’s surface.

When Lu Ping finished advancing to the next level and stabilized his overall power, it had already been more than a year.

The first thing he noticed when he came back to his senses was the roots of fire that hid far away from him because of the commotion caused by his advancement. Lu Ping couldn’t help but chuckle. He recalled that the Seven Elemental Lightning Gourd still needed the root of two types of peculiar fire to form a brand new Yin Lightning. Once this was achieved, he would be able to command a powerful lightning power that could rival a great divine ability with the completed Yin Lightning mini divine ability. The Seven Elemental Lightning Gourd would then have reached an elementary level. If he wanted to advance the gourd to the next level, he would have to acquire a fourth Mystical Inscription to engrave on it and collect more wonder items.

However, he couldn’t take the roots of fire without permission after what Tian-Hu had said.

After giving it a thought, Lu Ping decided to send a message to Tian-Hu. His message quickly received a reply, “Xuan-Feng is now fine. You can claim two roots of fire of your choice.”

Tian-Hu’s message was clear – the Little Core Forging Pellet saved Xuan-Feng from succumbing to the fate of achieving an ordinary Seventh Grade Golden Core, and the two roots of fire were Lu Ping’s reward.

With his permission, Lu Ping did not hold back. He searched through the roots of fire and claimed two of the best peculiar fire roots. After placing these roots into the gourd, all that was left to push the gourd to the next level was time. By then, he would have two great divine abilities in his arsenal.

As he indulged himself in the tremendous power coursing through his veins and his extraordinary divine revelation, Lu Ping exhaled deeply. He reckoned that at his current strength, he could firmly stand his ground against a late-Core Forging Realm cultivator.

He took out the token Tian-Hu had given him, channeled his energy into it, and formed a portal through the spell inside the token.

After walking through the portal, he immediately arrived at the Pavillion of Alchemy, where he was met with an approaching Xuan-Miao.

Xuan-Miao’s appearance caught Lu Ping off-guard, but his motives were no mystery to him. Lu Ping quickly strolled away in an attempt to avoid Xuan-Miao.

Much to his disappointment, Xuan-Miao had already predicted Lu Ping’s response. The moment Lu Ping turned around, Xuan-Miao grabbed his arm and started dragging him toward Tian Ling Palace before Lu Ping could even say a word.

Xuan-Miao was only an early-Core Forging Realm cultivator that did not have the slightest hope of entering the mid-Core Forging Realm. He was unable to stop Lu Ping if the young man wished otherwise. However, Xuan-Miao was one of the second-generation disciples of the sect, making him Lu Ping’s elder. Additionally, after Lu Ping had avoided Xuan-Miao several times, it made it difficult for Lu Ping to hide from Xuan-Miao this time.

What Xuan-Miao wanted was obvious. He wanted Lu Ping to take in a couple of cultivators as apprentices. With more disciples entering the Blood Condensation Realm, the Zhen Ling Sect was now in a difficult spot. There were not enough Core-Forging Realm cultivators to lead the new generation. Even late-Blood Condensation Realm cultivators had to rely on themselves to figure out a way to get stronger, let alone the mid-Blood Condensation Realm cultivators.

Although there was a rule that every Core Forging Realm cultivator could take in twelve apprentices and twenty-four probationary apprentices, Core Forging Realm cultivators were often very strict in taking on apprentices. As a result, they often did not use up their quotas.

In other words, there was a rapid surge in the number of late-Blood Condensation Realm cultivators seeking a master to guide them in the annual orientation organized in the sect, while there were barely any Core Forging Realm cultivators that wished to teach them.

This was a frustrating, yet delightful problem for Xuan-Miao. On the one hand, he was happy to see the growing prosperity of the sect. However, Xuan-Miao had to worry about the new generation, so he met up with every Core Forging Realm cultivator of the sect and dragged them out of their training chambers to take on new apprentices.

Apart from those who willingly took on apprentices and those who stumbled upon suitable apprentices after being dragged around by Xuan-Miao, the rest merely obliged to Xuan-Miao’s request after finding it difficult to turn down his request. As time passed, Xuan-Miao eventually became the person that all the Core Forging Realm cultivators feared.