Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-56

In fact, Lu Ping and Qiao Xipeng had already noticed the sea snake monster’s escape right at the start of their battle. However, they didn’t stop it from escaping nor were they afraid of it coming back for them.

After all, the sea snake monster’s arcane energy was depleted from the previous battles and its injuries were severe. The act of self-destructing its own Condensed Blood Beads had heavily drained its life force.

Furthermore, its wounds would leave a trail of blood when escaping. This made it easy to track its position. Hence, Lu Ping and Qiao Xipeng both planned to go after the sea snake monster after they killed the other.

Lu Ping followed the trail of blood in the water and flew south-west.

He flew more than a hundred miles before slowly catching up to the sea snake monster.

Lu Ping didn’t know why the sea snake monster was traveling so far despite knowing of its imminent death. However, Lu Ping had watched the entire battle between Qiao Xipeng and the sea snake monster. He knew that the sea snake was intelligent. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have severely injured Qiao Xipeng despite its perilous situation.

Unfortunately for the sea snake monster, Lu Ping was there to claim the fruit of victory from its jaws.

Hence, as Lu Ping drew closer to the sea snake monster, he also grew more cautious. Furthermore, after traveling for so long, he had now reached the seas under Xuan Ling Sect’s jurisdiction.

Lu Ping was now about forty yards deep underwater and less than ten yards away from the seabed. He was forced to constantly cast his arcane energy to alleviate the immense water pressure. As a result, his arcane energy was almost depleted.

At this time, he could already see the carcass of the sea snake monster, coiling on the seabed just ahead. It was so close yet so far.

Behind the carcass was a burrow with an almost one-foot radius. By the looks of it, that should be its lair. Lu Ping couldn’t help but wonder. What was in the lair? What was so precious to the sea snake monster that it couldn’t let go even before its death? What was so important to protect that it insisted on returning?

The sea snake monster was clearly the companion to the other sea snake monster he killed the last time. So, could that something possibly be their eggs?

When that possibility crossed his mind, Lu Ping was pumped with energy. However, he was still seven yards away from reaching the seabed. It was just a short distance, but the immense water pressure stopped him from diving any deeper. Lu Ping couldn’t help feeling annoyed.

It seemed like his best bet was to return after successfully entering the Blood Condensation Realm, or acquiring equipment specially for diving. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be entering the lair anytime soon.

Fortunately, the lair was deep below the sea and the waters were heavily obstructing the divine sense’s range and perceptibility. This made it almost impossible for ordinary cultivators to discover the lair’s position from the water surface. Not unless a cultivator was specifically going underwater to search the seabed for it or if they were Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters.

Lu Ping emerged from the water and memorized the location. After that, he quickly returned to Huang Li Island. Otherwise, things would become heavily complicated if the Xuan Ling Sect patrolling cultivators spotted him.

…

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed since he returned to Huang Li Island.

Lu Ping was in his cultivation room, playing with an exquisite interspatial pouch in his hands. Half a month ago, the interspatial pouch still belonged to Qiao Xipeng.

This was Lu Ping’s second time looting a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator’s interspatial pouch. The first time was the exquisite interspatial pouch he found in Sheng Tao’s cave-dwelling.

Blood Condensation Realm cultivators usually placed a mini array formation on their interspatial pouch, and Qiao Xipeng was no exception. Interspatial pouches like these couldn’t be opened by anyone other than the owner. Forcibly opening the interspatial pouch would damage most of the items inside.

Sheng Tao didn’t set up an array formation on his interspatial pouch since he left it behind for someone to inherit his knowledge.

However, Qiao Xipeng’s interspatial pouch had an array formation. Hence, it had taken half a month’s time for Lu Ping to slowly weaken the array. Fortunately, Qiao Xipeng was dead already, so Lu Ping was able to access the contents inside.

Now, it was time to reap his harvest—Lu Ping couldn’t wait to see his loot.

He had suffered a heavy loss in the battle against Qiao Xipeng.

Firstly, the few dozen top-grade blood charms were worth more than 400 spirit stones; the two flying swords he sacrificed cost another 400 spirit stones; another 200 spirit stones to repair the stone pagoda mystic weapon that Qiao Xipeng had severely damaged; the two sets of warning charms and a set of landmine charms totaling up to more than 600 spirit stones; and lastly, two top-grade medicinal pellets to recover his wounds and arcane energy.

These all totaled up to more than 2,000 spirit stones.

Not to mention the time it took to recover from his injuries.

Lu Ping thought about it and he inhaled deeply. Battles between cultivators not only relied on one’s prowess, wisdom, and courage, but also one’s wealth!

Fortunately for him, he had prepared beforehand. This allowed him to kill Qiao Xipeng.

Lu Ping stopped his wandering thoughts and opened the interspatial pouch.

The first thing he saw was a pile of spirit stones. There were 24 mid-grade spirit stones and more than 300 low-grade spirit stones, which totaled up to nearly 2,800 low-grade spirit stones. Not only had he covered his loss, but he also earned a lot.

Lu Ping inadvertently heaved a long sigh of relief. After his wealth had shrunk greatly from the auction, he could finally stop worrying about the funds for his cultivation resources.

On the other hand, there were few mystic weapons inside the interspatial pouch. One of Qiao Xipeng’s mid-grade mystic weapons was ruined from the sea snake monster’s self-destructing Condensed Blood Beads, and two more were shattered by Lu Ping. Hence, he was left with one mid-grade short spear mystic weapon that was most likely a backup weapon. Other than that, there were two low-grade mystic weapons which Lu Ping naturally didn’t care much about.

Lu Ping was hoping to find a high-grade mystic weapon, but it seemed like this expectation was let down.

But after carefully thinking about it, Lu Ping understood the reason. High-grade mystic weapons were rarer and more valuable than mid-grade mystic weapons in the first place. Lu Ping was lucky enough to even acquire the Dark Iron, and to own Landslide, a mystic weapon that had a solid foundation.

On top of all that, Lu Ping also had master craftsman Old Man Chen and his son, who made it possible to just barely upgrade Landslide into a high-grade mystic weapon.

When a cultivator reached the Blood Condensation Realm, their arcane energy and divine sense would transcend to a new realm. This allowed Blood Condensation Realm cultivators to fully control and utilize the abilities of mystic weapons.

However, a mystic weapon’s prowess depended heavily on the cultivator’s aptitude. Normally, Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators could cast mid-grade mystic weapons with more ease and power than they would a high-grade mystic weapon.

After figuring out the reason, Lu Ping shifted his focus to the jade scrolls on the floor and checked them one by one.

To Lu Ping’s excitement, one of the jade scrolls contained clear descriptions of Qiao Xipeng’s knowledge and insights in his cultivation, especially his experience in breaking through from the Blood Refining Realm to the Blood Condensation Realm. This personal account was more valuable than any other treasures he’d found.

After reading the other jade scrolls, Lu Ping also learned that the sea snake monsters were Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes. They were nobles amongst the monster race and the blood of Jiao flowed in their veins.

Although he didn’t know why the sea snake monsters set their lair on the borders of Zhen Ling Sect and Xuan Ling Sect, Lu Ping instinctively knew it wasn’t a small matter. In fact, it could most likely induce a major upheaval in the North Ocean.

Suddenly, Lu Ping smirked quietly. Whatever the turmoil may be, he would still be safe as long as no one connected the sea snake monsters’ deaths to him. The big shots within the sects and the North Ocean Alliance would be the ones to step up and handle the conflicts.

After organizing the jade scrolls, Lu Ping took out a few other jade bottles. Two of the bottles contained medicinal pellets for arcane energy recovery and another bottle contained medicinal pellets for wound recovery. All of the medicinal pellets were top-notch in quality.

Other than that, there were also two jade bottles that contained some other medicinal pellets. Fortunately, Lu Ping had Alchemist Sheng Tao’s inheritance and so he recognized them as Thousand Ginseng Pellets. These were used by Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators in their cultivation progress. Although they were ordinary, not every Blood Condensation Realm cultivator could afford to use them in their cultivation.

One must know, even strong sects like Zhen Ling Sect could only barely supply its Blood Refining Realm disciples with common medicinal pellets like Blood Essence Pellets. Hence, it was not a surprise that every bottle of Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets was rare and precious; the value of each bottle was not any lower than a Blood Condensation Pellet.

Lu Ping ran some quick calculations in his mind. Normally, a Blood Condensation Pellet was worth roughly 2,000 spirit stones and a jade bottle could store 10 medicinal pellets. That meant an ordinary Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellet would be worth around 200 spirit stones, which was ten times more expensive than Blood Vigor Pellets!

So if Blood Condensation Realm cultivators consumed these medicinal pellets at the same rate as Blood Refining Realm disciples…

Lu Ping shuddered and stopped thinking about it. This was an issue for the future him to worry about after advancing to the Blood Condensation Realm.

At the same time, he was now more determined to learn alchemy and concoct his own medicinal pellets.

In the end, one last jade bottle lay in front of him. The jade bottle was blue in color, different from the rest. He purposely left it for last to see what surprise it would bring to him.

Lu Ping gently removed the cork and immediately, a familiar fragrance found its way into his nose.

It was a Blood Condensation Pellet!