Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-91

Lu Ping first returned to Xuan Qi Island to ask Master Immortal Liu. He had heard rumors but didn’t really know much. Hence, he took Lu Ping to see Enlightened Master Qu Xuan-Cheng, who knew something about the matter but hadn’t been to Fei Ling Island either.

After telling Lu Ping what he knew, Enlightened Master Qu told him to go back to Tian Ling Mountain to find Enlightened Master Jiang Xuan-Lin. It was only then Lu Ping found the right person to go to.

He told Lu Ping in detail about his involvement in the opening of Fei Ling Island, adding a warning, “Unlike the rumors, Fei Ling Island isn’t full of treasures. Aside from being destroyed by the Avatar Real Grand Ancestors’ battles, all the valuables were scavenged before the island sank. The sects that participated in the war plundered everything they could a long time ago.

“And for the last four thousand years, the sects have explored Fei Ling Island whenever it opened up. So what is there left to find? In fact, the most important resource on Fei Ling Island would be the spirit materials, which are nurtured every five hundred years by its large spirit vein.

“Therefore, both sides are actually competing for the amount of spirit materials collected by their disciples. The sect will take three-quarters of the collected spirit materials, and if the disciples have other gains, it is customary that the sect does not collect them.”

What Lu Ping wanted most was nothing but spirit herbs, so he was naturally delighted to hear that. Taking the map of Fei Ling Island that the Enlightened Master drew for him from memory, he returned to Huang Li Island to prepare.

Five days later, on the second day of the second month. Twenty Zhen Ling disciples, led by two Enlightened Masters, flew southwest from Tian Ling Mountain.

In truth, Fei Ling Island could have been opened any time this year. But the resolution proposed by Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect caught the sects by surprise, which made them hurried and unprepared.

With the speed of the Core Forging Enlightened Masters, it still took a full day to get to the airspace above Fei Ling Island.

They found a random coral island somewhere on the sea to land on and rest. Lu Ping was playing with a mid-grade water-element mystic instrument in his hand. He was quietly familiarizing himself with the nature of this mystic instrument that the sect had given to their disciples.

This time, Zhen Ling Sect had prepared each of the twenty disciples with numerous supplies, including a mid-grade mystic instrument, a bottle of high-grade wound-healing medicinal pellets, and three bottles of Spirit Regenerating Pellets.

Additionally, there were also three bottles of cultivation medicinal pellets—Fu Ling Pellets. These pellets were actually a reward that the sect was issuing in advance.

Lu Ping was satisfied with the supplies given, especially the Fu Ling Pellets, which temporarily eased his recent shortage of Blood Condensation cultivation pellets.

Among the two Enlightened Masters, the first was Enlightened Master Liu Xuan-Ling, a middle-aged gentlewoman with a kind and warm face. The second was Enlightened Master Guo Xuan-Shan, a sturdy and warrior-like figure in his late thirties.

At this time, the Enlightened Masters of the other sects were arriving in turn with their disciples. The friendly ones, such as Cang Hai Sect, Yu Jian Sect, Chong Ming Sect, and others had come forward to greet each other. Their respective Enlightened Masters instructed their disciples to take care of each other should they meet on Fei Ling Island.

Suddenly, a light ray made a beautiful arc across the sky and landed on a coral island opposite to Zhen Ling Sect and its allies. A tall, thin old man and a middle-aged man with a cold face appeared, each with ten disciples behind them. It was Xuan Ling Sect.

The tall and thin old man was naturally Xuan Ling Sect’s Feng Xu-Dao, who laughed and said, “Liu Xuan-Liang, why is an old woman like you leading the team? Where is that hypocrite Jiang Xuan-Lin? Was he accidentally injured in the last fight?”

Enlightened Master Liu smiled gently. “Senior Jiang is a talent and about to break through to Avatar Realm, so he naturally cannot be distracted by such trivial matters. On behalf of Senior Jiang, I’d like to thank you for your concerns.”

Feng Xu-Dao’s face drastically changed at her words. “The Avatar Realm isn’t so easy to attain. Perhaps this will be a waste of his effort, like using a wicker basket to draw water.”

Enlightened Master Guo-Xuan Shan grunted angrily from the side and said, “Old brat Feng, you’re an old rival to Senior Jiang. You of all people should know best of his capability, and whether he will succeed.”

In the end, it was Shui Yan Pavilion’s Enlightened Master Jiang Ru-Shui that hurriedly stepped in to mediate the situation. “Let’s not argue anymore, it’s almost time. We should prepare to activate the array formation at the bottom of the sea. Otherwise, the little ones will get anxious from waiting too long.”

Enlightened Master Jiang Ru-Shui spoke with quiet grace, and coupled with her maidenly demeanour, Feng Xu-Dao and Guo Xuan-Shan didn’t want to appear like bullies to go against her. They each gave a cold humph and stopped talking.

The two hundred cultivators entering Fei Ling Island came from twenty sects and independent clans. The sects would naturally have Enlightened Masters accompanying their disciples. The independent clans also had to send at least one Enlightened Master if they wanted to participate in the event, even if the independent clan had only one disciple participating.

Not only were the clan Enlightened Masters going to escort their disciples, but they were also obliged to help the opening of Fei Ling Island. This was also the minimum requirement for them to secure a place for their disciples.

A total of thirty Enlightened Masters waved their hands and cast their own techniques. Spirit stones, spirit materials, formation chassis, and other items were shrouded with spiritual light as they shot towards the bottom of the sea. It was as if these Enlightened Masters already knew the position of the array formation under the sea.

Lu Ping used his own divine sense and reached for the bottom of the sea, but he found nothing but seawater. He inwardly praised the Enlightened Masters’ powerful divine senses.

Lu Ping had been diligently practicing the [Divine Furtherance Technique], but he only managed to increase his divine sense by one foot, which was one-fortieth of his original divine sense. It was far from the peak of the [Divine Furtherance Technique] which promised to increase one-third of the cultivator’s divine sense.

After placing the items, the thirty Enlightened Masters stood on their respective positions. Then, beams of light were released from their hands. With a flip of their palms, the sixty beams were shot into the bottom of the sea.

Krong–

A deep rumbling could be heard coming from the bottom of the sea. Fifteen minutes later, the rumbling noise gradually became louder and even deafening, as if a titan was rising from the seabed. The seawater on the surface rippled violently and the waves rose higher, eventually forming giant waves several feet high that rushed towards the coral islands. The cultivators were forced to fly to the sky with their mystic instruments.

From the top, they could clearly see a silhouette under the water. With every second that passed, the silhouette was growing bigger as it moved closer to the surface. The cultivators waited patiently, yet felt anticipation at seeing the real face of the famous Fei Ling Island.

At that moment, the silhouette finally broke through the water and appeared in front of the cultivators.

Everyone exchanged a look and saw the same surprise on each other’s face. The silhouette was not Fei Ling Island, but a huge group-teleportation array.

Then, they heard Xuan Ling Sect’s Feng Xu-Dao saying loudly, “Disciples, what are you waiting for? Get in the teleportation array!”

The Enlightened Masters from the other sects also instructed their disciples to enter the formation.

Lu Ping stepped into the teleportation array with the rest of the Zhen Ling disciples. Then, the sky and earth spun, and a sense of alleviation swept through him for a split second. Immediately after, he felt himself stepping back on solid ground and he quickly cast out the crystal mirror on top of his head, surveying his surroundings.

He saw lush greenery on top of the ruins, the pathways were vaguely discernible, the trees leaned to the sides at a crazy angle, yet still stubbornly flourished. Sadly, these were just ordinary grasses and trees, they were not spirit herbs.

Lu Ping spread his divine sense out. Smiling happily, he pointed out a finger and a crystal stone flew out from a bush and into his hand. It was a mid-grade spirit stone!

Lu Ping was delighted—this was a good beginning!

As the one and only colossal island in the North Ocean, Fei Ling Island was astonishingly massive, spanning a radius of 1,700 miles. No wonder the cultivators could only enter by teleportation array.

After all, a few dozens of Enlightened Masters weren’t enough to summon a colossal island like this. Perhaps not even the Avatar Realm Grand Ancestors could do it. Lu Ping couldn’t help but marvel at the boundless power of the True Spirit Realm.

It was rumored that a legacy had been left behind by Zhen Ling Sect’s only True Spirit Realm, Ancestor Tai-Shen. However, no outsiders knew what it actually was.

Lu Ping continued to look around and finally determined that he was at the foothills of Cang Mountain, which was located at the western side of Fei Ling Island. Cang Mountain was about a hundred miles from the island’s main mountain. Enlightened Master Jiang’s map and records showed that Fei Ling Sect’s Pavilion of Smithery once stood here.

Other than its main mountain, Fei Ling Mountain, there were five other mountains on the island. These mountains had the Pavilion of Alchemy, Pavilion of Books, Pavilion of Smithery, Pavilion of Charms, and the spirit herb garden.

The teleportation array could only randomly teleport the cultivators into Fei Ling Island, and their destination depended on luck. At this point, Lu Ping couldn’t help envying the cultivators who were teleported into the spirit herb garden.

However, as long as the land had rich spiritual energy, the sects would always cultivate it to plant spirit herbs. Of course, these spiritual fields wouldn’t have as much variety and as high a quantity of spirit herbs as an actual spirit herb garden.

Lu Ping made his way up Cang Mountain, scanning his surroundings with his divine sense to see if he could find any spirit herbs or spirit materials. He also paid attention to the forbidden array formation around him.

The formation had been hurriedly activated by Fei Ling Sect’s Grand Ancestor, and the ensuing battles had partially damaged it. Hence, not only did it permanently sink Fei Ling Island to the bottom of the sea, the island was also filled with countless seals.

If a cultivator accidentally touched the seals and triggered the array formation, they could end up trapped inside. If they were lucky, they could break themselves free after some time and effort. The unlucky ones could be trapped in the seals until the end of their lives. The worst-case scenario was to trigger the stronger seals and be killed right on the spot.

Lu Ping shrunk his divine sense to a range of twenty feet. Although this reduced his chances of finding something valuable further out, shrinking the divine sense allowed Lu Ping to refine his search so he could discover the more hidden and indiscernible seals.

On his journey to the top of Cang Mountain, Lu Ping discovered and avoided these hidden seals several times. One of the seals was particularly powerful. With a broken mystic instrument he picked up along the way, Lu Ping threw it against the seal. The mystic instrument instantly shattered into bits and fragments, leaving it irreparable.

Lu Ping was alarmed. No wonder Enlightened Master Jiang said that whenever Fei Ling Island was opened, a large number of cultivators always ended up killed and imprisoned by the island’s seals.

Lu Ping saw a lot of bodies on the pathway, most of which were badly decomposed. It was difficult to determine whether they were Fei Ling disciples or the other North Ocean’s disciples. Their interspatial pouches were missing and Lu Ping didn’t care to search for them. He swiftly cast a fire spell and burned the bodies clean.

Although he was a pure water cultivator, it wasn’t a problem for him to cast some of the easier and weaker fire spells.

Since he’d brought a number of interspatial pouches with him, he collected plenty of abandoned and broken mystic instruments and their fragments. He planned to bring them back to Chen Lian to see if they could still be useful for anything.

And then there were the spirit herbs. He had harvested quite a number of the 100-year Blood Refining spirit herbs, but not a single 500-year one. He found a few spirit stones, but they were all low-grade. Even then, Lu Ping still picked them up since having something was better than nothing.

Fei Ling Island would stay open for eighteen days for the cultivators to explore. Although they had plenty of time, Fei Ling Island was also enormous. Fei Ling Sect had operated on the island for more than tens of thousands of years—no one knew how many hidden places and secrets the island held.

Lu Ping was headed for Cang Mountain’s summit, where the Pavilion of Smithery was located. A branch of the spirit vein was located atop the mountain, with three small spirit herb gardens planted outside of the Pavilion of Smithery. He wondered how these three gardens were faring now.