Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-96

As the power of the array formation grew weaker, the cultivators’ spirits were also lifted, and the atmosphere grew more intense.

Zhang Wei-Qing commanded the Xuan Ling Sect’s group of sixteen cultivators, stationing four cultivators at each side to protect the group’s formation. This way, they could buy time for their group members to enter the cave-dwelling before the other cultivators.

The Zhen Ling group, as well as the Hai Yan-Shui Yan group, was slowly approaching the Xuan Ling group from the sides. Zhang Wei-Qing felt a sense of danger, and he turned to give a command to the cultivators guarding the sides.

It was at that moment, a popping sound could be heard, and the cave-dwelling’s protective array formation broke like a water bubble. Before the cultivators could recall their mystic instruments, the Xuan Ling group had already rushed towards the cave-dwelling.

On both sides, the Zhen Ling group and Hai Yan-Shui Yan group were also quick to intercept Xuan Ling’s advance by separating their formation from the middle. The two groups followed closely behind Zhang Wei-Qing and became the second batch of cultivators to enter the cave-dwelling.

But unexpectedly, the eight Xuan Ling cultivators who were covering the rear of the formation suddenly stepped aside from the cave-dwelling’s entrance. Without warning, they cast their mystic instruments and attacked the cultivators around them.

Immediately, the people following behind the three groups were stimulated and the situation turned chaotic, with cultivators blindly attacking everyone around them. The battle raged right outside the cave-dwelling’s entrance.

Wei Zi-Heng, Su Zi-Peng, Lu Ping, and a few others who reacted quickly had dashed into the cave-dwelling before the pandemonium. Several cultivators from the Hai Yan-Shui Yan group entered at the same time.

The two groups, in addition to those from Xuan Ling Sect, searched everywhere inside the cave-dwelling. They didn’t hesitate to grab every useful item they saw and put it in their interspatial pouches, sweeping those that were useless to the ground, causing them to shatter into pieces.

The cave-dwelling was spacious, like a small maze. It had a front hall and many smaller cave rooms interconnected with each other.

Lu Ping moved swiftly through the cave rooms and stored anything that looked useful into his interspatial pouches. However, he noticed a lack of valuables in the cave-dwelling, or at least, he hadn’t seen any yet.

The cave-dwelling was already a mess when they entered, but not in the way that it was searched and plundered before. It seemed like the owner had packed their valuables and left during the elimination war on Fei Ling Sect. But before leaving, the owner had activated the protective array formation and sealed the cave-dwelling.

After moving into another room, Lu Ping saw a decaying wooden shelf with a dozen jade boxes on top of it. The jade boxes were sealed with Spirit Concealing Charms—they likely contained spirit herbs. Beside the jade boxes were two jade bottles, which probably contained medicinal pellets or some other treasure.

Lu Ping was overjoyed, and he quickly stored everything in his interspatial pouch. Suddenly, he heard the sound of an explosion caused by arcane energies; the cultivators had started to fight in the cave-dwelling.

When Lu Ping was about to leave the cave room, the battling noises grew louder. It seemed like the valuables in the cave-dwelling were almost cleared out and the cultivators were shifting their focus to those who had valuables on them.

Lu Ping shook his head and went out to regroup with Wei Zi-Heng and the rest. Moving alone in a situation like this would only make him a target, and he didn’t want to die just like that.

Suddenly, a strong wind gushed into the cave room as two cultivators flew inside one after another.

Lu Ping was shocked when he met eyes with a cultivator from Xuan Ling Sect. When the cultivator noticed Lu Ping was from Zhen Ling Sect, he didn’t hesitate and immediately shot a dagger towards Lu Ping’s face.

Lu Ping was naturally annoyed to be caught in a situation like this. At the same time, he also noticed that the cultivator following behind was from Hai Yan Sect, whose uniform reminded Lu Ping of the ambush on Cang Mountain. Naturally, he had a bad impression of Hai Yan Sect because of his previously unpleasant experience.

He abruptly cast out his high-grade mystic instrument, Soaring Wing Swords, and attacked them simultaneously with one sword each.

How arrogant!

The cultivators were furious that Lu Ping actually dared to engage them both at the same time. When did Zhen Ling Second Layer Blood Condensation cultivators become so arrogant?

Ding—

Dang—

Two loud dins rang out when their mystic instruments clashed with Lu Ping’s Soaring Wing Swords.

“A high-grade mystic instrument!”

“State of Technique!”

The two cultivators exclaimed one after another. They instantly put away their contemptuous expressions, and focused on the battle.

Lu Ping spread out his divine sense—equivalent to those in the Fourth Layer Blood Condensation Realm—to learn about the situation in the cave-dwelling. He discovered that the cultivators were mainly heading for cave rooms with battles happening inside.

Hence, he didn’t hesitate and wanted to end the battle quickly. He cast out Landslide, but because of the height of the cave room, it couldn’t be smashed down from the air like usual, so he rammed it forward instead.

The Xuan Ling cultivator shrieked in terror as Landslide rammed him into the stone wall with a devastating force. Ribs severely deformed, his blood sprayed everywhere like a fountain.

The Hai Yan cultivator was horrified. “Two high-grade mystic instruments? How is this possible?”

Lu Ping didn’t bother to answer him. The Soaring Wing Swords regrouped and headed fiercely for the Hai Yan cultivator, like a giant wave crashing on the shore. His body was dismembered into seven pieces.

Lu Ping looted their interspatial pouches and looked at the item held in the Xuan Ling cultivator’s hands. This item was the reason for their running and chasing, and unintentionally entered the cave room Lu Ping was in.

Lu Ping took the item and realized they were two medicinal pellet recipes, but it wasn’t a good time to study them now. The ruckus in the cave-dwelling was more chaotic than ever, it seemed like the cultivators outside were attacking their way into the cave-dwelling.

Lu Ping waved his hands and burned the bodies into ashes. If there were two bodies from the Xuan Ling and Hai Yan sects here in the cave room, even an idiot would know who was responsible for it. After all, only three groups had entered the cave-dwelling first: Xuan Ling, Zhen Ling, and Hai Yan-Shui Yan.

Lu Ping left the cave room and saw Wei Zi-Heng, Su Zi-Peng, and the rest moving together. He looked to the back and asked, “Where is Senior Brother He Zi-Feng and Senior Brother Tian Zong-Liang?”

Wei Zi-Heng’s face turned gloomy. “The two junior brothers have fallen. They were killed by the other two groups in the midst of the tangled battles. But we didn’t let them walk away; we killed two from Xuan Ling Sect, one from Hai Yan Sect, and two from Shui Yan Pavilion.”

Lu Ping wanted to tell him that he had also killed two, but on second thought, he decided not to.

The group hurried to the entrance, they were worried about their martial siblings outside of the cave-dwelling.

On the way, Lu Ping learned that the three groups that rushed into the cave-dwelling only crossed paths in the real alchemy room.

In the alchemy room, there were two places for the cauldrons, but one was already empty, leaving a single high-grade cauldron next to it. The cauldron was surrounded by wooden shelves filled with jade boxes that contained a large number of medicinal pellets. There were also jade scrolls, medicinal pellet recipes, and more on the wooden shelves.

As the items were disorderly placed on the wooden shelves, Xuan Ling Group who entered the alchemy room first before the others took the lead and swept away more than half of the resources on the wooden shelves.

The other two groups, Zhen Ling Group and Hai Yan-Shui Yan Group, followed closely behind. But when Wei Zi-Heng saw that Xuan Ling Group had already taken the lead, he decided not to compete with them for resources like Hai Yan-Shui Yan Group. Instead, he commanded his team to secure the high-grade cauldron.

The other two groups also had their eyes on the cauldron, but their cultivators weren’t as united as the Zhen Ling Group. By the time the two groups plundered the items on the wooden shelves, Wei Zi-Heng had already put away the cauldron in his interspatial pouch.

When Lu Ping heard Wei Zi-Heng’s explanation, a thought flashed in his mind, and he used his divine sense to inspect the interspatial pouches he looted. Sure enough, he found a total of 30 jade boxes and 13 jade bottles from the two cultivators he just killed.

The Xuan Ling cultivator had plundered more items, and those two medicinal pellet recipes were more valuable than anything else. There were also nearly 6,000 spirit stones, more than a hundred 500-year spirit herbs, a few mystic instruments, and other miscellaneous items.

Lu Ping roughly assessed his possessions, he had nearly five hundred 500-year spirit herbs and two 1000-year spirit herbs which could be counted as another hundred 500-year spirit herbs. Meaning, he now had roughly six hundred spirit herbs with him.

In addition, he’d also looted nearly fifty jade boxes which contained an unknown amount of 500-year spirit herbs.

As more and more cultivators swarmed into the cave-dwelling, another round of plundering ensued.

The group of five, including Lu Ping, exited the cave-dwelling and regrouped with the rest. They then discovered that only five of the eight cultivators were left; three of them died in the chaotic battle.

Zhen Ling Group initially had fifteen cultivators and only ten were left now. Among the five deaths, two were from Zhen Ling Sect and one each from the other three sects.

In less than half an hour, the cultivators in the cave-dwelling came out. Obviously, the three groups that entered first had benefited the most, and the remaining cultivators only had the leftovers. There were also some unresigned cultivators who remained inside to continue searching, hoping to find something.

Lu Ping glanced around. There were roughly sixty cultivators before entering the cave-dwelling, but about forty were left now.

Zhen Ling Group initially had fifteen, but now they were left with ten.

Xuan Ling Group was the first to enter, but they paid the price of seven deaths for it. Zhang Wei-Qing departed with their remaining eight cultivators and hurriedly returned to Ling Yao Mountain.

Hai Yan-Shui Yan Group initially had ten, but half of them died in the chaotic battle. The remaining five cultivators also left in a hurry.

Wei Zi-Heng looked at everyone in the group and he said, “The matter here on Xiang Lu Mountain is over, let’s hurry to Ling Yao Mountain. The battle there will happen anytime now, we have to go back to help.”

Lu Ping pondered for a second and he said, “Senior Brother Wei, I still have some things to take care of, I’m afraid I’ll have to join the group later.”

Wei Zi-Heng frowned and said with displeasure, “Junior Brother Lu, the situation is urgent, and the more people we have, the higher chance we will win. Besides, where else other than Ling Yao Mountain will have more of a harvest?”

Lu Ping smiled apologetically and replied, “I had Enlightened Master Jiang’s guidance before I came, so I have a few places to visit.”

The moment Wei Zi-Heng and the rest heard Enlightened Master Jiang’s name, their expressions softened. Even the cultivators from Cang Hai Sect, Yu Jian Sect, and Chong Ming Sect became envious. One could tell Jiang Xuan-Lin’s fame was quite well-known.

Wei Zi-Heng laughed. “Well, if it’s Enlightened Master Jiang’s guidance, then Junior Brother, you should go quickly. But be very careful and never let your guard down. Don’t trust anyone else on Fei Ling Island other than our own!”

Lu Ping nodded in agreement and he quickly thanked him for his understanding.

Su Zi-Peng also reminded him from the side, “Just keep in mind to meet up with us within the last three days. By that time, all cultivators will gather for Fei Ling Mountain. That’s where the real battle will take place.”

After that, Lu Ping said goodbye to all of them.

Although Enlightened Master Jiang did point out a few places worth visiting on Fei Ling Island, they wouldn’t really produce much of a harvest.

Furthermore, the battle on Ling Yao Mountain would undoubtedly be fierce, but it was just a shuffle of cultivators before the expedition to Fei Ling Mountain. That was where the biggest harvest would be and the final results would depend on.

Of course, before that, Lu Ping still had one more secret—Dabao was already waiting for him ahead.