Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

The Grade 3 disciples seldom cultivated in the side hall. Most of them were out traveling in the real world for more experiences. They would hone their skills, increase their knowledge, complete the sect’s missions tasked to them, as well as find their own fate and fortunes.

Even for those disciples whose cultivation had yet to reach the Eighth Layer, they would only have a year to cultivate in the side hall before going out on their own. The sect would still give them tasks to complete and reward them accordingly in order to better prepare themselves.

Thus, only a few Grade 3 disciples were still in the side hall. Most of them would only return for the year-end competition.

Zhen Ling Sect was an experienced sect with a long history in the cultivation world. It knew that flowers grown carefully indoors wouldn’t be able to survive the scorching days and stormy nights like the flowers grown outside.

Hence, the disciples must be given their own space and freedom, and they must journey outside to fight for their own future. Only the strong could make it back alive and these were the elites the sect could truly entrust its future to.

After Lu Ping received Master Immortal Liu’s notice, he spent the next half year in cultivation, preparing himself to face the real, yet cruel, cultivation world.

After entering the Eighth Layer, Lu Ping’s charm-crafting mastery had also increased. He now produced fewer low-grade charms. Most of them were mid to high-grade charms, and even top-grade charms were not uncommon anymore. Right now, Lu Ping had stored a large reserve of top-grade charms for his own use.

In retrospect, Lu Ping didn’t actually use up all his top-grade charms during the competition. He held firm and kept the last trump card to himself. After all, if he revealed all of his top-grade charms, it would be impossible to keep his charm-crafting mastery a secret anymore.

The top-grade blood charms were almost as strong as the common spells of an Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivator. It was hard to tell if the sect would explicitly ask him to focus on charm-crafting and twist his profession into a charm-crafting master instead. That certainly didn’t align with his wishes.

In addition, Lu Ping didn’t participate in the following match. Otherwise, it would be nigh impossible to keep holding back if he wanted to win. After all, the prize for entering the top eight was a Blood Condensation Pellet. That was an item worth giving up his last trump card for.

However, what’s done is done. There was no way he could turn back time to change the past. Lu Ping could only comfort himself with this thought.

That Blood Condensation Pellet—it was something he couldn’t get out of his mind!

The increase in his charm-crafting mastery also signified the increase in his spirit stone income. However, that also meant switching his medicinal pellets to the better and stronger Blood Essence Pellets which were more expensive. Hence, although he had the prizes from the competition and the welfare as an Eighth Layer disciple, Lu Ping’s spirit stones only increased by a little.

Fortunately, after half a year of cultivation, Lu Ping’s cultivation progress was steadily improving. But his cultivation progress would not be increasing as fast as it did during the Seventh Layer. It would be impossible for him to enter the Ninth Layer anytime soon. After all, his cultivation base in the Sixth Layer had been cultivated to its highest state before the breakthrough.

Today was the opening day of the monthly market. Lu Ping wore his mask and found a place in the market to set up his charm stall. Right now, his charms were well-known in the market. In addition, Lu Ping now stored any top-grade charms for his own use, and more high-grade charms were released for sale, thus attracting more buyers.

Usually, Lu Ping’s charms would be sold out just a few moments after setting up his stall. Today was no exception as well. The moment he opened up for business, cultivators quickly surrounded him to buy his wares.

It was at this moment a brawny man in his thirties walked up to Lu Ping. He squatted down on the ground and looked at the charms lying on a piece of cloth. He picked up a high-grade charm, looked at it and said, “Brother, your charm-crafting is good.”

After saying that, he looked up and stared at Lu Ping without mentioning buying any charms.

Lu Ping looked at him and didn’t deny being the charm-crafter. He had been coming to the market every month to sell charms, there was no way he could hide his traces. It was easy for others to notice this fact.

Hence, he answered placidly, “My fellow Daoist, you’ve overestimated me. May I ask, do you wish to buy any charms?”

The man smirked and replied, “Brother, I’ll make a deal with you—I’ll take all of these charms. What do you say?”

Lu Ping was startled for a split second, then said, “Sure. That’ll be a total of—”

The man saw that Lu Ping didn’t get his meaning, so he quickly interrupted, “Sorry if I didn’t make it clear. What I’m saying is, I’m inviting brother to join the “Cultivator Sharing Union” as a professional charm-crafter. The union will buy all of the charms you craft at the right price. What do you say?”

Lu Ping never expected to find himself in this kind of situation.

Zhen Ling Sect was a powerful sect with a long history. Hence, it was only natural that it attracted rogue cultivators to set up all kinds of markets around the sect’s location. These rogue cultivators were a mixture of good and bad cultivators. It was also common that some of the rogue cultivators would group up together to form their own little social circles.

Lu Ping had seen many situations like this happening around the market, but this was his first time being approached.

If it were a union formed by a group of righteous rogue cultivators, a professional charm-crafter would naturally be respected by the members and given good treatment. However, for unions led by ruthless rogue cultivators, not only would the professional charm-crafter be mistreated, he might even be enslaved by the members. Worse, he could be killed after being robbed of everything they could from him, including his charms, wealth, and charm-crafting manuals.

As a disciple of the Zhen Ling Side Hall with a bright future, Lu Ping naturally didn’t have the slightest thought of joining them and becoming a rogue cultivator. He immediately rejected the offer and said, “I’m really sorry. I have no intentions of joining your union.”

The man’s face changed and he said, “What’s the matter? Are you looking down on us? The “Cultivator Sharing Union” has 18 rogue cultivators. Each and every one of us is either in the Eighth or Ninth Layer. On top of that, the union leader is a Blood Condensation Realm Great Cultivator.”

His tone changed the more he spoke, and eventually, his words contained hints of a threat in the end.

Lu Ping had once seen Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master, albeit far away in the center arena. So it was natural that he wouldn’t take this union seriously and he replied coldly, “Really sorry about that. But I am a Zhen Ling Sect disciple. I have no intentions of joining you.”

Lu Ping didn’t want to get into more trouble and revealed his identity. He was hoping that the Zhen Ling Sect’s name could make the man back down on his own.

Sure enough, when the man found out Lu Ping was a Zhen Ling Sect disciple, his vicious face looked stunned and he said awkwardly, “Oh, you’re from the sect. I see, I see. Of course our little union wouldn’t attract your interest. I’ll take my leave, then.”

After saying so, he turned and left right away.

Lu Ping didn’t say anything and continued to sell his charms. With the spirit stones earned, he bought the cultivation resources he needed and some other essential items in the market.

Lately, the top-tier Blood Refining Realm side hall disciples were organizing a small auction of their own. Thanks to his rising fame after the competition, he was naturally invited to join as well. Lu Ping was also interested in the auction and accepted the invitation.

Thus, he had increased his efforts to save up more spirit stones, just to avoid missing out on anything he liked in the auction. Although, Lu Ping really didn’t expect to see anything that would attract his attention.

At the same time, Lu Ping wasn’t idle about the recent incident. He carefully asked around the market for information on the “Cultivator Sharing Union”. After all, the man had come straight for him, showing that the union had checked up on Lu Ping before deciding to approach him.

However, after asking around, no one in the market seemed to know about them. He only found out from a cultivator that the “Cultivator Sharing Union” was new to the markets around Zhen Ling Sect.

It was said that the union members were strong and powerful among the low-class rogue cultivators. They were also vicious and ruthless, always out in the wild hunting down monsters. They would trade materials gathered from the monsters killed for cultivation resources.

And as soon as they came, they had also established a good relationship with the sect’s outer disciples. This allowed them to secure a place among the rogue cultivators around Zhen Ling Sect.

After shopping around the market and finding nothing more to interest him, Lu Ping made his way back to the side hall.

Despite owning a flying mystic instrument, using it would cost a lot of arcane energy. Lu Ping wasn’t about to waste arcane energy just to fly around the market showing off his new mystic instrument.

Hence, he could only cast a footwork spell and walk back to the side hall.