Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

There was a forest that Lu Ping had to go through to get back to the side hall. After entering the forest, he took out a charm from his interspatial pouch and slapped it on his body.

A ripple passed through his body and he suddenly disappeared from the forest—it was an Invisibility Charm. Blood Refining Realm cultivators could only craft the simplest Invisibility Charm that could only make the user disappear from another’s vision.

But if a Blood Condensation Realm disciple was present, his divine sense could immediately sense Lu Ping’s location. Furthermore, any experienced and observant Blood Refining Realm cultivator could trace the tracks left behind in the surroundings and find out his location.

Not long later, two cultivators sneaked into the forest while carefully hiding in the cover of shade. Even though they moved stealthily, their speed was not slow at all. In just a few seconds, they reached the area Lu Ping had disappeared from.

Both cultivators came to a stop. One was the brawny man that Lu Ping met in the market, while the other had a tall and slender, bamboo-like stature.

The slender cultivator glanced around and said, “His traces end here. Seems like he noticed us and wiped his tracks.”

The brawny man gritted his teeth and said viciously, “He sure is intelligent for such a little prick. I’ve asked around. That prick’s made a name for himself for his high-quality charms. Sheesh, we could’ve enslaved him to craft all our charms and squeezed out everything he knew about the Zhen Ling Sect. He’s lucky to slip away.”

The slender cultivator frowned and chided unhappily, “Shut your mouth. We’re only hired to collect info on the Zhen Ling Sect. If we weren’t in such urgent need of a charm-crafter, why else would we target one of their disciples? That sect isn’t something our Cultivator Sharing Union can mess with.”

The brawny man gave an awkward smile and stayed silent. The slender cultivator carefully looked around and said reluctantly, “Maybe he hasn’t left. Maybe he just used an Invisibility Charm and he’s still somewhere in this forest.”

The brawny man was nonchalant. “So what if he’s standing right next to us? He’s just an Eighth Layer disciple who’s only cultivated for a few years. Would he dare to challenge us, a Ninth Layer and Eighth Layer who’s risked our lives in the wild fighting savage monsters?”

As soon as he finished saying so, a wave of spiritual energy rippled behind his back. He turned around in shock and saw a stamp seal flying up and enlarging. It grew a few yards bigger, ramming down in the blink of an eye.

As the stamp seal crashed down, the brawny man could clearly see the weapon’s name inscribed on the bottom!

Instantly realizing that matters had taken a wrong turn, the slender cultivator thought, Not good!

The slender cultivator released a high-grade charm as soon as Lu Ping’s attack revealed his location. At the same time, his left hand made a hand sign and he started chanting.

A flying sword flew out of the slender cultivator’s interspatial pouch as he prepared to cast the [Bursting Flame Spell]. His spiritual energy surged into the flying sword, the sword tip aiming towards Lu Ping.

Clearly, the slender cultivator intended to land the killing blow, forcing Lu Ping to withdraw his attacks in self-defense. By doing so, the brawny man would have a chance to escape.

Suddenly, he saw a blood-red light flickering on the other’s body—Lu Ping had released a top-grade blood charm [Golden Steel Shield] to protect himself! Without a pause, he quickly released another top-grade blood charm which turned into three sharp swords that shot at the brawny man!

Lu Ping was determined to kill one of them first!

The brawny man was, after all, a cultivator that had spent half of his life fighting monsters in the wilderness. Although he was caught off guard, he still managed to cast out a bottle-like mystic instrument.

A wave of water gushed out from the bottle and pounced on Landslide.

But his movements were affected by his panicked state—Landslide rammed through the gushing water and struck the bottle directly. The brawny man’s mystic instrument was rammed away from his side and was severely damaged, causing him to spurt out a mouthful of blood. Clearly, his injuries weren’t light.

The burly man’s arcane energy was left in a mess after the attack but he had no time to smooth out and take back control anymore. Three sharp swords were quickly hurtling towards him.

He reached for a top-grade charm and slapped it on himself, raising up a wooden wall to protect his front. He took out another cane-like mystic weapon, but before he could do anything with it, the sharp swords had already pierced through the wooden wall.

The three swords’ momentum didn’t slow down at all and went straight for him. His face turned pallid and he exclaimed in terror, “Top-grade blood charm!”

He waved his cane and crushed two of the sharp swords but there was nothing he could do about the last one. His eyes opened wide, his mouth agape, his face ghastly—and his heart? Pierced right through by the third sword.

The slender cultivator already had a bad feeling when he saw Lu Ping go all out on his partner. But there was no turning back now, no time for hesitation. He cast out the [Bursting Flame Spell] and a fireball blasted toward Lu Ping as his partner’s call for help lingered in his ears.

His heart sank, but his flying sword didn’t stop. It followed closely behind the fireball and stabbed at Lu Ping.

Sure enough, the [Golden Steel Shield] Lu Ping cast on himself was a top-grade blood charm. The shield withstood the top-grade blood charm’s attack and spell, before it shattered away.

Closely behind the spell attack was the flying sword. But a mini copper mirror suddenly appeared and enlarged in front of Lu Ping. It deflected the flying sword attack.

Moments after the battle started, the brawny man was killed in the blink of an eye. Lu Ping and the slender cultivator faced off against each other as the battle seemed to reach an impasse. However, the role of hunter and prey were switched.

The slender cultivator glared viciously at Lu Ping in hatred. He clenched his teeth and said, “So young, but so calculating, with a ruthless heart to match!”

Lu Ping smiled nonchalantly. “If not, wouldn’t I be the one dead on the floor instead?”

“Good, very good!” The slender man’s heart was filled with hatred, but he was still in the Zhen Ling Sect’s territory and his opponent was not an easy target. His killing intent slowly faded and he immediately felt the need to leave.

He said, “I’ll remember today. The Cultivator Sharing Union will make you pay!”

And with that declaration, he turned and tried to leave.

“Leave? Not so fast!” Lu Ping shouted loudly, dashing forward to attack with his mystic weapon.

The slender cultivator didn’t hold back as well. He parried Lu Ping’s attack with his mystic weapon and scolded, “Prick! You might be in the Eighth Layer and you might have two mystic instruments, but you still can’t stop me if I want to leave!”

Lu Ping replied by ramming Landslide at him.

The slender cultivator cursed in his heart, quickly parrying Landslide with his flying sword.

Landslide was a strong and powerful mystic instrument but it had one drawback—it consumed a lot of arcane energy to cast.

On the other hand, the flying sword’s attacks couldn’t match Landslide in power but it was faster and more agile. In addition, Lu Ping’s opponent was in the Ninth Layer Blood Refining Realm; he was able to barely parry Lu Ping’s Landslide.

After exchanging a few bouts, the slender cultivator was now more determined to leave.

This prick was in the Eighth Layer but his arcane energy was unbelievably robust and abundant, even able to fight against his own at Ninth Layer. On top of that, the forest was nearby to Zhen Ling Sect. One of their disciples could pass by at any moment. By then, he would surely be done for.

The more he thought about it, the more he resolved to leave. However, his few attempts to escape were thwarted by Lu Ping. It was as if he knew the slender cultivator’s thoughts and was dragging out the battle so a fellow disciple would bump into them.

Seeing that it was impossible to slip away, the slender cultivator came to a decision. He opened up his interspatial pouch and released a few dozen charms of different grades all at once.

The charms caught Lu Ping off guard and he quickly slapped two more top-grade blood charms on his body to protect himself while evading the attacks. He barely made it through the barrage of charms.

Lu Ping looked up and saw the slender cultivator sprinting away back to where he came from. He quickly released a top-grade blood charm that turned into a wave of needles, shooting them at the fleeing man’s back.

But the cultivator waved his hand backward and cast a spell to ward off the needles. He didn’t even try to look back; he would rather get injured than slow down.

Sure enough, his spell couldn’t block all the needles, allowing several to stab his back. With a muffled groan of pain, he stumbled to the ground, then quickly sprinted out at an even faster speed.

Lu Ping watched him with a sneer, “What makes you think you can escape?”

A small skiff suddenly appeared beneath Lu Ping’s feet—it was the flying mystic instrument reward from the competition. Arcane energy surged into the small skiff and in a flash of white light, he was already halfway to the slender cultivator.

Just when the slender cultivator thought he’d escaped and was cursing Lu Ping in his heart, he suddenly felt a burst of wind behind him.

He looked back and saw a huge stamp seal filling his vision, shrouding the sky and falling down on him!