Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Lu Ping couldn’t help puking when he saw the pile of mashed meat on the ground. A moment ago, that mound was still a living cultivator. He forced himself to step forward and loot the slender cultivator’s interspatial pouch.

Then, he cast an earth spell to dig a hole in the ground and buried what was left of the slender cultivator inside it. After that, he turned back to loot the brawny cultivator’s interspatial pouch and cast a fireball to burn his dead body into ashes.

Lu Ping took out a jade bottle from his own interspatial pouch and poured out a Spirit Regenerating Pellet. He consumed the pellet and his depleted arcane energy quickly recovered.

Lu Ping looked around him. Evening had fallen, the forest was dark and quiet. He made his way back to the side hall without looking back.

After Lu Ping left the forest, two silhouettes suddenly appeared in the sky. They stood in midair as if atop an invisible flight of stairs. This was an ability of the Blood Condensation Realm cultivators—the power of flight.

The two looked at the battle marks left in the forest and exchanged a look. Then, with a delighted laugh, they turned and flew back to the Zhen Ling Sect’s mountain.

Lu Ping returned to his room and couldn’t wait to see his loot. He quickly opened up the two cultivators’ interspatial pouches.

When he saw the materials and resources inside, his feelings of elation wiped away the exhaustion from battle. So it seemed that not all rogue cultivators were poor. At least, not those two.

However, to be able to gather this amount of wealth with their cultivation levels, and considering their menacing actions today, the Cultivator Sharing Union was definitely one of those vicious unions that robbed other rogue cultivators.

The first piece of loot that caught his eye was the spirit stones. Added together, they were more than three hundred spirit stones. To his surprised delight, two of these spirit stones were mid-grade. It was Lu Ping’s first time seeing one at that value.

As Lu Ping’s cultivation progressed, his wealth increased alongside it. However, the cultivation resources needed to support such progress had also increased correspondingly.

Hence, though he was continuously crafting and selling charms to support his own cultivation progress, he only managed to gather a small amount of wealth at the end of the day. These three hundred plus spirit stones were definitely a sizable fortune to him.

Secondly, there were the medicinal pellets. The brawny cultivator had two bottles of Blood Essence Pellets that contained a total of 28 medicinal pellets, which just happened to be the amount Lu Ping needed in a month. This allowed him to save another month’s worth of medical pellets.

Whereas the slender cultivator was in the Ninth Layer, so he used Blood Refining pellets for his cultivation. Lu Ping found two jade bottles containing a total of forty medicinal pellets altogether.

Among the Blood Refining Realm medicinal pellets, Blood Refining Pellets were far superior to Blood Purification Pellets. They were suitable for Lu Ping’s current cultivation.

However, the medicinal efficacy of the Blood Refining Realm would be overly abundant for an Eighth Layer disciple. His cultivation could only absorb a portion, and the rest would be wasted for nothing. This was something the frugal Lu Ping would never accept.

Other than that, he found a few other types of medicinal pellets used for recuperating injuries and regenerating arcane energy.

I guess I don’t have to prepare any more medicinal pellets for the upcoming sect missions. This way, I can save on materials, Lu Ping thought, a spot of his miserliness resurfacing again.

Moving on, there were also the mystic instruments. The first one was the jade-bottle from the brawny cultivator and the flying sword belonging to the slender cultivator.

Lu Ping didn’t hesitate at all. He picked them up and started channeling his arcane energy into the mystic instruments, refining them to claim ownership.

Although he couldn’t control four mystic instruments simultaneously, one never knew what might be needed in battle. Hence, having four would give him the flexibility to choose whatever was appropriate for the situation.

Landslide was better for ambushes or if he was caught in a stalemate. However, the cost of arcane energy needed to cast Landslide limited its use by a lot.

The battle in the forest was the perfect example. Despite Landslide being a powerful mystic instrument, the slender cultivator attacked three times with his flying sword in the same time Lu Ping cast Landslide twice.

If not for that, Lu Ping would have long suppressed the slender cultivator in battle already. He wouldn't even have to use his flying skiff to chase after him.

The loot also consisted of many different kinds of herbs, valuable monster parts, as well as crude ores used for smithing.

Perhaps he should contribute these materials to the sect in exchange for more contribution points.

A sect also had to find ways to sustain itself. Especially for a sect with a long history of almost ten thousand years. Zhen Ling Sect had developed a robust and complete system in every aspect, and the contribution point system was part of that.

Through contribution points, disciples could exchange for more valuable resources or even for items that weren’t available in the market. These resources could be skills, spells, medicinal pellets, weapons, and more.

By doing so, not only would the disciple benefit, but the sect could also gather more resources and strengthen its foundation.

Lu Ping even counted two pieces of 500-year-old Blood Essence Grass and Dark Rathen Vines; these herbs were required to concoct Blood Condensation Pellets.

It was said that Blood Condensation Pellets required 24 types of 500-year-old herbs to concoct. But if a disciple could gather eight of those herbs, they could still exchange them for a Blood Condensation Pellet.

Surely, one could tell just how excited Lu Ping was to see the two spirit herbs. They were practically one-quarter of a Blood Condensation Pellet!

But why not exchange a Blood Condensation Pellet with contribution points? This was because not everything could be traded using contribution points. This included Blood Condensation Pellets.

Such medicinal pellets were crucial to a sect’s future and could only be exchanged with valuable resources. After all, it was a sect, not a market where everything could be bought with spirit stones.

Lu Ping continued to sift through the loot and found a few jade scrolls. These scrolls recorded spells and also information about the cultivation world. Lu Ping briefly skimmed through their contents and compared them with the jade scrolls received from Master Immortal Liu. As a result, he grasped a firmer understanding about the cultivation world.

Among them, there was one particular scroll that caught Lu Ping’s attention. It had clear records pertaining to the Zhen Ling Sect. Most records were about the Blood Refining Realm disciples; even a few Blood Condensation Realm master immortals were mentioned.

Furthermore, the scroll also had a record on the battles and results of the Zhen Ling Side Hall’s competition. It even noted that Lu Ping was listed as one of the “Seven Brutes” and some other details that even he hadn’t known.

Lu Ping recalled the conversation between the brawny cultivator and the slender cultivator in the forest. They mentioned someone hiring the Cultivator Sharing Union to collect information on Zhen Ling Sect.

He was shocked and thought, Is someone scheming against the sect?

But he quickly brushed away these thoughts. How was that possible? After all, what could they do to the sect by gathering information about the Blood Refining Realm disciples?

This was mainly because the Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master were the true pillars supporting the sect’s prowess. The Blood Condensation Realm master immortals were considered as stronger disciples by comparison.

So he shifted the focus of his thoughts. What if someone was planning to do something to the sect, but their targets were just the Blood Refining Realm disciples? Being one himself, wouldn’t that make him a target as well?

It looked like he still had to report this matter to the sect. He just hoped that the sect wouldn’t confiscate the loot he took.

Lu Ping had been living in the side hall since he was six—ten years had passed since then. Surely his sense of belonging to the sect was strong. Even if his soul was from another world and his mindset had been cultivated by the teachings of that world, he still knew to be grateful. He would repay the sect’s kindness!

After that, he proceeded to inspect the rest of his gathered treasure. On the second day, after the morning cultivation, Lu Ping reported yesterday’s incident in its entirety to Master Immortal Liu and passed the jade scroll containing the sect’s information to him.

Master Immortal Liu reaction was lukewarm. He didn’t even bat an eye at the proffered jade scroll. He merely replied, “Petty bugs and their petty actions! It’s not a big deal, so don’t worry about it. Focus on your cultivation and prepare for your upcoming mission.”

Lu Ping nodded and just as he was about to withdraw, an item flew away from his waist. It was his disciple identity tag. Master Immortal Liu casually wiped his hand across the identity tag before returning it to Lu Ping. He said, “I’ll count that as a meritorious deed. You may leave now.”

Lu Ping took the identity tag, inwardly excited at seeing ten more contribution points had been added to it. Twenty points could be exchanged for a low-grade mystic instrument. So ten points was worth half a mystic instrument!

However, he already had four low-grade mystic instruments. Even if he spent the contribution points, he would use it on a mid-grade mystic instrument to be used in his Ninth Layer. But buying one would cost fifty points.

On the other hand, judging from Master Immortal Liu’s reaction, Lu Ping had a feeling that the sect already knew about the hidden enemy in the dark. However, he wasn’t confident in his conjecture. After all, who was he to guess what the great cultivators in the sect were planning?

He also felt embarrassed for thinking that the sect would confiscate his loot. In retrospect, his thoughts had been too narrow-minded.

After all, why would the Blood Condensation Realm master immortals, or even the sect, care about the treasure of some mere Blood Refining Realm cultivators?