Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

His trip to the Medicinal Pellet Store left Lu Ping with mixed feelings of gloom and happiness. He was happy because his cultivation progress would not slow down due to the lack of medicinal pellets. The painful thing was that by Lu Ping’s estimations, he could only maintain this flow of cultivation resources for only a year.

Feeling depressed, he shook his head and decided to leave this matter behind for now. After all, he still had a year’s time to find a way to plunder more spirit stones.

Huh? Plunder? Why not think about earning spirit stones instead?

Lu Ping thought about all the preparations he needed that required spirit stones. In the end he decided not to dwell on that which could lead his life astray.

After resolving the issue with cultivation resources, it was time to make preparations for the upcoming sect mission.

For this three-year sect mission on Xuan Qi Island, he was highly likely to be stationed on one of the mini islands. Even if they assigned him to stay on Xuan Qi Island, he would be entrusted with the cultivation and excavation of its spiritual resources.

Either way, this was a new experience for him, and therefore, he needed to be prepared in advance. Otherwise, if he caused damage to the sect’s properties due to improper supervision, his rightful benefits would be forfeit, and worse, he might even have to compensate the sect’s losses.

The planting of spirit rice was a task that every disciple had to carry out. Thus, Lu Ping bought some quality spirit rice seeds at the spirit rice store. He was told that these seeds could increase the plantation’s yield by twenty percent. He bought 20 pounds of seeds with 20 spirit stones.

In the spirit pet store, Lu Ping bought a low-level Class One monster, the Spirit Seeking Mouse.

He also bought mountain spring water, which contained spiritual energy from a spirit vein located in Zhen Ling Sect. He planned to dilute it and use it to water the spirit paddies, spirit herbs, and spirit materials.

Then, he bought some charm papers, spirit ink, and enough cultivation supplies to last the next three months. Only then did he finally finish preparing everything he could think of.

Three days later, the teleportal on Xuan Qi Island flickered, and one by one, people walked through it. These were the nine Eighth Rank Blood Refining Realm disciples of the seventh group and several disciples from other groups. They formed into a team of twenty disciples, including Lin Sheng from the first group, Leng Qian from the fourteenth group, and other formidable Third Class disciples.

Zhen Ling Sect had built small teleportals on each small island that connected them to the closest medium islands. Due to the importance placed on the small spirit stone mine on Xuan Qi Island, Zhen Ling Sect even built a teleportal that connected directly to Zhen Ling Island.

As soon as the team leader, Master Immortal Liu, exited the teleportal, he flew toward the island’s pavilion. Lu Ping knew Master Immortal Liu had gone to greet and report to Perfect Person Qu who was stationed on the island.

Perfect Person Qu has been guarding Xuan Qi Island since the discovery of the small spirit mine and the ensuing conflict with Xuan Ling Sect. Since then, the island had gone through significant changes because of his presence. Other than Perfect Person Qu and the newly arrived Master Immortal Liu, there were seven other Blood Condensation Realm cultivators on the island.

The battle atmosphere hanging over the island was brewing strong. It seemed that Xuan Ling Sect still hadn’t given up on Xuan Qi Island. However, because of the “truce” between the two sects, Xuan Ling Sect could only carry out small operations to harass the other.

With the high number of Blood Condensation Realm cultivators already on the island, it seemed likely that Lu Ping would be stationed on one of the mini islands.

Sure enough, the next day, one of Perfect Person Qu’s disciples announced to the twenty disciples their respective missions. Other than the four female disciples who were assigned to stay on Xuan Qi Island, everyone else was dispatched to one of Xuan Qi Island’s sixteen mini islands.

Lu Ping was not very lucky. He was assigned to an island he’d visited before, Huang Li Island. The mini island was poor in resources, it only had a small spirit paddy field and was considered one of the poorest mini islands among the sixteen islands.

Several of his close martial siblings came to joke about his poor luck. Lu Ping couldn’t do anything other than join them in mocking himself. His open and friendly attitude lightened the atmosphere and made everyone feel more relaxed.

Before the sixteen disciples set off to their islands, Perfect Person Qu came in person and advised them to focus on their cultivation and to manage their islands well. He also warned them to be careful of Xuan Ling Sect’s activities and to promptly report back to Xuan Qi Island and the master immortals if they noticed anything.

Before leaving, Second Senior Martial Brother Du Feng approached Lu Ping and said softly, “Lin Sheng is Li Cheng’s elder cousin. That’s why you were assigned to Huang Li Island.”

Startled, Lu Ping looked over at Yao Yong and Shi Lingling who were nearby. They were also looking at him and as their eyes met, they nodded softly at him. Clearly, the three of them were trying to warn him.

Lu Ping replied gratefully, “Thank you.”

He turned to leave, quietly glancing at Lin Sheng who was chatting with a few outer hall disciples. He took out his small skiff mystic instrument and sailed toward Huang Li Island.

Watching Lu Ping’s retreating figure, there was a perplexed expression on Lin Sheng’s face as he turned his head away. Lu Ping’s cultivation progress was too fast; not two years had passed since the competition and he was already in the Ninth Rank of Blood Refining Realm.

If not for his cousin, Li Cheng, who kept bugging him to teach Lu Ping a lesson, he wouldn’t be willing to mess with someone like him at all.

Fortunately, he’d won a Blood Condensation Pellet in the competition. During the past two years, he’d cultivated to almost the peak of Ninth Rank Blood Refining Realm. As long as he entered the Blood Condensation Realm, he could do whatever he wanted with Lu Ping.

Before the mission, Lin Sheng spent a lot of his spirit stones to request the clan elders to assign him to Huang Yu Island. The island had a mini spirit mine that could excavate an average of sixty spirit stones a day. Even when he was limited to only twenty percent of the total production, that still added up to at least 300 spirit stones every month. In addition to the sect’s monthly allowance of 50 spirit stones and the clan’s support, he would definitely enter the Blood Condensation Realm soon.

On the other side, Lu Ping was actually feeling a little depressed. After all, no one would feel good if someone calculated against them, even though he never thought about going to an island with better conditions.

He’d long known that disciples would bribe the master immortals in charge for better positions and treatment. Lu Ping knew this was normal, but he just didn’t want to do the same. With his wealth, he could easily spend a few hundred spirit stones and get assigned to a nice island rich in resources. However, Lu Ping always had a subconscious need of seclusion, not wanting to let people know more about himself.

Hence, he had strived to keep a low profile, and Lin Sheng’s scheme actually helped him out with this.

He quickly decided to let the matter go and recalled that the master immortal in charge had assigned Lin Sheng to Huang Yu Island. Although Huang Yu Island and Huang Li Island were quite far apart, it was mainly because Lu Ping’s Huang Li Island was in a really remote location. But compared to the other islands, the two islands were actually the closest to each other.

When he thought about the mini spirit stone mine on Huang Yu Island, Lu Ping’s heart throbbed with greed. Should I? Well, I mean, I’m just returning the favor, right? It’s not like I’m doing something to feel guilty for.

When it came to one’s familiarization with the seas around Xuan Qi Island, perhaps even Perfect Person Qu was no match to him on this aspect.

Just when Lu Ping was thinking about what to do with the mini spirit stone on Huang Yu Island, he caught sight of the silhouette of a distant island. He would be cultivating, living, and fighting here for the next three years.

From now on, he would be the governor of Huang Li Island.