Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Finally, Hu Lili stashed away her lightning-filled formation chassis.

Luan Yu knew he had gained her trust, so he continued, "The situation isn't looking good out there. Although I won’t fight my own kind, I cannot bring myself to see the destruction of Brother Lu's island. Miss Hu, you can leave the protective formation and its chassis to my care; go ahead and help your friend out there. Otherwise, I'm afraid this island will really fall."

Lu Ling nodded, through her divine revelation she could see that Chen Lian was being besieged right now. He was already in a difficult position and his life was in danger if he didn't receive any help soon.

It was a huge relief that Luan Yu was able to take over the formation chassis, freeing her to go and help Chen Lian.

At this time, Huang Li Island was reaching its breaking point. The Mid Core Forging Realm monsters were penetrating the protective formation with their attacks, allowing the monster cultivators to infiltrate the island.

The monster cultivators were only the icing on the cake, the real threat was the three monster Enlightened Masters and the two hostile human Enlightened Masters on the island. Although two of them were engaged with Chen Lian, and two more were focused on breaking into the cave-dwelling, the final one was roaming the island and slaughtering the humans at will.

This monster Enlightened Master had already killed 21 Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators on the island.

Fortunately, because of Huang Li Island's remote location and the destruction of the teleportation formation, the humans knew they had to rely on each other to defend. Hence, they all tacitly worked together to fight back.

The Zhen Ling Sect disciples had formed the Three Essence Five Element Formations, allowing them to fight the monster cultivators with ease, and even take a couple hits from the monster Enlightened Master.

As soon as Hu Lili flew out of the cave-dwelling, the hostile human Enlightened Master quickly chased after her, while the monster Enlightened Master stayed to continue attacking the cave-dwelling's protective formation that was gradually weakening.

The monster Enlightened Master was excited. The biggest merit in this whole plan was going to be his if he could break into the cave-dwelling and disable the island's protective formation.

In the past three years, the monsters in the northern region held heavy grudges against Huang Li Island for the impact it brought them; even the monster race as a whole was annoyed by its existence.

The human cultivators used Huang Li Island as an operating base to support their tactical objectives and strategic goals. For instance, Blood Condensation Realm cultivators would venture into the sea to hunt monsters and to plunder resources, while the sects would send disciples to carry out missions in the depths of the monster sea.

This endangered the safety of the northern region monsters, as they had to watch out for any human cultivators that might appear out of nowhere in the region. Furthermore, this also disrupted the monster race's plans, causing them to spread out their forces more which thinned out their defenses.

Hence, the monster race had never stopped trying to take out Huang Li Island, but the human race also acknowledged the importance of the island. As a result, every time the monsters attacked, the humans would quickly come to aid the island. Otherwise, with Huang Li Island's defensive power alone, it was impossible to prevent it from falling.

However, just as the monster Enlightened Master was imagining the praise and rewards he would receive for securing the island, three whip-like attacks lashed out from the cave-dwelling.

The monster Enlightened Master immediately knew the attacks were from three Peak Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. Just when he thought that he could casually dismiss the attacks, the three attacks suddenly combined together and became multiple times stronger, giving him a sense of danger.

The monster Enlightened Master quickly retreated while a stone wall was raised in front of him.

Bang—

The whip attack struck the stone wall and crushed it into pieces. The monster Enlightened Master was surprised by the power of the attack as well as the appearance of three children in semi-monster form slithering out from the cave-dwelling.

…

Chen Lian's opponents were a Third Layer Core Forging Realm monster and a Second Layer Core Forging Realm human. Although Chen Lian was also in the Second Layer Core Forging Realm, he was confident that he could take either of them in a one-on-one fight. However, his opponents naturally wouldn't give him the chance and had forced him into a precarious situation.

Suddenly, the sound of a drum beating and a buzzing noise appeared behind Chen Lian, causing his eyes to light up.

The two opponents looked behind Chen Lian and saw a purple cloud flying towards them from above. When the cloud got closer to them, they noticed that it was actually a swarm of giant bees!

The human pet made the first move and sent out a few fireballs that exploded in the swarm. However, only the five bees that were caught in the middle of the explosion were killed, a dozen fell to the ground unconscious, and the rest remained practically unaffected.

Individually, the bees were nothing to Enlightened Masters; the weakest bees in the swarm were in the Mid Blood Refining Realm, with even the strongest only being in the Mid Blood Condensation Realm. However, when they formed a swarm and were in a Dao army formation, they could even threaten the life of an Enlightened Master.

As the drumming got louder, the bee swarm moved with more grace and agility. Chen Lian glanced behind and saw Zheng Jie approaching from a distance.

With the bee swarm holding the human Enlightened Master down, Chen Lian was finally able to loosen his restraints and fight with the monster Enlightened Master. Immediately, he changed his stance and a ring of fire surrounded him, sending forth a massive heatwave.

…

A few moments ago, Hu Lili ignored the human Enlightened Master chasing behind her and went straight to Zheng Jie, passing her the drum and instructing her to assist Chen Lian. Then, she was on the move again before the human Enlightened Master could catch up. This time, she was headed for the monster Enlightened Master that was slaughtering the human cultivators on the island.

"As an Enlightened Master, you are not to make a move on the Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. Are you not afraid of the human's retaliation for breaking this unspoken rule?"

The monster Enlightened Master had clearly recently broken through as he was only in the First Layer Core Forging Realm. It wasn’t surprising that he was savoring the sense of superiority of being a high-ranking cultivator while slaughtering lower-realm cultivators.

When he heard Hu Lili's question, he couldn't help but sneer, "Retaliation? What evidence will you have to prove your point when there is no survivor left on the island? We can say whatever we want and there is not a damn thing you can do about it!"

Hu Lili's heart sank, the monster race's determination was stronger than she had expected, they were even planning on massacring the whole island! Why would the monster race allow this to happen? Was this a personal decision or the will of the monster race?

Although the humans and monsters were enemies, there had never been a mass massacre before. This was due to a tacit agreement between the races to keep the casualties at a minimum. But if one side started a massacre, the other side would definitely retaliate, causing a vicious cycle that could annihilate more than half of the population in the North Ocean.

If the monster race planned to massacre all the cultivators on Huang Li Island without bearing any consequences, they would have to make sure they left no survivors on the island, classifying the casualties as typical war losses between lower-rank cultivators.

In other words, the monster race had come fully prepared and were confident that they would be able to kill everyone here, including Hu Lili and Chen Lian!

All these thoughts occurred within a brief moment as Hu Lili realized that the situation was far worse than she had initially thought. But now was not the time to think; the protective formation would still hold out under Luan Yu's care, and the hostile Enlightened Masters on the island were temporarily held back.

However, the monster Enlightened Masters outside the island were still constantly sending monster cultivators into the island. The effect was yet to be significant, but sooner or later, the number of monsters alone would drown the island.

The lightning formation chassis reappeared in Hu Lili's hand, enlarging into a round plate which she then stepped onto. Then, she pointed her hand at the monster Enlightened Master and a lightning bolt struck down towards him from the clouds above.

As Hu Lili attacked, the human pet also caught up to her and trapped her in the center. The monster Enlightened Master blocked the lightning strike, and laughed happily, "Fine, you will also have to be killed anyway, we’re only bringing this agenda forward a little. After you, I will resume slaughtering the little ones."

After that, the two of them worked together and attacked Hu Lili.

While Hu Lili was not as experienced in combat, her greatest achievement was her mastery in array formations. Having that said, she was still no stranger to battles and certainly wasn’t an easy target!

The lightning formation chassis was her nascent weapon. It was made using the Thousand-year Lightning Struck Spirit Pine Wood given to her by Lu Ping, and later upgraded into a mystic treasure with Chen Lian's help. Additionally, it had one of the strongest elements in the cultivation world, lightning.

As Hu Lili made a combination of hand signs, the lightning formation chassis echoed back and raised a curtain of lightning that wrapped her tightly into a lightning ball, completely blocking the attacks.

The monster Enlightened Master smirked coldly, "A Master Formationist? Let's see how many attacks your turtle shell can take before breaking!"