Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

While the Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters were battling, and the Late Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters were watching with interest, a ball of light appeared at the side of the battlefield.

A young man, of similar age to Lu Ping, walked out from within the light. He looked around, and said happily, "Go on, continue the fight. I will set up an array formation to trap you all. Let's see which one of you can break free from my array formation. But if you think you’re not good enough, you can work together with others."

After that, he ignored the Enlightened Masters and began to spread out spirit materials in order to set up the array formation around the battlefield.

Lu Ping glanced over at the young man in interest. Formationists rarely took part in direct fights, but this young man not only stepped into the fight voluntarily, he even asked them to wait while he finished setting up his array formation.

Interesting fellow, but what makes him think that words are useful at times like this? 24062

Lu Ping laughed happily, and said, "Sure thing, but only if you introduce yourself first and take this gift!"

After that, a silver stamp seal flew out of the battlefield, enlarging as it rammed towards the young man. The formationist immediately felt as if he had been locked onto by the stamp seal, and that running was of no use.

The other Enlightened Masters also seemed to agree with Lu Ping's words. Although they were fighting Lu Ping, they didn't block Landslide and let it fly uninterrupted towards the formationist.

The formationist yelled, "Let Xuan-Wei break your stamp seal!"

Then, Xuan-Wei lifted up a formation chassis that resembled the topography of a mountain ridge. His clothes glimmered with spiritual lights, as countless marks and patterns flashed, resonating with the formation chassis in his hands.

A moment later, the formation chassis was fully charged and enlarged tremendously. As Landslide rammed down, a bottomless pit with a strong gravitational pull suddenly opened on the floor of the mountain ridge. The pit was actually trying to pull Landslide in to swallow it whole!

Xuan-Wei laughed proudly, "Landslide… that's the name of your stamp seal. My array formation is called the Earth Pit, it naturally defeats your big stamp seal!"

Lu Ping smiled back but didn't answer, pointing his finger at Landslide. The stamp seal suddenly stopped in mid-air and began to shrink, flying away from the bottomless pit.

Xuan-Wei yelled again, "You have to ask me first if you want it back!"

The Earth Pit Array was powered again, causing the gravitational pull to grow stronger as Landslide was pulled towards it.

Lu Ping smiled again. This time, he raised his left hand and clenched his fist, pulling his hand back as if he was remotely grabbing Landslide back. Sure enough, Landslide was casually pulled out of the array formation's gravitational force.

Xuan-Wei's true energy had been completely poured into the array formation; he hadn’t expected Lu Ping to be able to take back Landslide so easily, causing his face to flush red with embarrassment.

Regardless, Xuan-Wei had still earned a place in the fight and could now set up his array formation. After a moment of hesitation, Xuan-Wei kept the previous spirit materials away and replaced them with another batch of spirit materials. He smiled and murmured, "I will show you my strength, none of you will make it out alone!"

In the heat of the battlefield, Lu Ping had just recalled Landslide back to him when a spectral figure silently arrived behind him. Unfortunately for this Enlightened Master called Xuan-Chi, Lu Ping had already sensed him with his exceptional divine revelation.

Xuan-Chu's stealth skill had a strong resemblance to Enlightened Master Li Xuan-Yin's, indicating that he was somehow related to the Shadow Sage. Due to his unique fighting style, Xuan-Chi had never been in the center of the battlefield, but he had forced many others to step away from the center with his ghost-like attacks.

As he thrust his dagger towards Lu Ping's back, Lu Ping suddenly turned around as seventeen other Lu Ping's miraculously appeared around Xuan-Chi, surrounding him instead.

Xuan-Chi was calm and expressionless, agilely evading the attacks despite the extremely tight space, and swiftly taking out six clones in an instant. Unfortunately, a whip had already wrapped around his waist before he could find the location of the real Lu Ping.

The instant the whip wrapped around him, he immediately tried to cut it off with his dagger, but he failed. A thought appeared in his mind as he realized there was nothing much left he could do.

A spirit emerging mystic treasure.

A burst of true energy traveled from the other end of the whip with an overwhelming strength. The true energy momentarily held Xuan-Chi's true energy back so he couldn't free himself, so by the time he freed himself, he had been launched away from Lu Ping and the center of the battlefield.

Xuan-Chi squinted his eyes and didn't say anything. The fight had yet to end, so he naturally wouldn't give up as well. He glanced at Lu Ping, lowered his stance, and faded away like a specter.

When Lu Ping was busy with Xuan-Chi, several Enlightened Masters saw this as an opportunity and stepped forward with their strongest attacks to push Lu Ping away from the center. Although they had all delivered their best strikes, they all avoided attacking vital spots.

Lu Ping tried to ward off most of the attacks with the Golden Scale Sword's sea of sword lights, but a lightning bolt and a rain of meteoroids broke through and hit the [Heavenly Curtain Aegis]. The [Heavenly Curtain Aegis] had already bore the brunt of previous attacks, and so it had finally reached a breaking point.

Xuan-Shang laughed when he saw the hole in the [Heavenly Curtain Aegis] and launched forwards with his spear.

Lu Ping remained calm and steadfast despite the breach in his defense. The fleeting figure of a gourd flashed behind him. Immediately, an earth wall, ice wall, and wood wall were raised consecutively in front of him.

Xuan-Shang's spear penetrated through the earth wall, followed by the ice wall, but it was eventually stopped by the wood wall, causing Xuan-Shang to quietly sigh.

Once again, Xuan-Chi appeared like a ghost behind Lu Ping. This time, his dagger was just a few inches away from stabbing into Lu Ping's shoulder, and there was nothing there to stop him!

Xuan-Shang, Xuan-Lei, and Xuan-Xing laughed; they were excited to see Lu Ping finally get pushed away from the center of the battlefield. Even Xuan-Chi was no exception, as Lu Ping's divine revelation detected a small hint of joy from him.

But in the next second, Xuan-Chi suddenly gave up his attack and bailed with a speed much faster than his attack.

What?!

Xuan-Shang, Xuan-Lei, and Xuan-Xing were shocked as they watched Xuan-Chi retreat to safety with a bleeding cut on his shoulder.

Xuan-Chi looked at Lu Ping in surprise, and a moment later he said, "Invisible sword?"

Lu Ping simply smiled, while a spectral flying sword glowed with a fleeting blue light beside him, momentarily showing itself before turning invisible again.

The Enlightened Masters sighed; they had worked together just to push him away, but they had still failed. These expert combatants couldn't help but feel despondent, but their emotions only lasted a split second before they regained their composure.

Suddenly, Xuan-Wei's arrogant laughter sounded outside of the battlefield, as he announced, "People, my greatest array formation has finished being set up. Let's see who can walk out of it by themselves. Of course, you can work with others if you think you aren’t good enough. If you can't make it out, you just have to submit a spirit material that I need and I will naturally let you out. As Zhen Ling Sect's Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, don't tell me you don't have any spirit materials with you."

The announcement attracted the attention of all the Enlightened Masters, as they realized they had been covered inside a shady light barrier.

"Alright, I will go first!"

Xuan-Shang blocked the attacks from the Enlightened Masters, flew up into the open. and launched 72 spear lights onto the light barrier above them.

Bang—

A burst of energy bounced back from the light barrier, pushing Xuan-Shang back down towards the floor. The other Enlightened Masters didn't let this chance slip and attacked Xuan-Shang from below.

Xuan-Shang, who had been one of the strongest and fiercest fighters, was taken advantage of and forced to move away from the heat of the battlefield all the way to its peripheries.

Xuan-Wei's loud laughter outside of the array formation was clearly heard, making Xuan-Shang grit his teeth in frustration.

Xuan-Xing and Xuan-Lei each made attempts, but they both failed to break out. The Enlightened Masters began to take the array formation seriously.

As one of the older generation cultivators, Xuan-Chen was far more knowledgeable than the younger cultivators present. After two failed attempts, he had established a clear understanding of the array formation, and couldn't help but curse, "Xuan-Wei, you wasteful brat! You used Grade 2 spirit materials to set up an array formation? What are you thinking?"

Xuan-Wei smirked happily from outside, and said, "Junior Uncle Xuan-Chen, it's not wasteful at all. There are 18 Enlightened Masters trapped here; it's an achievement to be able to trap all of you at once, isn't it? Furthermore, if you can't get out, you will have to give me something in return. I don't think you guys will give me random crap and let yourselves be underestimated by the others, right? We are Zhen Ling Sect's Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, we can't be that poor."

While Xuan-Wei was happily bragging, he didn't notice Lu Ping scrutinizing the array formation with his divine revelation, with eyes that glowed with spiritual lights. Lu Ping seemed to notice something, causing the lights in his eyes to disappear.

The battle continued for a few moments until Lu Ping raised the Golden Scale Sword in his hand and filled the surroundings with the quivering sound of his flying sword.