Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

"Junior Uncle Xuan-Sen!"

Lu Ping was surprised to see the middle-aged man in front of them. He had thought that Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen was in closed-door cultivation to recover from his injuries and didn't expect to see him on Ice Frost Island.

"Junior uncle, have you fully recovered?"

Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen smiled, "A blessing in disguise. Thanks to your Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet, I have recovered. Not only that, my cultivation has even improved to the Eighth Layer Core Forging Realm after consuming Junior Uncle Tian-Lu's Health Prosper Pellet."

Xuan-Shang and the others quickly congratulated him. Then, Xuan-Sen said, "Come with me. The situation here isn’t very good. Just as I was worrying about our manpower, Senior Brother Tian-Lin has sent you all here."

Lu Ping and the rest followed him to an establishment on the island.

Xuan-Shang and Xuan-Lei were both bold and unreserved, so they couldn't refrain from asking directly, "Junior uncle, what's the situation? Have we found the spirit stone mine yet?"

Xuan-Sen solemnly answered, "Ice Frost Island is covered with ice and snow all year long, with even the thinnest layer of snow being more than fifty feet deep. Furthermore, after tens of thousands of years, the ice has become unimaginably tough to break. As a result, it's not that easy to find the spirit stone mine."

After that, he turned around and spoke to Xuan-Wei, "Junior Nephew Xuan-Wei, you are the sect's most proficient formationist, second only to Junior Sister Xuan-Chen, and you specialize in land survey. We need your help the most and we will do our best to assist you in your task."

Xuan-Wei also kept away his playful attitude and mulled with a serious look. A moment later, he said, "A medium spirit mine is naturally a valuable asset to own. But if the sects have already stepped in and are fully involved, there should already be discussions on how to share the spirit mine, so why is the situation still so tense?"

Xuan-Sen replied solemnly, "You are right, everything was fine at first, until Shui Yan Pavilion found a medium spirit vein deep beneath Ice Frost Island. Shui Yan Pavilion tried to migrate it away, but their actions were discovered by Ling Gu Sect. There was a conflict which led to Xuan Ling Sect's involvement and eventually the others. Now, the top ten sects are fighting over the spirit vein."

While the group were surprised to hear that there was also a medium spirit vein on the island, Xuan-Wei was more knowledgeable and frowned, "Junior uncle, I'm afraid the situation will only continue to worsen."

Xuan-Sen was puzzled, and asked, "Why do you say so?"

Xuan-Wei answered solemnly, "The chances of having a spirit stone mine and spirit vein in the same place is extremely rare, almost impossible. Usually, there will only be a spirit stone mine, or a spirit vein. In order for both to be present, one is the core and the other is a secondary product formed by leaked spiritual energy from the core. In our case, where there is a confirmed medium spirit vein, it could either result in a secondary product of a small spirit stone mine… but it's more likely that it’s the secondary product of a large spirit stone mine!"

Xuan-Wei’s words shocked everyone.

Throughout the history of the North Ocean, there had only been a few medium spirit stone mines and not a single large one. This was also one of the biggest reasons why the North Ocean was known for lacking resources.

Xuan-Sen's face changed drastically, "No wonder Xuan Ling Sect's Lu Xu-Heng was so adamant to stand up for Ling Gu Sect, and no wonder Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect both didn't take a step back. They all knew of the possibility of a large spirit stone mine here! Fortunately, I reported the situation back to the sect and asked for help when I felt that something was off. Otherwise, they might really have been able to hide it from us."

Xuan-Wei said anxiously, "We need to act fast. Junior uncle, we need to cooperate with the Chong Ming Sect, Yu Jian Sect, and Cang Lang Sect to get involved in the fight. If this spirit vein really is a secondary product of a large spirit stone mine, it might be right next to it. Even if it isn't, the spirit vein will be close to the spirit stone mine's extended branches.

"We also have to secure the areas with high probabilities of having the spirit stone mine's extended branches. The more branches we find, the more benefits we can secure, and the easier it will be for us to locate the core of the spirit stone mine."

Xuan-Wei's organized arrangements brought him the respect of the group. Xuan-Sen was overjoyed, and said, "Well then, let's all do as Junior Nephew Xuan-Wei has planned. How fortunate it is to have you here, without your expertise, we'd be running around heedlessly and achieve little. If we fall behind the other sects because of this, I would be too ashamed to return to the sect."

After that, Xuan-Sen left to contact the Chong Ming Sect, Yu Jian Sect, and Cang Lang Sect's representatives. Then, they all left together and forcefully intervened in the discussion between Xuan Ling Sect, Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect.

Although the three sects clearly didn't welcome their involvement, Xuan-Sen simply made things clear and opened up the topic in front of everyone. The sects that were unaware of the potential large spirit stone mine were all shocked. The cultivators from Ling Gu Sect even looked at the Xuan Ling Sect cultivators weirdly.

In the North Ocean Alliance, Ling Gu Sect, Fei Yu Sect, and Cang Lang Sect were led by Xuan Ling Sect. Hence, Ling Gu Sect hadn’t thought that Xuan Ling Sect would set aside their alliance for its own interests and secretly discuss with Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect instead.

After Ling Gu Sect learned the truth from Zhen Ling Sect, Xuan Ling Sect's Lu Xu-Heng tried his best to explain and seek Ling Gu Sect's understanding. Even though Ling Gu Sect agreed to move on, the seeds of distrust had been planted.

While the sects began a new round of tug-of-war, Lu Ping and the others were roaming across the island, surveying for the spirit stone mine.

However, Ice Frost Island was a medium-sized island and was covered in deep layers of ice and snow. It was not easy to penetrate the layers and survey the underground; not to mention they also had to be careful not to attract the attention of the other sects.

Half a day later, Xuan-Wei had only determined that a particular ice valley most likely had the spirit stone mine. However, he wasn't sure if it was the core or just an extension of the spirit stone mine.

Xuan-Shang volunteered to stay and guard the ice valley, while the remaining four continued to survey the island.

However, Lu Ping and the others still underestimated the vigilance of the other sects. After Xuan-Sen made it clear that there might be a large spirit stone mine on the island, the sects immediately requested reinforcements.

Hence, when the sects noticed Zhen Ling Sect's Enlightened Masters roaming across the island and even stationing Enlightened Masters around, they immediately understood Zhen Ling Sect's plan and followed suit.

In fact, the Zhen Ling Sect wasn't the first to do this. The Xuan Ling Sect, Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect, who had realized the situation first, had already dispatched their men to secure areas with a likelihood of containing the spirit stone mine.

However, they didn't want to alert the other sects in the beginning, so they didn't carry out any major searches while the representatives were discussing the mine. Because of this, Zhen Ling Sect's more direct approach had thrown the three sects behind in progress.

A day later, Zhen Ling Sect and the ally sects' supporting manpower arrived.

Zhen Ling Sect, Chong Ming Sect, Yu Jian Sect, and Cang Lang Sect had sent over a hundred disciples in total. Among them, four teams of Blood Condensation Realm disciples and six teams of Blood Refining Realm disciples were from the Zhen Ling Sect. 24062

In the Zhen Ling Sect, a team of disciples were often in a pyramid structure. For example, a Blood Condensation Realm team would consist of one Late Blood Condensation Realm disciple, two Mid Blood Condensation Realm disciples, and three Early Blood Condensation Realm disciples. The same structure applied for the Blood Refining Realm teams.

Chong Ming Sect, Yu Jian Sect, and Cang Lang Sect had also sent three Enlightened Masters each. Zhen Ling Sect didn't send any more Enlightened Masters because Lu Ping and the others were already here.

After the disciples arrived, they swiftly moved to the potential locations and fortified the areas.

On the other hand, Xuan Ling Sect, Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect, were still waiting for their reinforcements to arrive. There was nothing they could do but watch as Zhen Ling Sect and its allies secured more and more areas with their additional manpower.

A day later, reinforcements for Xuan Ling Sect and its allies, Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect, had arrived.

With that, the medium-sized island now hosted more than 46 Enlightened Masters and over three hundred disciples. The cold and barren Ice Frost Island had never been this lively before!

After another day passed, the representatives of the sects finally reached a common ground just before they lost their patience.

They would separate the medium spirit vein that was discovered into ten small spirit veins for each sect. The two small Spirit Gathering Pearls in the spirit vein would be given to Shui Yan Pavilion and Ling Gu Sect as they were the first to discover the spirit vein. The three mini Spirit Gathering Pearls would be given to Xuan Ling Sect, Zhen Ling Sect, and Hai Yan Sect.

The formationists from each sect would also temporarily work together to find the large spirit stone mine's location.

With the representatives reaching an agreement, Xuan-Wei had no choice but to follow the sect's order and work together with the other sects' formationists. In the past two days, he had already surveyed three areas that the spirit stone mine could be, but because of the deep layers of ice and snow, the disciples still weren’t able to penetrate through to the bottom yet.

Lu Ping was also feeling helpless. When he heard that there was a medium spirit vein under the island, he immediately thought of the Spirit Gathering Pearls in the spirit vein. The spirit vein had never been touched before, so there had to be a lot of Spirit Gathering Pearls in it.

However, because Dabao was only good at [Earth Escape] and not [Ice Escape] or anything similar, he wasn't able to break through and get to the spirit vein. Furthermore, the Late Core Forging Realm representatives from the sects were also holding discussions on the ice cliff where the spirit vein had been discovered, so Lu Ping didn’t want to take the risk.

On the fourth day, a message sword flew from the bottom of the ice cliff and reached Lu Ping. Lu Ping received the message sword and heard Xuan-Sen's voice saying, "The large spirit stone mine has been located. Stay vigilant. The Great Ancestors are coming."