Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

The moment Lu Ping's identity was confirmed by Shui Wu-Huan, all the Enlightened Masters knew that the situation had changed.

All the Zhen Ling Sect Enlightened Masters, including Xuan-Sen, immediately moved towards Lu Ping to protect him, while the other cultivators stopped them from getting close to Lu Ping.

This was their best chance to eliminate Lu Ping.

Lu Ping's scalp tingled as a bone-chilling breath far more powerful than the Mystical Ice Ominous Mist reached for his back. He quickly activated his aegis energy and turned around.

A thick white mist had frozen the outermost layer of his five-layered aegis energy into a piece of ice. Even though the white mist had been stopped outside of the aegis energy, its bone-chilling breath had seeped through and caused Lu Ping to shiver.

This white mist was the same one that Shui Wu-Huan had used to enhance her mystic treasure, but this time it was much larger and much stronger.

Although Lu Ping was freezing, it didn't actually affect him much besides making his true energy circulate faster. Lu Ping was puzzled at first, before quickly realizing that it was because the Mystical Heavy Water that he had fused in his cultivation base was far superior to Shui Wu-Huan's wonder item. Hence, the Mystical Heavy Water was able to suppress most of the effects from the bone-chilling white mist.

Lu Ping quickly calmed down and actively fought back with the Golden Scale Sword, stabbing the sword forward with a river of sword lights.

However, Shui Wu-Huan rolled her Water Smoke Silk towards the Golden Scale Sword, forcing Lu Ping to tilt the sword to the side to evade her mystic treasure while the sword lights were shattered by it.

Shui Wu-Huan was far more powerful than Lu Ping. She was definitely on Xuan-Sen's level, not to mention that the environment was favorable to her.

If Lu Ping was in the same cultivation level, he was confident that he would be able to effortlessly cut right through her Water Smoke Silk like a piece of paper. Unfortunately, he wasn't, and so he had to avoid direct confrontations with her.

Shui Wu-Huan didn't want to let Lu Ping off so easily; she rolled the Water Smoke Silk into a rope and whipped it towards Lu Ping.

Lu Ping's aegis energy shimmered, pushing back the white mist around him. Then, his body flushed red, and eighteen clones of him scattered out in all directions. This was the [Sea Crossing Concealment Art] that had been enhanced with his blood essence.

Shui Wu-Huan's Water Smoke Silk destroyed seven of them, whilst the white smoke froze another six into ice statues. 24062

A moment later, Lu Ping re-appeared a hundred feet away from Shui Wu-Huan, looking back with an expression of shock. If he was any slower...

Lu Ping pressed down the lingering fear in his heart and stared at Shui Wu-Huan with a pair of cold eyes. Initially, he thought that Shui Wu-Huan was just trying to teach him a harsh lesson because he stole the treasure from her; he hadn’t thought that Shui Wu-Huan would really try to kill him.

Trying to kill a Zhen Ling Sect talent who had the potential to become a Great Ancestor right in front of the Enlightened Masters from every sect? While the human-monster war was still on-going? Right when the Great Ancestors from the sects were coming to the island? How dare she... they!

The Enlightened Masters from the Zhen Ling Sect and the ally sects were held back by the Enlightened Masters from the Xuan Ling Sect, Shui Yan Pavilion, Hai Yan Sect, and their allies. They were buying Shui Wu-Huan time to kill Lu Ping!

However, the two sides were almost equal in overall strength; if the situation were to escalate further, neither side would fare well. Hence, the opposing Enlightened Masters were still relatively restrained; they only wanted to kill Lu Ping and not become enemies with the Zhen Ling Sect.

Although this sounded contradictory, it was completely reasonable. Lu Ping was no doubt talented, but most of his worth would only be realized in the future. Currently, Zhen Ling Sect was not powerful enough to go against the will of the majority, so whilst they would mourn Lu Ping's death and condemn the opposing sects, Zhen Ling Sect wouldn't completely fall out with the other sects.

That being said, the opposing Enlightened Masters hadn’t thought that Lu Ping would be able to make out of this situation, until they finally saw him in action.

No matter how Shui Wu-Huan suppressed him, Lu Ping would always find an opening in her attacks and avoid most of the direct hits. Of course, this was also thanks to Ice Frost Island's open space that gave him plenty of maneuverability.

Shui Wu-Huan grew impatient, squinting her eyes and closing her palms together. A massive ice halo formed in the sky and trapped the two of them inside of it; she was trying to restrict Lu Ping's movement!

Lu Ping pointed his finger to the sky, and shouted, "Slam!"

Landslide enlarged in the sky and rammed down towards the ice halo.

But Shui Wu-Huan didn't even look at it. She flipped her palm to the sky and another massive ice pillar rose up behind her and repelled Landslide away.

Lu Ping was shocked. Landslide had missed its targets before, but it had never gotten sent flying away; this was the first time it had met an even greater brute force.

But in the next second, he lashed out a whip mystic treasure to catch Landslide in mid-air. Then, he lashed the whip down heavily, causing Landslide to crash down with an even greater force!

This time, Shui Wu-Huan finally took a proper look at Landslide. She cast a series of hand signs, and as the last hand sign formed, the ice halo vibrated for a split second. Immediately, Landslide stopped in mid-air, as if time itself had been paused. Then, Lu Ping felt an invisible pressure squeezing him from all directions.

This was a great divine ability!

Lu Ping's expression changed. He surged his true energy all over, but even his aegis energy was being pressed tightly to the surface of his body underneath the immense pressure. The faint blue aegis energy made him look paler and blue-ish.

Shui Wu-Huan wore a serious look, but her brows were now slightly more relaxed. She had to admit, Lu Ping might be the only member of the younger generation in the North Ocean that could hold out so long against an Eighth Layer Core Forging Realm old timer like her.

However, the more exceptional Lu Ping was, the more determined she was to kill him. He was already this strong at this age, so she couldn't imagine how powerful he would be after ten years, or when he reached the Late Core Forging Realm, or even the Avatar Realm!

Shui Wu-Huan waved her Water Smoke Silk out above Lu Ping. In just a few seconds, it would be able to wrap around him from top to bottom. At that time, Lu Ping wouldn't last long, even with his exceptionally tough aegis energy, his death would be inevitable.

Suddenly, Xuan-Sen let out a furious battle cry and went all out. He wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for Lu Ping's Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet, so he owed Lu Ping his life. Furthermore, he also understood how much the Great Ancestors in the sect actually valued Lu Ping, so he knew Lu Ping's worth.

Xuan-Sen's opponent, Xuan Ling Sect's Lu Xu-Heng, was taken aback when Xuan-Sen suddenly went all out and almost slipped away. Fortunately for him, Hai Yan Sect's Hai Jing had arrived to help him and the two of them together suppressed Xuan-Sen.

Lu Xu-Heng's heart was palpitating. He squinted his eyes and looked at Xuan-Sen while thinking quietly.

Years ago, Xuan-Sen was rumored to be severely wounded by the monsters. Just when everyone thought that Xuan-Sen would never recover, he came to Ice Frost Island and had seemingly fully recovered.

While his recovery was already surprising, who would've thought that he would actually return stronger. From the full strength that Xuan-Sen had just displayed, Lu Xu-Heng didn't think he could fight Xuan-Sen alone anymore.

But what made Lu Xu-Heng worry the most was the Zhen Ling Sect's overall power. In recent years, the Zhen Ling Sect had prospered a lot, but in comparison, the Xuan Ling Sect had mostly stagnated. As the first and second strongest sects in the North Ocean, Zhen Ling Sect's rise to power wasn't something the Xuan Ling Sect wanted to see.

Fortunately, now was a good chance to weaken Zhen Ling Sect's prowess. Although they were all involved in the scheme, Shui Wu-Huan was the one dirtying her hands with Lu Ping's blood. Hence, Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling would only direct his revenge towards Shui Yan Pavilion, and not Xuan Ling Sect. Additionally, Xuan Ling Sect could also use this chance to bring Shui Yan Pavilion to their side.

Just when they were all beginning to think that Lu Ping had no chance to escape from death anymore, a loud screeching noise came from the middle of the ice halo where Lu Ping was.

The Golden Scale Sword that was forced back inside Lu Ping's heartspace was piercing out of his chest, starting from its tip, followed by its whole body! Meanwhile, Lu Ping's face went from reddish to bluish.

Shui Wu-Huan's expression changed drastically. She quickly sped up the Water Smoke Silk to wrap around Lu Ping.

This time, Lu Ping used his blood essence to enhance his great sword divine ability. But instead of casting it while the Golden Scale Sword was outside, he cast it while the sword was inside his heartspace. Whilst the risk was huge, he had no choice as this was his only option to live.

The Golden Scale Sword quivered rapidly as more sword lights flew out of Lu Ping's heartspace. The sword lights fought back against the invisible pressure and gradually opened up more space for the Golden Scale Sword to move.

Finally, Shui Wu-Huan's great divine ability reached its breaking point and the immense pressure suddenly dispersed. Lu Ping's great sword divine ability managed to unleash its power.

The [River Unification Ocean Sword Art] opened a clear path all the way through the ice halo.