Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

After some time, Lu Ping finally got rid of all of the after effects from Shui Wu-Huan's attacks. He quietly closed his palms and kept the small broken banner in his hands away. Inside his heartspace, the nascent pearls orbited rapidly around his golden Core, refining the spiritual energy into true energy to help him recover from his injuries.

Meanwhile, a dozen other figures made their entrances, causing the Enlightened Masters to gather around them and greet them respectfully.

The Xuan Ling Sect Great Ancestor that had arrived was Feng Xu-Dao. However, compared to his domineering demeanor the last time that Lu Ping saw him, he looked gloomy and hateful this time.

Other than the Great Ancestors from the top ten sects, there were also two more that didn't belong to any of the sects.

The Great Ancestors listened to the Enlightened Masters that were reporting the situation to them. Afterwards, Great Ancestor Cang-Li said doubtfully, "Lead the way."

Immediately, the Hai Yan Sect Late Core Forging Realm representative brought the Great Ancestor to the bottom of the cliff where the disciples guarding the treasure array formation had been killed. Traveling together with them was the Cang Hai Sect's Great Ancestor and Late Core Forging Realm representative.

Along the way, Enlightened Master Lu Xu-Heng reported to Great Ancestor Feng Xu-Dao that they had only managed to secure one of the six treasures that flew away from the array formation. Lu Xu-Heng was hoping that the Great Ancestor could help them out, but Feng Xu-Dao only sneered unhappily and ignored him.

The other Great Ancestors also left to check out the situation at the bottom of the cliff together with their Late Core Forging Realm representatives.

Soon after, a few lights flew from the sky and arrived next to the group. They were all in the Late Core Forging Realm, so their arrival puzzled the Enlightened Masters present. Lu Ping looked over and recognised one of them as Chen Lian's teacher, Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo.

After the newly arrived Enlightened Masters grouped up with their respective sect members, Lu Ping stepped forward and greeted Xuan-Huo. Then, he asked, "Junior uncle, why are you here as well? Why are there twelve Great Ancestors? Who are the other two?"

Xuan-Huo looked at Lu Ping, and answered, "This is the first large spirit mine in the North Ocean, of course everyone has their eyes on it. Not only that, I believe you must have all noticed the large number of ice-elemental resources, supplementary spirit mines and spirit veins, right?"

Xuan-Lei seemed close to Xuan-Huo, and nodded, "That's right. There is a secondary spirit mine at the bottom of the cliff. Junior uncle, the sect has made the right choice by sending a Master Smith like you here."

Xuan-Huo continued, "The top ten sects are strong, but we aren’t the only ones in the North Ocean. The other sects and independent clans won't let us have everything. The two Great Ancestors represent ten such forces and are here to discuss the distribution of the Ice Frost Island's resources."

The Enlightened Masters nodded understandingly. Although the Ice Frost Island was discovered by the top ten sects, they couldn't hide it. The other forces in the North Ocean wanted a slice of it as well, but only ten other forces were qualified to be on the negotiating table because they had Great Ancestors in their ranks.

After the Great Ancestors left with their representatives, the remaining Enlightened Masters returned to their camps.

Zhen Ling Sect's main camp was in the ice valley that Xuan-Wei had surveyed, leading to the discovery of underground resources. After excavating more than a hundred feet deep into the ice layer, they had found many ice-elemental resources and discovered the presence of a mini spirit vein and a small spirit mine.

Besides the underground resources, the main camp was situated here because it was close to the bottom of the cliff. This way, the Zhen Ling Sect could always keep an eye on the situation of the large spirit mine.

Other than the main camp, Zhen Ling Sect's four other camps that Xuan-Wei had surveyed were also valuable. Three of the four sites had a mini spirit mine beneath them, which they believed had branched out from the large spirit mine.

The Zhen Ling Sect’s success was perhaps because it had acted faster than the other sects, or perhaps because of Xuan-Wei’s skill at surveying. Either way, the other sects weren’t that fortunate. Most sects had either found mini spirit mines or nothing at all.

Hai Yan Sect was lucky enough to discover a mini spirit mine in one of their camps; Xuan Ling Sect had five camps, but they only found one mini spirit mine, making Lu Xu-Heng furious and extremely jealous of Zhen Ling Sect.

While the Enlightened Masters were waiting for the Great Ancestors to return from inspecting the bottom of the cliff, they suddenly felt two massive heavenly auras being unleashed from the bottom of the ice cliff that caused the island to shake.

Xuan-Huo frowned, and a moment later he said, "It's not Senior Sister Tian-Ling."

A moment later, Lu Ping also noticed that neither of the two heavenly auras belonged to his teacher. Just as the Enlightened Masters were discussing whether or not they should go and check out the situation, Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling and Xuan-Sen returned to the camp.

Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling's expression was normal, but Xuan-Sen looked worried. Xuan-Huo noticed this, so he asked, "Junior Brother Xuan-Sen, what happened?"

Xuan-Sen looked at Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling, and then answered solemnly, "It's the Ice Shuras."

"Shuras?!" Xuan-Huo exclaimed in shock, "They’ve crawled out from their pits?"

Xuan-Sen nodded, "The Ice Frost Island is remote and barren making it a good place for them to hide and recover. Hai Yan Sect's Great Ancestor Cang-Li and Cang Lang Sect's Great Ancestor Hai-Ying found their lair and destroyed it. While there are some remnants hiding on the island, they won’t pose a threat. Tell the disciples to be careful of their surroundings when excavating the spirit mines."

Ice Shuras…?

Lu Ping had never heard of anything like that before, but from Xuan-Huo and Xuan-Sen's expressions, they had to be a dangerous and terrifying threat. It wasn’t just him; even the other young Enlightened Masters looked clueless regarding these shuras.

Noticing this, Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling said, "Ice Shuras are not natives of the North Ocean, there’s a teleportation formation in the lair. According to Yu Jian Sect's Great Ancestor Jian-Shi, it's an old relic with a few thousand years of history. Surprisingly, it was still functional and was last used less than a hundred years ago. The clues suggest that the shuras were either from the north of the Central Plain, or from the North Iceland that’s even further north."

Xuan-Huo was slightly relieved to hear that the Ice Shuras weren't from the North Ocean. He quickly said in surprise, "The teleportation formation can reach the Central Plain, or even the North Iceland?"

Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling said, "The Shuras have destroyed it. Not just here, they’ve also destroyed the connection on the other side. If not for that, Great Ancestor Jian-Shi would have been able to restore the teleportation formation."

Xuan-Huo and some other Enlightened Masters shook their heads regretfully. The Central Plain was the most attractive place for every ambitious cultivator. However, the North Ocean was considered poor and remote; they would have to go through the East Ocean first to get to the Central Plain. But even in the East Ocean, teleportation formations to get to the Central Plain were controlled by the top-tier sects; outsiders either had no chance to use them, or it would cost an arm and a leg to make use of them.

Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling saw their reactions, and said coldly, "If the Ice Shuaras have already spread from over there to here, do you think it's safe over there?"

The Enlightened Masters finally realized the situation. The situation in the Central Plain or the North Iceland had to be bad; otherwise the Ice Shuras wouldn't have been able to expand their reach to the North Ocean.

…

Two days later, Lu Ping had mostly recovered. The Great Ancestors had also decided on the distribution of the large spirit stone mine.

The Zhen Ling Sect and Xuan Ling Sect would each get 25% of the resources, Shui Yan Pavilion and Hai Yan Sect would get 15%, the bottom six of the top ten sects would share 30%, and the ten independent sects and clans would share the remaining 30%.

When the decision was made, all of the top ten sects weren’t happy. They were the ones that had discovered the mine, so why did they have to share 30% of the resources with the independent sects and clans? Since when did the top ten sects have to compromise with weaker sects and clans? However, their voices were suppressed by Great Ancestors from the sects.

Then, another announcement was made: The 30% share was only eligible to independent clans and sects that had Great Ancestors. In other words, this 30% wasn’t a fixed list of organizations. This ensured that the independent clans and sects would continue to improve in order to try and stay in the list.

In the future, it was foreseeable that the condition of the North Ocean cultivators would be improved to a certain extent, while the independent sects and clans would advance faster and become stronger. On the other hand, the 70% share could help ensure that the top ten sects kept their dominant positions over the North Ocean.

After all, the top ten sects needed to improve the overall condition of the human race in order to win the human-monster war.