Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Having been left untouched for thousands of years, Ice Frost Island's resources had accumulated greatly. The more that the cultivators explored, the more joy they experienced. Following the discovery of the miniature spirit vein, word quickly spread that the Zhen Ling Sect had also unearthed an ice-element miniature spirit vein.

Of course, the Zhen Ling Sect was not the only one benefitting; the other sects also stumbled upon bountiful resources and treasures, especially Shui Yan Pavilion.

The cultivation method that the Shui Yan Pavilion cultivated was very unique in the Northern Ocean. They mainly focused on water-element and ice-element cultivation methods. As a result, the compatibility between their cultivation method and the environment, meant that they had a much easier time detecting the hidden resources.

Despite not knowing what the Shui Yan Pavilion had acquired, the cultivators couldn’t help but assume that the trip was fruitful for the Shui Yan Pavilion after seeing Great Ancestor Cang Li’s expression, despite the Shui Wu-Huan incident.

Under the leadership of Lu Ping, Enlightened Master Xuan-Se, Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo, and Liu Tian-Ling headed into the frozen tunnel that Lu Ping had created. As he looked at the black mist, Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen said happily, “The Mystical Ice Ominous Mist is more than enough for a couple ice-element cultivators in our sect to cultivate their aegis energy. Mystical Ice Ominous Mist can also be considered as the best among peculiar ice that is used for aegis energy. Lu Ping, it seems like our sect's cultivators owe you once again!”

Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo, who had grasped a little understanding of Lu Ping through Chen Lian, remained silent. When he heard the sincere praise from Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen, who clearly held Lu Ping in such high regard, he couldn’t help but think inwardly, This brat managed to find this place when it’s in such an alienated location. There’s probably something fishy going on. This tunnel doesn’t seem new either. He must have taken plenty of the good stuff before this, but he notified the sect because he couldn’t keep it all to himself. But, this kid seems like he’s on our side because he still thought of us. I suppose it’s the sect's fortune that there are a few disciples like him among us.

Lu Ping had no idea that Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo had already seen through his little plans, but even if he did, Lu Ping wasn’t afraid. After all, first come first served was an unspoken rule of the cultivation world, making it perfectly reasonable for him to keep some things for himself. As Lu Ping wasn’t capable of keeping everything to himself, he merely claimed the best among the resources before then gifting the rest to the Zhen Ling Sect.

Through this, Lu Ping not only achieved an even higher status in the sect, but he also brought the sect’s overall strength to the next level. This was a win-win situation as a powerful Zhen Ling Sect would become his strongest backing in the future when he set out on his own adventures. 24062

Hearing Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen’s praises, Lu Ping humbly replied, “You’re flattering me. In fact, without our sect’s mighty reputation, I wouldn’t have been able to roam around the island freely, and so I wouldn’t have had the chance to unearth this location.”

Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen nodded in satisfaction. He was completely unaware that Lu Ping had already absorbed one-third of the condensed Mystical Ice Ominous Mist before leading them here. Otherwise, the quantity of Mystical Ice Ominous Mist would have allowed for more than just two cultivators to use. Apart from that, Lu Ping had even found a Mystic-class mid-grade wonder ice when he located the Mystical Ice Ominous Mist.

Before entering the ice chamber, Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo caught sight of the spirit mine. As one of the most prominent Master Smiths in the sect, Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo could see things that others couldn’t. Hence, after a careful inspection, he nodded with satisfaction. “Not bad. This may be a small-sized mixed spirit mine, but its quality is decent. It’s much better than the Spirit Stout Stone Mine that you and Chen Lian previously found.”

Lu Ping smiled awkwardly. After all, the Spirit Stout Stone Mine proved to be a great help to both Lu Ping and Chen Lian when they were in the Blood Refining Realm and Blood Condensation Realm, particularly Chen Lian. A large amount of the spirit stones they used for their cultivation were acquired from exchanging these Spirit Stout Stones. The spirit vein was only handed over to the sect after they advanced to the Core Forging Realm.

Enlightened Master Xuan-Wei was occupied with his work in the ice chamber. As soon as he saw Liu Tian-Ling and the others enter the ice chamber, he couldn’t be bothered with formalities, and hurriedly said, “Senior uncle, junior uncle, it’s a medium spirit stone mine! There really is a medium spirit stone mine here! Lady luck has shined brightly upon us! Now the Zhen Ling Sect has a medium spirit stone mine all for itself! This is a blessing for all of us!”

Surprised at the news, Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo and Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen shouted, “Can you confirm it? This news is as shocking as the discovery of the large spirit stone mine on Ice Frost Island. We must not let word spread about our discovery of this medium spirit stone mine so that we can keep this to ourselves! We can’t let others have a chance to share the cake with us like what happened when the Xuan Ling Sect took over Giant Spirit Island’s spirit stone mine.

Seeing how the two seniors were even more excited than him, Enlightened Master Xuan-Wei hesitantly said, “But this spirit vein is very odd. I discovered that there weren’t many high-grade spirit stones in the area near the surface. They only started appearing when we dug more than hundreds of meters deep. However, the total capacity of the spirit vein suggests that this is undoubtedly a medium spirit stone mine.”

Lu Ping was left speechless, Dabao! You’re always trying to find the easy way out when I task you with something! Why did you only take the high-grade spirit stones around the surface and leave such an obvious mistake?

Lu Ping hurriedly controlled his facial expression after catching a glimpse of the smile on Liu Tian-Ling’s face. Instantly, he wore a surprised and confused expression as he pretended to be listening closely to what Enlightened Master Xuan-Wei said.

Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo waved his hand in dismissal, and replied, “We’re lucky enough to obtain a medium spirit stone mine for ourselves, don’t fret over the small details. It’s normal that there aren’t many high-grade spirit stones in a medium spirit stone mine. What’s most important right now is to activate the Spirit Vein Sealing Formation to conceal this spirit vein without alerting the other sects. If we can’t do it silently, we run the risk of exposing the spirit vein.”

The words coming from Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo left everyone frowning. After all, activating the Spirit Vein Sealing Formation would create a loud movement which would inevitably draw the attention of everyone present on the island. In turn, this would expose the presence of the spirit vein.

Liu Tian-Ling broke the silence. “How many Ice Shura scoundrels did we find recently in the regions we occupied?”

Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen’s eyes lit up after the question was asked, “So this is what you were aiming for when you stopped the disciples from eliminating the Ice Shuras. Hmmm… There are about twenty of them. Most of them are in the Blood Condensation Realm, and there are three of them in the Core Forging Realm.”

Liu Tian-Ling nodded, “The numbers aren't ideal, but I suppose it could work. Junior Brother Xuan-Sen, I need you to bait them here and wipe them out with a clean strike before you set up a spirit migration formation to migrate the spirit vein assigned to us to our location. You will also have to activate the Spirit Vein Sealing Formation at the same time. Use your attack and the spirit vein migration as a cover-up so that no one will notice anything.”

The next day, word quickly spread that when the Zhen Ling Sect was migrating their spirit vein, their new establishment was attacked by the Ice Shuras. However, they were quickly eliminated by Enlightened Master Xuan-Sen and Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo. The entire Ice Frost Island heard the rumbling noises and associated it with this piece of news. No one noticed that beneath the cover-up of the loud movements, the Zhen Ling Sect had activated the Spirit Vein Sealing Formation and secured a medium spirit stone mine all to themselves.

In the meantime, Lu Ping removed the interspatial pouch from poor Dabao’s neck before patting him on the head. “Look at you! I know you’re smart, smart enough that you’d never make this kind of mistake. I think you’re just too lazy to put in more effort!”

While evading Lu Ping’s pats, Dabao continuously squeaked in anger and conveyed his message: “Come on! If I didn’t save up enough energy and time by not digging deeper, I wouldn’t have been able to obtain this many high-grade spirit stones!”

Lu Ping shook the interspatial pouch after hearing Dabao’s reply.

Whoosh!

In an instant, a large quantity of high-grade spirit stones fell to the ground before him. Lu Ping’s eyes lit up, as he said, “That’s a lot! No wonder Enlightened Master Xuan-Wei couldn’t bring himself to believe that this was a medium spirit stone mine. You actually cleaned up the entire surface area! Dabao, you’re really greedy, aren’t you?”

Dabao ignored his words and proceeded to wrap his fat forelimbs around a high-grade spirit stone, before tugging it underneath his belly and falling asleep.

Lu Ping happily stored the high-grade spirit stones in his own interspatial ring before glancing at Dabao, who was pretending to be asleep, “Don’t you feel uncomfortable?”

Lu Ping urgently needed high-grade spirit stones to aid his cultivation, especially after entering the Mid Core Forging Realm. Initially, the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] he cultivated was a cultivation method that sacrificed cultivation speed to enhance foundation. Coincidentally, when Lu Ping advanced into the Mid Core Forging Realm, he fused with the Mystical Heavy Water. While this brought him a large reservoir of true energy and a powerful strength, it also slowed down his cultivation speed. As a result, Lu Ping struggled to accumulate sufficient true energy for the Fifth Layer Core Forging Realm for decades.

For this reason, he focused on obtaining cultivation resources. Typically, high-grade spirit stones were used by Late Core Forging Realm for cultivation and would be a waste for Mid-Core Forging Realm cultivators. However, with Lu Ping’s condition, he would be able to put the high-grade spirit stones to good use.

His slow cultivation speed was another reason why he decided to develop Huang Li Island. Despite not being in the Mid Core Forging Realm at that time, Lu Ping had already noticed the slowing down of his cultivation speed while cultivating [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture]. As a result, he started locating and gathering spirit veins and moving them to Huang Li Island.

Lu Ping had even considered migrating the mini spirit vein he discovered within the medium spirit stone mine to Huang Li Island, before then handing over the spirit stone mine to the sect, but it was too late to do so now.