Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Lu Ping slowly stopped his cultivation and breathed out a mouthful of faint red gas. This was the medicinal toxins of the Blood Purification Pellet. Then, he left the wasted spirit stone to the side and sank his senses into his body, feeling the spiritual energy in his bloodline that was on the brink of entering the late-stage Seventh Layer. Lu Ping was a little excited.

In the battle with Li Cheng yesterday, Lu Ping spotted an opening in Li Cheng’s stance at the 22nd move and seized the chance to turn the tide of the battle; he lashed out eight continuous attacks, and at the 30th move, he locked onto Li Cheng’s spear and lashed his sword toward Li Cheng’s wrist, forcing him to let go of his spear and admit defeat.

The switch of attacker and defender all happened too quickly. Li Cheng who was still aggressively attacking moments ago was defeated in an instant. It shocked not only the disciples that were initially cheering for Li Cheng, but also the higher position disciples and Master Immortal Liu’s assistants. The few disciples who were close to Lu Ping in cultivation strength also started staring at him vigilantly.

Lu Ping couldn’t help but give a bitter smile—it looked like he’d unintentionally taken the spotlight and attracted unwanted attention to him.

Usually, Lu Ping would’ve wounded Li Cheng lightly to teach him a lesson. But he read what Li Cheng couldn’t see on Master Immortal Liu’s face when issuing the challenge, which is why he didn’t injure Li Cheng this time.

Sure enough, when Master Immortal Liu noticed that neither of them was injured, this meant the group’s top-notch prowess would not be compromised in the competition. Right away, he looked at Lu Ping warmly. Then just like before, Master Immortal Liu specifically asked Lu Ping to stay and gave him a one-on-one tutoring session.

Now even the First and Second Senior Martial Brothers were envious of him. Sessions like this had only happened to a few of the disciples, and only after breaking through to the Eighth Layer.

The First and Second Senior Martial Brothers each had an additional session when Master Immortal Liu joyfully saw them achieving the Ninth Layer. Another exception was the Fourth Senior Martial Sister who came from a family close to Master Immortal Liu and thus, she had received two additional sessions.

Lu Ping calmed his thoughts and revised the contents imparted to him by Master Immortal Liu.

To most cultivators, the purpose of cultivation was to extend their lifespan and even more important, to attain the impossible immortality. However, having a long life didn’t mean a cultivator would live until they died of old age. In order to protect themselves on their journey along the path of cultivation, various kinds of skills were created and enhanced.

After eons of efforts, practices, studies, and developments, the skills used to defend cultivators on their path to longevity were classified into four states: Adept, Technique, Law, and Frames.

Beginners would learn the skills as instructed. They only knew how to use it but never knew why and how it worked. This state was known as “Adept”.

Then, they would practice the skills to perfection. The cultivators would hone these skills and eventually develop techniques of their own to fit their personal fighting styles. This was the state of “Technique”. It was also the state Master Immortal Liu, a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator, was currently in.

As for the third state, the cultivators would have grasped a fundamental understanding of the skills and knew how they worked. Now, the cultivators would be able to manipulate these skills to their liking and even cast these skills beyond their theoretical limits. In this state, the cultivators would become the skills and carry the overbrimming strength of nature, as if they represented the law of the universe. Irresistible and undefiable, and hence the term, “Law”.

As for the fourth state known as “Frames”, Master Immortal Liu only knew it existed but had no idea what it was.

Not only did Master Immortal Liu tell Lu Ping about the four states, but he also patiently elucidated his attainments in the state of Technique. Then, the session ended with Master Immortal Liu clearing some of Lu Ping’s doubts and questions in his cultivation.

After two hours, Lu Ping returned to his own room while the other disciples stared at him with envy and jealousy. This continued for the next two days.

Time always goes by quickly during the days of focused cultivation. In just the blink of an eye, it was already the end of the month. The promotional examination to be a Grade 3 disciple would start the next day and three days later, it would be the year-end competition of the Grade 2 disciples.

Lu Ping’s charms for the month all sold out as usual. He weighed the bag used to contain the spirit stones and smiled with satisfaction.

The examination only assessed their cultivation progress; three days were more than enough. But the same could not be said for the competition. Moreover, it was a five-year promotional competition. Not just disciples were giving it their best, even the master immortals leading the groups were also trying their hardest to secure the most rewards for themselves.

Furthermore, it was also rumored that compared to previous years, Zhen Ling Sect would heavily reward the high-achievers in the competition this time.

Because of that, Lu Ping’s charms were able to sell out so quickly and of course, Lu Ping naturally wouldn’t miss out on the opportunity. He immediately raised the selling prices of the charms. But even so, they were still selling out quicker than expected as the demand far exceeded the supply.

Looking at the extra spirit stones in his bag, Lu Ping couldn’t help but think about his little plan again. After deducting the necessary fees for charm-crafting and his cultivation, the rest of the spirit stones were enough to buy him another mystic instrument!

The reason he had this thought was because he had now entered the late-stage Seventh Layer. He had Master Immortal Liu’s tutoring sessions to thank for that, and of course, another big contributing factor was the abundant cultivation resources he’d consumed these past three months.

Lu Ping went around the market, shopping for his needs for the next month’s cultivation and even bought five Spirit Regenerating Pellets, which regenerated one’s spiritual energy, and five Essence Recuperating Pellets, which were used for injuries and wounds.

Just when Lu Ping was about to head to the Multi-Treasure Pavilion, a clamor came from the front. He walked towards the crowd and heard a dozen cultivators gathering together in discussion.

Out of curiosity, he walked to the front and recognized a side hall Grade 3 female disciple selling a mystic instrument on her stall.

It was a copper mirror. Its side was carved with the mark of the Zhen Ling Sect, showing that it was a mystic instrument forged by this sect. Oftentimes, bearing such a mark would serve as an assurance that the quality of the mystic instrument would at least be top in grade or slightly lacking than that.

Lu Ping stepped forward and asked, “Senior martial sister, how much will this mystic instrument be?”

The female disciple looked at Lu Ping and noticed the market mask he wore to cover his true identity. The corner of her mouth couldn’t help twitching, showing her slight scorn towards Lu Ping’s cautiousness. She replied, “Fifty-five spirit stones!”

Even though defensive mystic instruments were normally more expensive than the other type of mystic instruments, Lu Ping still thought the price could be lowered a little. After all, this copper mirror wasn’t a top-grade mystic instrument.

“Too expensive. This is a standard mystic instrument forged by the sect, so it’s not anywhere close to unique. Also, Senior martial sister, you’ve used it for a long time already, haven’t you? Forty spirit stones, how about that?”

The female disciple glared at Lu Ping and said, “Forty spirit stones? I might as well sell it to the Multi-Treasure Pavilion. Fifty spirit stones, be a man and call it a deal. If I didn’t need spirit stones so urgently, I wouldn’t even sell it for such a low price. I exchanged this with a year’s worth of contribution points from the sect!”

Lu Ping smiled, “Haha. Then I’ll add five more spirit stones. Forty-five spirit stones, how about that?”

She hesitated for a moment and said, “Forty-eight, no less than that, or I’ll just wait for another buyer.”

Lu Ping turned around and saw a few cultivators heading towards them from far. They must have heard about the mystic instrument for sale and were making their way here. He recognized some of them as Grade 2 disciples and a few of them were from Group 7. Immediately, he said, “Deal!”

The female cultivator took Lu Ping’s spirit stones and said with gritted teeth, “If I’d had enough spirit stones to buy that mid-grade mystic instrument I’ve been eyeing, I wouldn’t even sell this to you!”

After saying so, she turned around without looking back and cast a skill to rush towards the Multi-Treasure Pavilion.

Lu Ping put away the mystic instrument and looked at the cultivators approaching them. Then, he quickly moved into the crowd and left the market without turning back.