Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Chapter 203

NETS – Chapter 203 – Monster Tide (2)

Little did they know that Lu Ping would rather be chased than reveal his true cultivation level.

Publicizing this piece of information would only bring him trouble.

He’d always set out to be sufficiently prepared and that his foundation was solid and stable prior to a breakthrough. Hence, his newly-formed Condensed Blood Beads must be at least one third the size of the completely-cultivated Condensed Blood Beads.

However, Lu Ping had only entered the Seventh Layer not too long ago. He didn’t have as much time to consolidate his foundation and carry out his usual preparations.

He now had to rely on the Heart Condensation Pellet to break through to the Eighth Layer. As a result, the newly-formed Condensed Blood Bead this time was only one sixth the size of the others.

This was his first time proceeding with a smaller Condensed Blood Bead, which left him feeling apprehensive that his foundation was too shaky.

If he were to push himself beyond his limitations, rather than enter the Eight Layer, he might fall back to the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm!

Yet his worries were unfounded—Lu Ping had no inkling that for most cultivators, newly formed Condensed Blood Beads were only one sixth the size of the completely cultivated ones.

So, he was the odd one here.

The water Jiao and golden carp fought fiercely underwater. But if one were to look more carefully, they would see that the golden carp was more agile and shrewd than the water Jiao. It would easily dodge the water Jiao’s attacks and fight back without much effort.

This was because the golden carp was wholly made of spiritual sword lights, whereas this applied only to the eyes and claws of the water Jiao.

In just a few moments, the golden carp drove the water Jiao to a ragged state, eventually tearing it to pieces.

Nonetheless, the Verdant Dawn Sword on the water Jiao’s horn managed to slash away a third of the golden carp’s body, leaving it in a terrible state like a half-eaten fish.

Lu Ping might have also attained the state of Sword Spirituality, but he was still below Enlightened Master Jin’s level. Even so, he was still heavily impressed by Lu Ping’s improvements.

The ragged golden carp charged into the Umbra, and Lu Ping took the full brunt of the attack, allowing the impact to push him further away southeast, leaving the others far behind him.

Enlightened Master Jin simply took two steps forward. As he moved, the seawater under his feet surged up and sent him directly behind Miao Wei-Dong and the others.

With another swing of his hand, Enlightened Master Jin’s flying sword flew out again just like it did the last time—the same golden giant sword light split into more than six hundred sword lights which formed into golden carps.

Except this time, there were only three golden carps and the flying sword did not return to Enlightened Master Jin. Instead, it flew out and joined in the attacks.

Zhou Wei-Long, who only barely made it out of the last attack, naturally couldn’t avoid it a second time. He let out a wail of despair before the sword lights cut him into pieces.

Miao Wei-Dong and He Li-Xin both heard his final howl and their faces turned as white as a sheet. Not daring to take any chances, they cast out their final protective measures—their talisman treasures.

He Li-Xin’s talisman treasure was a huge web that wrapped around the incoming golden carp. Unfortunately, the huge net only managed to destroy some of the sword lights, stopping the golden carp for a brief second.

Then, the carp’s remaining sword lights tore down the huge net in an instant, taking away one of her legs in the process. He Li-Xin screamed in pain as she fell into the seawater, vanishing among the swarm of monsters.

To the side, Miao Wei-Dong’s talisman treasure was clearly of stronger make; it was actually a giant water lion that leaped towards the attacking golden carp.

However, no matter the strength of the talisman treasures, they were only tools that unleashed the recorded spells left behind by Enlightened Masters. Naturally, they could never compare to an attack by an actual Enlightened Master!

In the blink of an eye, the water lion was beaten down into a splash of water. Even so, the water lion succeeded in greatly weakening the golden carp, which bought Miao Wei-Dong enough time.

The remaining sword lights only managed to shatter his aegis energy. Miao Wei-Dong cast the [Blood Spirit Escape] and disappeared in a flash, leaving not just the sword lights behind, but also Lu Ping.

On the other hand, Lu Ping’s expression was grim. This time, he was being pursued not by the golden carp made of sword lights, but the flying sword mystic treasure!

Lu Ping made a seal with his hands and shouted, “Go!”

A foot-long pestle flew out of Lu Ping’s hands and rammed towards Enlightened Master Jin’s silver flying sword.

Enlightened Master Jin smiled mockingly. “To think that you would also have a mystic treasure. But even so, do you really think that a Blood Condensation cultivator can compete with someone at the Core Forging Realm? What a joke. Let me show you the real difference between the realms today.”

The silver flying sword abruptly moved agilely in mid-air. It elegantly dodged the pestle, and with a small swing, slapped the pestle sideways.

Lu Ping tried to control the pestle to evade the attack, but found it difficult to manipulate his divine sense. He could only watch as the pestle was slapped to the side.

Enlightened Master Jin Li laughed loudly, as if mocking Lu Ping’s self-proclaimed power.

Lu Ping reacted decisively, gritting his teeth and using his entire divine sense to control the pestle. Immediately, his divine sense quickly depleted but he could no longer care about his own condition.

His actions allowed him more control over the pestle. Turning it around, he rammed it heavily against the flying sword.

Enlightened Master Jin was haughty; he wasn’t one to engrave a Mystical Inscription on his flying sword other than the best ones. So, his flying sword only bore one Mystical Inscription.

By comparison, the pestle had two identical Mystical Inscriptions.

To bear identical Mystical Inscriptions meant sacrificing the pestle’s potential and making it weaker than those bearing two different inscriptions. Yet, in this case, the pestle was still stronger than Enlightened Master Jin’s silver flying sword, which only had a single inscription.

The pestle slammed against the sword, launching it backwards.

Enlightened Master Jin finally looked a little more serious and said coldly, “Oh? What an exceptional divine sense!”

Forcing himself to wield the pestle had taken a huge toll on Lu Ping’s condition. His arcane energy was depleted, and he was suffering under a severe headache and dizziness.

But he couldn’t let himself be distracted. He quickly summoned Lu Qin, who bore him away as they continued to flee southwest.

They were nearing the buffer zone between the human race sea and monster race sea. The group of monster beasts chasing after Lu Ping grew increasingly in size.

In the North Ocean, the human race occupied the west and the monster race occupied the east. So, from a bird’s eye view, the monster tide appeared to move from the east to the west.

However, as Lu Ping fled southwest, while more and more monsters chased after him, the monster tide gradually split apart like a piece of paper torn in the middle.

Lu Qin the Verdant Luan also knew that this was a moment of life and death. She let out a clear chirp and covered herself in Verdant Luan Fire. Aided by her natural wind spells, she flew away in a burst of trailing fire.

In a matter of seconds, they managed to overtake Miao Wei-Dong, leaving him far behind.

The exhausted Lu Ping sat on the Verdant Luan’s back and concentrated on his recovery. Suddenly, he felt wave after wave of formidable auras sweeping out from the monster tide. Suppressed by the auras, Lu Qin couldn’t stop crying out in fear.

Lu Ping knew that these auras belonged to the Enlightened Masters mixed in with the monster tide, but he didn’t know why they didn’t step in to stop him. However, this was exactly what he wished for, to not be impeded at all.

Shortly after, Lu Ping heard a dying scream behind him. It didn’t have to be guessed, the scream was definitely from Miao Wei-Dong.

After Miao Wei-Dong, Lu Ping would be next!

Just how could he get away from the monster tide behind him, and most of all, Enlightened Master Jin?

At present, Lu Ping was already in the southern buffer zone which bordered Xuan Ling Sect’s territory.

The monster beasts chasing behind him were also too detached from the monster tide, making the monster Enlightened Masters step in to bring the deviated monsters back to course.

However, there were still some overly-agitated monsters that would ignore their orders and continue to chase after Lu Ping. As a result, Lu Ping had inadvertently reinforced the monster tide on the south side, luring them to enter the human race sea from the buffer waters bordering Xuan Ling Sect.

But Lu Ping knew that if he continued like this, he would end up dying sooner or later.

Enlightened Master Jin Li had now caught up to him for the third time. This time, the Enlightened Master’s face was grim and completely lost his previous suave demeanor.

What Lu Ping didn’t know was that after escaping his attacks twice in a row, the other monster Enlightened Masters lost no time in mocking his failure through their divine revelation.

As mentioned before, Enlightened Master Jin was haughty—he was the rising star of the North Ocean monster race. Not only was his rate of cultivation swift, his swordsmanship was also unparalleled. He was the Great Ancestor Golden Jiao Lord’s god-son, a young and talented Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master.

Enlightened Master Jin always challenged the other Enlightened Masters of the same rank and would bring them humiliating defeats with his sword skill. So, it was only natural that they would hold grudges against him.

Monsters were different from humans, in that they were more straightforward and less euphemistic. When they saw Enlightened Master Jin fail to take down Lu Ping, they didn’t hold back from laughing at him.

Thus, the monster Enlightened Masters didn’t try to stop Lu Ping even when they could. They simply wanted to use him to ridicule Enlightened Master Jin.

After most of the monsters were shepherded back to the monster tide, Lu Ping could put aside the threat of their numbers for the time being.

Now, his biggest peril remained: the constantly pursuing Enlightened Master Jin. Lu Ping could also tell that Enlightened Master Jin’s attacks were now different.

In his previous two attacks, Enlightened Master Jin was more intent on testing Lu Ping’s sword skill for his own understanding. After all, he was planning to let Lu Ping live to reach the Core Forging Realm, using him as a stepping stone to hone his sword art.

However, after Lu Ping’s successful defense of both attacks, Enlightened Master Jin started to feel uncomfortable. Lu Ping’s prowess was growing beyond his expectations, and he couldn’t help wondering if this human would be easy to deal with once he entered the Core Forging Realm.

Adding to that his irritation over the monster Enlightened Masters’ taunting remarks. Enlightened Master Jin decided to go all out and eliminate Lu Ping before things could go beyond his control.

After a long flight, Lu Qin had already carried Lu Ping past the buffer sea and was fast approaching the southeast corner of the North Ocean Alliance.

Lu Qin was already exhausted and so, Lu Ping popped a Spirit Regenerating Pellet into her mouth and put her back into the spirit pet pouch. Riding on the Auspicious Cloud, he continued flying southwest.

He turned to look back at the monster beasts and Enlightened Master Jin behind him, the cogs in his mind turning as he tried to figure out a way to escape.

Suddenly, Lu Ping thought of something and his eyes lit up.

More importantly, Lu Ping knew that there was a nameless deserted island beside Qiu Yun Island, one that had an Ocean Overturning Gang’s secret teleportation formation.

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