Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

NETS – Chapter 243 – Accumulation (2)

Lu Ping took three months to recover from his injuries. All his treasures were in dire straits. The Verdant Dawn Sword was broken, Umbra had been damaged badly and was of little use anymore and the defensive talisman treasure was used up. The Million Poisons Aegis Energy had also been shattered multiple times; in order for it to recover it needed to be nurtured with arcane energy for a long time.

At the moment, the Cold Jade Glazed Bowl and bronze mirror were the only top-grade mystic instruments that were usable. Although Lu Ping owned a few more top-grade mystic instruments, they weren’t compatible with his cultivation method making it difficult for him to unleash their full power.

Whilst the Nascent Life Primordial Stars were incredibly powerful, their consumption rate on his arcane energy was too high. As a result, they could only be used for a short while during critical junctures. Otherwise, he would deplete all his arcane energy soon after a fight broke out.

Without the Triple Turning Spiritual Pellet, Lu Ping wouldn’t have been able to hold on until the end of the battle with Enlightened Master Jin. The majority of Lu Ping’s internal injuries were caused by pushing himself to the limit in order to power the Primordial Stars.

The only good news was that he had gained a lot of insights and enlightenment from the battle; it was time for another round of cultivation improvements.

Inside the cave-dwelling, Lu Ping summoned the Cold Jade Glazed Bowl. He used the bowl’s water to cast 324 sword lights in the shape of water swords that moved like a river

Then, Lu Ping flipped his hand. The water swords stopped moving and vibrated rapidly. They each spit out a mini water sword into the bowl which then grew to the same size as the initial water sword. In total 648 sword lights were formed, among which were 162 spiritual sword lights.

The water swords gradually merged together forming a huge water sword.

Lu Ping controlled the huge water sword and cast the [Disarrayed Rocks Puncturing Sword Art]. The huge water sword burst into water droplets, disappearing into vapor in the cave-dwelling.

Lu Ping rubbed his chin and mulled. Right now, he should be able to attempt refining Enlightened Master Jin’s Golden Scale Sword.

One-third of Lu Ping’s strength was in his swordsmanship. As a result, the destruction of his Verdant Dawn Sword had put him in an awkward position where he didn’t have a suitable top-grade flying sword to wield.

The Golden Scale Sword was powerful, but since it was a mystic treasure, casting it would definitely consume a lot of arcane energy.

Furthermore, a Blood Condensation Realm cultivator wielding a flying sword mystic treasure would certainly attract a lot of attention. If an Enlightened Master chased after him for the sword, he could only run for his life.

Do I have to go and find another top-grade flying sword?

Qian Yuan Island was a good place to go, as there would be a lot of mystic instruments in its marketplace. However, the Northern League’s Alchemy Conference would only be held one year later, so there was no hurry to go there now.

The refinement of the Golden Scale Sword was a time-consuming task. This was because it was Enlightened Master Jin’s nascent weapon, and so he had left a deep brand of his divine revelation and true energy inside the flying sword, which took a lot of time to erase.

Besides the flying sword, Enlightened Master Jin didn’t have much left inside his interspatial ring. There were only a few hundred thousand spirit stones, and a few bottles of medicinal pellets. He must have used up everything in the past two years and didn’t have somewhere to resupply.

What surprised Lu Ping was that Enlightened Master Jin Li had five top-grade spirit stones, making him feel a lot better.

There were also two violet jade scrolls, but as they were not sealed with divine revelation, Lu Ping could read them with his divine sense.

The first violet jade scroll contained a set of sword arts known as the [True Origin One Essence Sword Art]. This was the sword art Enlightened Master Jin had used to attack Lu Ping back on Hundred Flowers Land island.

This sword art could only be learned after the cultivator had achieved Sword Unity. So, even though Lu Ping was barely able to learn the sword art, the power he could unleash with it was a different story.

The second violet jade scroll was a map. Lu Ping inspected the map for some time and realized that it was the map of a place in the Central Plains. This surprised him, could it be that Enlightened Master Jin had also been to the Central Plains?

From what Lu Ping knew, Enlightened Master Jin only entered the Core Forging Realm fewer than 30 years ago, and had spent the majority of his time in the North Ocean. In other words, Enlightened Master Jin wouldn’t have had time to travel to the Central Plains.

Furthermore, the Central Plains was rumored to be conquered by human cultivators, so no monster cultivators would dare to travel there before achieving the Core Forging Realm.

“Jade Lily River? I heard it’s the second largest river in the Central Plains. It would make sense if there were some monsters in the river.”

Lu Ping kept the jade scrolls in his interspatial ring. He would definitely travel to the Central Plains in the future, and at that time this map would come in handy. However, that would be after he condensed his Golden Core and achieved the Core Forging Realm.

After all, the Central Plains was the pinnacle of the cultivation world. To give an example, Crystal Palace was already the strongest force in the East Ocean, but in the Central Plains, there were several giants similar to it.

It was clear that the Central Plains cultivation was much more advanced and progressive than other regions.

Looking through Enlightened Master Jin’s interspatial ring, it was a pity that he couldn’t find any records relating to the True Spirit Heavenly Gate. After all, that was a genuine divine ability that could only be attained after achieving Sword Intent.

However, Lu Ping also knew that the True Spirit Heavenly Gate was Enlightened Master Jin’s cultivation inheritance. If cultivators didn’t voluntarily pass on their cultivation inheritance, other people were unable to forcibly seize it from them.

Other than that, there were a dozen jade boxes which he opened up one by one. The jade boxes contained around 100 pieces of thousand-year spirit herbs. Lu Ping hadn’t expected Enlightened Master Jin to still have so many spirit herbs left.

Lu Ping went through the spirit herbs and managed to gather a cauldron of spirit herbs for the Heart Condensation Pellets.

Lu Qin had entered the Eighth Layer Blood Condensation Realm for some time now. Lu Ping was waiting for her to firmly consolidate her cultivation base before then letting her consume the Heart Condensation Pellets to enter the Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

But before that, Lu Ping had to get rid of Enlightened Master Jin’s body.

Enlightened Master Jin’s true form was a giant golden carp with a Water Jiao Foundation Bloodline. The most valuable part of the body was naturally his Golden Core which Lu Ping had already harvested.

There was originally a scarlet armor, formed from his golden scales, but Lu Ping had already smashed it into pieces with the pestle mystic treasure.

The valuable parts left were the flesh and blood. Lu Ping extracted the blood to prepare for the snake trio’s advancement to the Late Blood Condensation Realm. Then, he left the carp’s body to the salivating snake trio.

The body of a monster Enlightened Master was a great tonic for them. After eating the carp, they raised their cultivation base to the peak of the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

During this time, Lu Ping also finished concocting the Bottleneck Breaking Pellets using the extracted blood. The snake trio consumed the pellets and successfully broke through to the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm.

The snake trio were Lu Ping’s most diligently nurtured spirit pets. Similar to his own cultivation journey, every single step the snake trio took was firmly consolidated before proceeding onwards. As a result, the snake trio’s arcane energies were abundant just like Lu Ping’s.

Lu Ping flipped his hand causing three huge spirit peaches to appear in his palm. These were the peaches that the peach tree monster used to beg Lu Ping not to kill it.

After taming the peach tree monster, he learned that it was about 2,000-years-old and had awakened its cognition less than 500 years ago. He also learned that it took 300 years for the spirit peaches to mature

Lu Ping couldn’t help but praise the wonderful effect of Psychic Wood.

The Ninth Rank White Lotus was 9,000-years-old yet it still hadn’t awoken, whereas the peach tree monster had awoken its cognition in fewer than 2,000 years simply because it had Psychic Wood.

Lu Ping didn’t hesitate and ate one of the spirit peaches. It was very juicy and refreshing. The peach’s flesh instantly turned into a huge spiritual energy that quickly replenished his depleted arcane energy.

Whilst Lu Ping had already recovered from his injuries, his arcane energy still hadn’t fully replenished yet due to its massive capacity.

Surprisingly, the spirit peach managed to actually restore one-third of his arcane energy. Furthermore, some spiritual energy seeped into his internal organs and tissues, nourishing some of his hidden injuries, and amazing Lu Ping further!

Lu Ping looked at the remaining two spirit peaches in his hand, before then looking at the fifteen others on the peach tree.

The spirit peaches’ efficacy wasn’t any weaker than a thousand-year rare spirit herb. Hence, they could definitely be used to concoct Core Forging Realm medicinal pellets.

As he had casually eaten one just like that, Lu Ping couldn’t help but touch his stomach and think about how wasteful he was.

Then, he brought out a jade box and stored the two spirit peaches inside them.

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