Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Chapter 118 – Oriole

Lu Ping let Senior Martial Brother Zhao wear down the water wall to a thin layer, the water wall was on the verge of breaking.

Yet, Lu Ping simply ignored his breaking defense. He continued to cast the Soaring Wing Swords into endless waves of attacks at Junior Martial Brother Wang. He was obviously fighting like a trapped animal.

To the two cultivators, Lu Ping would soon be surrounded by the crowd. He would be under their heavy attacks and killed on the scene.

But suddenly, a huge iron stamp seal appeared in the sky and smashed towards Junior Martial Brother Wang’s protective light shield.

They never thought Lu Ping, who was just a Third Layer Blood Condensation Realm, could cast three high-grade mystic instruments simultaneously. But although unexpected, it wasn’t as surprising after witnessing Lu Ping’s Landslide during their pursuit.

Despite Junior Martial Brother Wang’s shock, he didn’t panic because he had by his side Senior Martial Brother Zhao, who was a Late Blood Condensation Realm.

Bang—

A loud bang could be heard as Landslide smashed Junior Martial Brother Wang’s defensive mystic instrument. The light shield shattered and shrunk into a palm-sized wooden shield in his hand.

The wooden shield was covered with several cracks and Junior Martial Brother Wang spurted out a mouthful of blood.

Crack—

Another crunching sound quickly followed, and the water wall formed by Lu Ping’s Water Avoidance Shield was blown apart by Senior Martial Brother Zhao.

Luckily, the Water Avoidance Shield was a high-grade mystic instrument, so even when the water wall was broken, the damage to the mystic instrument was not too serious. As long as Lu Ping used his own arcane energy to nurture it for some time, he could repair the damage.

Lu Ping quickly raised his hand and sent out two Water Shield Charms, barely fending off Senior Martial Brother Zhao’s attack.

A blood-red mid-grade mystic instrument was then flung towards Junior Martial Brother Wang, who was parrying Lu Ping’s duel sword attacks.

Junior Martial Brother Wang wasn’t a match for Lu Ping in the first place, let alone now when he was injured from the last attack. He could only struggle to defend himself from Lu Ping’s attacks.

He detected another mystic instrument heading his way. Although no spells of art were cast, it was still incredibly fast. So, he hurriedly took out a spare defensive mystic instrument to resist.

On the other side, Senior Martial Brother Zhao waved his hand and casually shattered Lu Ping’s two Water Shield Charms. Seeing Lu Ping’s blood-red mystic instrument flying towards Junior Martial Brother Wang, his face changed and he hurriedly warned, “Be careful! Dodge it, don’t defend!”

But it was too late.

Just as the two mystic instruments collided, a loud blast erupted from the point of contact. Lu Ping’s blood-red mystic instrument suddenly exploded and shattered his opponent’s defensive mystic instrument.

Junior Martial Brother Wang bore the brunt of the impact.

Despite his best efforts, he was hit by two shards, one breaking his ribs and one scraping a piece of flesh off his thigh, causing him to scream and cry in pain.

Lu Ping’s Soaring Wing Swords took the opportunity to break through Junior Martial Brother Wang’s defenses. In the midst of his desperate cries, Lu Ping stabbed him through the heart.

At that moment, a black wind blew out of Senior Martial Brother Zhao’s wind pouch.

Lu Ping only had time to use a spell in the [Water Manipulation Art] to raise a curtain of water over the sea, but the water wall still couldn’t stop the black wind from reaching him.

Lu Ping immediately felt a cold shiver run through his body.

This black wind blew over his body, and despite wearing the Emerald Sea Spirit Snake inner vest that could block the wind, Lu Ping still felt chilled to the bone.

At the same time, his internal organs also felt a pang, he knew that he had been attacked from the inside and was now suffering internal injuries.

Lu Ping quickly circulated arcane energy through his body, and after some examination, he knew that the internal injuries weren’t serious due to the inner vest’s resistance. As long as he had some time, he could use his arcane energy to expel the cold poison from his body.

Although it would still affect his movements, Lu Ping was able to temporarily suppress the cold poison with his profound arcane energy, so it wasn’t too much of an issue for now.

The reason for Lu Ping’s insistence on killing Junior Martial Brother Wang was to prevent him from using the spirit pet squid to track his trail.

Now that the master was dead, his spirit squid would most likely be dead as well.

Lu Ping used the Soaring Wing Swords to roll up a wave of water, blocking the strange wind. Then, he turned and fled towards the depths of the monster race sea.

Just as Lu Ping was about to cast the Auspicious Cloud to escape, a gray light landed in front of him, and a flying sword lunged towards his face.

Lu Ping had to stop and raise his Yan Ling Swords, which he hadn’t used for a long time, knocking the flying sword away.

As the gray light vanished, the cultivator who landed in front of Lu Ping was revealed to be Xuan Ling Sect’s Zhang Wei-Qing. At the sight of his pale face, he had obviously cast a secret technique which took a toll on his body, allowing him to arrive at the scene before the other cultivators in order to stop Lu Ping.

Although the crowd didn’t know what grudge Zhang Wei-Qing had with Lu Ping that would make him risk serious injuries to stop him, they were happy to watch someone else take the lead.

Naturally, Lu Ping was aware of Zhang Wei-Qing’s motives.

Zhang Wei-Qing was relegated to the position of a Fallen Cultivator because he had lost the bet after their expedition to Fei Ling Island—half of Xuan Ling Sect’s harvest was handed over to Zhen Ling Sect.

Initially, the bet was made between the two sects, so Zhang Wei-Qing’s loss was no big deal.

The problem was that this time, Fei Ling Island’s harvest was unbelievably huge; it was the most ever seen compared to previous expeditions. It was so huge that even the Core Forging Enlightened Masters present were salivating over the harvest.

What’s worse, the emergence of two heaven-and-earth spirit items made Zhang Wei-Qing, who lost the treasure fight, fall into the abyss of complete failure.

As a result, the furious Enlightened Master Feng Xu-Dao directly relegated Zhang Wei-Qing into a Fallen Cultivator and so, he became a sacrificial pawn for Xuan Ling Sect.

This was why Zhang Wei-Qing hated Lu Ping to the bone.

Lu Ping also didn’t expect him to use such extreme means to cut off his escape. He initially planned to fight his way out before the others closed in on him. This was also why he took the risk of killing Junior Martial Brother Wang as getting rid of the spirit squid would stop them from tracking his whereabouts.

But now, with Zhang Wei-Qing’s sudden interception, Lu Ping had become a turtle in a jar—he was naturally frightened and angry.

Looking at the expression on Lu Ping’s face, Zhang Wei-Qing felt the pleasure of revenge in his heart and he laughed loudly with glee, “Lu Ping, did you ever think you would end up like this?”

The interception was short and only lasted for a moment, but it was still long enough for the other cultivators to arrive and surround him.

Lu Ping didn’t say a word, with the Soaring Wing Swords hovering around him.

Today, it could be said to be the biggest calamity in his life. He was surrounded by enemies and the only way out was to fight to his death.

Even though he still had a few means of escape, whether he could carry them out would depend on his fate.

At that moment, a burst of applause came from all directions, and a voice sounded indistinctly, “Not bad, not bad. We, the Ocean Overturning Gang, originally planned to return to the buffer sea to rest, but we sure didn’t expect to witness such a good show. The mantis catches the cicada, the oriole is behind. I wonder if we could also join in this show of yours?”

The crowd panicked while Lu Ping’s heart sank.

Senior Martial Brother Zhao sternly shouted, “Who’s there? Don’t you know that we’re the North Ocean’s Shui Yan Pavilion, Xuan Ling Sect and three other sects? Quickly show yourselves?”

The voice sounded again with soft laughter, “Shui Yan Pavilion? Xuan Ling Sect? Who are you people? I’ve never heard of these sects before. Since you want to see our Ocean Overturning Gang, we’ll show ourselves as you wished.”

A wave of arcane energy rippled on the waters nearby. The surrounding scenery was distorted but nothing much had changed on the sea.

At the periphery of those surrounding Lu Ping, more than twenty cultivators in different costumes appeared. These cultivators enclosed Lu Ping and the sect cultivators in the middle.

At the front of this group were five men who fluctuated with profound arcane energy; they were obviously all Late Blood Condensation cultivators.

It turned out that Lu Ping and the sect cultivators were in a huge illusionary array formation this entire time. They had been fighting in the illusionary array for so long without even realizing that they were already in danger.

Senior Martial Brother Zhao looked down and thought for a while, and he suddenly understood something. He said, “You must be the rumored sea pirates of the monster race sea. So, it seems like your goal here is the same as us, that is to disrupt the order of Zhen Ling Sect’s buffer sea. We have the same purpose, so it’s unwise for us to fight and let Zhen Ling Sect take advantage of us.”

While pointing at Lu Ping, he said, “We’re here to hunt down and kill this undercover cultivator from Zhen Ling Sect. If we let him escape and report back to his sect, they will definitely come for us and your gang. If you’re interested in working together, how about we hand this cultivator to your gang as a show of goodwill?”

The leader of the five Late Blood Condensation Realms looked at Lu Ping, laughing softly as he said, “Interesting, an Early Blood Condensation disciple being chased and hunted by a dozen cultivators with far superior cultivation bases.

“And it appears that this chase has lasted for quite some time, yet, not only is he not dead, he even killed one of your members in front of a Late Blood Condensation Realm. That’s really interesting to see.”

Senior Martial Brother Zhao and the others turned red in the face from embarrassment.

Lu Ping’s heart tightened. The more he listened, the more he felt that this leader’s words lacked goodwill.

Sure enough, the head cultivator suddenly changed his tone into a murderous voice, “In that case, all of you can go to hell. This way, Zhen Ling Sect will not get the news, and even Shui Yan Pavilion and Xuan Ling Sect will mistakenly think that you’ve died at the hands of Zhen Ling Sect. Wouldn’t that be great?”

As the head cultivator finished saying his piece, the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators launched their mystic instruments and spells towards Lu Ping and the sect cultivators surrounding him.

Three of the five Late Blood Condensation cultivators also joined the battlefield and besieged Senior Martial Brother Zhao.

Senior Martial Brother Zhao shouted urgently, “Everyone scatter and break through their forces! It’s every man for himself! When you get out, report what you saw today to your respective sects. They will investigate the Ocean Overturning Gang to avenge us!”

The head cultivator heard what Senior Martial Brother Zhao said and his face changed. He knew he had inadvertently exposed some information, so he sneered coldly and said, “Do you think you still have a chance to live today?”

The Ocean Overturning Gang cultivator had the absolute advantage in numbers, with two or three attacking each sect cultivator.

The clashes of mystic instruments and the explosions of spells were heard one after another on the sea. From time to time, the screams of cultivators rang out before their deaths.

As soon as the Ocean Overturning Gang launched their attack, Lu Ping forcibly cast up the damaged Water Avoidance Shield and fled into the depths of the monster race sea.

Lu Ping didn’t dare to turn back, because when the five late cultivators of Ocean Overturning Gang appeared, they were all standing on the west side of the sea. This meant that they had cut off the path back to human waters—Lu Ping didn’t want to confront any Late Blood Condensation cultivators at a time like this.

However, while Lu Ping tried to avoid them, he didn’t expect that one of them would specifically approach him.

Previously, Lu Ping was attacked by Senior Martial Brother Zhao and still managed to kill Junior Martial Brother Wang. His prowess had shocked the Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators who were hiding at that time.

Therefore, although the Ocean Overturning Gang all looked down on North Ocean cultivators, they still sent a late Blood Condensation cultivator after Lu Ping.

Lu Ping secretly mourned with bitterness, he knew that his prowess was too unbelievable and it had attracted the attention of the Ocean Overturning Gang.

However, he was running for his life and survival was more important than anything else. Hence, he hurriedly threw out a blood-red mid-grade mystic instrument behind him.

Then, he slapped a Water Escape Charm on his body, instantly turning it into flowing water as he sped away on the surface of the sea.