Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit - Chapter 295
Chapter 295 – Test of Strength
A few days later, thousands of miles away from Silver Sword Island, a white canoe suddenly appeared in the air, with Liang Xuan-Feng, Zhu Xuan-Meng and Lu Xuan-Ping on top of it. Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng waved his hand, and the canoe instantly disappeared.
Zhu Xuan-Meng looked at Liang Xuan-Feng’s white canoe with great admiration, and said, “Junior martial uncle, this Flowing Cloud Canoe of yours is really fast, it only took us 10 minutes to get here!”
Liang Xuan-Feng bragged, “That’s right, this Flowing Cloud Canoe is not only my nascent mystic treasure, it also has six Mystical Inscriptions. Within the ranks of flying mystic treasures, it is considered extremely fast.”
Lu Ping’s divine revelation picked up hundreds of Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters hidden in the surroundings. Besides the Enlightened Masters, there was a far greater number of Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. However, although all of them had cast stealth spells and skills, they were all not concealing themselves completely.
Lu Ping wondered, “These cultivators are strange, no one deliberately hid their presence, making them easily discoverable. If that’s the case, what’s the point of activating stealth skills in the first place?”
Liang Xuan-Feng answered, “It’s not to hide their tracks, it’s to hide their identities.”
Lu Ping immediately understood. Sure enough, everyone here was competition, so they were all guarding against each other. Hence, the most important thing was not to be recognized when doing shady things like setting up traps and ambushes. Keeping their identities anonymous would avoid potential troubles in the future.
Suddenly, a rumbling sound came from the depths of the sea and the seawater on the surface started to undulate violently. Liang Xuan-Feng stared at the rising tides and said, “Stay alert. Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect have joined forces to open Chong Xuan’s dojo. The opening time is much earlier than I thought. It seems that coming an hour earlier was the right decision, otherwise we would be falling behind the others.”
After listening to Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng’s words, both Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng felt that he was being too confident. From their interactions over the last few days, Lu Ping found his junior martial uncle to be a cautious and friendly individual, so he directly asked, “Junior martial uncle, you seem overly confident, how are you so sure of the opening time?”
Liang Xuan-Feng glared at Lu Ping with the demeanor of a senior, and said, “Kid, you’re so young, so naive. Do you know what I’m best at?”
Without waiting for Lu Ping to answer, he continued, “I’m good at seals, all kinds of seals, whether they be in the form of array formations, equipment, or in ruins. I’m not talking about setting up the seals, but rather deciphering and dismantling them. According to my calculations, Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect would only decipher and break open the dojo an hour later. That’s why we arrived here an hour earlier to prepare.”
“So how come it’s now opening earlier?” Zhu Xuan-Meng smiled at Liang Xuan-Feng and asked.
“That’s what I’m worried about. It seems that Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect have joined hands.”
Immediately, Zhu Xuan-Meng and Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng’s face turned gloomy
Lu Ping thought for a moment, and said, “Junior uncle mentioned that Crystal Palace had been collecting information about the Fei Ling Sect through the Ocean Overturning Gang in the North Ocean. Perhaps it’s opening earlier because Crystal Palace happened to obtain some information, allowing them to speed up the seal-braking process?”
Enlightened Master Liang didn’t reply, but his expression looked much better. If it was true that Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect had worked together to break open Chong Xuan’s dojo, the public backlash from the East Ocean cultivators would be considerably large.
As the only colossal sect in the East Ocean, Crystal Palace naturally wouldn’t be afraid of public backlash, but the Sky Cleaving Sword Sect was only a large sect, so it would have to take into account the pressures from the other three large sects. Hence, the Sky Cleaving Sword Sect most likely wouldn’t agree to work together with Crystal Palace.
Two huge whirlpools suddenly formed on the sea, making Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng’s face beam with joy, “The two sects really didn’t join forces. Let’s go, we’re already one step behind the two sects.”
Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng immediately summoned the Flowing Cloud Canoe, commanding it to travel towards one of the whirlpools. In Lu Ping’s divine revelation, the cultivators separated into two groups, scrambling towards the two whirlpools.
Being a wind-element Eighth Layer Enlightened Master, Liang Xuan-Feng was naturally much faster than the others, not to mention that he had even used his Flowing Cloud Canoe. Hence, they immediately overtook the crowd and were the first to reach a whirlpool.
Immediately, they were the focus of many attacks from other cultivators that were trying to slow them down.
Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng protected the two flanks, while Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng focused on maneuvering the flying canoe. In a flash, the distance between them and the crowd had widened.
Lu Ping stood on the port side of the canoe and cast a flying sword in the air with excitement; this was his first time fighting since advancing to the Core Forging Realm, and it was even a siege by several Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters.
Lu Ping activated a sword art and the Golden Scale Sword shot out a total of 96 sword lights in a certain direction. A groan of pain was heard as a cultivator had been hurt badly by Lu Ping’s attack.
On the other side, Zhu Xuan-Meng was using an uncommon weapon called a pipa. She plucked and strummed on the strings, sending out sound waves that attacked her surroundings.
Enlightened Master Liang stayed vigilant, preparing to intervene if there were any deadly assaults. He wasn’t too worried about Zhu Xuan-Meng as he knew her capabilities and strength as a Fifth Layer Enlightened Master.
His major concern was with Lu Ping; a newly-advanced Enlightened Master who he had never seen fight before. Not to mention that alchemists were typically weaker in combat, so it was expected that he was paying more attention to Lu Ping’s situation.
However, Enlightened Master Liang was quickly shocked. Not only was Lu Ping extremely capable, he was much stronger than the other First Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters.
When Enlightened Master Liang saw the Golden Scale Sword, his eyes lit up and he laughed, “So it was you who killed Jin Li the golden carp?”
Lu Ping was shocked, but quickly realized that it was because of the Golden Scale Sword in his hand, so he laughed, and replied, “Exactly, he was severely wounded when I encountered him, so I took advantage of the situation and killed him with some luck.”
Enlightened Master Liang smirked, “The old monster on Golden Jiao Island was furious, he almost came to the East Ocean to hunt the killer. Don’t ever let him see the sword in your hands.”
Lu Ping cast out the [True Origin One Essence Sword Art] into three light swords, each sword formed from 81 spiritual sword lights. The light swords slashed forward, deflecting three incoming mystic treasures. Then, Lu Ping asked, “Junior martial uncle, what about this?”
Enlightened Master Liang nodded approvingly, “You also shouldn’t let him see you casting this sword art.”
At this moment, a giant claw appeared out of nowhere, attempting to grab the canoe. Enlightened Master Liang wanted to see Lu Ping’s limits, so he didn’t intervene, and only warned, “Careful, this is a monster cultivator.”
Lu Ping pointed the sword at the seawater, and commanded, “Rise!”
A ninety-foot long one-horned spiritual Sword Jiao, covered in seawater, formed in front of him. It fiercely lunged forwards and fought the giant claw. Moments later, it cut the giant claw into shreds. Although the Sword Jiao was covered in wounds, it still flaunted its might like a true monster!
After the giant claw was shattered, the cultivators were shocked and a lot of them stopped attacking the port side. Enlightened Master Liang was also very shocked as he didn’t think Lu Ping would be able to so casually fight off a Third Layer Enlightened Master’s attack!
“Hmph” a cold hum from the void sounded out. The voice then said, “Since you’re so powerful, I will have to come and deal with you myself.”
After that hum, Lu Ping felt a sneak attack from the void directed at his divine revelation.
This was a divine revelation attack aimed at his divine revelation!
Lu Ping smirked mockingly/ Although he didn’t practice any offensive or defensive secret techniques for divine revelation, his divine revelation that was as strong as Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, made him immune to most weaker offensive secret techniques.
Hence, Lu Ping shrunk his divine revelation into a barrier. When the divine revelation attack landed on his barrier, it felt like a small poke and nothing more.
Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng laughed coldly, “Didn’t you already do it? Giving a warning after attacking, how impressive!”
Enlightened Master Liang deliberately pointed out that the attacker had just made a sneak attack and still failed. The attacker snorted back coldly and answered with a fire cloud aimed at the Flowing Cloud Canoe.
Lu Ping’s face froze. The attacker was a Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master!
So far, the attackers had only been Early Enlightened Masters, because of an unspoken rule in the East Ocean. In mixed battles, cultivators would only attack other cultivators in the same stage as them, Early Enlightened Masters against Early Enlightened Masters, Mid against Mid, and Late against Late.
This was also why Enlightened Master Liang wouldn’t intervene in the battle, unless of course Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng were in danger. However, a Mid Enlightened Master had broken the unspoken rule and attacked Lu Ping, so Enlightened Master Liang pointed that out, warning the crowd that he would also break the rule if the others continued to do so.
With Enlightened Master Liang, an Eighth Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master, protecting him, Lu Ping had no worries and was simply excited to finally test his limits!
Not to mention that fighting on the sea was advantageous to water-element cultivators like himself, let alone against fire-element cultivators!
Lu Ping immediately put away the Golden Scale Sword. He clapped his hands together and the water vapor in the surroundings gathered above him. A heavy dark cloud condensed before the fire cloud could even reach them.
The attacker quickly felt uneasy, realizing that something was wrong, so he accelerated his attack. Lu Ping sneered, and shouted, “Storm!”
The [Cloud Moving Rain Falling Art] was immediately activated! A heavy downpour fell from above onto the fire cloud, gradually putting out the fire.
The attacker tried his best to make the fire cloud dodge, but the dark clouds in the sky were only getting bigger, with the rain getting heavier and covering a larger area. No matter where the fire cloud moved, it could not escape the [Cloud Moving Rain Falling Art].
At this time, the trio were already close to the sea surface, and were almost about to enter the whirlpool. Enlightened Master Liang was laughing happily when suddenly, someone in the sky shouted, “How dare you! Take this!”
