Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit - Chapter 297
Chapter 297 – Heavenly Wind Leaf
Along the pathway, the three met with several seals, all of which were disabled by Lu Ping. But after successfully moving forward, Lu Ping would then re-activate the seals to slow down the cultivators behind them.
Enlightened Master Liang had been observing Lu Ping. At first, Lu Ping was clearly unfamiliar with the seal-breaking techniques, but after several encounters, he became progressively skillful. He even utilized different techniques for different types of seals.
Liang Xuan-Feng finally couldn’t help but ask, “Kid, how many seal-breaking techniques did you learn from those heritage jade scrolls? We’ve come across eleven seals so far and you’ve used five different techniques. Did you learn all of them already?”
Alarmed, Lu Ping quickly laughed. “Naturally not. The Fei Ling Sect used to be known as the number one sect in the North Ocean. Its heritage was as vast as an ocean, so how could anyone simply learn it all? I only came across a few techniques by chance, and it’s fortunate that all the seals so far have been within a scope I can handle.”
Liang Xuan-Feng sneered with displeasure. As a seal-breaking specialist, he initially thought he could showcase his talents in front of his juniors. Who knew Lu Ping would actually steal the limelight!
Along the way, there were some spirit materials scattered around, which Dabao happily retrieved. However, these spirit materials were mostly mid and high-grade, which none of the three particularly valued. Even so, Dabao would still squeak happily every time he fetched a spirit material. Lu Ping eventually hung an interspatial pouch on Dabao’s neck so he could store the spirit materials himself.
After Lu Ping disabled the last invisible wall, they immediately heard the rumbling sounds of spells, and the trio hastily put up their defensive mystic treasures and spells to protect themselves.
Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng saw Lu Ping casting up an ordinary top-grade mystic instrument. He frowned and said, “Don’t you have better defensive equipment? This golden mirror is fine, but it’s not compatible with your cultivation level and method.”
Lu Ping smiled. “Enlightened Master Jin Li broke my defensive mystic instrument, so this golden mirror is the only thing I can use now. I’ve been too busy cultivating and forgot to replace it. Junior Uncle, please help me find a good one, if that’s possible.”
Zhu Xuan-Meng snickered and said, “Great Ancestor Chong Xuan is a Grandmaster Smith, but that doesn’t mean he left mystic treasures everywhere. It’s been smooth sailing so far, but things will turn ugly very quickly once the cultivators converge inside the dojo. Junior Brother, please don’t keep your hopes high.”
Lu Ping smiled back but did not answer her.
After reaching the end of the pathway and traveling through the last invisible wall, they were now inside of the dojo, which was a forestland. There were pavilions and other magnificent architectures protected by sealing array formations in the woods.
From afar, they could hear the sounds of spells from two different locations. These had to be the Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect attempting to break the sealing formations by force.
Enlightened Master Liang waved his hand and dozens of lights spread out through the dojo. He closed his eyes as if to perceive his surroundings.
Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng immediately knew that Enlightened Master Liang was casting the mini divine ability to find the Heavenly Wind Leaf’s location. Hence, they both flanked his sides to guard the perimeter. However, Lu Ping quietly moved behind Enlightened Master Liang to avoid the mini divine ability’s range.
A few moments later, Enlightened Master Liang opened his eyes. His expression grim, he gave a bitter smile and said, “Bad luck. We entered from the wrong direction. The Heavenly Wind Leaf is located on the other side, so we’ll have to go past the Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect to get there.”
Zhu Xuan-Meng froze while Lu Ping laughed. “That’s good enough. At least this means those sects haven’t come across the Heavenly Wind Leaf yet, right?”
Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng nodded and laughed harshly. “This is the only blessing among misfortune. If the Heavenly Wind Leaf is within the structures those two sects are trying to break into, then we’d have no choice but to go to war with them. Thankfully, that’s not the case.”
The three cast a stealth spell each to conceal their identities, and walked right between the Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect. Sure enough, the cultivators from both sects noticed them almost immediately.
The cultivators paused for a moment, clearly surprised to see them arriving so quickly. However, the dojo was too huge for the two sects to secure entirely. Hence, they assumed they couldn’t obtain everything and were only delaying the others. That way they could reap the most benefits out of the dojo.
This was also why the trio dared to risk traveling between the two sects—they knew the Crystal Palace and Sky Cleaving Sword Sect wouldn’t waste time trying to stop them.
The Sky Cleaving Sword Sect didn’t mind the trio at all, and didn’t consider them a threat. Furthermore, the structure they were trying to break into now was the storage vault, which would definitely house a lot of treasures.
On the other hand, the Crystal Palace was besieging the smith room. And unlike the Sky Cleaving Sword Sect, they sent a First Layer Enlightened Master to follow the trio.
The trio immediately noticed the silent tail, and they grunted unhappily.
“This Crystal Palace is so arrogant!” Liang Xuan-Feng cursed, while Zhu Xuan-Meng asked, “He’s not doing anything other than follow us around. What is Crystal Palace’s intention?”
“Keeping an eye on us,” Liang Xuan-Feng replied reluctantly, “The other Crystal Palace Enlightened Masters are busy breaking into the smith room, so they have no time to deal with us, but they’re afraid that we’ll find something good in another place. So, by sending someone to follow us, he can signal the others to come snatch whatever valuable harvests we might find.”
Zhu Xuan-Meng said with hatred, “Is he not afraid that we’ll kill him?”
Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng glanced at her and answered, “The Crystal Palace is the hegemon of the East Ocean. Any sensible cultivator knows not to provoke them, let alone kill one of their Enlightened Masters. And he’s cautiously keeping a safe distance from us, so we won’t be able to kill him before he sends out a call for help.”
The Enlightened Master saw their gloomy expressions and he sneered mockingly at these three rogue cultivators who dared to fight for resources from the Crystal Palace’s grasp.
“Can we use the seals to our advantage?” Lu Ping quietly whispered, and his companions’ eyes lit up.
…
The Heavenly Wind Leaf was in a pavilion within the belly of the mountain, but the entrance was located on the side of a cliff. The trio pretended to come across the pavilion by chance and within a short time, they disabled the seal.
When the Crystal Palace Enlightened Master saw that the sealing formation was so easily broken, he immediately assumed that the pavilion contained nothing valuable. However, as the domineering and imperious Crystal Palace cultivator, he still followed them inside.
Shortly after he entered the depths of the pavilion, the sealing formation on the entrance was suddenly enabled again on its own.
…
Initially, Lu Ping wanted to restore the sealing formation right away to block the Crystal Palace Enlightened Master outside of the pavilion. However, Enlightened Master Liang stopped him and said, “If you block him outside, he’ll know that we’re up to something. He’ll call the others and then wait for us outside, and we’ll just end up like sitting ducks.”
Lu Ping looked at Enlightened Master Liang’s cold eyes and immediately knew that he’d made up his mind. Lu Ping didn’t say anything more and proceeded to perfect the plan.
When the sealing formation was restored, Enlightened Master Liang suddenly smiled softly as if he’d sensed it happening from such a distance. However, he kept quiet while inwardly feeling more surprised by Lu Ping’s performance.
Inside of the pavilion, Enlightened Master Liang seemed to have locked onto the Heavenly Wind Leaf’s location and led them directly to it. After Lu Ping disabled the last few seals, Enlightened Master Liang suddenly sped up his pace and walked to the back of the building.
Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng looked at each other and hurried to catch up to him.
In the empty space behind the pavilion, Enlightened Master Liang walked up to a hidden corner on the mountain wall. There, a shelf had been carved directly on the mountain wall, protected by a sealing formation glowing with blue light. On the shelf, there was an open jade box; in the jade box, was a silver-colored withered leaf the size of an adult’s palm.
“Heavenly Wind Leaf!” The Crystal Palace Enlightened Master following also saw the contents in the box and shouted in surprise behind them.
“Oh? You know what it is?” Enlightened Master Liang Xuan-Feng turned around, a murderous aura filled his eyes while Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng also shifted into a combat stance, ready to strike at anytime.
The Crystal Palace Enlightened Master was fearless even though Enlightened Master Liang was much stronger than him. He raised his head and said with a cold and arrogant voice, “The Heavenly Wind Leaf belongs to the Crystal Palace. Walk away quietly and we will let you live.”
The Crystal Palace Enlightened Master took out a charm and as he was about to tear it, Enlightened Master Liang suddenly waved his hand, shooting a wind wheel forward.
The wind wheel was so fast, shocking the Crystal Palace Enlightened Master into quickly casting up an ice wall. The wind wheel instantly pierced through!
Although this weakened the wind spell, it still heavily wounded the Crystal Palace Enlightened Master. He spat out a mouthful of blood while quickly retreating towards the entrance. At the same time, he tore the charm and a ray of light flashed outward. He looked disdainfully at the trio and sneered coldly.
Lu Ping and Zhu Xuan-Meng moved in from the sides in a pincer attack; Lu Ping attacking with sword lights from his Golden Scale Sword, and Zhu Xuan-Meng shooting out sharp sound blades by strumming her pipa.
The Crystal Palace Enlightened Master cast a token with the word “Protect” engraved on it. The token released a light dome that shielded him inside. Then, he cast out another flying ax to crush Zhu Xuan-Meng’s sound blades, while ignoring Lu Ping’s sword lights.
However, he quickly regretted underestimating this First Layer Enlightened Master, but who knew Lu Ping’s attacks would be so powerful? When the sword lights hit the light dome, the overwhelming impact pushed him a few steps backward.
Although the protective light dome didn’t break, he spat out another mouthful of blood again. But he still managed to smile nefariously, as he knew in a few moments, he would be out of this pavilion to regroup with the rest of his martial siblings coming to his aid.
At that time…
