Chapter 54 – Comeback

Lu Ping lay quietly on the seabed, not moving even an inch. However, he carefully observed the battle between Qiao Xipeng and the sea snake monster with the warning charms he had placed around the island beforehand.

After being attacked, Lu Ping immediately guessed that the culprit was Qiao Xipeng of Xuan Ling Sect.

He defended himself from the blow using the stone pagoda and Flying Swallow Sword, then further weakened the sword’s momentum by casting two top-grade blood charms. Even so, the attack was strong enough to kill an ordinary Ninth Layer Blood Refining Realm cultivator.

Fortunately, Lu Ping was wearing the vest forged from the sea snake monster’s skin. The vest was a mid-grade defensive mystic instrument and it managed to block more than half of the attack’s remaining power. The sword’s remaining power wasn’t enough to threaten Lu Ping’s life anymore.

Furthermore, Lu Ping and his Spirit Seeking Mouse, Dabao, had been eating the sea snake monster’s meat. The bodies of normal monsters were naturally much stronger than the humans, let alone a noble monster like the Emerald Sea Spirit Snake. Hence, its meat had greatly nourished Lu Ping’s body.

Despite all these factors, Lu Ping still received severe injuries. This incident had let him experience first-hand the fighting prowess of a Blood Condensation Realm expert.

At the same time, his fear of Blood Condensation Realm experts that had disappeared after killing the sea snake monster had now returned in full force.

Compared to ordinary Blood Condensation Realm experts, he was still so much weaker!

After calming down, Lu Ping knew his top priority was to stay alive. Hence, while sinking to the seabed, he quickly cast a few spirit-sealing charms he crafted onto his body. This allowed him to disguise as a corpse and fake his death. At the same time, he also stuffed two top-grade Essence Recuperating Pellets in his mouth.

As expected, when he sank to the seabed, a divine sense swept across his body and wrapped him up from tip to toe.

Lu Ping laid still without moving. The depth of the sea and the spirit-sealing charms had concealed his arcane energy deep within his body.

Qiao Xipeng’s divine sense came and left in an instant. Lu Ping heaved a long sigh of relief. Then, he carefully used the warning charms to look at the battle above the sea.

This was Lu Ping’s first time observing a battle between Blood Condensation Realm experts at such a close distance. It was an eye-opening experience that allowed him to gain a number of insights. Especially the sea snake monster’s innate talent for water spells. It showed Lu Ping what the next state of cultivation would look like exactly. Lu Ping sensed that he wasn’t too far from the next state, which should be the state of “Law”.

Initially, Lu Ping planned to activate the charm Master Immortal Liu gave to him. However, the charm was crafted by Blood Condensation Realm experts. Once activated, the huge wave of arcane energy from the charm would definitely alert Qiao Xipeng and the sea snake monster. By then, he would’ve been killed long before Master Immortal Liu and the rest could arrive at the scene.

Lu Ping mulled over his options. He mustn’t rely solely on faking his death, he had to prepare in advance.

He quickly took out a few items from his interspatial pouch.

On the sea surface, the battle between the Emerald Sea Spirit Snake and Qiao Xipeng had also reached its climax. The spirit snake had a few more wounds on its body, staining the sea surface red with its blood.

The angry spirit snake writhed on the sea surface while Qiao Xipeng smirked coldly in excitement. Without slowing down his movements, he attacked the spirit snake at close range with the flying sword, seizing every chance to break through its defenses.

The spirit snake’s battle cries didn’t help it in battle at all. Instead, anger had agitated its calm mind and allowed an opening in its defense. Qiao Xipeng quickly seized this chance and stabbed its body two more times.

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The spirit snake saw its depleting arcane energy and felt its wounds becoming more unbearable, and a look of nostalgia and determination filled its eyes. These two emotions were contradictory yet somehow appeared harmonious in the eyes of the spirit snake.

Without warning, the spirit snake raised the upper half of its body, and the muffled noise of an explosion emitted from within. The spirit snake’s body trembled along with the noise and it couldn’t help letting out cries of pain. Blood seeped out from its silver scales and its wounds started bleeding heavily again.

Then, the spirit snake’s aura suddenly swelled amid a turbulent surge of arcane energy as if it had returned to its peak state.

Its bucket-thick snake tail whipped out and slammed against Qiao Xipeng’s defense shield. The attack caught him by surprise and launched him back into the sea.

When the pale-faced Qiao Xipeng flew out from underwater, the spirit snake had cast a series of water spells and was launching its two mystic instruments at him. Qiao Xipeng’s flying sword circled his body to block the attacks, but the strikes slowly cracked open a hole in his defense and for a moment, Qiao Xipeng was flustered.

He exclaimed in extreme shock and anger, “Self-destructing Condensed Blood Beads!?”

Lu Ping knew self-destructing one’s Condensed Blood Beads was a secret technique that caused great harm to oneself. Condensed Blood Beads were the very foundation of a Blood Condensation Realm cultivators’ cultivation base. A Condensed Blood Bead was formed with every advancement in cultivation layer. Each one was a source of arcane energy and reinforced the foundation of one’s cultivation base.

A cultivator faced with a life-or-death battle could choose to sacrifice their Condensed Blood Beads, in exchange for a temporary infusion of immense arcane energy. It was a method to fight for one’s very survival.

But afterwards, their cultivation base would immediately take a turn for the worse. It would take then take a greater degree of effort and time to recuperate the damaged foundation. Self-destructing one’s Condensed Blood Beads was practically the same as giving up any chance of improving one’s cultivation in the future.

Although the spirit snake’s attacks were fierce, its wounds were too heavy. The most it could do was bring the battle to a stalemate. However, as the secret technique had a limited period of effect, it would surely be killed if it couldn’t win the battle or escape.

Qiao Xipeng also realized the situation. He gradually regained his usual composure and changed his battle strategy. Now, he wasn’t so eager to deliver any killing blows, choosing to slowly wait and wear out the spirit snake’s endurance.

As time passed, the spirit snake’s loud battle cries grew softer and its dominating aura weakened. A look of despair slowly filled its eyes.

On the other hand, Qiao Xipeng wasn’t really excited despite having victory in his hands.

After some thought, Lu Ping quickly understood the reason. Other than avenging his little brother, Qiao Xipeng was also eyeing the spirit snake’s Condensed Blood beads. However, since the spirit snake had cast the secret technique and self-destructed its Condensed Blood Beads, he didn’t know how many Condensed Blood Beads were left in its body. Naturally, he wasn’t happy with this outcome.

As Qiao Xipeng’s flying sword pierced through the spirit snake’s body, the monster was finally taken down. It collapsed on the waters, causing waves several yards high to surge over the surroundings.

Only then did Qiao Xipeng feel somewhat happier. He cast a spell and moved the spirit snake’s carcass to the nameless island.

Then, he used the flying sword to cut open the snakeskin on the spirit snake’s lethal point. Underneath the skin was its heart. After that, he cut open the heart, and two crystal-clear Condensed Blood Beads were revealed.

“Fortunately, it only self-destructed one blood bead.”

And it was at this moment, the supposedly dead spirit snake abruptly raised its head and stared coldly at Qiao Xipeng. In its eyes was nothing but pure madness.

Qiao Xipeng was shocked and taken aback. In that moment of bewilderment, a blood bead suddenly flew up and rushed towards Qiao Xipeng.

Qiao Xipeng immediately knew what would happen next. He exclaimed in shock and quickly cast his shield mystic instrument in defense.

But it was all too late.

The blood bead suddenly shrank inward and at the next moment, it exploded.

A wave of red light blasted outward, covering more than half of the nameless island.

The explosion left a deep gouge in the sea, several tens of yards inwards, followed by massive waves that surged back to fill the hole in the sea, as if a tsunami had been created in its wake.