Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
Chapter 434: Qing Jian Residence

After Lu Ping passed the pool in front of the central palace, the pressure on his divine revelation was lifted. This signified that there were no more seals up ahead. The fact that the Water Shuras appeared out of nowhere meant that these things did not enter the palace like Lu Ping and the others. Lu Ping turned around and glanced at the pool behind him, scanning it with his divine revelation. However, even with his powerful divine revelation, he couldn’t see the bottom of the pool nor where it led to.

“Did the Water Shuras emerge from this pool?”

Lu Ping entered the central palace. Although he had prepared himself for the possibility the Water Shuras would have already raided the palace, he couldn’t hold back the urge to take a look for himself.

As he entered the palace, the fighting happening in the other directions shifted. Shui Xiu, Qian Shu, and Yang San-Yang’s battles gradually moved toward Qiao Wei-Jie and Han Fei’s direction.

A moment later, Qiao Wei-Jie and Han Fei started moving toward Shui Xiu and the others.

“So, Han Fei is not an idiot.” Lu Ping thought. As for Qiao Wei-Jie, Lu Ping had never once thought a person like him possessed a brain. As for the other three, Lu Ping couldn’t tell who had come up with this idea. Yang San-Yang was a junior from a wealthy family, Shui Xiu was wise, and Qian Shu appeared to be honest and plain but was cunning on the inside. With that, Shui Xiu or Qian Shu probably proposed the plan to group up.

With their combined power, they would be able to hold off the Water Shuras. However, shaking them off remained difficult as the persistent Water Shuras would not stop attacking them.

The central palace was a mess. Even after Lu Ping had prepared himself, he couldn’t help but feel demotivated.

Lu Ping arrived at the place where Qing Jian cultivated. The intense spiritual energy flowing in the air indicated the presence of a spirit vein.

Lu Ping carefully indulged himself in the spiritual energy in the air and realized that the intensity of the spiritual energy was equivalent to five miniature spirit veins. With a stomp, he sent a blue ray into the ground and waited, only to receive no response at all. Puzzled, he sent a stronger blue ray into the ground, but Da Bao didn’t reply again.

Lu Ping’s expression twisted, and he started walking out of the palace. Just as he was about to exit the training chamber, he paused in his tracks when a realization struck him. He turned around and returned to the chamber, carefully looking around.

In reality, there was nothing special in the training chamber. Apart from a cushion, there was a small table with some teacups. There were no decorations in the chamber, as Qing Jian had kept it simple and minimalistic like most cultivators.

Lu Ping relentlessly scanned the chamber with his divine revelation, hoping to find something, before finally locking his eyes on the cushion.

With a top-tier item engraved on it, the cushion was a supportive item that could aid in cultivation. Lu Ping had a similar supportive item back in his training chamber.

Picking it up, Lu Ping examined the cushion as his eyes glowed with an emerald light. After giving it some thought, he slammed a palm shrouded with blue energy onto the cushion, crushing its formation into pieces. With a shake, Lu Ping shook off the rubble and revealed a palm-sized stone slab.

There were three words engraved on the stone slab. They read, “ Qing Jian Residence.”

Lu Ping chuckled. He channeled his energy into his palm and sent a blue ray into the stone slab, completely covering it in this blue energy. The entire central palace shook for a moment. Then, the blue energy disappeared, and the stone slab returned to its previous state.

With another stomp, Lu Ping summoned Da Bao. Da Bao emerged from the ground this time and screeched unhappily at Lu Ping. Da Bao spat out three little Spirit Gathering Pearls mockingly, degrading Qing Jian, a Law Avatar Realm cultivator that only owned five miniature spirit veins that barely had any Spirit Gathering Pearls.

Lu Ping couldn’t be bothered by Da Bao’s foolishness. He quickly kept away the three Spirit Gathering Pearls before placing the two miniature Migration Formation Chassis made by Hu Lili on the miniature spirit veins in the training chamber. He then started preparing the formation and setting up the necessary procedures to pull these two spirit veins back to Huang Li Island.

During the preparation process, Lu Ping discovered traces that seemed to indicate the presence of more than six miniature spirit veins in the chamber. At the very least, there was probably once an intermediate spirit vein in the chamber. However, without any spirit-gathering items, the spirit vein slowly lost its power as time passed.

Cultivators could easily preserve the power of miniature and basic spirit veins for centuries. However, if the spirit veins evolved into intermediate spirit veins, cultivators could no longer maintain their power. Instead, they would have to rely on a spirit-gathering item.

Lu Ping suddenly thought of something and immediately took out the fragment that appeared to be a part of a Spirit Emerging Mystic Treasure.

There was a perfect explanation as to why this spirit-gathering item appeared in the cave. Apart from preserving the spirit veins’ power, a spirit-gathering item could be removed temporarily and used as a tool to gather spiritual energy to be used by a cultivator. When Qing Jian was forced into taking his trial, he brought along this spirit-gathering item to ensure himself enough spiritual energy during crucial moments. However, the result was a tragic one. Not only did Qing Jian get himself destroyed, the trial also evaporated all the possessions he brought along with him.

Despite emphasizing that he was not talented enough to advance to the next level, Qing Jian decided to give it a go in the end.

While Lu Ping was getting things ready, Qiao Wei-Jie and the others finally regrouped. Together, they started repelling the Water Shuras, managing to speed up their progress. A few moments later, they arrived at the pool in front of the central palace.

When they arrived, they noticed the broken seals around the central palace. After exchanging a glance, they hurriedly charged into the palace, with Qiao Wei-Jie and Yang San-Yang being the most impatient.

As he was running, Qiao Wei-Jie urged, “Hurry! The Zhen Ling Sect will not leave anything for us if we’re late!”

Yang San-Yang kept quiet, but his pace quickened.

Qian Shu and Han Fei were both a little speechless, while Shui Xiu followed behind them silently after discreetly glancing at the pool.

When Lu Ping was done preparing, Qiao Wei-Jie found his way to the training chamber. In a ferocious and stern tone, he shouted, “Lu Ping! Where are the treasures? Is the Zhen Ling Sect going to be so selfish?”

As he shouted, he revealed his weapon without hiding his aggression. If the words coming out of Lu Ping’s mouth did not please him, Qiao Wei-Jie would not hesitate to attack. Yang San-Yang also displayed the same behavior, but compared to Qiao Wei-Jie, Yang San-Yang looked much more pathetic. After all, he was the only early-Core Forging Realm cultivator among them. When they were sneak attacked by the Water Shuras, he became an easy target because of his weaker cultivation. The Water Shuras swarmed him as soon as the fight began. As a result, Yang San-Yang looked rather feeble; his robe was ragged, there were injuries all over his limbs, and a cut on his buttocks.

A couple of seconds later, Shui Xiu, Han Fei, and Qian Shu arrived at the training chamber. After seeing the situation, they remained quiet.

Lu Ping gradually stood up. He turned toward Shui Xiu, and said, “What do you propose, my friend?”

After being ignored by Lu Ping, Qiao Wei-Jie’s face flushed from embarrassment. He snapped right away, and scolded, “Lu Ping! How dare you! We informed our sects’ elders before we departed. Is the Zhen Ling Sect going to take on the combined power of our sects?”

His words were sharp, but his tone indicated the opposite. Before Lu Ping’s intense and steely gaze, Qiao Wei-Jie’s tone was less domineering as fear crept up on him. He didn’t want to look vulnerable before Lu Ping, but in the eyes of those present, Qiao Wei-Jie looked timid and his words lacked strength.

His response caused Yang San-Yang to lose his confidence in him. Yang San-Yang loosened the grip around his weapon and shot a disappointed glance at the Xuan Ling Sect cultivator trying to act tough.

“Shui Xiu, what do you say?” Lu Ping turned to Shui Xiu without batting an eye at Qiao Wei-Jie.

Shui Xiu calmly replied, “The central palace is covered in dust and there are no new traces. It’s obvious that someone raided this place before we even arrived.”

Qiao Wei-Jie was stunned by her statement. His face turned red as he angrily glowered at Shui Xiu and Lu Ping. Qiao Wei-Jie looked as if he had been humiliated and had his dignity trampled on.

Shui Xiu, Qian Shu, and Yang San-Yang silently took a few steps away from Qiao Wei-Jie, leaving an awkward Han Fei and an oblivious Qiao Wei-Jie, alone.

The atmosphere in the training chamber took an odd turn. Lu Ping was confident in his strength, while the rest were not brave enough to act first. Qiao Wei-Jie initially tried to ally with the others to isolate Lu Ping, but Lu Ping quickly foiled his attempt. Now, Qiao Wei-Jie found himself in an awkward situation where he was isolated.

A moment later, Shui Xiu broke the silence, “I reckon it’s a little inappropriate for Senior Brother Lu to have the two best spirit veins out of the six here?”