Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Chapter 353: Saving Qu Xuan-Cheng

As the Mystical Frost Ice Fog formation continued to shrink, the air temperature dropped sharply, freezing the seawater beneath the formation. Soon, this sea area would be frozen into ice!

As the weather turned cold, the fiery red light in the formation grew weaker and dimmer, unable to unleash its usual explosive power anymore.

At the same time, the thirteen monster Enlightened Masters maintaining the formation were also revealed. They each stood on a chassis spanning several feet, all linked together by streams of cold white light like a spider web.

As the formation shrunk, the multiple chassis slowly lifted the monster Enlightened Masters closer and the cold white lights became denser as they gradually restricted Qu Xuan-Cheng’s range of movement.

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The host of the formation, the one who spoke up, and the leader of the monsters, was dressed and looked like a human scholar. A look of gloating twisted his face, a sign of his imminent victory.

It was considered a glorious achievement to capture Qu Xuan-Cheng, a potential candidate to become a future Great Ancestor. What’s more, he was mere moments from killing such a notable individual. This would heavily affect not just Zhen Ling Sect’s fame and power, but also the human race as a whole.

His own fame within the monster race would skyrocket and boost his status greatly. This would attract the attention of the Monster Kings, and they would surely reward him with rich resources that could increase his chances of becoming a Monster King himself.

By comparison, it was a foolish plan to infiltrate Zhen Ling Sect and ruin the Avatar Forum. Such a mission was suicidal, and the infiltrators had no hope of surviving the wrath of Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling.

In reality, due to the Great Ancestors’ heavenly powers that could threaten large populations and lead to mass casualties, they had reached a tacit agreement to refrain from casually interfering with the affairs of the sects or races.

Hence, most of the time, they remained in their cave-dwellings as strategic figures, and only used their authority to influence the situation.

However, this didn’t mean that Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling couldn’t do anything to any infiltrators that came to ruin her Avatar Forum. In fact, it might just give her the perfect excuse to involve herself in the human-monster race!

Poor guy, what an idiotic idea to propose.

The monster scholar gloatingly hought about the one who’d brought up that plan, his mind pleasantly imagining his bright future.

Suddenly, the sound of a sword quivering resonated in the sky.

The monster scholar was surprised, then he shouted, "Show yourselves!"

As he called out, an invisible wave rippled through the air in all directions with him as the center.

This was not a sound spell—it was purely his divine revelation that had started to materialize!

This monster scholar must at least be in the Ninth Layer Core Forging Realm!

But it was too late to think about this now; Lu Ping suppressed his movements as much as he could, the Golden Scale Sword brimming with so much of his true energy spilled out of the stone slabs’ coverage.

Then, the Golden Scale Sword shot out to slash one of the Early Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters.

"Careful! It’s a great sword divine ability!"

The monster scholar was busy suppressing Qu Xuan-Cheng and could only warn the rest.

The Early Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master was calm at first, but quickly became horrified after hearing it was a great sword divine ability. He quickly raised his hand up and the chassis beneath his feet released a cold white light.

The extraction of this cold white light affected the formation’s operation for a slight moment, but then quickly reverted to normal.

This white light wrapped around the monster Enlightened Master’s scimitar mystic treasure and parried the incoming Golden Scale Sword.

Dang—

The scimitar mystic treasure broke apart, but the cold white light still blocked the [River Unification Ocean Sword Art] before it vanished from the attack.

The moment the Golden Scale Sword was deflected back, a blue lightning bolt struck down from above. The monster Enlightened Master threw out a rainbow stone which exploded into a rainbow cloud above him.

The lightning pierced through the cloud, but its power was greatly weakened, and then easily blocked by the monster Enlightened Master’s aegis energy.

But right away, a silver stamp seal rammed straight at him again. He was left with no choice but to extract another white light from the chassis into a glowing light shield. This extraction affected the formation’s operation once more.

Although Lu Ping’s rapid attacks didn’t break the formation, he greatly affected the formation’s operation. These changes were naturally picked up by Qu Xuan-Cheng who was trapped inside, and he immediately knew that help had arrived.

Immediately, Qu Xuan-Cheng released his true energy and launched another round of attacks, this time, with his full might. The attacks shook the formation, causing the chassis to lurch uncontrollably.

Lu Ping’s indirect impact on the formation had attracted the monster scholar’s attention. Just as he was about to handle this intruder himself, Qu Xuan-Cheng’s attacks disrupted the formation even more. He was forced to stay and stabilize the formation while suppressing the captive.

On Lu Ping’s side, when he noticed the monster scholar’s intention to come for him, his heart thudded rapidly, and he quickly turned, ready to flee. He could fight the Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters, but he had no confidence when it came to those in the Late Core Forging Realm, let alone someone in the Ninth Layer like Qu Xuan-Cheng and Liang Xuan-Feng.

Now Lu Ping knew his tactic had worked, so he calmed his pounding heart and carried on. Ignoring his dwindling true energy, he cast another bolt of Kui Water Yin Lightning. Although it may not be as strong as his other sword divine abilities, it was the quickest and least burdensome on his true energy to cast.

This time, the Early Core Forging Realm monster didn’t dare to utilize the formation anymore. He cast up another mystic treasure and used it to block the lightning strike.

But just as he focused his attention on the lightning strike, a shadow mysteriously flickered beneath him.

Krang—

The chassis under his feet was chopped off by a third!

Immediately, the formation’s cold white light shrank in power.

The Early Core Forging Realm monster was shocked to his core! He turned around and released his true energy into the chassis, hoping to relieve the damage to the formation. At this point, he didn’t have time to think about the lightning strike and the mysterious attack—he could only cast his mystic treasure at Lu Ping to buy some time.

But to his despair, the mysterious shadow flickered beneath him again, and another third was chopped off together with half of his feet. This time, the blood from his feet stained the shadowy figure, and he could see what it was—an invisible sword!

"Break!"

Like an erupting volcano covered in ice and snow, a magma burst up into the sky and vaporized the frost into hot steam.

This was definitely a great divine ability that only a Ninth Layer Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master could cast with all his might!

The unfortunate monster who had been targeted by Lu Ping was the first to suffer the consequences of the formation breaking. He spat out a mouthful of blood which contained small pieces of gold, seemingly from his Golden Core. Clearly, the very foundation of his cultivation had been impaired. Unless a miracle occured, the Early Core Forging Realm was the end of his cultivation journey.

Immediately after, the second formation chassis broke, followed by the third, and all the remaining ones. The monster scholar bellowed in anger and unwillingness.

Then, a massive fireball smashed through the formation and shifted into a fire lion. A Mid Core Forging Realm monster cast up his spirit emerging mystic treasure to attempt a sneak attack, but the fire lion’s paw slammed it down.

The instant the monster’s mystic treasure touched the fire lion’s paw, it melted into metallic liquid and splashed into the seawater, stirring up a large area of white mist. The monster’s gaze was filled with disbelief as he spat out a mouthful of blood from the total destruction of his nascent weapon.

Then, the fire lion’s paw casually slapped the Mid Core Forging Realm monster, burning him into ashes like he was a piece of thin paper.

Terrified, the remaining monster Enlightened Masters hurriedly gathered behind the monster scholar.

Surprisingly, the monster scholar didn’t spare a glance at Qu Xuan-Cheng. Instead, his cold, sharp eyes stared gloomily at the young man fleeing on the back of a sea turtle.

Enraged, the monster scholar swung his mystic treasure at the sea surface, shooting a wall of ice swords, ice arrows, and all kinds of ice weapons in Lu Ping’s direction.

Qu Xuan-Cheng had just broken out of the formation and didn’t have time to assess the situation, and so missed the opportunity to stop the attack.

Seeing that the ice weapons were about to hit Lu Ping, Dagui suddenly rolled and tossed Lu Ping away from his shell, then quickly dove down and disappeared into the deep sea.

The ice weapons pierced through the defenseless Lu Ping, and he exploded like a balloon, showering water everywhere.

It was the [Sea Crossing Concealment Art]!

The monster scholar was so blinded by rage, he overlooked such an obvious trick meant to divert him from his real target!

The monster scholar was about to search for Lu Ping and strike again when the fire lion hovered above the monster Enlightened Masters. A man of flames stood in the sky, and swiftly brought his hands down.

Immediately, the fire lion exploded into a rain of fire above the monster Enlightened Masters!

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