The spiritual energy in the Heaven of Seven Stars was as dense as a large spirit vein, yet for the past tens of thousands of years, no one had discovered the location of the spirit vein.
However, every time the Heaven of Seven Stars opened, it was a rare opportunity for rogue cultivators, or cultivators from small forces, who were at the peak of the Late Blood Condensation Realm, to break through to the Core Forging Realm.
The only issue was that the Heaven of Seven Stars would only be open for three months at a time. Despite this, it still attracted a large number of cultivators. Hence, there would always be some new Enlightened Masters in the North Ocean each time that the Heaven of Seven Stars was closed.
Lu Ping never thought that he would witness the birth of an Enlightened Master, but he was happy since it had given him an opportunity.
Whenever a cultivator broke through, the vortex of spiritual energy generated by the breakthrough would often gather a large amount of heaven and earth spiritual energy to the surroundings. This spiritual energy would support the cultivator’s breakthrough, and also be used to help the cultivator strengthen their foundation after just breaking through.
However, the Heaven of Seven Stars was a special domain which would teleport cultivators back to the North Ocean the moment they broke through to the Core Forging Realm. As a result, the spiritual energy gathered from their breakthrough would be left behind and slowly dissipate overtime.
Lu Ping wanted to use the spiritual energy for his own cultivation, before it could dissipate.
Lu Ping travelled to the cave on the opposite side of the mountain, and took out a formation chassis, and placed it in the middle. He placed eight small flags in every direction, while casting a series of hand signs.
In the next moment, the cave on the mountainside wavered and suddenly disappeared from view.
Lu Ping opened up the spirit pet pouch only to find that the Verdant Luan and the Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes were not awake yet. However, as the Verdant Luan’s aura had stabilized, it would be waking up soon.
Left with no other options, Lu Ping let Dabao and Dagui and instructed them to guard the cave.
After that, Lu Ping sat on a high-grade spirit gathering futon mystic instrument, swallowed a Blood Spirit Pellet for the Mid Blood Condensation Real. He held a medium-grade spirit stone in each hand, and began cultivating the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] with all his might.
The circulation of blood in his body followed the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture], like waves of the ocean, ebbing and flowing, within his body.
As he cultivated, a purple mist emanated from the jade pendant on his waist and enveloped him. The spiritual energy in the cave, that was comparable to a large spirit vein, surged towards Lu Ping and was absorbed by him.
With every circulation of blood, a trace of essence was extracted and gathered in the six Condensed Blood Beads in his Heartspace.
However, Lu Ping wasn’t an Enlightened Master, and so he couldn’t completely absorb the spiritual energy in the cave and make use of it to upgrade his cultivation base.
Three days later, the spiritual energy in the cave dissipated completely, and Lu Ping woke up from his cultivation.
An excess of arcane energy filled his body, flowing in every bone and strand of muscle. The arcane energy was so abundant that it even leaked out of his pores, wrapping Lu Ping’s whole body in Essence Smoke.
This was the pinnacle of the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm!
Lu Ping took out a jade box from his interspatial ring. Inside were seven huge Condensed Blood Beads, which he had obtained after killing the Primal Giant Crocodile.
Lu Ping initially wanted to break through to the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm with them right now, but Dabao had already warned him twice that this place had been noticed. In the past three days, Dabao had already seen more than three groups of cultivators appearing nearby.
Lu Ping looked grave and kept Dabao back into the spirit pet pouch. He probed with his enormous divine sense, but found no one watching the cave in the surroundings.
So, he swiftly broke out of the cave, destroying the illusionary array formation that he had set up before, and flying away on Auspicious Cloud, sticking close to the ground.
Lu Ping’s sudden appearance immediately alerted the nearby cultivators, who came to investigate. A group of five cultivators, led by Shui Yan Pavilion He Li-Xin, whom Lu Ping had met before, chased after him.
Other than that, there was another group of cultivators, but Lu Ping couldn’t identify them.
This group of cultivators consisted of about seven or eight people. They were moving towards the other side of Lu Ping’s escape route. Clearly, their intention was to intercept Lu Ping halfway.
The third group of cultivators was the closest group to Lu Ping and had a chance to stop him. But their leader, a young gentleman in a golden brocade suit, watched with amusement and did not intervene as Lu Ping fled.
As Lu Ping flew past them, he noticed that the cultivators behind the young gentleman in gold were all half-humanized, Late Blood Condensation Realm monster cultivators.
However, the young gentleman had no signs of monster features on his entire body. If Lu Ping didn’t know that there wouldn’t be any Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters in the Heaven of Seven Stars, he would have definitely mistaken this young gentleman as a monster Enlightened Master.
As Lu Ping locked eyes with the young gentleman, he suddenly felt a cold chill spreading down his spine, and a bad feeling emerged deep within his heart.
Lu Ping didn’t dare to stay for a moment, and powered Auspicious Cloud with all his might. Just as he was about to lose the two groups of cultivators chasing behind him, the young gentleman casually raised his hand.
A golden sword light flashed and travelled towards Lu Ping’s direction.
In mid-air, the sword light started duplicating itself. From one sword light to two, two to four, four to eight. When there were 128 sword lights, the sword lights had already overtaken the two groups of cultivators chasing after Lu Ping.
Eventually, the sword lights stopped duplicating when they reached a terrifying 512 sword lights. However, at that time, the sword lights had already caught up with Lu Ping, who at this moment seemed to be trapped in a sea of swords with no way out.
This was Sword Complexity!
This young gentleman was a sword master who had achieved Sword Intent!
On the verge of life and death, Lu Ping let out a battle cry and burst out with all his power to fight for his life.
The Soaring Wing Swords moved together. Each sword released 64 sword lights, forming two waves of sword lights in front of Lu Ping.
Ding, ding, dang, dang—
After a series of clanking noises from the swords clashing together, the Soaring Wing Swords shattered into dozens of pieces and fell to the ground.
Lu Ping had used the Soaring Wing Swords for the longest time. When the Soaring Wing Swords were shattered, his divine sense felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if he had received a heavy blow. The arcane energy in his body rolled into a state of chaos, and a mouthful of blood was forcibly swallowed.
Lu Ping didn’t have time to check his injury now. He hastily cast out the Verdant Dawn Sword and shot out another sixty-four sword lights.
However, the Verdant Dawn Sword, which had always stolen the spotlight in the past, suddenly seemed so insignificant in front of this casual sword attack made by the young gentleman in gold. It was like comparing a firefly with the moon.
In the blink of an eye, the Verdant Dawn Sword’s sword lights were swallowed by the sea of golden sword lights. Fortunately, the Verdant Dawn Sword wasn’t damaged in the exchange thanks to it being a top-grade mystic instrument.
A wave of water rose out of thin air and collided with the sea of swords. Lu Ping had cast the Water Crystal Bowl to lay three huge waves in front of him, but even the waves were crushed by the sea of swords.
The sea of swords eventually got close enough, leaving no time for Lu Ping to react. The sword lights broke through the protection of Umbra above Lu Ping’s head, and cut through the clothes on his body, reaching the golden inner vest underneath.
The inner vest was immediately dented with small little marks, but this last line of defense ultimately didn’t get penetrated.
Sword skills in the State of Intent weren’t so easy to defend.
Lu Ping finally couldn’t suppress his injuries anymore and spurt out a mouthful of blood, dying the Auspicious Cloud red.
But Lu Ping also used the mouthful of blood to cast the [Blood Spirit Escape]. Auspicious Cloud was enveloped in a bright red light and disappeared in the mountains.
The young gentleman gave a soft surprise, “He can actually take a sword attack from me and not die, impressive!”
Behind him, a big man with a nose on top of his head said in a harsh voice, “Young master, should we go after him and finish him off?”
The young gentleman in gold shook his head, “No need, I have other important things to do now. Furthermore, he is an interesting one, I will let him live for now so that I can use him to hone my sword skills the next time we meet.”
On the other side, the Shui Yan Pavilion cultivators also saw that Lu Ping was seriously injured by the sword attack from the young gentleman.
They were afraid of the young gentleman’s magnificent prowess, but then they saw him turn around and leave with his group of monster cultivators after making that singular sword attack.
He Li-Xin was very happy. She thought that since Lu Ping was seriously injured by the young gentleman’s attack, even if he used the [Blood Spirit Escape] to escape, he couldn’t have gone very far before the spell’s effect ended.
Hence, as long as they caught up with him, not only could she avenge Junior Martial Brother Qiu Li-Ming’s death, perhaps they could also get to learn about that foolish Liao Clan boy’s whereabouts. There might still be a chance for them to get the pellet recipe.
If they could offer the Heart Condensation Pellet’s recipe to the sect, they would definitely be given more attention from the sect and their advancement to the Core Forging Realm wouldn’t be much of an issue anymore.
Soon, He Li-Xin and the others found the place where Lu Ping had landed after casting the [Blood Spirit Escape. The five of them spread out to search for Lu Ping’s trail.
A few moments later, when the five gathered together again, no one had found any trace of Lu Ping.
He Li-Xin sighed, “Forget it. That red-faced cultivator is an odd one. If he was able to kill Junior Brother Qiu whilst only being in the Sixth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, there is no way he doesn’t have any life-saving trump cards.
“The situation in the Heaven of Seven Stars is in a mess right now. Not only is Xuan Ling Sect and Zhen Ling Sect sending strong cultivators to fight for the few pieces of treasure left in the dojo, the Ocean Overturning Gang is also stirring things up. Not to mention that the war between the monster race and the human race is about to start. So, we’d better finish the tasks assigned by the sect first.”
The other four nodded in agreement, while Junior Martial Sister Zhang asked, “Senior Sister, do you know what treasures Zhen Ling Sect and Xuan Ling Sect are fighting for? Are we going to sit back and watch the two sects fight for the treasures?”
He Li-Xin said, “Naturally we won’t. In fact, the seniors have explained that we can choose an appropriate time to intervene in the fight between the two sects, and reap the benefits. But for the time being, we still need to find the Liao Clan kid and get the Heart Condensation Pellet’s recipe. Only he is from the main branch, the other Liao Clan disciples are mostly from the side branches, so it is impossible for them to know the pellet recipe.”
Junior Martial Sister Zhang thought about it and said, “In that case, we should go straight to the Canyon of Sullied Gold. According to the information we’ve learned, the Liao Clan cultivators always go to the Canyon of Sullied Gold to harvest spirit herbs every time the Heaven of Seven Stars opens. I think this is because only the Canyon of Sullied Gold has some of the rare spirit herbs needed to concoct the Heart Condensation Pellets.”
He Li-Xin nodded, “That’s right. But the Canyon of Sullied Gold is rife with monster beasts and poisonous bugs that are not spiritually enlightened. Rumor has it that 300 years ago, Liao Ding, the Liao Clan’s family head at the time, who is also Liao Hu’s grandfather and a Master Alchemist, suppressed his Core Forging Realm cultivation to enter the depths of the Canyon of Sullied Gold. However, he died in the Canyon of Sullied Gold before he could unseal his Core Forging Realm cultivation base. This almost caused the Liao Clan to fall. Hence, if we enter the Canyon of Sullied Gold, we must be very careful.”
When the disciples heard that even an Enlightened Master had been killed in the Canyon of Sullied Gold, they couldn’t help but inhale a deep breath of cold air.
He Li-Xin saw their fear and laughed, “What is there to be afraid of? The Canyon of Sullied Gold is not the only dangerous place in the Heaven of Seven Stars. In the past, the fall of Enlightened Masters in the Heaven of Seven Stars wasn’t uncommon, and they all died in different places. Otherwise, where do you think the treasures that the Zhen Ling Sect and Xuan Ling Sect are fighting for, comes from?”