Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
Chapter 358.2: Water Manipulative Banner

As the descendant of a Great Ancestor, and the daughter of two powerful Core Forging Realm parents, Lu Ping was certain that Shi Lingling would definitely be able to find someone else to do the job. After all, even though Lu Ping’s alchemy was good, he still wasn’t as good as the four experienced Master Alchemists in the sect.

However, Shi Lingling was surprised to hear Lu Ping’s question. She quickly realized something, and said, "I didn’t think that junior brother would be unaware of this. It seems that Senior Sister Hu has really shielded you from many affairs these last few years so that you could concentrate on your cultivation."

Shi Lingling paused, and then said, "The sect has always prohibited Enlightened Masters from interfering with the side hall’s affairs, but things are different now. Newly-advanced Enlightened Masters, and those in the North Ocean Prodigies, are often assigned to teach in the side hall.

"Through this, the sect can bond the disciples closer together and also stimulate their cultivation potential. When Yao Yong, Du Feng, Chen Lian, and the others went to teach, the disciples all welcomed them warmly and became more enthusiastic in their cultivation."

Immediately, Lu Ping understood why Shi Lingling was looking for him. The other four Master Alchemists were older and they also weren’t in the North Ocean Prodigies, so they didn’t fit either criteria. On the other hand, Lu Ping was the only young Master Alchemist in the sect and also on the list of North Ocean Prodigies. So, it could be no one else but him.

At the same time, he saw another layer of meaning behind the sect’s assignment. Recalling these young and talented Enlightened Masters back from time to time not only increased their sense of belonging to the sect, it was also a means of protecting them and ensuring their safety.

After all, these young and talented Enlightened Masters were the future pillars of the sect, they had to be given enough time and room to grow, but not without adequate protection. However, there were exceptions, either by choice or by chance. For example, Lu Ping, who had ended up in the East Ocean by chance and was forced to grow on his own.

Shi Lingling chuckled, "Junior brother, although you’ve never been to the side hall before, the disciples are looking forward to your teaching more than any of us. After all, not everyone can advance to the Third Layer Core Forging Realm in less than 50 years, defeat a Mid Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master, become a Master Alchemist, achieve a great sword divine ability, and defeat Xuan Ling Sect’s sword genius Ouyang Wei-Jian. The reputation of the Water Sword Immortal has even surpassed other Mid Core Forging Realm North Ocean Prodigies. Some people have even started calling you the number one swordsman of the second generation in the North Ocean!"

Lu Ping didn’t know that he had been given the alias of Water Sword Immortal. After the initial surprise, he was also slightly joyful inside his heart for the acknowledgement.

However, being called the number one swordsman of the second generation in the North Ocean didn’t please him very much as he frowned. It was never easy to be called the number one of anything, because there would always be challengers vying for after the title.

How troublesome…

At the same time, he thought that this could give him an advantage as well. After all, he was not actually a pure sword practitioner, so if anyone misjudged his prowess based on this title, he wouldn’t mind showing them a surprise or two.

After waving goodbye with Shi Lingling, Lu Ping continued to make his way to the Pavilion of Smithery. There, he directly looked for Chen Lian’s teacher, Enlightened Master Xuan-Huo, who welcomed him warmly and brought him straight to the pavilion’s place of inheritance.

Lu Ping took out the Heritage Token and activated it with his true energy. Immediately, the ‘Smith’ on the token glowed brightly, and a doorway glowing with light appeared in front of him. Lu Ping stepped through the door and disappeared.

Unlike Tian Ling Palace’s Flying Cloud Minor World, the Pavilion of Smithery’s place of inheritance was a spatial mystic instrument. The dimension inside the spatial mystic instrument had been made into a huge warehouse.

Lu Ping found himself standing at the center of a crossroad. There were several passageways that lead to different sections of the warehouse.

However, only the passageways that lead to the sections containing ordinary mystic treasures and spirit emerging mystic treasures were accessible to Lu Ping. Naturally, he walked down the passageway to the spirit emerging mystic treasures.

A few moments later, he arrived at another crossroad, where several doorways that lead to different types of spirit emerging mystic treasures were open. Lu Ping walked towards the doorway for water-element spirit emerging mystic treasures, arriving in a vast empty space covered in thick fog.

Since Lu Ping had already found a mini water escape divine ability that enhanced his [Sea Crossing Concealment Art], he had no urgent need for a flying mystic treasure anymore. Instead, the thing he lacked was a defensive mystic treasure.

Although the [Heavenly Curtain Aegis] wasn’t any weaker than defensive mystic treasures, aegis energy was supposed to be a cultivator’s last line of defense. Instead, Lu Ping had been using it as his primary defense as it was his only means.

Furthermore, the aegis energy was much more difficult to recover, and would impair the cultivator’s cultivation foundation every time it breaks. Hence, a defensive mystic treasure would be much more cost-effective in this aspect.

Lu Ping spread out his divine revelation. A short while later, he caught the trace of a mystic treasure behind the thick fog. These mystic treasures were termed as spirit emerging mystic treasures because they had all acquired a small sense of primitive and instinctual reactions.

Although their spiritualities were still in their basic stages, they could resonate and send simple messages back. Judging these reactions allowed Lu Ping to determine whether the treasures were suitable for him or not

As Lu Ping’s divine revelation came into contact with the mystic treasure, it quivered softly and attempted to slip away. Although he could easily capture and subdue it, the mystic treasure’s feedback suggested that it wasn’t fond of him. Naturally, he left it alone and moved on.

After that, Lu Ping encountered two mystic treasures that were suitable to him, one of them even quivered with joy when it felt his divine revelation. However, after some consideration, he eventually gave up on them and moved on.

As time passed, Lu Ping still couldn’t find one that suited him the best. He spread out his divine revelation in one direction and scanned the place like a radar. However, he still couldn’t find any landmark that would help him determine the size of the room. At this rate, it was very likely that he would never be able to finish exploring the room before the time limit arrived.

So, Lu Ping took out a smaller banner and waved it in the blank space in front of him. Immediately, a heavy gush of wind blew the fog away. The mystic treasures were carried along with the flow of the fog and moved past him from one end to the other.

He quickly fixated his divine revelation on the moving fog, carefully inspecting the spirit emerging mystic treasures that flowed past. But after some time, none of the mystic treasures were suitable to his liking.

Lu Ping couldn’t help but frown. The Pavilion of Smithery would naturally be closely monitoring the condition of its place of inheritance, so his actions were naturally immediately noticed by the pavilion. The pavilion would allow him to speed up the selection, but it wouldn’t let him do this forever. The pavilion would come to stop him if he didn’t choose a mystic treasure very soon.

Do I have to randomly choose one? It’s not going to be worth the trip if that’s the case!

Just as Lu Ping was hesitating, a silvery-blue light suddenly freed itself from the flowing fog, dancing around him happily. Lu Ping was dumbfounded at first, but he then quickly became excited after seeing that the silvery-blue light was actually a mystic treasure.

Even though spirit emerging mystic treasures would give off reactions based on divine revelations, they weren’t sentient enough to select their owners. That would be the characteristic of spirit nurturing mystic treasures.

However, the Pavilion of Smithery naturally wouldn’t incorrectly store a spirit nurturing mystic treasure inside this room. The only plausible explanation was that this was an extraordinary spirit emerging mystic treasure with an exceptional spirituality.

The mystic treasure was a small triangular banner. One corner of the banner was torn and its overall appearance was in poor shape. When Lu Ping injected a wave of true energy inside the banner, its dim silvery-blue light glowed brighter and the banner fluttered livelier.

But Lu Ping quickly smiled bitterly. The moment his true energy entered the banner, he saw six Mystical Inscriptions inside it. This meant that the banner was at the peak of spirit emerging mystic treasure, with a quality that wasn’t any weaker than Lu Ping’s nascent Primordial Stars.

Although this meant that the banner mystic treasure was powerful, it also meant that it would require a huge consumption of true energy. To make matters worse, some true energy would also leak out of the broken corner of the banner, requiring him to use even more true energy.

At this rate, Lu Ping wouldn’t last long if he cast it together with his nascent mystic treasure which also required a massive amount of true energy. If he cast these two weapons together, he probably wouldn’t have any true energy left to wield any other mystic treasures.

However, the banner’s defensive ability was so remarkable that he couldn’t bring himself to give it up. It had the toughest defense out of all the defensive mystic treasures that Lu Ping had ever seen!

This led Lu Ping into a dilemma. He was initially here in search of a defensive mystic treasure that could make up for his lack of defenses. He didn’t think that he would actually find a good one that could keep up with his cultivation progress.

But now, not only did he find a defensive mystic treasure, it was actually too good for him such that it was his cultivation that couldn’t keep up. It was perfect except for the fact that he wouldn’t be able to casually cast it for now.

Bah, I will probably never come across something like this again. I should grab this chance while I still can. I’m also breaking through to the Mid Core Forging Realm soon, my true energy will be sufficient at that time… Right?

In the end, Lu Ping chose the banner mystic treasure. Apart from its extraordinary defensive capability, he also thought that its bizarre action of proactively selecting him as its owner was it trying to tell him something.

As soon as he had made his selection, he was promptly teleported out of the spatial dimension. In the secret room, Xuan-Huo was looking at him with a weird gaze.

Lu Ping knew his actions in the spatial dimension wouldn’t be able to be hidden from Xuan-Huo, so he smiled back at the deputy and de facto pavilion master awkwardly.

A moment later, Xuan-Huo said, "I didn’t think that the Water Manipulation Banner would choose you."

Lu Ping was surprised, and quickly asked, "Junior uncle, did the… Water Manipulation Banner really choose me on its own? Isn’t that the special trait of spirit nurturing mystic treasures? Could it be…"

Xuan-Huo nodded, before then shaking his head, "It once was. But after it was damaged, it fell back to a spirit emerging mystic treasure."

Lu Ping looked at the missing corner on the banner. Xuan-Huo continued, "There’s an old story about it, dating all the way back to the Fei Ling Sect’s annihilation."

Lu Ping’s expression turned solemn. The Fei Ling Sect was the number one sect four thousand years ago and the one whose heritage had helped Lu Ping a lot.

"Have you heard of Great Ancestor Chong Xuan?"

Instead of explaining further about the banner, Xuan-Huo stared deeply into Lu Ping’s eyes and asked a different question.

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