Chapter 439

As soon as Lu Ping emerged from the Heaven's Spirit Hall's teleportation formation, he heard a deafening tiger roar. A loud laugh could be heard, "Sire's cultivation is indeed profound. We'll consider this battle a draw, so why don't we call it a draw?"

"Haha, sire's cultivation is admirable. Today's battle was truly satisfying. If we continued, then both of us would be heavily injured. Calling it a draw is exactly what I wanted."

Lu Ping was stunned. It seemed that he had arrived too late. The disciples of the five great sects of the Eastern Sea and the disciples of Zhenling had probably already begun.

However, the person who spoke first made Lu Ping feel rather surprised. From the voice, it was clear that Yao Yong had just fought with someone. However, with Yao Yong's personality, he would either win or lose in a battle. There would always be a result. For him to call it a draw like today was truly inconceivable to Lu Ping.

Lu Ping's interest was piqued. He walked towards the direction of the voice, wanting to see just who it was that could make Yao Yong feel a sense of familiarity.

However, before Lu Ping had even arrived, Yao Yong's roar could be heard, "Perfect, I have a few jars of fine wine in my dwelling. Sire, you've come from afar, why don't we drink to our hearts' content and see who's better at drinking?"

"How delightful! I didn't think that I would meet such a straightforward person like sire today, haha!"

Before Lu Ping had even arrived at the plaza of the Heaven's Spirit Hall, two streaks of red light had already streaked across the sky. Clearly, the two people who had just battled had already left.

At that moment, a person came walking over. Seeing Lu Ping, he was stunned for a moment before revealing a smile. Lu Ping asked first, "Junior Zhang, are the disciples of our sect currently sparring with the disciples of the five great sects of the Eastern Sea? Why are you leaving?"

Zhang Zicheng smiled, "So it's senior Lu who has returned. Senior Lu has come at just the right time. Our early Core Forging disciples have just finished sparring with the disciples of the five great sects of the Eastern Sea. Now it's time for the mid Core Forging disciples to fight. With senior Lu here, we should be able to win the first battle."

"Oh, they've already finished five battles? What's the outcome? "

The disciples of the East Sea and the North Sea had a total of ten matches. Five matches were at the early-stage of the Core Forging Realm, and the other five matches were at the mid-stage.

Zhang Zicheng spoke with excitement and regret, "Two wins and two losses. Senior Yao Yong just shook hands with a disciple of Skyrend, and the two are now competing in their alcohol tolerance. This result is better than Xuan Ling Sect's. I heard that Xuan Ling Sect only won two out of the five early Core Forging matches, and only won one round against Ouyang Weijian in the mid Core Forging matches. Now that Senior Martial Brother Lu is here, I'm sure Xuan Ling Sect will be able to win another round in the mid Core Forging matches.

Lu Ping smiled and said, "The Eastern Sea's sects have many crouching tigers and hidden dragons. How can I guarantee victory?"

Zhang Zicheng did not refute him. Instead, he said, "Senior Brother, I was confident in that match. However, Senior Brother said that the disciples of the Eastern Sea's various sects are all crouching tigers and hidden dragons. I did not believe it before, but now I have no choice but to believe it."

"Oh?" Lu Ping's interest was piqued. Although he knew more about the Eastern Sea than his peers, Zhang Zicheng often worked under Heaven Spirit Hall's Enlightened Master Profound Miao and Enlightened Master Guo Xuanshan. Lu Ping thought Zhang Zicheng would be able to get a lot of information from them, so he asked, "Did Junior Moon hear anything?"

Zhang Zicheng said, "Although the disciples sent by the Eastern Sea's Sects this time are the elites of their respective Sects, but according to Martial Uncle Guo Xuanshan, these disciples are not the best. Moreover, whether it is Senior Martial Brother Ji, Senior Martial Brother Yin, or Senior Martial Brother Yao Yong, they can be said to be the best among our Sect's early Core Forging disciples."

Lu Ping nodded. What Zhang Zicheng said was true. The Eastern Sea's heritage was indeed better than the Northern Sea's, so he asked, "Did Junior Brother Xuan and Junior Brother Xuan Chu also compete with the Eastern Sea's disciples?"

Zhang Zicheng smiled, "That's right. If it weren't for the two of them, I'm afraid it wouldn't have been easy for us to win. The two senior brothers each won one match, senior brother Yao drew one, and lost the other two matches."

Zhang Zicheng looked at Lu Ping and said, "Yuan Zhan went up for one match. His cultivation is at the third layer of Core Forging, and he fought against a Violet Talisman Pavilion disciple for several dozen moves. In the end, he lost."

Lu Ping nodded without saying anything. Zhang Zicheng saw that Lu Ping's expression didn't change when he mentioned Yuan Zhan, so he thought for a moment and said, "Originally, senior brother Du Feng wanted to go up, but Yuan Zhan took the initiative. Martial Uncle Xuan Shu also picked his general. If senior brother Du had gone up, perhaps we would have won another match."

Lu Ping understood Zhang Zicheng's meaning and smiled, "It's good to hide a bit. The five great sects of the Eastern Sea are stronger than us. If we make their disciples suffer, it'll be a bad thing for our sect. After all, the five great sects of the Eastern Sea are several times stronger than the ten great sects of the Northern Sea."

Zhang Zicheng nodded and pondered.

Lu Ping smiled, "Why isn't junior brother continuing to observe? Are you going to leave?"

Zhang Zicheng smiled, "There's nothing for me to do now, but there's still a pile of things to do in the courtyard. Martial Uncle Xuan Yuan pushed all the matters of the courtyard to me, but he's still free and unfettered."

Lu Ping patted Zhang Zicheng's shoulder. After the two said their goodbyes, Lu Ping continued to walk towards the square in front of the main hall. In the distance, he saw several late Core Forging Cultivators sitting in front of the Heaven's Spirit Hall. Among them, Daoist Guo Xuanshan was chatting with a cultivator with an arrogant expression. Lu Ping recognized this person's clothing, it was from the Eastern Sea's Crystal Palace.

Next to them were two late Core Forging Cultivators from Zhenling and four other late Core Forging Cultivators from the other four sects of the Eastern Sea. From time to time, their eyes would glance at the two cultivators sparring in the square. One of the two cultivators from Zhenling was Daoist Liang Xuanfeng, while the other one Lu Ping didn't know. Presumably, it was Daoist Xuan Shu who schemed against Huang Li Island.

Among these people, there was also a person Lu Ping was familiar with. It was Daoist Qin from the Northern Alliance when Zhenling participated in the Northern Alliance Pill Gathering in the Eastern Sea.

Seeing that Daoist Qin was there, Lu Ping subconsciously didn't want him to discover that he was from the Northern Sea or even Zhenling's disciple, so he quietly stood in an inconspicuous corner and watched the battle between the two sides.

At this time, the Eastern Sea cultivator fighting was a disciple from Wind and Thunder Island, while Zhenling's disciple was Lu Ping's acquaintance, Daoist Xuan Lei.

Daoist Xuan Lei learned a powerful thunder-attribute magic art. Wind and Thunder Island was famous for their wind-attribute and thunder-attribute cultivation methods in the Eastern Sea. Naturally, it was a fierce battle between the two. However, in the end, Wind and Thunder Island's cultivator still had the upper hand. Daoist Xuan Lei's Spiritual Essence was not as strong as Wind and Thunder Island's cultivator, so Daoist Xuan Lei was defeated in the end.

From the side, Lu Ping could clearly see that Enlightened Master Xuan Lei's fighting experience wasn't any less than the Wind and Thunder Island cultivator's. In fact, he was even braver than the Wind and Thunder Island cultivator. Both of them cultivated lightning-elemental spells, and they had been competing against each other with many basic spells. The lightning-elemental spells they cast were the same, but the Wind and Thunder Island cultivator had a slight advantage in these spells. More often than not, his spells were stronger than Enlightened Master Xuan Lei's.

In addition to the fact that Wind and Thunder Island's cultivator's foundation was stronger than Daoist Xuan Lei's, the most likely reason for this phenomenon was that when Daoist Xuan Lei advanced to the mid-stage Core Forging Realm, he smelted far less spirit items than Wind and Thunder Island's cultivator.

Lu Ping had a lot of contact with Daoist Xuan Lei on Frost Island. He knew that Daoist Xuan Lei's accumulation when he advanced to the mid-stage Core Forging Realm was enough for him to smelt low-grade earth-step thunder-attribute spirit items. However, thunder-attribute spirit items were rare, so Daoist Xuan Lei couldn't advance to the mid-stage Core Forging Realm for a long time. In the end, Daoist Xuan Lei had no choice but to smelt two high-grade mystic spirit items. Although it was much stronger than cultivators who smelted one spirit item, it was still not comparable to smelting low-grade earth-step spirit items.

This had always been a regret in Daoist Xuan Lei's heart. Now, this regret finally had the opposite effect.

The Northern Sea was barren!

Daoist Xuan Lei wasn't inferior to the disciples of the Eastern Sea in all aspects. However, ordinary elite disciples of Wind and Thunder Island could smelt low-grade earth-step spirit items when they advanced to the mid-stage Core Forging Realm. As the most elite disciple of Zhenling, Daoist Xuan Lei couldn't obtain a low-grade earth-step spirit item.

In Zhenling, a cultivator who smelted a high-grade mystic spirit item when he advanced to the mid-stage Core Forging Realm could become an elite disciple and have the possibility of becoming a Dharma Manifestation Realm seed in the future, although the possibility was extremely small. In the Eastern Sea, the requirement was to reach the low-grade earth-step spirit item. Only then could a cultivator be recognized by the sect and be nurtured as a Dharma Manifestation seed.

The scarcity of spirit items in the Northern Sea was evident.

This was also why the Northern Sea cultivators could win more in the early-stage Core Forging Realm. When they reached the mid-stage Core Forging Realm and smelted spirit items, the gap between the Northern Sea and Eastern Sea cultivators widened. The most obvious example was when Xuan Ling Sect's early-stage Core Forging Realm cultivators could win two matches against Eastern Sea cultivators of the same level. When they reached the mid-stage Core Forging Realm, they could only rely on Xuan Ling Sect's number one genius, Ouyang Weijian, to win one match.

The second person to fight was Daoist Xuan Xing of Zhenling. The Eastern Sea sent out a disciple from the Northern Alliance. Unfortunately, Daoist Xuan Xing's strength wasn't as strong as Daoist Xuan Lei's, but this Northern Alliance disciple was stronger than the Wind and Thunder Island cultivator. Daoist Xuan Xing was defeated in a hurry.

The third person to fight was Zhenling's disciple. Lu Ping didn't know him, but he heard that his name was Xuan Xiao. He was at Core Forging Realm Level Five, but unfortunately, he was still defeated by a disciple from the Violet Talisman Pavilion. In the mid-stage Core Forging Realm, Zhenling had lost three matches in a row.

At this time, the surrounding cultivators of Zhenling started whispering to each other. The competition between Zhenling and Xuan Ling Sect had been getting more and more intense in recent years. The two sects had to compete in everything. In the previous few battles between the two sects, Zhenling always had the upper hand. This time, Zhenling only needed to win one more match to suppress Xuan Ling Sect. However, in the mid-stage Core Forging Realm, Zhenling had lost three matches in a row. There were only two matches left, and East Sea's most powerful disciple, the Crystal Palace, had yet to fight. Once all the mid-stage Core Forging Realm cultivators were defeated, Zhenling would become a laughing stock in front of Xuan Ling Sect.

"Who's the next match? He won't lose again, right?"

"I heard it's Reverend Xuan Shang. Reverend Xuan Shang is ranked in the top ten among the new talents of North Sea. He should be able to win one match."

"It's hard to say. Reverend Xuan Lei might not be much weaker than Reverend Xuan Shang, and his opponent is Skyrend, the sect known as the strongest in terms of offense in the ocean. Reverend Xuan Shang will probably lose this match!"

"As expected, the five great sects of East Sea are not something we can compare to. In North Sea, all of the cultivators from our sect who are participating in the battle today have great reputations, but none of them can win against cultivators of the same level as them."

"In the end, North Sea can't compare to East Sea. No wonder some of the senior cultivators often say that our North Sea is barren."

"There's still one person from our sect who hasn't fought yet!"

"Yes, where is Perfected Lu Xuanping, the Water Sword Immortal? During the chaotic battle in Heaven Spirit Mountain, Reverend Lu Xuanping suppressed several cultivators of the same level as him. What kind of reputation is that? If he's here, he'll definitely be able to win one match against East Sea, and that Ouyang Weijian won't be able to win. "

"I heard that Reverend Lu Xuanping went to Universe Island with Fornax Laozu. He probably hasn't returned yet, so he probably won't be able to make it to this festival."

"It's a pity. Why did he have to come at this critical moment?"

"Perhaps our sect has other considerations. Think about it, if all the cultivators in the middle stage of the Core Forging Realm in our sect lose, we can still say that our strongest cultivator did not participate in the battle due to other matters. At that time, we can still save some face, but if Reverend Lu Xuanping is here today, once he loses, it will mean that our sect cannot compare to Xuan Ling Sect, and Lu Xuanping cannot compare to Ouyang Weijian."

"Forget it. Our sect has always been open and aboveboard, and we're not afraid of being laughed at by others. If we win, we win, and if we lose, we lose. There's no need for us to resort to such petty tricks. We'll only end up being laughed at."

…

The cultivator from the Crystal Palace, who had been watching the battle with Reverend Guo Xuanshan in front of the Heaven's Spirit Hall, smiled at Reverend Guo Xuanshan and said, "The early Core Forging disciples of your sect are not bad. They can be considered as elites among the sects of the Eastern Sea. However, these mid Core Forging disciples are a level lower than Xuan Ling Sect's. Although the three disciples of your sect gave it their all, they rarely performed anything that caught people's attention. They're not even comparable to Ouyang Weijian of Xuan Ling Sect. Ouyang Weijian can be considered as an outstanding talent even among the large sects of the Eastern Sea. His future is limitless. I've heard that your sect has always been on equal footing with Xuan Ling Sect in the Northern Sea. If this child reaches the Dharma Manifestation stage in the future, he will be able to suppress your sect. "

The words of the cultivator from the Crystal Palace caused displeasure to appear on Reverend Liang Xuanfeng and Reverend Xuan Shu's faces. When the Reverends of the other four sects of the Eastern Sea heard the words of the Reverend from the Crystal Palace, they did not say anything. They just smiled and watched the battle between the cultivators below them, as if they were not involved in it.

Reverend Guo Xuanshan was not angered. Instead, he smiled and said, "Xuan Ling Sect has been around for longer than I, Zhenling, and they've also been the number one sect in the Northern Sea for three thousand years. Their foundation is naturally not something that I, Zhenling, can compare to. Even though they're going downhill now, Laozu is the one who holds up the sky. Even if I, Zhenling, catch up to him, I still cannot compare to him."

His tone was actually one of weakness. The cultivator from the Crystal Palace smiled and did not say anything else. Instead, he turned his gaze to the fourth battle in the field.

The people who fought in this battle caused Lu Ping's eyes to brighten. Eastern Sea had sent out Skyrend's disciple, and Zhenling had sent out Reverend Xuan Shang.

Lu Ping had fought against Reverend Xuan Shang several times in the past, so he knew that Reverend Xuan Shang was stronger than Reverend Xuan Lei, so he had a chance to win this battle.

Just as he expected, Reverend Xuan Shang swung his long spear like a dancing dragon and fought head-on against Skyrend's disciple. The two of them fought fiercely, exchanging blows with each other, and the cheers from the crowd grew louder than the last. Skyrend's sword technique required him to press forward with an indomitable will, using offense as defense, and Reverend Xuan Shang was also a person who would rather break than bend. He was a person who loved fighting and fighting fiercely.

The two of them could be said to be evenly matched in their battle, and their fight was also the most dangerous. In the end, both of them were injured, and the spectators were incredibly shocked.

Skyrend's disciple finally used one of Skyrend's seven great sword techniques — Heaven Splitting Sword. Every single slash he delivered brought with it a presence that could split the world. Reverend Xuan Shang's spear technique could clearly not compare to Skyrend's disciple's sword technique, but Reverend Xuan Shang had found an opening and decided to trade injury for injury, causing Skyrend's disciple to hold back. He had a few chances to heavily injure Reverend Xuan Shang, but because he would also be heavily injured, he had no choice but to stop midway.

Skyrend's disciple could not help but let out a cold snort as he watched the battle from the front of Heaven's Spirit Hall. He was very displeased with his sect's disciple, but he praised Reverend Xuan Shang to the side.

Skyrend's disciple finally found an opening. His longsword turned into a long arc and stabbed towards Reverend Xuan Shang's shoulder.

Reverend Xuan Shang did not seem to expect that his opponent's flying sword would be so fast. When he saw that it was already too late for him to dodge, the spectating cultivators let out cries of surprise. Skyrend's disciple also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. The pressure from fighting against Zhenling's disciple was simply too great. This person was basically a desperado. He would rather be cut by his opponent just so he could leave a mark on his opponent's body.

However, at that moment, the gazes of the late stage Core Forging cultivators from the various sects watching the battle in front of Heaven's Spirit Hall changed. However, their expressions were different. Zhenling's disciple's lips curled up into a smile, while Reverend Skyrend's disciple snorted coldly. The other four sects of Eastern Sea shook their heads. At the same time, Lu Ping, who had been watching the battle from the side, also smiled faintly.

Skyrend's disciple had been careless. The opening on Reverend Xuan Shang's shoulder was clearly a trap he had intentionally left behind.

The longsword stabbed forward, but Reverend Xuan Shang did not dodge. Instead, he leapt forward and pounced on the flying sword. Skyrend's disciple could not stop in time, and the flying sword pierced through Reverend Xuan Shang's shoulder. However, Reverend Xuan Shang seized the chance to move forward and point his longspear horizontally at Skyrend's disciple. With one thrust, he pierced through Skyrend's disciple's protective qi and pointed at the disciple's throat.

In the blink of an eye, the situation had suddenly changed. Skyrend's disciple was dumbfounded, and the Zhenling cultivators who were watching the battle were silent for a moment before they suddenly let out deafening cheers.

When Lu Ping saw that his sect's middle stage Core Forging cultivator had already won a battle, Zhenling could once again suppress Xuan Ling Sect, he walked towards the Relocation Rune, intending to return to Huang Li Island. He still had many things to do, and he did not want to stay in this place for too long. If it were not for Tian Xue Laozu's orders, Lu Ping would not have paid any attention to the sparring between the disciples of Eastern Sea.

However, right when Lu Ping arrived in front of the Relocation Rune, a clear shout traveled into his ears. "I am Crystal Palace's Zhang Shijie. I have heard that your sect's Water Sword Immortal, Reverend Lu Xuanping's sword technique is excellent. Would you be willing to teach me?"