Chapter 168: This is the Brahma Nation's Conspiracy!

Myriad Colors Blessed Land.

This blessed land had been commandeered, cleared of all unauthorized personnel. The divine consciousness of three Divine Powers cultivators echoed and thundered inside and out.

‘This is divine consciousness...’

Wang Ping lowered his eyes, standing obediently a short distance away while secretly sensing the terrifying power of consciousness circling and roaming around him.

‘Xuanhe still knows to protect me. If he didn't, these people probably would have soul-searched me by now... The quality of divine consciousness really is a whole tier higher than spiritual consciousness. It’s entirely the difference between scrap iron and refined steel. I just don't know what profound mysteries it holds in comparison.’

At this moment, Daoist Xuanhe spoke.

"Everyone, this matter is severe."

Daoist Yuhong was the first to nod in response. "Indeed. Extremely severe. This was clearly an organized, premeditated robbery."

By this point, he was practically bursting with rage.

"First, they shamelessly launched a sneak attack with two Divine Powers cultivators, forcing the outer sect disciples with lower cultivation to flee the battlefield. Then they hunted them down one by one."

"It's simply lawless!"

"Especially my junior brother..."

Daoist Yuhong covered his face, his shoulders twitching as his voice cracked. It took him a long while to recover.

"Changyangzi died too tragically!"

"He hadn't even had time to accept our martial uncle's substantial legacy. His future was so bright, yet he died here. How am I supposed to explain this to martial uncle?"

Yun Xuantong and Daoist Xuanhe shot him cold glances.

Did this Biyang's disciple think they were blind? The moment he heard the news of Changyangzi's death, his grin had practically reached his ears. Now he was playing this game?

Thinking this, Daoist Xuanhe glanced at Wang Ping again, praising him inwardly:

‘This kid has a massive appetite!’

Honestly, he had originally thought that even if Wang Ping wanted to hunt them down, killing Xiaoxiang alone would be an impressive feat. After all, this sort of thing required experience.

Even with an overwhelming advantage in strength, tracking down a fleeing target, killing them instantly before they could contact anyone, destroying the corpse, and smoothing over the karmic fluctuations... all of this required specific skills. Daoist Xuanhe had fully expected Wang Ping to need him to wipe his ass.

He hadn't expected Wang Ping to execute the deed so cleanly.

‘It doesn't make sense. Such crisp methods—has he done this before? Or is he truly just a natural-born bad seed, made to be a bandit cultivator?’

Amazement aside, Daoist Xuanhe felt quite relaxed.

After all, he had reaped a great harvest himself. Before the besieged 'bandit cultivator' died, the man had gifted him a massive windfall—enough to cover all of his deficits.

The only fly in the ointment was that they hadn't managed to kill the other one.

‘A pity Qixia got away.’

Daoist Xuanhe calculated inwardly:

‘Forget it, Red Brows alone is enough... I'll go seize his blessed land later and consume his estate. It won't be a waste of our fellowship as sect members.’

"Ahem!"

Yun Xuantong coughed and said coldly, "Stop rambling. The most urgent task right now is finding the murderer."

Yun Xuantong was thoroughly displeased.

He had only intervened because of a deal with Changyangzi. With Changyangzi dead, the transaction was void; no one was left to honor it.

Moreover, during their three-man siege on the bandit cultivator, he hadn't snatched as much loot as Daoist Xuanhe. By the standard logic of Immortal Gate disciples, not turning a profit meant taking a loss. By that calculation, he had already bled money. Then, turning around, he discovered that his dao companion, Fairy Fengyuan, had been killed. This finally broke his composure.

It wasn't that he had any deep feelings for Fairy Fengyuan.

It was mainly because Fairy Fengyuan was a cauldron vessel he had painstakingly selected, highly useful for cultivating a specific dharma art. Now that she was dead, he had to start his search all over again.

He would even have to groom the new one from scratch.

That all cost money!

The more Yun Xuantong thought about it, the more he felt he'd lost, and the angrier he became. Finally, dropping all pretense, his piercing gaze landed directly on Wang Ping.

A second later, Daoist Xuanhe stepped forward, blocking his line of sight.

"Fellow Daoist Yun, what are you doing?"

"...Nothing."

Yun Xuantong said faintly, "I was just thinking that Fengyuan was killed without even having the time to notify me. Who has the ability to do such a thing?"

"I know Fengyuan's strength. Pondering it over, I fear the only one capable would be a cultivator who can leave an imprint avatar on the 666th tier of Dao Proving Mountain—someone with combat power comparable to a true transmission disciple of the same realm, deliberately laying in ambush to launch a sneak attack... What do you think, Fellow Daoist Xuanhe?"

He was just short of pointing a finger directly at Wang Ping.

Daoist Xuanhe shook his head with an expression of righteous indignation. "You are mistaken. Fellow Daoist Yun, there's no need to beat around the bush. You suspect Dousheng, don't you?"

"After all, four people fled, and three of them died."

Yun Xuantong looked at Wang Ping, his voice deep. "He was the only one who survived. Naturally, that makes him suspicious."

"What's suspicious about surviving?" Daoist Xuanhe retorted. "Dousheng has the greatest strength. The bandit cultivator wasn't confident in killing him, so they killed the other three."

"It's perfectly logical and reasonable!"

Yun Xuantong fell silent.

Seeing Yun Xuantong remain silent, Daoist Xuanhe continued, "Moreover, since you are so suspicious, do you have any proof?"

Without proof, it was slander!

Yun Xuantong naturally understood this. He swept his long sleeves, instantly releasing three crack-covered corpses—their only current clues.

Seeing this, Wang Ping's eyes narrowed slightly.

‘Inner sect disciples... they really do have some skills.’

The three corpses were indeed Changyangzi, Fairy Fengyuan, and Xiaoxiang. Yun Xuantong had actually used some unknown method to retrieve their physical bodies!

This meant that Yun Xuantong had not only learned of their deaths but had also immediately located where they died. Although Wang Ping had scrubbed the scenes too cleanly to leave any evidence, Yun Xuantong had still managed to reconstruct the corpses Wang Ping had utterly destroyed.

Yun Xuantong reached into his robes.

He pulled out a round mirror.

"This item is called the Qi-Examining Dharma-Discerning Mirror. The mirror's light can illuminate all the magical power and specific qi that once landed on these three corpses."

Saying this, Yun Xuantong cast another glance at Wang Ping.

Seeing Wang Ping remain perfectly calm, Yun Xuantong's heart sank. Without wasting another word, he circulated his magical power, sweeping the mirror's light over the corpses.

The result—naturally, nothing happened.

‘That's because I used the Martial Dao to kill them!’

From beginning to end, he had only used Latent Concealment magical power to hide himself. Beheading the three of them had relied entirely on his ever-victorious, lightning-swift saber arts.

Blood Qi True Gang was not magical power, nor did it belong to the qi of heaven and earth.

Naturally, nothing could be found.

However, if nothing appeared at all, Yun Xuantong would only grow increasingly suspicious and continue his investigation. Therefore, Wang Ping had prepared a reasonable answer for him.

A second later, everyone's expressions changed.

A melodious Zen chant suddenly echoed from the three corpses bathed in the mirror's light, and streaks of magnificent Buddhist light emerged.

"Brahma Cultivators!?"

Daoist Xuanhe flew into a towering rage.

"Bastards! These bald donkeys of the red teachings!"

"I was wondering why this ambush had such a massive lineup and was so meticulously premeditated. It turns out the Brahma Nation's desire to destroy our Immortal Gate has never died. The truth has finally come to light!"

Yun Xuantong, "???"

Seeing the continuously surging Buddhist light, the inner sect disciple was stunned, subconsciously looking toward Daoist Xuanhe and Wang Ping.

So they really hadn't teamed up to do this?

No, impossible!

Daoist Yuhong spoke up. "So it was the Brahma Cultivators who made the move... This makes much more sense. Now I have an explanation for martial uncle."

Yun Xuantong's expression darkened, and he cursed inwardly: ‘This Biyang's disciple doesn't care about the truth at all. As long as the excuse is reasonable, it works for him. A simple bandit cultivator wasn't enough, but now that the Brahma Nation is supposedly directing things behind the scenes, he's satisfied. He just wants to take this back and close the case.’

‘Xuanhe is probably thinking the same thing.’

‘But if this plays out like this, won't I be the only one walking away empty-handed?’ Thinking this, Yun Xuantong couldn't help but size up Daoist Xuanhe and Wang Ping again.

Was it possible they had colluded with Brahma Cultivators?

‘It shouldn't be. Is there really any need to collude with Brahma Cultivators just to kill a few lowly outer sect disciples?’

‘But even if they didn't... could I fabricate the charges and pin the crime of colluding with Brahma Cultivators on their heads?’

After thinking it over, Yun Xuantong finally sighed helplessly. He had no proof. In contrast, the Buddhist light glowing across the corpses was an ironclad mountain of evidence pointing to the Brahma Cultivators.

"There's no need to think anymore!"

Daoist Xuanhe stated his conclusion in a heavy voice, "Without a doubt, this is the Brahma Nation's conspiracy. I believe we must report this to the true transmission disciples."

"Report it to the true transmissions?"

Yun Xuantong and Daoist Yuhong's expressions immediately changed. Daoist Yuhong didn't even hesitate, shaking his head right away. "There's no need for that."

"They were just outer sect disciples. It hasn't escalated to that level."

Yun Xuantong immediately chimed in. "Indeed, there is no need to involve the true transmission disciples... Fellow Daoist Xuanhe, don't forget, this matter is incredibly serious."

The death of a few outer sect disciples was a minor issue; the key was that a Divine Powers bandit cultivator had also died.

If they investigated these outer sect disciples, wouldn't they also have to investigate the Divine Powers bandit cultivator? What if they uncovered Daoist Chimei's true identity, and dug out the transactions behind all this?

They couldn't just investigate everything!

Especially with the methods of the true transmission disciples, it was very possible they would actually find out... At this juncture, they had to employ the first step of the immortal gate four-step protocol.

Declare that nothing had happened.

Seeing Daoist Yuhong and Yun Xuantong state their stances, Daoist Xuanhe smiled. He had threatened to tear off the roof, effectively forcing the two of them to settle for opening a window.

"Then... we investigate it ourselves?"

Daoist Xuanhe lowered his voice. Daoist Yuhong nodded immediately, and after a moment of thought, Yun Xuantong also gritted his teeth and agreed, no longer pushing to investigate Wang Ping.

After all, even though he felt he had taken a massive loss, fundamentally he just hadn't earned as much as he wanted. He hadn't snatched much of the legacy the 'mysterious bandit cultivator' surrendered before dying, but he had still gotten a share. It was more than enough to groom another Fairy Fengyuan. If the true transmission disciples came to investigate, he feared he wouldn't even be able to keep that much.

‘Forget it...’

Yun Xuantong sighed, reluctantly withdrawing his gaze from Wang Ping.

Success!

Seeing this, Wang Ping quickly tightened his expression. Looking at Xiaoxiang's corpse, he allowed a hint of appropriate grief and sorrow for the sudden passing of a good friend to show in his eyes...

‘...No, that's overacting. I wasn't even close to him.’

Wang Ping hastily adjusted his mood.

Regardless, he had passed this hurdle. Next was to confirm the Pill Manipulation art with Xuanhe, then sit back and wait for Daoist Nun You to walk right into his trap...

"Xuanhe, you are wrong about that."

A voice suddenly rang out.

Who?

Wang Ping's thoughts were abruptly interrupted. He froze for a moment, and then a sudden chill rose in his heart. His Divine Intent, which hadn't circulated in a long time, erupted!

Danger! Very dangerous! Extremely dangerous!

Almost simultaneously, Daoist Xuanhe's relaxed expression vanished, replaced by a look of absolute horror. Moving stiffly, he turned to look behind him.

Looking out.

Amidst the overlapping mountain forests, a young Daoist wearing a gold hair-binding crown and a jade pendant at his waist was treading over the terrain, walking toward them at an unhurried pace.

The corners of his mouth were slightly raised in a semblance of a smile, yet not a hint of mirth could be seen. His dark, abyssal eyes were like monster-revealing mirrors, reflecting everyone's figures.

Daoist Xuanhe, Daoist Yuhong, and Yun Xuantong all recognized him.

Even Wang Ping recognized him.

After all, Wang Ping had reviewed the intelligence on him countless times recently—from his appearance to his deeds, from his cultivation methods to his divine powers—and had memorized it backwards and forwards.

‘Kunyun...’

Tribulation Transcending Third Layer, Immortal Gate true transmission, Kunyun!