Chapter 182: Kunyun Makes a Move, the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron

Within the Immortal Gate, deep inside the Cosmos.

A streak of lightning tore through space, plunging straight into the depths of a gaseous star where eternal storms raged endlessly. It finally manifested as the figure of Kunyun.

However, upon landing in the palace deep within the star, he saw another Kunyun seated inside. This Kunyun had his eyes shut tight, drawing in spiritual energy. With every inhalation and exhalation, layers of illusory colors bloomed behind his head like a luminous wheel or a folding screen. The two figures mirrored each other perfectly, looking exactly alike without the slightest difference.

Until one of them suddenly collapsed.

"Rumble!"

Thunder echoed. The one that collapsed was none other than the Kunyun who had just descended from the outside. His dharma body disintegrated, instantly turning into scattering lightning.

At the center of that lightning floated a speck of golden light, perfectly round and the size of an egg. Layers of profound scenes could faintly be seen rotating deep within its brilliance.

Pale lightning pierced the cosmos, and azure thunder tore across the sky.

They resembled towering forests and hummed like universally transforming thunder.

Immediately after, the Kunyun seated in the palace opened his eyes. His gaze fell upon that speck of golden light. With a beckoning gesture, he recalled it directly into the center of his brow.

"Mhm..."

The Immortal Gate True Transmission gently pressed the center of his brow as if reviewing something. A moment later, he gave a slight nod. "It seems this strand of divine sense was quite effective."

When spiritual sense turned divine, it became divine sense!

From start to finish, whether it was the Kunyun that Wang Ping and Xuanhe saw or the Kunyun that You Xuexin saw, it was merely a single strand of divine sense from his true body!

Yet this single strand of divine sense—which, strictly speaking, was just a single thought from Kunyun—could easily kill an inner sect disciple like Xuanhe, leaving him entirely powerless to fight back. Possessing such profound might proved that Kunyun's cultivation had indeed reached an incredibly dangerous breaking point.

Therefore, he absolutely would not leave his Cave Abode easily.

If he left, it could only mean one thing: his life tribulation could no longer be avoided. Only by breaking through could he find the boundless sky; otherwise, his body would perish and his Dao would vanish.

Before that happened, he had to bide his time and build up his strength.

Every fraction of qi destiny he accumulated and every shred of magical power he preserved now would give him that much more confidence when crossing his life tribulation, increasing his odds of achieving Qi Refining Entering the Dao.

"That counts as a simple cleanup."

Kunyun quickly grasped all the experiences from this divine sense's excursion. He felt both satisfied and helpless, his eyes filled with contemplation.

He was satisfied because the divine sense had done an excellent job, essentially killing all the suspicious targets. He was helpless because, despite the divine sense deliberately running around and making a grand display, it had failed to draw out his life tribulation. Thus, he still didn't know what his life tribulation was, where it came from, or what methods it possessed.

If he had to point out a clue...

"The Heaven-Stealing Thief?"

Kunyun furrowed his brows tightly, recalling the conversation between his divine sense and Xuanhe. The clue the other party provided right before death was the most useful among his many hints.

"The Heaven-Stealing Thief is in the Eight Trigrams Furnace?"

"He saved Kunlun and helped him awaken his memories... Mhm, it's not impossible. If that's the case, could my life tribulation be that guy, Kunlun?"

At the mention of his dear junior brother, a dark cloud immediately surfaced on Kunyun's face. To be honest, he wished he could personally go be the Furnace-Tending Disciple and put him to rest permanently.

Unfortunately, he couldn't.

"Regardless, since there is this suspicion, I should prepare early. I remember... back then, what he cultivated was the Radiant Universal Illumination Six Harmonies Qi."

"This qi is heavenly yang fire. It strictly forbids skulking and hiding, requiring one to act openly and uprightly, like the midday sun, to achieve the proper state of the profound art. It would have been fine if his memories hadn't awakened, but now that they have, he can no longer operate in the shadows. He must step out from behind the curtain and onto the stage."

"...Very well."

Thinking of this, an excellent candidate immediately surfaced in Kunyun's mind—someone who could go to the Eight Trigrams Furnace in his stead and draw out his good junior brother.

Immediately following that, he split off another strand of divine sense.

A moment later, this divine sense returned to the palace doors with a person in tow. The man looked incredibly tense and moved awkwardly. It was none other than Daoist Xuanyin.

"Xuanyin greets you, Senior Brother."

Upon seeing Kunyun, the abruptly summoned Xuanyin didn't say a second word before dropping to his knees and kowtowing. He offered absolutely no resistance, his face written with utter submission.

"Rise."

Kunyun said impassively, "Before Xuanhe, you were the Furnace-Tending Disciple of the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Now that Xuanhe has unfortunately perished, I need someone to take his place."

"Xuanyin receives the command!"

Without any hesitation, Xuanyin agreed on the spot. Such an attitude quite satisfied Kunyun, who nodded and said, "There are only two things you must accomplish on this trip."

"First, reverse the spiritual energy. When Xuanhe was the Furnace-Tending Disciple, the Dao rose and demons waned within the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was in a state of Clear Heaven and Bright Earth. This greatly favored yang attributes and heavenly qi. Now that you are taking over, you must revert the spiritual energy environment back so that the Dao wanes and demons rise."

Hearing this, Xuanyin was instantly taken aback.

"The Dao wanes and demons rise? But if we do that, turmoil will inevitably break out within the Eight Trigrams Furnace. If there's an accident and the higher-ups investigate..."

"I want there to be an accident."

Kunyun's gaze was piercingly cold as he softly said:

"When the Dao wanes and demons rise, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth will shift from Clear Heaven and Bright Earth to Turbid Earth and Darkened Heavens. This greatly favors yin attributes and earthly qi."

"To my good junior brother—who cultivates heavenly yang fire, the Radiant Universal Illumination Six Harmonies Qi—such a spiritual energy environment is like handing him a torch and locking him in a pitch-black room. He will have nowhere to hide. When that time comes, you will strike and kill him for me."

"Huh?" Xuanyin pointed at himself in bewilderment.

I have to fight? Me, fighting a True Transmission!?

He had never met this True Transmission Kunlun who had been tossed into the Eight Trigrams Furnace to undergo a life tribulation, but he had heard of him and was well aware of how profound the man's cultivation was.

How is this someone I can deal with!?

"What are you afraid of?"

Seeing his reaction, Kunyun chuckled and raised an eyebrow. A strand of divine sense then emerged from his forehead, brimming and transforming into light before gently landing in front of Xuanyin.

"You cultivate the Hanging River Endlessly Circulating Qi, which is heavenly yang water. It perfectly counters my junior brother. With my divine sense in hand, you will naturally possess boundless power."

"That junior brother of mine will absolutely be no match for you."

Xuanyin was left feeling lost in clouds and fog as he listened.

However, Kunyun wouldn't explain any further. After all, continuing to explain would touch upon the Twenty-Four Qi Dao Treatise he held. How could he speak of such things to an inner sect disciple?

"Step down." Kunyun waved his hand.

"Yes."

Not daring to delay, Xuanyin respectfully cupped the divine sense in his hands. Though it looked like a hazy shadow of light, it felt as heavy as a mountain in his grasp.

In an instant, not only did he invoke the Divine Powers he had painstakingly cultivated, he even had to apply the empowerment of his Grotto-Heaven. Only then could he barely manage to hold Kunyun's divine sense and steady his footing without collapsing. After respectfully bowing to Kunyun once more, he finally turned and swiftly departed.

"This way, at the very least, I can locate Kunlun."

Watching Xuanyin's retreating figure, Kunyun pondered in his heart: 'My good junior brother has only just awakened his memories; it is absolutely impossible for him to quickly recover his peak cultivation.'

'He won't be able to block this strand of my divine sense.'

'If he wants to survive, his only option is to have the Heaven-Stealing Thief strike... He'd better strike. The moment he does, I will ask my master to immediately apprehend him!'

As a True Transmission, he also had a master!

When it came to matters like crossing a life tribulation, a master was, in most cases, a trustworthy and reliable helper. After all, the master was his biggest investor.

'A pity. If only a life tribulation were that simple.'

Kunyun sighed internally.

Though he had a Qi Refining practitioner master, if a Qi Refining practitioner could sweep away all obstacles for him, a life tribulation wouldn't make a True Transmission turn pale at the mention of a tiger.

If anything, the exact opposite was true.

'The fact that I can move my master to act means that other Qi Refining practitioners will inevitably intervene in my life tribulation, adding countless unpredictable variables.'

In this regard, some True Transmissions who couldn't request the aid of a Qi Refining master actually held a slight advantage. As long as they didn't court death, the life tribulations they triggered would stop at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer and wouldn't rope in Qi Refining practitioners... Of course, when it actually came down to it, there was no real difference in the intensity of their tribulations.

Both were near-certain death.

If he had to point out a distinction, it was merely that one had higher quality while the other had greater quantity. Ultimately, it all came down to the methods and abilities of the cultivator undergoing Tribulation Transcending.

"I have already played my first piece."

Kunyun raised his head. His gaze pierced through layers of the Cosmos, observing that vast, boundless ocean of destiny, before finally landing on the vortex that belonged to him.

"How will my life tribulation respond?"

...

Great Shun, outskirts of the Capital.

"...Hiss!"

Even though he had braced himself mentally, Wang Ping still couldn't help but narrow his eyes in surprise upon truly arriving at the center of this Eight Trigrams Furnace.

It was simply because the Great Shun Capital was far too large.

Rather than a city, it was more like an entire nation disguised as a city. From a distance, it looked like a savage behemoth crawling across the fertile plains.

The coming and going commoners were its breath.

The buildings within the city were its lungs and organs.

The patrolling soldiers and officers were its lifeblood.

And at this moment, the carriage Wang Ping rode in was slowly advancing toward the gaping maw of this behemoth. The closer he got, the more he felt his own insignificance.

However, Wang Ping quickly snapped out of his shock and shifted his thoughts to another issue:

'How should I make my debut?'

As the little pill-refining immortal personally summoned by the Old Emperor, hiding his skills was definitely out of the question. If he didn't show off a bit, how could he awe the demons and monsters in the Capital?

The problem was how to show off.

'I need to grasp the extent of this perfectly. If I go too far and show my sharp edges, the Old Emperor won't like it. If I do too little, it will just be grandstanding and will actually make me look incompetent.'

Wang Ping pondered deeply. To gain the Old Emperor's trust and thus successfully cultivate the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, he had to take this first step into the Capital perfectly.

'The Dashun Imperial Family also has a background with the Immortal Gate. They definitely have news regarding the replacement of the Furnace-Tending Disciple. Only by getting close to the Old Emperor will I be able to gather all this information at once, adapt to the situation, and reformulate my plan to hunt Kunyun... time does not wait for me; I must accomplish this as quickly as possible.'

After all, the opponent was an Immortal Gate True Transmission.

Given Kunyun's decisiveness in destroying his own avatar and slaying Xuanhe without a second word, it was entirely possible that he had already made new arrangements for the Eight Trigrams Furnace at this very moment.

'Fortunately, the smokescreen I had Xuanhe set up should still be effective.'

'At this moment, there's a high probability that Kunyun's focus is still on the Heaven-Stealing Thief and his True Transmission junior brother, Kunlun. This is my chance.'

The snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman reaps the profit!

...

As Wang Ping was in deep thought, suddenly, the exact moment the carriage passed through the gates of the Capital, an intense, mountain-crushing pressure fell from the sky!

Wang Ping jerked his head up.

In a daze, he seemed to see a blurred illusion hovering above the Capital. Neither fully real nor entirely phantom, it stretched between heaven and earth—it was impressively a towering, massive Tripod Cauldron.

He had experienced this sensation once before.

It was the exact moment he directly faced that hanging furnace Spiritual Treasure, the Heaven's Will Profound Blade. And this time, he also saw five characters upon that blurry illusion.

Unlike the Heaven's Will Profound Blade, the first impression these five characters gave him was heaviness. So heavy that it felt as if the mountains, rivers, sun, moon, earth, and stars were all contained within them.

They read:

The Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron.