Chapter 203: Profound Silence Thunder Sound

At the Immortal Gate, outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Almost the exact moment Wang Ping refined the Crimson Glaze, Xuanyin—currently stationed in the Cosmos and overlooking the Eight Trigrams Furnace—detected his qi signature.

"It's the Radiant Universal Illumination Six Harmonies Qi!"

Xuanyin sprang to his feet on the flying ship. His eyes burned as he looked toward the Great Shun Capital, catching sight of the tall, straight figure shrouded in fiery light.

Was that the person Senior Brother Kunyun was looking for?

True transmission Kunlun?

Xuanyin's eyes widened as his fingers flew in rapid calculation. Destiny Pattern? It matched. Karmic luck? It matched. Identity and appearance? A perfect match. It had to be Kunlun!

"Rumor has it this true transmission disciple committed a massive taboo,"

Xuanyin muttered under his breath. "His master personally intervened, altering his Destiny Pattern and destroying his physical body. His soul was sent into the Eight Trigrams Furnace to temper itself. Unless he breaks the shackles of his Destiny Pattern and survives his life tribulation, he has absolutely no hope of reaching Qi Refining Entering the Dao. It is the harshest punishment in the sect..."

Within the Immortal Gate, the privileges of a true transmission disciple were all-encompassing. This protection covered not just resources, lineages, and prospects, but even disciplinary actions after a transgression.

Simply put, a true transmission disciple could not be sentenced to death.

If independent cultivators, outer sect disciples, inner sect disciples, or any other disciples violated sect rules and were caught, they were executed without hesitation. The law showed no mercy.

Yet true transmission disciples were exempt from the death penalty even if they broke sect rules, or committed heinous crimes like betraying the sect—as was the case with the Heaven-Stealing Thief and Kunlun. After all, the law had to make room for sentiment. At the absolute worst, the sect would merely increase the difficulty of their life tribulation and give them a chance to overcome it.

Survive it, and all sins would be forgiven.

Fail, and they only had their own incompetence to blame. Because of this, seven out of ten true transmission disciple deaths in the Immortal Gate were the result of failing a life tribulation.

The other three were killed by Brahma Cultivators.

"I'm afraid I've just been dragged right into a true transmission disciple's life tribulation..." Xuanyin took a deep breath. He felt slightly nervous, but ultimately decided it was not a major issue.

After all, on one side was Kunlun—a tiger trapped in the shallows, locked inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace with his Destiny Pattern forcibly altered. On the other side was Kunyun—a rising star ranked fifth among all true transmission disciples in the Immortal Gate, with a very high chance of reaching Qi Refining Entering the Dao. Against such an overwhelming disadvantage, could he really turn the tables?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

Xuanyin stood up, his gaze turning cold. His fingers clamped around a glass-like orb—the divine sense Kunyun had gifted him before he departed.

Yet after a moment of thought, he put the orb away.

"...There's no rush," he decided.

"He is a true transmission disciple, after all. He wouldn't just sit there waiting to die. This might be a ploy to lure the tiger from the mountain, using a decoy to draw me out while his true body hides in the shadows."

Xuanyin looked up, gazing at the Great Shun Capital once more.

"Yes... that's right. He must have just awakened. He is solidifying his divine power and is still a long way from recovering his peak cultivation at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer."

In other words, he could take him!

Xuanyin took a deep breath, excitement washing over his face. He had always harbored a sliver of doubt over whether a true transmission disciple in the same realm was truly stronger than him.

'I've refined a Middle Divine Ability, and I have the Corpse Immortal Liberation Cave-Heaven backing me. If I wasn't missing a suitable dharma treasure, I would have already faced the Heavenly Thunder tribulation.'

'It's safe to say that among the inner sect disciples below the Major Divine Ability tier, no one is better equipped than I am. Even a true transmission disciple would only beat me in terms of their divine ability, but they might not have a top-tier Grotto-Heaven to back them up like I do. The advantages cancel out. With my strength, I should be more than capable of fighting a true transmission disciple on equal footing.'

Xuanyin was confident.

If he lacked confidence, he wouldn't have dared to pursue Daoist Nun You, nor would he have tried to claim a share of a Qi Refining practitioner's wealth. He truly believed that a top-tier inner sect disciple was no worse than a true transmission disciple.

Today, he might just get the chance to prove it!

'Not to mention, the spiritual energy environment inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace is currently in the Turbid Earth and Darkened Heavens phase. He cultivates heavenly yang fire, so he will be heavily suppressed.'

'While I cultivate heavenly yang water, I am standing outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, completely unaffected by its internal environment. On top of that, according to Senior Brother Kunyun, my qi perfectly counters his heavenly yang fire. The advantage is mine!'

If he won, his reputation would skyrocket.

At the absolute worst, even if he lost and genuinely couldn't defeat the man, he would still have plenty of time to invoke Senior Brother Kunyun's divine sense to save the day.

With that thought, Xuanyin cast away his hesitation.

"Rise!"

...

The Great Shun Capital.

As the center of the entire Eight Trigrams Furnace, the Great Shun Capital was less a city and more a sprawling province disguised as one.

If it weren't, a settlement of this size could never have supported the cultivation of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart.

Yet at this moment, this magnificent city—home to over a hundred million people and dominating nearly an entire plain—was completely engulfed in a profound shadow.

Looking out, thousands of miles of sky had turned inky black. Lightning churned and danced through the gloom like furious dragons tearing at the heavens. Every flash painted the world as pale as paper. Beneath the dark clouds, the wind died and the birds and beasts vanished, as if the suffocating veil had seized the very breath of the world.

Xuanhe looked up at the sky, his expression grave.

"A Middle Divine Ability—Profound Silence Thunder Sound!"

This was the divine ability that made Xuanyin famous. It had weathered the dual tribulations of the Bi Wind and Yin Fire, and had even been used to obliterate a bandit cultivator who had also mastered a Middle Divine Ability!

Not to mention...

Behind those dark clouds, he could vaguely make out a towering silhouette of light. It stood over a hundred zhang tall; its upper half hidden in the mist, its lower half plunging down like a cliff suspended from the sky.

With every breath it inhaled, the surrounding sky collapsed inward by a cun. When it exhaled, countless fine arcs of lightning abruptly exploded from deep within the dark clouds.

"The Corpse Immortal Liberation Cave-Heaven!"

This Grotto-Heaven originally came from the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Its elemental qi was earthly yin metal—the Hiding Brilliance Profound Storage Qi—which Xuanyin had refined years ago.

This qi perfectly generated and nurtured his primary heavenly yang water art, the Hanging River Endlessly Circulating Qi. This complementary relationship maximized the Grotto-Heaven's boosting effects. Not to mention, the current spiritual energy environment was the Turbid Earth and Darkened Heavens phase, which further amplified its terrifying might!

"Xuanhe..."

Almost simultaneously, Xuanyin, watching from far beyond the heavens, spotted Xuanhe. A booming voice rolled out from the depths of the dark clouds. "You're actually not dead."

"Brought back to life?"

Xuanyin sneered. "It seems Senior Brother Kunyun didn't kill the wrong person after all. You really did collude with Kunlun. Siding with a fallen true transmission disciple... you are incredibly stupid."

"You're the stupid one, Xuanyin."

Xuanhe shook his head, looking at him with pity. "If you hadn't shown up today—if you had just turned a blind eye to the Eight Trigrams Furnace—it might have been a blessing for you."

Since ancient times, fish bait had only two fates: it was either discarded for being useless or eaten by the fish. When did bait ever survive?

"...What?"

Xuanyin frowned. Xuanhe's words sent a faint pulse of unease through his heart, making him feel as though he had actually made a mistake. He subconsciously began to divine the situation.

Yet no matter how he calculated, his flow within destiny remained perfectly stable without the slightest ripple. This realization flooded Xuanyin with a sudden burst of humiliated rage. He had just been overly paranoid. Xuanhe was simply spouting trash talk before the fight, and he had actually let it shake him.

"You're courting death!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the thousands of miles of dark clouds pressed heavily downward. Endless killing intent cascaded from the sky, and the buildings within the capital groaned under the unbearable weight.

The strike was dead-on, aimed squarely at Wang Ping's location.

However, Wang Ping remained completely oblivious. Divine light swirled thickly around him in shifting colors, and the howling Bi Wind continuously blew into the crown of his head.

Seeing this, Xuanhe didn't hesitate. He immediately channeled his own divine power. The stagnant, gloomy light born from the Corpse-Still Dragon Manifestation surged ferociously upward, directly challenging the endless expanse of dark clouds.

"Boom!"

The two divine powers collided high in the vault of heaven, but the result was never in question. Xuanhe's Corpse-Still Dragon Manifestation was immediately smashed into a shattered burst of iridescent light.

"You overestimate yourself."

Xuanyin's cold sneer drifted down. "Your divine power has only weathered a single Bi Wind, and you don't even have a Grotto-Heaven buffing you. You think you can wrestle with me? What a joke!"

The next second, the miles of dark clouds rolled across the sky. The massive array hadn't weakened or faded in the slightest from the clash of divine powers.

Seeing this, Xuanhe instantly spurred his evasion light, but the dark clouds spanned thousands of miles—where could he possibly run? He was immediately swallowed into the depths of the clouds. Suffocating water vapor rushed in from all sides, crushing the space around him and locking his physical body in place. Only his dharma power could still circulate normally.

Then, he heard the thunder.

The sound didn't come from the outside to strike his ears. Instead, it detonated right inside his spine, slithering through every cun of his meridians like tens of thousands of vipers biting him all at once.

'Stay calm...'

Xuanhe's mind raced, recalling the profound mysteries of the Profound Silence Thunder Sound. 'The core of this art is the sound of thunder. I have to synchronize my dharma power with the thunder's resonance.'

His physical body had to become as heavy as meteoric iron, letting the dark currents of water vapor squeeze his limbs and bones. At the same time, the dharma power inside him had to come alive—it had to vibrate at the exact same frequency as the thunder echoing around him. If he was off by even a fraction, if the frequencies didn't perfectly align, his body would be vibrated into fine dust by the thunder.

Of course, this was only a stopgap measure.

This method would only keep him alive, but his body was still trapped inside the divine power. If he didn't circulate his dharma power for movement, he could never escape its range.

And if he couldn't escape, his body would be continuously crushed until it shattered completely. He would still die. Yet, circulating his dharma power to escape would break his sync with the thunder's frequency.

That was the true terror of the Profound Silence Thunder Sound.

'A killing divine power belonging to the water qi phase is virtually unsolvable. The only counter is to never get caught in its range in the first place.'

But how could that be easy?

Fortunately, Xuanhe wasn't fighting alone this time.

"Shing—!"

The piercing hum of a saber eclipsed the rolling thunder in the dark clouds. Close behind it came a figure charging at near-light speed, radiating a force that parted the seas and moved mountains with every step.

It was Chenlong!

In the face of near-light speed, crossing thousands of miles of dark clouds took merely a thought. In a single instant, Xuanhe was violently yanked out of the depths of the suffocating storm.

"Hm?"

This sudden twist made Xuanyin, who had been certain of Xuanhe's death, frown. The towering silhouette of light behind the clouds instantly shifted its gaze toward Chenlong.

"A martial artist...?"

Seeing the overflowing Blood Qi True Gang surrounding Chenlong, a hint of surprise colored Xuanyin's tone. However, it quickly melted into cold disdain.

"The struggling of a cornered beast!"

With that said, the towering figure behind the clouds seemed to take a deep breath. Following its motion, the thousands of miles of dark clouds dragged the very sky down as they collapsed inward with a deafening roar.

Having lost the cover of the dark clouds, the colossal silhouette finally revealed its true form. It was as if the entire heavens had been torn open and sent crashing down upon them!