Chapter 208: The Great Sage Captures the Dragon!

For the first time, Wang Ping felt an immense, crushing pressure.

And this was from Kunyun—who was trapped inside the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, continuously weakened by the Bi Wind and Yin Fire, and currently suppressed by the Turbid Earth and Darkened Heavens environment.

It wasn't even his true body, but merely a wisp of his divine sense!

'Formidable...'

Wang Ping looked up at the sky. All he could see was a massive dragon claw blotting out the heavens, slowly closing around him. It was majestic and righteous, a punishment acting on behalf of the heavens, yet utterly cold and ruthless.

It wasn't even grabbing him directly, but rather the world of the Chart surrounding him. The patch of heaven and earth caught in its grasp completely slipped out of Wang Ping's control before being crushed to pieces. Its intent was clear: to annihilate this local space and obliterate Wang Ping along with it!

"Good... good, good!"

Facing this ultimate oppression—a devastating, higher-tier strike from the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer—Wang Ping showed no fear. Instead, he burst into roaring laughter, a brilliant light exploding from his eyes.

Martial Dao Divine Intent!

His Divine Intent took the form of the Mind Monkey. The greater the pressure it faced, the more rebellious the Mind Monkey became, vowing to smash every shackle and chain binding it.

In that exact moment, under the crushing weight of the dragon claw, Wang Ping distinctly felt his Divine Intent take another step forward. Perhaps he could finally behold another internal deity within his body!

Ever since reaching the Martial Dao Grandmaster Rank, his methods had continuously improved, but his focus had largely shifted toward immortal cultivation. Of the human body's three realms, eight divisions, and twenty-four deities, he had only beheld the eight deities of the middle realm. Sixteen internal deities remained unseen. Yet now, a sliver of enlightenment bloomed in his heart.

'Perhaps I can witness another realm of deities,' he thought.

Of course, this martial breakthrough merely ensured Wang Ping's mind wouldn't be dominated by the heaven-obscuring dragon claw. Without reaching the Great Grandmaster Rank, his Martial Dao still couldn't directly intervene in a battle of this caliber.

But that was enough.

With his Divine Intent clear and unclouded, Wang Ping could not be forcibly suppressed. He maintained his calm, his mind racing for a countermeasure against the slowly closing dragon claw.

Clang!

A split second later, Wang Ping backhandedly swung the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade. A sprawling river of blade light surged around him, splitting into three hundred and sixty streams. He exhaled sharply and commanded:

"Halt!"

This time, he wasn't severing heaven and earth. Instead, he used the profound edge of the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade to forcefully hold together the shattering space, buying himself precious time.

Almost simultaneously, layered mystical visions materialized behind him. Mountains, rivers, suns, and moons appeared; pantheons of deities stood tall, and pavilions and towers stretched for tens of thousands of miles, all radiating absolute authority.

This was the augmentation triggered by the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart.

Even so, against the lightning and fire coursing across the dragon claw, the mountains and rivers collapsed, the sun and moon plummeted, deities fell one by one, and the vast pavilions were reduced to ruins.

He simply couldn't block it!

After all, one side was directly commanding the might of heaven and earth, even borrowing its physical form, while the other was merely relying on the profundity of a divine power and a magical weapon.

Boom!

Finally, the fragmentation of the world crept onto Wang Ping. Bypassing all his defenses, it sliced his body apart on the spot, as if he were suffering death by a thousand cuts.

Blood gushed from him in torrents. His internal organs tumbled out in a horrifying mess. Even for a cultivator, these were unequivocally fatal wounds.

Yet Wang Ping remained standing.

An unparalleled surge of vitality welled up from deep inside him, completely ignoring his ruined, fragmented body and forcefully keeping him alive.

Witnessing this, behind the dragon claw, Kunyun's divine sense flickered with a hint of surprise. He couldn't fathom why Wang Ping wasn't dead yet.

Originally, this wisp of divine sense had planned to kill Wang Ping and then personally sweep through the Eight Trigrams Furnace to see if it could find any trace of his 'good junior brother.' But Wang Ping had forced him to abandon that plan. He had to burn his divine sense to forcibly invoke a Tribulation Transcending Third Layer technique just to ensure the kill.

And yet, he had failed to kill him.

No matter how one looked at it, Wang Ping should be dead by now. Yet he endured all of the devastating injuries, stubbornly refusing to die as he stood ramrod straight in place.

Why?

The reason was actually quite simple.

In the next second, Wang Ping's body abruptly shattered. However, the head atop his neck had vanished. Instead, a massive face manifested high in the celestial vault.

He had merely employed a small trick: upon entering the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, he had detached his head from his body. Hiding his head in the shadows, he remotely controlled his torso to fight... It sounded foolish. After all, even for a cultivator, separating one's head from one's body meant death. It was tantamount to suicide.

But Wang Ping was different.

When paired with a certain item, this suicidal move became a miraculous trump card to reverse a losing battle—the Taiping Sutra, and its fourth scripture scroll, the Courage of the Noble Gentleman!

'I am currently protecting the millions of commoners in the Capital below. This is an undeniable act of righteousness,' he reasoned.

Therefore, the Courage of the Noble Gentleman had lit up.

While that scripture scroll was active, unless his head was completely destroyed, Wang Ping could not be killed. Furthermore, he would consistently remain in peak condition!

"My turn..."

High in the sky, a cold sneer curled on Wang Ping's face. The only reason he had pulled this 'separate head and body' maneuver was because he guessed Kunyun still had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

He wanted to see if he could bait out Kunyun's ultimate move.

And he actually had.

After pulverizing his flesh with one claw, the lightning and fire dissipated. The majestic dragon phantom hidden in the void swiftly faded away, leaving behind nothing but a bright wisp of divine sense.

At first glance, it appeared as strong as ever.

But Wang Ping could see clearly: that divine sense was now strong on the outside but completely hollow on the inside. Only its outer shell maintained a translucent glow, while its core had long since grown dim and exhausted.

"Rise!"

The next second, Wang Ping fiercely spurred his magical power. Though he was reduced to just a floating head, the effects of the Courage of the Noble Gentleman were still active. He wasn't going to die.

Immediately after, the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart—which had been shattered to the point of dissipating by the dragon claw—surged with renewed brilliance. In the blink of an eye, it began to recover. The sun and moon rose once more, the pavilions and towers rebuilt themselves, and even the scattered deities returned to their rightful positions.

This was also part of the profundity of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart.

The foundation of this divine power lay not in the cultivator themselves, but in the Capital where the divine power had been forged, in its millions of citizens, and in the deities housed within the tens of thousands of City God Temples.

As long as those remained intact, even if the divine power was shattered, it could swiftly recover!

A divine power like this held a massive advantage when undergoing heavenly tribulations. That was exactly why he had managed to endure the calamities of the Bi Wind and Yin Fire in such a remarkably short time.

There was no deep mystery to it—it was just overwhelming raw stats!

"Hmph..."

Witnessing this, Kunyun's remaining wisp of divine sense felt somewhat helpless. Still, he reacted with lightning speed, instantly transforming into a streak of light and fleeing the world inside the Chart.

After all, if he waited for the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart to fully restore itself, he wouldn't be able to escape. With his life tribulation looming, he couldn't afford to lose even a single wisp of his divine sense.

Since the situation was beyond salvage, it was better to retract his divine sense for now.

"Why in such a hurry to leave, Senior Brother?"

At almost the same time, Kunyun heard an explosive shout boom from behind. He looked back, only to witness a scene so magnificent it made his heart pound.

The Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart unfurled across the heavens, and out stepped the deities, one after another. Emitting radiant divine light, they wove and intertwined together. Some formed flesh and blood, some became internal organs, some morphed into facial features, and others solidified into limbs. In an instant, they manifested into a colossal figure that stood tall between heaven and earth!

This was an inspiration Wang Ping had gleaned from the Martial Dao.

The human body contained three realms, six divisions, and twenty-four deities. Since he now commanded ten thousand gods, why not combine them all to form a body he could use?

As it happened, he had prior experience with something similar.

Back when he was cultivating in the Heavenly Demon Royal Court, he had used his Mind Monkey Divine Intent as a foundation and drawn upon heavenly demon blood qi to forge the true form of a Mind Monkey Totem.

Now, he was just replacing the heavenly demon blood qi with his divine power!

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart dissipated. Boundless divine light poured out, and from its depths vaulted an immensely terrifying, peerless ape!

It stood tens of thousands of feet tall. Its head was like a mountain range, its waist like rugged peaks, and lightning galloped in its eyes. With a single reach of its hand, it caught up to Kunyun's divine sense!

Kunyun's divine sense had been on the verge of escaping beyond the heavens, but grabbed by Wang Ping, it immediately stalled. It wanted to transform and fly away, but lacked the strength. The divine sense, already on the brink of collapse, felt as though a supreme divine iron rod had been pressed upon it. It could barely even formulate a thought, let alone struggle.

Far below, Xuanhe gazed into the distance.

In his eyes, Kunyun's divine sense looked just like a Flood Dragon—yet it was snatched by the spine by the ape forged from Wang Ping's divine power, effortlessly captured in its palm.

The Great Sage capturing the dragon!

Shaped by a divine power and founded on Divine Intent! Although the method of expression and underlying principles differed, compared to the Manifesting Divinity phantom of a Major Divine Ability, this was no less magnificent!

A deep sense of satisfaction filled Wang Ping's heart.

Fusing the Immortal and Martial paths really worked!

However, right at that moment, Kunyun's voice abruptly rang in his ears. It remained as placid as an ancient well. "Impressive. It seems I underestimated you."

"Kunlun, I have lost this move."

Rumble!

Kunyun's divine sense suddenly detonated.

Lightning and fire poured out, blowing away half of the Mind Monkey body Wang Ping had forged from his divine power on the spot. Fortunately, the attack had been strong in appearance but weak in reality; that was the extent of its destructive power.

Beside his ear, Kunyun's voice slowly faded into the distance. "The Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart harbors massive hidden dangers. If you wish to keep your life, come find me. I can save you..."

Hearing this, Wang Ping first retracted his divine power. Then, he fully circulated the Qi Restriction art, causing everything below his neck to regrow entirely.

Immediately after, he suddenly laughed.

"Why go through all that trouble?"

"Even if I don't go looking for you, you'll still come save me anyway."

With those words spoken, his mind entered the Great Peace Mortuary. He looked toward the towering tome, only to see an image slowly taking shape on the scripture scroll for Invoking Deities.

Kunyun!