Chapter 216: Trading Pieces

Ever since Kunyun stepped into the Eight Trigrams Furnace, cosmic phenomena had shifted in rapid succession. The sheer might of four Qi Refining Tier entities collided with a resounding boom.

Deep in the Cosmos, Kunyun's master, Tianxing, clashed with a nameless Ascetic Monk from the Brahma Nation. Outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, a bright lamp flared to life, matching the lightning avatar of Dashun Taizu. Yet Kunyun didn't relax in the slightest; instead, he frowned in confusion.

'He didn't win?'

Kunyun furrowed his brow. While a Corpse Dissolution Immortal theoretically belonged to the Qi Refining Tier, they were no match for a true Qi Refining practitioner in actual combat.

An instant kill might be an exaggeration, but it was universally agreed they couldn't last more than ten exchanges.

Yet right now, Dashun Taizu was somehow fighting Mingyou to a standstill. Streaks of lightning tore across the sky, displaying a power that genuinely rivaled his opponent.

But Kunyun quickly realized why.

Clang—!

Above the Eight Trigrams Furnace, the Floating Furnace Immortal Blade trembled violently. It unleashed an endless torrent of blade qi, only to be forced down by another brilliant light.

"He isn't just fighting Dashun Taizu. He's suppressing both Dashun Taizu and the Heaven's Will Profound Blade at the same time!" Wang Ping had noticed it too.

"It can't be helped."

The Treasure Cauldron vibrated slightly beside him, sending a telepathic message. "The will of heaven won't allow a Qi Refining Tier entity from the People of Heaven to enter. If he doesn't suppress the blade, he won't be able to act."

"...Then why can Dashun Taizu do it?"

"Great Shun is different."

The Treasure Cauldron Spirit continued. "He is bolstered by the national destiny. The will of heaven simply cannot see him. Otherwise, the entity beyond the sky wouldn't even need to intervene—the will of heaven would strike him down directly."

Wang Ping finally understood why Dashun Taizu had hijacked the Old Emperor's body to act. He was using Great Shun's national destiny to cloak himself, allowing him to strike freely within the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Mingyou, on the other hand, had to forcibly withstand the Heaven's Will Profound Blade just to intervene.

"So that's the source of Dashun Taizu's confidence!"

The Eight Trigrams Furnace was this Corpse Dissolution Immortal's home turf. Only here could he match a Qi Refining practitioner, giving him the leverage to interfere in Kunyun's life tribulation.

'...Hm?'

Wang Ping suddenly narrowed his eyes.

'By that logic, if I activate Perish Together with the Sun right now, I can rebound all the national destiny backlash I suffered from refining the Longevity-Extending Pill straight back onto the Old Emperor...'

What would happen then?

According to his calculations, Perish Together with the Sun was unlikely to outright kill the Old Emperor, but it would absolutely shatter the shield of Great Shun's national destiny protecting him.

Breaking that protection would conceptually strip the Old Emperor of his status as the Son of Heaven, rendering him a ruler in name only. Over time, that protection would naturally mend and return, but losing it right at this critical moment would be catastrophic!

'At the very least, Dashun Taizu would lose his camouflage!'

Wang Ping's excitement surged.

'Without the national destiny to hide behind, Dashun Taizu will be targeted by the Heaven's Will Profound Blade. As the ultimate slaughtering Spiritual Treasure, it will definitely deal him a devastating blow.'

Wasn't this the perfect way to force that Corpse Dissolution Immortal out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace?

The thought left Wang Ping itching to act.

He quickly suppressed the impulse, however. Strictly speaking, Dashun Taizu was on his side right now; he couldn't sabotage his own ally.

'There will be plenty of time for that later.'

'I need to wait for Kunyun's life tribulation to end first. The moment he dies, I'll activate Perish Together with the Sun. Then we'll see if the Heaven's Will Profound Blade lives up to its reputation.'

Calming his thoughts, Wang Ping turned his attention back to Kunyun.

Thousands of clouds had suddenly converged out of nowhere. A deep bell chimed, and an ancient Buddhist monastery materialized within them, its massive gates thrown wide open toward Kunyun.

It looked like a gaping, bloody maw.

In the blink of an eye, the maw swallowed Kunyun whole, dragging him into the depths of the ancient monastery. Waiting for him there was a monk with crimson lips and pristine white teeth, standing with his hands pressed together.

Seeing him, Kunyun let out a long, ringing laugh.

"So it's Fellow Daoist Jinhai!"

Despite landing in grave danger, Kunyun actually breathed a sigh of relief. Jinhai taking the field meant no other Qi Refining practitioners would be interfering in his life tribulation.

Jinhai kept his hands pressed together. A golden wheel slowly rotated behind his head. His expression was merciful, his gaze full of pity. "Benefactor Kunyun, this humble monk has come to deliver you from the realm of suffering."

"Suffering? What suffering?"

Kunyun shot back.

Jinhai shook his head. "To scheme and calculate for the sake of cultivation, as you do. To battle men, to battle heaven, all just to seize a single sliver of a chance to enter the Dao."

"That is suffering."

"Convert to the Great Brahma Heaven with me, and your cultivation will grow without bound. As long as you hold sincere faith in your heart, a Wisdom King will naturally elevate you. That is the ultimate bliss of cultivation."

Kunyun shook his head, not even bothering to argue. The Brahma Nation's path of cultivation ignored innate talent and spiritual roots entirely. They relied exclusively on the Wisdom Kings, arhats, and Bodhisattvas of the Great Brahma Heaven to elevate them. They didn't cultivate the Twenty-Four Qi; they cultivated human feelings and worldly wisdom. To him, such a path was utterly unacceptable.

"Amitabha!"

Jinhai didn't waste any more breath. Seeing that Kunyun had no intention of submitting, he instantly unleashed his Divine Power, and the ancient monastery surrounding them warped into something entirely different.

A moment ago, the ancient monastery had been an undeniably pure and tranquil Buddhist sanctum.

A second later, the earth beneath them liquefied into a festering yellow mire, and the bodhi trees rooted in the soil warped into twisted blades and swords.

The scripture-chanting monks decayed into bleached skeletons, their holy chants twisting into horrific, indescribable shrieks. But the most drastic change happened to Jinhai himself. The spinning golden wheel behind him morphed into a grinding millstone. With every rotation, it pulverized his own flesh and blood, grinding it into a rancid slurry that poured into the rotting forest.

No, it wasn't mud.

Watching from afar, Wang Ping's jaw went slack as realization struck him. At the center of the clash, Kunyun looked utterly repulsed.

"The Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King... as revolting as ever!"

As one of the four great Wisdom Kings of the Brahma Nation, the Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King symbolized decay and withering. Rot was his domain, for rot brought new life.

The Divine Power he bestowed embodied this very principle. It was the festering residue of all mortal things, yet it also served as the fertilizer capable of breeding new life.

In short, it was shit.

The golden Treasure Wheel spinning behind the Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King was the literal symbol of this domain. 'Golden' stood for the color of excrement, while 'Wheel' represented the cycle of all things.

Since calling himself the Great Shit Wheel Wisdom King was far too vulgar for preaching and gathering believers, he had rebranded himself as the Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King.

The moniker 'Jinhai'—Golden Sea—followed the exact same logic.

Standing amidst the decaying monastery, Jinhai parted his lips and exhaled.

Boom!

A deluge of golden slurry violently erupted from his mouth. Illuminated by the flickering light, the wave looked almost holy and divine, yet it steamed with an abhorrent stench, rippling like water as it swept toward Kunyun.

Even with his incredible mental fortitude, Kunyun's expression slipped. Without a word, he summoned a streak of escaping light and retreated. He didn't dare let a single drop of that golden filth touch him. The slurry was intensely corrosive—the slightest contact would immediately rot away the very essence of any Divine Power or magical energy.

Jinhai, however, remained completely unhurried.

As a Brahma Cultivator, his bestowed Major Divine Ability was called the Five Turbidities Evil World. Its true nature perfectly matched his moniker: it summoned a boundless golden sea.

What did boundless mean?

Simply put, avoiding the Divine Power from the outside was one thing. But once trapped inside it, heaven and earth were nothing but shit. There was no room left to run!

"Benefactor, this is your tribulation!"

With that, the golden sea violently churned. A monstrous wave surged up and crashed down directly on Kunyun, sealing off the surrounding space to block his escape.

Yet Kunyun didn't panic in the slightest. He merely pinched his nose and shook his head.

"You are mistaken, Fellow Daoist Jinhai."

"You aren't my tribulation. Your opponent is someone else entirely... I'll be taking my leave."

With a flick of his fingers, he formed a hand seal. His figure suddenly blurred, bathed in a brilliant, profound light that completely transformed his appearance.

The Marvelous Art of Averting Disasters and Dissolution!

This was not a Divine Power, but a highly innovative spell. Casting it now, Kunyun shed his own body like a cicada slipping its shell, his figure instantly escaping the monastery.

Left behind in his place, standing amidst the blazing profound light, was a white-haired elder. Gripping a longsword, the old man rose to his feet and swung the blade.

"Sever!"

A blinding streak of sword light shot forward, violently cleaving into the crashing golden sea. Completely ignoring the corrosive filth, the sheer force of the strike chopped the monstrous, reeking wave cleanly in half.

"Hm?"

Jinhai's eyes narrowed sharply as he stared at the elder. "This benefactor... merely at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer, yet you dare to interfere in someone else's life tribulation?"

"This humble Daoist is Xuanlongzi. Greetings, Fellow Daoist Jinhai."

The elder cupped his hands in a polite bow.

Compared to Kunyun, the elder's aura felt profoundly deep. While it was still incredibly potent, a distinct scent of decay lingered beneath the surface. It was obvious he did not have much longer to live.

But that only made Jinhai even more wary. A Tribulation Transcending Third Layer practitioner nearing the end of his lifespan meant he had absolutely nothing left to lose. He would fight with zero restraint. Any cultivator who managed to reach such a level was immensely capable—underestimating an opponent like that could easily lead to an unexpected, humiliating defeat.

What alarmed him even more, however, was the implication.

'It seems Kunyun already predicted that I would strike?'

'Did Kongzhi's disciple betray us? No, it's more likely he picked up on some subtle clues. Either way, he had a countermeasure prepared well in advance.'

Jinhai let out a heavy sigh.

True transmission disciples of the Immortal Gate—especially top-ranked ones like Kunyun—were truly incredibly difficult to kill. Now, he could only hope that Kunyun wouldn't survive the rest of his life tribulation.

Meanwhile, having escaped like a cicada shedding its shell, Kunyun relocated to a different stretch of the sky. He waited patiently until a figure finally materialized before him.

It was a young man with exceptionally handsome features, yet his glabella was visibly dark with misfortune. His brows were locked in a deep, perpetual frown, giving him the immediate look of someone cursed by fate. But right now, his aura blazed outward like the rising morning sun—so blinding and majestic that a Mortal wouldn't even be able to look directly at him. Seeing him, Kunyun finally smiled.

"My good junior brother!"

Wang Ping could see him clearly. The young man was none other than Ye Chao—or rather, Ye Chao's past incarnation. The accomplice of the Heaven-Stealing Thief, the former true transmission disciple, Kunlun!

"Where is the Heaven-Stealing Thief?"

Kunyun glanced around with a faint smile. "Dashun Taizu, the Ascetic Monk of the Brahma Nation, Jinhai... I need him here too for this piece trade to be perfectly complete."

"...He won't be taking action."

Kunlun let out a heavy sigh. "Senior Brother, it's just you and me. There is no need to keep trading pieces. Let's finally settle the karma from all those years ago."

At those words, Kunyun's smile vanished. His voice turned ice-cold.

"It's long overdue!"