Chapter 260: Great Rebellion Exploits, Heavenly Martial Conquering the Profound!

Wang Ping sat cross-legged in the pitch-black space.

For eighty-one days, he sat exactly like this. His physical body wasted away in reality while his Divine Intent trudged through this dark void.

He was searching for his heart.

Searching for his true self.

Countless images surfaced in his mind—memories from before his transmigration, and from after, stretching from that small county town in Shuzhong all the way to the Immortal Gate.

There was a time when he had been carefree, brimming with confidence no matter the predicament. But somewhere along the line, that fierce joy had vanished.

‘It probably started when I learned that the Immortal Gate and Great Shun are actually the same world, that Great Shun is just the Immortal Gate's Eight Trigrams Furnace. My mindset changed then. The higher I climb, the more I feel the sheer, towering might of the Immortal Gate. Yet I can't escape it. There is no absolute safe haven.’

He had cursed the Taiping Sutra more than once over this.

If it could resurrect him, why couldn't it rewind time too? That way, he could just kill himself over and over to gather intelligence and force a comeback against impossible odds.

Even if it couldn't turn back time, letting him cross into other worlds would have been fine. Having an impenetrable home base where he could safely grow and develop—that would have been a decent enough life.

But damn it all, it couldn't even let him cross worlds.

After all that fuss, it really could only resurrect him. And even after upgrading, those resurrections came with a hard limit and a cooldown period. Could this even be called a cheat?

Embarrassing!

Those feelings had twisted into a completely different emotion after he fell into Mingyou's trap, watched Kunyun die with his own eyes, and had his cultivation locked away.

Fear.

As much as Wang Ping loathed to admit it, and as optimistic as he tried to appear while actively brainstorming countermeasures, he couldn't erase that emotion from the depths of his heart.

It was the stifling suffocation of having his destiny dictated for him.

A lofty Qi Refining Great Cultivator had chosen him as a chess piece, and from that moment on, he was no longer himself. He no longer had any right to self-determination.

Every step he took afterward seemed born of his own free will, but in truth, he was merely treading a path paved specifically for him, marching forward by the numbers. From beginning to end, he was nothing more than a pawn picked up by a master player. And just because he had been picked up, he had mistakenly believed he was someone important.

“Do you hate it?”

‘How could I not?’

“Are you unwilling to just accept it?”

‘Of course I am.’

But what could he do? That was reality. His abilities were far too limited. He could only swallow his pride for now, waiting for a chance to break the deadlock...

“I am not asking about reality. I am asking about your heart. So what if your abilities are limited? So what if there is no way out? What does any of that have to do with your heart?”

“Is this truly what your heart thinks?”

‘My heart...’

Wang Ping lowered his eyes. Past epiphanies surfaced in his mind, and he once again felt as if he were on the verge of grasping something. But the sensation was far too vague.

It threatened to slip right through his fingers the moment he lost focus.

Just then.

Rumble!

A deafening boom shattered the darkness, carrying the resonance of a massive, ancient bell. It shook his Divine Intent, startling Wang Ping awake from the endless dark void.

He opened his eyes.

With that single glance, he saw Guanchao City's world-renowned spectacle. He saw a torrential force of heaven and earth roaring right toward him.

At first, it was just a white thread on the horizon. But as the moments ticked by, that white thread swelled. The tide surged, and the deafening roar of towering waves ripping through the sky rushed toward him. It sounded like a hundred thousand soldiers roaring in battle, a million war drums pounding in unison—all compressed into a single, galloping wall of water.

The Sea God passes as fierce winds collide; waves strike the Heavenly Gate, and stone walls split wide.

The rear waves drove the front waves forward, slamming against the walls of Guanchao City before instantly exploding into a brilliant spray. It looked like a torrential downpour of frost and snow, and it sounded like rolling thunder.

Crash!

The howling gale whipped Wang Ping's hair back, but his eyes were blindingly bright as he stared fixedly at the spray exploding against the city walls.

“I see.”

His Divine Intent sank completely into the sea spray. As he watched the water droplets shatter and scatter, catching reflections of his own face within them, Wang Ping stepped forward and burst into uproarious laughter.

He was just like a single drop of water in this massive tide, shoved relentlessly forward. He couldn't decide where to go, nor could he choose when he would be smashed to pieces... Just like this drop of water struggling and surging in the grand tide, wasn't he, too, merely fighting to survive within the rushing torrent of destiny?

The sea of suffering was boundless, and all living beings were desperately struggling to cross it.

Of course, a much simpler word could sum up this feeling. It was the purest, most unreserved thought that Wang Ping had dredged from the very bottom of his heart:

Defiance.

It was born from the stifling suffocation of being schemed against by those on high, of being trapped in their game with no will of his own. It was the culmination of long-suppressed frustration, boiling over into an absolute obsession with tearing it all down.

“Only today do I finally understand my own heart.”

Boom!

The darkness shattered. His Divine Intent poured out like a ruptured dam. Like a chick breaking its shell or a boulder bursting apart, a brilliant cluster of intertwined gold and crimson flames illuminated the sky.

Wang Ping raised his eyes. The Divine Intent that had only existed in the ethereal void finally stepped into reality. Stripped of all hindrances, it manifested as a Mind Monkey standing tall and proud.

A Martial Dao Great Grandmaster Rank, the divine form of Manifesting Divinity!

To use Divine Intent as ink to paint one's state of mind, forging the visions of the heart into a tangible form that manifested in the physical world—this was the ultimate pinnacle of the Martial Dao's Divine Intent.

He had broken through!

And this breakthrough affected far more than just himself. It directly impacted the armor sitting at the bottom of the refining furnace, which was just one final step away from completion.

A second later, the fiery-red Mind Monkey flipped through the air and transformed back into a torrent of roaring flames. It plunged straight into the furnace, serving as the final, masterful stroke of creation. The armor instantly dissolved, scattering into a dazzling, sky-filling brilliance before adhering completely to Wang Ping. It seeped into his every pore, sinking deep into his flesh.

Clang!

A metallic ringing echoed like muffled thunder rolling across the sky. As Wang Ping slowly rose to his feet, a set of dense, scale-like armor naturally materialized over his skin, fitting him perfectly.

In the distance, Xianfu and Kunlun both narrowed their eyes for a closer look.

A magical artifact?

“No... that isn't a magical artifact.”

The moment the armor appeared, an invisible shockwave pulsed outward. With the Eight Trigrams Furnace at its epicenter, the ripple swept through Cosmic Deep Space and washed over every corner of the Immortal Gate.

Wherever the ripple passed, every supreme treasure that had transcended the mortal world and awakened its own spirituality reacted. They hummed in resonance, vibrating through heaven and earth as if welcoming their newly born kin.

Meanwhile, Wang Ping's mind was completely immersed in the armor enveloping him. He soaked in the vast, boundless mysteries surging within its metal. A trace of disbelief lingered in his eyes. It truly was a Heavenly Work Spiritual Treasure! Just like the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, it had absolutely reached that legendary tier!

‘However... its actual power feels somewhat lacking.’

Wang Ping had witnessed a Heavenly Work Spiritual Treasure in action before. While the armor currently draped over his body possessed peerless might, it still felt a step behind a true Heavenly Work Spiritual Treasure.

‘Is it because of the Twenty-Four Qi?’

‘Other Spiritual Treasures rely on the ambient qi of heaven and earth, allowing them to wield devastating power just like a Qi Refining practitioner. But my spirit armor can't. It doesn't borrow the world's qi.’

It was a Martial Dao Spiritual Treasure.

Because of this, all of its mysteries were rooted entirely in the Martial Dao—which meant it relied on his Divine Intent. The stronger his Divine Intent grew, the greater the spirit armor's power would become.

‘Man and artifact are one. My Divine Intent acts as this spirit armor's soul.’

A second later, Wang Ping raised a hand. The magical strength and Divine Powers he hadn't called upon in ages began to cycle through him. Billowing, iridescent light swirled into existence, condensing into a physical shape resting in his palm.

The Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart!

This Major Divine Ability no longer manifested as a sprawling map. Instead, the energies interlinked and transformed into a delicate, miniature furnace that landed in his palm.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace!

Two and a half years had flown by. Xianfu had successfully established City God Temples across the entirety of Great Shun, and naturally, Wang Ping's Divine Powers had finally reached a critical threshold.

His Divine Powers had peaked!

Wang Ping had no doubt whatsoever that he had pushed the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer to its absolute limit. There was not a single cultivator beneath the heavens at the Divine Powers stage with a cultivation base superior to his own.

Yet, as he stared at the miniature Eight Trigrams Furnace forged from his abilities, he could almost see the Mind Monkey thrashing within it. The ape was desperately trying to hoist the supreme power upon its shoulders, but its strength fell just short. The heavy weight of his Divine Powers continued to press down on him like a massive, suffocating mountain.

This time, however, Wang Ping felt no anxiety.

The instant he donned the spiritual armor, he finally understood what the First Seat was trying to do. He understood the solution she had spent so long preparing for him.

‘Master... she really did know a lot.’

‘Perhaps she truly does hold a legacy of the Great Rebellion.’

As he pondered, his robes began to billow without any wind. Beams of heavenly light cascaded down over him, fracturing into a dazzling array of colors. Unbelievably, his newly ascended Martial Dao aura began to surge even higher!

In the distance, Xianfu's gaze sharpened, slowly grinding out two words:

“Great Rebellion!”

It was the Great Rebellion Exploits from the ancient past!

Wang Ping wasn't surprised in the slightest. Profound visions continuously flashed through his sea of consciousness, flooding his mind with perfect clarity:

‘When I killed Kunyun previously, my wood qi was damaged. That aligns perfectly with the Great Rebellion in these exploits—the Great Rebellion fell because of it, and so my Divine Powers were locked away.’

‘In other words.’

‘Within the Eight Trigrams Furnace as it exists today, I am the Great Rebellion!’

Since he had established that foundation, all he had to do was commit one more act tied to the Great Rebellion. Doing so would effortlessly trigger the rest of the exploits the Great Rebellion had left behind in this world!

Wang Ping tilted his head back and let out a soft chuckle.

“I have to thank you for this convenience, Great Cultivator Mingyou. If you hadn't used these exploits to shackle my cultivation base, I'd never be able to pull something like this off.”

“...”

Heaven and earth lighting up was his only answer.

Before anyone realized it, churning black clouds had blanketed the skies over Guanchao City. A brilliant, piercing light shone from behind the dark storm—it felt exactly like a pair of watching eyes.

“I recall the days of old, when the Great Rebellion waged war against the immortals!”

The moment he invoked the exploits, a flood of related knowledge poured into his mind.

Simply put, the trigger condition for this set of exploits was to shake the very foundation of the Immortal Gate's cultivation system.

The current Martial Dao fit the bill perfectly!

A Martial Dao that maxed out at the Divine Powers realm might not be worth mentioning. But a Martial Dao capable of forging a Heavenly Work Spiritual Treasure? That had the potential to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Qi Refining in the future.

That changed everything!

Wang Ping's laughter grew louder and more booming:

“Now that I uphold these exploits, I will wage war on the immortals. The more of you I cut down, the heavier my exploits will grow, and the grander my momentum will become. With enough momentum, I will shatter the shackles on my Divine Powers!”

“Naturally, the Great Cultivator can try to stop me.”

Wang Ping bared his teeth in a savage grin. “But back when the Great Rebellion waged war on the immortals, the two sides were evenly matched. If you try to stop me with a power that far exceeds my own, you will be actively breaking the exploits attached to me.”

“And breaking the exploits on my body means denying my status as the Great Rebellion. When that happens, my Divine Powers will be unlocked anyway. If you're willing to make that trade, Great Cultivator, I'd be more than happy to oblige.”

Despite his bold words, Wang Ping knew full well that Mingyou had no real choice. Denying his identity as the Great Rebellion would also negate the previous exploits that had damaged his wood qi. What would happen to his lifespan then? Would his wood qi recover? Wang Ping didn't know the exact answer, but he was certain Mingyou would never dare gamble on the possibility!

“Have you thought it over, Great Cultivator?” Wang Ping called out to the sky.

“The only way to stop me without breaking the exploits is to do exactly what the Immortal Gate did all those years ago—crush me, the symbol of the Great Rebellion, in a head-on fight using an equal level of power.”

This was the opportunity the First Seat and the four great Martial Dao sects had exhausted their entire foundations to win for him. It was a singular chance to wrest his life from the hands of the immortals.

“A battle at the same realm! Winner takes all!”

Deep within the churning thunderheads, the brilliant light flared. Wang Ping found himself locking gazes with a pair of frigid, unfeeling eyes.

“A firefly trying to outshine the sun and moon. You overestimate yourself.”

Mingyou's ruthlessly indifferent voice echoed in his ears. “You have strayed down a crooked path. No matter how high the Martial Dao climbs, it can never reach higher than the heavens. In the end, this is all an exercise in futility.”

“And just how high are the heavens?”

Wang Ping's expression was carved from stone. The armor encasing him erupted in a blinding radiance. Deep within his sea of consciousness, the true name of this Martial Dao Spiritual Treasure finally surfaced, radiating a boundless, suffocating killing intent:

The Heavenly Martial Campaign Profound Armor.

“We won't know until we fight!”