Chapter 265: One Man Suppresses the Immortals!

By now, Wang Ping had cast aside all his scruples.

Especially after noticing that Mingyou had glanced his way several times without once making a move to strike him dead, he threw his remaining reservations to the wind.

'I insulted you, so why don't you kill me?'

In the bright lights of Cosmic Deep Space, Mingyou said nothing. After all, the one who died was a disciple of Gongshun Grotto-Heaven—someone meant to serve as cannon fodder from the very beginning.

By drawing out the capabilities of the so-called Martial Dao, Shuntianzi had already overfulfilled his mission. Mingyou naturally did not care whether he lived or died. Nor had he ever expected a true transmission disciple under a Corpse Dissolution Immortal to actually kill Wang Ping. If Shuntianzi had possessed that kind of power, he wouldn't have remained under a Corpse Dissolution Immortal in the first place.

As for Wang Ping's provocation...

Mingyou wasn't particularly angry. Up to this point, his fury had not been directed at Wang Ping, but at the fact that Wang Ping had nearly flipped the chessboard.

The youth was merely a lowly cultivator.

The latter meant a far greater power had intervened in his layout. He could only flip the board because someone else wanted it flipped!

This was the true source of Mingyou's shock and fury. He had detected none of his opponent's layout beforehand, meaning their cultivation was likely even higher than his own. Worse yet, it was under these exact circumstances that True Person Hanguang Danyang had spoken up from behind him, sending a deep chill down Mingyou's spine.

'True Persons are dueling, and they are using me as a pawn.'

Mingyou sneered internally. In this wretched Immortal Gate, the rule had always been the big fish eating the small, and the small fish eating the shrimp. Everyone was a pawn in the hands of the higher cultivators.

He was used to it by now.

'When higher cultivators set the board, fighting them head-on is useless. The only way to survive is to follow their layout and step by step increase your own value as a pawn.'

'Once in the game, you must find a way to discern the higher cultivator's true intent and cater to it with all your might. Let them achieve their goals more efficiently through you... Only by doing this can you survive their layout and thrive, instead of acting rashly for a fleeting moment of satisfaction.'

Anything else was an irresponsible and careless disregard for one's own path of the Dao.

At this thought, Mingyou lowered his eyes.

Following his gaze, the bright lights illuminated the armored youth standing atop the dome of the Eight Trigrams Furnace. The youth stood tall, his head held high, stubbornly refusing to bow.

Before this, the man had been doing so well.

He had taken the initiative to lower his head and diligently gather intelligence. Mingyou himself had even offered him pointers to help him grasp the situation. He was supposed to be a useful pawn.

Which immortal gate cultivator hadn't clawed their way up like this?

Of all those who had refined qi and entered the Dao, who hadn't shared such an experience? Even if they hadn't faced it before, they would inevitably experience it firsthand when transcending their life tribulation.

But why?

Why was he suddenly so unwilling to bow?

Mingyou could not understand it, nor did he want to dwell on it. A hint of pity even crept into his eyes as he looked at Wang Ping. True, the youth had managed to jump off his chessboard.

But that wasn't necessarily a good thing. The entire Immortal Gate was a sprawling chess match still locked in slaughter. Immortals were playing, True Monarchs were playing, True Persons were playing, and Qi Refining experts were playing. Everyone was a piece. Jumping off one chessboard only meant falling onto an even larger one.

'On my board, you were at least a capable pawn.'

'But by jumping out and landing on a True Person's board, what are you? What can you possibly do? You will only feel even more powerless and experience your own profound insignificance.'

Thus, Mingyou delivered his final assessment:

Mayflies Shaking a Tree, Unaware of Their Own Strength.

Inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Wang Ping let out a long breath, the scales of his Divine Armor gleaming with light. Bolstered by the profound mysteries of a Perfected Person, he had fully recovered by the time the breath left his lips.

Looking up, he saw rays of light abruptly igniting in the distant Cosmic Deep Space. It was the glow of divine powers. One after another, the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer cultivators under the Immortal Gate's rule—both inner sect disciples and true transmission disciples—converged, observing him from afar with their spiritual senses.

"He killed Shuntianzi... It's Dousheng."

"Didn't he barely scrape his way through Dao Proving Mountain before? How did he suddenly become so strong? He's already on par with a Major Divine Ability cultivator!"

"Everyone, did you receive the transmission?"

"I received it... My master ordered me to strike and defeat him. Under the shroud of Dao Proving Mountain, as long as we defeat him, we can strip away his destiny!"

"Then are you going to step up?"

"Huh? Me?"

"Are you joking? Even Shuntianzi is dead, and he was a true transmission. There's no way I'm going up there... unless we're allowed to gang up on him. If we all attack together, we might stand a chance."

"And who said... we couldn't?"

Instantly, the eyes of the immortal gate disciples—who had been shrinking back due to Shuntianzi's death—lit up one by one. If they could gang up on him, that was an entirely different story.

Meanwhile, hidden amidst the crowd, a Daoist draped in a crane-feather cloak studied Wang Ping with great interest. A glittering gold coin danced across his fingertips as a voice echoed beside his ear: "Not planning to act personally? Don't tell me Shuntianzi's death frightened you?"

"There is no need for such goading, Grand Cultivator."

The Daoist shook his head. "Shuntianzi was a fool. He has no one to blame but himself for his death. In a battle between those of the same realm, there is no rule demanding a one-on-one duel. Why risk a fight to the death with the opponent?"

Quantity could sometimes transform into quality.

A divine ability cultivator from the inner sect might not be a match for a true transmission divine ability cultivator in a one-on-one fight, but what about ten of them? A hundred? Even a thousand?

In the end, they were all in the same realm.

Even if there was a gap in strength between the two, it wasn't an absolute, crushing difference; it hadn't reached the level of a qualitative change. In such a situation, the impact of a quantitative change was absolutely immense.

"Clang."

As the Daoist's voice faded, the golden coin in his hand leaped high into the air. Reflecting a brilliant light, it transformed into a divine power that rapidly expanded in all directions.

Heavenly Mandate Coin!

In an instant, the coin vanished from its spot. But at that very moment, a unified thought arose in the minds of the over one hundred divine ability cultivators present, and they swiftly put it into action. One bright flash of divine power after another ignited in the deep space, all taking aim at Wang Ping in the distance!

"Hm?"

Almost simultaneously, Wang Ping sensed something wrong, his sharp instincts picking up on the anomaly: 'Someone is influencing the inner sect disciples?'

'No, they are specifically targeting me!'

Rumble!

Before Wang Ping could carefully sense the disturbance, the attacks of over a hundred divine ability cultivators arrived. The magnificent light of their divine powers instantly filled his entire field of vision!

He saw dragons roaring and tigers howling, pagodas chiming and bells ringing, flying swords and mystic sabers. There were myriad illusory colors of divine powers encompassing the five elements and manifesting all phenomena. In an instant, they converged into a torrent of ten thousand laws. If their battlefield hadn't been the Cosmic Deep Space, such terrifying might would have been enough to wipe a planet's surface clean!

'It's not worth taking this head-on...'

Wang Ping's gaze narrowed. He immediately planned to dodge, but right at that moment, he vaguely caught sight of a coin hanging high above, falling directly over his head.

"Huh?!"

In the blink of an eye, he realized he had nowhere to run. No matter which direction he bolted in, he would inexplicably return to his original spot.

'Folded space?'

'No, it's not something so simple. It feels more like the very concept of an escape route has been erased. I can only stand here and take this strike head-on!'

'It must be a true transmission at the very least. And not a defective good like Shuntianzi either—they likely hold a proper ranking. At the very least, this style of acting feels exactly like the Immortal Gate...'

In a flash of lightning, Wang Ping stopped running and decisively turned around. He channeled the Great Law of the Azure Sky. The magnetic field power of one million heavens roared to life, pulling on the astral magnetic field of the Eight Trigrams Furnace behind him. He gathered thousands of streaks of brilliant light, clenched them tightly in his fist, and unleashed a ferocious forward punch.

"Boom!"

Resplendent colors exploded across the sky canopy, sending shockwaves through the void. The endless might of divine powers rippled outward, distorting the space of the entire world.

It was like ripples spreading across a tranquil lake.

Beneath the sky, countless independent cultivators, martial artists, and even the ordinary Mortals of the Great Shun Imperial Court tilted their heads up, unable to stop themselves from gazing at the blindingly radiant dome.

They couldn't hear the sound.

Yet, even the Mortals entirely devoid of mystical abilities could feel the horrifying power hidden beneath those seemingly magnificent, illusory colors.

"...He actually blocked it?"

In the Cosmic Deep Space, the Daoist who had single-handedly orchestrated this collision blinked in surprise, but quickly regained his calm. "It's meaningless."

It was only once.

His side had over a hundred divine ability cultivators. They didn't even need to get close; they could simply bombard him from afar. He might have blocked it once, but could he block it a second or third time?

Sooner or later, he would be ground to death by attrition!

Soon, the illusory colors of the divine powers dimmed, revealing Wang Ping's figure. Crackling with lightning across his entire body, he spun his magnetic field, discharging all the impact forces of the collision into heaven and earth.

This was one of the wondrous uses of the Great Law of the Azure Sky. By utilizing the resonance between his own magnetic field and that of heaven and earth, he could transfer all incoming attacks directly into the world. Even so, Wang Ping felt the flesh and blood across his entire body violently shuddering, as if he would lose control and explode on the spot in the very next second.

Fortunately, he was still wearing a suit of Divine Armor.

The flesh and blood on the verge of bursting slammed against the Divine Armor and was immediately forced back down by the profound mysteries of a Perfected Person. His body constantly cycled between collapse and reconstruction.

However—

'If this continues, I'll just be waiting for death. I can take a second strike, maybe even a third, but they're waiting at their leisure and have strength in numbers. Staying here only makes me a target.'

At this thought, Wang Ping immediately lowered his stance.

Almost simultaneously, the Daoist in the distance sensed something amiss. He abruptly looked up, only to find that Wang Ping's figure—which had been locked onto by his divine sense—had suddenly vanished.

"Whoa!"

Letting out a gasp of amazement, the Daoist didn't hesitate for a single second. He flicked another coin into the air, and following a flash of light, he vanished without a trace.

On the other side, Wang Ping's figure tore through the vast distance of the Cosmic Deep Space with an explosive roar, charging straight in front of one of the inner sect disciples!

"Sav—"

Fist raised, fist lowered.

Bang!

This inner sect disciple had only cultivated a Minor Divine Ability. Facing Wang Ping, he was utterly powerless to resist. He was instantly smashed to pieces on the spot, bursting into a mist of blood that filled the sky.

"..."

"..."

In an instant, the Cosmos fell deathly silent. Then, the previously amassed multi-colored lights of their various divine powers explosively shattered, fleeing in all directions like a collapsing tide!

The immortal gate disciples had always only enjoyed fighting battles where they held an overwhelming advantage. They were perfectly happy to gang up on an opponent while standing safely out of reach, but once their own lives were threatened over something unrelated to their grand Dao—on the monumental question of whether it should be a fellow Daoist who died or themselves—they would never hesitate.

"Hmph, trying to run?"

Wang Ping's gaze was ice-cold. He wasn't even looking at these divine ability cultivators as people anymore, but rather as a herd of materials meant to fuel his grand achievements.

"Keep them coming!"

Casually picking the direction where the divine power lights were the brightest and the numbers were the largest, Wang Ping initiated another charge. His momentum was utterly ferocious, like a wolf plunging into a flock of sheep.

One man suppressing the immortals!