Chapter 277: But I Refuse!

"Rumble!"

If one looked up from inside the Eight Treasure Table, they would see the sky turn scarlet. Starlight plummeted as a bright star faded into dull obscurity.

Then came a magnificent worldly anomaly. An Ascetic Monk of the Brahma Nation—having reincarnated through three lifetimes and endured the eight sufferings—had long since become an inseparable part of the Great Brahma Heaven. The moment he fell, a new vacancy suddenly appeared in the Great Brahma Heaven. This fed back into the world, finally manifesting as a mournful rain of blood across the sky.

Amid this rain of blood, Mingyou stood tall and imposing.

He held no Spiritual Treasure. Only a five-colored cloud floated above his head like a canopy. His ice-cold expression drew looks of sheer terror from many Brahma Cultivators.

"How could it be... this fast!"

"That trash Xianming claimed he was absolutely certain he could block this fiend! But he died in the blink of an eye. He completely wasted the lifespan the Wisdom King gave him!"

"What do we do now?"

"Rumble!"

The heavenly chimes triggered by the fall of his Dao and the death of his person still echoed. The death throes of an Ascetic Monk would not end so quickly, let alone someone like Xianming, who was no ordinary Ascetic Monk.

Before reincarnating into the Brahma Nation, he had been a Qi Refining practitioner of the Immortal Gate. Therefore, his death also agitated the qi he had cultivated in his previous life—the Discerning Truth and Illusion Illuminating Qi. Fortunately, an even more dominant Qi Refining practitioner was present. With a single thought, Mingyou suppressed the resonance of heaven and earth's qi.

Such a display of ability naturally commanded attention.

"What an impressive method."

"An Eight-Crossed Fate Tribulation. Mingyou is as sharp as ever."

"Is it because they were master and disciple? Mingyou must have understood Xianming's Dao foundation intimately to kill him in a single strike. Otherwise, he couldn't have slain someone so quickly."

"He cultivated Fire qi, didn't he?"

"Earth Yin Fire. After all these years, many assumed he had faded into mediocrity, but it seems he finally found a way to take a step further."

Many on the side of the Immortal Gate were equally surprised. They couldn't tell exactly what kind of transformation had occurred within Mingyou, but they could guess he had made tremendous progress. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to shatter Xianming's mind with sheer cultivation and slay a Brahma Nation Ascetic Monk in less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

More importantly, this dealt a devastating blow to the morale of the Brahma Nation.

'How are we supposed to fight this!?'

The group of Brahma Nation Ascetic Monks looked up at the sky, only to see that there were still only three of the four Wisdom Kings. Twenty-four-colored radiant light streaked across the sky, yet the illumination held not a shred of warmth.

Instead, it was bone-chillingly cold.

Immediately, the Brahma Nation Ascetic Monks who had been fighting the Immortal Gate's Qi Refining practitioners summoned their escape lights. They prepared to flee the battlefield, entirely unwilling to fight a losing battle.

As long as the green hills remained, they wouldn't lack for firewood.

Things were getting dangerous—time to run!

After all, an Ascetic Monk had already fallen. No one wanted to follow in his footsteps. They had all risked their lives to participate in the Buddhist examination precisely for this iron rice bowl.

Now that they had finally passed and earned the right to shit on others' heads and act as tyrants, wouldn't dying suddenly mean all the suffering they endured to pass the Buddhist examination would be for nothing? When it came to matters of ultimate priority, the Brahma Nation Ascetic Monks knew exactly where they stood.

Yet in the next second, the fleeing group of Brahma Nation Ascetic Monks suddenly slammed on the brakes. Then, they charged back onto the battlefield even faster than before.

Seeing this, Mingyou narrowed his eyes.

Immediately after, within the Cosmic Deep Space, the phenomenon born from Xianming's death was swept away by an even vaster and mightier force. A figure then walked out.

In stark contrast to the elderly-looking Xianming, this newly arrived monk was extremely young, appearing no older than twenty. He pulsed with vibrant vitality.

"Amitabha."

With a chanted name of Buddha, he stepped out of the void. He stood like a rallying banner, causing the Ascetic Monks who should have scattered to swiftly gather around him.

"Great Monk Bukong!"

"You're finally here! The Immortal Gate... the Immortal Gate has pushed us too far!"

"We weren't running away just now. Our main plan was to make a tactical retreat, then engage the Immortal Gate in a tug-of-war, a war of attrition, a guerrilla war to stabilize the situation."

Faced with the complaints of the Ascetic Monks, the young monk simply placed his palms together and shook his head. An entirely different aura suddenly radiated from his body.

This aura was different from any of the four Wisdom Kings. In fact, it was slightly superior in both quality and quantity. Mingyou instantly recognized his identity: "Fellow Daoist Bukong. After all these years, I thought you had already died of old age. It seems serving the Arhat Seats is indeed more noble than serving under a Wisdom King."

Mingyou laughed brightly.

On the other side, the young monk simply sighed. "Thanks to Arhat Shengle not abandoning me, I've had to suffer in the mortal realm for a few more years, unable to return to the Great Brahma Heaven."

"On the contrary, it is you, Almsgiver."

"When I die, I will return to the Great Brahma Heaven and reincarnate. My Dao path will only grow broader. But if you die, Almsgiver, you may not have the chance to reincarnate at all."

Mingyou couldn't care less. "Living under someone else's roof—you call that a Dao path? Bald donkeys like you, no matter how high your cultivation or how long your lifespan, hold no appeal to me."

"Oh? Is that so?" Bukong smiled.

"Absolutely." Mingyou nodded.

This was a lie.

In truth, Mingyou's eyes were practically red with envy. He wanted nothing more than to forge a Spiritual Treasure capable of absorbing lifespan, charge straight into the Brahma Nation, and go on a mass slaughter.

If nothing else, the fact that a useless old fool like Xianming had managed to survive this long completely exceeded his expectations. If he claimed he had never once considered defecting to the Brahma Nation, it would be a lie—he simply ended up giving up on the idea. But as things stood now, there was naturally no way he would admit such a thing.

So he had to put up a tough front.

Right at that moment, above the Qi Refining practitioners' battlefield, from even higher up in the Cosmic Deep Space, a deafening sound of the Dao shattering suddenly echoed out.

"Bang!"

Mingyou instantly looked up. Where his gaze landed, the incredibly magnificent, infinitely wondrous twenty-four-colored radiant light was actually severed down the middle by a mighty force.

With this severance, the Gen Trigram it had been firmly suppressing shook violently. Endless golden light and a putrid stench erupted from the trigram. Finally, the trigram was completely torn apart, revealing once again the rotting, decaying garden kingdom and the golden-wheeled Buddha sitting at its center.

The Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King had broken free!

'Crap...'

Seeing this, Mingyou narrowed his eyes, a sense of dread rising in his heart: 'An Arhat made a move. The True Person fighting alone might be in danger.'

A second later, the severed radiant light merged back together. This time, a human figure faintly showed through, deeply hidden within the light and surrounded by the twenty-four colors. The figure was slowly raising a palm... This image lasted for only a fleeting moment before it was engulfed by the suddenly surging radiant light, vanishing from sight once more.

"Amitabha!"

Seeing this, Bukong chanted another low invocation of the Buddha and continued, "Fellow Daoist, the fact that you and that True Person came here is certainly not the will of the entire Immortal Gate."

"Why are you willing to take such a risk?"

His gaze was like a clear mirror as he quickly swept over Mingyou. Finally, he lowered his eyelids, letting his eyes fall upon a certain figure inside the Eight Treasure Table.

"I see... It is the Great Rebellion Exploits."

Mingyou shook his head. This was not unexpected. After all, the Brahma Nation wasn't entirely made up of fools. With such a massive scene playing out, someone was bound to discern the profound mystery behind it.

Now that things had reached this point, there was nothing left for him to do.

He could only wait and see what other methods the wildly ambitious True Person above him possessed. If they had none, he was afraid this pawn was truly going to jump off the chessboard.

...

"Thump!"

As the Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King broke free from the suppression of the Gen Trigram, the group of Brahma Cultivators under his command, who had abruptly vanished earlier, returned to reality in the blink of an eye.

For example, Jin Hai.

He crashed headfirst into the ground, his face pale with terror. To him, the feeling in that moment had been like falling into a Bottomless Abyss. Both his body and consciousness had plummeted endlessly in a state of sheer horror, yet he never seemed to hit the bottom. Every single second had been torture.

"Haa... Haa..."

Jin Hai greedily gasped for breath as he stood back up. But the sight of the three figures standing right in front of him made his expression instantly stiffen.

"Yo, Fellow Daoist Jin Hai."

"I just remembered... you're the one we were supposed to be chasing. A battle between True Persons is simply too grand. Even the slightest ripple is enough to bring disaster upon us lower-level cultivators."

"Martial Uncle, I've missed you to death."

Jin Hai: "..."

In an instant, a look of utter despair began to slowly creep across the Brahma Cultivator's face. His divine powers were damaged, and his mana was depleted. Were the heavens truly condemning him to death?

However, right at that moment.

Wang Ping, who had been sharpening his blade and preparing to step forward and harvest this head, suddenly froze. A talisman in his sea of consciousness abruptly burst into blinding light.

The Void Joy Non-Dual Guardian Consort Talisman!

This talisman from the Great Joy Wisdom King now surged with endless darkness, instantly blinding Wang Ping's vision and plunging him into absolute blackness.

Immediately after, a crack of light split the darkness.

From within the light, a young monk walked out.

It was none other than Bukong.

"To draw a True Person into laying out a scheme, and to have a Qi Refining practitioner invade the Brahma Nation for your sake—Almsgiver, your intellect and methods are undeniably top-tier. Your courage is something this poor monk has never seen before in his life."

He wasted no time on pleasantries, cutting straight to the point the moment he appeared:

"Almsgiver, are you willing to convert?"

"If you convert to the Brahma Nation, you will enter this poor monk's command. After reincarnating, all of your Immortal Dao divine powers will be transformed into personal Brahma treasures."

"In this way, not only can you break free from the cultivation suppression of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, but you can also retain the magnificent might of this Major Divine Ability. If you use it to help us counterattack the Eight Trigrams Furnace, it will be another great merit. With the bonus points in future Buddhist examinations, your path to becoming an Ascetic Monk will be completely unimpeded."

Bukong laid out his conditions.

One had to admit, each condition was more tempting than the last. Every word struck directly at Wang Ping's weak point and addressed his hidden worries.

Divine powers, cultivation, Dao path.

Everything felt as if it was easily within his reach. As long as he nodded and defected to the Brahma Nation, his starting point in the future would be that of an Ascetic Monk—no lesser than a Qi Refining practitioner of the Immortal Gate.

But—

"I refuse!"

Without a shred of hesitation, Wang Ping shook his head decisively. At the same time, he activated the other talismans in his sea of consciousness in an attempt to sever the mystical influence of the protector wisdom consort talisman.

Seeing this, Bukong frowned slightly. "Why?"

He firmly believed the conditions he offered were anything but poor. Among the cultivators who had defected from the Immortal Gate, even some true transmissions didn't receive such terms; most were just assigned to the four Wisdom Kings.

To this, Wang Ping had only one thing to say:

"And after becoming an Ascetic Monk?"

He was right. As long as he agreed, the status of an Ascetic Monk would be practically handed to him. But what came after being an Ascetic Monk? If he wanted to continue progressing, was that even possible in the Brahma Nation?

Bukong: "..."

The confusion on the young monk's face gradually faded, replaced by calm indifference. He heard Wang Ping's resolve in his words, but he merely scoffed at it.

"Your ambitions are higher than the heavens, Almsgiver."

"Thinking back, Mingyou gave this poor monk the exact same answer all those years ago. No wonder you two were able to become master and disciple. It's just a pity that both of your lives are as thin as paper."

With those words, the darkness shattered.

Wang Ping's consciousness returned to reality. The Void Joy Non-Dual Guardian Consort Talisman was heavily suppressed by the numerous talismans and Spiritual Treasure signatures in his sea of consciousness.

Almost at the exact same time, all the Brahma Cultivators inside the Eight Treasure Table froze. Wang Ping's image appeared in their minds as they heard a strict command from Bukong:

"Kill this man at all costs!"