Chapter 315: Mother and Son, Linked by Heart

Inside the great hall, Wang Ping examined the clone before him with great interest.

It wore the Heavenly Martial Campaign Profound Armor and wielded the Water-Fire Striking Profound Maces. The four Immortal Physiques circulated with an illusory brilliance, converging behind its head into a hazy halo of light.

"Not bad at all."

Wang Ping shifted his divine sense into the clone, feeling an incredibly majestic power surge through its bones and limbs—enough to reproduce over ninety percent of his main body's combat strength.

What frustrated him, however, was that even with the clone serving as a test subject—allowing him to observe the conflicts between the four Immortal Physiques from an outsider's perspective and attempt to harmonize them—he could only suppress their clashes to a minimum. No matter what he did, he couldn't completely fuse them into one entity.

"Just clumsily pieced together..."

Wang Ping recalled the Mysterious Wood Qi Daoist Master's earlier evaluation. He had to admit it was justified; after all, it had only been a year or two since he started practicing the Martial Dao.

"The Invincible Divine Intent should be useful."

"After all, this Divine Intent focuses on internal regulation. Unfortunately, my application is far too crude. I can only use it to suppress the Immortal Physique conflicts, not force them into complete submission."

The direction was right; the problem lay in the details.

'Sigh, if only Mother were here.'

Wang Ping sighed inwardly. If the First Seat were here to point the way, or if he could just invoke her to take over his body and operate it herself, perhaps there would be a way to break this deadlock.

"Ugh..."

A sudden moan interrupted his thoughts. Wang Ping looked over and saw that You Xuexin, whom he had previously beaten unconscious, was finally waking up.

The protector wisdom consort lay paralyzed on the ground, half-exposed. Her fair skin still bore the lingering flush of their fierce battle, refusing to fade. Her expression was one of deep, intoxicated satisfaction—clearly, she had been thoroughly subdued by Wang Ping's Clasping Mountains and Leaping Seas, and for the moment, she wasn't demanding more from him.

However, a moment later, her eyes suddenly lit up.

"Oh right, Master, I brought something for you." After speaking, You Xuexin reached into her robes, pulling a slip of paper from between her towering peaks.

"...What?"

Wang Ping stared at the slip of paper she handed over. It still carried her lingering fragrance, but he ignored that entirely, a turbulent storm suddenly raging in his heart.

At the same time, in a higher dimension, the three towering figures surrounding Wang Ping unconsciously bent down, staring fixedly at the paper You Xuexin presented. An immense power containing infinite mysteries swept over that slip of paper again and again, analyzing its karma and inspecting its material for any hidden profundity.

"...Did you find anything?"

"It isn't something left by the Water Qi True Person. It's just an ordinary slip of paper. All its karma is perfectly normal, with no traces of concealment or disguise."

"Could it be... that strange Martial Dao Divine Intent again?"

"Did Lian Ruzhao bring it?"

For a moment, all three True Persons couldn't help but frown. Meanwhile, Wang Ping, completely oblivious to this, could no longer hold back his wild joy.

'They're consciousness fragments!'

The Taiping Sutra had already sensed it. The Invoking Deities scripture scroll detected a massive amount of consciousness fragments on the paper You Xuexin had handed him.

Whose fragments were these?

Without hesitation, Wang Ping gathered all these consciousness fragments into the Taiping Sutra. Soon, a portrait materialized within the Invoking Deities scripture scroll.

[Martial Dao First Seat, Lian Ruzhao].

As expected!

Wang Ping closed his eyes, hiding the turbulent emotions surging within them. He had just been stressing over his Martial Dao, never expecting help to arrive this quickly.

Truly worthy of the woman who could be my mother.

Mother and son were linked by heart!

...

Inside a certain star within the Immortal Gate.

In a remote independent cultivator market, a woman strolled through the crowd. Her figure flickered in and out of sight; she appeared to be there, yet she was entirely detached from reality.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, the woman turned her head and glanced into the distance.

Right after, a curious inquiry came from beside her. The voice was hoarse, like that of an elderly man. "First Seat, did something happen?"

The woman smiled. "My intuition tells me someone was just calling me Mother... Hmm, it must be that disciple of mine. His thought process has always been a bit different from ordinary people."

At that moment, a voice sounded from the woman's other side. It was deep and steady, gentle and grounded like an eminent monk in a great temple hall. "My Buddha is merciful... In that case, it seems Benefactor Wang has received your gift, First Seat. I just don't know what mystery was hidden on that slip of paper."

"You misunderstand, Senior Longshu."

The woman shook her head. "There's no mystery. I simply sat in front of that slip of paper, unleashed my Divine Intent for the first time in a long while, and let my mind wander for a bit."

"...That's it?"

Another voice rang out. This one was bold and vigorous; just hearing it naturally painted the image of a muscular brute in one's mind.

"And your reason for doing so?"

"Intuition." The woman threw her hands up in a shrug. "My intuition told me that doing this might be useful to my good disciple. I only know that it works, not why it works."

"Your intuition is as unreasonable as ever."

"You praise me too much, Senior Qingtian."

The woman continued, "My coming out this time is partly to escape my cage, and partly to find a way out for myself and the four of you seniors."

"In terms of combat strength, you four seniors have cultivated bitterly for years and reached extremely high attainments in Divine Intent. You can already be compared to the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer of the Immortal Gate. But this is merely an increase in combat power; your fundamental nature hasn't changed. That is why you four seniors, just like me, are nearing the end of our lifespans, unable to shed our mortal bodies."

"Originally, we could have still sought help from destiny."

"Unfortunately, in order to go a step further, everyone broke free from the restraints of destiny. Now we cannot trigger a life tribulation, and any guidance from destiny is out of the question."

At this, the woman sighed. "Escaping destiny too early was not a good thing. That was my mistake back then, and it ended up dragging you four seniors down with me."

"There is no need to belittle yourself."

The vigorous voice replied, "If it weren't for you, First Seat, we would have died long ago. We could have exhausted our entire lives without ever seeing the true Martial Dao, let alone taking it to the next level."

"Just this much is already the greatest fortune in life."

"Furthermore, if the First Seat hadn't concealed us, we would have been discovered by the heavens above ages ago. We probably wouldn't have lived to see today. If you really calculate it, we've actually lived much longer than we should have."

"My Buddha is merciful... That is exactly right."

Beside the woman, four figures materialized one after another. If Wang Ping were here, he would definitely recognize them—they were none other than the four Great Grandmasters of the contemporary Martial Dao!

"Regardless, our main purpose in coming to the heavens this time is to borrow their scriptures, adopt the strengths of the immortals, and completely reinvent the Martial Dao... Before that happens, having my good disciple take the vanguard will attract the attention of those big shots above, buying us time."

"Won't that be too harsh on him?"

The hoarse voice spoke up again, sounding a bit worried. "After all, he's trying to survive in the cracks between those big shots' fingers. In the event that he dies, it would inevitably be a little..."

"The capable must do more." The woman shook her head. "He is my disciple, and he wears the Heavenly Martial Campaign Profound Armor. This is his duty. It's nothing at all."

"Besides, it's highly likely that he won't die."

"What is your basis for that?"

"Intuition."

Saying this, the woman suddenly recalled the sensation of someone calling her Mother just moments ago. She couldn't help but chuckle. "Just treat it as our mother and son being linked by heart."

...

'Mother, take over my body!'

With the utmost respect, Wang Ping activated Invoking Deities. Instantly, an unprecedented sensation welled up from the bottom of his heart.

Simply put, it was a feeling of omnipotence.

"Huu!"

Wang Ping stood up and stretched his limbs. Almost subconsciously, he began throwing punches, swinging a blade, and brandishing a mace, his consciousness constantly switching back and forth between his true body and the clone.

After all his bloody battles to this day, his attainments in the Martial Dao were already quite high. Even without the mystical boost of the Kindling Flame, he could casually unleash the ultimate skills of the four Great Grandmasters. The Tathagata Divine Palm, the Great Law of the Azure Sky, the Pre-Heaven Body-Breaking Formless Weapon Qi, and the Azure Sea Turning to Emptiness—he executed all four supreme techniques one by one.

"...Hiss!"

Upon using them, Wang Ping immediately felt the difference.

Previously, although he could use these martial arts—and use them well—he hadn't been able to make them perfectly align with his own characteristics. There had always been some flaws and shortcomings.

However, today was different.

He instantly spotted every single flaw. Then, ideas for adjusting them rapidly surfaced in his mind, allowing the techniques to perfectly synchronize with his physical body.

With this back-and-forth refinement, their power increased by thirty to forty percent.

'So this is my true Martial Dao talent!'

The next second, Wang Ping shifted his focus. His consciousness landed on the external clone beside him, and he began to ponder how to integrate the four conflicting Immortal Physiques.

'My line of thought wasn't wrong.'

'Using the Invincible Divine Intent to look inward and unify the Immortal Physiques is a perfectly orthodox path. The only problem is that my Invincible Divine Intent is still progressing too slowly.'

Of course, the past was the past.

Now, Wang Ping simply sat perfectly still as the invoked First Seat took over and began to operate. A massive wave of deduced information instantly flooded into Wang Ping's memory.

Ultimately, it solidified into a comprehensive cultivation method.

'Iron sharpens iron, and people temper people. I'll use countless small victories to accumulate grand momentum. Then, I'll use that momentum to propel the advancement of my Invincible Divine Intent, and finally, use it to command the Immortal Physiques...'

Practicing this martial art required constant warfare and slaughter. He had to win time and time again to draw out the grand momentum and apply it to himself, letting his spirit, energy, and mind resonate with that momentum. The First Seat hadn't changed the framework of the Invincible Divine Intent; rather, she had optimized the details, multiplying its progression rate by dozens of times!

Of course, there was still a tiny flaw.

When practicing this martial art, there was no way to lie to oneself. He had to genuinely win in order to grow his Divine Intent; otherwise, his Divine Intent would decline.

'Mother is still too proper.'

'It's fine. I can solve this problem.'

Wang Ping was in a joyous mood. The solution couldn't be simpler... At this thought, he immediately shifted his gaze toward his external clone standing nearby.

"I choose you!"

He would let the clone practice this martial art.

If it won, it meant his main body was awesome. If it lost, the one defeated was the clone—what did that have to do with his main body? This way, he could completely bypass the penalties of defeat.

He would either be winning, or on his way to winning.

Perfect!

Thinking of this, Wang Ping decided to give this martial art—a crystallization of his and the First Seat's wisdom—a resounding and memorable name.

"Accumulating grand momentum through small victories."

"Since that's the case, I'll call you the Great Abundance Scripture!"