Chapter 322: Heavenly Abodes Shaken, Battling Baohu Once More!

The fall of one of the Arhat Seats.

Even though Wang Ping crushed Xuxing as effortlessly as a baby chick, the actual impact of his death was immense.

Those inside the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle might have been entirely oblivious.

However, in the Cosmic Deep Space, everyone felt the majestic power that leveraged formless karmic deeds and shook the Cosmos following Xuxing's death.

"Well, this is certainly..."

Mingyou narrowed his eyes beneath the five-colored auspicious cloud hovering above his head. "In all the times the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle has been fought, this is the very first time one of the Arhat Seats has died. The effect looks quite excellent."

"How could it not be?" Tianxing's figure materialized on the other side, laughing aloud. "That good disciple of yours is currently bearing the identity of the Great Rebellion. By slaughtering a Brahma Cultivator—and one of the Arhat Seats at that—the numerous grand karmic deeds of the Great Rebellion immediately responded. Right now, the most sensitive of them is Purging the Stale Qi of the Six Heavens!"

This was because that particular karmic deed had the most flaws.

The Heavenly Craft Cave Abode had opened, and both the Earth Yang Fire and the Heavenly Craft Supreme Yang Nine Smeltings Qi were curled up inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace; effectively, a strand of the Ancient Qi of the Six Heavens had already manifested in the world.

Moreover, this was one of the very purposes of the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle to begin with.

As for Tianxing, he had his own reasons to be elated. Because of the Grand White Traversing the Heavens Tome, every deed Wang Ping accomplished right now carried a share of karma for him as well.

Seeing Wang Ping go on a massacre in the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle was undoubtedly what he wanted most. Since he cultivated Human Yang Metal, his Mysterious Halberd Revolving-Transformation Renewal Qi symbolized mortal warfare. The fiercer the fighting and the higher the death toll, the more exalted his conceptual imagery would become, thereby increasing his chances of attaining the Dao and becoming a True Person in the future.

"Something is changing!"

Mingyou's gaze flickered. A Golden Lamp manifested within the auspicious cloud above his head; illuminating what the sun and moon could not reach and bringing light to where heaven and earth remained dim, it instantly locked onto a specific corner of the Cosmos.

It sat nestled between the atmosphere of the Eight Trigrams Furnace and the Cosmos, situated in outer space yet grazing the edges so it never fully broke away from the domain of the Eight Trigrams Furnace. This was the only windless place in the world. Now, dazzling arcs of light were gradually surfacing from it.

A land barren of Five Elements Yin Wood, where the white dew of the eighth month turned into frost.

The heavenly frost seasonal slaughter premier qi!

Even though it hadn't fully manifested into the world—appearing merely as a blurred outline—it was more than enough to draw the gazes of numerous Qi Refining practitioners and even True Persons from the Immortal Gate.

"Another heavenly abode has been shaken!"

"This time it's the Heavenly Frost Cave Abode. Splendid! Given enough time, once this qi fully descends into the world again, the path of the Dao will be reconnected, and we'll be able to cultivate Heavenly Yin Metal once more."

"Who died?"

"It seems to be one of those bald donkeys from the Brahma Nation..."

For a moment, a massive tide of divine senses intersected and conversed within the Cosmos, completely imperceptible to the lower-realm cultivators. Meanwhile, laughter similarly rippled outward from an even higher dimension.

"Excellent!"

Twenty-four colors of radiant clouds spanned across the Cosmos, rippling slightly. The onlookers felt not a shred of dissatisfaction or anger over Wang Ping going off-script to ambush the Brahma Cultivators.

They had originally planned for eight inner sect disciples to die just to slightly shake the Heavenly Frost Cave Abode. The fact that it was now shaking over the death of a single member of the Arhat Seats was an unexpected and delightful surprise. After all, this meant that when those eight inner sect disciples finally did die, the resulting effect would soar to an entirely new level.

However, at that exact same time.

Having witnessed the entire ordeal but failing to detect Wang Ping's clone in advance—which had directly resulted in Xuxing's death—Arhat Shengle was in a rather foul mood.

"You plotted against me?"

Arhat Shengle's rumbling Sanskrit voice echoed through the higher dimensions, crashing against the radiant clouds and rattling the lightning edicts. Yet, the latter two displayed no fear whatsoever:

"You shouldn't put it like that."

"Daoist Friend Shengle, this sort of thing comes down to sheer capability. You let a lower-realm cultivator hide their trump card right under your nose and ruin the grand design. Who else can you blame but yourself?"

"If you lack the ability, don't blame the path of the Dao for being uneven."

True Persons were still people. In fact, precisely because they had attained the Dao and cultivated truth to shed their mortal falsities, their genuine natures were laid bare even more starkly in certain matters.

Therefore, both Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang and Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan were incredibly delighted right now. Their mockery of Arhat Shengle was sharp and utterly merciless. After all, it was Arhat Shengle's grand scheme that had been ruined. The two of them kept a constant, watchful eye on Wang Ping and would never make such a blunder.

'Amita-fucking-bha...'

Seeing this, Arhat Shengle had no choice but to swallow his frustration and issue further decrees to dispatch reinforcements. Of course, he had no intention of letting the Arhat Seats make another move this time.

The risk was simply too great.

Ever since the Great Rebellion shattered the thirty-two marks, every single member of the Arhat Seats had become a precious talent. If they truly needed fodder to risk their lives, they would let those under the Wisdom King seats do it.

Soon, as the Arhat's decree descended, the traditionally bloated bureaucratic system of the Brahma Nation kicked into maximum overdrive. Special matters were granted special handling, and all procedures were drastically expedited and simplified.

Immediately after, streams of light shot up from the Brahma Nation. Among them were even a few Brahma Cultivators whose cultivation was originally stuck at the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer; they received empowerments from their respective Wisdom Kings, forcefully elevating their power to rival the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer before they were hastily herded into the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle like ducks driven onto a perch.

"What are you standing around in a daze for?"

Almost simultaneously, Mingyou's figure blurred. His five-colored auspicious clouds expanded to blanket the heavens and earth, moving to intercept a few Ascetic Monks who were trying to seize the opportunity to strike at the mortal realm.

It wasn't that they wanted to interfere with the sword battle; their primary goal was to retrieve the monk staff that Wang Ping had snatched.

However, a second later, Mingyou's five-colored auspicious clouds completely severed the line of sight for all the Ascetic Monks. Enraged Sanskrit voices immediately began to ring out, one after another:

"Mingyou... that is a Spiritual Treasure of our Brahma Nation!"

"Pure nonsense."

Mingyou smiled coldly. "Does it have your name written on it? I seem to remember that being the Spiritual Treasure I gifted to my disciple. You shouldn't make baseless claims."

"You! Shameless wretch!"

Mingyou couldn't care less about the Ascetic Monks' furious curses. As for why he had intervened, it was because he had already accurately predicted his good disciple's mindset.

'That little beast is utterly shameless. If I actually let this bunch of bald donkeys descend to snatch the Spiritual Treasure back, he'd probably throw a massive, suicidal tantrum, and I'd end up having to intervene anyway.'

Since that was the case, he might as well solve the problem in one go and eliminate his disciple's worries right now. Without the Ascetic Monks' interference, and with a brand-new Spiritual Treasure in hand, that little beast would presumably feel free to go all out. He could focus all his energy on tormenting those Brahma Cultivators instead of tormenting his master.

"...Hm?"

Suddenly, Mingyou felt a stir in his heart. He pinched his fingers to calculate, and a rather peculiar smile crept onto his face. "Excellent, excellent. Is this destiny?"

"Who could have expected this?"

"It's the life tribulation of those eight inner sect disciples... To think that even I would one day act as the guiding hand that aids cultivators through their life tribulation and broadens their path of the Dao!"

...

Great Shun, in front of Jingyuan Pass.

Wang Ping was exceptionally satisfied with this long-premeditated ambush and the spoils of war he had reaped. The monk staff Spiritual Treasure in his hands was the perfect proof of his success.

'It's mine!'

With a mere thought, he tossed the monk staff into the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron. Unless an Ascetic Monk from the Brahma Nation personally intervened, he wasn't worried about the staff escaping.

However, he firmly believed that his deeply affectionate master, Mingyou, would fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening. Because of this, Wang Ping felt absolutely no anxiety over the matter.

Soon, however, he looked up at the sky and saw dozens of streaks of light piercing through the clouds. They plummeted like a meteor shower, howling downward with a majestic aura. Without exception, all of them were under the Wisdom King seats—Opening Wisdom Brahma Cultivators whose strength rivaled the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer—and they were all flying straight toward him.

'Most of them are defective knockoffs...'

Wang Ping probed them with his senses for a moment and sneered. Cultivators like these were utterly useless aside from their raw Realm. This was merely an advantage born of the Brahma Nation's unique cultivation system.

There was nothing to fear.

On the other hand, the eight inner sect disciples who had narrowly survived their earlier perils now showed visible terror, clearly intimidated by the sheer scale of the incoming assault.

"So... we haven't transcended our life tribulation yet?"

"That ordeal just now didn't even count as our life tribulation?"

"And here I thought I was about to break through..."

Wang Ping shook his head at the sight and immediately sent a voice transmission. "Calm down. Transcended your life tribulation? If a life tribulation was that easy to overcome, do you really think cultivators would turn pale at the mention of a tiger just talking about it?"

The life tribulation of these eight inner sect disciples wouldn't be resolved just by surviving a single chase. After all, the gates of Jingyuan Pass were still sealed shut. Even though they had caught the Brahma Nation off guard, the three True Persons hadn't changed their minds; they still viewed these disciples as nothing more than cannon fodder.

In other words:

"You will only truly transcend this life tribulation if you survive safely until the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle completely ends. Until then, things will only get harder."

Wang Ping ruthlessly laid the facts bare.

However, his tone quickly shifted. "Have you forgotten what I told you? As long as you listen to me, I guarantee that every single one of you will make it out alive."

"For now, hold your ground."

"Execute Deploying Formation right here. Use every skill you possess to hide within the protective range of the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, and use the Frontier-Expanding Void-Crossing Ship to fortify yourselves."

Before he could even finish speaking, Wang Ping was forced to cut the voice transmission. He simply had no time to worry about anything else right now.

Not far away, Jingshan, Wu Chi, and the others who had just fled were returning the way they came, wearing bitter expressions. Accompanying them was a graceful, beautiful silhouette.

From the Bodhisattva's seat, Baohu.

"Benefactor Dousheng... what a brilliant scheme."

Baohu's pretty face was icy and grim, entirely devoid of her initial composure. After all, Xuxing's sudden death had also impacted her own foundational phenomena.

She had to salvage the situation.

Otherwise, let alone borrowing Wang Ping's hands to fully cultivate the Deep Blue Eyes Phase, this humiliating defeat would make her future cultivation exponentially more difficult.

What infuriated her the most was that it never should have come to this. The higher-ups had already set the script; Wang Ping wasn't even the one supposed to die, it was meant to be the others. It was supposed to be a tacit agreement between both sides, smoothly and leisurely playing out their roles to the end. Yet, it had devolved into this frantic, desperate scramble...

And worst of all, she couldn't even do anything to him!

Inside the Seven Hearts Linked Gourd, Wang Ping's true body wasn't even bothering to put up a defense anymore. He lay spread-eagle within the gourd's space, projecting a single unyielding message:

"I'm a pawn of the True Persons. I dare you to touch me."

Baohu: "..."

Rumble!

Buddhist light filled the sky, while water and fire surged violently within the gourd.

Baohu struck out in fury, a lethal glint rising in her jade-green square pupils. Since she couldn't harm his main body, she would at least obliterate this clone of his!

Rather than being alarmed, Wang Ping was thrilled.

In their previous clash, he had suffered a total defeat. Baohu had dictated the rhythm of the battle from start to finish; he had only emerged unscathed because she hadn't genuinely wanted to kill him.

Under these circumstances, if Baohu continued to suppress his true body, it would actually hinder his Great Abundance Scripture. Striking at his clone instead played perfectly into his hands.

"Bring it on!"

"I was just hoping to test my strength against yours once more!"