Chapter 327: Water Governing Authority!

The first to act was True Person Hanguang Danyang.

Wielding the Gen Trigram, this True Person revealed a singular method. Amidst a twenty-four-colored radiance, a torrential river of time rumbled forth.

That was "ten years."

The ten years he had previously erased from the Eight Trigrams Furnace—wresting them away through the interplay of reality and illusion when he entered bearing the Immortal Decree—now manifested once more!

Armed with the Immortal Decree, he originally wouldn't have needed to go to such lengths. He could have simply forced his way into the realm and crushed the Heaven-Stealing Thief and Kunlun to death, effortlessly resolving the nuisance. But that was no longer an option. The half-piece advantage he had lost to the First Seat forced him to settle for the next best thing.

And that was indirect influence.

In the next second, those ten years of time returned from nothingness within the radiance, shifting from illusion back to reality before plunging into the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Thus, time was stretched.

In the Heaven-Stealing Thief's original plan, extinguishing the Earth Yang Fire would only take an instant. Now, however, ten years had been forcibly stuffed into that fleeting moment.

He could only succeed after ten years!

Yet, it was obvious that Kunlun's Qi Refining could not possibly last a full ten years—or even a single year. In three to five months at most, his qi would run dry and his strength would give out.

Once that happened, he would be unable to continue refining qi and would lose his resonance with the qi of heaven and earth. Naturally, extinguishing the flames via Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning would become impossible.

At the same time, Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan also made his move.

The Great Shun Capital.

Within the Unified Mind Hall, the Daoist Master's voice rode upon thirty-six thunder decrees, booming outward: "Xianfu, use your decree on Kunlun."

The three True Persons were fully aware of the Heaven-Stealing Thief's scheme; they simply hadn't expected him to launch it at this exact moment. Combined with Wang Ping's utterly unexpected thrashing of the Brahma Cultivators, these sudden variables had thrown the chessboard into chaos. But that did not mean they were entirely unprepared.

The decree resting on Kunlun was one of their contingencies.

Xianfu cultivated human-yang wood, the Profound Firmament Governance-Bestowing Talisman-Wielding Qi. In times of need, he could absolutely use the decree to command a subject whose strength fell short.

If the target were Wang Ping, they would have let it go.

After all, Wang Ping's current strength was simply too great. Even if they activated the decree, it would likely have no effect, and might even destabilize his bearing as a sovereign lord.

However, Kunlun was different.

Whether in cultivation base, Daoist attainment, or sheer combat prowess, Kunlun was vastly inferior to Xianfu. The lord was strong and the subject weak; in this situation, the decree's effect would be decisive.

Yet, faced with Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan's command, Xianfu chose to remain silent.

Total silence reigned within the grand hall.

"Hmm?"

A second later, Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan turned and looked over from afar, his gaze settling on Xianfu, who sat as silent and unmoving as a stone statue with lowered eyelids.

Heh. Is the house-reared dog trying to bite its master?

Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan let out a light chuckle, too lazy to say another word. He prepared to channel his mighty power through the Great Shun's national destiny, bypassing Xianfu to intervene directly.

Almost simultaneously, a fierce gale whipped up inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

It was a wind from all eight directions, moving to follow heaven and respond to the people. This was clearly the Mysterious Wood Qi Daoist Master making his move, manipulating the environment of heaven and earth from outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

'When the wind follows, all things fall into place!'

At this exact moment, across the sprawling Eight Trigrams Furnace and throughout the lands ruled by the Great Shun, everyone—from martial artists, scholars, and extraordinary persons down to the most ordinary of commoners—sensed the shift.

Stalled martial arts instantly reached completion; agonizingly pondered problems suddenly became clear; long-impassable bottlenecks abruptly gave way. Pending business deals were finalized on the spot, miserable lives unexpectedly saw glimmers of hope, and even the seedlings in the fields rapidly sprouted and surged upward.

Nurturing all things in endless proliferation.

In an instant, countless people stepped out of their homes to gaze up at the sky. Some were shocked, some were terrified, some knelt and kowtowed, while others speculated wildly in their hearts.

'What happened?'

'A change in the heavens... who did this?'

The mighty power of a True Person was laid bare in this moment. Even while situated beyond the heavens, simply by exerting their profundity indirectly, they could affect billions of living beings in the mortal dust!

In this moment, all three True Persons had made their moves.

Forced by the Heaven-Stealing Thief's preemptive strike, they had no choice but to deploy their respective methods, revealing the tip of the iceberg of their layouts rather than keeping them hidden.

And it wasn't just the True Persons.

On the other side, Arhat Shengle of the Brahma Nation similarly sighed and reached out a hand—though he had little desire to interfere with the True Persons' layouts.

Or rather, he had no desire to interfere quite this early.

For now, it was better to wait and observe.

However, before doing that, he felt he still needed to safely retrieve Baohu, the disciple seated beneath the Bodhisattva, lest she be swept up in the True Persons' schemes.

After all, as long as Baohu suffered no mishaps, the Brahma Nation's expedition this time would be a break-even affair at worst. The dead cultivators seated beneath the Wisdom King could be replenished at any time. Although Xuxing—who sat beneath an Arhat—had died and a Spiritual Treasure had been lost, they could always recoup those losses from the Immortal Gate later on.

Thus, rather than seizing the opportunity to seek profit, Arhat Shengle decided to play it safe.

This was the core operating logic of the Brahma Nation: they sought no merit, for avoiding faults was merit enough. Moreover, when facing the Immortal Gate, breaking even was already a victory.

"Rumble!"

As the True Persons and the Arhat acted and brought their schemes to the surface, they finally touched upon a certain heaven and earth qi that had remained hidden incredibly deeply as it moved through the mortal dust.

The Nine Palaces Subtlety-Gauging Mechanism-Discerning Qi, human-yin water!

This qi governed strategy and centered on covert affairs. Whenever superior cultivators laid out plans to manipulate the mortal world, fluctuations in this qi were absolutely inevitable—it was only a question of scale.

For instance, when Mingyou previously plotted against Kunyun's life tribulation and orchestrated the theft of his lifespan, she had triggered fluctuations in this qi. However, because it was only the scheme of a Qi Refining practitioner—and an inferior striking a superior at that—the changes were faint, falling far short of forcing this heaven and earth qi to formally manifest.

But today was different.

Three True Persons and one Arhat were mutually plotting within the mortal dust, deceiving the lower cultivators. The simultaneous unfolding of their layouts thoroughly detonated the resonance of the human-yin water.

To the naked eye, heaven and earth seemed completely unchanged.

Yet in the eyes of cultivators who had attained dharma power, a dim, rippling light veiled the vast firmament, as if it were sinking into the silent depths of the sea.

Water Qi Governing Authority!

On the grasslands, Wang Ping looked up at the sky. Held in his hand was an exquisite little jade pendant, securely sealing a trace of the Heavenly Yin Metal's profundity.

It was precisely what the Mysterious Wood Qi Daoist Master had sent.

'Heavenly Yin Metal, Water Qi Governing Authority, plus this Xun Wind blowing through the entire Eight Trigrams Furnace to nurture all living things... is this hinting that I can break through?'

At this thought, Wang Ping's expression flickered uncertainly.

Yet right at that moment.

"..."

It was as if a pause button had suddenly been pressed on a furiously surging river. The churning spray and rolling waves were all frozen in place.

The howling gale whipping through the Eight Trigrams Furnace, the mighty power channeled by the Great Shun's national destiny, and Arhat Shengle's large hand reaching out to retrieve Baohu...

With the sole exception of True Person Hanguang Danyang—who was unaffected because his superior method merely returned the time he had previously extracted—the indirect impacts the others had inflicted upon the Eight Trigrams Furnace were instantly overridden by an even more magnificent power. They vanished like pebbles dropped into an abyss.

In the darkness, three streaks of brilliance gradually grew brighter.

Three streams of water qi—one yang in the human position, two yin in the heaven and earth positions—jointly constructed a vast sea of return, manifesting a domain of endless treachery suspended deep in the darkness.

The Kan Trigram!

"The water qi... has indeed acted!"

"Did you put Gan Wujiu up to this?"

"Excellent!"

In an instant, the twenty-four-colored radiance and the thirty-six thunder decrees detonated in the darkness simultaneously. A resonance that shook the Cosmos echoed across a higher dimension.

Yet the next second, all the noise was instantly snuffed out.

Because the phenomenon did not stop there.

Directly behind the Kan Trigram, another three streaks of brilliance unexpectedly surfaced in the darkness. It was similarly one yang and two yin, but its attribute had shifted from water qi to wood qi.

Even the arrangement had changed.

Two yin in the heaven and human positions, one yang in the earth position.

The Zhen Trigram!

A second trigram phenomenon surfaced, reflecting clearly into the eyes of every True Person and Arhat. Under their watchful gazes, the two trigrams crashed together and merged.

The profundities of the Three Talents, yin and yang, and the five elements synthesized. Six streams of heaven and earth qi and two cosmic trigrams seamlessly integrated. Like an imperious hand, it unapologetically swept toward the three True Persons and the Arhat, instantly crushing all their profound arts and banishing their influences from the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Upper Kan and lower Zhen, the initial intertwining of hard and soft.

"Water-Thunder Zhun..."

Instantly, the originally rumbling profundities of the twenty-four-colored radiance and the thirty-six thunder decrees fell utterly calm. When the voices spoke again, they carried a tone of sheer disbelief.

Plans couldn't keep up with changes; they had ultimately miscalculated.

It was not the Water Qi True Person.

Two cosmic trigrams, divided into host and guest yet fused into one. This was a supreme paramount station, seated right before the immortals. Anyone who cultivated to this stage could be hailed as a sovereign lord of the Great Dao.

Neither True Person Hanguang Danyang nor Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan had expected that the one to act for the water qi orthodoxy at this moment would be an existence like this. After all, since the fall of the Great Rebellion, True Monarchs had rarely emerged across the long passage of time, and this specific one had never once revealed their traces.

Many even suspected that their Dao foundation might have been damaged along with the others.

However, because water qi was adept at concealment, they had managed to cover it up. That was why they hadn't retracted the lifespans of Qi Refining practitioners the way the wood qi entity had, letting the whole world know.

Thus, their sudden intervention instantly threw everyone's arrangements into disarray.

Upper Kan and lower Zhen—this was called Water-Thunder Zhun.

The wielder of this paramount station possessed a thunderous reputation within the Immortal Gate. They had personally lived through the upheaval of the Great Rebellion, and their history could even be traced back to before destiny itself had appeared!

"Mingxing Xuanyi Primordial Sovereign..."

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