Chapter 333: They've Returned, I Can Feel It All Returning!

Outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, in Cosmic Deep Space.

The extraterrestrial sea of stars had become a true, vast ocean. The light of the stars was merely the shimmering foam stirred up by its churning waters.

As far as the eye could see, all was silent.

Only at the very bottom of this vast ocean could one faintly make out three silhouettes of light drifting up and down. They surged with profound momentum, seemingly trying to break the surface, yet they were entirely powerless to do so.

This was because the sea harbored thousands of perils and endless layers of obstacles. It was a place where the waters never overflowed, a perilous domain where all paths were lost. Although it was imprinted upon a realm that only True Persons could reach, even they struggled to glimpse its entirety. Only existences equally exalted to the ultimate stations of heaven and earth could perceive its true form.

It was a hand.

Its five fingers were slender, seeming to descend from some unfathomable height to firmly pin the three True Persons within its palm. It sealed away the inside and outside of the Cosmos; nothing could escape, and nothing could enter.

From beginning to end, it was just this single palm.

Primordial Sovereign Mingzi Xuanyi, who had struck at the final moment, did not reveal their true form. They had merely unleashed a profound manifestation, bringing down a single palm to suppress this place.

It was not just the three True Persons.

Deeper still, at the very bottom of this vast ocean, a faint Buddhist light flickered. Its state was far worse than that of the three True Persons—it was none other than Arhat Shengle of the Brahma Nation.

"Unfair!"

The Brahma Nation arhat's voice echoed across the seabed: "I have no intention of contending for the Dao! I only wish to bring back my disciple. Is the Immortal Gate trying to start another war?!"

He couldn't help it; he was deeply wronged!

If the three Immortal Gate True Persons weren't suppressed alongside him, he would have suspected the Immortal Gate was setting a trap to kill him. That Biyang crowd was completely shameless.

The Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle was supposed to be a bloodbath between disciples at the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer, overseen by those at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer. To put it bluntly, it was just youths squabbling. Refining Practitioners stepping in to manipulate the board was already crossing the line, and True Persons scheming behind the scenes was almost unheard of since ancient times. Now, an ancient Supreme True Lord had actually stepped onto the board!

Where was the justice in that?

While Arhat Shengle thoroughly enjoyed laying schemes against lower-realm cultivators and toying with the mortal world, having a Supreme True Lord toy with him was an entirely different matter!

However, compared to him...

On the other side, the three suppressed Immortal Gate True Persons appeared quite calm. Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang, in particular, spoke with utter serenity. "This is as far as it goes."

"Primordial Sovereign Mingzi Xuanyi intervening was indeed unexpected, but the mighty power they are willing to expend is limited. This will do nothing more than delay us for a while longer."

The three were still ascending.

Despite the endless layers of obstacles and a pace as slow as a crawling turtle, they continued to rise. Clearly, the water qi True Monarch who had struck had controlled their mighty power with absolute precision.

"They are not the only Supreme True Lord in the Immortal Gate."

"They cannot dictate everything."

Twenty-four-colored radiant light vibrated. "The ultimate station of water focuses on concealment. Although they are perfectly intact, the more power they exert, the harder it becomes to hide. Truly revealing themselves to the world would do more harm than good."

This was both persuasion and a voice of the Dao.

With every word spoken, the light evaporated a massive amount of seawater. The twenty-four-colored radiance continuously collapsed inward, finally condensing into a pure, blazing white.

"The other Supreme True Lords of the Immortal Gate are likely waiting for Primordial Sovereign Mingzi Xuanyi to strike in earnest and heavily injure us all. That would shatter the paradigm of water's concealment. But they are unwilling to let that happen, so their true body remains unmoving. They only manifested a palm of profound power to press down upon this place and maintain a stalemate with us."

"They are buying time for the pawn inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace."

"The Heavenly Craft Cave Abode has already changed owners, and the eradication of the Earth Yang Fire is likely a foregone conclusion. Even that pawn seems to have found a path other than Heavenly Yin Metal."

The voice of the Dao grew increasingly grand.

The transformation between illusion and reality was pushed to its absolute limits here. Not a single word within the radiant light was false—all were absolute truths, causing the blazing white hue it formed to shine even brighter.

This carried tangible power.

Especially against the concealed water qi: the more truths were laid bare, the harder it was to hide, and the easier it became for the other True Monarchs to find a flaw.

A second later, the blazing white moved.

"Clang—!"

Faintly, a clear, ringing sword chime echoed throughout the Cosmos. The blazing white light grew infinitely bright, its blooming radiance visible from every corner of the Cosmos.

This brilliant hue ignored time and distance. Whether right before one's eyes or at the desolate edges of the Cosmos, its light could be seen simultaneously. Flickering, flowing, and surging, it finally forced the vast ocean filling the Cosmos and the profoundly manifested palm to loosen their grip for a single instant.

With that, the Cosmos cleared.

The three True Persons and the single arhat surfaced from the vast ocean simultaneously. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, as if they had never been inexplicably trapped at all.

"Are we out?"

Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan could not help but turn his head, glancing at the figure within the light beside him. The latter remained as calm as ever, only letting out a soft sigh. "Not yet."

An instant later, Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan understood why: before they were trapped, they had been sitting squarely beside the Eight Trigrams Furnace and the Eight Treasure Table.

Yet now, all that greeted their eyes was an expanse of emptiness.

The entire battlefield of the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle had simply vanished!

"Water qi excels at concealment."

Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang softly explained, "That sovereign could not suppress us with a single hand while also guarding against the other sovereigns eyeing them like hungry tigers."

"So they changed their approach. They hid the entire battlefield instead."

"To be honest, it would have been better if they had exerted just a bit more power to heavily injure us."

As the words fell, this existence—who had just unleashed power far exceeding that of an ordinary True Person—could not help but sigh. Their tone was laced with emotional helplessness. "Expending one fraction of effort to achieve ten fractions of results."

"If they can evade, they will never clash head-on."

"This has always been the style of water qi. I imagine he was the one who taught it to them... It is too late now. That variable has likely already been tossed inside."

"A variable..."

Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan cast a sidelong glance.

He naturally understood Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang's thoughts. After all, from the very beginning, the thing pinning them in place had been nothing more than a single trigram manifestation.

Where was the other one?

"Water-Thunder Zhun. The hard and soft begin to intersect, moving amidst danger. It is the hexagram of nascent birth..."

Clouds and thunder form Zhun; thus the superior man weaves his plans.

This was a supreme Daoist doctrine, the imagery of the ultimate stations of heaven and earth. Because it contained a Zhen Trigram, Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan had also sought to comprehend it in the past.

"They left the perilous imagery of the Kan Trigram to us to obstruct our interference, and passed the nascent imagery of the Zhen Trigram to the pawn inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, carving out a thread of life for them... No wonder we failed to notice a thing. A True Monarch who excels at concealment struck from the shadows..."

To actually strike out against lower-realm cultivators—utterly shameless!

Inside the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode.

Wang Ping's eyes were tightly closed. His divine sense seemed to drift from his body, diffusing into every corner of the abode, seizing complete control over this domain left behind by the Great Rebellion.

The heavenly abode had recognized its master!

In addition, all his memories returned. The great divine power, 'the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time,' had impressively achieved perfection, signifying that the pre-ordained moment had finally arrived.

At that moment, Wang Ping could clearly feel the joyful surging of his magic power. Beneath the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, a divine power that had been lying dormant within the earth coalesced. The two divine powers merged flawlessly into one, showing not the slightest hint of conflict. They even carried a profound implication of yin and yang harmonizing in absolute perfection.

"Whoa!"

A sudden exclamation rang out. Wang Ping turned his head in response, only to see the Heaven-Stealing Thief and Xianfu looking up simultaneously. In the depths of their eyes lay an enlightenment remarkably similar to his own.

Wait, did you guys remember something too?

"So it was that True Monarch..."

"So this is how it is..."

A second later, the Heaven-Stealing Thief stepped forward slowly. An object surfaced in his palm—it was the very mountain-shaped Spiritual Treasure he had used while battling the True Person's phantom.

The Crown-Stroking Mountain!

"I'll lend this to you."

With a flick of his wrist, the Heaven-Stealing Thief tossed the Spiritual Treasure over. "I've refined it for many years," he said briskly. "It carries a trace of the Qian Trigram's imagery."

"The water divine power you cultivate is excellent for concealment, but when the time comes, it must manifest clearly into the world. You must transform 'the gentleman hiding his implements' into 'a dragon appearing in the field.' Only then can you break through to the third layer... When that sovereign designed this divine power, they extracted a portion of the Qian Trigram's profound variations."

"Therefore, if you sit atop this mountain during your breakthrough, it will definitely assist you."

Having said his piece, the Heaven-Stealing Thief stepped back.

"Enter seclusion here. Seal the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode and isolate it from the outside world. This way, even if you break through to the third layer, you can hide yourself afterward without the outside world ever noticing."

"That will aid you in killing Baohu."

The Heaven-Stealing Thief spoke at a rapid-fire pace.

Holy shit...

Wang Ping blinked, taking a long moment to process this. That sovereign of water had not just placed a pawn in him—they had planted pieces in the others as well!

A second later, he turned to look at Xianfu.

The latter simply smiled faintly at him. "When you break through, I will lend my strength to kill Baohu as well. However, once that is done, I have a matter that will require your cooperation."

Wang Ping: "..."

They've returned. I can feel it—it's all returned!

This is the bond between us!