Chapter 335: The Latent Dragon Kun Takes Flight to Become a Peng!

Wang Ping returned to the profound seat in the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode. Using his current authority as the master of the heavenly abode, he immediately locked down the entire sector where Kunlun was located.

He decided to trust Kunlun just this once.

Not because Kunlun's words had moved him... or rather, maybe they had moved him a little, but his true motivation for the decision was his own self-interest.

'I have already successfully cultivated the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time. As long as I break through to the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer, in the worst-case scenario, I can simply hide the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart. Alternatively, I can use Heavenly Yin Metal to shatter it. Once I get rid of this heavily karma-laden piece of junk, I can kill myself, make my escape, and claim a victorious retreat into my next life.'

This was the source of his confidence.

"Phew..."

Upon the profound seat, Wang Ping let out a long breath. He then focused his consciousness on this Major Divine Ability, the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time, and began to connect with destiny.

"Rumble!"

In an instant, the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart seemed to sense something. It trembled violently, suppressing the Divine Power to stop Wang Ping from breaking through to the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer.

There was a time when the lockdown of this damn Divine Power had left Wang Ping completely helpless, forcing him to watch his cultivation stagnate. Now, however, as the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time circulated, the great mountain that once pressed down on him suddenly lost its crushing weight.

"Whoosh..."

Circulating his divine sense, Wang Ping continuously pushed the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time. At the same time, he activated Golden Sea Desiccation once more, purging his stray thoughts and elevating his state of mind.

Thus, a sudden flash of enlightenment arose in his heart.

Previously, the True Monarch had remained hidden, using him as a pawn to deceive the three True Persons. Now that the time was right and the truth had been revealed, the True Monarch used a water qi Divine Power to escape the third layer.

He recreated the feat of the water qi escaping to resonate with destiny.

Was this not the exact profundity of 'the dragon appears in the field'?

'I see. The True Monarch's machinations upon my body were actually a lesson in Divine Powers. He was teaching me how to use this Divine Power!'

So this was how 'the dragon appears in the field' was meant to be used!

'Not only that!'

With his mind clear and his thoughts sharp, Wang Ping watched as the water qi Divine Power, rather than being silenced by the suppression of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, became increasingly lively and fluid.

'The symbol of the Qian Trigram's transformation is the dragon. The Qian Trigram rides six dragons to rule the heavens. These six dragons represent six forms of dragon transformation. The True Monarch took one of them, named 'Appearing', which birthed the profundity of 'the dragon appears in the field' within the Divine Power. And this particular dragon transformation perfectly aligns with my cultivation.'

Wang Ping's mind stirred.

The Spiritual Treasure that the Heaven-Stealing Thief had lent him before leaving, the Crown-Stroking Mountain, had already settled beneath him. Its profound power supported his consciousness, lifting it rapidly upward.

This brought his enlightenment ever closer to the Qian Trigram.

'Exactly. The transformations of the dragon are: Latent, Appearing, Vigilant, Leaping, Flying, and Overreaching... Appearing is the second step, coming right after the latent dragon.'

'The latent dragon does not act' perfectly corresponded to concealment, as well as subterranean yin water. The Hidden Dragon Meridian-Circulating Nether-Penetrating Qi symbolized the water qi Divine Power currently suppressed by the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart. The saying 'a dragon hides in the abyss, waiting for its time to rise' was actually just another way of saying the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time and wait for the moment to strike!

'And taking the next step, what does it mean for the dragon to appear in the field?'

Wang Ping's understanding grew deeper.

'As the name suggests, the dragon appears in the open field. Although it has not yet leaped, let alone soared into the heavens, it has already risen from the depths of the earth to the surface.'

This perfectly corresponded to the water qi Divine Power escaping the lockdown of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart!

No wonder that water qi True Monarch had utilized the imagery of the Qian Trigram when designing this Divine Power—its transformations actively aided his own breakthrough!

"Boom!"

The moment this realization struck Wang Ping, the booming sound of the Dao echoed in his ears. In an instant, his consciousness shattered every obstacle; the latent dragon ascended, suddenly breaking free and escaping!

The lockdown of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart could no longer suppress Wang Ping's cultivation. Majestic magical power circulated, using the Divine Power as a vessel to propel his consciousness ever higher. It fiercely smashed through the ethereal boundaries, and by the time he regained his senses, a vast, boundless ocean had already filled his vision.

The torrent of destiny!

In that moment, Wang Ping was so moved he almost shed tears. He felt an unprecedented sense of relief, as if he had finally cast off a crushing burden.

"...Stay calm."

After closing his eyes to enjoy the sensation for a brief moment, Wang Ping took a deep breath and regained his composure. "It's not over yet. I still need to sketch out my own destiny form."

Merely escaping was not enough.

If he couldn't manifest his destiny form and truly establish a firm foothold within this torrent of destiny, it would all just be pavilions in the air. No matter how deep his foundation was, he would eventually fall.

A second later, light and shadows surfaced in the depths of his eyes.

It was his destiny up to this very point.

A black-headed commoner living a mediocre life; a strongman dying halfway along the path; a constable sacrificing himself for justice; a boy transforming into a weapon spirit; a martial artist showing his first flashes of brilliance; an independent cultivator dying to a scheme.

Reaching the Grandmaster Rank, cultivating magical power, attaining Divine Powers.

Layer upon layer of tribulations, leading all the way to today... Every single resurrection through the Taiping Sutra, every lifetime he had lived, was made manifest in this exact moment!

'Just as I expected.'

Seeing this, Wang Ping wasn't surprised. Long ago, he had suspected whether destiny could pre-emptively grasp the resurrections and identities granted by the Taiping Sutra.

Now, the answer was abundantly clear.

'The rebirths of the Taiping Sutra cannot be hidden from destiny. Furthermore, the fact that these rebirths can fabricate identities... could that also involve the active cooperation of destiny?'

What was the relationship between the two?

Wang Ping lowered his eyes. He didn't dwell on the matter for too long. After all, it was obviously something beyond his current ability to perceive; agonizing over it would only be a waste of time.

He needed to focus on his cultivation first.

"These lifetimes are the blueprints for my destiny form. Magical power is the ink, and Divine Power is the brush. What I have to do next is turn these blueprints into reality."

Taking a deep breath, Wang Ping channeled his Divine Power into all of his past lives. He then poured out his magical power and began to wield the brush within destiny. With every stroke, he felt as if he were reliving those lifetimes all over again. His consciousness sank into them as oceans of memories swarmed his mind.

"Guard the spiritual light!"

Wang Ping's heart remained vigilant. This seemingly simple step was actually far more perilous than it appeared. The slightest misstep would leave him drowning in those fragments of his past lives.

During this process, if he forgot that he was drawing his destiny form and failed to break free from the memories, his magical power—the ink—would be drained away for nothing. If he stalled here for too long, he might ultimately fail on the verge of success simply because he lacked that final drop of ink.

"So the most important thing is—'Me'."

He might have many different identities, and the background memories tied to them were chaotic and scattered, but in the end, they all funneled back to a single 'Me'.

'Isn't this... exactly what the Martial Dao is?'

'The Integration of Immortal and Martial really has potential!'

Suddenly, a brilliant light erupted in Wang Ping's mind. The faint image of a Mind Monkey appeared, wielding divine iron to sweep away all delusion and confusion, anchoring his consciousness in absolute clarity.

He walked through the myriad fragments of his lives as effortlessly as treading on flat ground.

Throughout this process, an image of light gradually took shape beneath his brush. It was an absolute behemoth, formed simply because his collective lifetimes had been far too magnificent.

With several rebirths crammed into just a few short years, he had vaulted from a mere mortal into a pawn played by True Persons. Now, he was even charging at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer. For any other cultivator, this would be a wealth of experience they couldn't accumulate even in thousands of years. It even surpassed the lives of some Qi Refining practitioners. How monumental was the sheer weight of such an existence?

Therefore, when he manifested it into his destiny form...

...the physical shape that was ultimately constructed was also an awe-inspiring behemoth. In fact, it even appeared somewhat bloated, swollen by the massive amounts of Divine Power and magical power Wang Ping had poured into it.

'Thank goodness the current environment of heaven and earth is under the jurisdiction of water qi.'

For a moment, Wang Ping actually felt a lingering fear. The weight of his life's destiny was far more exaggerated than he had imagined; his Divine Power and magical power were almost insufficient!

And that was with him effortlessly navigating the illusory realms of his life fragments, barely wasting a drop of his power. It was clear just how close to the absolute limit he was.

'If water qi hadn't held authority, turning the worldly environment into something akin to the Return to Ruin with its massive influx of water-element spiritual energy for me to directly harvest and replenish myself, I probably would have had a thirty percent chance of failing this time... But on the flip side, with such immense consumption, the final grade of the destiny form is bound to be top-tier!'

Thinking of this, Wang Ping focused his gaze on the destiny form he had painted.

"Is this... a Kun?"

In the Northern Darkness there is a fish; its name is Kun. It transforms into a bird, and its name is Peng.

"This is my destiny form. When the Immortal Dao takes the lead, I engage in Latent Concealment, submerging as a Kun. When the Martial Dao takes the lead, I act with rebellion, taking flight to become a Peng!"

Wang Ping was ecstatic.

"Next, it's time to give it a name."

Establishing a title for a destiny form wasn't just a matter of saying a few words; it was meant to serve as a footnote summarizing his life up to this point and the very essence he had cultivated.

If he picked a name carelessly, the quality of his destiny form would plummet.

"Hmm... The fact that this destiny form could be drawn at all is thanks to me harvesting the water-element spiritual energy of the water qi's jurisdiction to fill in the gaps. That's the only reason I succeeded."

Since that was the case, why not call it the 'Ruin-Harvesting Kun'?

No, no, that wouldn't do.

"That name only corresponds to the final step of painting the destiny form. How could it properly footnote my entire life? I need to pick something more appropriate."

After pondering it time and time again, Wang Ping finally came to a decision.

"My ability to break through the Divine Power's lockdown this time came from two things: first, relying on subterranean yin water to maintain my Latent Concealment right under the noses of True Persons; second, borrowing the dragon transformation of the Qian Trigram."

In that case—

"It should be the 'Latent Dragon Kun'!"

As Wang Ping's words fell, his divine sense circulated. Like painting the eyes on a dragon, the originally lifeless destiny form instantly burst forth with an unprecedented spiritual light.

Destiny form, achieved!