Chapter 340: This Is a Normal Sword Duel!

Outside the pure land, Wang Ping narrowed his eyes.

He had to admit, he never expected Jingshan to push Xianfu this far. As part of the Arhat Seats, the monk clearly possessed some genuine skill.

'There are truly no mediocre enemies on the path of cultivation,' he thought. It was no empty saying.

With that thought, Wang Ping cast aside his contempt. Only one final step remained, and he had no intention of blundering away such a massive advantage.

"Senior Brother Dousheng."

Another inner sect disciple approached. It was Fairy Hehuan, the boldest among them. "Should we go support Senior Brother Xianfu?"

Xianfu would be fine.

Caught in the thick of the fight, Jingshan remained blind to the reality of the situation. Watching from the outside, Wang Ping could already see who would win, though a temporary triumph meant nothing.

Unless they shattered this Northern Crimson Silk Golden Pure Land and exposed Baohu, attacking again and again would only waste their mana. Even if they did break through, they couldn't simply slaughter everyone. If too many Brahma Cultivators died, the resulting atmospheric backlash would force the Heavenly Frost Cave Abode to emerge.

He had to admit, Baohu had forged a flawless turtle shell.

Had she been facing anyone else, she might have actually survived this tribulation and kept her life. Wang Ping's lips curled into a vicious smile.

'Perfect.'

'If she lacked such skill, how could she serve as the proving ground for my Divine Powers?'

At that thought, an eerie aura rippled over Wang Ping's body like water, obscuring the heavenly secrets. It lingered for a long time before finally dissipating.

A moment later, he glanced at the eight inner sect disciples behind him and gave a slight nod. "Attack. Stick together, and don't worry about getting hurt."

"Just don't self-destruct this time."

"Understood!"

As his words fell, eight streaks of light immediately soared into the sky, plunging into the pure land right behind Xianfu. Wang Ping alone remained outside, overseeing the entire battlefield.

...

"Boom!"

Only when the Alms-Begging Array shattered beneath a soaring pillar of spiritual light did Jingshan realize his mistake. He had miscalculated at the most critical juncture.

"A second... a second Spiritual Treasure!"

He looked back, eyes splitting in shock. A towering mountain erupted beneath Xianfu's feet, elevating him and making Jingshan's own figure appear inexplicably tiny by contrast.

Yet, in stark contrast to that dwarfed silhouette, Xianfu's destiny form erupted with unprecedented power. Bolstered by the Unified Mind Hall, he violently crashed into Jingshan. The combined strike of two Spiritual Treasures utterly overwhelmed the Alms-Begging Array, which relied solely on the World-Begging Alms Bowl for defense.

This was the true source of Xianfu's confidence.

'The Alms-Begging Array is a thorny formation indeed. The only way to break it is to instantly overload its limits, denying it any chance to react.'

Fortunately, he wielded the Crown-Stroking Mountain.

Otherwise, he would have had to settle for his backup plan and let Wang Ping extract him with the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron. Had it come to that, he would have effectively lost this bout.

'These bald donkeys certainly came prepared!'

Another massive boom echoed out. After shattering the Alms-Begging Array, Xianfu tried to press his advantage and eliminate Jingshan, but his attack struck only empty air.

Jingshan was already nowhere to be seen.

He had clearly used the pure land's profound mechanics to teleport away.

Glancing around, Xianfu noticed that Fairy Hehuan and the other inner sect disciples had already charged in. He frowned, a thought crossing his mind:

'A bit early.'

He had only just defeated Jingshan. The logical move would have been to let him test the Brahma Nation's arrays further, gathering enough intelligence before committing their full force.

However, Xianfu quickly cast those doubts aside. He trusted Wang Ping's judgment. Since the decision had been made, he wouldn't question it.

With that in mind, he joined the others and pushed deeper into the pure land.

Elsewhere, deep within the pure land, Jingshan tumbled out of a streak of light. He hit the ground stumbling, his face pale with the sheer relief of having survived.

"Senior Brother!"

Zhongjian rushed forward to help him up. "That Biyang lot from the Immortal Gate have all charged in! Senior Brother, what do we do now?"

"What are you panicking for?"

Jingshan sneered. "Order those under the Wisdom King to intercept them immediately. If they die, they die. I highly doubt those immortal cultivators actually have the nerve to start a massacre."

"If the death toll climbs too high, the Heavenly Frost Cave Abode will reveal itself."

"As long as they aren't killed, a temporary rout means nothing. Have them pull back and reestablish their formations like Jinchi did. We will stall them layer by layer. They have no way to crack us!"

His logic was sound, and Zhongjian visibly calmed down.

Moments later, under Jingshan's command, dazzling pillars of Buddhist light erupted across the pure land to meet the incoming attackers. Dozens of array diagrams unfurled in sequence.

Though the exact manifestations of these formations varied, they were all established by the Brahma Cultivators under the Wisdom King. Their underlying foundations were identical.

The Gold-Tasting Array. The Dharma-Debating Array.

The Majestic Wisdom Array. The Joyous Array.

The four grand arrays of the Wisdom Kings each possessed their own unique strengths. Taking in the battlefield, Xianfu rapidly analyzed their flaws and issued his orders.

"Qingxuanzi, Bailing, you two excel at cultivating spiritual plants and taming spiritual beasts—take the Gold-Tasting Array. Mingdaozi, Yanyun, Dunjia, your arts specialize in deduction—team up and dismantle the Dharma-Debating Array. The rest of you, combine your strength to smash the Majestic Wisdom Array. I'll take the hardest job and break the Joyous Array..."

"Wait!"

Wang Ping's voice rumbled over before Xianfu could even finish his sentence. "Leave the Joyous Array to me. Senior Brother, you should assist the others with their arrays."

Xianfu was left speechless.

You little brat, are you really that impatient to join the fray?

"Boom!"

In the blink of an eye, the formations overlapped and intertwined. Xianfu could only choose to trust him, leading the eight inner sect disciples as they plunged straight into the roaring arrays.

Xianfu's tactical deployment proved to be highly effective.

Within the Gold-Tasting Array, Qingxuanzi and Bailing worked in perfect harmony. One scattered seeds that sprouted into soldiers, planting a massive amount of spiritual flora to neutralize the endless surges of liquid gold.

The other unleashed a horde of spiritual beasts, rapidly modifying their internal organs on the spot so they could consume the liquid gold, then excrete it as potent fertilizer to accelerate the plants' growth.

In one end, out the other.

The pair's synergy was flawless. The more liquid gold the array pumped out, the more proficient they became. They shattered formation after formation, having completely seized upon the array's fatal weakness.

Over in the Dharma-Debating Array, Mingdaozi of Mingzhen Immortal Peak, Yanyun of Xuanyi Immortal Peak, and Dunjia of Jiutian Immortal Peak formed a devastating trio. One isolated the flaws, one deduced the countermeasure, and the third executed the strike. Their approach was highly targeted, allowing them to tear through the formations without breaking a sweat.

As for the Majestic Wisdom Array.

Aligned under the Great Majestic Virtue Wisdom King, this formation tested raw combat power above all else. With Xianfu personally leading the charge, bolstered by his Spiritual Treasure, their assault was utterly unstoppable.

However, their unstoppable momentum soon began to slow.

The reason was simple: they lacked the numbers.

Breaking one or two formations was easy enough, but tearing through dozens took a massive toll. Even the mightiest cultivator couldn't sustain that level of consumption forever. Exhaustion was inevitable.

Furthermore, under Jingshan's arrangements, the defending monks didn't die when their formations broke. They simply teleported deeper into the pure land to recover, erected new arrays, and cycled right back into the fight.

Unless an overwhelmingly powerful cultivator could punch a hole through all their arrays at once, Jingshan was confident he could stretch this war of attrition out infinitely. Backed by the pure land's home-field advantage, the numerically inferior Immortal Gate forces would ultimately be ground to dust!

However, there was one strange anomaly.

"These people... are they not defending at all?"

As Jingshan patiently monitored the battle across the various formations, he realized something bizarre. From Xianfu down to the eight inner sect disciples, not a single one of them was mounting a defense.

They were fighting with absolute, suicidal abandon.

Yet, despite completely abandoning their defenses, their wounds healed in an incredibly short time.

What was going on?

It couldn't be Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning. Senior Sister Baohu had made it explicitly clear that the technique burned through a cultivator's lifespan. There was no way this Biyang lot had enough lifespan to burn on such relentless healing.

'They must have some other trick up their sleeves.'

'No matter.'

He remained on guard, but this anomaly didn't fundamentally alter the situation. They might be healing their injuries, but their spent mana and exhausted Divine Powers couldn't be recovered.

Comforted by this logic, Jingshan felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

"This is a normal sword duel, after all!"

Back and forth, unhurried and lively. At worst, a handful of expendable monks under the Wisdom King and a few fringe inner sect disciples would die.

Perfect!

However, his satisfaction did not last long. A moment later, an intense, unmistakable ripple of energy transmitted inward from outside the pure land.

"Rumble!"

The next second, the ground violently heaved beneath Jingshan's feet as if the earth dragon had turned over. The painstakingly forged pure land was nearly flipped upside down by a massive surge of force!

The sheer violence of the tremor nearly launched Jingshan into the air. Zhongjian collapsed to the ground beside him, while the cultivators locked in intense combat across the battlefield stumbled and fell into utter disarray. A handful of arrays simply shattered from the shockwave alone.

"Dammit. The abnormal one is here..."

Jingshan's eyelids twitched. He looked up to see a heroic, armor-clad youth wielding twin maces, a three-legged, round-eared cauldron hovering ominously above his head.

Wang Ping had entered the array.

He swept his gaze across the entire pure land. Then, in a flash of movement, he launched himself toward the Joyous Array with absolutely unstoppable momentum!