Chapter 343: Merit Demands Concealment, Feats Demand Deception

'Did you really think my Three-Pronged Vajra Hook would be so easy to break!'

Looking at the slight shift in Wang Ping's expression, Baohu felt completely at peace. Although she had cultivated this Major Divine Ability for many years, it was not a method she used often.

The reason was simple: the restrictions were too great.

To make this divine power hit its target, she first had to plant a trace of qi inside the opponent's body. Only by using that qi trace as a guide would there be any chance of success.

However, the difficulty of planting that trace of qi into an opponent during a magical battle was incredibly high. She had plenty of simpler, more convenient methods at her disposal and no need to fixate on a single divine power. Because of this, she hadn't used it during her earlier clashes with Wang Ping.

But now was different.

Relying on the Stellar Magnetic Profound Sand, Baohu had perfectly predicted Wang Ping's Nine Breaths Qi Ingestion. Striking when he least expected it, she had successfully planted the qi trace right into his body.

As a Major Divine Ability with so many prerequisites, the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook was troublesome to use, but as long as it hit, the payoff was equally immense.

In short, it came down to one thing:

'A guaranteed hit.'

Once locked by the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook, no matter what methods the opponent used to dodge disasters or evade tribulations, escaping her attacks would be absolutely impossible.

Furthermore, unless she—the master of the divine power—voluntarily relinquished the lock or lost consciousness, it would never be undone.

In this state, her opponent couldn't dodge her attacks, while she could evade theirs through various means. She could even use the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook to sense their moves in advance. This established an almost absolute advantage in a magical battle; it was no exaggeration to say it secured her victory ahead of time.

A second later, Baohu moved.

Wang Ping had naturally braced himself. To his surprise, however, Baohu did not bring out the Purple Gourd capable of absorbing all things.

Instead, she gripped the hook rope of the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook with one hand, looking as though she intended to pry Wang Ping's skull right off, and parted her lips to speak:

"I respectfully invoke the Heavenly Solemn Time-Killing Decree!"

In an instant, Wang Ping's vision filled with stark white light. It was as if frost and snow were descending from the heavens to slaughter all life, radiating a chill that seemed to seep straight into his sea of consciousness.

'It's Heavenly Yin Metal... she's hitting me with Heavenly Yin Metal!?'

Wang Ping's eyes widened. Even more than the attack itself, he was bewildered as to where she had obtained Heavenly Yin Metal.

Though the answer was already glaringly obvious.

The Heavenly Frost Cave Abode!

'It's Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang... Baohu managed to contact his will trapped inside the Heavenly Frost Cave Abode. This is her true killing move!'

Clearly, Baohu was deeply experienced in magical battles. She knew Wang Ping had likely prepared countermeasures against the Purple Gourd she had repeatedly used earlier, making its deployment a waste of energy. So she abandoned it entirely, decisively revealing her trump card to secure victory in one fell swoop with the advantage of an unseen strike.

In a split second, Wang Ping's figure blurred.

He vanished immediately after, replaced by a round-lugged Tripod Cauldron. It stood firmly in his place and collided with the stark white light.

"Clang!"

In that instant, the pale, deadly light shattered against the Tripod Cauldron. This was not due to a gap in their raw power, but rather a severe mismatch in their innate affinities.

The Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron.

Suppressing Axe!

This Treasure Cauldron excelled most at suppressing the qi of heaven and earth. Moreover, Heavenly Yin Metal was inherently an eradicated form of heaven and earth qi; conceptually, it was entirely countered by the cauldron.

How could it possibly win?

But a second later, as the Treasure Cauldron shifted aside and Wang Ping's figure reappeared, he showed no joy at dodging a lethal blow. Instead, his face was ashen.

Baohu focused her gaze and smiled effortlessly. Before her eyes, Wang Ping's skin—previously brimming with vital blood qi—had turned the pale, sickly white of a corpse. His internal organs were coated in a layer of frost, and his surging, fiery vitality had violently plummeted, completely losing its initial ferocity.

"Haa..."

Wang Ping parted his lips and exhaled a breath of freezing air mixed with white luminescence. It looked light and airy, but if it were to fall upon the mortal realm, it would unleash a raging blizzard.

'I didn't dodge it.'

Even though he had brought the Spiritual Treasure up in time as a shield and whittled away a portion of the heavenly solemn light, the attack had still pierced straight into his physical body and sea of consciousness.

This prompted him to glance at the hook rope still locked onto his skull. Obviously, it was the effect of this divine power. The heavenly solemn light had traveled straight down the rope, landing on him unhindered. Not even the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron could block it out.

'This is bad.'

Wang Ping shook his head, feeling his entire body growing stiff. The frost inside him had already begun to spread from his blood qi and divine astral aura toward his magical power and divine powers.

On the other side, Baohu was extremely satisfied.

'The match is decided!'

It had been well worth her effort to sense the Heavenly Frost Cave Abode and strike a deal with that True Person of the Immortal Gate trapped inside, convincing him to send out this Spiritual Treasure forged from Heavenly Yin Metal.

And to conceal this thread of heavenly secrets, she had borrowed the entirety of the Northern Crimson Silk Golden Pure Land, masking it with the imagery of the Master of Secret Traces. Earlier, it had looked as if she were hiding herself, but in reality, she was hiding this trump card. She had ensured it remained completely undetected so she could determine the victor in this exact moment!

'When it comes to hiding, my Master of Secret Traces lineage has never feared anyone!'

All things considered, perhaps only the water qi lineage of the Immortal Gate could slightly edge them out, and even then, a True Person wouldn't suffice—it would require a big shot at the True Monarch level.

'But I have the dharma passed down by a Bodhisattva; do you have the protection of a True Monarch?'

'What are you going to fight me with!'

At this thought, Baohu once again raised the Seven Hearts Linked Gourd in her hand. She popped open the stopper and called out to Wang Ping from afar:

"Almsgiver Dousheng!"

Wang Ping naturally had no interest in responding, but the Purple Gourd did not require an answer anyway. As soon as her voice fell, a streak of purple light swept down toward him.

He naturally wanted to dodge, but with the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook in place, the purple light hurtled straight down the hook rope, denying him any chance of evasion.

The next second, he felt the world spin wildly around him.

By the time he recovered, he had already fallen into the vast, purple-qi-filled space inside the gourd. And this time, Baohu had no intention of holding back.

"Give it a shake, and dharma perishes, the Dao dissipates."

"Give it a sway, and spirit rots, the man dies!"

Baohu's dharma incantation echoed thunderously throughout the gourd's realm. Wang Ping then saw the entire space inside the gourd begin to violently shake as purple qi crawled up his body.

Seeing this, Wang Ping instantly wore a look of utter helplessness. He had no choice but to activate Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning once more. The terrifying profundity of time began to churn, twisting the grand layout. In the blink of an eye, Wang Ping broke free from the gourd's space, and the heavenly solemn light inside his body rapidly faded.

Time had been reversed to just before Baohu made her move.

"..."

Baohu did not say a word at the sight, but a hint of mockery bled into her eyes. Because no matter how time was turned back, the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook was still there!

This divine power was already seamlessly fused with Wang Ping's sea of consciousness.

Even Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning could do nothing about it. As long as Wang Ping couldn't break this divine power, no matter how many times he rewound time, he would only be repeating the same disaster.

In the next second, however, Baohu's expression changed.

Because Wang Ping didn't stop.

The reversal of time continued. Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning kept running, and it didn't just encompass Wang Ping—it swept her into its shifting radius as well.

'What is he trying to do?'

Baohu furrowed her brows. She subconsciously activated the Deep Blue Eyes Phase to catch a glimpse of the future, but the result caused her heart to suddenly sink:

'I can't see it?'

Her emerald eyes and square pupils, fully capable of peering into the future, now saw nothing but impenetrable gloom. It was as suffocating as sinking to the bottom of a lightless ocean.

This was a situation that had never occurred before.

After all, her Deep Blue Eyes Phase was one of the thirty-two marks of a Living Buddha. It was absolutely not something that could be deceived by ordinary methods of obscuring karma.

What had gone wrong?

Beyond that, what Baohu found even more incomprehensible was Wang Ping's choice to forcibly reverse time with total disregard for the steep price it demanded.

'It makes no sense. Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning consumes a massive amount of lifespan. Even if he killed some Brahma Cultivators earlier and extracted their lifespans, retaining a stockpile, it's impossible for that to sustain endless reversals. How far back is he trying to go? Why did he include me in it?'

Light and shadows rapidly shifted.

Baohu watched helplessly as she was enveloped by Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning, rewinding all the way back to the deepest part of the pure land where she had initially hidden.

And then the reversal continued.

Hmm? Continued?

'Ah... so that's it!'

In an instant, a look of realization dawned in Baohu's eyes: 'This guy... he wants to reverse my time back to before I went to the outer heavens and constructed the pure land!'

If he succeeded, it would be equivalent to forcefully extracting her from the Northern Crimson Silk Golden Pure Land and tossing her straight back onto the sword-fighting battlefield. When that happened, all the methods she relied upon would be reduced to nothing. There was even a high chance she would be sent into a death trap to be killed or captured alive!

'As if I'd let you continue...'

At this thought, a cold glint flashed across Baohu's beautiful eyes. The heavenly solemn light flared from between her brows once more, and a snowflake mark faintly materialized.

The Heavenly Yin Metal Spiritual Treasure, the Heavenly Solemn Time-Killing Decree!

Traveling down the hook rope of the Three-Pronged Vajra Hook, the intense, descending heavenly solemn light roared forth to strike Wang Ping, only to be thrown back by the warped reversal of time.

Yet Baohu did not care in the slightest.

'I refuse to believe your lifespan is truly endless... As long as I throw everything I have at you, I'll force you to reverse your own state on top of reversing my time.'

'Sooner or later, you will die of old age!'

Gritting her teeth, Baohu watched the Seven Hearts Linked Gourd in her hand alternately shift colors as she simultaneously hefted the Secret Traces Vajra Pestle and violently smashed it toward Wang Ping.

All these methods were futile. Even if they inflicted damage, it would be wiped clean by the reversal a second later. However, amid the twisting currents of time, Baohu precisely caught sight of a streak of pale white slipping through Wang Ping's pitch-black hair, immediately reinforcing her resolve.

'Oh, right...'

'What was I just thinking about?'

'I was thinking about the reason why Wang Ping used Heaven-Reversing Sun-Turning... and before that? It feels like there was something else that made me doubtful, or even vigilant.'

'...Forget it.'

'It's not important.'