Chapter 365: Demonic Path

Outside the Immortal Gate's Gongshun Grotto-Heaven.

Wang Ping and Kunyun exited the Deity Transformation Realm. Led by Kunyun, they rode the qi of heaven and earth, quickly arriving near the grotto-heaven.

"Senior Brother, there's no rush," Wang Ping said.

Wang Ping caught Kunyun's arm, stopping him from charging straight in. He stared thoughtfully at the Gongshun Grotto-Heaven, his eyes flickering slightly as he pressed the center of his brow.

His intuition told him there was danger.

Although his Divine Intent cultivation was far inferior to the First Seat's, Wang Ping's intuition had undergone a qualitative leap ever since he mastered the True Martial Sacred Body.

"What is it?" Kunyun raised an eyebrow. "Are we not just fighting our way in?"

Wang Ping shot him a glance, silently cursing him. 'Back when you faced your life tribulation, you charged straight into the Eight Trigrams Furnace and nearly died on the spot. Will you never learn?'

Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to voice that aloud. In the blink of an eye, a warm smile spread across his face. "What you say makes perfect sense, Senior Brother, but there's no rush for now."

"As you said yourself, Dashun Taizu might become a hidden danger to Senior Brother Xianfu. Given that, Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan and Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang might have sent people to watch this place, waiting for us to walk into a trap. If we charge in recklessly, unpredictable dangers could easily arise."

"Are you scared?" Kunyun raised an eyebrow.

Wang Ping's expression remained perfectly calm. "Scared? Of course not. It's just that I've never been fond of fighting. I'm not a competitive or ruthless person, so there's no need for all this killing."

Kunyun's expression instantly turned bizarre.

Never been fond of fighting? Right, so the guy who went on a bloody rampage inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace and even slaughtered someone seated beneath a Brahma Nation Bodhisattva wasn't you, huh?

That was an entity beneath a Bodhisattva's seat!

In all his years of cultivation, let alone someone from beneath a Bodhisattva's seat, Kunyun hadn't even killed someone from the Arhat Seats. It wasn't that he lacked the strength; he simply had never had the opportunity.

After all, his Divine Powers, destiny form, and various methods excelled in head-on clashes. If an opponent was absolutely determined to run away, he didn't have many ways to stop them and could only let them escape.

"Then I'll follow your lead," Kunyun said.

He shrugged, not particularly caring. After all, he wasn't the main character of this trip; Wang Ping, the True Monarch's handpicked Xuanyi Dao Child, was.

This was both Wang Ping's debut battle and his test. Only by passing this trial would he solidify his status as the Xuanyi Dao Child and establish a firm foothold in the Deity Transformation Realm. Otherwise... the water qi lineage was merely in hiding, not extinct. Plenty of people were coveting that position!

"If we don't attack, how are you going to kill Shunhe?" Curious about Wang Ping's plan, Kunyun lowered his voice. "If we drag this out too long, I'm afraid he might run."

"Senior Brother, I don't mean to criticize you," Wang Ping said, shaking his head. "But whatever else is said, we are now people of the water qi lineage. Since we work under the True Monarch's rule, our way of conducting ourselves should align more closely with his."

Kunyun was instantly rendered speechless. 'You might be the Dao Child, but you haven't even been under the True Monarch's rule for a single day. How are you acting more loyal than I am?'

"What are you planning to do?" Kunyun asked.

"That's what I need you to tell me, Senior Brother." Wang Ping thought for a moment before speaking in a low voice, "Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan wants to protect him, but is there really no one else who wants to take his life?"

"Of course there is." Kunyun smiled. "The Immortal Prescription Courtyard has its own internal divisions. If nothing else, the Guanheng Realm would probably love to eat him alive."

"The Guanheng Realm... Another True Monarch?" Wang Ping's eyes flickered. "Oh, the Immortal Prescription Courtyard's Wood Qi True Lord. Could it be the one who stole the lifespans of all the Qi Refining practitioners in the world?"

Rumble!

In an instant, before Wang Ping's voice could even fade, boundless lightning materialized out of thin air around him—all because he had spoken of a monumental, deeply hidden secret.

Back in the day, he had been forced to rely on the Concealing Mystery wonder of the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, intentionally sealing his own memories to avoid triggering this heavy karma. Yet this time, his expression remained perfectly calm. A hazy light flickered faintly across his body, instantly causing the surrounding lightning to dim.

Free and Unfettered Wandering!

It evaded fate and washed away karma, allowing him to stand there with absolute ease. Seeing this, Kunyun, who had been preparing to intervene and save him, froze in sheer surprise.

A moment later, unable to trace the karma, the lightning slowly faded.

"...Impressive," Kunyun praised. After all, casually voicing the karma of a True Monarch required genuine skill. It demanded more than just a deep cultivation foundation.

It also required tremendous merit and methods.

Kunyun didn't lack the former, but the latter was a massive shortcoming for him. That was why, even though he knew that True Monarch's secret, he hadn't spoken of it directly to Wang Ping.

Yet Wang Ping had spoken it. Not only could he say it, but he didn't even have to worry about the consequences. This clearly showed just how much merit and benefit he had gained from slipping through the plots of the True Persons back in the Eight Trigrams Furnace—benefits that would continue to aid him when he eventually attempted Qi Refining Entering the Dao, or even ascended to become a True Person.

"It is that lord," Kunyun said, withdrawing his awe and nodding. "By interfering in my life tribulation and the matter of stealing lifespans back then, Shunhe incurred a massive karmic debt with the Guanheng Realm."

"After all, he originally hailed from the Guanheng Realm, yet he still committed such acts. He is practically a traitor."

"If Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan hadn't forcibly suppressed the matter, and if not for that True Monarch's Handwritten Manuscript and the grand scheme of continuing the wood qi path, they would have struck long ago."

"But things are different now."

"Xianfu has inherited the identity and achievements of the Great Rebellion, and has even gained the aura of that True Monarch's Handwritten Manuscript. The Guanheng Realm plans to push the boat with the current: they want to take back the True Monarch's Handwritten Manuscript and paste it onto the doors of the Unified Mind Hall. Their goal is to strip away Shunhe's final protective talisman and use someone else's knife to kill him."

Wang Ping raised an eyebrow. "They aren't going to do it themselves?"

"I'm guessing they don't want to offend Daoist Master Xuanxiao Yingyuan," Kunyun said, shaking his head. "After all, the condition of that lord in the Guanheng Realm isn't looking very good."

"Besides, they also know I have a grudge against that old dog Shunhe and will definitely make a move. Rather than offending people themselves, they prefer to wait for us to strike."

"What do you mean?" Wang Ping was slightly confused. "If they do it, it offends people. But if we do it, it doesn't?"

"Because we've already offended them long ago. When your debts are that high, you stop worrying about them."

Kunyun flashed a wide grin. "After the Great Rebellion carried out the Purging the Stale Qi of the Six Heavens, four of the elements were damaged, and only water qi escaped unharmed. The Immortal Gate has long since universally recognized us as the demonic path."

"...Huh?"

Wang Ping blinked in utter bewilderment. What did he mean, water qi was the demonic path? Wasn't he an immortal cultivator of the Immortal Gate? How had he suddenly become a demonic villain?

"Ahem, it's a historical legacy issue." Seeing his reaction, Kunyun lowered his voice. "I only heard this through rumors in the Deity Transformation Realm, so you absolutely cannot tell anyone. Supposedly—just supposedly, mind you—back when the Great Rebellion carried out the Purging the Stale Qi of the Six Heavens, the True Monarch provided a tiny, insignificant bit of help..."

Rumble!

An endless, echoing boom resounded from the void, crashing down like a celestial waterfall. Kunyun hurriedly clamped his mouth shut, cutting his words off instantly and leaving Wang Ping standing frozen in place.

Wang Ping's expression shifted rapidly in the span of a single breath.

'Good heavens!'

'I thought water qi escaped back then because the True Monarch's profound mastery was unparalleled, ranking first among the five elements. It turns out it was premeditated all along? They were throwing the damn match with the Great Rebellion?'

'That is far too ruthless!'

'No wonder water qi was branded as the demonic path and had to flee to the Heavenly Market Enclosure. The so-called hiding of water qi... Don't tell me it's actually because everyone in the Immortal Gate wants to beat us to a pulp?'

Thinking this, Wang Ping couldn't help but rub his chin. 'That has to be it. And for water qi... this actually isn't a bad thing. The Kan Trigram represents layered dangers. With water qi facing such a terrible external environment, it might not be harmful at all; it could actually be beneficial. The True Monarch might have done it on purpose!'

For a moment, Wang Ping understood more clearly than ever why water qi was ranked first.

Damn it, ever since the Great Rebellion's Purging the Stale Qi of the Six Heavens, water qi won when it had the advantage, and it won when it was at a disadvantage. There was never a time it didn't win! How could it not be number one among the five elements!

"I understand," Wang Ping said, taking a deep breath as a plan quickly formed in his mind. "Wait here for a moment, Senior Brother. I'll test out my methods and get a feel for the exact situation inside this Gongshun Grotto-Heaven."

With that said, he sat down on the spot.

Free and Unfettered Wandering!

Riding the truth of heaven and earth, commanding the changes of the six qi, to wander through the boundless—in a flash, a strand of Wang Ping's divine sense turned illusory and vanished from his sea of consciousness.

He traveled to a future three hours from now.

If his physical body moved, he could only travel three seconds. However, if it was just a single strand of divine sense involving absolutely no magic power, he could extend that time to three whole hours.

And with the concealment of "the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time", this strand of divine sense was incredibly faint. Let alone those in Tribulation Transcending, as long as he didn't actively expose his aura, even a Qi Refining practitioner might not be able to discover his tracks. In this moment, Wang Ping pushed the water qi's natural talent for hiding and escaping to its absolute limit.

Thus, very quickly, he saw it.

'Whoa!'

Wherever his gaze landed, he saw a man in cyan clothes riding a streak of light, flying all the way into the Gongshun Grotto-Heaven to demand the True Monarch's Handwritten Manuscript from Dashun Taizu.

Wang Ping concealed himself and followed closely behind the cyan-clothed man, witnessing his entire exchange with Dashun Taizu and firmly memorizing the contents of their conversation.

"You don't have much time left anyway."

The exact second after the cyan-clothed man uttered those words, Wang Ping felt a stir in his heart. His magic power ran dry, and he returned from the future scenes back to the real world.

"Phew...!"

As Wang Ping let out a long breath, a sudden realization dawned in his mind.

'This segment of the future cannot be changed, nor is it possible to change it.'

'Forcing a change will only end in futile effort. Even if there truly is a possibility of changing the future, I would definitely die on the spot before succeeding!'

Whatever you saw in the future was what you could no longer change, because that future had already been "witnessed" by a third party, turning it into destined fact. Conversely, if you failed to see it clearly, or if you only received a few ambiguous prophecies, there might actually be a chance to alter it.

This was the price of peering into the future.

However—that didn't mean there was no room to maneuver.

After digesting the future scenes his divine sense had witnessed, Wang Ping's mind raced. He stood up. "Let's go, Senior Brother. I've already figured out what to do."

"Fight our way in?" Kunyun glanced at him sideways.

"No, we're going the other way."

Wang Ping shook his head. He then led Kunyun away, recalling the direction the cyan-clothed man had come from before entering the Gongshun Grotto-Heaven, and concealed their figures.

Soon, he sensed a bizarre fluctuation.

It was an anomaly that only he—sharing the exact same root and origin—could detect. He knew that this was his own divine sense traveling from the past into this exact moment in time.

'Very good.'

In just a short while, he would see the cyan-clothed man's streak of light flying over from the distance. At that thought, Wang Ping immediately moved a step ahead, heading in the target direction.

He positioned himself in a place where his time-traveling divine sense could not see him.

Wang Ping stood with his hands behind his back. Before long, he saw a streak of light speeding through Cosmic Deep Space, containing none other than that cyan-clothed Daoist from the Guanheng Realm.

In the very next second, he stepped right out in front of the man.

"Fellow Daoist, please hold your steps."