Chapter 380: The True Monarch Still Loves Me!

Wang Ping's envy lasted only a moment.

He suddenly realized that upon reaching the void-shattering Martial Saint level, the First Seat's Martial Dao seemed incapable of coexisting with the immortal dao.

'No, that isn't right.'

Wang Ping's thoughts quickly pivoted.

'It isn't completely unable to coexist. The "Self" the First Seat cultivated is simply mutually exclusive with the immortal dao; her cognition forms a world entirely devoid of spiritual energy and magic.'

Because of this, it severely suppressed both the immortal and Brahma paths, along with all other supernatural forces.

'But I don't have to do that.'

Wang Ping was not nearly as extreme. If he forged a "Self" that truly belonged to him, he could perfectly accommodate the immortal and Brahma paths, using them to achieve the Realm of a Martial Saint.

Of course, he had not yet figured out exactly how to cultivate it. He had absolutely no idea how to expand the "Self" formed by Divine Intent to a level that resonated with heaven and earth. Even the First Seat might not know. After all, the Martial Dao was newly founded and far less complete than the immortal and Brahma paths.

Then he saw the First Seat looking at him with intense eagerness.

"How is it? Did you gain any enlightenment?"

Wang Ping was left speechless.

Wait a minute. He had already switched to cultivating as a Corpse Dissolution Immortal, and he was covered in severe injuries. Instead of asking about his wounds, she was asking if he had gained enlightenment? What kind of person did she take him for?

"No." Wang Ping shook his head honestly.

The moment he said this, Lian Ruzhao narrowed her eyes. "I saw you cultivating the immortal dao very quickly. You achieved enlightenment the moment you spoke of it. Why is there nothing when we switch to the Martial Dao?"

She was a bit unhappy.

She had truly placed tremendous hope in Wang Ping. Because her own situation was completely unique and unmatched by anyone, much of her experience could not be generalized for others.

Wang Ping was different. In Lian Ruzhao's eyes, he was the martial arts prodigy she had been searching for all these years. Not only was his talent high, but he also didn't defy common sense the way she did. This meant his success could be summarized, simplified, and imparted to all martial artists.

Especially the Realm of the Martial Saint.

Lian Ruzhao's own breakthrough offered absolutely nothing that could be summarized. But if Wang Ping could also break through, they could compile its rules and methods.

That was why she had specially demonstrated it for him.

Although she hadn't expected him to gain sudden enlightenment and break through to Martial Saint just like her, he still should have grasped something.

How could he have gotten absolutely nothing?

Instead, his immortal dao cultivation was growing higher and higher compared to before.

For the first time, Lian Ruzhao somewhat understood Chenlong's thoughts. Watching her own child about to stray onto the "orthodox" path and focus entirely on cultivating immortality—how could she let that happen!

Thinking of this, Lian Ruzhao made a decision.

'Previously, I was restricted by the environment. I couldn't casually reveal myself inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace. After that, we were separated by vast distances, making it impossible to even communicate.'

'It's different now.'

From now on, she had to keep this kid by her side at all times. She would teach him hand-in-hand, passing down every ounce of her Martial Dao experience without holding anything back!

With that thought, she reached out again, wrapping an arm around Wang Ping and tucking him securely against her waist.

"Come with me."

As she spoke, Lian Ruzhao completely ignored the wildly fluctuating expression on Shasheng's face in the distance. Holding Wang Ping under one arm, she used her other hand to take out a Token.

Immediately, flames erupted.

On the other side, Shasheng stared blankly as Lian Ruzhao and Wang Ping vanished into the fire. Only when they were completely gone did he finally let out a long breath.

Up until this moment, the Brahma Nation still hadn't made the slightest move. It was one thing for the Ascetic Monks not to arrive in time, but the four great Wisdom Kings and even the arhats filling the heavens hadn't intervened either. This was especially true for the Master of Secret Traces, whose secrets Wang Ping had exposed—he had never shown himself from beginning to end.

This was despite the fact that the background Wang Ping had revealed was only its most superficial layer.

He had only stated the cause and the result without any details or process. Therefore, it was far from enough to say he had truly seen through the foundation of this Bodhisattva, the Master of Secret Traces.

Yet, as a mere Dao Child, he was able to voice such profound Dao secrets.

Then what about the entity standing behind him, the Supreme True Lord of water qi? The Master of Secret Traces had seized the authority of the Kan Trigram, making them absolute enemies on the Great Dao!

"So that's how it is..."

At this moment, the monk under the command of the Master of Secret Traces showed no dejection over the failed operation. Instead, his face was full of sudden realization. "We simply paved the way for someone else."

He seemed to have understood something.

Immediately after, he raised his head, glanced back toward the Brahma Nation, and sighed inwardly. 'No wonder the Eight Trigrams Furnace Bodhisattva didn't intervene earlier.'

The Bodhisattvas were afraid.

...

At the same time, Wang Ping also figured it out.

'So that's how it is!'

Looking back at the present, what had happened since he killed the Dashun Taizu in the Gongshun Grotto-Heaven? Or rather, what did it look like to the Immortal Gate?

The Dao Child of water qi was hunted by Brahma Cultivators and fled for his life.

Every faction watched coldly from the sidelines.

Ultimately, the Dao Child of water qi was forced to switch to cultivating as a Corpse Dissolution Immortal. He was then swept up by the formations of the Brahma Nation's Ascetic Monks and instantly teleported, plummeting deep into the Brahma Nation.

Throughout the entire process, his older mother, the Mingxing Xuanyi Primordial Sovereign, never made a move. All the karmic consequences were absorbed by the Brahma Nation—but what about the end result? He was rescued by his younger mother, the First Seat of the Martial Dao. More importantly, the First Seat was clearly connected to fire qi.

'That's right, the Human Yang Fire!'

'For the First Seat's Martial Dao to reach perfection, she evidently borrowed a portion of the Human Yang Fire's phenomenon at the very end. Furthermore, she proved her Dao within the Brahma Nation—inside the Taiwei Enclosure!'

The fire qi orthodoxy was also located in the Taiwei Enclosure!

Faced with someone forging such a path, how could the fire qi orthodoxy ignore her?

The reason the First Seat chose to prove her Dao in the Brahma Nation was likely due to intuition. She perfectly positioned herself where she could establish the Martial Dao without being threatened by the Brahma Nation.

'As for my older mother, the true purpose behind the True Monarch's layout was probably to use the Brahma Nation to quietly put me in contact with the fire qi orthodoxy!'

That was why the First Seat waited until the very end, stepping in to save him only a split second before he was enveloped by Shasheng's formation and pulled into the Brahma Nation.

Afterward, the Brahma Nation naturally took the entire blame.

No one in the Immortal Gate would suspect the fire qi orthodoxy. As for water qi... the True Monarch lived in seclusion away from the world. She had plenty of reasons not to intervene, making it very hard for anyone to suspect her.

As for the Brahma Nation.

'They should have realized the truth by now. But with the Water Qi True Monarch making contact with the fire qi orthodoxy so secretively, she is clearly planning to stir up trouble within the Immortal Gate.'

'Under these circumstances, not only will the Brahma Nation keep the matter a secret, they will likely clamp down even harder on the scapegoat label they were given. After all, Immortal Gate infighting is exactly what they love to see the most. It brings a hundred benefits to the Brahma Nation with no drawbacks whatsoever. They have every reason to help cover this up...'

The most brilliant part was that he still had his life tribulation!

'My pursuit by the Brahma Nation is entirely encompassed within my life tribulation, making destiny the perfect cover to conceal all of this.'

It appeared to be a massive spectacle known to everyone in the Immortal Gate.

In reality, it was a grand misdirection—marching in plain sight to conceal a secret advance.

Throughout this entire ordeal, the Mingxing Xuanyi Primordial Sovereign never made a move. She remained hidden from the world, quietly watching everything unfold exactly as she envisioned.

'Including me,' Wang Ping mused.

This grand drama of being hunted by Shasheng seemed incredibly perilous, but in truth, he had a method to counter Shasheng's every move.

Where did the Ququan Life-Preserving Pill come from?

He and Kunyun had extorted it from the Dao Child of the Guanheng Realm.

And the Scripture of Nurturing Qi, Forgetting Words, and Guarding the One?

The Dashun Taizu!

'She had planned this all along. To prevent me from actually being captured by Shasheng due to my low cultivation, she prepared the Scripture of Nurturing Qi, Forgetting Words, and Guarding the One, allowing me to break through as a Corpse Dissolution Immortal...'

There were also the profound mysteries of the Kan Trigram that she had revealed to him at the very beginning.

That step was both a test and the method to break the stalemate.

'I had to survive these hardships and see through the secrets of the Master of Secret Traces and the Brahma Nation. Only then could I become a genuine Xuanyi Dao Child acknowledged by her.'

And when that time came—

'As the Xuanyi Dao Child, I would be able to connect with the fire qi orthodoxy through the First Seat, meeting with them as her representative and the representative of the Soul Formation Realm.'

At this point, everything suddenly became clear to Wang Ping!

The water qi manifested radiantly!

In a flash, just like when he had previously used the great divine ability, "the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time," all the truths flowed through his heart as the Water Qi True Monarch's schemes were laid bare.

Immediately after, a thunderous, rushing roar echoed in his ears. The radiant water qi triggered an endless array of anomalous phenomena. It was as if rivers, lakes, and seas had all appeared at once, surging forward in an endless, unyielding flow, before finally crashing down onto his body like a waterfall to manifest a grand karmic feat.

[Peril of the Lost Dao]!

As the saying went, 'Entering pit after pit, losing the Dao brings misfortune.' This referred to a cultivator falling into layer upon layer of perilous situations, losing their righteous path amidst the tribulations, and thereby plunging into even more ominous circumstances.

Compared to [Free and Unfettered Wandering], this karmic feat was the exact opposite.

It was not directed inward to increase one's chances of escape when facing danger. Rather, it was directed outward, actively plunging the enemy into an endless stream of perilous situations.

This forced them to lose their own righteous path, piling misfortune upon misfortune and severely damaging their foundation.

'This is... the karmic feat of the Xuanyi Dao Child!'

Delight gradually welled up in Wang Ping's heart.

The direct descendants of True Persons and True Monarchs essentially all inherited karmic feats related to their respective True Monarchs or True Persons. For instance, Tianxing's [Treading on the Tiger's Tail] was connected to a True Monarch.

Yet Wang Ping hadn't possessed one before.

He had previously assumed this was because he wasn't the True Monarch's biological child. He thought he lacked one because they shared no bloodline connection, but now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

'The real reason was that I wasn't acknowledged before!'

'It wasn't until this moment, having passed the True Monarch's test, that I received the true treatment of a Dao Child. The karmic feat belonging to the True Monarch has now blessed me as well!'

In an instant, all of Wang Ping's negative emotions vanished completely.

Originally, he had felt extremely aggrieved after being repeatedly schemed against by the True Monarch, narrowly escaping death time and again, and being forced to switch to cultivating as a Corpse Dissolution Immortal. He just hadn't dared to show it.

But now, only gratitude remained in his heart.

As an Immortal Gate disciple, Wang Ping had always followed a simple rule: whoever gave him milk was his mother. A True Monarch-level karmic feat was more than enough to compensate for all the suffering he had just endured.

'Moreover, unlike True Monarch direct descendants and Immortal Realm Dao Children like Tianxing, I naturally possess my own [Free and Unfettered Wandering]. In terms of karmic feats, it isn't much weaker than [Peril of the Lost Dao], and might even surpass it. Because of this, even if I attempt to cultivate to a True Person in the future, the [Peril of the Lost Dao] will not become an obstacle to my progress.'

As expected, my older mother really does love me!