Chapter 440: Kan Is Full in the Center

As more and more cracks spiderwebbed across the Black Pheasant Egg, Wang Ping rubbed his hands together, his face alight with anticipation. Moments later, a sharp beak poked through a fissure.

Crack!

Before long, the churning vitality dissipated, and a plump, forty-centimeter-tall chick with glossy, pitch-black feathers tumbled out onto the ground.

'So this is the Black Pheasant?'

Watching the chick roll across the floor, Wang Ping grew curious. He immediately swept his divine sense over the creature to give it a thorough inspection.

Yet after examining it from head to toe, he frowned. "No cultivation, and no trace of any profound mysteries. It doesn't seem any different from an ordinary chicken."

Before the words had even faded, the Black Pheasant snapped its head up and parted its sharp beak slightly. "Cluck, cluck-cluck!"

'You're the ordinary chicken! I'm a time chicken!'

Out of nowhere, a foreign thought echoed through Wang Ping's sea of consciousness. He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Then it caught itself, realizing that cowering like that was an embarrassment to its status as a divine beast. It hurriedly flared its wings and put on a fierce expression.

"Cluck-cluck!"

'I'm not afraid of you!'

'I'm warning you, I am the Chief Dawn Herald of the Incense-Draped Hall, the best friend of the Heavenly Hou, and the favorite chicken of the Heavenly Banner Pardoning True Monarch to eat!'

'If you catch me, they'll definitely come after you for revenge!'

"I didn't catch you," Wang Ping said, shaking his head. "You rolled right up to my feet on your own. Besides, the Incense-Draped Hall is long gone, and as for the Heavenly Hou, it didn't take you along when it bolted."

The Black Pheasant was baffled.

'Impossible, absolutely impossible!'

'The Heavenly Hou and I are friends who would die for each other! How could he possibly abandon me and leave? Unless I refused to go with him from the very start, and he respected my...'

'...Wait?' The Black Pheasant froze, blinking its beady little eyes as it gave Wang Ping a serious look. 'Could my auspicious beast instincts have made the choice for me while I was asleep, telling me to follow this guy? But he's wrapped in a bloody aura—he's either a vicious lunatic or at death's door. He doesn't look reliable at all.'

Especially the way the man was looking at it.

The Black Pheasant had seen that exact look far too many times back in the day. Here was another one drooling over its body... Thinking of this, it glanced down at itself.

Tiny wings, glossy black feathers, and plump, tender meat—one look and anyone could tell it was made for the stewpot. Memories of its past life as an auspicious beast surfaced in its mind.

It and the Heavenly Hou had been born in a lethal forbidden zone of the Cosmos. Neither had parents, nor did they know each other's origins. All they knew was that terrifying demon beasts prowled everywhere around them, so they relied on each other to survive. The Heavenly Hou protected it, and in return, it served as the Heavenly Hou's emergency rations, offering up pieces of its body from time to time.

Its vitality was overflowing anyway.

Even if a chunk or two of flesh was bitten off, it grew right back. And the Heavenly Hou understood the difference between eating one big meal and having meals forever, so he never ate too much of it at once.

Just like that, the two beasts made it through their hardest childhood years.

Yet a forbidden zone was called a forbidden zone because danger lurked around every corner and death could strike at any moment. Soon after the two beasts came of age, disaster struck.

A great demon tracked down their makeshift lair. The Heavenly Hou fought a bloody battle against it, was overpowered, and had to flee. To buy the Heavenly Hou time to escape, the Black Pheasant decided to sacrifice itself and lure the enemy away. The moment it landed inside the great demon's jaws, the Black Pheasant thought its life as a chicken was over.

Then its eyes closed and opened.

It found itself three days before the great demon's attack. That was when it awakened its innate divine power as an auspicious beast, using its foreknowledge to turn the tables and kill the great demon instead. From then on, it relied on this miraculous ability to reset time to nurture the Heavenly Hou, eventually helping the Heavenly Hou rise as the demon king and overlord of that forbidden zone.

Until the True Monarch arrived.

The True Monarch discovered its innate divine power, brought both it and the Heavenly Hou out of the forbidden zone, and placed them in the Incense-Draped Hall to raise them.

Truth be told, the Black Pheasant had never seen anything wrong with that arrangement.

If it was going to be eaten anyway, what did it matter who did the eating? Besides, after awakening its reset ability, its vitality had undergone a qualitative leap.

Even if it was eaten down to the last bone, it would revive in the sunlight at dawn. According to the True Monarch, unless someone at the True Monarch level used a supreme position of heaven and earth to erase its existence outright, it could never truly die. The price, however, was that it was nearly incapable of cultivating.

Not that it couldn't cultivate at all.

Rather, no matter how hard it tried, cultivation only made its meat plumper and more tender, while any gains in cultivation and mana were funneled straight into its innate divine power.

In short, aside from making itself tastier and easier to eat, cultivation was completely pointless, so it quickly gave up.

Though plenty of little haters called it trash because of its abysmal cultivation, it never cared, living a carefree and merry life... until the day the Incense-Draped Hall shook, the True Monarch fell, and the Heavenly Hou barely escaped back inside, covered in grievous wounds and on the verge of death.

Back then, there was nothing it could do.

All it could do was seal off the Incense-Draped Hall and use its own life essence to sustain the Heavenly Hou and mend his injuries, until both of them sank into a long slumber. It was a bitterly painful lesson.

So when the Black Pheasant's consciousness awoke inside the eggshell and sensed that its life essence had fully recovered and it was about to hatch, it silently made up its mind.

"Cluck-cluck!"

In this life, he refused to be a kept chicken raised for the pot, lounging around waiting to be eaten. He was going to be a battle chicken! He would seize control of his own destiny with his own two claws!

He would shut all those little haters up!

Splat!

Overcome with excitement, and with its freshly hatched body still weak, the Black Pheasant twisted its ankle and face-planted onto the floor with a thud.

The Black Pheasant froze in dismay.

'Daydream time is over.'

After that brief burst of ambition, the Black Pheasant slumped into total defeat. When it looked back at Wang Ping, it had lost all interest in arguing.

"Cluck-cluck."

'Eat up, eat up. This plump, fragrant drumstick is all yours. I just revived, so go easy on me and don't bite too hard—it still hurts a lot, you know.'

Watching the Black Pheasant sprawl flat on the ground like it had given up on life and spread its legs wide for him, Wang Ping stroked his chin. "That's quite a remarkable sound transmission art. You can't speak, yet you project your thoughts straight into my mind—and you can't even hide them. No wonder they call you an auspicious beast."

Yes, he had heard every bit of it.

The Black Pheasant's entire train of thought, right down to its resolution to become a battle chicken, had been broadcast straight into his sea of consciousness through some strange connection.

He spoke again. "Can you tell me about your innate divine power? That ability to reset time."

"Cluck?"

Seeing that the human in front of it had actually held back instead of immediately sinking his teeth into its plump body, the Black Pheasant paused, then answered lazily, "Cluck-cluck."

'It's really not that amazing of an innate divine power. It has its uses, sure, but it's also a hassle and comes with a lot of restrictions.'

"Let's hear it," Wang Ping said with keen interest.

The Black Pheasant eyed Wang Ping again before continuing. 'You seem to have something on you that can turn back time too—and yours is the real thing.'

'Yet the past cannot be changed, so turning back time like that is essentially meaningless.'

'I'm different.'

'My innate divine power isn't actually turning back time at all—it's deduction. The True Monarch figured out how my divine power worked a long time ago.'

'Simply put, my so-called reset ability just deduces what will happen to us in the future the moment you come into contact with me, then plants those events into your mind as memories. In reality, those memories never happened; they're just an illusion spun by my divine power.'

'When I undo the divine power and the illusion fades, it feels just like time has turned backward.'

'Like this.'

Snap!

To Wang Ping, it was no more than the blink of an eye, yet the scene before him shattered like soap bubbles, blurring and twisting in an instant.

'What the hell...'

When he looked up again, Wang Ping found himself staring at a crack-covered Black Pheasant Egg standing right in front of him. He had returned to the exact second before the Black Pheasant hatched!

The next second, the Black Pheasant Egg broke open.

The Black Pheasant clumsily wriggled out once more and let out two clucks at Wang Ping.

'That's how it feels. It's not turning back time, it's foreseeing the future—letting me and the person I choose experience it in advance so we keep the memories of that future.'

"I see..." Wang Ping nodded and asked, "And the restrictions?"

"Cluck-cluck!" the Black Pheasant called out.

'There are three restrictions.'

'First, I have to set an anchor point in advance and use that specific moment as the starting line before I begin deducing, generating the illusion, and foreseeing the future.'

'Once the foresight ends and the illusion disappears, we return to that anchor point. I can't go back to a time before the anchor—that would be true time reversal.'

'Second, the future I foresee depends on the information I have. The more people involved, the higher their cultivation, and the more their profound mysteries carry the effect of "concealment," the more flaws and omissions the foreseen future will have. Just now, for instance, it was only the two of us talking, so the foresight was simple and a hundred percent accurate.'

'But if a True Monarch is involved...'

'Especially a True Monarch skilled in concealment—unless I have their aura and their permission, their presence will be completely missing from the future I foresee.'

'And a miss by a hair leads to an error of a thousand miles.'

'You get the idea. The last restriction is the number of uses—every time I foresee the future, it takes a massive toll on my life essence, which is why I'm the only one who's ever been able to use it.'

'After all, I can't die.'

'Even with my life essence as the foundation, the length of time I can foresee is limited. The furthest I've ever seen into the future was when I did a reading for the Human Emperor.'

'As for how far ahead... around thirty thousand years, maybe?'

'But that took the Human Emperor pooling the resources of an entire nation to sustain me, even using his own life essence to elevate mine, just to pull it off. You can forget about anything like that.'

'Three or four months is the absolute ceiling.'

'Of course, if you can find me some rare treasures that replenish life essence, I might be able to stretch the foresight out a bit—say, three to five years.'

'Got it?'

The Black Pheasant spread its wings, planted its feet, and opened its beak wide. "Cluck-cluck!"

'If you got it, go get your Big Brother Chicken something good to eat.'

The next second, before the Black Pheasant could even react, Wang Ping grinned, balled his fist, and swung it hard toward the distant mountains and rivers.

Boom!

A thunderous roar shook the heavens and the earth. The Black Pheasant trembled on the spot like a vibrating toy, throwing its wings over its eyes by reflex.

"Cluck-cluck-cluck..."

'My bad, my bad! It's fine if there's nothing to eat, I won't starve to death anyway...'

"Don't panic," Wang Ping chuckled, splitting off a wisp of divine sense containing the records of all the martial arts he practiced, along with the feat of him sending the Heaven-Stealing Thief flying with a single punch.

"Since you can't cultivate the Immortal Dao, how about trying my dharma body path? Your innate divine power is clearly a profound mystery of the Immortal Dao, so the dharma body path won't be restricted by it. If you can forge an indestructible diamond dharma body like mine, nobody will be able to chew through you. Would your dream of becoming a battle chicken still be a fantasy then?"

"Cluck-cluck?"

The Black Pheasant froze in place.

A moment later, it viewed the mental images Wang Ping had sent over. That fist the size of a sandbag and that gleaming golden physique made its heart race with temptation.

Still, it quickly snapped out of it.

"Cluck-cluck!"

'You're not tricking me, are you? You look like a water-qi cultivator to me.'

Even as it thought that, the Black Pheasant couldn't suppress its excitement. The images in that divine sense felt completely real. True, water-qi cultivators were notorious liars.

'But what if it's real?'

Knowing that the Black Pheasant had already made its choice despite its outward hesitation, Wang Ping laughed. "Why would I go to the trouble of tricking a chicken?"

With that, he pulled out his Lesser Art of Winning and Great Abundance Scripture, paired them with a copy of the Heavenly Martial Conquering the Profound Blade Art, and shoved all three into the Black Pheasant's wings at once. "Give them a try first," he said breezily. "Once you've made some progress, we can talk about working together."

"Cluck-cluck?"

Hearing this, the Black Pheasant was already eighty percent convinced, though it still lacked confidence. After all, this felt way too much like a pie falling right out of the sky.

And to be completely honest with itself...

"Cluck-cluck-cluck..."

'My comprehension isn't great. Back when I tried cultivating the Immortal Dao, I only made it to the Tribulation Transcending First Layer. I got the mana, sure, but I could never learn a single divine power no matter how hard I tried.'

'Is this going to be really hard?'

"Relax!" Wang Ping gave a thumbs-up, beaming with confidence. "Never mind a chicken—even if you were an uncultured monkey, I guarantee you could master this!"

The dharma body path was born for this exact purpose!

"Cluck-cluck!"

The Black Pheasant was starting to get excited.

Striking while the iron was hot, Wang Ping began painting a grand vision of the future—punching immortals left and right, kicking True Monarchs aside—laying out a glorious blueprint for the bird.

"Don't tell me you wouldn't want to hear people call you this someday?" Wang Ping leaned down, brought his lips close to the Black Pheasant's ear, and whispered in a low, enticing drawl, "True Monarch Black Pheasant~"

"Cluck-cluck~~!"

Its fighting spirit surged!

In just a few sentences, Wang Ping had sweet-talked the Black Pheasant until it was completely sold. Clutching the three martial arts manuals to its chest, it couldn't wait to run off and start training.

Satisfied, Wang Ping took his leave of the Grotto-Heaven.

...

The Star Grave Sand Sea, the Dao Tomb.

There was no rush with the Black Pheasant. Just as the bird had said, with its current life essence, it could foresee three to five days at best, which was barely better than nothing.

Feeding it natural treasures could extend the foresight window, sure, but Wang Ping had no desire to foot that bill—yet he still wanted the bird to see further into the future.

After turning the problem over in his mind, he had hit upon a solution: "I'll build the Black Pheasant up first and have him train in the dharma body path to get stronger. As his cultivation rises, his life essence will rise with it, and he'll be able to foresee much further ahead."

Better yet, the dharma body path was easy on the wallet. Given the Black Pheasant's boundless vitality, it would get twice the results for half the effort, and Wang Ping wouldn't have to spend a single coin.

Two birds with one stone!

Gathering his thoughts, Wang Ping set the matter of the Black Pheasant aside for now. Focusing his divine sense, he brought out the two Dao books he had obtained from Little Gan.

Boom!

Even though he was merely manifesting the contents of the Dao books through his divine sense, the heavens and earth still responded. Two peals of thunder echoed through the quiet chamber, and the spiritual energy in the air turned scorching hot.

Two Dao books, one gold and one dark.

The golden Dao book corresponded to Divine Thunder among the Five Thunders of the Divine Firmament. It was titled the Heavenly Drum Profound Punishment Tome, and mastering it to perfection would birth a profound mystery from Divine Thunder called Golden Drum Roar.

The dark Dao book corresponded to Water Thunder among the Five Thunders of the Divine Firmament. It was titled the Immortal-Purging Profound-Cleansing Scripture, and mastering it to perfection would birth a profound mystery from Water Thunder called World-Purifying Light.

Even so, because the Five Thunders Divine Firmament Office had been destroyed and the supreme position of heaven and earth, Thunder and Water Release, had gone into hiding, there was no longer any way to resonate with these two thunder arts.

"Thankfully, I can reroute both of them to the Five Phases. Letting them resonate anew through the Five Phases should bring these profound mysteries back into the world."

Wang Ping leafed carefully through the volumes, then activated Golden Sea Desiccation and slipped into a state of sudden enlightenment. Just as he had done when modifying the Scale-Shaking Heavenly Thunder Book, he began revising the two Dao books. Once stray thoughts were purged from his sea of consciousness, flashes of inspiration leaped through his mind one after another.

The more he revised, the more amazed he grew.

'Previously, the Dragon Thunder of the Scale-Shaking Heavenly Thunder Book connected to the Wood of the Five Phases, and now Divine Thunder and Water Thunder work the exact same way.'

Divine Thunder corresponded to the Metal of the Five Phases.

Water Thunder corresponded to the Water of the Five Phases.

The entire rerouting process went remarkably smoothly—not because his comprehension was peerless, but because the Five Thunders arts seemed to share an inherent bond with the Five Phases to begin with.

'When the Human Emperor nurtured Supreme Dao Lord Xuangong and cultivated the Five Phases back then, perhaps he was laying the groundwork for the very thing I'm doing right now. The Five Thunders were originally refined from the qi of heaven and earth anyway; merging them back into the Five Phases now is basically swapping the beams and pillars under the roof!'

Everything became crystal clear in Wang Ping's mind.

Of course, these divine powers and profound mysteries were of little personal use to him; their real value lay in converting the remnants of heaven and earth qi drifting through the Star Grave Sand Sea.

'And that's not all.'

'Once the remnants of heaven and earth qi are converted, they can't just cling to the old ways. Otherwise, even if they're reborn, they'll still be far too weak compared to true heaven and earth qi.'

With that in mind, Wang Ping reached a decision: 'Forget about pointless things like qi manifestations. Those were built up over countless years as generation after generation of immortal cultivators patched and perfected the qi of heaven and earth. Ancient cultivators have no future walking that road—having too many qi manifestations only splinters a lineage's core profound mystery.'

His train of thought grew sharper by the second.

'Fuse nine qi manifestations into one and refine a single, consummate profound mystery! That's the only way to overtake them on the bend and rival true heaven and earth qi!'

'Quality over quantity—one path standing supreme!'

'Thirty strands of remnant qi, drawing only upon the Five Phases and wielding only thirty profound mysteries. It'll have far fewer variations, sure, but its raw power won't lose out to the qi of heaven and earth.'

In that instant, a stroke of intuition hit Wang Ping. In a trance, three chi above the crown of his head, directly aligned with his Celestial Court acupoint, he seemed to see a point of light flare to life—dazzling, perfectly round, and gleaming gold, with countless profound principles of the Great Dao flowing inside it.

The Single Aperture of the Mysterious Pass!

He finally saw it. Known by countless names and pursued by innumerable cultivators across the ages, this immortal aperture had now revealed itself right before his eyes. The next second, Wang Ping looked down at the Dao books in his hands.

'My opportunity lies right here.'

Understanding dawned on him: 'The day I turn this vision into reality and breathe new life into the ancient cultivation lineages is the day that aperture opens for good.'

"Phew...!"

Only then did a wave of bone-deep exhaustion wash over Wang Ping. Clearly, that state of sudden enlightenment had pushed his mind well past its limits.

As he came back to his senses and lay back on the floor to catch his breath, he spotted a figure standing silently behind him, as if he had been there the whole time.

"Senior Yang!?"

Wang Ping tried to scramble to his feet by reflex, but a gentle breeze brushed over him, easing his fatigue while pressing him softly back onto the floor.

"You... have done very well." Yang's voice drifted out softly. "Not only have you sensed the location of the Single Aperture of the Mysterious Pass, you have even grasped the method to open it."

"That is a wonderful thing. Countless people, even if they catch a glimpse of the Single Aperture of the Mysterious Pass by some stroke of luck, never manage to figure out how to open it. Now that you have taken this most crucial step, truly opening that immortal aperture is not far off. Rest for now; there is no need to push yourself so hard."

Truth be told, Yang was deeply moved. He had actually arrived quite a while ago, but seeing Wang Ping absorbed in studying the two Dao books, he had kept quiet to avoid disturbing him, watching with curiosity instead.

Then he had watched Wang Ping suddenly start writing furiously, recording all his insights into the Five Phases and his blueprint for reviving the ancient cultivation lineages.

Standing right beside him, Yang had almost subconsciously begun deducing along with those notes. With his depth of cultivation, he could immediately see that Wang Ping's approach was genuinely feasible. Beyond the pleasant surprise, he felt a warm surge of relief—it proved that Wang Ping had truly taken the ancient cultivation lineages to heart and didn't treat them as outsiders.

'Perhaps there really is hope.'

To revive the ancient cultivation lineages, make ancient cultivators great again, and stand once more at the pinnacle of the Immortal Dao—for the first time in countless years, Yang saw real hope.

Yes, the very first time.

There was something he had never mentioned to Wang Ping before: the reason the Dao Tomb hadn't immediately accepted the Human Emperor's invitation to join the Great Rebellion back then.

It was because the eight Dao Lords had been divided among themselves, with several opposing the idea of joining the Great Rebellion.

And he had been one of the dissenters.

'The Human Emperor was undeniably a favored son of heaven, and he did revive the Qi Ingestion Method, yet we had no part in his rise and knew very little about him.'

They had only known the Human Emperor after his powers rivaled creation itself.

What about before that? When the Human Emperor was still weak, what kind of person was he, and what was his true nature? They had no idea. In the eyes of lower cultivators, higher cultivators were always unfathomable and impossible to read—and to cast-off Dao Lords like them, the Human Emperor was no different.

So Yang had wanted to observe him a while longer.

Yet before he could finish observing, the Human Emperor vanished and the Great Rebellion collapsed on its own. Unlike the others, however, Yang hadn't felt much regret over it.

At the very least, compared to the inscrutable Human Emperor, he placed far more trust in Wang Ping, who stood right here within reach.

So long as this little fellow could grow into his own.

For a moment, Yang's thoughts drifted. After a quiet pause, he murmured, "By the way, someone is outside looking for you."

"...Looking for me?" Wang Ping, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them at once. The slight ease on his face vanished, replaced by taut vigilance as he asked curiously, "Who would come looking for me at a time like this?"

'Could it be Kunyun?'

"It is a yin spirit serving under Mingxing." Yang split off a wisp of divine sense, sketching the outline of a figure cloaked in misty drizzle. "He says he has come to see you by Mingxing's decree."

Wang Ping recognized the visitor instantly. 'Yunlong...'

Not daring to dawdle, Wang Ping hurriedly got to his feet. "I'll have to trouble Senior to send me out. I should go meet this Senior Brother—he probably has orders for me."

"...Very well." Seeing how attentive Wang Ping was being, Yang curled his lip slightly. "Mingxing's mind is impossible to read. As her Dao Child, you must stay on your guard."

Catching his meaning at once, Wang Ping nodded earnestly. "This junior understands. You Seniors are my true benefactors!"

Yang nodded in satisfaction.

The next second, the world spun around Wang Ping. When his vision cleared, he had already left the Dao Tomb and found Yunlong standing not far away.

"Dao Child!"

Before Wang Ping could even offer a greeting, Yunlong's warm call rang out, brimming with the signature enthusiasm of water qi. Wang Ping's heart tightened.

'He's up to no good.'

Even so, Wang Ping didn't miss a beat. While keeping his guard up, he plastered a bright smile across his face. "Senior Brother Yunlong, what brings you all the way out here?"

"Why, to bring you something good, Dao Child!" Yunlong offered a faint smile. Stepping up to Wang Ping, he reached into his sleeve and drew out a translucent, gleaming jade box. Right through the lid, Wang Ping could see a round, thumb-sized pill resting inside, as red as fresh blood.

"What is this...?" Wang Ping asked.

Yunlong held the jade box out to him with a chuckle. "This is the Mingde Profound-Manifesting Pill. The Prime Monarch specifically instructed me to deliver it to you, Dao Child."

'The what pill?'

Wang Ping's eyes narrowed at the name. The Mingde Profound-Manifesting Pill... Mingde. Hadn't he heard that the fire-qi Dao Child had mysteriously gone missing?

Put that together with the name of this pill...

Wang Ping couldn't help glancing up at Yunlong.

As if reading his mind, Yunlong spoke up first. "Speaking of this pill, it's actually quite a tragic story."

"As you well know, Dao Child, the fire-qi Radiant Clarity Realm and our Deity Transformation Realm are as close as brothers—thick as thieves, really. So when Dao Child Mingde was ambushed by bandit cultivators on his way back to the Radiant Clarity Realm, the very first thing he did was send word to me asking for backup."

"Alas, heaven had other plans." Yunlong let out a heavy sigh. "By the time I got there, Dao Child Mingde had already fallen to those ruthless bandit cultivators. Even fighting with everything I had, I only managed to snatch back this pill."

"Oh, what a tragedy!"

Wang Ping was speechless.

'Hold on, I haven't even asked a single question yet, and you've already got the whole story—beginning, middle, and end—all cooked up? Those "bandit cultivators" wouldn't happen to be you, would they?'

"And what does this pill... actually do?" Wang Ping changed the subject.

The grief on Yunlong's face vanished in an instant, replaced by a beaming grin. "Ah, that's where you're out of the loop, Dao Child."

"This pill was refined using a life essence personally forged by a True Monarch as its main ingredient. Although you are the face of our Deity Transformation Realm now, Dao Child, compared to the other Dao Children, you have the achievements but lack the life essence to match. The Prime Monarch sent this pill specifically to make up for that missing foundation."

"Both life essence and achievements, complete in full."

"Only then will you be a true Dao Child... Moreover, the Prime Monarch is deeply concerned about your cultivation. She knows you have grand ambitions and have set your sights on the first phenomenon."

Wang Ping's heart skipped a beat.

'Damn it, don't tell me the Prime Monarch has been spying on me in secret?'

Meanwhile, Yunlong kept talking. "However, the current first phenomenon of water qi, Supreme Yin Weak Water, is an achievement the Prime Monarch has been maintaining ever since her Qi Nurturing days. To this day, it remains completely unshakable."

"You must be sorely disappointed by that, Dao Child."

"That's why she sent this pill to solve that headache for you. Aside from replenishing your life essence, this pill can also grant you an extra fire-qi manifestation!"

Wang Ping looked up sharply. "Fire qi?"

"That's right!" Yunlong grinned from ear to ear. "The original first phenomenon of fire qi belonged to that fire-qi immortal, before it was usurped by the Living Buddha. Now, both of them have passed from this world."

"Ever since then, the fire-qi lineage has lain dormant, only recently recovering a fraction of its vitality, while the Brahma Nation founded its own separate lineage and no longer has anything to do with fire qi."

"Which one was the first phenomenon of fire qi?" Wang Ping asked.

Yunlong explained, "It was the qi manifestation governed by the Heavenly Yang Fire, the Radiant Universal Illumination Six Harmonies Qi, known as the Six Yang Sovereign Lord—the most supremely yang and unyielding force under heaven."

"Later on, as the student surpasses the master, the Living Buddha supplanted it using a qi manifestation governed by the Human Yang Fire, the Civilization-Manifesting Ultimate-Founding Qi, ascending to claim the first phenomenon of fire qi."

"That qi manifestation is called the Unremoved Ancestor."

Here, Yunlong lowered his voice with emphasis: "Of course, neither of those former first phenomena of fire qi has been maintained for a very long time now. It is a heaven-sent opportunity for you to seize them, Dao Child!"

As the words fell, a strange look crossed Wang Ping's face.

'A heaven-sent opportunity?'

"So the purpose of this pill is to help me acquire a fire-qi manifestation, giving me a shot at pushing that fire-qi manifestation all the way to the level of the first phenomenon?"

Yunlong nodded. "This is a method that can only be worked between water and fire qi. After all, your primary divine power, 'the gentleman should hide his implements at the right time,' along with its corresponding qi manifestation, Biding One's Time, inherently carries the intent of eventual brilliance, which secretly aligns with fire qi. Cultivating an extra fire-qi manifestation won't cause any conflict at all."

"Quite the opposite, in fact."

"Placing this extra strand of fire qi among your nine earthly yin water-qi manifestations hides fire within water and harbors yang within yin—matching the exact essence of the Kan Trigram!"

Understanding dawned on Wang Ping. "Kan is full in the center..."

"Precisely!" Yunlong beamed. "Your comprehension is extraordinary, Dao Child. Once you grasp the imagery of 'Kan is full in the center,' your cultivation will advance by leaps and bounds."

"Water and fire, yin and yang, generating and complementing each other. With this in hand, you will round out your Qi Refining Second Layer accumulation in a year at most, and then charge straight toward the third layer."

"It is truly a match made in heaven!"

...

Returning to the Dao Tomb, Wang Ping rubbed the pill box in his hands while replaying Yunlong's words in his mind, his gaze flickering with shifting thoughts.

No sooner had he stepped inside the Dao Tomb than he spotted Yang in his white robes—and standing right beside Yang was an old man in gray robes.

Recognizing the elder at a glance, Wang Ping hurried forward and bowed. "Greetings, Senior Dao."

"Rise." The old man reached out to help Wang Ping up, smoothly taking the pill box from his hands in the same motion. "Yang was worried about you, so he called me out to take a look at this."

Wang Ping understood at once and shot Yang a grateful look.

Indeed, that had been his exact intention as well. He remained deeply suspicious of this so-called Mingde Profound-Manifesting Pill and wouldn't dare swallow it blindly.

Even though the Prime Monarch had treated him wonderfully so far, a sovereign's heart was impossible to fathom—especially a True Monarch's. Heaven knew when she might decide to use him as a pawn.

By any measure, he had to stay on his guard.

After a long moment of inspection, Dao finally set the pill box down and let out a slow breath. "This pill was indeed refined for you by Mingxing's own hand."

"She truly thinks highly of you." Dao's tone was grave, his judgment weighed with utmost care. "You have probably guessed the main ingredient already. It is indeed the life essence of that fire-qi Dao Child."

"However, you need not worry about Mingxing's intentions in refining it. She is not crudely forcing that fire-qi Dao Child's life essence to fuse into your body."

"Strictly speaking, the fire-qi Dao Child's life essence is merely fuel—a bridge linking water and fire, allowing you to use your water-qi divine powers and mana to sense fire qi and pluck a fire-qi manifestation. That yin spirit did not lie to you on that count... Typical of water qi. She wields such methods with chilling familiarity."

A trace of disgust flickered across Dao's face.

"A Dao Child's life essence is usually kneaded and refined directly from the qi of heaven and earth by a True Monarch, so it shares an exceptionally deep bond with that qi."

"A fire-qi Dao Child's life essence is drawn straight from fire qi, making it the perfect medium to connect with fire qi—and any kind of fire qi at that, unbound by a specific path."

"In other words, once you take this pill, aside from the eradicated Earth Yang Fire—the Heavenly Craft Supreme Yang Nine Smeltings Qi—you can freely choose any single qi manifestation governed by the remaining five fire qis: Heavenly Yang Fire, Heavenly Yin Fire, Earthly Yin Fire, Human Yang Fire, or Human Yin Fire."

Wang Ping remained unmoved. "What about my life essence?"

"He just said this pill would also complete my life essence. If it isn't using the fire-qi Dao Child's life essence for that, then what is it using to complete my life essence as a Dao Child?"

"Well..." For once, Dao fell silent for a moment before speaking in a low, solemn voice. "That brings us to the other main ingredient of this pill."

"Unless my eyes deceive me..."

"Mingxing must have dismembered a True Dragon and fused its life essence into the pill to complete your foundation as a Dao Child under her rule."

"...A True Dragon?" Wang Ping blinked. 'A demon?'

Dao explained, "Form arises from the Dao. Although the vast majority of cultivators keep a human form, back in our era, a hundred schools of cultivation bloomed side by side."

"Among them, there were always lineages that strayed onto crooked paths—offering blood sacrifices, nourishing their bodies with turbid qi, and devouring foreign paths. Over time, such demonic paths mutated, turning their practitioners into all manner of monstrous fiends that brought endless calamity upon the world... Naturally, exotic beasts born and raised by heaven and earth are a different matter entirely."

"Demonic paths of fire qi?" Wang Ping caught the implication.

Dao nodded. "The fire-qi lineage was the most notorious demonic path back in the day. Many monstrous fiends were born directly under their rule."

"Dragons, however, were different." At the end, Dao took a sudden turn. "The monstrous fiends of the dragon lineage were born under the rule of the water-qi Dao, originating from a Water Qi True Monarch."

"After that Water Qi True Monarch transformed into the Dragon Lord, he sired the True Dragon clan and established his own faction. For reasons unknown, he crossed the bottom line of that arch-demoness Mingxing."

"So Mingxing took action personally. In the forbidden zone of the Cosmos known as Fallen Dragon Ridge, she cut down the Dragon Lord in front of everyone, and then slaughtered the once-mighty True Dragon clan down to the very last one. From then on, True Dragons went completely extinct, leaving behind only faint traces lingering within the torrent of destiny."

"Hiss..." Hearing this secret history, Wang Ping sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, instantly recalling the terrifying battlefield he had glimpsed briefly inside the Deity Transformation Realm.

'The Prime Monarch is terrifying!'

Steadying his thoughts, Wang Ping asked, "So if I take this pill, what exactly will happen to me?"

"Will I become a half-demon?"

"No, nothing like that." Dao shook his head. "True Dragons have been extinct for ages. Back then, Mingxing wielded the supreme might of a heaven-and-earth position to completely erase the existence of dragons from the Cosmos."

"The traces of True Dragons that remain today exist only as shifts in profound mysteries. Even if you manifest a corresponding form, you won't be a true descendant of dragon blood, and becoming a half-demon is out of the question. Erasing them was Mingxing's own grand achievement—why would she break her own rule for you? At most, this pill will alter your Destiny Pattern."

"My Destiny Pattern..." Wang Ping's eyes slowly lit up.

He was starting to see the picture.

The next second, Dao's answer confirmed his guess: "Simply put, once you take this pill, your Destiny Pattern will take on the profound mystery of soaring through the clouds and transforming into a dragon."

"In the mortal world, a Destiny Pattern transformed like that is akin to the emperors of great nations or the patriarchs of major sects—gathering the providence of tens of thousands to elevate all who serve under them."

Having said that, Dao added one more thing: "If you can also obtain a top-tier destiny-cultivation art, it will make your weight within the torrent of destiny far more substantial, which will be a massive boon to your cultivation."

The Profound True Secret Essentials of the Flood Dragon Entering the Sea!

With things spelled out that clearly, Wang Ping instantly connected the dots, recalling the destiny-cultivation Dao book he had found in the attic of the Directorate of Waterways.

'There's no way the Prime Monarch doesn't know what I found in the Directorate of Waterways. So the real purpose of this pill is to let me cultivate the Profound True Secret Essentials of the Flood Dragon Entering the Sea. As for giving me an extra fire-qi manifestation and all that talk about the first phenomenon, that's more like compensation for taking the pill...'

Wang Ping quickly pieced the answer together in his head.

Cultivating the Profound True Secret Essentials of the Flood Dragon Entering the Sea was a move on the True Monarch's chessboard, while the fire-qi manifestation was the sweetener meant to entice him onto the board.

'A sugar-coated cannonball...'

Just then, Wang Ping noticed a shift in the expressions of both Yang and Dao. Both elders wore strange, hesitant looks, as if holding back something they wanted to say.

'...Oh, right.'

Once he gained a dragon-transformation Destiny Pattern and the foundation of a regional overlord, if he became the figurehead of a cultivation lineage, he could actively elevate the providence of that entire lineage. That would be a massive boon for the ancient cultivation lineages too!

'The Prime Monarch isn't even hiding her hand. One pill benefits me and benefits the ancient cultivators even more—how could I possibly say no? This is an opportunity I literally can't refuse...'

Even so, Wang Ping wasn't angry. In fact, he felt quite gratified. Despite seeing right through the scheme, Dao and Yang had chosen to tell him the whole truth about the pill's profound mysteries instead of hiding the part about the True Dragon Destiny Pattern to trick him into swallowing it.

At that thought, Wang Ping smiled instead.

"This junior understands."

The next second, Wang Ping opened the pill box, plucked out the blood-red pill, rolled it between his fingers once, and casually tossed it into his mouth.