Chapter 151: First Trial Against a Great Grandmaster!

Great Shun, Northern Plains.

Wang Ping opened his eyes and stretched his arms. Looking around, he saw only a hazy expanse that faintly resembled a boundless grassland.

I really came back!

Wang Ping let out a long breath. To him, only the blink of an eye had passed. He had no idea what method Jin Hai had used to send him back.

But this is good too. It saves me a resurrection... No, I can't save it. After all, I'm still using the identity of the Six-Eared Remnants. It would be fine if I stayed in Great Shun, but if I enter the Immortal Gate in the future, this identity won't be clean enough. It's better to switch back to my Great Shun identity first.

With this in mind, Wang Ping sought out a secluded spot.

He then took out the Purple-Gold Bowl Jin Hai had given him. Inside lay the two pitiful Brahma Cultivators, Kongbei and Zongji.

He sealed the bowl tight, ensuring the two could not perceive the outside world.

Only then did Wang Ping bring out the previously reforged Dragon Head Guillotine—now the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade. Pressing it to his neck, he slit his own throat without a second thought.

"Slash!"

The next second, Wang Ping's consciousness cycled through the Taiping Sutra, and he resurrected on the spot under the identity of the Shuzhong Rebel King.

"So I really do resurrect in the exact same spot."

Wang Ping shook his head and looked at his corpse on the ground. Instead of destroying the body to hide the evidence, he reached out, channeled his magic power, and stored it away.

Thinking about it carefully, his experience at the Heavenly Demon Royal Court this time had actually been quite fruitful. He would keep the corpse for now. Later, when he unlocked the seventh scripture scroll, he could refine this body and try to draw a reward if he had no better options. Who knew, maybe he would get something good? At the very least, he wouldn't be wasting the material.

After finishing all this, he put the Purple-Gold Bowl away again.

As for Kongbei and Zongji inside, Wang Ping didn't plan on letting them out. He would keep them by his side; only by doing so could he hold on to the Fate-Fixing Bead.

"I should return to Shuzhong first."

Wang Ping set off toward the south. "Book Mountain definitely doesn't know I've resurrected. After all, I now have the Fate-Fixing Bead to conceal my aura."

"And the Tribute Hall. I need to contact the First Seat as soon as possible...!"

A biting wind howled past.

Wang Ping's movements came to an abrupt halt.

A second later, he spotted a white-clad woman with a blurry face amid the wind. Barefoot upon the wilderness, she walked toward him at a leisurely pace.

"So you really are here."

The woman's voice drifted over on the wind. "No wonder I suddenly felt the urge to take a stroll beyond the frontier today. I thought you would resurrect in Shuzhong like before."

"Holy shit..."

Even though he had already witnessed just how absurd the First Seat's intuition was, seeing it again now still filled him with envy.

After all, divination and calculations followed a certain logic. They relied on destiny and could be obscured or tampered with. But the woman's so-called intuition—based entirely on her Divine Intent cultivation—was baseless and utterly unreasonable. Yet it accurately hit the mark every single time. It was hard to imagine how she did it.

"The First Seat's divine skills are unparalleled! Invincible in this world!"

Wang Ping didn't hesitate in the slightest, immediately bowing low, but a gentle breeze lifted him back up. The ethereal voice came again. "You've improved again."

"You reforged the Dragon Head Guillotine, and your saber technique has taken shape."

"As for your martial arts... I don't see any more inner body deities, so that can be considered stagnating. However, your cultivation in the immortal dao has improved significantly. Have you broken through to Loose Immortal?"

Wang Ping nodded.

Seeing this, the woman smiled. "Success in immortal cultivation is a good thing, but the martial path isn't completely without merit. Divine Powers are hard to seek, but the Great Grandmaster Rank isn't quite so difficult."

Wang Ping understood what she meant. The Tribulation Transcending Second Layer was still far beyond his reach, but the Great Grandmaster Rank was right at his fingertips. According to Chenlong's previous description, the combat strength of a Great Grandmaster after Manifesting Divinity was no inferior to Divine Powers. If he could achieve that, he would be taking a massive shortcut.

At this thought, Wang Ping immediately bowed.

"Please guide me, First Seat."

Before his words even faded—

A familiar sensation washed over him. Wang Ping felt the world spin, and the next moment, he arrived at the center of that towering Martial Drill Platform once again.

"Here we go!"

Wang Ping looked around, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Unlike last time, his immortal and martial paths were now unified. His combat strength had more than doubled, so he was naturally full of confidence.

The First Seat herself is certainly formidable, but the Eight Trigrams Furnace itself is a bit lacking. At its absolute peak, it can only output Great Grandmaster Rank strength, backed by a group of Loose Immortals from the Immortal Gate adding fuel to the fire. Those Loose Immortals haven't even figured out the core of their magic power. If Daoist Nun You were here, she could take on dozens of them alone. They aren't anything special.

By now, Wang Ping also understood the difference between Loose Immortals and true outer sect disciples.

Although both were at the Tribulation Transcending First Layer and had successfully cultivated magic power, Loose Immortals lacked a proper legacy. They possessed magic power in vain without grasping its core.

Take me, for example.

When I first broke through, I was just a Loose Immortal with empty magic power. But later, I comprehended that the core of my magic power is Latent Concealment, which makes me a true outer sect disciple.

The two seemed to be at the same cultivation level, but the actual gap between them was like heaven and earth.

I don't think anyone is my match right now. I just wonder if I can force the First Seat to show her hand and let me witness her strength with my own eyes...

Right at that moment.

"Clang—!"

A muffled bell chime exploded across the Martial Drill Platform. Immediately after, Wang Ping saw a tall and imposing man step out from the light.

The figure transitioned from illusion to reality.

It was an extremely burly man standing on the platform like an iron tower. His entire body was encased in armor, revealing only a pair of calm eyes.

The woman's voice rang out at the perfect time.

"The Guanchao City Lord, one of the four Great Grandmasters of the current era."

"He possesses the divine weapon, the Jade-Sea Profound Rhinoceros Armor."

"In the year 978 of Great Shun, I imparted to him the Seeing Divinity method and helped him attain Manifesting Divinity. I fought him afterward, shattering his armor and defeating him in three moves. Win against him, and I will teach you a martial art."

A current Great Grandmaster!?

Wang Ping's originally casual expression quickly turned serious. He hadn't forgotten that a Great Grandmaster could fight a Tribulation Transcending Second Layer cultivator for a long time without losing!

Could he win?

"Boom!"

The next second, Wang Ping's vision was covered by an armored iron fist. The explosive sound of the punch resembled surging waves, crushing toward his body like the weight of Mount Tai!

No, it wasn't just his body. Even Wang Ping's sea of consciousness felt suppressed by this fist. The flow of his Divine Intent became sluggish, to the point that his accelerated state, his crisis perception, and his intuition all dropped a level. As a result, he actually failed to react to the opponent's punch in the very first moment.

What a punch!

In a flash of lightning, Wang Ping moved. Although his Divine Intent was suppressed, his spiritual sense remained completely unhindered, rapidly taking over his perception and reaction to the outside world.

Immediately after, the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade was already in his hand.

"Clang—!"

The world turned blindingly white.

An unimaginably fast slash. Under the augmentation of the Time-Stealing Thief, it even left the process of striking behind, directly presenting the result of the kill.

In an instant, the descending armored iron fist was forcefully halted in midair. A clear white mark abruptly appeared on the shimmering gauntlet, and visible cracks rapidly spread outward from it—a true testament to the terrifying power of this slash.

But what was even more terrifying—it wasn't just one slash.

"Clang! Clang!"

Still skipping the process and directly arriving at the result, invisible slashes flared up simultaneously. The blazing saber light instantly swallowed the burly figure whole.

Explosive sparks danced brilliantly in the air.

In just a split second, a full three hundred and sixty white marks appeared on the burly figure's armor, causing cracks to blanket every inch of it.

"Good saber!"

A hearty laugh echoed from within the armor, devoid of any fear. At the same time, the light on the Jade-Sea Profound Rhinoceros Armor began to ripple slightly.

Like the ebb and flow of the tide.

A wash of brilliant light cleansed away all the cracks. The energy then gathered on the burly figure's clenched fist, erupting with an ultimate sharpness.

"Break!"

He punched.

In an instant, Wang Ping felt the sheer power within it—not just the burly figure's strength, but also the total might of the three hundred and sixty slashes he had just delivered!

It's a damage-reflecting type...

Wang Ping thought of Chenlong's Divine Armor, which had displayed a similar function when killing Kongzhi. However, it was clearly not as formidable as this Jade-Sea Profound Rhinoceros Armor.

In the past, he definitely wouldn't have been able to block this strike. Yet now, facing this punch that combined damage reflection and explosive force, Wang Ping remained calm. He raised the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade high. The divine weapon's profound mysteries activated, and the blade hummed like a dragon, trailing an absolutely dazzling streak of saber light.

Dharma Covenant!

The previous three hundred and sixty slashes—matching the numbers of heaven and earth—all turned into nourishment to activate the Dharma Covenant in this moment, declaring Wang Ping's edict to the world:

"Sever."

Transforming heaven and earth into a single slash!

"Slash!"

Following a soft sound, the burly figure that was just charging forward crashed to the ground, blood pouring out in a torrent. He had actually been chopped cleanly in half at the waist by Wang Ping's saber!

"Urgh!?"

As the burly figure plummeted miserably to the ground, he let out a muffled groan of surprise. He clearly hadn't expected Wang Ping to actually break through the armor he was so proud of.

But in truth, it wasn't Wang Ping's saber that had broken the armor. It was heaven and earth—having received the edict—voluntarily separating before Wang Ping's blade. Any living being within this patch of heaven and earth was naturally no exception. In plain terms, it was a sure-kill strike that couldn't be defended against, only dodged!

The method to dodge it was also very simple.

That was to escape the range of heaven and earth enveloped by the previous three hundred and sixty slashes before Wang Ping swung his blade. Only then would one remain unaffected.

I won?

Wang Ping couldn't help but have this thought.

Until the very next second, when his vision was suddenly blocked by an indescribable expanse of vast ocean and azure sky. Following that, all of his intuition was completely severed.

"Bang!"

In a daze, he seemed to hear the sound of his body being smashed by a colossal object, unable to bear the burden, and violently shattering apart. Along with it came a long, resounding bellow: "Moo!"

In reality, Wang Ping's eyes snapped open.

"Hoo...!"

The intense shock brought by the transition between life and death made him let out a sharp breath. The phantom pain of his body shattering hadn't yet faded, nearly causing him to lose his footing.

What the hell was that just now? So ferocious!

"Impressive."

In the wind, the ethereal voice drifted over faintly. "Being able to force him to use Manifesting Divinity means that those minor Divine Powers cultivators in the heavens cannot kill you. Even if you can't defeat them, you have enough strength to escape."

"R-Really?"

Wang Ping rubbed his temples, quickly realizing a crucial question. "Didn't you say that a Great Grandmaster can only barely delay for time against a Tribulation Transcending Second Layer cultivator?"

That level of power didn't look like it!

To this, the ethereal voice simply chuckled softly. "That was indeed the case back then... But so much time has passed since then, and people always make progress."

"After all, the advantage of the martial path has always been rapid progress."

Hearing this, Wang Ping instantly understood. The woman was showing him the prospects of the martial path to prevent him from focusing solely on immortal cultivation and giving up on martial arts, thus straying onto the orthodox path.

A second later, the woman's voice came again:

"With this level of strength, you're barely qualified."

"Let's go. We're going to see Xuanhe."