Chapter 165: Consecutive Kills!

Bliss Immortal Peak.

Wang Ping sped through the air as a streak of light, eventually catching up to another group of cultivators. They were gathered at a blessed land—specifically, one of the blessed lands he had encountered back at Dao Proving Mountain.

Myriad Colors Blessed Land.

He had won his previous thirty thousand dharma currency from this very blessed land. It should have been three million, but they had reneged on the debt, only paying out ten times his initial wager.

Wang Ping didn't approach rashly. Instead, he decisively plucked a single strand of hair, circulated his magic power, and blew on it lightly. The hair immediately transformed upon hitting the ground, taking on his appearance. Infused with his magic power, it became a perfect clone—one capable of unleashing the combat prowess of a Loose Immortal for a short time.

"Go," he said.

With a shift of Wang Ping's will, the clone descended into Myriad Colors Blessed Land. It didn't do much—it simply harassed the cultivators inside about their refusal to pay.

As for Wang Ping's true body, he lowered his escaping light and executed the Latent Concealment method. Like ink dissolving in clear water, his figure rapidly sank deep into the earth.

'I'll kill Xiaoxiang first!'

Wang Ping's gaze turned icy. He formed a hand seal, and his palm immediately transformed. The patterns of a tortoise shell manifested in the center of his palm, with streaks of cloud-like runes rapidly shifting and calculating within.

Nine Mysterious Demon-Subduing Transformations, Ten-Thousand-Year Tortoise!

It was one of the Eight Great Royal Clans—an auspicious creature born of fortune. It innately possessed the profound mysteries of the tortoise shell, capable of divining heavenly secrets, reading karma, and calculating all matters of rise and fall in the mortal realm.

"The spirit tortoise sleeps silent in realms of cloud, profound runes hide jade verses upon its shell.

If you ask of the mortal realm's rise and fall, a thousand frosts pass in the flick of a finger."

Wang Ping's voice boomed like thunder as he chanted the incantation. The tortoise shell patterns on his palm instantly began to burn, eventually evaporating into a streak of radiant light that pointed directly toward the northeast.

"Northeast, is it?"

Wang Ping didn't stop. Changing his hand seal, he withdrew the profound power of the Ten-Thousand-Year Tortoise and once again manifested his six ears. The Sound Perception technique aimed remotely toward the northeast.

This time, he selected 'Man' and 'Future', listening for human voices that would appear in the northeast in the future. His magic power rushed into his ears like a ruptured dam. Gradually, a massive amount of static began to surface. Wang Ping quickly filtered through it, finally locking onto a single voice:

"This place should be fine, right?"

"Dammit, how am I this unlucky? To think I'd actually run into a battle of Divine Powers. Whatever, I'll find a rocky area first and hide underground..."

It was Xiaoxiang's voice!

Wang Ping's eyes lit up. He immediately closed the ears of 'Man' and switched to listening to 'Earth', letting the ground tell him which region would undergo a change in the future.

"Ouch, why is someone drilling a hole in me again..."

Found it!

In the next second, Wang Ping abruptly folded away his six ears and exhaled softly. Only then did he realize that, without him even noticing, a full two-thirds of his magic power had been depleted.

This was even with magic power that had undergone two qualitative transformations. If it were before those transformations, just these two uses of Sound Perception would have likely drained him dry.

Fortunately, he was underground right now, perfectly matching the imagery of the Hidden Dragon Meridian-Circulating Nether-Penetrating Qi. Because of this, massive amounts of spiritual energy quickly gathered to replenish his magic power. While it was impossible to return to his peak state in a short time... killing someone like Xiaoxiang wouldn't require much effort anyway.

Rumble!

In the next second, Wang Ping's figure shot through the earth. Protected by his Latent Concealment magic power, his speed traveling underground was even faster than his flight through the sky.

Following what he had heard through Sound Perception, he soon found the location in the northeast where the earth's crustal shift and Xiaoxiang's voice would appear simultaneously in the future. He then drew the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade, pushed his magic power to the absolute limit, and hid his figure deep within the void.

True, he could instantly kill Xiaoxiang in a head-on fight too.

But why bother?

'A sneak attack is much more cost-effective. After all, this is the Immortal Gate; they have too many investigative methods. It's best if he dies instantly without even seeing me.'

With that thought, Wang Ping hid himself even deeper.

In this moment, he resembled a dormant hidden dragon silently awaiting its opportunity. At the same time, he seemed to gain a deeper understanding of the Hidden Dragon Meridian-Circulating Nether-Penetrating Qi.

...

As Wang Ping lay dormant underground, less than fifteen minutes passed before a streak of escaping light tore across the sky. It quickly descended, concealing all fluctuations of its aura.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

The light dispersed. Xiaoxiang walked out, his face pale. Still gripped by lingering fear, he couldn't help but survey his surroundings before pinching his fingers to perform a brief divination.

"This place should be fine, right?"

Xiaoxiang sighed. He calculated and calculated, but destiny offered no response whatsoever. Looking on the bright side, that probably meant his life was no longer in danger, right?

At the thought of this, Xiaoxiang gnashed his teeth again.

Son of a bitch, Xuanhe was useless!

If he hadn't run around blindly and instead headed straight back to the Eight Trigrams Furnace, would he have ended up in this state? And that Dousheng didn't look like a good person either.

"Once I get back, I have to mention this to Senior Brother Kunyun. Xuanhe came from the Eight Trigrams Furnace to begin with. He's using this opportunity to elevate Human Firewood from the furnace and establish his own faction. An independent cultivator defeating a True Transmission... if he really succeeds, won't he soar to the heavens? It's best if I figure out a way to just kill him directly..."

Xiaoxiang plotted internally.

After all, Wang Ping's performance on Dao Proving Mountain had been far too dazzling. If Senior Brother Kunyun truly valued him, he might spend a massive fortune nurturing him.

And resources were limited.

Money spent heavily on nurturing someone else meant less money spent on himself. This was something Xiaoxiang absolutely could not accept, something he had to stop.

"Whatever. That's all for later. First, I'll find a rocky area and hide underground. I can deal with Xuanhe and that Dousheng once I'm safe."

With this thought, Xiaoxiang walked a lap around the mountain forest.

"Right here!"

Soon enough, he found the area with the thickest spiritual energy. By hiding here, he could use the dense spiritual environment to mask his own magic power.

And so, he walked over excitedly.

Then, the world in his eyes began to flip and spin. He tumbled from a height, rotating until he landed on the ground with a heavy thud.

"Huh?"

What had happened?

Before Xiaoxiang's consciousness could truly process the question, it came to an abrupt halt. His soul drifted out blankly, eventually falling into Wang Ping's eyes.

Soul Pursuing!

To prevent the Immortal Gate from summoning the soul afterward, Wang Ping beat them to it, detaining Xiaoxiang's soul and casually tossing it into the Purple-Gold Bowl that Jin Hai had given him.

Immediately after, he released Kongbei and Zongji from inside.

"My Lord?"

The moment the two monks landed, they saw Xiaoxiang's decapitated corpse and were instantly shocked. The looks they subsequently directed at Wang Ping filled with an even deeper reverence.

He had just gone undercover in the Immortal Gate, yet he was already directly ambushing and killing its disciples?

What a ruthless man!

"Don't just stand there," Wang Ping urged. "Unleash the strongest spells of your lives and obliterate this corpse. Destroy the body and erase all traces. Make it a clean job."

"Yes!"

Without another word, the two monks immediately conjured Buddha light and disposed of Xiaoxiang's corpse impeccably, while Wang Ping oversaw the entire process.

As for the ensuing karmic fluctuations and the ripples stirred within destiny, they were completely suppressed by the Fate-Fixing Bead he rolled in his hand.

Having finished all this, Wang Ping quickly stowed away Kongbei and Zongji. He then looted the body, claimed the spoils, and made his escape. His figure sank into the earth once more and vanished. He patiently adjusted his breathing until his magic power returned to its peak, at which point he repeated his earlier trick and began searching for his next target's location.

...

Underground, Wang Ping's figure shuttled rapidly.

He had no need to worry about getting lost, simply because Daoist Xuanhe had handed him a map with every single mountain meticulously detailed before he even set out.

Clearly, Daoist Xuanhe must have done this sort of thing more than once in the past. He had thoroughly explored Bliss Immortal Peak, turning it upside down. The map detailed exactly where to lay ambushes, where to hide and enter secluded cultivation, and where to shake off enemies. It was undoubtedly an accumulation of countless actual battles.

Armed with the experience of his first kill, Wang Ping's movements were even more practiced the second time around. Aside from lying in ambush, he even had the spare energy to use the Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade to draw a circle at the location beforehand.

The moment the target arrived, he instantly activated the Dharma Covenant, allowing heaven and earth to immobilize them.

"Who's there?!"

Fairy Fengyuan had barely landed. Before she could react, she felt the surrounding heaven and earth harden into solid steel, acting as shackles that made it nearly impossible for her to move.

Whoosh!

A gentle breeze blew past, carrying off a beautiful head. It crashed to the ground with a look of utter bewilderment, and shortly after, Wang Ping pocketed a fragrant soul.

Next came summoning the Brahma Cultivators, destroying the corpse to erase all traces, looting the spoils, and running away.

His movements were clean, sharp, and done in one fluid breath.

It was just as the saying went: I, Wang Ping, have never been one to lust after women. When facing enemies, it didn't matter if they were male or female. I kill them both just the same!

"Next!"

Wang Ping's figure vanished from sight.

A short while later, as Changyangzi's head also plummeted blankly to the earth, Wang Ping didn't pause for a moment. He collected the soul again, looted the corpse, and immediately withdrew to return.

Soon, he arrived back at Myriad Colors Blessed Land.

He first had his clone use an excuse to temporarily leave the blessed land, then retracted the clone and replaced it with his true body. Only then did he swagger back inside.

"Phew...!"

Having finished all this, Wang Ping finally exhaled a long breath. He then reviewed his execution of three consecutive kills, ultimately reaching a conclusion:

'There's a high probability that everything is fine.'

True, even though he had tried his best to be thorough and leave no obvious traces, many things in the Immortal Gate defied reason.

Leaving aside the various investigative methods involving time reversal, if they adopted a rougher approach—shooting the arrow first and drawing the bullseye later, directly assuming you were the culprit and killing you—there would truly be nowhere to reason with them. However, Wang Ping judged that this incident shouldn't escalate to the point where such situations would occur.

The reason was very simple:

'At the end of the day, it's just three stinking outer sect disciples who died. No matter how good their talent was, the deaths of a few outer sect disciples couldn't possibly alarm the Immortal Gate.'

Therefore, it was highly unlikely that Qi Refining practitioners would come directly to investigate.

As for shooting the arrow first and drawing the bullseye later, Daoist Xuanhe should be aware of this. If there were truly such a risk, he wouldn't have struck in the first place.

At this thought, Wang Ping felt slightly reassured.

Immediately after, he raised his head and looked toward the distant canopy of the sky, even though this place was separated from the battlefield of the five Divine Powers cultivators by thousands of miles.

Yet, as he sensed carefully, he could still feel wave after wave of spiritual energy being stirred and churned, carrying heart-palpitating fluctuations.

Suddenly, the spiritual energy waves trembled violently with a boom.

In the next second, Wang Ping clearly sensed that out of the five mighty forces stirring the spiritual energy, one was gradually shattering, slowly losing its radiance.

"A victor has emerged?!"