Chapter 172: You're Scared!

At this moment, Daoist Nun You's mood could only be described as a mix of shock and fury.

‘A trap meant for me!’

‘It was intentional. He and Xuanhe did this on purpose. They broke my mark on Dao Proving Mountain and deliberately lured me into taking him away, all just to kill me?’

Daoist Nun You was not stupid. The moment Wang Ping attacked, she instantly understood the entire scheme. Yet even so, her heart was filled with disbelief. An inner sect disciple and a piece of Human Firewood from the Eight Trigrams Furnace actually thought they could kill her just because they defeated her mark's avatar?

Who gave them the courage?

In a split second, a fraction of time was silently stolen away. Within the long river of blade light, a full three hundred and sixty slashes appeared, matching the number of the cosmic cycle.

Dharma Covenant activated!

“Slash!”

Launching a sudden sneak attack, Wang Ping opened with a lethal strike. Three hundred and sixty slashes merged into a single heaven-and-earth-cleaving blow. By the time Daoist Nun You heard his voice, she already had nowhere to run.

“Boom!”

In an instant, the Daoist robes and long skirt on Daoist Nun You's body were activated layer by layer. Boundless radiant light surged, forcibly bearing the weight of the river of blade light crashing down upon her.

It looked as though stones were constantly smashing into a lake, stirring up ripples. Like peeling an onion, the protective magical light on Daoist Nun You's body was stripped away layer by layer. Her clothes shattered, revealing fair skin that outshone snow and frost. Her flushed, naked body was beautiful to the extreme.

This bought her time.

“Edict!”

Daoist Nun You formed a hand seal, and the scenery of heaven and earth around her immediately expanded, exactly like the actions her avatar had taken on Dao Proving Mountain when facing this very move from Wang Ping.

She filled the space, constructing a new world to evade the lethal strike.

However—

‘Since I've already seen this move, how could I let you succeed again?’

The next second, Wang Ping returned the fraction of time he had just stolen, dragging down Daoist Nun You's spellcasting and erasing the time she had bought with the destruction of her Dharma robes.

“Clang!”

The resplendent cry of the blade brought a streak of bloody light that vanished in the blink of an eye. Not far away, Daoist Nun You's body had been severed at the waist, entirely devoid of her former charm.

Wang Ping harbored no wicked thoughts about this. No matter how beautiful a naked body was, in his eyes, it was nothing more than a white skeleton. Moreover, the real Daoist Nun You was different from the mark's avatar on Dao Proving Mountain. She would not die and vanish just from being chopped in half. On the contrary, a mere bisection did not even count as a minor injury to her.

Sure enough.

Not far away, Daoist Nun You wore a calm expression. Divine light burst from her bisected body, connecting the two halves before they slammed back together with a resounding boom.

In just a few breaths, she had completely restored her physical body.

Of course, her clothing was not restored, leaving her exquisite figure on full display. Only a thin bloody line remained on her lower abdomen, and even that was rapidly fading.

At the same time, Daoist Nun You was also forming a hand seal.

Wang Ping immediately realized what she was trying to do. She wanted to reopen the Cave Abode and let Xuanyin inside. This was the safest response.

“A pity. You're still a bit short.”

Wang Ping sighed. If his goal had only been to kill Daoist Nun You, the saber strike he had just unleashed using the blade intent of the Heaven's Will Profound Blade might very well have succeeded.

But doing that was completely meaningless.

If he really killed Daoist Nun You, the result would just be like last time. It would alarm the Great Cultivator Mingyou, who would descend from the heavens and reverse time to directly resurrect her.

But once he set his goal on capturing her alive, many variables could easily arise. For example, right now. If Daoist Nun You really reopened the Cave Abode and let the outside Xuanyin learn of everything, then against the might of Divine Powers at the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer, Wang Ping would have no power to resist. He would only be able to commit suicide and move on to his next life.

“Fortunately... I was prepared for this.”

Watching Daoist Nun You's actions, Wang Ping didn't make a single move. He just stood quietly in place, which actually caused a trace of doubt to rise in Daoist Nun You's heart.

‘He's not coming to stop me?’

Of course, doubt was just doubt. Daoist Nun You's movements did not hesitate in the slightest. Yet right at the end, she discovered that the speed of her hand seals and incantations had slowed down.

No, she had already formed the thought countless times.

In her senses, she had continuously issued commands to her body, demanding it circulate her magical power, form the hand seals, open the Cave Abode, and call Xuanyin inside.

But her body wasn't listening to her.

Or rather, these commands she issued had invisibly slowed down. Even now, they had not reached her body. Every single thought was frozen in that instant.

‘Not good!’

The next second, the world in Daoist Nun You's eyes began to invert and spin. All of her thoughts collapsed with a crash, and she finally plummeted into another majestic realm.

The Martial Drill Platform.

...

“What kind of joke is this!”

Looking at the empty high platform around her, Daoist Nun You finally lost her composure completely. Her expression reached the absolute limit of disbelief; she could not accept everything before her eyes.

‘A Grotto-Heaven? A blessed land?’

‘Impossible. Even I don't possess a Grotto-Heaven. A firewood-adding disciple, someone with the status of an independent cultivator—what did he use to create a Grotto-Heaven? And how is he hiding it on his body?’

‘Who is it!?’

Even with a lineage at the level of a True Transmission, no matter how hard she racked her brains at this moment, she couldn't imagine how she had fallen into this majestic realm.

This wasn't like immortal cultivation at all!

Immediately after, she saw clouds and mist rolling in another corner of the high platform. With brisk steps, Wang Ping walked out from the depths of the mist, carrying his saber.

However, Daoist Nun You didn't look at Wang Ping. Instead, she stared blankly at the woman standing beside him. The woman was gazing off into the distant sky, completely ignoring her, looking as though her mind was wandering beyond the heavens. In an instant, the pride and confidence brought by her True Transmission status were stripped away, leaving behind only a bone-deep chill.

‘Tribulation Transcending Second Layer? A Divine Powers cultivator?’

‘It doesn't make sense. If a Divine Powers cultivator sneaked in, I definitely would have noticed when I activated the Cave Abode's formation... Could it be a Tribulation Transcending Third Layer?’

That made even less sense!

Even Kunyun, who was also a True Transmission at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer, would absolutely not dare to kill her. Where did this Tribulation Transcending Third Layer cultivator come from, actually daring to strike at her from the shadows?

“Thank you for your trouble, First Seat.”

Wang Ping's voice echoed across the high platform. Falling into Daoist Nun You's ears, it only made her more bewildered. What First Seat? Was there a Tribulation Transcending Third Layer cultivator with this Daoist title?

Under her shock and fury, Daoist Nun You couldn't help but speak:

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

“Scheming so deliberately, which True Transmission is plotting against me? Being so brazen, aren't you afraid my master, Mingyou, will sense this and capture you?”

...

There was no response.

At this moment, Daoist Nun You only felt a wave of coldness explode from her tailbone and rush straight to the crown of her head—how could there be no response! Did her master not hear her?

That's right. The words she just spoke weren't the empty verbal threats of someone at the end of their rope, but a call for help... Her master, the Great Cultivator Mingyou, had refined the Discerning Truth and Illusion Illuminating Qi upon entering the Dao. This Qi belonged to the Ding Fire element, situated in the realm of the Three Talents. It could see through heaven and earth, illuminating all things it reached.

As long as it was a realm where the Twenty-Four Qi existed.

Ignoring distance, on any star within the Cosmos, as long as the name "Mingyou" was mentioned, her master would sense it and know the location!

So when she said "Mingyou."

She was actually already calling her master for help. This was also the main reason Kunyun would yield when facing her, and why Xuanyin didn't dare to go too far.

At the same time, this was her ultimate trump card.

Yet now, this trump card that she thought could turn the tide had vanished into thin air, losing all effectiveness. This instantly drained the color from Daoist Nun You's face.

‘Why!?’

‘Master didn't come, which means he couldn't sense it. That means this place isn't within the Twenty-Four Qi.’

‘But even a top-tier Grotto-Heaven like Dao Proving Mountain couldn't exist apart from the Twenty-Four Qi. Just what kind of hellish place is this!’

At the same time, Wang Ping also breathed a sigh of relief.

To be honest, when Daoist Nun You shouted the name "Mingyou," he couldn't help but tense up, terrified that the First Seat wouldn't be able to contain the situation.

Fortunately, the First Seat was still reliable.

Up until this moment, the woman hadn't paid any attention to Daoist Nun You. She just kept studying the sky above the Martial Drill Platform, as if observing some kind of spectacle.

“Finish this quickly.”

After a short while, the woman finally spoke. Her red lips parted slightly, her voice ethereal. “Try not to make me act. I don't want to leave any traces in destiny.”

“Yes, First Seat...”

Before Wang Ping could finish speaking, the woman cut him off directly. “You are already my disciple. From now on, call me Master.”

“Yes, Master,” Wang Ping readily agreed.

Immediately after, he turned around and looked at Daoist Nun You, who was acting as if facing a great enemy. He broke into a grin. “Alright, now it's time for us to settle our accounts.”

What accounts?

Daoist Nun You didn't delve into the meaning behind Wang Ping's words, only letting out a cold sneer. “Even if you isolated my master's senses, you still absolutely wouldn't dare to kill me.”

“I'm here, and my master can't sense it.”

“But if you kill me, how will you leave? Xuanyin is right outside. When you go out and he doesn't see me, he'll definitely call for my master the very first moment.”

“When that happens, you'll still be unable to escape death!”

As her voice fell, Daoist Nun You didn't see the slightest bit of apprehension on Wang Ping's face. Instead, she saw a smile tinged with a bit of mockery.

“You are scared.”

These simple words smashed into Daoist Nun You's heart like a heavy hammer.

I am scared?

How is that possible... Daoist Nun You subconsciously wanted to refute him, but the hardest person to deceive is oneself. Therefore, the words of rebuttal reached her lips, yet she couldn't say them.

At this moment, her thoughts wavered.

Almost simultaneously, Wang Ping—who had been gathering momentum in secret early on, fully concealing it with the magical power of Latent Concealment, and had just now reached his absolute limit—fiercely struck!

He didn't hold back at all with this strike. Pushed to extreme acceleration, sound and shadows were both left far behind as he charged into the sub-light speed domain. The resulting power was entirely contained on the edge of the blade by his Blood Qi True Gang, and he even activated the five characters of the Heaven's Will Profound Blade within his sea of consciousness.

This ultimate saber intent was enough to sting the eyes of anyone who merely looked at it.

Inside Dao Proving Mountain, it was precisely this ultimate strike that had defeated Daoist Nun You's mark avatar. Compared to back then, the power of this current strike was even stronger!

Because back on Dao Proving Mountain, Wang Ping's magical power hadn't yet undergone its second qualitative change.

But now, his magical power had reached a higher level. Opening with Latent Concealment, all the power of this strike was ‘hidden’ away without a single ripple.

Soundless, formless, and shadowless.

The blade light flashed and vanished in an instant.

The next second, a deafening roar belatedly arrived, carrying Daoist Nun You's shattered naked body, splashing bloody light, and spreading out in all directions!