Chapter 78: You Xuexin: The Advantage Is Mine!

Wang Ping wasn't lying. He had arrived at Youren Temple quite early, rushing over the moment he finished killing Xu Bingzheng.

In fact, he had been about to step inside.

But he had caught sight of Shenhou activating the Dragon Head Guillotine, only for Perfected Wandering Spirit to block it with a bare hand. Seeing this, Wang Ping decisively pulled his foot back.

Not out of fear, of course.

Mostly, he wanted to give Shenhou and Xugou—the two imperial tributes—a chance to show their skills. Rather than rushing in blindly to throw his life away, it made more sense to clear out the demons outside the temple first.

Better to farm some easy prey and bulk up his strength before joining the main fight.

It also allowed Shenhou and Xugou to act as the vanguard and test Perfected Wandering Spirit's true capabilities... which was why he had waited until the last possible moment to strike.

The benefits of this approach were obvious. Facing the Dragon Head Guillotine, Perfected Wandering Spirit had been forced to use Qi Restriction to resist. To push the spell to its absolute limit and achieve true invulnerability, it had no choice but to expend a significant amount of magical power.

That single move laid bare its true nature to Wang Ping.

As he spoke, Shenhou and Xugou widened their eyes in bewilderment. He had already seen through the puppet's origins?

What did he mean?

On the other side, You Xuexin's heart sank. Behind Perfected Wandering Spirit's bronze mask, a pair of emerald-flame eyes flickered wildly.

She was likely the only person present who understood what Wang Ping meant. He was absolutely right: the current Perfected Wandering Spirit was nothing more than a puppet. Much like the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag, she had infused it with her spiritual sense and magical power before tossing it into the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Therefore, it shared the exact same fatal flaw as the flag.

Magical power!

Wang Ping stared at Perfected Wandering Spirit with burning eyes. As long as I completely drain its magical power, I'll be the winner, he thought.

And in a battle of attrition, the absolute advantage is mine!

The reason was simple: the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag was a high-grade magical artifact. As a mere puppet, there was no way Perfected Wandering Spirit was made of better materials.

After all, that venomous woman had practically bankrupted herself just to refine the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag. She had no money left for superior materials.

Better materials naturally held larger reserves of power. Because of this, Wang Ping was absolutely certain that the puppet before him contained less magical power than he did. In a battle of attrition, the odds heavily favored him... The only real variable was how efficiently that power was used.

That venomous woman is a true transmission disciple of the Immortal Gate, after all.

Not only does she have an endless array of spells at her disposal, but her cultivation method is definitely far superior to mine. Her efficiency in utilizing magical power should completely outclass mine.

When it came to his enemies, Wang Ping never hesitated to overestimate them.

Thus, after careful consideration, he still considered himself the underdog. In a straight-up fight, his chances of beating Daoist Nun You were terribly slim.

"However... that's assuming I was fighting alone."

Before he even finished speaking, the banner rippled behind him. Thick shadows billowed outward, accompanied by piercing shrieks of laughter, as tens of thousands of demons swarmed into the open.

"Kill!"

At his command, the demons surged forward in a massive tide, throwing themselves at You Xuexin. The suffocating wave of foul, murky energy made the true transmission disciple frown deeply.

She couldn't understand it.

After the artifact had betrayed her the first time, she had asked her master to re-forge the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag. They had added numerous restrictions specifically designed to leash the artifact spirit.

In theory, it should have been impossible for the artifact to turn on its master a second time.

This was especially true given her master's skill as an artifact refiner. If there was still any risk of betrayal, her master would have definitely noticed it, and there was no way he couldn't have fixed it.

So why was this happening?

Even taking a step back, what about the built-in restrictions? Logically, the moment the spirit rebelled, the magical power she had left inside the artifact should have instantly destroyed it.

Why is it still acting so freely?

You Xuexin was utterly baffled. She immediately formed a hand seal, attempting to seize control of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag. Yet, every command she sent out vanished like a stone tossed into the ocean.

This only fueled her fury.

Narrowing her eyes, she lightly tapped her fingertips. A brilliant light erupted instantly, illuminating the area as it swept forcefully over the surging tide of demons.

In an instant, the demons melted away like snow under the spring sun. Caught in the brilliant light, they collapsed and disintegrated, howling as they were incinerated into clusters of ash before dissipating into blue smoke. Seeing this, the surviving demons immediately shrank back, scattering like birds and beasts in utter chaos, not daring to step an inch closer to the radiance.

Satisfied, You Xuexin smirked. "Did you really think I'd be helpless against you just because I'm using a puppet? At the end of the day, these are nothing more than filthy, foul entities. You can gather as many as you want, but they're still just trash!"

The Immortal Gate possessed no shortage of demon-subduing spells.

What she had just cast was one of their most common techniques, known as Birth of Light. It allowed the caster to manifest various protective divine glows according to their will.

The Demon-Subduing Divine Light from just a moment ago was one such example.

It was said that "a single sweep of the divine light subdues all demons," making it the perfect counter for this exact situation. This was why You Xuexin had remained so calm from the start.

It's just an artifact spirit in the end. Its methods are limited.

Even if it can draw upon the artifact's innate mysteries, it doesn't amount to much. It hasn't learned any orthodox spells from the Immortal Gate; it only knows how to blindly command demons to swarm and bite.

With tactics like that, never mind ten thousand demons—even if there were a hundred thousand or a million, a single sweep of my Demon-Subduing Divine Light would wipe them out.

At this thought, her confidence soared even higher.

Seeing this, Wang Ping shook his head with a sigh. "The orthodox spells of the Immortal Gate truly live up to their reputation. It seems relying on ordinary demons is just a waste of magical power."

"So, how about this?"

Taking a sudden step back, Wang Ping rapidly formed a series of hand seals before clasping them together in front of his chest. Exhaling sharply, he chanted, "Three Corpses feast on life, Nine Worms spawn from filth!"

Instantly, roaring flames erupted across Wang Ping's entire body. The fire burned in a myriad of colors and forms—three hues emanating from his soul, and nine stemming from his flesh—before expanding rapidly in all directions.

Wherever the dazzling, multicolored light passed, the horde of demons—originally nothing more than the dull, unremarkable souls of black-headed commoners—threw their heads back and shrieked. One by one, they began to mutate.

They swelled in size, towering well over eight chi tall, and sprouted vicious fangs and razor-sharp claws. At the same time, their solid forms became ethereal and indistinct. They flickered out of existence in the blink of an eye, moving so erratically that spiritual sense could hardly track them. Even the dim light in their eyes flared with newfound intelligence, gleaming with a sinister cunning.

"Kehehehe!"

The next second, unleashing a chorus of piercing cackles, the demons charged once more. This time, their speed and power had skyrocketed; the difference was like night and day!

You Xuexin's expression finally slipped.

"Is that... the Three Corpses and Nine Worms Tribulation-Resolving Secret Record? How do you know that?!"

As a true transmission disciple, there was no way she wouldn't recognize his technique—especially since it was a standard cultivation method the Immortal Gate distributed to independent cultivators.

Beyond just advancing one's cultivation and breaking through Realms, this technique possessed a secondary function. The Three Corpses and Nine Worms represented a cultivator's fundamental vitality and lifespan. This technique allowed a practitioner to synchronize their Three Corpses and Nine Worms with those of others, effectively sharing their own vitality and cultivation base.

Simply put, it was used to buff allies.

The reason behind this specific ability was simple: it was meant for independent cultivators, and independent cultivators were the labor force behind the Immortal Gate's resource-intensive industries.

In those industries, if an independent cultivator possessed a method to boost their fellow workers' efficiency, it directly benefited the sect's production.

You Xuexin herself had once been a beneficiary of this system.

After all, as a true transmission disciple, she was supplied by numerous resource nodes managed by independent cultivators. Soul-Falling Studio had once been one of them.

Naturally, she had always been delighted whenever independent cultivators found ways to increase their work efficiency.

Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that this very cultivation method—a mere laborer's technique she had once praised so highly—would be weaponized against her.

Boom!

The brilliant light flared furiously, but it lacked its previous overwhelming divine might. Hundreds of demons joined forces, enduring the searing smoke as they forcibly halted the light's advance and physically suppressed it!

Seeing this, You Xuexin's expression darkened completely.

She could, of course, pour more magical power into the spell to strengthen the Demon-Subduing Divine Light, but that would drag her right into a straightforward battle of attrition.

And Wang Ping's earlier guess had been absolutely correct—the amount of power she had injected into the Perfected Wandering Spirit puppet was far less than what she had given the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag. If they tried to drain each other out, she would inevitably run dry first. When that happened, maintaining the repairs on the Longevity Rivaling Heaven Gourd would become impossible.

"...Hmph!"

You Xuexin saw the situation clearly, but she didn't panic. With a casual twist of her intent, the roaring Demon-Subduing Divine Light suddenly folded inward, retracting to form a barrier just three chi around her.

"Wood flourishes in spring, armor takes root in the west."

As the incantation fell, an azure hue blossomed from the divine light. It blanketed the golden-white radiance, eventually taking the shape of a remarkably lifelike phantom of an Azure Dragon.

The Azure Dragon bared its fangs and brandished its claws, coiling its massive body tightly around You Xuexin. Raising its head to loose a long, echoing roar, it clamped its five-toed claw directly above her, sealing the ambient spiritual energy in all four directions. Then, much like an ancient snapping turtle pulling into its shell, it froze in place. No matter how frantically the demons tore and bit at the barrier, the dragon remained completely unmoved.

This time, it was Wang Ping's turn to be dumbfounded.

You Xuexin's assessment of him hadn't been wrong. Despite entering the Immortal Gate three separate times, the highest rank he had ever achieved was that of an independent cultivator. When it came to the orthodox methods of the Immortal Gate, he truly knew absolutely nothing.

Even so, Wang Ping could still read a battlefield.

She abandoned her offense and turtled up. Is she certain that if she drags this out into a stalemate, she'll still be the winner?

It made sense. Between an attacker and a defender, the defending party inherently held the advantage, expending far less energy to hold off superior numbers. But more importantly... as an ignorant independent cultivator, he had no idea what spell You Xuexin was using or what its exact properties were.

In a magical duel, that kind of ignorance was a death sentence.

There is no such thing as an unbreakable spell.

Every spell has a counter... but by the same logic, if you can't figure out a spell's true nature, even the weakest barrier becomes an unsolvable puzzle.

At that thought, a contemplative look surfaced in Wang Ping's eyes.

Back in the Immortal Gate, before the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

"Senior Sister, something feels off."

Daoist Xuanhe, the young priest in charge of overseeing this furnace session, suddenly opened his eyes. Frowning, he said, "The refinement process for the Longevity Rivaling Heaven Gourd is proceeding a bit too slowly."

"Did something go wrong inside the furnace?"

At his words, You Xuexin opened her eyes. Acting as calm and breezy as ever, she replied, "Relax, it is all part of the plan. Just keep everything running as usual."

"I... All right."

Daoist Xuanhe was clearly skeptical, but out of respect for You Xuexin's status as a true transmission disciple, he obediently sat back down and didn't press the issue any further.

Beside him, You Xuexin secretly breathed a sigh of relief... She had no other choice. It wasn't exactly like she could confess that the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag she had tossed into the flames had rebelled against her again, causing a delay in repairing the Longevity Rivaling Heaven Gourd. If word of that ever got out, she would become a laughingstock among the true transmission disciples.

Honestly, why have I been so cursed with bad luck lately?

First, that strongman I went through so much trouble to capture suddenly killed himself. Then, the high-grade magical artifact I poured a fortune of precious materials into betrayed me twice—and even got me killed once in the process.

It feels exactly like I'm being played as a pawn in some immortal's grand scheme.

Nothing is going to go wrong this time too, right?

No. Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

You Xuexin shook her head, fiercely dispelling the lingering dread from her mind.

As long as I maintain this defensive stance, the Longevity Rivaling Heaven Gourd will be fully repaired in three days at most. Once that happens, everything will be back on track.

Steadying her thoughts, You Xuexin submerged her mind back into the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Even now, she remained deeply confident. She was a dignified true transmission disciple of the Immortal Gate, after all. Even limited to a mere puppet body, there was no way a Mortal and a stray artifact spirit could possibly defeat her.

All things considered—the advantage was still hers!