Chapter 79: Have You Ever Been Slashed at Sub-Light Speed?

Youren Temple.

Ever since You Xuexin commanded Perfected Wandering Spirit to shift from offense to defense, the entire battle had settled into a stalemate. For Wang Ping, however, this was far from good news.

"We can't drag this out any longer!"

Shenhou was the first to stagger to his feet, gritting his teeth as he said, "Brother Wang, why don't you fall back for now? Xugou and I can still unleash four more strikes with the Dragon Head Guillotine."

"We should be able to force an opening and create an opportunity for you to strike."

"...There's no need."

Wang Ping shook his head, his brow twitching slightly. His gaze was solemn as he stared at Perfected Wandering Spirit not far away, watching the phantom of an azure dragon coiling around her.

Their opponent was clearly on the defensive, yet whenever Wang Ping entertained the thought of breaking through that azure dragon phantom, his Divine Intent would automatically flare with a warning. If he acted rashly and tried to shatter that barrier, something disastrous was bound to happen, and she would completely turn the tables on him.

Shenhou and Xugou could likely sense this as well.

But as members of the Imperial Tribute Hall, they had no choice but to push forward. That was why Shenhou had suggested they lead the charge—he was offering to test the waters for Wang Ping.

Clearly, they were already prepared to sacrifice themselves.

"That won't do."

Wang Ping smiled. "I'm still counting on you two seniors to recommend me to the Imperial Tribute Hall. If you die here, who will put in a good word for me?"

In all fairness, Shenhou's proposal was an excellent one.

However, while Wang Ping didn't mind setting people up to maximize his own benefits—provided their lives weren't at risk—he couldn't actually let anyone die for him.

He wasn't that shameless.

"Besides, at this point, our best move isn't to attack separately. We need to twist all our strength into a single rope and figure out how to settle this in one strike."

With that, he held out his hand.

"If you two seniors trust me, hand over the Dragon Head Guillotine. I'll command a couple of demons to wield it. That way, we get the best of both worlds."

"Demons can't use it."

Shenhou shook his head. "The Dragon Head Guillotine is a semi-divine weapon. Although it isn't a true divine weapon, it still bears the word 'divine.' It can only be activated by Divine Intent."

"No matter. I can use my Divine Intent to remotely control the demons to activate it," Wang Ping continued.

Shenhou froze at those words. "But aren't you already wielding a divine weapon? That great banner behind you—the one controlling the demons—isn't that one?"

"Can your Divine Intent withstand the burden of two divine weapons at once?"

"Ah... it's not a problem."

Wang Ping's thoughts churned, silently committing Shenhou's words to memory. 'The divine weapons of the Great Shun are considered magical treasures within the Immortal Gate. Theoretically, they can only be activated with magical power.'

'Yet the martial artists of the Great Shun have clearly found another way—using Divine Intent to drive them... What does that feel like? This is certainly an unexpected boon for me.'

Given his experiences entering the Immortal Gate three times and encountering the Life-Observing Bone-Detaching Mirror, Wang Ping had assumed he would have no hope of wielding magical treasures until he passed his Human Tribulation and condensed his own magical power. However, Shenhou's alternative approach opened up a brand new path. Perhaps he could wield magical treasures ahead of time!

'If Divine Intent can truly be used as a substitute...'

Wang Ping felt a surge of eagerness. 'Then even if Daoist Nun You's magical power within the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag is completely drained, I might still be able to activate this magical treasure to some degree and unleash its profound abilities!'

Meanwhile, Shenhou, though half-doubting, handed over the Dragon Head Guillotine.

The instant his fingers wrapped around the Dragon Head Guillotine, Wang Ping felt the crushing weight of the semi-divine weapon. It was as if an unseen mountain had just crashed down onto his shoulders.

This... is... truly...

Just holding the Dragon Head Guillotine—without even trying to activate it—caused Wang Ping's thoughts to grow unbearably heavy. Even his speed of cognition was forcibly slowed down.

And this was merely a semi-divine weapon.

No wonder Shenhou had been worried. If another one were added to the mix, Wang Ping knew for a fact he wouldn't be able to handle it—let alone the staggering toll a true divine weapon would take.

"Phew...!"

Wang Ping let out a long breath and pushed his Divine Intent to its absolute limit, finally dragging his thinking speed back up to that of a normal person. He then raised his head and swept his gaze across his surroundings.

The moment he gripped the Dragon Head Guillotine, a clear premonition bloomed in Wang Ping's mind: he possessed enough power to shatter the azure dragon phantom shrouding You Xuexin. But because of this, his Divine Intent's warning spiked to an unprecedented extreme, transforming into a sheer premonition of death.

'The instant I shatter that azure dragon phantom, I will die.'

'The kind of death where my head explodes. Even the Courage of the Noble Gentleman won't be able to save me.'

'Right... where is that old bastard Shouchong?'

Wang Ping narrowed his eyes, a sudden thought striking him. 'Did he really leave? Impossible. Given that old bastard's style, he should be hiding right nearby, waiting for an opportunity.'

'Just like when we dealt with Xu Bingzheng.'

'Is he trying to pull the same trick again?'

Wang Ping's eye twitched slightly. 'While I'm fighting that venomous woman You Xuexin, he's just waiting for me to risk my life to open up a flaw in her defenses, so he can launch a sneak attack?'

'That has to be it. Judging by the feedback from my Divine Intent, this move of Daoist Nun You's is most likely a counter-attacking spell. Whoever breaks the azure dragon phantom will bear the full brunt of her thunderous retaliation. If I strike, I'll be the one out of luck. If Shouchong strikes, he's the one who suffers. So naturally, it's a case of better a dead fellow Daoist than a poor Daoist...'

What should he do?

Wang Ping furrowed his brow tightly. The cooldown for the Outer Heavenly Demon hadn't ended yet. If he risked his life right now, there was a very real chance he would stay dead.

'But if I don't attack, will Shouchong be able to resist taking the shot?'

Wang Ping didn't know, and he didn't dare to bet on it.

At this thought, an idea sprouted in his mind: 'Should I... just give up? That venomous woman has already gathered enough lifespan anyway; she won't keep killing.'

'The dead black-headed commoners... they'll be resurrected later regardless.'

'As for the good citizens in the city... they were always a group that discriminated against the black-headed commoners. Not many of them actually died this time; they merely lost a decade or two of their lifespan.'

'Though many will certainly die as a consequence of that later on.'

'But those citizens have enjoyed all the benefits of living inside the city walls. It's only natural they bear the detriments as well. You could even call it fair.'

'So... going this far is enough, right?'

'Ultimately, this is all someone else's problem. If the Outer Heavenly Demon were fully functional and I could resurrect at any time, risking my life would be one thing.'

'But risking my life now means I might actually die. I should calm down and approach this from another angle. A temporary compromise is just setting up for a better counterattack in the future...'

Assorted distracting thoughts like these flooded his mind.

Holding the Dragon Head Guillotine, Wang Ping stared straight ahead. Under the influence of his Divine Intent, what met his gaze was no longer You Xuexin's figure, but a void of darkness.

It was Death.

One more step forward meant death.

At that moment, the crushing pressure the Dragon Head Guillotine placed on his Divine Intent seemed to amplify, binding every inch of his body and making his every movement incredibly labored.

No, it was more than that.

He was on the verge of stepping back. In the face of true death, he had no reason not to retreat. This affair simply wasn't worth throwing his life away for.

A moment later, Wang Ping still stood firmly in place.

It wasn't because he hadn't tried to retreat, but rather because the second before he stepped back, a surge of profound external force braced his swaying figure.

Wang Ping looked back.

What met his eyes was a vast sea of demons. They were all transformed from the black-headed commoners, yet at this moment, they converged and stood solidly behind him.

The demons were still linked to him through the Three Corpses and Nine Worms Tribulation-Resolving Secret Record. This time, however, it wasn't Wang Ping sharing his life force and cultivation with the demons. Instead, the demons were feeding their own life force and cultivation back into him, amplifying his power as the Six Desires Heavenly Demon King!

This wasn't Wang Ping's command.

It was driven purely by the demons' own instincts, or perhaps by their lingering obsessions from when they were alive. At this point, Wang Ping couldn't tell the difference, nor did he care to.

But he could feel it.

As more and more demons swarmed to his aid, the shadow of death looming in his Divine Intent grew thinner and thinner, until it finally dispersed!

At last, a ray of light pierced through.

Wang Ping knew that it was the solitary sliver of survival hidden within the shadow of death.

"...Alright, I really can't do anything with you guys," Wang Ping sighed.

Faced with this scene, he couldn't back down.

The Dragon Head Guillotine dropped to the ground, smashing a dense spiderweb of cracks into the earth. Dragging the heavy blade behind him in a reverse grip, Wang Ping took a massive stride forward.

Death was still overwhelmingly heavy; the sliver of survival was but a hairsbreadth.

But... it was enough.

True, with his own Divine Intent, he still couldn't seize that sliver of survival. He needed to be stronger. He needed to force his Divine Intent to undergo a qualitative change and ascend to a higher Realm!

Only now—gripping the Dragon Head Guillotine, his Divine Intent tempered to its limits, bolstered by the life force of the demons—could Wang Ping clearly sense that above the Divine Intent of a martial artist lay an even higher Realm. As long as he broke through to that Realm, he could grasp that thread of survival.

So, how was he going to break through?

Wang Ping's consciousness sank into the space of the Taiping Sutra. His gaze fell upon the towering tome, settling on a brilliantly glowing scripture scroll: a promise worth a thousand gold.

The scroll radiated a brilliant light—the undeniable sign that its conditions had been met.

Since that was the case, with his peerless talent for taking loans, his unremitting effort, and his unyielding will... "Lend it to me!"

The next second, Wang Ping's consciousness crashed back into reality, yet the world in his eyes was fundamentally changed. A vast, boundless power descended from the depths of the void.

It elevated his consciousness.

Detaching it from his body.

Plunging straight into the void.

In that instant, the previously unbearably heavy Dragon Head Guillotine suddenly felt as natural as an extension of his own arm. His thinking, which had been slowed to that of a normal person under the crushing weight, began to wildly accelerate.

But unlike before, the cognitive acceleration brought on by his Divine Intent no longer solely boosted a martial artist's mind. A martial artist's flesh and blood were completely incapable of moving within this nearly frozen world. Now, however, as his thoughts accelerated, Wang Ping's physical body accelerated alongside them!

'This is... absolute control over the body.'

His qualitatively transformed Divine Intent was no longer constrained to formless thought. It fed directly back into reality, dragging his physical body along as it accelerated and smashed its way into a transcendent domain.

Boom!

The explosive boom of breaking the sound barrier erupted with rolling shockwaves spreading outward from Wang Ping as the epicenter—this was a speed he had previously only achieved when bursting forth with everything he had.

Yet right now, this was merely the starting line.

He could go even faster.

The most fundamental and critical factor was that Wang Ping's true form this time was the Six Desires Heavenly Demon King, not a mortal body of flesh and blood. This was the foundation that allowed him to continue accelerating.

Secondly, he also had the augmentation of the fourteen manifestations of the Art of War from his Thirteen Grand Protectors Hard Qigong.

And now, he had the added layers of life force and cultivation stacked upon him by the demons.

Plus the Courage of the Noble Gentleman absorbing his damage.

All of this pushed his capacity to withstand pressure to an unbelievable degree, allowing him to push ever forward even after shattering the sound barrier.

Faster! Keep accelerating!

Wang Ping unleashed his newly transformed Divine Intent to its absolute limits, disregarding the sheer toll on his body. Charging forward with single-minded abandon, he desperately reached for that solitary ray of survival gleaming within the shadow of death.

Not enough! Still not enough!

"I need to be faster!"

Inside the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag, Daoist Nun You's magical power poured out like floodwaters bursting from a dam, the billowing banner engulfing the entirety of Youren Temple.

The entire Daoist temple was swallowed into the flag's spatial dimension.

And within that flag dimension, Wang Ping—acting as the artifact spirit—had his physical state further bolstered, becoming the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Boom!

In Wang Ping's eyes, the material world violently collapsed at that moment. At the very end of his breakneck sprint, his transformed Divine Intent finally seized that single ray of light symbolizing survival.

Once, Wang Ping had witnessed Daoist Nun You use the spell known as Sword Art, creating a terrifying scene with a single strike that rivaled the power of a nuclear detonation.

He had originally believed that this was a Realm the martial dao could absolutely never reach.

But he had been wrong. Horribly wrong.

Within this domain where matter had crumbled away, leaving only a shimmering brilliance, Wang Ping twisted his body and hoisted the Dragon Head Guillotine he had been dragging high above his head.

And then, he brought it down.

The entire motion felt impossibly slow, yet translated back into reality, You Xuexin's spiritual sense only registered a tidal wave of light erupting across her vision.

Following it came a sigh: "Immortals and mortals belong to different worlds?"

"You immortal cultivator... have you ever been slashed at sub-light speed?"