Chapter 553 - 33: Time Flies

Half a month ago, Zhang Xinghuai sent a message via the Puppet Bird Wang Ping had given him, expressing a desire to retire to Zhonghui County Town.

Wang Ping knew this wasn’t Zhang Xinghuai’s true objective, so he never replied.

And now, Wang Ping had no intention of meeting Zhang Xinghuai. The past month’s events had allowed him to see the world’s true nature—the rise and fall of dynasties was nothing but a game.

His schemes in the Northwest were merely a minor experiment in the world’s grand chess match. Even if his descendants obtained a Divine Artifact, it wouldn’t change the overall situation much.

Besides, even if Wang Ping truly wanted to learn a Divine Technique, he wouldn’t be as hasty as the Xiao Shan Lord, who sacrificed his spirituality to forcefully enhance his technique.

A Wood Spirit Fourth Realm Cultivator could live for eight thousand years even without consuming Elixirs. Such a long time was more than enough to plan many things. Moreover, he possessed the glowing panel, giving him even less reason to rush.

Thinking of the glowing panel, he suddenly grew curious about the Secret Technique for the Fifth Realm. ’I wonder how the glowing panel will describe the advancement to the Fifth Realm?’

’I’m getting ahead of myself...’

Wang Ping chuckled and banished the distant thoughts from his mind.

"Aren’t you going to see him?" Yu Lian asked.

"Why do you think I should see him?" Wang Ping countered.

"Why do you ask that?"

A pointless conversation unfolded between Wang Ping and Yu Lian, and they could go on like this for a long time.

He didn’t know when the din of people moving house in the streets outside faded away, nor when the sound of children crying began to reach his ears.

As they chatted idly, the sun sank below the horizon. When the evening glow cascaded over the land, the sounds of women scolding their children would occasionally drift in from outside. Cries and laughter mingled together, painting a picture of mundane, earthly life, which was then slowly swallowed by the encroaching night.

As night deepened, the small alleys and side streets grew quiet, all commotion settling into tranquility. The main street, however, grew even more lively. On the man-made river that cut through the town, the lights from a dozen flower boats illuminated nearly half of the county seat.

Wang Ping rose from the darkness. He first activated the Pocket World Mirror to conceal his and Yu Lian’s auras, then used the Transfer Talisman within it to teleport back to the cavern beneath the Mountain Peak Dojo and enter a meditative trance.

The moment he entered his trance, a violent surge of Spiritual Qi erupted in the southern sky, illuminating the darkness as if it were day. Yu Lian, who had submerged herself in the underground Dark River, poked her head out. Seeing that Wang Ping remained in his trance, she sank back to the riverbed, coiling within a Water Spirit Formation. This formation was linked to the one carved on Wang Ping’s cloud bed.

「Inside Qianmu Temple.」

Two powerful auras erupted. Shortly after, the figures of Ruan Chunzi and Yuan Zheng Taoist appeared beneath the clouds above Qianmu Mountain.

They were followed by Zhang Xinghuai, who was accompanying Yu Cheng Taoist.

"Today is the one-month deadline, isn’t it?"

Ruan Chunzi asked Yuan Zheng Taoist beside him, staring at the violent fluctuations of Spiritual Qi.

Yu Cheng Taoist, who had arrived after them, answered, "That’s right. Zhi Gong Daoist has likely made her move on Hai Zhou Road. I received a letter from Zuo Xuan the day before yesterday; she wasn’t sure of Zhi Gong Daoist’s intentions then. To think she’d strike at a time like this... it’s a surprising gambit. Whether it succeeds or not is up to fate."

"Fate can also be guided by human hands! If you’re truly determined, a couple of hours is all it takes," Zhang Xinghuai interjected, then bowed to Ruan Chunzi and Yuan Zheng Taoist as a junior would to his seniors.

Yuan Zheng Taoist and Ruan Chunzi politely returned the gesture. Ruan Chunzi then said, "You’re right. But that will likely be a bloody battle. I wonder how many... Haha, what am I doing getting all sentimental?"

He turned to Yu Cheng Taoist and Yuan Zheng Taoist and proposed, "The moonlight is lovely tonight. How about we go down and drink to our hearts’ content?"

Yuan Zheng’s face lit up with enthusiasm. "Excellent. I happen to have a vintage of medicinal wine that has just matured." He then looked at Yu Cheng Taoist and asked, "To your Dao Field?"

"Alright!"

After a night of drinking, the violent aura in the sky had already stabilized before dawn the next day.

By noon, an Immortal Crane had delivered a message to Qianmu Mountain...

But Wang Ping had already learned the outcome the moment the battle ended, through his puppets in Hai Zhou Road. Zhi Gong Daoist had won the final victory.

This was to be expected, because her backer was Wan Zhi Daoist!

「Ten days later.」

Zuo Xuan discreetly returned to Qianmu Temple with the Entering Cultivators from the various courtyards. After a brief exchange with Yu Cheng Taoist, she went back to her Dao Field on Dongshui Mountain and entered seclusion.

She was severely injured this time. The formation of her Lifebound Spiritual Artifact was mostly destroyed, and her physical body was being sustained solely by a Wood Spirit Technique.

"Was such a price worth it?"

Yu Lian asked after silently inspecting Zuo Xuan’s injuries.

Wang Ping didn’t respond. He wasn’t the one involved, so he couldn’t judge the value of such a price. He simply sent a Blessing Talisman infused with the Cyan Wood Technique into Dongshui Mountain.

Ten days of peace followed. Then, the Liu-Wu Regime in the Liangjiang Region fulfilled the promise made at its founding and dispatched fifty thousand troops to invade Nanlin Road.

The well-prepared Chu Kingdom Court easily routed them and launched a counterattack, conquering a third of Houjiang Road’s territory within a month. They were then stopped by a coalition army formed by the great clans of the Liangjiang Region. After a fierce battle that lasted ten days and ten nights, the Chu army withdrew from the Liangjiang Region.

This small campaign was merely a microcosm of the chaos engulfing the Zhongzhou Continent. Take the warring Chu Kingdom and Liu-Wu Regime, for example. Not only were they fighting external wars, but they were also constantly dealing with internal rebellions. Within the Chu Kingdom, these rebellions were concentrated in Hai Zhou Road.

Hai Zhou Road had hardly known a moment of peace during this time; some would even declare themselves king after seizing a single mountaintop.

But none of this affected Wang Ping. He remained hidden in the mortal world, continuing his cultivation and ignoring all visitors.

「Three years later.」

Unable to tolerate the constant harassment from the Liangjiang Region, the Chu Kingdom Court decided to build a great wall along the border to prevent small-scale raids.

At this moment, Wang Ping’s progress in integrating the Heaven-Reaching Talisman had reached (98/100). At his current cultivation speed, he would be able to fully integrate it in no more than two years.

His Primordial Spirit cultivation had also progressed significantly. Using the Divine Technique Formation, he could now gather a small portion of the Spiritual Qi needed for a technique. The next step was to construct the technique’s formation framework. He planned to imitate the Yuqing Sect’s casting method by first building the framework for the spiritual particles as the technique took shape.

While in seclusion, he was also studying the Transfer Talisman through his puppets. After repeated experiments, he could now teleport anywhere within the Southern Cultivation Realm, though his Spiritual Body would be damaged after more than six consecutive jumps.

However, while his body couldn’t be teleported that far, messages could. The farthest place Wang Ping had experimented with so far was the Western Continent; next, he would test the Eastern Continent.

The core of all this communication and teleportation was the Pocket World Mirror in Wang Ping’s hand. Its layered mirror spaces provided him with a vast area to set up his arrangements.

However, this communication was limited to him and his puppets, as the puppets were animated by his Heaven-Reaching Talisman. Outsiders had no connection to it.

Wang Ping spent another two years in constant experimentation and cultivation.

One night before the winter solstice, he felt a premonition and cast a divination.

"Are you about to break through?" Yu Lian asked.

"No. Xiaozhu is about to reach the Entering Realm!"