Make the Immortal Sect Great Again

Longxing County Yamen.

Wang Ping walked into Chenlong’s courtyard. His mind made up, he naturally wouldn’t hide anything from his backer, so he immediately recounted the entire sequence of events in detail.

To persuade Chenlong, Wang Ping didn’t bother with pretenses. He straightforwardly laid out his deductions and conclusions regarding the Brahma Cultivator, emphasizing that even if they killed the man, they wouldn’t need to worry about drawing the ire of enemies from the heavens. He also highlighted exactly how wealthy the target was. Naturally, Wang Ping hid nothing about the enemy’s strength either.

”Such a thing actually happened...”

After listening, Chenlong cast a sidelong glance at Wang Ping. He didn’t ask how the younger man knew so much; instead, by tacit agreement, he shifted to another topic.

”Stronger than an ordinary Loose Immortal—by how much?”

Wang Ping thought for a moment before probing, ”Does Milord know that there is another Realm above Loose Immortals? Those in the heavens call it Divine Powers...”

”I know.”

Without waiting for Wang Ping to finish, Chenlong nodded. ”One came down years ago and tried to take away the Great Grandmaster of Shenlong Temple, but was beaten back.”

’Holy shit! Something like that actually happened?’Wang Ping hadn’t expected Chenlong to casually drop such a massive bombshell. He hurriedly pressed, ”Beaten back? Are you saying a Great Grandmaster can defeat someone with Divine Powers?”

Tribulation Transcending Second Layer, achieving Divine Powers. To date, Wang Ping had only seen one such entity. That Heaven Within the Pot technique, which could practically recreate the world, had left an extremely profound impression on him. He couldn’t even fathom a martial artist wielding that same level of mighty power. Was the future of the Great Shun Martial Dao... truly this bright?

However, Chenlong quickly poured cold water on his hopes.

”The Great Grandmaster of Shenlong Temple, Chan Master Longshu, couldn’t defeat that person. He barely managed to hold his ground and survive. The enemy was only beaten back when the First Seat arrived.”

”So you can only say they can put up a fight, but they can’t win. In this world, only a Supreme Great Grandmaster like the First Seat possesses the ability to truly repel them.”

”I see...”

Wang Ping pondered. Combining this with Daoist Nun You’s past performance within the Heaven Within the Pot, he reached a conclusion. ”In that case, the opponent should be on par with a Great Grandmaster.”

Back then, when Daoist Nun You fought that cultivator surnamed Lin, she had used spells to counter Divine Powers and similarly barely held on without dying. Using her as a benchmark, Wang Ping felt that a Great Grandmaster was a reasonable equivalent... Then he saw Chenlong’s previously pleasant expression instantly sour.

”On par with a Great Grandmaster? Then how the hell are we supposed to fight?!”

Chenlong flicked his sleeve and snapped, ”Give it up. If it’s truly an extraordinary person at the Great Grandmaster level, the most I can do is grab you and run for our lives.”

”Milord, I know you’re agitated, but calm down for a second.”

Wang Ping lowered his voice. ”Although that Brahma Cultivator is strong, I have a way to weaken his strength. This is absolutely not a reckless move.”

Chenlong’s tone lifted. ”Weaken him how?”

”Like Book Mountain, there’s an eighty percent chance he is plotting for the ’fate’ on my body. I can play along and take away all his most useful treasures!”

Wang Ping explained his plan and asked seriously, ”Milord, what do you think? If a Loose Immortal lost his most reliable magical artifacts and dharma treasures, how much of his cultivation could he still bring to bear? If you, me, Ji Wuhen, and Xugou join forces, do we have a chance to take him down?”

”This...”

Chenlong actually considered this seriously, but ultimately shook his head. ”Don’t count Xugou. His strength isn’t enough to get involved in this kind of battle.”

”As for you and the Hegemon Spear, you can assist me and act as meat shields at critical moments. But if we want to land the deciding blow, I’m the only one who can step up.”

”...No.”

Chenlong reached his conclusion. ”We can’t win. The Hegemon Spear is one thing; he has a divine weapon in his hands. But you won’t cut it, unless you break through to the Grandmaster Rank.”

”Hm?”

Wang Ping sharply caught the key detail in Chenlong’s words. ”What do you mean ’the Hegemon Spear is one thing’? Just because he has a divine weapon, he can rival a Grandmaster?”

Chenlong sighed. ”Where do you think the gap lies between you and a Martial Dao Grandmaster? In terms of Divine Intent, you’ve already undergone a qualitative change. In terms of the physical body, you practice the Martial God Pictorial Record; reaching perfection in it is equivalent to another qualitative change. Strictly speaking, there is actually no gap between you and a Martial Dao Grandmaster.”

”But in reality?”

As Chenlong’s words fell, Wang Ping instantly held his breath. Swept up by the perception of his Divine Intent, he suddenly hallucinated a terrifying image—his own head being severed by a single saber strike.

”Hiss!”

The next second, Wang Ping stumbled backward. He gasped as if he had just surfaced from bottomless seawater, his previously steady breathing turning rapid.

”Haa... haa...”

That was right. This was the gap between him and Chenlong.

In terms of pure physical and spiritual attributes, having undergone a qualitative change in both body and Divine Intent, he should have been no different from a Martial Dao Grandmaster. Yet, he couldn’t even withstand a single strike from Chenlong.

Why was it like this?

”The answer is the divine weapon.”

Chenlong’s tone was deadly serious. ”The Great Shun Martial Dao, at its core, is ultimately about weapons. The physical body and Divine Intent, no matter how many qualitative changes they undergo, are merely supplementary.”

”Supplementary to the divine weapon.”

”Once your body and Divine Intent have both undergone a qualitative change, you can use a divine weapon to attempt Seeing Divinity. This is the true secret behind a Grandmaster’s power.”

”After Seeing Divinity, the martial artist’s physical vitality and the thoughts of their Divine Intent fuse together. With the divine weapon as a foundation, this fusion transforms into a power far superior to Internal Force in quality... We call it Astral Force. This power is the very foundation that allows a Martial Dao Grandmaster to fight a Loose Immortal and stand on equal footing with them.”

”However, Seeing Divinity carries risks.”

”Because the power of the ’Divine’ will corrupt the physical body. If you remain in the Seeing Divinity state for too long, your body will gradually begin to collapse, and the entire process is nearly impossible to reverse.”

”Therefore, the Grandmaster Rank has another name: Seeing Divinity and Indestructibility.”

”Only someone who can achieve Seeing Divinity while keeping their body indestructible is a flawless Grandmaster... Otherwise, they can only be ranked on the Armament Manual like the Hegemon Spear.”

”Do you understand now?”

Toward the end, Chenlong’s voice turned uncharacteristically brisk.

”Although your body and Divine Intent have undergone qualitative changes, you ultimately lack a divine weapon and cannot achieve Seeing Divinity. Hoping to step into the domain of a Grandmaster is still far too naive...”

”Clang!”

A sharp metallic ring interrupted Chenlong’s lecture. Wang Ping drew the Dragon Head Guillotine and slammed it heavily onto the ground with a loud thud. ”To tell you the truth, I already have a divine weapon.”

”Milord, exactly how do I achieve Seeing Divinity?”

Chenlong: ”...”

For a moment, Chenlong almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Staring at the Dragon Head Guillotine resting heavily in front of him, he had the urge to reach up and rub his eyes.

’...It really is the Dragon Head Guillotine.’

It became a divine weapon?

Truthfully, if it had been any other divine weapon, Chenlong wouldn’t have been this shocked. After all, fortuitous encounters happened; obtaining a divine weapon wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary.

But the Dragon Head Guillotine was different. This used to be his weapon. No one knew the weight of this semi-divine weapon better than he did, nor did anyone know exactly how far it was from becoming a true divine weapon. Back in the day, he had spent years tempering this blade, yet failed to help it advance. But how many days had it been in Wang Ping’s hands?

What was most absurd was—you aren’t even a Martial Dao Grandmaster yet, right?

The normal procedure for breaking through should have been using someone else’s divine weapon to attempt Seeing Divinity until reaching Indestructibility, and only then turning back to refine a personal divine weapon.

A Martial Dao Grandmaster—why were they called a Grandmaster?

It was because martial artists at this Realm could use their own divine weapons to point the way for more martial artists to attempt Seeing Divinity, giving them the foundation to establish a sect.

Only those capable of founding a sect were worthy of the title Grandmaster.

Furthermore, the divine weapons left behind by a Grandmaster became their sect’s most vital foundational inheritance, determining whether that sect had any hope of producing another Grandmaster in the future.

Originally, Chenlong had figured that while cultivating the Sacred Lord of Five Weapons, Wang Ping would realize this dilemma and come ask for help, at which point Chenlong would lend his own divine weapon to the kid.

But never in his wildest dreams did he expect Wang Ping’s situation to be completely backwards.

Without even becoming a Grandmaster, how the hell did you forge a divine weapon?

This wasn’t right!

’Could this be what a true genius is?’

Chenlong zoned out for a moment, feeling like he finally understood how Xugou felt. Seeing a display like this, it was hard not to harbor deep doubts about one’s own talent.

Even so, he managed to maintain his composure.

Although it took some effort, Chenlong pressed his lips tightly together and clamped his jaw shut. Circulating his physical vitality, he forcefully adjusted his facial muscles to maintain an image of absolute calm.

”Forged a divine weapon? It’s average, you still need practice.”

Crap, his pitch was a little too high.

Chenlong hurriedly coughed and continued, ”Tell me, how did you forge this divine weapon? Doing it this fast... it’s just a tiny bit faster than I was back in the day.”

”Milord praises me too highly.”

Wang Ping cupped his hands and said humbly, ”Milord, you understand. I am an extraordinary person who cultivates the immortal path. It was just a small fortuitous encounter utilizing the methods of extraordinary people...”

Fucking extraordinary people again!

Chenlong let out a long breath, a heavy stifling sensation settling in his chest. He instantly lost all desire to interrogate the boy further. Damn it, was cultivating the immortal path really that amazing?

A good martial artist is no worse than an immortal cultivator!

Chenlong felt that he needed to prove this point to Wang Ping as soon as possible. Otherwise, if things kept going like this, the brat would completely deviate onto the path of immortal cultivation!

”Bring your ear closer.”

Chenlong said in a deep voice:

”I will impart the Divine Communion Secret Method to you right now. This is the trick to Seeing Divinity. It’s actually not that hard; given enough time, you could have figured it out yourself.”

”Thank you, Milord.”

Wang Ping hurriedly leaned in and patiently listened to Chenlong’s instructions. It indeed wasn’t difficult; it was just a small trick to make one’s essence, qi, and spirit resonate with a divine weapon.

”Just try it out briefly.”

”Don’t get swept away by it. You haven’t successfully cultivated the Sacred Lord of Five Weapons yet, and your physical body hasn’t reached the Indestructible state. Attempting Seeing Divinity too often will damage your body.”

”Understood.”

Wang Ping nodded but didn’t leave. Instead, he probed, ”Then Milord, regarding the matter of besieging that Brahma Cultivator... what do you think?”

Chenlong cast a glance at him but didn’t speak.

’It’s a done deal!’

Wang Ping instantly caught on, knowing that Chenlong was wavering. He immediately pressed, ”Milord, matters have priorities. We can’t afford to hesitate any longer!”

”Even taking ten thousand steps back and ignoring everything else, that Brahma Cultivator is still Vice Minister of Rites Li Wenzheng’s man. He has close ties to the National Academy. If we don’t kill him now, what if he decides to help the National Academy deal with the Tribute Hall in the future? By then, we might not have such a perfect opportunity to kill him!”

This sentence instantly sobered Chenlong up.

Right! That Brahma Cultivator was already the Vice Minister of Rites’s man, practically wearing the same pair of pants as the National Academy. If they didn’t eliminate him now, were they just waiting for him to cause trouble for them later?

This was no longer just an ordinary extraordinary person.

They had to strike hard!

”...Go back and attempt Seeing Divinity.”

As Chenlong’s voice fell, the Dragon-Patterned Arm Bracers on his right arm seemed to come alive. They exhaled tongues of flame, as if a genuine dragon was coiled around his arm!

This was closely followed by a helmet, a breastplate, and greaves—layer after layer of martial gear materialized around Chenlong. Every single piece was a divine weapon, assembling into a complete set of heavy, full-body armor. The dragon patterns on the armor shifted within the roaring flames, spilling onto the ground to manifest as a warhorse that reared its head and neighed, lifting Chenlong onto its back.

Thinking back to those years, when he had cultivated the Sacred Lord of Five Weapons, he had forged three divine weapons the moment he broke through.

But that was back then. More than a decade had passed; how could he possibly have stagnated? He had long since forged all five divine weapons required for the Sacred Lord of Five Weapons!

”Motherfucker...”

At this moment, Wang Ping couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

It was because the suit of divine weapon armor he had yearned for day and night—the very armor he dreamed of that could let him return to a sub-lightspeed realm—was currently being worn by Chenlong!