Chapter 148

How the wasteland formed has been lost to record; it is said that during the ancient war, this region already appeared, and deep within the wasteland, hundreds of thousands of li in, spiritual aura is absent, only a few mortals and ordinary beasts survive.

Then, one day, a silver-colored small boat sliced the sky and arrived here at astonishing speed.

Wang Ping piloted the spirit boat, flying through the wasteland for a full month, yet still did not reach its end.

"It's already been a month; that Golden Core cultivator must have caught up by now!"

Wang Ping drained the tea in his cup, then muttered softly.

"Xiao Yin, stop!"

"Okay, Master!"

Whoosh!

Wang Ping flickered into the sky above the wasteland, closed his eyes to sense the surrounding spiritual aura, and found that there truly was not a trace of it.

Huh?

Wang Ping frowned; the uneasy feeling from a month ago resurfaced, meaning that Golden Core True Person has already entered the wasteland.

Standing in place, Wang Ping gazed toward the rear; in a daze, he seemed to see a red-robed old man flying toward him with a menacing aura.

"Xiao Yin! Fly another hundred thousand li deeper!"

"Hehe! Okay, Master!"

Back inside the boat, Wang Ping calmly followed the order, then closed his eyes and entered a shallow state of cultivation.

The silver-colored small boat automatically flew deeper into the wasteland; inside the boat, Wang Ping's body surface flowed with five-colored light without cease, and if gazed at long enough, one could see the five lights interweaving, giving a sense of fusion.

And within Wang Ping's dantian, the five attributes of spiritual liquid—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—each occupy a quadrant, with earth in the center, metal in the west, fire in the south, water in the north, and wood in the east.

Above the five-element spiritual liquid, a three-inch crystal seal hovered silently.

Unlike before, the current Pan Heaven Seal now possesses an aura that can suppress all things; after absorbing the Spirit-Awakening Fruit and enduring nine years, it finally gave birth to its own spiritual awareness.

From then on, the Pan Heaven Seal could itself swallow and release the power of heaven and earth, while also continually nourishing its body with the five-element spiritual liquid in the dantian.

Over time, it naturally exuded a domineering aura, as if everything under heaven could be suppressed.

At the same time, deep within Wang Ping's sea of consciousness, the illusory will-star, the Vajra Pestle transformed into a five-colored light ring hovering above the will-star.

At this moment, the Vajra Pestle still bears the five heavenly-earthly sacred patterns, while the rune formed during Foundation Establishment has completely vanished.

In its place, a purple light pattern now spreads across the entire Vajra Pestle; this change began after the Vajra Pestle gained spiritual awareness.

Likewise, having gained spiritual awareness, the Vajra Pestle now exudes a natural Dao aura; the purple light pattern links the five heavenly-earthly sacred patterns, forming a unique heavenly-earthly design.

How strong the current Pan Heaven Seal and Vajra Pestle are, Wang Ping has no idea, but he is confident that wielding them makes fighting a Golden Core cultivator no problem.

Relying on the Reverse Fire Curse, he has already reversed cultivated the five-element spiritual roots, and also trained in five different techniques: the Earth Technique Solid Earth Decree, the Wood Technique Qingdi Changsheng Gong, the Water Technique Ninefold Waves, the Fire Technique Crimson Flame Heart Tribulation, and the Metal Technique Molten Gold Shattered Moon.

Among these five techniques, aside from Qingdi Changsheng Gong, they are all top-tier techniques, which he found among those spoils of war.

In the initial battle at the Yunluo Mountain Range, they harvested many techniques; among the top-tier ones were thirteen, which happened to include the five elements, so they each copied a set.

Only after mastering all five-element techniques did Wang Ping comprehend the terror of the Five Elements Reverse Curse.

His five-element arts can be switched at will without hindrance; even spiritual power can do so, and the remaining four kinds of spiritual power can supplement one another.

For example, if Wang Ping were to execute the fire-side false Dao art Crimson Flame Heart Tribulation and lacked spiritual power, he could, via the pattern formed by the Reverse Fire Curse, convert the remaining spiritual power therein into fire-type spiritual power.

This amounts to Wang Ping having four extra dantians compared to other cultivators, which is nearly an overwhelming advantage in battle; plus, his own spiritual power is already pure, Wang Ping estimates that if he encounters Ge Dong again, he could defeat him without the Vajra Pestle, merely by using Crimson Flame Heart Tribulation.

Wang Ping's battle prowess is now extremely strong, yet he has hit a bottleneck; after fifty years of arduous cultivation, his five elements have just taken shape, and now he faces two choices: walk the path of the five elements, or pursue their unification.

The five-element path needs no explanation; five-element unification means the five elements mutually generate, merge into one, forming a new kind of spiritual power—for instance, the attribute-less spiritual power between heaven and earth is a manifestation of five-element unification.

Wang Ping originally leaned toward cultivating the five elements in tandem; although taking this path consumes cultivation resources tenfold or more compared to others as one's realm rises, he has the Silver Stone Gate, so at least before ascending to Void Refinement he need not worry about this issue.

But when he inadvertently discovered the change in the Vajra Pestle, Wang Ping altered his thinking; he now chooses the path of five-element unification.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Inside the Carefree Vessel, Wang Ping held the Vajra Pestle; when he input five-element spiritual power according to the mutual restraint pattern, the Vajra Pestle burst forth with a splendid five-colored light.

Wang Ping's mind stirred; the five-colored light swept over the teacup before him, the teacup that had been standing still on the table was swept away by the light and vanished outright.

When Wang Ping's divine sense entered the Vajra Pestle's interior, that teacup was quietly floating within its inner space.

Wang Ping flicked his left finger, a fist-sized fireball gradually condensed; the five-colored light swept over again, and that fireball, just like the teacup before, vanished outright.

Meanwhile, within the Vajra Pestle's inner space, a fireball hovered quietly beside the teacup.

Despite many experiments, Wang Ping still felt inexplicable excitement; the effect of the five-colored light resembled the five-colored divine light from his past life's myths that swept across the world, cleansing the five elements.

And the Vajra Pestle now bears a hint of the bearing of the Vajra Pestle held by the Green Ox Spirit in Journey to the West.

The reason the Vajra Pestle underwent this change is that, under the linkage of the purple light pattern, it has already formed a different kind of spiritual power distinct from the five elements; although its appearance shows five-colored light, its essence no longer belongs to the five elements.

Wang Ping extended a finger and, using spiritual power, wrote three strange symbols in the air; these are the three runes he saw in the purple light pattern.

It is precisely these three runes that alter the attribute of five-element spiritual power; five-element mutual restraint inherently produces chaotic energy, but under the action of these three runes, the chaotic five-element energy directly forms a new kind of spiritual power.

This gave Wang Ping a hint; if his five-element unification wishes to achieve true unification and give birth to a new spiritual power, it must have an external disruptive force.

Such disruptive force can be a technique, treasure, heavenly-earthly treasure, etc.; besides the five elements, the cultivation world also possesses wind-thunder, light, darkness, blood, ice, and other hetero-attribute spiritual roots.

These spiritual roots are all hetero-attribute spiritual roots formed from mutations of two or more five-element spiritual roots.

The key to five-element unification is the unification of the five-element spiritual roots; if one unifies the five-element spiritual roots and then guides them with an external object, a new spiritual power might form, just like the five-colored light displayed by the Vajra Pestle.

For now, Wang Ping's favorite is still that new spiritual power exhibiting five-colored light; he plans to forge a talisman, engrave the three runes upon it, and see whether it will produce a change.

Inscribing runes on a magic treasure is rarely done in the cultivation world, because it might affect the formation of the heaven-and-earth treasure pattern.

However, Wang Ping had no such concerns; he refined this magic treasure solely to experiment whether the three runes could produce their corresponding effects on the treasure.

He did not have high expectations for it to form a heaven-and-earth treasure pattern.

Of course, the prerequisite for accomplishing all this is to survive the imminent crisis.

Having put the Vajra Pestle away again, sensing the increasingly close dangerous aura from behind, Wang Ping's expression grew solemn; after flying for so long, he finally had to face a late Golden Core enemy.

Whoosh! Wang Ping directly had Little Silver land on a relatively high terrain.

He flipped his palm, and the Five Elements Forbidden Formation given to him by Tie Lanshan appeared in his hand; then he inserted the formation flags according to the five elements' directions. After thinking, Wang Ping still placed a top-grade spirit stone into the formation disk, and then activated the formation.

Within a radius of fifty li, a five-colored flash of light flashed by, and then calm was restored.

Besides that, Wang Ping also took out three green talismans from his storage bag; these talismans have power comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator, costing Wang Ping two million spirit stones.

Then he also took out a skill scroll and an arrow; this is a one-time magical treasure with formidable power, specialized in destroying the flesh, worth one million spirit stones, capable of threatening a Golden Core cultivator.

After preparing all the items, Wang Ping sat cross-legged, silently waiting for the arrival of that unnamed Golden Core cultivator.