Chapter 152: Vajra Pestle Slays the Golden Core

In the deep underground of a barren land, the chained shadow revealed in its pitch‑black eyes the scene of Wang Ping and Huoyunzi fighting on the surface.

After a long time in the deep underground, he had grown bored, yet watching a Foundation Establishment cultivator clash with a Late Golden Core cultivator fascinated him, and he remarked while observing:

"This Golden Core is trash; I bet he never even mastered the most basic Dao arts during Foundation Establishment. Otherwise, no matter how heaven‑defying that brat is, he'd be killed with a single slap!"

"Tsk tsk! Wanting to achieve the Five Elements Return to One—such madmen have never been scarce since ancient times. I wonder what new power this brat could unleash after achieving the Five Elements Return to One. Hey! Five Elements Reverse Fire Curse! This kid really has a lucky life—he actually survived that curse! In that case, it's not impossible for him to accomplish the Five Elements Return to One; this kid has many secrets! He possesses a Golden Crow Illusory Shadow and that Great Seal; the materials seem extraordinary as well. He also seems to carry the aura of the Spirit Realm."

"How interesting! Let me see how many more secrets you have."

The underground figure's interest in Wang Ping suddenly surged, and its pitch‑black eyes suddenly flashed with purple light, as if trying to see through him completely.

As he gradually turned his gaze toward the Sea of Consciousness of that Foundation Establishment youth, a flash of silver light suddenly appeared, blocking the underground figure's sight.

"Hehe! Sure enough, there's a secret!" The underground figure suddenly chuckled.

Afterward, he gave up the investigation, for with his current strength he still couldn't penetrate that silver light curtain.

Since that was the case, the underground figure also had no intention of mobilizing its power to probe the youth's secrets, because it had more important matters to attend to; its gaze shifted back to the Golden Core cultivator, and it whispered softly:

"Die! Die! Your corpse will be mine once you're dead! I, this Emperor, haven't seen daylight for hundreds of thousands of years!"

What happened underground was naturally unknown to Wang Ping and Huoyunzi.

Huoyunzi had already unleashed his Nine‑Pattern Flame Ring treasure; this time he intended to unleash his innate Dao art, Great Sun Burn Heaven.

To have a Late Golden Core true person treat a Foundation Establishment cultivator this way, Wang Ping could be considered the first since ancient times.

Below, Wang Ping had already set the formation disk's spiritual power output to its maximum, and the Five Elements Forbidden Formation was running at full load.

Five‑colored light illuminated the area within a hundred‑li radius. Within the formation, Wang Ping held in his hand a bracelet that emitted five‑colored light.

Wang Ping poured a large amount of Five Elements spiritual power in the order of mutual generation, and the five‑colored Vajra Pestle shone ever brighter.

When the Five Elements oppose each other they give rise to the five‑colored divine light that sweeps away the Five Elements; when they generate each other the speed reaches the extreme, and with the Five Elements Forbidden Formation assisting, Wang Ping also did not know how powerful it would be.

Hum! Hum! Hum!

The Vajra Pestle's sound grew ever louder, even Huoyunzi high in the sky heard it, and he couldn't help but feel secretly startled—what was Wang Ping's origin, and how could he possess such an endless array of methods?

For the first time, a waver appeared in his confidence.

"Senior! Junior Wang Ping requests your guidance!"

Wang Ping's voice rose from below, and Huoyunzi also gathered his spirit; he never imagined that one day a Foundation Establishment cultivator would cause his mind to waver.

However, he was ultimately a Golden Core cultivator, and in an instant he had adjusted his mindset.

In response to Wang Ping's words, he coldly said, "Arrogant junior, do you think relying on a single forbidden formation lets you fight me? Today you will learn that the terrifying gap between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core is a chasm you can never fill."

Having said that, his Blazing Flame Ring suddenly flew to a point three feet above his head, his body's fire spiritual power frenziedly poured into it, his hands constantly forming seals while he chanted.

After just a breath, the Blazing Flame Ring suddenly burst forth with light, and inside it a layer of blue light curtain appeared, resembling a blue mirror.

Huoyunzi's face grew solemn; he clenched his gums, spat a mouthful of blood from his tongue tip and heart, which landed on the blue light curtain of the Blazing Flame Ring.

The blood was instantly absorbed by the Blazing Flame Ring; the next moment it burst forth with an even more dazzling blue light.

And this light kept expanding; in the blink of an eye, the heavens and earth within a hundred li were all turned into a blue expanse.

"Junior! This true person's technique is called Great Sun Burn Heaven; being able to force me to use this move, even if you die, you can consider yourself quite arrogant!"

"Fall!"

Huoyunzi gave a soft shout; the blue light of his Blazing Flame Ring above his head flashed, and a thick blue light pillar shot out from the blue light curtain within the ring.

As the blue light pillar shot forth, the space ahead seemed to become distorted!

That light pillar seemed to carry the aura of burning heaven and earth and all things; from afar it looked like divine punishment descending from the heavens.

Wang Ping's face remained as solemn as ever, the Vajra Pestle still firmly held in his hand; gazing at the blue light pillar descending from the sky, his mind was highly focused, and the semblance‑of‑real‑and‑illusory will deep in his Sea of Consciousness coalesced even more in this state.

Wang Ping's blood boiled throughout his body; all the spiritual power in his dantian he converted into wood‑element spiritual power, and a azure‑green spiritual armor appeared on him.

"Five Elements produce! Slay all things! Slay!"

With an angry shout, Wang Ping sacrificed the Vajra Pestle in his hand.

Crack!

In a daze, Wang Ping seemed to hear the sound of shattering glass; he hastily looked up, but the piercing blue light nearly burned his eyes—fortunately, the spiritual armor formed by the body‑protecting light of the Qingdi Changsheng Gong helped him block it.

Otherwise his eyes would now be blind.

Wang Ping couldn't see the battle's state, but Huoyunzi saw it clearly; in his view, that Foundation Establishment junior flung out a bracelet emitting five‑colored light, then seemed to glance upward and immediately closed his eyes.

Huoyunzi revealed a cold smile; aside from that formation, you're nothing but a Foundation Establishment cultivator—you can't even stare down my attack.

He hadn't heard that crack, so he continued to sneer.

But just then, a thunder‑like voice suddenly rang in his Sea of Consciousness: "Idiot! Dodge quickly!"

That voice was like a true Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, shaking his spirit; after he came to, his sight showed a crystalline bracelet emitting five‑colored light, while the blue light pillar had already been split in two.

This was the last image Huoyunzi would see in his life; the next instant, the five‑colored bracelet pierced straight through his body, and Huoyunzi felt nothing at all.

His body, Golden Core, Sea of Consciousness, and soul body all split into two halves, each part drifting apart.

Only then, as Huoyunzi's consciousness was about to dissolve into chaos, did he realize he was dead!

Thinking back to the critical moment, the voice that echoed in his mind made Huoyunzi furious: "Who exactly is trying to harm me?"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A heaven‑shaking, earth‑rending explosion rang out across a radius of several hundred li; the blue light pillar split by the Vajra Pestle lost stability and directly began a massive explosion.

Below, Wang Ping steeled himself, pouring all the remaining spiritual power from the top‑grade spirit stone into the formation disk in his hand; even though the Five Elements Forbidden Formation was already near its limit, the top‑grade spirit stone's spiritual power output could not prevent it from swaying on the verge of collapse in the violent explosion.

Thus it endured the three breaths of the explosion's greatest power, after which the Five Elements Forbidden Formation capable of resisting a Late Golden Core cultivator shattered with a bang.

"Ha!"

Wang Ping let out an angry roar; all the spiritual power in his dantian was converted into wood spiritual power to provide energy for his protective spiritual armor.

At this moment Wang Ping was like a tiny boat in a raging storm, constantly at risk of capsizing; fortunately, having absorbed the wood qi from the Spirit‑Awakening Fruit Tree for over forty years, the spiritual armor formed by the body‑protecting light was astonishingly sturdy—although a slight crack had appeared on it, it still stubbornly resisted the explosion's aftershocks.

Just then, the Vajra Pestle suddenly appeared beside him; Wang Ping's face lit up, and with a thought the Vajra Pestle flew to above his head.

Because the Five Elements Forbidden Formation had blocked Wang Ping for those precious three breaths at the explosion's peak, and as the blast's force waned, he relied on his already damaged spiritual armor and ultimately survived.

Deep underground, the imprisoned figure watched as his own body was cut in half; before it even hit the ground, another explosion blasted his body to pieces, making him so angry he cursed loudly:

"Stupid fool! Stupid fool, even with my warning you didn't dodge, you've utterly lost face for a Golden Core, you damned brat, you actually destroyed the body this emperor wanted, it's utterly heinous!"

Splash! Splash!

In the unfathomable depths of the wasteland, a chain clatter kept shaking.

At the same time, in the Spirit Realm, within the solemn and majestic hall of the Human Emperor's City, a cultivator who had been sitting cross-legged in meditation for who knows how long suddenly let out a soft 'eh':

"Which sealed demon land has had an anomaly? It seems we need to send an inspection envoy to investigate the lower realms!"