Unexpected Gains!

Predatory cultivators. The last time Wang Ping had heard that term was during his previous life as an odd-job disciple under Daoist Nun You. Back then, he had known nothing of the deeper details. According to Daoist Nun You, so-called predatory cultivators were simply cultivators who found themselves with no way to advance in the immortal sect. Driven to desperation, they resorted to pillaging all around, completely violating the tenet that "the Immortal Dao values life." They were nothing more than mad, stray dogs, and exterminating them was the sacred duty of every immortal sect disciple. That had been the perspective of Daoist Nun You as a true disciple of the sect. In his previous life, following at her side, Wang Ping had witnessed the actions of predatory cultivators with his own eyes. He had to admit that describing them as mad dogs was exceptionally accurate. At least before Daoist Nun You, predatory cultivators were a disorganized rabble. They knew only how to charge with reckless abandon, utterly unable to gauge the vast difference in strength between themselves and their opponents. Back then, Wang Ping had not understood why. Yet now, he had an inkling. The fertile soil that bred predatory cultivators was the countless rogue cultivators within the immortal sect who lived lives just like Ping Jiangzi's. They truly were mad dogs. They truly were a rabble. It was only because they had already reached the end of the line. From head to toe, the only thing of any use left to them was their own lives. So, in one desperate gamble, they wagered everything they had. "Well? What do you think?" Before him, Fairy Yuerou’s voice was as gentle as he remembered. Moving with light, lotus steps, she walked over to Wang Ping, her pretty face flushed with a crimson glow of excitement. "Being a predatory cultivator is wonderful. "I used to work at Yangyuan Ridge. Just like you, I got fired, lost my job, and couldn't pay back my debts to Heaven and Earth Pavilion. I was on the verge of undergoing corpse dissolution and reincarnating. "But after becoming a predatory cultivator, everything changed. The entire immortal sect became my hunting ground. Every minute, every second, countless opportunities are out there waiting to be plundered. If you fail, it's nothing more than death—and you don't have much longer to live anyway. But succeed just once, and all your debts and troubles vanish like smoke. "In just half a year, I gained a new lease on life." As she spoke, Fairy Yuerou leaned against Wang Ping’s shoulder and whispered, "I know you're frightened in your heart, worried that you'll end up dead in some ditch. "Don't worry. Becoming a predatory cultivator isn't without its perks." As her words fell, Fairy Yuerou arched her slender brows. A precious luster flowed across her fair skin, and she pressed her slender, jade-like hand directly against Wang Ping’s chest. Wang Ping’s heart instantly tightened. "Do you feel that?" Fairy Yuerou gave a soft laugh. "This is Life-Stealing Thief. Now that I'm touching you, your life and death hang on my single thought. This is the power of a predatory cultivator. "With just a flicker of intent, I could drain your vital essence dry." "How... how can this be?!" At these words, Wang Ping’s face twisted into an expression of sheer shock and terror. "Life-Stealing Thief is a demonic art banned by the immortal sect! Where did you learn it?" "You don't need to pry into that." Fairy Yuerou shook her head and continued, "Well? Do you want to learn it? As long as you practice Life-Stealing Thief, your cultivation will progress far beyond your imagination!" Upon hearing this, a tempted look immediately flickered across Wang Ping’s face, but then he gritted his teeth and hesitated. "I've heard that Life-Stealing Thief carries severe hidden risks..." "Oh?" Fairy Yuerou, who had assumed she could lure Wang Ping into the fold with Life-Stealing Thief right away, froze for a moment. Then she smiled. "Those are merely lies spread by the immortal sect! "I know what you're trying to say. After practicing Life-Stealing Thief, one craves vital essence, even becoming addicted... But we discovered a solution long ago. You can convert your cultivation in Life-Stealing Thief into cultivation for other arts, thereby bypassing its side effects entirely! "How about it? Care to give it a try?" With that, Fairy Yuerou chuckled softly. Sending a transmission via her spiritual sense, she shoved an incantation directly into Wang Ping’s sea of consciousness, followed by a firm push of her delicate hand. *Rumble!* In an instant, a surging torrent of vital essence poured from Fairy Yuerou’s body into Wang Ping’s. Almost subconsciously, Wang Ping began to circulate that incantation. "Absorb the stars, take in the moon, blend and master..." As his spiritual sense silently recited the incantation, it resonated with a profound mystery. To Wang Ping's astonishment, the vital essence Fairy Yuerou had injected into his body suddenly dissolved. It melted straight into his limbs and bones! As the vital essence merged into him, his cultivation in the Secret Record of Dispelling Calamities Through the Three Corpses and Nine Worms surged explosively, enough to offset three whole months of bitter cultivation! "Ah..." Wang Ping let out a long, blissful sigh. Yet the very next second, right as he was about to reach the peak, Fairy Yuerou’s vital essence abruptly ceased. "...*Hiss!*" Wang Ping instantly glared at her in fury. Why did it stop? Keep going! Fairy Yuerou, however, was completely unbothered. After all, cutting him off at the brink had been deliberate. She beamed, saying, "Fellow Daoist, you should have felt it by now. "That was merely the chant for converting vital essence. If you wish to know how to extract vital essence from others, you must have Life-Stealing Thief." At those words, Wang Ping’s expression darkened instantly. "You played me? "You deliberately gave me the conversion chant while withholding Life-Stealing Thief just to dangle it before me so I'd do your bidding?" "You shouldn't put it that way," Fairy Yuerou said with a gentle laugh. "It's merely a transaction. After all, we're worried that once you obtain the complete technique, you might turn on us. That's why we give you a portion first. Once you join us, complete a job, and formally become a predatory cultivator, the remaining portion will naturally be offered to you with both hands." Wang Ping’s expression grew even uglier. "Without Life-Stealing Thief to extract vital essence, what use is a mere conversion chant? It's nothing more than a useless chicken rib! "You're trying to reap something from nothing!" "Be that as it may, those are the terms." Fairy Yuerou acted as if she had Wang Ping completely under her thumb. "Whether you agree or not is entirely up to you, Fellow Daoist. I trust you will make the right choice." "Bastard!" Wang Ping seemed finally unable to keep his composure. Whirling around with his shoulders trembling in rage, he strode quickly back toward the meditation chamber and slammed the door shut with a heavy *thud*. Seeing this, the smile on Fairy Yuerou’s face grew increasingly radiant. Near her ear, the earring she wore shimmered with a faint glow, its spiritual sense fluctuating continuously as if someone were transmitting a message through it. "Yes, don't worry. "I've already let him experience Life-Stealing Thief. No one can refuse that speed of progress. Before long, he will agree to assist us." *** Inside the meditation chamber. Only after the dull thud of the door closing echoed behind him and layers of array formations automatically activated to seal off spiritual sense probes did Wang Ping finally relax. "...*Pfft.*" A laugh slipped past his throat, which he could no longer keep stern. Heaven knew he had never expected that crossing over into the immortal sect world this time would yield such an unexpected windfall—and such a massive one at that. *Then again, it makes sense. The predatory cultivators of the immortal sect are clearly deeply concealed, and plenty of them must practice techniques from the Five Thieves Stealing Heaven series. If they didn't possess a corresponding conversion method, the immortal sect would catch them every single time, and the predatory cultivators could never have grown to such prominence within the sect.* With that thought, Wang Ping immediately sat cross-legged. Sinking his consciousness into the Mortuary, mountains of vital essence pills met his gaze. These were all stockpiled in his previous life through the hands of Daoist Nun You. Previously, recovering his cultivation in Dashun and practicing the Thirteen Taipo Horizontal Training Hard Qi Art had consumed less than thirty percent of the hoard in total; plenty of stock still remained. The reason he had never used them up was primarily that Wang Ping had not wanted to invest too heavily into Life-Stealing Thief. Moreover, if he consumed them all and the technique's side effects rebounded upon him, he would have had no way to resolve it... But now, things were different. Since he possessed a way to bypass the side effects, there was no need for hesitation. *This is the perfect time to use them!* With a thought from Wang Ping, vast quantities of vital essence surged forth like a tempest. Following the chant Fairy Yuerou had imparted, it frantically dissolved and merged into his limbs and bones. *Inhale! Exhale!* At this moment, Wang Ping distinctly felt a difference in his breathing. He was no longer merely taking in external air, circulating it through his body, and exhaling it. Instead, his internal small cosmic circuit overlapped with the external grand cosmic circuit. With every breath, he conformed to the frequency of the world, integrating himself into the breathing rhythm of heaven and earth in an unending cycle. At this moment, he was no longer an "outsider" who breathed spiritual energy—he had merged into one with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. He was spiritual energy! "..." Wang Ping slowly opened his eyes, an unprecedented sense of fullness overflowing in his heart. Raising his gaze, he saw twenty-four colors of light flowing between heaven and earth. "So that's how it is. This is cosmic circuit breathing." The third cultivation characteristic of the Tribulation Crossing Stage. Taking one step further would mean manifesting dharmas by borrowing qi, condensing true dharmic powers, and becoming a genuine cultivator who could soar through the skies and burrow into the earth! Wang Ping even had an answer in his heart for how to manifest dharmas by borrowing qi: *It's nothing more than completely uniting the spiritual energy of heaven and earth with one's dharmic body, then subduing it with spiritual sense.* It sounded simple, but in truth, the process was exceptionally perilous. Because heaven and earth possessed the Twenty-Four Qis, choosing which qi to adopt was of paramount importance when condensing dharmic powers. If one chose wrongly and failed to subdue the selected qi... There would be only one outcome. Body exploding in death. "Yet most crucially, which specific qis make up the so-called Twenty-Four Qis of Heaven and Earth, and what their individual properties are, is a closely guarded secret of the immortal sect." At this thought, Wang Ping gritted his teeth in vexation. *False teachings fill ten thousand scrolls; the true transmission is but a single phrase.* That single phrase describing the Twenty-Four Qis of Heaven and Earth was the massive hand the immortal sect used to choke the throats of all rogue cultivators, barring their path to immortal cultivation. *I wonder if the predatory cultivators have any information on that?* Wang Ping felt they probably did. After all, there was no shortage of powerful figures among the predatory cultivators, such as the one who had clashed with Daoist Nun You over Life-Stealing Thief. That divine ability, Universe in a Pot, which condensed the world into a single gourd, had left a deep impression on Wang Ping to this day. After all, that was a method belonging only to the second layer of Tribulation Crossing. *Looking at it this way, becoming a predatory cultivator truly is a path.* Trying to climb up step by step within the immortal sect along the orthodox path was like ten thousand troops trying to cross a single-log bridge. Wang Ping dared not take it, nor did he possess that kind of talent. So he could only walk the unorthodox path. Pondering it back and forth, Wang Ping was left with only one final problem: *The cooldown for Fiend from Beyond hasn't ended yet. To be safe, I can't act recklessly right now.* Just then, Wang Ping suddenly raised an eyebrow. "Hm?" Having mastered cosmic circuit breathing, he was completely integrated into the circulation of spiritual energy in the greater world outside, making him sensitive to the absolute extreme regarding any minute disturbance in his environment. And just now, he had noticed a slight fluctuation. *Couldn't wait? You dare intrude into my cave dwelling? Well, isn't this...* Wang Ping flicked his sleeves and rose to his feet, a long-suppressed ferocity surfacing in the depths of his eyes. *Come on, then!* All along, he had harbored a small doubt about whether immortal sect cultivators were truly stronger than Dashun's martial artists. Now was the perfect chance to test it! *** Inside the cave dwelling, outside the meditation chamber where Wang Ping was secluded, Fairy Yuerou’s delicate brows were tightly furrowed. "It's been too long..." She had assumed that within one or two days at most, the other party would succumb to temptation and struggle to agree to become a predatory cultivator. Yet four or five days had passed in the blink of an eye. And there had been no response whatsoever. *Could I have misjudged him? Has this Ping Jiangzi really become so cowardly and fearful of death? Clearly his immortal path is hopeless, yet he still doesn't dare take a gamble?* At this thought, Fairy Yuerou’s lovely face gradually turned cold. "...What a pity." The planned time was drawing near; she had no patience to keep waiting. Since he had given no reply, eliminating potential risks was the only safe course of action. *I have no choice but to dispose of him.* After all, in order to recruit him, she had taken the initiative to expose her identity and had even handed over an important conversion chant. None of these things could be leaked to outsiders. So from the very beginning, he had never had any choice. Either agree, or die. Thinking up to this point, Fairy Yuerou reached up, pulled out the hairpin holding her hair in place, and slowly exhaled. She then paced steadily toward the meditation chamber where Wang Ping was secluded.