At the Immortal Sect, before the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
All that met the eye were two streaks of sword light darting through the cosmos, clashing at times in bursts of dazzling brilliance, parting at others to melt into the darkness.
In the vast starry expanse of the cosmos, every collision unfolded in total silence. Only countless hues erupted, illuminating a darkened corner of the firmament while gradually giving rise to an indescribable gravitational pull that steadily drew in wandering celestial dust and stellar debris.
Rumble!
As the gravitational force expanded, the dust drawn into the periphery of the battlefield flared into brilliant, blinding radiance before vanishing in an instant.
After all, this was unlike the Eight Trigrams Furnace, nor was it like the other secret realms of the Immortal Sect.
This dust was, at best, mundane matter.
Before the vast magical power of two true disciples of the Immortal Sect, the mere touch of mundane matter caused it to dissolve in an instant, vaporize, and ultimately erupt into plasma.
Yet right at that moment—
"Hm?"
A soft murmur of surprise came from the swirling light of the battlefield. The two streaks abruptly separated, each taking up a distant corner of the cosmos, and one of them suddenly whirled around.
It was the white-robed woman with a sword strapped to her back, Lian Shengyue.
At this moment, the triumphant smile on the true disciple's face had long since faded, replaced by deep bewilderment and suspicion.
"I lost contact with Liansheng Bodhisattva?"
"What happened?"
On the other side, You Xuexin also halted. She turned toward the Eight Trigrams Furnace, her face lighting up with sudden revelation, as if an invigorating clarity had been poured straight through the crown of her head.
Earlier, she had died once while escorting the Five Thieves Heaven-Stealing Myriad Transformations Divine Talisman. Although her master had subsequently revived her, she had never been able to recall the events surrounding her death, remembering only that she had perished from a magical artifact's backlash. Now, however, the fog veiling that memory was swept away.
"I remember now!"
I was killed by the Life-Stealing Thief!
Immediately following that came a baffling memory: Come to think of it, what technique did I deploy in Longxing County to gather lifespans back then?
The Life-Stealing Thief?
Reflecting for a moment, You Xuexin immediately recalled cultivating a fiend alongside Xu Bingzheng... Wait, was that really my doing?
"...No!"
A second later, a chill ran down You Xuexin's spine as she finally caught the glaring inconsistency in her memory. How could she possibly know the Life-Stealing Thief technique?
The person in that memory wasn't me!
That memory never existed!
In a flash of lightning, You Xuexin recalled the Immortal Sect's descriptions of the Heaven-Stealing Thief, as well as the immortal art that countless cultivators coveted.
"The Spirit-Stealing Thief can alter knowledge and memories... Did I fall victim to the Spirit-Stealing Thief? When? Someone planted the Life-Stealing Thief in that county town to cultivate a fiend, then transplanted that memory into me, leaving me utterly convinced until I only now noticed the flaw..."
She had been ensnared very, very long ago!
You Xuexin's silver teeth gritted slightly.
‘Of course. That was why my mind was so muddled back then, why I failed to notice something wrong with the artifact, and why I ended up dying once... I was ambushed!’
That death had erased all clues.
Her memories had already been tampered with before she died, yet after dying and being revived, a conspicuous gap had appeared in her mind.
‘The missing memories after my revival served as cover for the ones altered before my death!’
‘It was designed so that when Master noticed the flaws in my memory, he would attribute them to the aftereffects of resurrection and overlook the possibility that I had been manipulated beforehand!’
To hide a tree in a forest, to such a terrifying extent!
At this point, the identity of the mastermind was glaringly obvious. Even to a true disciple like You Xuexin, the man was renowned.
He had borne many titles.
Descendant of an immortal, former head of the true disciples, victor of the Immortal-Fan Sword Contest, one who refined his qi three times without ever entering the Dao, a fool, a cultivator who severed his own immortal path...
And now, he was generally known as:
"The immortal-deceiving bandit, the heaven-defying thief."
The Heaven-Stealing Thief!
***
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Heavy footsteps echoed thunderously in Wang Ping's ears, completely undisguised. Yet before him, Liansheng Bodhisattva seemed entirely oblivious.
Or rather, she had completely lost the capacity to perceive anything. She was no longer scouring Wang Ping's soul. Instead, she stood frozen in place with that same benevolent smile, neither speaking nor breathing, like a petrified statue quietly awaiting the approach of the figure behind her.
"You old bastard...!"
Wang Ping ground his teeth and widened his eyes, staring at the white-robed man strolling over. Though no longer elderly and looking merely around thirty years of age, his silhouette was still recognizable.
It was Shouchong!
Yet Wang Ping froze again almost immediately, because as the white-robed man drew near, his figure suddenly split, becoming two figures standing one behind the other.
The front figure still wore white robes, but his face grew blurry and indistinct.
The one behind reverted to the familiar form of the old Daoist, Shouchong.
Before Wang Ping could process this, the blurry-faced, white-robed man in the lead slowly reached out his hand.
Almost simultaneously.
The motionless Liansheng Bodhisattva seemed jolted by some stimulus. The scent of incense about her surged wildly as she whipped her head around toward the white-robed man.
Yet it was already too late. The white-robed man's palm had already descended upon Liansheng Bodhisattva. As his fingers closed, a crisp snap rang out.
Crack!
Wang Ping blinked, just recovering from his shock, only to see Liansheng Bodhisattva casually toss aside the nameless female corpse and elegantly wipe his hands.
Only after finishing this did he turn to look at Wang Ping.
"Thank you for the warning, little friend. If you hadn't called out, I might truly have fallen victim to an ambush."
The voice was gentle and the smile benevolent, exactly as before.
Nearby, Shouchong in his old Daoist form dropped to one knee without hesitation, chanting, "The Bodhisattva manifests in this world to eradicate evil; truly, this is a blessing for all mortals."
"Rise."
Liansheng Bodhisattva waved a hand, then looked back at Wang Ping. "You possess extraordinary talent, little friend. If my eyes do not deceive me, you have cultivated the Life-Stealing Thief?"
"Immortal Elder's sight is keen."
Wang Ping cupped his hands in acknowledgment, feeling inward awe at how magnanimous this Liansheng Bodhisattva was. The Life-Stealing Thief was a forbidden art of the Immortal Sect, yet he paid it no mind...
‘...Wait, what?’
At this thought, the deductions he had made within the space of the Classic of Great Peace naturally surfaced in Wang Ping's mind, only for him to realize that the chain of clues, which should have been flawless, had snapped once again. How could Liansheng Bodhisattva know the Life-Stealing Thief? No, this didn't match his reasoning at all.
What was going on?
"Ah, speaking of the Life-Stealing Thief."
Right then, Liansheng Bodhisattva raised his hand and retrieved a jade box, once again taking out the Calamity-Dispelling Ageless Elixir.
In an instant, an invigorating medicinal fragrance filled the air.
"Look here. This elixir was refined by stealing the fortune of an entire town and the lifespans of myriad mortals... Truly the most perfect embodiment of the Life-Stealing Thief."
"It was well worth the painstaking effort I spent refining it to supplement my cultivation."
Supplement cultivation?
Wang Ping was taken aback. "Isn't this item... meant for extending lifespan?"
Liansheng Bodhisattva blinked. "You remember incorrectly, little friend."
"...Really?" Wang Ping was even more confused.
"Of course. It was refined primarily to aid my cultivation. If you don't believe me, watch." With that, Liansheng Bodhisattva raised the pill and popped it into his mouth.
He swallowed it right then and there!
Immediately after, he opened his mouth and exhaled thousands of colorful rays that shot straight into the clouds before bursting over Longxing County, drifting down upon the residents throughout the city.
Wang Ping saw it with absolute clarity.
Every single one of those radiant rays was lifespan. After ingesting the elixir, Liansheng Bodhisattva had actually returned all the accumulated lifespan!
"I require only the concept of the Life-Stealing Thief contained within, not the lifespan."
Liansheng Bodhisattva spread his hands.
"See? I consumed the elixir, yet returned the lifespan. I have no need for lifespan extension whatsoever, which proves this pill was indeed refined for my cultivation."
Hearing these words, Wang Ping suddenly felt a wave of clarity wash over him, as a nonexistent memory surfaced: So that's how it was. I remembered wrong. The Immortal Elder did say that before.
"No matter, it is enough that you remember."
Liansheng Bodhisattva nodded with a smile, stepped forward, and patted Wang Ping on the shoulder. "Meeting today shows there is fate between you and me."
"Here, I shall bestow an art upon you."
"So long as you practice diligently, little friend, perhaps we shall meet again in the future."
Before the words had finished settling, Wang Ping felt his spiritual sense surge of its own accord. Nonexistent memories surfaced one after another, ultimately assembling into an excerpt of scripture.
The Time-Stealing Thief.
The next second, Wang Ping's vision blurred, and a staggering sight unfolded before him—within the Classic of Great Peace, one of the scrolls lit up with radiant brilliance.
Fiend from Beyond!
Fiend from Beyond, which had only just entered cooldown and should have required seven full days to recover, was now blazing with light once more. He could revive again!
"The Time-Stealing Thief can seize fragments of time...?"
For a moment, Wang Ping was both overjoyed and startled.
Wait, how could Liansheng Bodhisattva impart such a thing... No, no, no! Come to think of it, where was the third person he had deduced earlier?
And who was that nameless female corpse?
In an instant, an unstoppable wave of doubt made Wang Ping feel that something was profoundly wrong. The contradiction between the truth deduced from known clues and the reality before him nearly drove him mad.
Yet when he looked up again, Liansheng Bodhisattva and Shouchong were already gone.
With their departure, the bizarre, profound aura that had enveloped this place dissolved, and the nonexistent memories in Wang Ping's mind rapidly dispersed.
"So... that was it."
At this moment, understanding struck Wang Ping like a bolt of lightning. "The third person was the Heaven-Stealing Thief! He stole Liansheng Bodhisattva's identity right under my nose!"
He was the one hidden deepest of all, and the ultimate beneficiary!
I should have realized long ago!
Shouchong had once said that he received Liansheng Bodhisattva's benevolence, which shortened his revival period as one of the common folk from sixty years to six days.
Thinking carefully, wasn't that precisely the power of the Time-Stealing Thief?
From the very beginning, the one Shouchong worshipped was the Heaven-Stealing Thief!
And now, the longevity elixir had been eaten by the Heaven-Stealing Thief, completely ruining the grand scheme laid out by the Qi Refiner backing Daoist Nun You. That was an enmity vast as the heavens.
Yet after doing all this and stealing Liansheng Bodhisattva's identity, he simply dusted off his sleeves and walked away, even finding the leisure to pass down the Time-Stealing Thief technique to me...
...Wait?
"Ah, fuck me!" Wang Ping leaped up in terror.
Not good!
The Heaven-Stealing Thief was already a wanted criminal of the Immortal Sect. For him to appear here and sabotage a Qi Refiner's plot—what kind of consequence would that bring?
Wang Ping asked himself: if he were that Qi Refiner, he would definitely descend in person.
Even if they couldn't catch the Heaven-Stealing Thief, they would seize any related clues. And right now in Longxing County, who had the deepest connection to the Heaven-Stealing Thief?
The next instant, Wang Ping burst out cursing:
"Goddammit, I'm the scapegoat again!"
Deliberately teaching me a technique just so I would draw the attention of the Immortal Sect's Qi Refiner?
You utter bastard!
In a flash of lightning, Wang Ping dared not hesitate. He instantly focused his mind and will:
‘Classic of Great Peace!!!’
In a breath, the clouds scattered and the heavens tore open.
Endless light erupted above Longxing County, reflecting the face of a youth—supreme, noble, majestic without wrath—looking down in cold indifference!
Chapter 81