Ancestor of the Thief Sect

"Lord Mo, what caused our master to suffer imprisonment this time? Was it patronizing prostitutes without paying, staging a street collision scam claiming someone knocked him over, or secretly peddling *Size Manipulation (Localized Edition)* again?" Their master claimed he was wronged, but Yun Zhi remained skeptical. Having spent nearly a thousand years around him, Yun Zhi knew exactly when his words could be believed and when they could not. "Eldest Senior Sister, when can we believe Master's words?" Lu Yang asked curiously. "When Master isn't speaking." "And when can't we believe him?" "Whenever he opens his mouth." Lu Yang: "..." Upon hearing this, the Minister of Justice slapped his thigh in excitement; Yun Zhi's words had struck him like a flash of enlightenment. No wonder her cultivation was so high; this level of summarization was simply beyond his reach. If one never believed a single word out of that old scoundrel Buyu's mouth, wouldn't everything be fine? If he had heard this conclusion sooner, he wouldn't be squatting in the same prison cell with that old scoundrel right now. Lord Mo shook his head. "None of those. According to our investigation, Daoist Buyu has been in Dayan Commandery for over ten days. During this time, he has been entirely law-abiding. By day, he went to a teahouse to tell stories from the *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*. Each session was packed to the brim, and every time, he concluded with 'to find out what happens next, tune in to the next chapter,' drawing groans of despair from the crowd. At night, he pondered how to invent the next portion of *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*. His days were quite fulfilling." Lu Yang listened, dumbfounded. *So all your storytelling was made up on the spot, Master?* Lu Yang considered his own ability to fabricate nonsense no worse than Meng Jingzhou's, yet even he couldn't pull off Daoist Buyu's feat of making things up the night before and performing them the next day. "So you were the one who made up *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*!" Lord Xu stared at Daoist Buyu in astonishment. *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect* was widely circulated; even teahouses in the Imperial City performed it. When bored, he had gone to a teahouse to listen. He had listened to the tales from the era of the Nine Scions of the Dao Seeking Sect, which contained copious amounts of praise glorifying Daoist Buyu. Hearing this had displeased him greatly, so he hadn't listened any further. The other officials in the capital were the same. They had gone out of curiosity, only to find the stories wildly inconsistent with reality, and promptly stopped listening. Commoners, however, thoroughly enjoyed them. Although Daoist Buyu's tales were exaggerated to the point of pure fiction, they were still stories of immortal cultivators—and from a top-tier sect, no less. The diverse exploits and colorful adventures of the cultivators depicted were captivating and immensely appealing. "Do you have no shame at all? Aside from your name, does the 'you' in the story have anything to do with the real you?" Lord Xu shot Daoist Buyu a look of utter disgust. "It's called reasonable embellishment," Daoist Buyu replied without a shred of shame. Lord Mo continued, "Just three days ago, the monthly cultivator bazaar opened. Daoist Buyu set up a small stall in a corner of the bazaar, selling a technique that supposedly increased movement speed, claiming that the renowned 'Ancestor of the Thief Sect' had cultivated this very technique. "After people discovered they were swindled, they came to confront him and demanded a refund. He flatly denied any wrongdoing, insisting his technique was genuine. "When arguing proved fruitless, the victims reported the matter. After reviewing the case, this official determined the technique to be fraudulent and ordered ten days of administrative detention." Hearing unfamiliar terms, the Immortal Fairy knocked on Lu Yang's spiritual space, seeking guidance. "Lu Yang, who is this Ancestor of the Thief Sect?" Acting as the Immortal Fairy's cheat, Lu Yang naturally answered every inquiry. He explained, "I know a rough outline regarding the Ancestor of the Thief Sect. Fairy, you should know that there are three thousand unorthodox paths, and one of them is the Thief Sect." The Immortal Fairy nodded, signaling Lu Yang to continue. "The Thief Sect once produced a peerless phantom thief whose speed reached heights no predecessor could ever hope to attain, making him unrivaled across the realm. Because of his existence, the Thief Sect before him and the Thief Sect after him became two entirely different concepts. Those within the sect reverently called him the Ancestor of the Thief Sect, while the world generally referred to him as the Thief Ancestor. "The Thief Ancestor's speed was so extraordinary that he came and went from the Imperial Palace as he pleased, stealing numerous spirit stones and dharma treasures. His most outrageous feat was stealing the palace's front gate. The imperial court was furious, yet completely helpless against him." "And what happened to him afterward?" the Immortal Fairy asked with excitement. She had never fought a cultivator renowned for speed; if she ever met one, she would definitely want to test herself against him. Lu Yang shook his head. "That remains a mystery. No one knows his ultimate fate. Some say he passed away naturally, some say he grew tired of mortal conflicts and went into seclusion, and others say he fell after failing to attain the realm of Immortals." Speaking of the Thief Ancestor, Lu Yang couldn't help recalling another figure—the second supreme speedster after the Thief Ancestor: the Thief King. The Thief King's speed reached a level where the world was his oyster, and he could go anywhere. However, he violated the ancestral rules of the Thief Sect by attempting to steal from the Falling Coin Chamber of Commerce, after which he vanished without a trace, evaporating from the world. In reality, Daoist Buyu still insisted on his innocence, swearing solemnly, "It's true! If you practice the technique I sold, your speed can definitely be like the Thief Ancestor's—striding unrivaled across the realm!" Yun Zhi remained silent for a moment, as if recalling something, and asked, "Lord Mo, could I take a look at the technique my master was selling?" "Of course." Mo Danxin summoned a subordinate and instructed him to fetch the seized physical evidence from the yamen. Before long, the subordinate returned out of breath, carrying a book. The book was very thin and extremely old, lacking both a title and an author's name. It looked just like an ancient cultivation method unearthed from a grave and returned to the light of day. It was no wonder cultivators had fallen for it and bought the manual; it genuinely looked convincing. Lord Mo added, "Daoist Buyu sold ten copies in total. The contents of all ten were identical, and all have been impounded. This is one of them." Yun Zhi flipped to the first page, and Lu Yang craned his neck curiously to look. On the very first page of the ancient book, a single sentence was written: *To cultivate this art, first sever one leg.* Daoist Buyu threw up his hands. "See? What did I tell you? I didn't deceive anyone at all! If you practice this technique, I guarantee you can be just like the Thief Ancestor—striding unrivaled across the realm!" Lu Yang: "..." *Lord Mo didn't wrong you in the slightest by locking you up, Master!* *And you still dare cry innocent? Keeping you locked up for a year and a half wouldn't be too much!* Lu Yang now roughly understood why his master was the strongest beneath the Tribulation Transcendence stage. If his cultivation had been even slightly weaker, someone would have beaten him to death long ago. Yun Zhi's expression turned somewhat peculiar. "The Thief Ancestor indeed had only one leg. That was why no one ever refuted his claim that his speed was 'striding unrivaled across the realm.'" "Indeed, I've heard of that matter as well," the Minister of Justice nodded in agreement. There was another remark Yun Zhi kept to herself. As she flipped through the manual and performed a brief deduction, she realized that cultivating this technique truly seemed capable of making one's speed the fastest among those in the same realm. Could this really be the technique the Thief Ancestor cultivated?