Chapter 62: Unexpected Harvest!

Bandit cultivators.

The last time Wang Ping heard this term was in his past life, back when he was a servant disciple under Daoist Nun You. He hadn't understood the details then.

According to her, these so-called bandit cultivators were individuals with no path left for advancement within the Immortal Gate. Forced to take desperate risks, they resorted to pillaging, completely violating the sect's core philosophy that the Immortal Dao Values Life. They were a pack of rabid stray dogs, and eradicating them was the sacred duty of all Immortal Gate disciples.

That was Daoist Nun You's perspective as a True Transmission disciple of the Immortal Gate.

Having witnessed their actions firsthand while following Daoist Nun You in his previous life, Wang Ping had to admit the "rabid dog" description was remarkably accurate.

At least when facing Daoist Nun You, they were nothing but a disorganized mob. They only knew how to charge forward in a desperate frenzy, completely blind to the overwhelming gap in power.

At the time, Wang Ping had no idea why they acted like that.

Now, however, he vaguely understood. The breeding ground for these bandit cultivators was right here within the Immortal Gate—the countless independent cultivators living desperate lives, just like Pingjiangzi.

They truly were rabid dogs.

And they truly were a disorganized mob.

But that was only because they had been driven into a corner. With nothing left to their names but their own lives, they threw everything onto the table in a desperate gamble.

"Well?"

Fairy Yuerou's voice was just as gentle as he remembered. Stepping lightly, she walked right up to Wang Ping, her pretty face flushed red with excitement.

"Being a bandit cultivator is wonderful."

"I used to work at Essence-Nourishing Ridge. Just like you, I was fired. Out of a job and unable to pay my debts to the Heaven and Earth Pavilion, I was nearly forced to end my life and reincarnate."

"But after becoming a bandit cultivator, everything changed. The entire Immortal Gate becomes your hunting ground. Every waking moment brings countless opportunities just waiting to be plundered. If you fail, it's just death—and you're going to die soon anyway. But if you succeed even once, all your debts and troubles vanish into thin air."

"In just half a year, I was reborn."

As she spoke, Fairy Yuerou leaned against Wang Ping's shoulder. "I know you're scared," she whispered. "You're terrified of dying a violent death in some forsaken place."

"Don't worry. Becoming a bandit cultivator isn't without its perks."

As she spoke, Fairy Yuerou raised an eyebrow. A precious luster flowed over her fair skin as she pressed a slender hand flat against Wang Ping's chest.

Wang Ping immediately felt his heart seize.

"Do you feel that?"

Fairy Yuerou chuckled lightly. "This is the Life-Stealing Thief. Now that I'm touching you, your life and death rest on my single thought. This is the power of a bandit cultivator."

"With a single thought, I can drain your life essence dry."

"How... how is that possible?!"

Wang Ping's face immediately contorted in sheer terror. "The Life-Stealing Thief is a demonic technique forbidden by the Immortal Gate! Where did you learn it?!"

"You don't need to ask about that."

Fairy Yuerou shook her head and continued, "Well, do you want to learn it? Once you learn the Life-Stealing Thief, your cultivation will progress faster than you could ever imagine!"

A tempted look immediately flickered across Wang Ping's face. But he clenched his jaw, hesitating. "I've heard... the Life-Stealing Thief has massive hidden dangers..."

"Oh?"

Fairy Yuerou paused, having assumed the Life-Stealing Thief would be enough to directly reel Wang Ping in. Then she laughed. "Those are just the Immortal Gate's lies!"

"I know what you want to say. That practicing the Life-Stealing Thief makes you crave life essence, that it even becomes an addiction... But we found a solution a long time ago. We can convert the cultivation you gain from the Life-Stealing Thief into progression for other cultivation methods, completely bypassing its side effects!"

"So, do you want to try it out?"

With a light chuckle, Fairy Yuerou used her spiritual sense to transmit a mnemonic directly into Wang Ping's sea of consciousness. Then, her small hand gave him a forceful shove.

"Rumble!"

In an instant, surging life essence poured from Fairy Yuerou's body into Wang Ping's. Almost subconsciously, Wang Ping began to circulate that mnemonic.

"Absorb the stars and inhale the moon, merge and master the flow..."

As his spiritual sense silently recited the chant, connecting with its profound mysteries, Wang Ping realized to his astonishment that the life essence Fairy Yuerou had injected into him was rapidly dissolving.

It was melting directly into his limbs and bones!

As the life essence integrated into his body, his cultivation level in the Three Corpses and Nine Worms Tribulation-Resolving Secret Record surged dramatically. This single influx was enough to offset three months of cultivation!

"Ah..."

Wang Ping let out a long sigh of pure comfort. But in the very next second, right as he was about to hit the peak, Fairy Yuerou abruptly cut off the flow of life essence.

"...Hiss!" Wang Ping instantly shot her a furious glare.

Why did she stop?

Keep going!

Fairy Yuerou, however, was completely unfazed. She had cut him off on purpose, after all. Smiling sweetly, she said, "Fellow Daoist should have a good feel for it now."

"That was just the mnemonic for converting life essence. If you want to know how to extract life essence from others, you must have the Life-Stealing Thief."

Wang Ping's expression immediately darkened.

"You set me up?"

"You intentionally gave me the conversion mnemonic but withheld the Life-Stealing Thief? You're using this to string me along and make me work for you?"

"Don't put it like that," Fairy Yuerou laughed lightly. "It's merely a transaction. After all, we have to worry about you turning on us once you get the complete technique. So, we're giving you a portion first. The rest will naturally be handed over once you join us, complete a job, and officially become a bandit cultivator."

Wang Ping's expression grew even uglier.

"But what use is a conversion mnemonic if I don't have the Life-Stealing Thief to extract the life essence in the first place?! It's completely useless!"

"You're trying to get something for nothing!"

"Regardless, those are the terms."

Fairy Yuerou looked at Wang Ping with absolute certainty that she had him hooked. "Whether you agree is entirely up to you, Fellow Daoist. I trust you'll make the right choice."

"Bastard!"

Wang Ping seemed to finally reach his breaking point. He spun around, his shoulders trembling with rage, and stormed back to his quiet room, slamming the door shut with a heavy thud.

Seeing this, Fairy Yuerou's smile grew even more radiant.

Meanwhile, the earring dangling by her ear gave off a faint glow. Spiritual sense rippled constantly from it, vaguely indicating that someone was using it to transmit a message to her.

"Mm, don't worry."

"I've already let him experience the Life-Stealing Thief. Nobody can resist that kind of progression speed. It won't be long before he agrees to help us."

...........

Inside the quiet room.

It wasn't until he heard the muffled thud of the door shutting behind him, followed by the automated activation of layered array formations isolating the room from spiritual sense probing, that Wang Ping finally relaxed.

"...Pfft."

A laugh leaked out from his throat as he failed to hold it in.

Heaven be his witness, he had never expected his transmigration to the Immortal Gate World this time to yield such an unexpected harvest—and a massive one at that.

'But it makes sense. The bandit cultivators of the Immortal Gate obviously hide incredibly deep, and there must be plenty of them practicing the Five Thieves Steal the Heavens series of cultivation methods. If they didn't have a corresponding conversion method, the Immortal Gate would catch them the moment they checked their cultivation bases. The bandit cultivators would never have gained such massive momentum within the sect otherwise.'

At that thought, Wang Ping immediately sat cross-legged.

Sinking his consciousness into the Great Peace Mortuary, he was greeted by the sight of a mountainous pile of Life Essence Primordial Qi Pills. He had hoarded all of these during his previous life, using Daoist Nun You's hands.

Back in Great Shun, he had consumed less than thirty percent of his stockpile to restore his cultivation and train the Thirteen Grand Protectors Hard Qigong. He still had plenty left.

The main reason he hadn't used them all was that he didn't want to overinvest in the Life-Stealing Thief. If he ran out of pills, he would have no way to dispel the backlash from the cultivation method's side effects... But things were different now. Now that he had a way to neutralize those side effects, he didn't need to hold back.

'This is exactly the time to use them!'

With a thought from Wang Ping, a massive surge of life essence roared out. Following the mnemonic Fairy Yuerou had taught him, it rapidly melted into his limbs and bones in a frenzy.

Inhale! Exhale!

In that instant, Wang Ping clearly felt the difference in his breathing. He was no longer simply inhaling the outside air, circulating it through his body, and breathing it back out.

Instead, he was synchronizing the minor cycle within his body with the grand cycle of the outside world. Every breath he took aligned with the frequency of heaven and earth, integrating him into the very breathing rhythm of the world itself, cycling endlessly. At this moment, he was no longer an isolated "foreign entity" merely breathing in spiritual qi; he had become one with the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.

He was the spiritual qi!

"......."

Wang Ping slowly opened his eyes. An unprecedented sense of fulfillment swelled in his heart. As he looked up, he could see twenty-four distinct colors of light flowing through heaven and earth.

"So that's how it works. This is Cosmic Orbit Respiration."

It was the third cultivation trait of the Tribulation Transcending Stage. Just one step further, and he would achieve Borrowing Qi to Manifest Magic, condense his magical power, and become a genuine cultivator capable of soaring through the skies and tunneling through the earth!

Wang Ping even knew the answer to exactly how to achieve Borrowing Qi to Manifest Magic. 'It's nothing more than perfectly fusing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth with my physical vessel, and then subduing it with my spiritual sense.'

It sounded simple, but the process was actually incredibly dangerous.

Because there were twenty-four types of qi in heaven and earth. Choosing the right one was crucial to condensing one's magical power. If one made the wrong choice and failed to subdue their selected qi...

There would be only one possible outcome.

Explosive death.

"But the real problem is that the specific identities and properties of this so-called 'Twenty-Four Qi of Heaven and Earth' are a closely guarded secret of the Immortal Gate."

At that thought, Wang Ping gritted his teeth in sheer frustration.

False teachings filled ten thousand books, while the true teachings took only a single sentence.

That single sentence explaining the Twenty-Four Qi of Heaven and Earth was the heavy hand the Immortal Gate kept clamped around the necks of all independent cultivators, firmly blocking their path to immortality.

"I wonder if the bandit cultivators have any information on this?"

Wang Ping felt there should be. After all, the bandit cultivators certainly had their share of experts—like the one who had dueled Daoist Nun You over the Life-Stealing Thief.

He still clearly remembered Heaven Within the Pot, the Divine Power that could shrink heaven and earth into a single vessel. After all, that was a technique that required the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer.

"Looking at it this way, becoming a bandit cultivator really is a viable path."

Trying to climb the ranks step by step within the Immortal Gate via the orthodox route was like sending an entire army across a single-plank bridge. Wang Ping didn't dare to try it, nor did he possess the talent for it.

So he could only take the crooked path.

After thinking it over from every angle, Wang Ping only had one problem left. 'The cooldown for the Outer Heavenly Demon isn't over yet. Just to play it safe, I can't afford to act recklessly right now.'

Just then, Wang Ping suddenly raised an eyebrow.

"Hm?"

Having successfully cultivated Cosmic Orbit Respiration, he was completely integrated into the spiritual qi cycle of the outside world. He was now acutely sensitive to even the slightest shifts in his environment.

And just now, he had noticed a slight disturbance.

'Couldn't wait any longer? To actually dare break into my cave dwelling, you really are...'

Wang Ping stood up with a flick of his sleeves, a long-suppressed viciousness flashing in his eyes.

Perfect timing!

He had always harbored a sliver of doubt as to whether Immortal Gate cultivators were truly stronger than the martial artists of Great Shun. Now was the perfect time to find out!

..............

Inside the cave dwelling, just outside the quiet room where Wang Ping was in seclusion, Fairy Yuerou frowned deeply.

"It's taking too long..."

She had expected it to take a day or two at most for him to succumb to the temptation, struggle for a bit, and agree to become a bandit cultivator. But four or five days had already passed in the blink of an eye.

Yet there hadn't been a single response from him.

'Did I misjudge him? Is Pingjiangzi really this much of a coward? His path to immortality is completely hopeless, yet he still doesn't dare to risk it all on a single gamble?'

At that thought, Fairy Yuerou's pretty face slowly turned ice-cold.

"...What a pity."

The deadline for her plan was fast approaching, and she had run out of patience. Since he refused to give her an answer, the safest course of action was to nip this potential problem in the bud.

'I'll just have to dispose of him.'

After all, she had exposed her own identity to try and recruit him, and had even handed over the crucial conversion mnemonic. None of that could be allowed to leak out.

From the very beginning, he never had a choice.

He would either agree, or he would die.

With that decided, Fairy Yuerou reached back and pulled out the hairpin holding her hair in place. Letting out a slow breath, she began to pace toward Wang Ping's quiet room.