Chapter 82: The Heaven-Deceiving Grand Thief, the Heaven-Defying Thief!

At the Immortal Gate, before the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

All that could be seen were two streaks of sword light shuttling across the universe. They clashed, erupting in momentary flares of dazzling brilliance, and separated, fading back into the darkness.

In the vast, star-filled universe, every collision occurred in complete silence. Only countless colors of light erupted, illuminating a corner of the dark cosmos. At the same time, an indescribable gravitational pull gradually emerged, endlessly drawing in the fine dust and stardust fragments wandering through the void.

Rumble!

As the gravitational pull expanded, these drawn-in particles of dust plummeted into the battlefield's perimeter, bursting with blinding radiance before instantly vanishing.

After all, this was unlike the Eight Trigrams Furnace, nor was it like any other secret realm of the Immortal Gate.

These specks of dust were, at best, mere mortal matter.

Before the magical power of two true transmission disciples of the Immortal Gate, mortal matter would instantly melt upon contact, then vaporize, and finally erupt into a burst of plasma.

But right at that moment.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, a soft sound of surprise rang out from the brilliant light of the battlefield. The two figures abruptly separated, each occupying a corner of the universe, and one of them whipped around.

It was the white-clad woman with a sword on her back, Lian Shengyue.

At this very moment, the victor's smile on this true transmission disciple's face had completely vanished, replaced by deep, unsettled alarm. "Liansheng Bodhisattva has lost contact?"

"What is going on?"

On the other side, You Xuexin had also ceased her movements. She similarly looked toward the direction of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, an expression of sudden supreme enlightenment washing over her face as realization dawned.

Prior to this, she had died once while transporting the Five Thieves Stealing Heaven Myriad Transformations Divine Talisman. Although her master had resurrected her afterward, she could not recall the sequence of events surrounding her death no matter how hard she tried. She only remembered dying from the backlash of a magical artifact. Now, however, the fog obscuring that piece of her memory had been dispelled.

"I remember now!"

'I was killed by the Life-Stealing Thief!'

Along with it came a somewhat inexplicable memory: speaking of which, what was the method she had deployed in Longxing County to harvest lifespans?

'The Life-Stealing Thief?'

You Xuexin thought back for a moment and immediately remembered the process of going to cultivate the fiend alongside Xu Bingzheng... 'Wait, did I actually do all of that?'

"...No!"

A second later, You Xuexin felt her blood run cold. She had finally discovered the glaring flaw in her memories. 'How could I possibly know the Life-Stealing Thief?'

'The person in those memories wasn't me!'

'This memory never existed!'

In a flash of insight, You Xuexin recalled the Immortal Gate's descriptions of that Heaven-Stealing Thief, as well as his immortal art that left countless cultivators salivating.

"The Spirit-Stealing Thief, capable of altering knowledge and memories... I was hit by the Spirit-Stealing Thief? When? Someone deployed the Life-Stealing Thief in the county town to cultivate a fiend, then transplanted that memory into me. They made me believe it without a shadow of a doubt, and I only noticed the flaw just now..."

'I fell for it a long, long time ago!'

You Xuexin gritted her teeth, her jaw trembling.

"That's right. That was why my mind was so muddled at the time, to the point that I didn't even notice the artifact's abnormality, and ultimately even died once... I was ambushed!"

That death had erased all the clues.

Her memory had been tampered with long before she died. Yet, as luck would have it, an obvious gap had appeared in her memories after she died and resurrected.

'The memory gap from my resurrection was a cover for the memories altered before my death!'

'It was to let my master discover the issue with my memories, only to attribute it to the aftereffects of resurrection, completely overlooking the possibility that I had been influenced beforehand!'

'Hiding a tree in a forest, to think it reached such a degree!'

Having thought this far, the mastermind's identity was already glaringly obvious. Even to a true transmission disciple like You Xuexin, the other party's name was incredibly illustrious.

He possessed many titles.

Descendant of an immortal, former First Seat of the true transmission disciples, first in the Immortal-Brahma Sword Battle, the one who attempted Qi Refining three times yet failed to enter the Dao, a fool, a cultivator who severed his own immortal path...

Now, however, he was generally known as: "The Heaven-Deceiving Grand Thief, the Heaven-Defying Thief."

The Heaven-Stealing Thief!

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The heavy footsteps boomed and echoed in Wang Ping's ears, completely undisguised. Yet Liansheng Bodhisattva, standing in front of him, seemed entirely oblivious.

Or rather, she had completely lost the ability to "perceive." She was no longer even trying to search Wang Ping's soul. Instead, she just stood frozen in place, maintaining her compassionate smile without moving, speaking, or breathing—like a solid statue, silently waiting for the person behind her to approach.

"You old bastard...!"

Wang Ping clenched his jaw and widened his eyes, staring at the white-clad man strolling over. The man no longer looked elderly, appearing to be only around thirty years old.

Even so, Wang Ping could still vaguely recognize his facial contours.

It was Shouchong!

However, Wang Ping quickly froze again, because as the white-clad man drew near, his figure suddenly split, turning into two separate figures standing one behind the other.

The one in front was still dressed in white, but his face had become a blurry haze.

The one in back had transformed into the familiar old Daoist priest Wang Ping knew, Shouchong.

Immediately after, before Wang Ping could even react, he saw the blurry-faced white-clad man in front slowly reach out a hand.

Almost simultaneously.

The previously motionless Liansheng Bodhisattva seemed to be stimulated by something. The scent of incense around her violently surged as she whipped her head around to look at the white-clad man.

But it was too late. The white-clad man's palm had already landed on Liansheng Bodhisattva. His five fingers closed inward, instantly emitting a crisp, explosive crack.

Crack!

Wang Ping blinked. Just as he recovered from his shock, he saw Liansheng Bodhisattva casually toss aside that nameless female corpse and elegantly wipe his hands.

Only after doing all this did he turn around to look at Wang Ping.

"Many thanks to you for the reminder, my young friend. Had you not called out, I really might have been ambushed."

The voice was amiable, the smile compassionate—exactly the same as before.

On the other side, Shouchong, looking like the old Daoist priest once more, dropped to one knee without a word and chanted, "The Bodhisattva has manifested in this world to eradicate evil; it is truly a blessing for all mortals."

"Rise."

Liansheng Bodhisattva waved a hand, looking at Wang Ping as he continued, "My young friend, your aptitude is extraordinary. If I am not mistaken, you have cultivated the Life-Stealing Thief?"

"The Immortal Elder's vision is clear as a mirror."

Wang Ping cupped his hands in acknowledgment, marveling inwardly at how incredibly magnanimous this Liansheng Bodhisattva was. The Life-Stealing Thief was a forbidden art of the Immortal Gate, yet he paid it no mind... 'Hm?'

Thinking of this, Wang Ping's mind naturally recalled his deductions from within the Taiping Sutra's space, only to find that the supposedly perfect chain of clues had snapped once again. How could Liansheng Bodhisattva know the Life-Stealing Thief? That wasn't right; it didn't match his deductions at all.

'What is going on?'

"Right, speaking of the Life-Stealing Thief."

Right at that moment, Liansheng Bodhisattva suddenly raised his hand, took out a jade box, and actually pulled out that Anti-Tribulation Longevity Pill once again.

Instantly, the fragrance of the pill assaulted the senses.

"Look here. This medicinal pill was refined only after stealing the providence of a whole city and the lifespans of tens of thousands of people... It is simply the most perfect Life-Stealing Thief."

"It was well worth the painstaking effort I spent refining it to nourish my cultivation."

'Nourish my cultivation?'

Wang Ping blanked upon hearing this. "Isn't this item... meant for extending one's lifespan?"

Liansheng Bodhisattva blinked. "You have remembered incorrectly, my young friend."

"...Really?" Wang Ping grew even more bewildered.

"Of course it's true. This item is primarily meant for my cultivation. If you don't believe me, watch." After Liansheng Bodhisattva said that, he picked up the pill and tossed it into his mouth.

He actually consumed it right then and there!

Immediately afterward, he opened his mouth again and exhaled myriad streaks of brilliant splendor that shot straight into the clouds. The light then exploded in midair over Longxing County, drifting down upon the residents filling the city.

Wang Ping saw it crystal clear.

Every single streak of that brilliance was lifespan. After Liansheng Bodhisattva ate that pill, he actually returned all the accumulated lifespan within it!

"I only need the conceptual imagery of the Life-Stealing Thief within it; I do not need the lifespan."

Liansheng Bodhisattva spread his hands. "You see, I ate the pill yet returned the lifespan. This proves that I have absolutely no need to extend my life, making it evident that this pill was indeed meant for my cultivation."

Hearing this, Wang Ping also came to a sudden realization, recalling memories that didn't exist. "So that's how it is. It seems I misremembered. The Immortal Elder did indeed say that."

"No matter. It is good that you remember now."

Liansheng Bodhisattva smiled and nodded, then walked forward and patted Wang Ping on the shoulder. "Given our meeting today, you and I can be considered to share some affinity."

"How about this: I shall bestow a technique upon you."

"As long as you practice diligently, my young friend, there may perhaps come a time when we meet again in the future."

Before his voice had even faded, Wang Ping felt his spiritual consciousness automatically surge up. Nonexistent memories surfaced one after another, ultimately forming an entire passage of scripture.

The Time-Stealing Thief.

A second later, Wang Ping's vision blurred. Then, a scene that left him utterly shell-shocked unfolded—inside the Taiping Sutra, a scripture scroll lit up.

Outer Heavenly Demon!

The Outer Heavenly Demon, which had only just entered cooldown and was supposed to take another seven days to recover, had strikingly lit up again. He could resurrect once more!

'The Time-Stealing Thief... can snatch away fragments of time...?'

For a moment, Wang Ping was caught between joy and shock.

'That's not right. How could Liansheng Bodhisattva possibly pass down this sort of thing... No, no, no! Speaking of which, where is the third person I deduced earlier?'

'And who was that nameless female corpse?'

In an instant, the unstoppable tide of doubts made Wang Ping feel increasingly off. The glaring contradiction between reality and the truth he had deduced from known clues nearly drove him mad.

But when he raised his head again, he saw that Liansheng Bodhisattva and Shouchong had already vanished.

And with their departure, a certain eerie, profound force that had originally blanketed the area disappeared, and those nonexistent memories in Wang Ping's mind also rapidly dissipated.

"So... that's how it is."

At this moment, the sudden supreme enlightenment finally dawned on Wang Ping. "The third person was the Heaven-Stealing Thief! He stole Liansheng Bodhisattva's identity right from under my nose!"

'He was the one hidden the deepest, and the final beneficiary!'

'I should have guessed this sooner!'

Shouchong once said that he had received Liansheng Bodhisattva's mercy, which was why his resurrection time as a black-headed commoner had been shortened from sixty years down to six days.

'Thinking about it carefully, isn't that precisely the ability of the Time-Stealing Thief?'

'From the very beginning, the one Shouchong worshipped was the Heaven-Stealing Thief!'

'Now that things had reached this point, the longevity pill was eaten by the Heaven-Stealing Thief, completely ruining the plans of the Qi Refining practitioner backing Daoist Nun You. This was a monumental blood feud.'

'And after he finished doing all of this, he stole Liansheng Bodhisattva's identity and walked off without a care in the world, even having the leisure to impart the Time-Stealing Thief technique to me... Hm?'

"Ah, holy shit!" Wang Ping violently jumped up.

'Not good!'

'The Heaven-Stealing Thief was already a wanted criminal of the Immortal Gate. By appearing here and ruining a Qi Refining practitioner's grand plan, what kind of consequences would that provoke?'

Wang Ping asked himself—if he were that Qi Refining practitioner, he would inevitably take action personally.

'Even if they couldn't catch the Heaven-Stealing Thief, they would still seize any related clues. So in the current Longxing County, who had the deepest ties to the Heaven-Stealing Thief?'

A second later, Wang Ping cursed out loud, "Motherfucker, I've become the scapegoat again!"

'He deliberately passed me a technique so I would attract the attention of the Immortal Gate's Qi Refining practitioner?'

'What an animal!'

In a flash, not daring to hesitate, Wang Ping hurriedly roused his mind. "Taiping Sutra!!!"

Instantly, the clouds scattered and the sky opened up.

Boundless and endless rays of light exploded in the sky above Longxing County, illuminating the face of a young boy—supremely noble, commanding awe without anger, and looking down with utter indifference!