Make the Immortal Sect Great Again

Chen Luoyan, Madam Su’s cousin and the female disciple the Book Mountain Sect Master had specifically sought out to manufacture a fateful encounter for the Child of Destiny, possessed a natural Furnace Physique.

Wang Ping knew all about this.

Yet he never expected Chen Luoyan to step out of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag right now and grab Daoist Xuanhe by the throat.

Was this really Chen Luoyan?

Only then did Wang Ping remember: right after he had killed Kongzhi, Chen Luoyan showed up at his door, and he ended up stashing her inside the flag’s spatial realm.

Then he went straight back to cultivating.

In all the chaos, he had somehow forgotten all about her, leaving her trapped inside the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag with Ye Chao...

”...Huh?”

Wang Ping’s pupils shrank. As the clues clicked together and the truth swam into focus, profound shock washed over him.

”The Heaven-Stealing Thief?”Chen Luoyan was the Heaven-Stealing Thief?

You’ve got to be kidding me!

Meanwhile, from a completely different angle, Daoist Xuanhe arrived at the exact same truth: ’The Heaven-Stealing Thief took the secret treasure that shrouds heavenly secrets!’

’He took the treasure and approached Ye Chao. That way, any shifts in Ye Chao’s destiny would be perfectly masked. He could hide in peace until this very moment... And since he’s finally showing himself, it means whatever he set out to do is already done!’

Swapping identities to exchange Ye Chao’s fate!

But with whom?

A second later, Daoist Xuanhe’s gaze landed squarely on Wang Ping. Almost simultaneously, Wang Ping reached the identical conclusion, and his expression violently twisted.

’It’s fucking me again?’

’You animal!’

Exactly. Despite taking a different path of logic, Wang Ping instantly guessed the answer: he was the target the Heaven-Stealing Thief wanted for the fate swap!

’After all, I’ve had the Ye Chao trial card active this whole time. Right now, my fate is completely identical to Ye Chao’s. I’m the perfect target for a swap... This bastard. The Longxing County incident barely ended before he pretended to leave, only to immediately run back disguised as Chen Luoyan?’

’Have you no shame?!’

A million curses stampeded through Wang Ping’s mind, but his reaction was razor-sharp. He immediately moved to cancel the trial card.

Yet a second later—

’What was I about to do again?’

The thought vanished into thin air, leaving Wang Ping standing there blankly. It took another heartbeat for his memory to reconnect and form the exact same idea:

Activate the Taiping Sutra and cancel the trial card!

’Do what?’

The thought vanished again. This time, Wang Ping was stunned a bit longer, but he realized the cause that much faster: ’It’s the influence of the Intent-Stealing Thief!’

No, he had to steady his mind. No matter how many thoughts the thief stole, he would just generate more, even translating them into subconscious actions to render the theft useless!

’What am I trying to do?’ Wang Ping’s eyes turned vacant again, followed immediately by a fierce struggle.

Activate the Taiping Sutra and cancel the trial card!

’Do what?’

Activate the Taiping Sutra and cancel the trial card!

’Do what?’

Activate the Taiping Sutra and cancel the trial card!

”What are you trying to do?”

”Activate...”

Boom!

Before Wang Ping could finish speaking, a slender hand formed entirely of Divine Intent rested lightly on his shoulder, cutting off the words he almost blurted out.

A second later, Wang Ping finally snapped out of it. He looked up at the half-smiling Heaven-Stealing Thief in front of him, his mind completely blank. It took him a long while to realize what had just happened. This bastard was actually baiting him?! He had almost—almost—said the words Taiping Sutra out loud!

Was there any justice left in the world?!

Wang Ping found it utterly absurd. You’re a fierce master at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer who dares to throw down with Qi Refining practitioners, yet you’re targeting a minor cultivator like me who hasn’t even refined magical power.

And you’re actually playing mind games with me?!

How is this even fair?!

However, Wang Ping soon spotted the blind spot: ’How is he stealing my memories and thoughts? He couldn’t possibly be using a soul-searching technique to read my memories ahead of time.’

If that were the case, the Taiping Sutra could never have stayed hidden.

’The only possibility is that he guessed what thought I would have and set a trap in advance, so when I actually formed that exact thought, the effect took hold!’

’Moreover, judging by the fact that he had to ask me out loud, he doesn’t even know exactly what thought he stole. He can’t read their specific contents; everything is based on his subjective guesses... From the looks of it, this Intent-Stealing Thief isn’t completely invincible.’

Wang Ping calmed down considerably.

There was no such thing as an invincible spell. After cooling off and thinking it through, he immediately noticed the various limitations the Heaven-Stealing Thief had deliberately kept hidden.

So what should he do next?

’While I was using the trial card to substitute for Ye Chao, he was probably watching the whole time in the guise of Chen Luoyan. That’s how he was able to accurately guess my thoughts.’

’So canceling the trial card is out of the question.’

’...What’s out of the question?’

His train of thought abruptly stalled. Wang Ping froze once again, only snapping back a moment later. Now he understood even more deeply just how fiercely the Heaven-Stealing Thief was guarding against him.

Right at that moment, however—

”My good disciple, you truly are far too clever.”

The Heaven-Stealing Thief spoke once more.

”How long has it been? And yet I already can’t steal your thoughts anymore. That means you’ve figured out the profound mechanics of the Intent-Stealing Thief. You catch on terrifyingly fast.”

His voice was gentle, neither too high nor too low. It wasn’t majestic, but it wasn’t overly casual either. If anything, he sounded just like an ordinary person you might pass on the street.

And yet, this exact tone was incredibly familiar to Wang Ping.

”You old bastard... Shouchong?”

”It’s me.”

The Heaven-Stealing Thief chuckled. ”I am Shouchong, I am Chen Luoyan, and I am many others... You understand the method. This is exactly how the Merit-Stealing Thief works.”

To replace a person’s identity and accomplishments.

But back in Longxing County, Shouchong and the Heaven-Stealing Thief had unquestionably been split into two entirely separate people...

”That was a trick.”

As if guessing Wang Ping’s thoughts, the Heaven-Stealing Thief smiled. ”My good disciple, you really are clever. You can piece together so much just from the smallest clues.”

”If I had proven right in front of you that Shouchong and I were actually the same person... I have no doubt that from then on, you would subconsciously suspect everyone you met of being me. That would have caused unnecessary trouble when I later approached you as Chen Luoyan.”

”So, I put on a little act.”

Wang Ping was speechless.

You mean to tell me that because you were worried I would suspect your future schemes, you deliberately put on a theatrical performance for me back when I was just a mortal?!

What else is there to even say?

Just take my fucking life already.

Wang Ping looked around, noticing that the space holding him and the Heaven-Stealing Thief seemed to have been isolated. Even the timeline had been split in two.

One was the outside reality, which had ground to a near halt.

The other was the timeline containing him and the Heaven-Stealing Thief, which continued to flow normally. The two timelines ran staggered from one another, yet intersected somewhere further ahead in a bizarre, dazzling spectacle.

”The Time-Stealing Thief?”

Wang Ping blinked. ”You stole your own time in advance, and now you’re returning it to yourself right at this moment, buying yourself extra time.”

He had pulled a similar maneuver himself.

When dealing with Kongzhi, he’d used this exact trick to buy himself time to charge his ultimate attack. However, the Heaven-Stealing Thief was clearly far more masterful.

”Thank you for making this possible, my disciple.”

In the next second, Wang Ping watched as radiant, multicolored light drifted up from the top of his head. Off to the side, Ye Chao stepped out of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag, his expression placid as an ancient well.

Compared to the foppish young master he used to be, the current Ye Chao carried an air of solemn, unyielding authority. Factoring in what Daoist Xuanhe had said earlier, it was obvious: while infiltrating the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag under the guise of Chen Luoyan, the Heaven-Stealing Thief had awakened Ye Chao’s past life.

”Immortal Gate True Transmission, Kunlun?”

As Wang Ping’s words fell, Ye Chao—or rather, the former Immortal Gate True Transmission, Kunlun—nodded once before offering a highly formal, ancient salute:

”Kunlun greets you, fellow Daoist.”

With that said, radiant multicolored light floated up from the top of Kunlun’s head as well. It intertwined with the light above Wang Ping, and then the two lights began to swap places.

A fate swap!

A second later, a smile suddenly broke across Wang Ping’s face.

Crack!

On Wang Ping’s side, the multicolored light hovering above his head remained steady and secure. Although it showed clear signs of being gnawed at, it was still intact. On the other side, however, Kunlun was out of luck.

’Invoking Deities only works on me!’

Though he hadn’t canceled the Ye Chao trial card, the Heaven-Stealing Thief’s forced fate swap had transferred the trial card’s effects onto Kunlun instead.

But since the user was incorrect, the trial card automatically canceled!

In an instant, the multicolored light Kunlun had just received violently shattered. In its place, a mass of gloomy, murky darkness materialized and sank straight into his body.

Before this, a single glance at Kunlun revealed a man of extraordinary handsomeness. His eyes had shone with divine spirit. Standing in a crowd, he was like a crane among a flock of chickens—strikingly prominent, entirely unlike a mortal. Yet now, as the gloomy darkness merged with him, his facial features didn’t change in the slightest.

But his entire aura visibly withered.

To put it bluntly, he became painfully ordinary... even taking on a bitter, deeply resentful air. Especially when he furrowed his brows, he just looked like a miserable wretch cursed with eternal bad luck.

’This is the fate of the black-headed commoners!’

Wang Ping’s lips curled into a grin. With the trial card gone, what Kunlun inherited was naturally Wang Ping’s original fate—and he was a pureblood black-headed commoner.

Bet you didn’t see that coming!

To his surprise, however, the Heaven-Stealing Thief did not fly into a rage. Even Kunlun remained entirely unfazed, as if his fate wasn’t actually that important.

Or rather, from the very beginning, they only ever wanted to throw their existing fate away. As for what kind of fate they received in return—whether it was that of a black-headed commoner or a good citizen, a mediocre nobody or a peerless genius—it made absolutely no difference to them... simply because they had already broken free from the shackles of destiny.

”Continue.”

Without missing a beat, the Heaven-Stealing Thief’s fingers danced, drawing yet another object out of Kunlun’s body. This time, it was a shimmering talisman.

’Is that... a true spiritual root?!’

Wang Ping’s eyes instantly went wide. To his disbelief, the Heaven-Stealing Thief didn’t hesitate in the slightest before tossing over this supreme treasure—an item capable of promoting an Immortal Gate disciple straight to True Transmission.

Another exchange?

But his fate had already been swapped away. What else did he possess that the thief would want to exchange? To the point of using something as precious as a true spiritual root to get it...

A second later, Wang Ping guessed the answer.

’It’s the Taiping Sutra!’

’The fucking Heaven-Stealing Thief! He wants to trade a true spiritual root for my Taiping Sutra!?’