Bandit Cultivators.
The last time Wang Ping heard this term was in his previous-previous life as a chores disciple under Daoist Nun You. At that time, he was unclear about the specific details.
According to Daoist Nun You, he only knew that the so-called Bandit Cultivators were a group of cultivators who had no path to advancement within the immortal sect.
They had no choice but to take desperate risks and plunder everywhere, completely violating the concept of "the immortal Dao values life." They were a pack of mad stray dogs, and eradicating them was the bounden duty of immortal sect disciples.
This was Daoist Nun You's perspective as a true legacy disciple of the immortal sect.
In his previous-previous life, by following Daoist Nun You, Wang Ping had personally witnessed the Bandit Cultivators in action. He had to admit, the description "mad dogs" was incredibly accurate.
At least in front of Daoist Nun You, the Bandit Cultivators were just a motley crew. They only knew how to charge desperately, completely unable to distinguish the gap in strength between them.
At the time, Wang Ping didn't know the reason behind this.
However, now, Wang Ping vaguely understood—the soil that nurtured Bandit Cultivators was the countless Rogue Cultivators within the immortal sect living lives just like Pingjiang Zi.
They were indeed mad dogs.
They were indeed a motley crew.
It was precisely because they were already driven into a corner. With nothing left to their name but their own lives, they staked everything in a high-stakes gamble.
"How about it?"
Within his sight, Fairy Yuerou's voice was as gentle as in his memory. Moving with light steps, she walked up to Wang Ping, her pretty face flushed with excitement.
"Being a Bandit Cultivator is very comfortable."
"I used to work at 【Yangyuan Ridge】. I was fired just like you. Without a job, I couldn't repay the Heaven and Earth Pavilion's debts and almost underwent violent reincarnation."
"But after becoming a Bandit Cultivator, everything changed. The entire immortal sect becomes your hunting ground. Every minute, every second, countless serendipities await you to plunder. If you fail, it's just death—you don't have much longer to live anyway. But if you succeed just once, all your debts and troubles will vanish into thin air."
"In just half a year, I gained a new lease on life."
As she spoke, Fairy Yuerou leaned against Wang Ping's shoulder, whispering, "I know you're scared, worried you'll actually die a violent death in a foreign place."
"Don't worry, being a Bandit Cultivator isn't entirely without its perks."
As her voice fell, Fairy Yuerou raised her delicate brows. A treasured light flowed over her fair skin as she pressed her slender, jade-like hand against Wang Ping's chest.
Wang Ping immediately felt his heart tighten.
"Do you feel it?"
Fairy Yuerou chuckled softly: "This is the 【Thief of Life】. Now that I am touching you, your life and death are at my mere whim. This is the power of a Bandit Cultivator."
"With just a single thought, I can suck your life force and primal qi dry."
"This... how is this possible!"
Hearing this, a look of horror surfaced on Wang Ping's face: "The 【Thief of Life】 is a demonic art forbidden by the immortal sect. Where did you learn it?"
"You don't need to ask so much."
Fairy Yuerou shook her head and continued: "How about it, want to learn? As long as you learn the 【Thief of Life】, your cultivation progress will far exceed your imagination!"
A look of temptation immediately appeared on Wang Ping's face, but then he gritted his teeth and hesitated: "I've heard that the 【Thief of Life】 has massive hidden dangers..."
"Oh?"
Fairy Yuerou, who thought she could bait Wang Ping into joining just by relying on the 【Thief of Life】, was taken aback for a moment before laughing: "That's just a lie from the immortal sect!"
"I know what you want to say. That after cultivating the 【Thief of Life】, you'll crave life force and primal qi, even becoming addicted... But we found a solution long ago. We can convert your cultivation in the 【Thief of Life】 into cultivation for other methods, thereby avoiding its side effects!"
"How about it, want to try?"
With that, Fairy Yuerou chuckled softly. Transmitting through spiritual sense, she directly stuffed an incantation into Wang Ping's sea of consciousness, then gave him a hard push with her small hand.
Boom!
In an instant, billowing life force and primal qi poured from Fairy Yuerou's body into Wang Ping's. Almost subconsciously, Wang Ping began to circulate that incantation.
"Inhale the stars and absorb the moon, achieve mastery through comprehensive integration..."
His spiritual sense silently recited the incantation, linking with profundity. Then, Wang Ping was surprised to discover that the life force and primal qi Fairy Yuerou injected into him had completely dissolved.
It integrated directly into his limbs and bones!
And as the life force and primal qi integrated, his cultivation in the 【Secret Record of Resolving the Three Corpses and Nine Worms】 skyrocketed, enough to offset three months of bitter practice!
"Ah..."
Wang Ping let out a long sigh of sheer satisfaction. But in the next second, just as he was about to reach the absolute peak, Fairy Yuerou's flow of life force and primal qi came to an abrupt halt.
"...Hiss!" Wang Ping instantly glared at her furiously.
Why did she stop?
Keep going!
However, Fairy Yuerou didn't care in the slightest. After all, she had deliberately stopped just short on purpose. At this moment, she smiled brightly and said: "Daoist should have experienced it now."
"This is merely the incantation for converting life force and primal qi. To know how to extract life force and primal qi from others, you must have the 【Thief of Life】."
Hearing this, Wang Ping's face instantly darkened:
"You're scheming against me?"
"Deliberately telling me the incantation to convert life force and primal qi but refusing to teach me the 【Thief of Life】—you're trying to use this to bait me into working for you?"
"You can't phrase it like that." Fairy Yuerou chuckled softly: "It's merely a transaction. After all, we're also worried you'd turn hostile after receiving the complete method. So we're giving you a portion first. The rest will naturally be offered to you with both hands once you join us, complete a job, and officially become a Bandit Cultivator."
Wang Ping's expression grew even uglier.
"But without the 【Thief of Life】 to extract the life force and primal qi, what use is a mere conversion incantation? It's completely useless!"
"You're trying to catch a white wolf empty-handed!"
"Regardless, those are the terms."
Fairy Yuerou looked as if she had Wang Ping entirely figured out, saying, "Whether you agree or not is entirely up to Daoist yourself. I believe Daoist will make the correct choice."
"Bastard!"
Wang Ping seemed to finally snap. He spun around, his shoulders trembling with anger, then quickly walked back into the quiet room and slammed the door shut with a heavy bang.
Seeing this, Fairy Yuerou's smile grew even more radiant.
Beside her ear, an earring glowed faintly, fluctuating with spiritual sense. Faintly, it seemed someone was using it to transmit a message.
"Mm, don't worry."
"I've already let him experience the 【Thief of Life】. No one can refuse that speed of advancement. It won't be long before he agrees to assist us."
...
Inside the quiet room.
Only after the muffled thud of the heavy door closing behind him, and layer upon layer of formations autonomously activating to isolate spiritual sense probing, did Wang Ping finally relax.
"...Pfft."
A laugh leaked from his throat.
Heaven have mercy, he never in a million years expected that this transmigration to the immortal sect world would actually yield an unexpected harvest, and such a massive one at that.
But it makes sense. The immortal sect's Bandit Cultivators are clearly hidden incredibly deep, and there must be many of them who cultivate the 【Five Thieves’ Heaven-Stealing】 methods. If there were no corresponding conversion methods, the immortal sect would catch them instantly, and the Bandit Cultivators couldn't possibly possess such massive momentum within the immortal sect.
At this thought, Wang Ping immediately sat cross-legged.
His consciousness sank into the Morgue. A mountain of Life Force and Primal Qi Pills greeted his eyes—all hoarded during his previous-previous life through Daoist Nun You's hands.
Previously, recovering his cultivation in Great Shun and practicing the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】 had consumed less than thirty percent of it. He still had a massive stockpile.
The main reason he hadn't used it all up was that he didn't want to invest too heavily in the 【Thief of Life】. Furthermore, if he used it all up and the cultivation method's side effects backfired, he would have no way to dispel them... But now, things were different. Since he had a way to nullify the side effects, there was no need for reservations.
It's meant to be used right now!
With a thought, a massive amount of life force and primal qi roared out, then frantically assimilated into his limbs and bones according to the incantation Fairy Yuerou taught him.
Inhale! Exhale!
In this instant, Wang Ping clearly felt the difference in his own breathing. He was no longer simply inhaling external qi, circulating it through his body, and exhaling.
Instead, he was aligning his internal Lesser Heavenly Circulation with the external Greater Heavenly Circulation. Every breath followed the frequency of heaven and earth, merging himself into the breathing rhythm of the universe, cycling endlessly. At this moment, he was no longer an "anomaly" breathing spiritual qi, but had merged entirely into 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 overflowing his heart. Looking up, he saw twenty-four colored scenes flowing through heaven and earth.
"I see. So this is 【Circulatory Breathing】."
The third cultivation trait of the Tribulation Transcendence stage. One step further was 【Manifesting Art Through Qi】, condensing spiritual power to become a true cultivator capable of flying into the sky and escaping through the earth!
Wang Ping even had an answer in his heart on how to 【Manifest Art Through Qi】: It is nothing more than completely merging the spiritual qi of heaven and earth with the spiritual body, then subduing it with spiritual sense.
It sounded simple, but the process was actually incredibly dangerous.
Because there were twenty-four Qi of heaven and earth. Choosing which Qi to subdue was crucial for condensing spiritual power. If one chose wrong and failed to subdue the selected Qi...
There would be only one outcome.
Body explosion and death.
"However, the most crucial part—exactly what the so-called 【Twenty-Four Qi of Heaven and Earth】 are and what their characteristics are—is a closely guarded secret of the immortal sect."
At this thought, Wang Ping instantly gritted his teeth in anger.
False doctrines span ten thousand volumes, but a true legacy is just a single sentence.
This single sentence describing the 【Twenty-Four Qi of Heaven and Earth】 was the giant hand the immortal sect used to throttle all rogue cultivators, blocking their path to immortal cultivation.
"I wonder if the Bandit Cultivators have relevant information on this?"
Wang Ping felt they probably did. After all, there was no shortage of true experts among the Bandit Cultivators—like the one who fought Daoist Nun You over the 【Thief of Life】 previously.
And Wang Ping was still deeply impressed by that divine ability, 【Heaven in a Pot】, which condensed the universe into a single pot. After all, that was a method only available at the second stage of Tribulation Transcendence.
"Looking at it this way, being a Bandit Cultivator is actually a viable path."
Trying to climb the ranks step by step within the immortal sect through the orthodox route was like thousands of troops trying to cross a single-log bridge. Wang Ping didn't dare walk that path, nor did he possess that kind of talent.
So he could only take the evil path.
After thinking it over repeatedly, Wang Ping was left with only one final problem: The cooldown for 【Otherworldly Heavenly Demon】 hasn't ended yet. To be safe, I can't act recklessly right now.
Right at that moment, Wang Ping suddenly raised his eyebrows.
"Hmm?"
After mastering 【Circulatory Breathing】, he had completely integrated into the spiritual qi cycle of the external macrocosm, making him exquisitely sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment.
And just now, he detected a slight change.
Getting impatient? Daring to break into my cave dwelling. This is truly...
Wang Ping flicked his sleeve and stood up, a trace of long-suppressed ferocity flashing deep in his eyes.
Good timing!
All along, he had held a small doubt as to whether immortal sect cultivators were truly stronger than Great Shun martial artists. Now was the perfect opportunity to verify it!
...
Inside the cave dwelling, outside the quiet room where Wang Ping was in closed-door cultivation, Fairy Yuerou frowned deeply.
"It's taking too long..."
She had assumed that within a day or two at most, the other party wouldn't be able to resist the temptation and would reluctantly agree to become a Bandit Cultivator. However, four or five days had already passed.
And the result was absolutely no reaction.
Did I misjudge him? Is this Pingjiang Zi truly so cowardly and afraid of death that, even when his immortal path is clearly hopeless, he still doesn't dare to take a desperate gamble?
At this thought, Fairy Yuerou's pretty face gradually turned icy cold.
"...What a pity."
The planned time was approaching. She didn't have the patience to keep waiting. Since the other party hadn't responded, to be safe, she had to eliminate the hidden danger.
I have no choice but to dispose of this person.
After all, to recruit him, she had proactively exposed her identity and even given him the crucial conversion incantation. These things absolutely could not be leaked.
So from the very beginning, the other party had no choice.
Either agree, or die.
At this thought, Fairy Yuerou reached up and took down the hairpin coiled in the back of her hair. Exhaling slowly, she paced toward the quiet room where Wang Ping was cultivating.