Outside the quiet room, Fairy Yuerou held a hand seal.
Spiritual sense rippled outward from her like a stone thrown into a pond. It then slowly seeped into the formation guarding the quiet room's door, silently infiltrating deeper inside.
Soon, she saw Wang Ping within the quiet room.
He was sitting cross-legged, seemingly cultivating, with sweat occasionally rolling down his forehead. Seeing this sight, Fairy Yuerou couldn't help but sneer.
What an obtuse fool.
What era are we in, and he's still bitterly cultivating?
Since he had already personally experienced the profoundness of the 【Thief of Life】, he should understand that in the immortal sect, obediently following the rules and bitterly cultivating is destined to lead nowhere!
Without even a cheat, what immortality are you cultivating?
He wasted several days of my time for nothing.
Fairy Yuerou cursed inwardly. She then silently circulated her spiritual sense. The hairpin in her hand instantly pierced through the quiet room's formation, locking onto Wang Ping's glabella.
This hairpin was a spiritual artifact she had meticulously crafted, named the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】. It specialized in attacking a cultivator's sea of consciousness and could be launched or retracted at will. Its speed was so fast it even surpassed the limits of spiritual sense perception, making it invincible. She had been a Bandit Cultivator for quite some time, and being able to survive until today was largely thanks to this spiritual artifact.
After all, in battles between cultivators, dharma treasures always ranked first, and divine abilities second.
Even if your cultivation is lacking, as long as you possess a top-tier spiritual artifact, you can defeat a stronger opponent. If you also cultivate a formidable divine ability, you'd be invincible among your peers.
If this weren't the case, the 【Divine Weapon Institute】 wouldn't dare claim to be number one in the immortal sect.
"Die!"
Fairy Yuerou pointed a finger, pouring all her spiritual sense into the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】. Aiming at Wang Ping's direction, a brilliant flash of flaming light darted forward and vanished in an instant.
Pfft!
The next second, blood splattered. Wang Ping, sitting quietly in cultivation, didn't react at all. His sea of consciousness was pierced through, losing all signs of life in a daze.
The entire process flowed like water, exactly as Fairy Yuerou had planned. Therefore, she paid no further attention to Wang Ping's corpse. She quickly retracted the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 and her spiritual sense, then began scattering True Fire Talisman Papers around, preparing to destroy the corpse and erase all traces by burning the entire cave dwelling to the ground.
A moment later.
Boom!
Accompanied by a loud crash, the cave dwelling was swallowed by roaring True Fire. Standing in the distance, Fairy Yuerou confirmed everything was in order before activating a flying light and departing.
Soon, she arrived at the foot of a mountain peak where clouds and sky met.
"That went surprisingly smoothly."
Landing her flying light, Fairy Yuerou was somewhat surprised herself: "It feels so quiet. There aren't any immortal sect patrol disciples stopping and interrogating passing rogue cultivators."
Doubt flashed through Fairy Yuerou's mind, but she quickly rationalized it and thought of the answer: "It must be because the 【Eight Trigrams Furnace】 is about to open and refine a treasure. With the true legacy issuing an edict, most disciples have followed orders and gone to the 【Divine Weapon Institute】, so naturally, no one is patrolling."
But that worked out perfectly.
The more people went to stare at the 【Eight Trigrams Furnace】, the easier it would be to execute her plan. As long as this deal succeeded, she would have hope of surviving the Human Tribulation!
"You seem to be in a good mood?"
A familiar voice rang out by her ear. Fairy Yuerou turned around, her pretty face instantly flushing: "I've made a fool of myself, Senior Brother. I was merely struck by a sudden feeling."
Before her stood a handsome young man.
Looking at him, the impression Fairy Yuerou had of him quickly surfaced in her mind: Senior Brother Guo, an outer sect disciple of the Blissful Immortal Peak. I really want to dual cultivate with him...
Never mind, never mind. How could I possibly endure Senior Brother's spiritual power? Rumor has it Senior Brother has already divorced fourteen times! I've only divorced three times so far. My foundation in dual cultivation is far inferior to his. If I really dual cultivate with him, I'd probably just get squeezed dry and reduced to a cripple.
Fairy Yuerou quickly gathered her wandering thoughts and said respectfully:
"Reporting to Senior Brother, Pingjiang Zi did not agree. I had no choice but to clean up the scene. I'm afraid we'll have to find another rogue cultivator from the 【Soul-Descending Abode】."
"Is that so."
The handsome young man nodded upon hearing this. His subsequent response was exactly what Fairy Yuerou had imagined: "Yuerou, do you want to try dual cultivating with me once?"
"Don't worry, I won't suck you dry."
Hearing this, Fairy Yuerou felt overwhelmed by the unexpected favor, subconsciously revealing a look of anticipation—and then, a brilliant light bloomed between them.
Pfft!
The 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 flashed like lightning, surpassing the limits of spiritual sense perception. The handsome young man was pierced right through before he could even react.
At the same time, Fairy Yuerou, whose face was full of pleasant surprise just a moment ago, had already restrained all emotion. Her face was now filled with malice: "As expected, it was an illusion. Is it 【Dream Grafting】 or 【Nightmare Invocation】? Pingjiang Zi... I didn't expect I would underestimate you. You managed to cultivate 【Circulatory Breathing】?"
Fairy Yuerou's reaction was incredibly fast.
She had already cultivated 【Spiritual Consciousness】 and 【Flawless True Body】. For Wang Ping to be able to confuse her with a spiritual art, the only possibility was that his cultivation was higher than hers.
However, since she was able to detect the illusion and break free, it meant his cultivation wasn't ridiculously high—at the very least, he shouldn't have condensed spiritual power yet.
That left only 【Circulatory Breathing】.
At the first stage of Tribulation Transcendence, reaching this step meant one was only a hair's breadth away from condensing spiritual power and completely surviving the Human Tribulation, thereby being officially accepted into the immortal sect as an outer sect disciple.
Among rogue cultivators, a cultivator at this level, if they had some savings, could even become the master of a blessed land, having other rogue cultivators work for them to accumulate resources for the immortal Dao. For instance, the masters of the 【Soul-Descending Abode】 and 【Yangyuan Ridge】 were both rogue cultivators of this caliber.
But Fairy Yuerou remained utterly baffled.
"With your level of cultivation, how did you end up in this state? Or perhaps... you aren't Pingjiang Zi? Are you a bald donkey from the Brahma Kingdom who infiltrated us?"
Questions popped up one after another.
However, no one answered her. The corpse of "Senior Brother Guo" on the ground remained motionless, and the illusion showed absolutely no signs of shattering.
"Dammit..."
Seeing this, Fairy Yuerou frowned deeply. As long as Wang Ping answered her and stirred his spiritual sense, she was confident she could follow the clues and break the constraints of this illusion.
However, the other party seemed a bit too cautious.
The caster must have engaged in spiritual arts battles before and has experience, which is why he's guarding against me... Could it really be a bald donkey from the Brahma Kingdom?
Fairy Yuerou felt a bit uncertain. After all, as far as she knew, Pingjiang Zi hadn't even seen blood in his life. What kind of battle experience could he possibly have?
At this thought, she immediately circulated her spiritual sense.
“Clear the mind and banish delusion, suppress thoughts and lock the spirit... Edict!”
With a chant, her roaring spiritual sense slammed into the illusory world before her. Yet, the result was like a sledgehammer striking tempered steel.
The illusion didn't budge an inch.
Despite this, Fairy Yuerou sharply noticed the problem: This shouldn't be. The gap in cultivation between me and him shouldn't be this vast.
Furthermore, I am clearly already trapped deep within the illusion, yet the other party hasn't delivered a killing blow.
Why?
Fairy Yuerou's thoughts raced, quickly forming a guess: It seems I overestimated him. His ability is limited; he hasn't completely controlled me!
He must have only used the spiritual art to trap the portion of my spiritual sense I separated earlier to probe the quiet room. My main body and the majority of my spiritual sense aren't trapped. That's why he can't do anything to me and can't kill me. At the same time, the trapped portion of my spiritual sense is unable to shake his illusory world.
Since that was the case, the countermeasure was simple.
The next second, a ruthless look appeared on Fairy Yuerou's pretty face. Without any hesitation, she backhanded the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 right into her own glabella.
She committed suicide.
Boom!
As Fairy Yuerou's corpse hit the ground, the entire illusory world suddenly shattered, then dispersed like smoke and dust, revealing the real scene.
Cough, cough, cough...
Outside the quiet room, Fairy Yuerou stumbled to her feet. The phantom pain from her suicide still lingered at her glabella, yet without hesitation, she instantly activated the Daoist robe she wore.
Immediately after, a ring of multi-colored light bloomed around Fairy Yuerou, firmly shielding her. Almost in the very next instant, a fleshy palm landed softly on the multi-colored light. It seemed entirely unremarkable, yet in an instant, it produced a thunderous crash, smashing the light into scattering fragments.
The two forces remained deadlocked for a few breaths before a victor emerged.
"How is this possible..."
Fairy Yuerou looked up in astonishment. In the center of the multi-colored light protecting her, a clearly visible fist print had appeared, collapsing inward toward her.
Bang!
The multi-colored light shattered, and an iron fist plunged in. The five fingers snapped open like an explosion, turning palm to fist, pushing straight forward with the crackling sound of popping joints.
At the same time, Fairy Yuerou completely disregarded the palm thrust right in front of her. Instead, her beautiful eyes widened, and her venomous gaze locked directly onto Wang Ping behind the palm. Simultaneously, the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 soared upward, channeling flaming light, aiming to pierce Wang Ping's sea of consciousness first.
Crack!
In that life-or-death instant, the palm Wang Ping thrust forward suddenly emitted a cracking sound. Then, his arm, which was already extended to its absolute limit, miraculously lengthened by another large chunk out of thin air!
The entire process was like drawing a bow and loosing an arrow.
Wang Ping's body pulled back like a bowstring, while his arm shot forward like a loosed arrow. The palm and fingers, acting as the arrowhead, instantly arrived right before Fairy Yuerou's face!
One step ahead meant every step ahead!
This palm landed on Fairy Yuerou's glabella early. Unrivaled immense force poured out, instantly shaking Fairy Yuerou's delicate body violently and scattering more than half of her spiritual sense.
The 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 that was poised to strike naturally failed to attack.
Having lost her means to win, and with the distance between them so close, Wang Ping naturally wouldn't give Fairy Yuerou another chance to regroup.
Smack!
With a soft sound, Wang Ping's five fingers formed hooks, clamping down firmly on Fairy Yuerou's skull. His nails sliced into her flesh like knife blades.
“Daoist, I advise you not to move.”
Only then did Wang Ping finally speak, breaking his silence for the first time since making his move.
“I can crush your skull faster than you can kill me.”
"..."
As his voice fell, Fairy Yuerou, whose vision was already dyed red, could only remain silent. The 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 lost its brilliant light and clattered to the ground.
He won!
In this instant, Wang Ping's mood was far less calm than he appeared. Instead, he was thrilled to the extreme—because he was the victor of this clash!
Fairy Yuerou wasn't weak. Although her cultivation wasn't as high as his, the gap wasn't large. Moreover, she possessed a spiritual artifact like the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】. If they had fought head-on, it was almost guaranteed he wouldn't have lasted even a single round. The reason he was able to win wasn't because of some immortal sect spiritual art, but entirely due to his martial arts!
Take that final move of drawing the bow and thrusting the palm, for example.
At its core, that was actually a technique from the 【Heaven-Shaking Cloud-Piercing Bow】. He just forcefully applied it to his body, unleashing it through his fists and feet.
If it were an ordinary martial artist, that palm strike would have only crippled their own arm.
Thanks to the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】, which forged my body to be even harder than divine weapons and sharp blades, I was able to pull off such a reckless move...
Wang Ping silently reviewed the fight in his mind.
As for the illusion that initially trapped Fairy Yuerou, it was exactly as she had guessed. Wang Ping had only trapped a portion of her spiritual sense.
And he used a spiritual art Pingjiang Zi had mastered.
It was called 【Soul-Chasing】.
The soul is divided into Hun and Po. The Hun governs the nature, the Po governs the life. The former affects the mind and spirit, the latter affects the flesh and blood body. United, they are the foundation of a human.
Therefore, the effect of the 【Soul-Chasing】 art was to shake the target's consciousness, plunging them into an illusion. Pushed to its limits, it could even cause a person's spirit to die while their body lived.
Unfortunately, Wang Ping hadn't mastered it well, so he could only use it to temporarily trap a portion of Fairy Yuerou's spiritual sense, and she even saw through the flaw halfway.
A slight misstep, and the one defeated would have been me.
There's still a lot of room for improvement.
Wang Ping sighed inwardly, though he didn't dwell on it too much. After all, regardless of the process, the outcome wouldn't change. Self-reflection was a luxury reserved for the victor.
Furthermore, the result of this battle proved his theory— while Great Shun martial arts were at a severe disadvantage against immortal sect cultivators, it wasn't impossible to win!
Right at that moment, Fairy Yuerou spoke up:
"I didn't expect Daoist Pingjiang Zi to secretly be a body cultivator. Yuerou concedes defeat... However, what was Daoist's intention in suddenly attacking me?"
Fairy Yuerou parted her red lips: "If Daoist intends to report Yuerou's identity as a Bandit Cultivator to the immortal sect, you should give up. The immortal sect won't reward you, and the Heaven and Earth Pavilion certainly won't reduce your loan because of it. Instead, they'll just encourage you to sell off this stinking mortal shell of yours to repay the debt."
By the end of her sentence, Fairy Yuerou's tone was full of mockery.
"Fairy misunderstands."
Wang Ping reined in his thoughts, reached out his hand, and retrieved the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 from the ground. Smiling, he said, "I merely coveted this spiritual artifact."
"Does Fairy still remember the incantation to use it?"
With that, Wang Ping affectionately patted Fairy Yuerou's head: "If you don't remember, you can think hard about it. Make sure you don't get it wrong."
Fairy Yuerou: "..."
This is a robbery!
After a moment of silence, under Wang Ping's "persuasion", Fairy Yuerou, bleeding from her head, finally succumbed and recited the incantation to drive the treasure word for word.
"Thank you for your generosity, Fairy!"
Wang Ping contentedly drove the 【Spirit-Gathering Nail】 to circle around him a few times before absorbing it into his sea of consciousness. Only then did he satisfactorily release his grip on Fairy Yuerou.
"Oh, right. I accept Fairy's terms."
"I'll be in your care from now on."
Hearing this, Fairy Yuerou's chest hurt from anger, but she didn't dare lash out. She could only grit her teeth: "Daoist jests. You will definitely make an outstanding Bandit Cultivator!"