Chapter 330: The Might of the Heaven-Stealing Thief

As Wang Ping pondered, the Heaven-Stealing Thief had already engaged the phantom of the mysterious Wood Qi Daoist Master in battle. The latter formed hand seals and chanted an incantation, issuing a command: "I respectfully invite the Xun Trigram to take dominion, to reiterate the mandate of Xun, to walk the path of rectitude, and to follow Heaven in response to humanity!"

In an instant, violent gales rose from the flat ground, sweeping in from all eight directions, each carrying profound mysteries. These were likewise a destiny form and its achievement, which ultimately coalesced and augmented the Daoist Master's phantom.

The Song of Great Wind!

As this fierce wind blew, it scraped bone, stripped flesh, and eroded mysteries. Landing upon the Heaven-Stealing Thief, it instantly caused his vision to blacken, and the radiance around his body dimmed accordingly.

In the distance, Wang Ping's eyelids twitched slightly at the sight, his mind already calculating: "Judging by the incantations of these two, they aren't inviting the qi of heaven and earth to take dominion, but rather the trigrams. One is the Qian Trigram, and the other is the Xun Trigram. Since this Daoist Master's phantom represents wood, does that mean the Heaven-Stealing Thief represents metal?"

He thought of Tianxing.

That cultivator's lineage was human-yang metal, the Xuan Ge Revolving and Transforming Anew, and thus he cultivated the Qian Trigram. This showed that this trigram corresponded precisely to pure-yang metal.

What about the Heaven-Stealing Thief?

Considering that the yang metal in the heaven and earth sequences all ran the risk of being restrained, could his primary cultivation also be human-yang metal? That would explain why he was so keen on eradicating Earth Yang Fire...

The next second, Wang Ping's conjecture was confirmed.

Clang, clang!

Looking over, brilliance suddenly reignited across the Heaven-Stealing Thief's body. These, too, were streams of wind from all eight directions.

Usurper Immortal!

The moment this destiny form was set in motion, it presented a golden radiance identical to Tianxing's. Governing military arms and the authority of upheaval, this metal energy surged and transformed amidst the wind, continually shifting into the same mysteries as the Daoist Master's phantom and rapidly soaring upward to neutralize them.

"The achievement of the Great Rebellion lies in usurpation and transgression!"

Wielding his incantation, the Heaven-Stealing Thief went against the current. Stubbornly enduring the gales from the eight directions that should have directly suppressed him, he forcefully broke free.

Such a spectacle caused even the Daoist Master's phantom to nod slightly. "A fine Usurper Immortal."

"Your cultivation is not bad."

On the other side, Wang Ping's eyes brightened as he witnessed the scene. In this brief exchange, he observed and comprehended a massive volume of mysteries.

"There is no mistake. He cultivates the divine powers under the rule of the Xuan Ge Revolving and Transforming Anew, using them to depict his destiny form. Furthermore, he has accomplished a great achievement, and his dao attainment has reached the point of preemptively perceiving the Qian Trigram. That is how he possesses this supreme cultivation that integrates destiny form, achievement, and dao attainment into one."

Among these, his destiny form and achievement were secondary.

Although both were critical and indispensable, the true finishing touch was the Heaven-Stealing Thief's dao attainment; otherwise, he could not have accomplished what he just did!

The significance of this was far greater than that of the Daoist Master's phantom...

The Daoist Master's phantom could achieve the same thing because a True Person's consciousness took dominion; even if their cultivation levels were identical, its dao attainment remained that of a True Person.

Yet the Heaven-Stealing Thief, as a genuine Tribulation Transcending Third Layer cultivator, had accomplished something that only a True Person's dao attainment could achieve. The significance of that could be easily imagined!

Tribulation Transcending cultivation reaching its pinnacle was certainly not just empty talk!

If not for this, given a True Person's elevated standards, he would never have offered the praise that his cultivation was not bad. That alone was an acknowledgment of the Heaven-Stealing Thief.

Rumble!

The next second, the Daoist Master's phantom changed its hand seals. The howling gales from the eight directions abruptly shifted, revealing the qi of heaven and earth behind them.

Heavenly Yin Wood, the Tianqu Riding the Wind and Soaring Upward!

"Just as expected."

Wang Ping's gaze shifted slightly upon seeing this.

"This True Person's mysterious imagery is wind. Not only because the Xun Trigram represents the wind of the eight trigrams, but also because the qi of heaven and earth he primarily cultivates is wind!"

At that very instant, Wang Ping did not hesitate in the slightest. He split off a strand of his mind to sink into the Taiping Sutra, immediately activating the Invoking Deities scripture scroll. Within it, a portrait was ablaze—it was Mingyou, taken from the previous half of the Celestial Immortals' Secretly Bestowed Ageless Longevity Scripture.

"Master, possess me!"

As Spirit-Invoked Mingyou possessed him once more, that all-encompassing sense of heaven-reaching dao attainment and omnipotence resurfaced in Wang Ping's heart, his eyes shining as bright as torches.

In a cultivator's battle, intelligence was forever paramount.

Because there were no unbreakable divine powers in the world, and the Three Talents, Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements all adhered to principles of mutual generation and restraint, cultivators dreaded nothing more than having their foundational details exposed.

After all, the more details that were exposed, the easier it was to be targeted and for an enemy to find methods of restraint. Whether one could see through an opponent's details and find a method of restraint depended on the depth of the cultivator's own dao attainment. And up to now, the authority of Spirit-Invoked Mingyou in this domain was beyond doubt.

"Three paths."

In a flash, with the aid of Spirit-Invoked Mingyou, Wang Ping had already pierced through surface appearances to clearly see the mysterious foundations of both the Daoist Master's phantom and the Heaven-Stealing Thief.

"The Daoist Master's phantom masters three paths."

Heavenly Yin Wood was merely one of them; the other two were human-yang wood and Earth Yang Wood, respectively. The Three Talents of heaven, earth, and humanity were arranged in sequence, and it seemed he had even reversed their yin and yang.

The original arrangement of the Xun Trigram should place heaven and humanity as yang, with earth as yin. Yet what the Daoist Master's phantom displayed was earth and humanity as yang, with heaven as yin. The yin-yang attributes of heaven and earth were exactly opposite. During his cultivation of truth, he must have used the yin and yang of his human body to reverse them, thereby successfully cultivating the trigram.

"As for the Heaven-Stealing Thief..."

Wang Ping's gaze shifted, his sight falling upon the seething brilliance surging around the Heaven-Stealing Thief. The Usurper Immortal was precisely the foundation of his mysteries.

This supreme cultivation method that integrated destiny form, achievement, and dao attainment possessed three distinct mysteries, each intimately tied to its name.

Take just now, for instance.

The Heaven-Stealing Thief had initially been inferior to the Daoist Master's phantom, yet he had conjured gales from the eight directions out of thin air that were not a whit inferior in might and mystery to the phantom's.

"This is usurpation."

Spirit-Invoked Mingyou continually unraveled the mysteries for Wang Ping:

"Usurpation means subordinates offending superiors, reversing order and status. When battling a stronger opponent, it allows him to perfectly replicate the stronger opponent's mysteries and mutually neutralize them."

This was the source of the Heaven-Stealing Thief's confidence in directly clashing with the Daoist Master's phantom, and also the key reason he had lasted until now without being instantly obliterated in a single move.

Apart from this, there were two more.

As this thought crossed Wang Ping's mind, the Heaven-Stealing Thief, who was spearheading the combat, altered the radiance around his body, shifting from bright to deep black before surging outward with a boom: "The achievement of the Great Rebellion lies in chaos and thievery!"

Chaos!

The second character of Usurper Immortal.

"Chaos means throwing the weak and inadequate into confusion while eliminating the doomed to preserve the surviving. It enables him to shake the opponent's mysterious imagery out of thin air while maintaining his own steadfast center, creating a critical combat opportunity!"

Sure enough, the Daoist Master's phantom was struck by this deep black magic light. The howling gales of the eight directions and the three flows of heaven and earth qi imagery condensed around his body simultaneously grew chaotic, dragging down the Song of Great Wind—which likewise gathered destiny form, achievement, and dao attainment into one—and causing it to sway.

"Compared to the Usurper Immortal, this Song of Great Wind is far more ordinary."

Of course, ordinariness was merely relative.

Compared to the three-character mystery of the Usurper Immortal, the Song of Great Wind was purer and simpler, serving precisely as an auxiliary augmentation to push a cultivator's might to the limit.

The distinction between them should lie in achievement.

Clearly, compared to the Heaven-Stealing Thief, the Daoist Master's phantom possessed an achievement that was a notch weaker, resulting in his Song of Great Wind being slightly inferior in mystery.

The reason he could suppress the Heaven-Stealing Thief was entirely because the True Person's dao attainment was too high; he remained entirely at ease while overcoming strength with weakness. Even though his foundation was shaken by the chaos at this moment, he adjusted swiftly, merely swaying slightly before stabilizing, forced to reveal only a fleeting lapse in defense.

Yet for the Heaven-Stealing Thief, this was enough.

In a flash, the figure of the Heaven-Stealing Thief towered to the extreme, stamping down hard with his feet to manifest a lofty mountain soaring straight into the clouds.

"The Great Rebellion's achievement lies in immortals and gods!"

A person standing upon a mountain—that is an immortal!

At this moment, the Heaven-Stealing Thief in Wang Ping's eyes seemed to grow ethereal and distant, as if standing in a higher dimension transcending the mortal world.

"That mountain... is a Spiritual Treasure!"

Crown-Stroking Mountain!

Standing atop the mountain, the Heaven-Stealing Thief became nearly a black speck, ethereal and untraceable. Yet when he climbed to the limit, he transformed once more.

He stepped down.

The Heaven-Stealing Thief slowly descended from the summit of the mountain. With every step downward, an overwhelming, irresistible mystery augmented his body.

Time seemed to freeze. He fell from the summit in a few steps, arriving before the Daoist Master's phantom. He raised a single finger and pointed it lightly toward the center of the phantom's brow, carrying a mighty force from a higher dimension intended to shatter the Daoist Master's phantom body directly!

This was a fatal killing technique.

Wang Ping's pupils constricted as he watched:

"Immortal... this is by no means just his cultivation, but also the final character of the Immortal Gate's Nine-Word Mantra: Tribulation Transcending, Refining, Cultivating Truth to Ascend to Immortality."

With layers upon layers piled together, Wang Ping did not doubt for a moment that the might of this strike had already touched the realm of a Corpse Dissolution Immortal, sufficient to rival Dashun Taizu back in the day!

Yet right at that moment—

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Muffled drumming sounds, akin to a heartbeat, echoed from within the Daoist Master's phantom, stirring and fervent. Every beat whipped up fierce gales that swept outward.

In an instant, the Daoist Master's phantom disintegrated, leaving behind only a massive drum in its place. The gales from the eight directions transformed into eight drumsticks, striking back and forth in succession. The mysterious winds thus produced stripped away, layer by layer, the mighty force originating from the higher dimension upon the Heaven-Stealing Thief's body, and even pressed back against him.

"It is likewise a Spiritual Treasure!"

The Daoist Master's phantom laughed clearly and resonantly: "Before reaching the refinement realm, Spiritual Treasures should be refined rather than numerous. A single suitable one is enough; any more would merely waste one's energy."

"The Drum of Purging Vice and Quelling Turmoil..."

Failing in his strike, the Heaven-Stealing Thief retreated in disarray, a strange look welling up in the depths of his eyes. "If I remember correctly, this Spiritual Treasure should belong to the Protector Courtyard."

"Are you a True Person of the Protector Courtyard?"

The Daoist Master's phantom offered neither affirmation nor denial.

Simultaneously, Wang Ping was moving silently, the Profound Nether Pearl circulating while his dharma power remained in a state of Latent Concealment, hiding his entire aura into nothingness.

Within his heart, he was filled with sudden comprehension.

The Heaven-Stealing Thief had perceived the Immortal Gate faction to which this mysterious Wood Qi Daoist Master belonged, whereas Wang Ping had relied on Spirit-Invoked Mingyou to perceive the other party's cultivation foundation: "From beginning to end, there are no divine powers."

"Dharma power, destiny form, achievement, Spiritual Treasures... His primary methods point directly to the true phase of the qi of heaven and earth. What he cultivates is not the method of refinement, but rather the consumption of fa."

This is a True Person who consumes fa!