Alright, at this point things could pretty much be classified.
When that monster disguised as a purple-gold treasure chest finally lost all signs of life, Gu Chengming sheathed his sword.
Looking at the line of system text at the bottom of his vision—[As a Theft Cultivator, sometimes you simply have to learn to refuse temptation]—the reverence he'd originally held for this so-called "ancient master's inheritance" evaporated in an instant.
In its place came a sense of familiarity that felt like it had been carved into his DNA across two lifetimes.
This routine—placing something nice in a conspicuous spot to lure you over, then delivering a fatal blow the moment you reach out...
Did this Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign do some advanced study at a certain theological seminary?
Gu Chengming's mind had already begun subconsciously inventing stories about what the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's walk to school as a child must have been like.
"Young Master Gu..."
A voice from his side interrupted his thoughts.
Nuo Tao was crouched beside that puddle of rotten flesh, gingerly poking at the corpse with a twig she'd picked up from who-knew-where.
"How did you figure out something was wrong with this thing?"
Nuo Tao lifted her head, her tone somewhat puzzled: "I just swept it over and over with my divine sense several times. Before it suddenly lashed out, its spiritual energy fluctuations and its material texture were exactly the same as a genuine treasure chest—there wasn't a single trace of any living thing."
For a Theft Cultivator, an eye for detail is the very foundation of survival. If she had to point to anything, maybe only the chest's size and form had been a bit out of place.
But judging from Gu Chengming's reaction, it was as if he'd known from the very start that something was off about this chest.
[Hundred Bones Resonance harrumphed: A true powerhouse is one who, the moment he walks into a room, gives everything that looks like it can move—and everything that can't—a good beating. That's emperor-tier prudence. Truly worthy of Heavenly Emperor Gu.]
[Hundred Bones Resonance favorability +5]
Gu Chengming didn't bother explaining much, thinking that once you'd experienced enough of these things, you'd naturally understand.
He certainly couldn't say that in his past life, although he wasn't the kind of hardcore player who loved suffering, he had been a MOD creator who was passionate about turning hardcore masochistic games into Galges, could he?
—Who could understand the sacred feeling of seeing all those hideous monsters lurking in dark corners waiting to ambush you get replaced, one by one, with beautiful girls who spouted vicious lines but whose favorability would rise as long as you gave them the right gifts.
Reining in his thoughts, Gu Chengming stepped over the puddle of rotten flesh, his gaze turning toward the white corridor ahead that seemed utterly unchanged:
"Let's go."
Though doubts still lingered in Nuo Tao's heart, seeing that Gu Chengming had no intention of explaining, she could only suppress her confusion and quicken her pace to follow.
Facts proved that Gu Chengming's predictions hadn't been wrong.
Beyond the corridor was an extremely narrow single-log bridge, and below the bridge yawned a bottomless white void.
"There's a flight-sealing spell formation here."
Nuo Tao frowned and drew a copper coin from her sleeve, tossing it out. The coin traced a parabola through the air, but the instant it reached a point three inches above the bridge's surface, it suddenly seemed to slam into an invisible wall and was instantly flung away.
She drew a deep breath, spiritual power circulating throughout her body, and her figure abruptly grew blurry.
That was the Myriad-Theft Gate's exclusive movement art, "Dust Merging," designed to assimilate one's own aura with the surrounding environment in order to evade the rules' rejection.
Yet just as she prepared to step onto the single-log bridge, Gu Chengming yanked her back.
"What's wrong?" Nuo Tao turned her head.
Gu Chengming said nothing, only pointing at a perfectly ordinary-looking recess in the wall on the far side of the bridge.
"That's...?"
No answer. Gu Chengming casually picked up a shard of stone, gathered his strength, and hurled it at that hidden compartment. "Clang—!"
A crisp clash of metal rang out.
The stone shard seemed to strike some sort of mechanism.
Immediately after came a teeth-grating sound of gears turning, and from within that hidden compartment three crossbow bolts suddenly shot out, whistling through the air as they instantly pierced through the middle section of the single-log bridge.
Nuo Tao instinctively shrank her neck, feeling a chill run down her back.
"A place like this, with a narrow field of view and restricted movement—it's practically telling you there's a trap here."
As Gu Chengming said this, he thought to himself: how come there's only one trap? I figured they'd stick another three skeleton archers on the other side of the bridge.
Nuo Tao opened her mouth, but in the end could only squeeze out: "...I've learned a valuable lesson."
The two continued onward.
Before long they arrived at a large hall that looked like a rest area.
A bonfire burned in the center of the hall, and beside it, someone had even thoughtfully arranged several cushions and a pot of fragrant spiritual tea.
Nuo Tao's tense shoulders relaxed a little, thinking that this old ancestor still had a bit of humanity after all, knowing to give people a place to catch their breath.
She was just about to walk over and sit down when she saw that the long sword in Gu Chengming's hand had already left its sheath.
"Zheng—"
Sword energy arced like a rainbow, slicing a corner clean off the stone table that held the spiritual tea.
"What are you doing?!" Nuo Tao cried out in shock.
But in the next moment, that warm bonfire suddenly burst apart and transformed into a hideous human face, and that pot of spiritual tea turned into a gush of foul-smelling venom that sprayed directly onto the very spot where Nuo Tao had just wanted to sit.
Damn it, I knew there'd be a fake-bonfire segment.
For the next several hours, the two of them passed through this constant probing and testing.
Gu Chengming handled the maliciously designed elements—things like blind spots around corners and trap triggers disguised as signposts—while Nuo Tao dealt with the Theft Cultivator puzzles.
Their teamwork was unexpectedly seamless.
"That's the tenth trial now..."
When the two of them together took down a guardian disguised as a giant stone statue—one that only moved when your back was turned to it—Nuo Tao finally couldn't hold back.
She plopped down onto the ground, abandoning all sense of dignity, and looked around at the empty hall in a mild frenzy:
"Young Master Gu, don't you think this place is a little too stingy?"
"We've cleared ten trials now—ten! Even if we were raiding the ruins left behind by some second-rate sect, by this point we should've gotten our hands on at least a few decent magic artifacts or a couple bottles of pills, right?"
"How is there not a single reward so far?"
It wasn't that she particularly craved rewards—it was just that a Myriad-Theft Gate thief never leaves empty-handed. This was a matter of principle.
"Shouldn't you be asking your own people that?"
Gu Chengming looked at Hundred Bones Resonance in the dialogue box, sharing in the indignation, and felt a mix of helplessness and amusement.
He'd originally wanted to use this secret realm as an opportunity to win Old Hundred over, but instead of winning Old Hundred over, the Red Dust Phantom Body Formula's favorability had been steadily climbing—it had already risen a full twenty-five points by now.
[The Red Dust Phantom Body Formula is quite satisfied. Watching you proceed so cautiously the whole way is simply a pleasure.]
[Current favorability: 45/Friendly]
After a brief rest, the two once again stepped toward that gate of light.
Once they crossed the gate of light, the monotonous white around them suddenly receded, and the ground beneath their feet was no longer that floaty condensation of spiritual energy.
Before them appeared an enormous circular altar, with twelve towering stone pillars standing around it that reached into the clouds. At the very center of the altar were only two streams of energy—one black, one white—chasing each other.
The very instant the two of them stepped onto the altar, the Azure Luan Token in Gu Chengming's storage pouch and the Fire Phoenix Token in Nuo Tao's hand simultaneously let out a hum.
Without either of them needing to channel any energy, the two tokens flew out of their own accord and hovered in midair. Blue light and red light converged in the air, swiftly sketching out the silhouette of a human figure.
His stature wasn't tall—if anything, he looked somewhat hunched—dressed in a gray Daoist robe washed pale with age, a wooden hairpin stuck carelessly in his hair. He looked like some down-and-out old Daoist telling fortunes at a mortal street stall.
But it was precisely this seemingly unremarkable phantom whose appearance caused all the rules, all the flow of spiritual energy, to freeze in that instant.
It was none other than the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign.
The one and only cultivator in all the Nine Provinces to attain Great Freedom through "stealing."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's phantom slowly opened its eyes. Its gaze first circled once over Nuo Tao, as if confirming the aptitude of his own disciple, and then it fell upon Gu Chengming.
Damn, the old geezer's actually not dead!
Nuo Tao hadn't quite expected this, and then she realized that the one before her was a Great Cultivator—her thoughts might very well be perceived—so she hastily rephrased in her mind to: the ancestor still hasn't ascended.
And the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign seemed to see through Nuo Tao's little scheme at a glance.
"Don't be so stiff. What I am now is nothing more than a wisp of lingering will. Relying on this secret realm I left behind, along with the special nature of the Lián Tiān Zhī Dharma-Station, I'm barely able to eke out an existence, occasionally coming out for a breath of air to laugh at the antics of the younger generation."
As he said this, his gaze crossed over Nuo Tao and landed directly on Gu Chengming.
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign clasped his hands behind his back, circled Gu Chengming twice, and clicked his tongue:
"Wenjian Sect's sword intent, Harmonious Joy Sect's karma-disrupting techniques..."
Then, as if he'd discovered something, he looked mildly astonished: "And also the Great Qian's dragon aura and a Confucian heart-scripture? You carry quite a lot of fortune upon you."
Hearing him lay out the origins of every technique on his body one by one, Gu Chengming couldn't help feeling a bit shocked—especially about that dragon-shaped aura seed, which he had almost never displayed to the outside world.
But considering that the one before him was a great cultivator above the sixth realm, the very founding ancestor of Theft Cultivators, it wasn't strange at all that he could see through these things at a glance.
Gu Chengming cupped his hands and gave a bow.
"Senior's Piercing Insight is like a torch."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign waved a hand, the smile on his face growing thicker:
"No need to be so respectful. Since you've come, it means there's a bond of fate. The good fortune of my Myriad-Theft Gate has never cared about spiritual roots or aptitude—only the strength of one's karma. The heavier the karma and the deeper the entanglement, the more qualified one is to bear the weight of that single word, 'Theft.'"
At this point, the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign seemed to grow quite talkative, and he actually sat down cross-legged in midair, pulling Gu Chengming into casual conversation:
"Your Red Dust Art is a bit crude, but the idea is right—Reverse the Effect to the Cause, using the will of all living beings to coerce Heaven's intent. But you're still too cautious. Since you've already borrowed karma, why not be a little bolder? If you could wind that karmic thread around one more loop, you wouldn't even need to use a sword..."
The more Gu Chengming listened, the more inwardly startled he became. This Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's understanding of the Dao of karma benefited him greatly with just a few scattered words.
Meanwhile, Nuo Tao, standing off to the side, was quite naturally left out in the cold.
After chatting for a full quarter of an hour, the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign smacked his lips, still not satisfied, and only then finally remembered there was another person standing beside them.
Nuo Tao hurriedly assumed the well-behaved posture of a "disciple ready to receive instruction at any moment."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign said with a smile: "Mm, you're not bad either."
And then there was nothing more.
Nuo Tao: "?"
The difference in attitude was way too drastic—just who exactly is the true heir of the Myriad-Theft Gate here?!
As if sensing the little girl's state of mind, the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign gave a cough and finally began to get to the point.
"Enough idle chatter. Since the two of you were able to make it this far, it proves you're both qualified to undergo this final trial..."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign gave a sweep of his broad sleeve, and the surrounding space suddenly rippled in waves.
Then the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign began to explain the contents of the final trial.
This trial was practically identical for every generation of Myriad-Theft Gate Wayfarers, and its content amounted to stealing a certain treasure at the end of a map filled with layer upon layer of hardships and dangers.
The only difference was that this map was usually left behind and painstakingly crafted by the previous generation's Myriad-Theft Gate Wayfarer.
Hearing this, Nuo Tao grew a little nervous.
So that was it. No wonder Master had said that every generation's trial—even every secret realm—would change because of the previous Wayfarer's entry.
So the final trial was often the test that one's own master had left for them?
Of course, simply passing this trial wasn't really the point. Its core lay in "creating" the next trial.
Because the trial one created needed to be recognized and approved by the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign.
But the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's next words caught the two of them off guard: "However, simply copying the old playbook would be far too dull."
He reached out a hand and lightly swiped through the empty air.
Just like wiping chalk words off a blackboard, the complex map of light and shadow that had originally emerged at the center of the altar—the one left behind by "Nameless Daoist"—instantly scattered without a trace.
"This trial is too mediocre."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign offhandedly critiqued his own disciple's disciple's work, then looked at the two of them with a beaming smile: "Given how special you two are, I've decided to tweak the rules a little on the spot."
"The trial to come will no longer be about breaking through the gauntlet of a predecessor. Instead, you'll serve as each other's examiners and each other's challengers."
"I'll temporarily divide the core authority over this secret realm between you—half each."
"The two of you will be transported into two separate spaces. There, you can mobilize everything in the secret realm—the traps, the demon beasts, the illusion formations, the seals, even the rules themselves."
"Whoever can clear the map designed by the other in the shortest time, and take away the token the other has hidden in the deepest part of their map, wins this final good fortune."
Hearing these rules, Nuo Tao was first stunned, and then her eyes suddenly lit up.
If it came to fighting, she was definitely no match for Gu Chengming.
But if it came to a contest of "screwing people over," that was her specialty!
This was exactly what she'd learned from her master ever since she was little!
Nuo Tao pumped her little fist, looking at Gu Chengming with soaring fighting spirit: "Young Master Gu, this time this lady really won't be going easy on you!"
Gu Chengming, on the other hand, was slightly startled, thinking inwardly: So this is where it was waiting for me.
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign let out a great laugh and swept his broad sleeve.
Two pillars of light instantly enveloped Gu Chengming and Nuo Tao, and in the next moment, both of their figures vanished from atop the altar at once.
After a brief wave of dizziness.
Gu Chengming found that he had arrived in a pure white space.
And directly ahead in his field of vision floated an enormous, semi-transparent light-screen interface.
Neatly arranged across that interface were all sorts of icons.
The left column was [Terrain Type]: abyss, magma, poison bog, maze walls, hidden blocks...
The right column was [Trap Type]: crossbow bolts, rolling boulders, teleportation arrays, gravity reversal, spiritual-power negation zones...
The bottom column was [Monster Type], along with all kinds of elemental reactions...
And at the very top of the interface were several conspicuous operation buttons: [Place], [Undo], [Test], [Save]...
Gu Chengming reached out and experimentally tapped the [Hidden Block] icon, then dragged it across the empty air.
"Click."
A block flickering with a semi-transparent luster, tagged with "Contains Deadly Poison Mushroom," hovered steadily in midair.
Looking at the all-too-familiar interface before him, Gu Chengming couldn't help but grumble inwardly.
—Damn, there's even a level editor?
Two hours later.
Within that pure white space, Nuo Tao let out a long breath and raised a hand to wipe away sweat that wasn't actually there from her forehead.
Looking at the enormous floating maze before her, the corners of her mouth curled up involuntarily.
This was her proudest work.
Combining the Sumeru Folding Technique from the Myriad-Theft Gate's inheritance, she'd used visual displacement to construct seventy-two instant-death traps, and buried chain-triggering illusion formations at the nodes of the spiritual energy flow. It could absolutely be called "one wrong step, and it's eternal damnation."
Even the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign couldn't help but stroke his beard and nod at this moment, a hint of approval showing in his eyes.
"Not bad—meticulous thought, ingenious layout. Especially that design where the gate of life is actually a dead end—far better than your master."
Having received the ancestor's affirmation, Nuo Tao's confidence redoubled.
She turned her head to look at Gu Chengming, who had likewise finished creating his map not far away, her eyes full of provocation:
"Young Master Gu, my map won't be easy. It's still not too late for you to beg for mercy."
Gu Chengming only smiled, and stepped straight into that maze.
The trial began.
Nuo Tao folded her arms, standing before the light-screen from a god's-eye view, watching in eager anticipation as Gu Chengming's figure appeared at the maze entrance.
"The first trial is an illusion realm combined with gravity reversal."
Nuo Tao silently narrated in her heart: "The moment he steps onto that bluestone, gravity will instantly shift direction. And if he tries to break through with sword energy, the recoil will trigger the poison arrows on both sides..."
However, the Gu Chengming on screen didn't probe carefully the way she'd imagined.
He merely stood at the entrance, simply rotated his wrist a bit, and while circulating Hundred Bones Resonance, ten flying swords surrounded his body and instantly formed the "Ten Perfections Sword Formation." This sword formation didn't spread outward—instead it operated pressed tightly against his body.
And so, cloaked in the sword formation, Gu Chengming strode forward.
"Boom—!"
The first bluestone rigged with a gravity trap had barely lit up with spiritual light before it, along with the foundation beneath it, was ground into powder by that violent sword energy.
Poison arrows shot out and were shredded by the sword energy, surging quicksand was blasted apart by a single punch, and the illusion realm didn't manage to do a single thing.
—The illusion realm? Where's my illusion realm?! Do something, please!
She watched wide-eyed as Gu Chengming didn't walk her preset route at all—when he hit a wall he smashed through the wall, when he hit an abyss he crossed it forcibly by treading on his flying swords—and the elaborate interlocking chain-locks she'd painstakingly designed were blasted to bits with a single punch.
Within the light-screen, dust and smoke billowed.
Everywhere Gu Chengming passed, forget the traps—even the terrain itself was permanently altered by him.
That maze, once so intricately arranged, was forcibly plowed by him into a single straight, broad avenue.
"Isn't that against the rules?!" Nuo Tao pointed at the light-screen, her voice trembling: "You can clear it like that?!"
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign watched with great relish beside her, and even offered a comment:
"As they say, one exertion of strength overcomes ten skills. Technique does indeed need sufficient power to back it up. Little girl, your design is very ingenious, but it seems to be of no use whatsoever."
In barely the time it takes for half a stick of incense to burn.
Gu Chengming was already standing at the maze's finish line, holding the jade slip that served as the token, utterly unharmed.
And Nuo Tao, looking at that maze reduced to utter shambles, fell into deep self-doubt.
Is this even human?
Gu Chengming handed the jade slip to the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign, then looked at the dumbstruck Nuo Tao and said gently:
"Miss Nuo's design was indeed clever. If not for my decent physique, I'm afraid it would've given me quite some trouble."
—Quite some trouble? Ha, the trouble does seem to have been troubled right out of existence by you.
Nuo Tao took a deep breath and patted her cheeks, forcing herself to buck up.
It's fine. He may be a monster when it comes to combat power, but when it comes to "screwing people over," I'm the professional!
A Myriad-Theft Gate Wayfarer absolutely never admits defeat!
She turned to look at the entrance of the trial Gu Chengming had designed.
It looked extremely crude, with no complicated formation patterns—just a path composed of square tiles floating in the void, and at its end, a castle that looked very far away.
"That's it?"
A surge of confidence immediately welled up in Nuo Tao's heart.
A straightforward, no-frills stage like this—with her movement skills, wouldn't it be like walking on flat ground?
She gave a light snort, her figure flashing as she transformed into a streak of light and charged into the trial space.
[Current attempt count: 1st]
Nuo Tao stood at the starting point, looking at the several floating blocks ahead marked with question marks.
"This should be some kind of reward mechanism, right?" A thought stirred in her heart, and she leapt up lightly, reaching out to hit that question-mark block to see whether a pill or a talisman was hidden inside.
But right along the arc of her jump.
"Bonk!"
A muffled thud.
Nuo Tao's head slammed solidly into a block that had originally been invisible—an "invisible block."
This invisible block had been placed in an extremely devious position—right on the unavoidable path of her jump as she reached for that question-mark block.
This collision directly interrupted her upward momentum, throwing her entire body off balance. And to make matters worse, that invisible block seemed to have triggered something.
The solid ground below suddenly vanished, replaced by a deep pit bristling with spikes.
"Waaahhh—!"
Nuo Tao plummeted, screaming.
Squelch.
Her vision plunged into darkness, followed by a line of big blood-red characters: [Trash].
[Current attempt count: 2nd]
A flash of white light, and Nuo Tao returned to the starting point.
She rubbed the top of her head—which held no real pain but a severe phantom ache—and gnashed her teeth as she glared at the spot where that invisible block was.
"So insidious—setting an ambush right at the jump-off point!"
This time she'd wised up. She carefully skirted around that invisible block and continued forward.
Ahead appeared a giant green pipe lying across the path.
Nuo Tao swept it with her divine sense, confirmed there were no spiritual energy fluctuations, and prepared to climb over it.
The very instant her palm touched the edge of the pipe.
A piranha covered in sharp teeth suddenly shot out from within the pipe and chomped down on her head in one bite.
[Trash]
...
[Current attempt count: 12th]
Nuo Tao's eyes had already grown somewhat numb.
She skillfully dodged the boulder whose trigger condition was, unbelievably, her coming to a stop—it would drop from the sky; she dodged the ground spikes whose trigger was walking too fast—they'd suddenly thrust up; and she skirted around that flag that looked like a save point but actually teleported people into the magma.
She arrived at a seemingly flat, broad avenue.
A few clouds drifted across the sky, looking utterly harmless.
Suddenly, those few clouds revealed sneering faces and began flinging down those spiky iron turtles.
Nuo Tao scrambled about clutching her head. Having barely dodged the cloud-monsters' bombardment, an item appeared ahead—it looked like an invincibility star.
She instinctively wanted to grab it.
But remembering her earlier lessons, she forced herself to hold back and chose to go around it.
However, three steps after she'd gone around that star.
The entire path collapsed.
The only path to survival, it turned out, was the brief flight ability gained after eating that star.
Looking at her vision going black once again, Nuo Tao had but a single thought: Gu Chengming, your mother!
Outside the light-screen.
Gu Chengming watched Nuo Tao die and revive who-knew-how-many times in there, his expression somewhat awkward.
—Is it too hard?
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign, on the other hand, watched with great interest.
A so-called trial contains no truly inescapable death-scenarios... This too is what Theft Cultivators call a "path of life," and the basic skill of a Theft Cultivator is to find that single path of life out of countless dead ends. This was also the reason he'd set this final gauntlet.
What it verified was precisely a Theft Cultivator's ability to find the path of life.
As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy—only by understanding how dead ends are designed can one better find the path of life.
So in the present situation, was it that Gu Chengming's ability to design dead ends was too outstanding, or that Nuo Tao's ability to find the path of life was too weak?
In any case, this design really had opened the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's eyes.
Not bad, not bad. Such fine talent—she truly ought to form a bond with my Myriad-Theft Gate.
Finally.
After experiencing her thirty-seventh death.
Nuo Tao, relying on the muscle memory that had been beaten into her, along with an intuition called "as long as I predict your prediction of my prediction, I can survive," finally made it through that corridor full of malice.
Her clothes were in disarray, and although her body was a spiritual projection and couldn't actually be injured, her bedraggled appearance made her look like a beggar who'd just fled a refugee camp.
Ahead was a high platform, and atop the platform quietly floated a treasure pearl radiating a gentle glow.
That pearl was crystalline and translucent, flowing with a seven-colored halo—it was the token for clearing the stage.
"Finally! It's over...!"
Looking at that pearl, Nuo Tao's eyes instantly welled up. Never before had she felt that a mere bead could be so dear.
Dragging her heavy steps, she climbed the platform one step at a time.
The whole while she kept her nerves taut, terrified that the steps would suddenly turn into a slide, or that a giant iron ball would drop from the sky.
But nothing happened. The surroundings were so quiet there was only the sound of her breathing—no traps triggered, no monsters leaping out.
Nuo Tao let out a long breath: "Looks like Young Master Gu still has a bit of a conscience after all. This last part is finally normal."
"Got it!"
In the very instant her fingertip touched the surface of the pearl.
"Crack—"
That originally beautiful, holy pearl—its surface halo abruptly tore open, revealing a bloody maw lined with backward-facing barbs.
That wasn't a pearl at all—it was a mimicry demon beast curled into a ball!
That bloody maw, with a speed too swift to cover one's ears, chomp, bit down on her neck in one gulp.
[Trash]
And on the other side, Gu Chengming, watching Nuo Tao fail over and over, couldn't help but wear an awkward expression.
Wasn't the Immortal Sovereign's second trial earlier a chest mimic too? How is there still a fall-for-it-once, fall-for-it-again, fall-for-it-a-third-time segment—
Little Tao, you really are a veteran fall-guy.
Well, thanks to so many mistakes, Nuo Tao had pretty much managed to memorize the traps.
Finally, after killing the chest mimic, picking up the item it dropped, and truly clearing the trial.
Nuo Tao looked somewhat dead inside.
"The result is decided."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's voice carried a hint of emotion: "There's no doubt—your performance as a Myriad-Theft Gate Wayfarer was quite up to standard."
Hearing the ancestor's praise, Nuo Tao's originally dead-inside expression showed a trace of surprise:
"Ah, really?"
"If Gu Chengming weren't here, that is."
Nuo Tao: "..."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign swept his broad sleeve: "Since victory and defeat are decided, then let the good fortune be bestowed."
He extended a finger and lightly tapped, and two streaks of light descended from the sky, falling toward each of them respectively.
Nuo Tao looked at the ball of light drifting toward her, somewhat in disbelief: "I get one too?"
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign glanced at her and said with a smile: "Didn't I say it? Your performance as a Myriad-Theft Gate Wayfarer was quite up to standard."
Nuo Tao was overjoyed, her earlier gloom swept away in an instant. But before she could savor this joy in detail—
"Alright, now that you've got your thing, hurry up and go." The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign waved his sleeve without the slightest courtesy.
"Huh? Ancestor, wait a moment, I still..." Before Nuo Tao could finish speaking, a pitch-black hole suddenly appeared beneath her feet.
"Whoosh—"
The girl's figure instantly vanished, even her cry of alarm cut off in the void.
The entire space instantly grew quiet.
"Alright, no outsiders now." The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign turned toward Gu Chengming and asked: "So, my young friend Gu, won't you really give it some thought?"
"If you were to become the Wayfarer of my Myriad-Theft Gate, in all the vast Nine Provinces, where couldn't you go?"
Gu Chengming was puzzled: "Then what about Nuo Tao?"
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign pondered for a moment: "She can be your lackey."
Gu Chengming thought that seemed no different from the present—she was already his lackey right now.
Seeing that Gu Chengming really had no such inclination, the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign could only sigh.
"Forget it. Since you've won the final trial, by the rules this old man should bestow upon you a share of good fortune."
"Do you know what 'good fortune' is?" Gu Chengming's expression turned grave, and he too set aside his joking mood, sitting up straight: "I'd like to hear the details."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign raised his hand, his fingertip lightly sweeping through the void, and a visible crack appeared in its wake—yet it did not heal, instead congealing there like a scar.
"For low-realm cultivators, spirit stones, techniques, pills—all can be called good fortune. But once you're above the fifth realm, and even reach that legendary sixth realm..."
His voice turned low and far-reaching: "The so-called good fortune is the rules bestowed by a Dharma-Station."
"In a cultivator's practice, going along with Heaven accumulates foundation, and going against Heaven breaks through fetters. And the moment you attain a Dharma-Station, you become the very incarnation of some rule of this world."
Gu Chengming thought to himself: Sure enough, above the sixth realm you start playing with mechanics.
"Of course, Dharma-Stations also have their ranks... The [Lián Tiān Zhī] Dharma-Station that this old man borrowed from the Heavenly Dao back in the day ranks, even among the many Dharma-Stations, within the order of the Heaven-tier Dharma-Stations."
"Though I'm not clear on exactly what number it ranks, it can at least be counted among the top ones."
"However..." The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's tone shifted: "What this old man intends to give you today is not the good fortune within this [Lián Tiān Zhī]."
Gu Chengming was taken aback: "Not the Myriad-Theft Gate's inheritance?"
"If it were anyone else, this old man would give it and be done with it. But you're different."
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign shook his head. "The karma upon you is too tangled and your fortune too abundant. The [Lián Tiān Zhī], good as it is, may not suit you. And besides..."
"This old man spent his whole life stealing paths of life, stealing karma, stealing Heaven's secrets. But in the very beginning, what this old man actually wanted to borrow wasn't this [Lián Tiān Zhī]—it was another Dharma-Station."
"That Dharma-Station was too high, too heavy. Back then this old man exhausted his heart's blood and nearly perished, body and Dao both destroyed, and yet only in the single instant that Dharma-Station took shape did I manage to 'steal' out a wisp of residue from within it."
"Even a mere wisp of residue was enough to benefit this old man endlessly—one could even say it was precisely this wisp of residue that made the later Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign."
Gu Chengming's heartbeat couldn't help but quicken a few beats.
He looks down even on a Heaven-tier Dharma-Station? Just what level of existence would that have to be?
"May I ask, Senior, what is the name of that Dharma-Station?"
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign slowly spat out a single word: "Dao."
I'm done for. Why has a late-game quest suddenly triggered?
"Senior..."
Gu Chengming's throat felt a little dry, and he grew instinctively wary: "You're giving me this thing—what is it you want me to do?"
The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign seemed to have long anticipated his reaction, and waved a hand with a beaming smile:
"Don't panic, don't panic. This old man is now merely a lingering will—what could I possibly scheme from you? It's just that I feel you're more likely to accomplish what I failed to accomplish back then."
"Besides, when the time comes you'll naturally understand. Since this old man has given it, I will absolutely never harm you."
Gu Chengming was silent for a long while, and finally cupped his hands and said: "Many thanks, Senior."
"Good! Splendid!" The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign clapped his hands and laughed heartily.
He said no more, only slowly raising his right hand.
In an instant, the entire pure white space began to violently tremble.
This wasn't a collapse, but an extremely bizarre "backflow."
The white walls around them, the floor beneath their feet, even the geometric shapes floating in the distance—all of them began to disintegrate in this moment.
They turned into countless lines of extreme complexity, into dense and teeming data streams, into some kind of "concept" that transcended vision and acted directly upon cognition.
"Go now." The Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's figure too began to grow transparent, yet the smile on his face grew ever more brilliant: "Let this world behold the scenery of this one corner of the Dao."
Rumble, rumble—
Those countless lines and concepts, like a flock of birds returning to roost, like a galaxy flowing in reverse, madly surged toward Gu Chengming.
Gu Chengming instinctively spread his arms.
There was no excruciating pain as he'd imagined, nor any crisis of his meridians bursting from spiritual power.
He merely felt his perspective raised infinitely in an instant.
He saw the essence of this secret realm, saw the cornerstones that constructed matter, saw the trajectories of spiritual energy's flow, and even saw the threads named "rules" hidden beneath the surface of all appearances.
In the next moment, a line of text appeared before Gu Chengming's eyes.
[Obtained special CG / Love Laboratory]
Damn, what the hell is that supposed to be called?!
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