Make the Immortal Sect Great Again

As the golden halo faded, Wang Ping finally got a look at his surroundings: a storehouse.

The storehouse was dimly lit.

Ten lifelike bronze statues stood across the open floor. Wang Ping stood right in the middle of them, like a husky trying to blend in with a wolf pack.

'This is bad.'

Wang Ping quickly reviewed the memories that came with his transmigration, his heart sinking. His current situation wasn't necessarily any better than it had been in the Great Shun Dynasty.

Strictly speaking, it was even worse.

Within the Immortal Gate, strongmen were not allowed to possess consciousness. They retained only the necessary knowledge and acted entirely according to set commands.

'In other words, strongmen are essentially inanimate objects in human form. The fact that I have an independent personality and the ability to think is a massive problem. If anyone finds out, it'll be an absolute disaster. Until the Outer Heavenly Demon recovers, I can't let my cover slip.'

This was going to be incredibly difficult.

'I have to figure something out.'

Wang Ping gritted his teeth and dug deeper into the memories associated with the strongmen, searching for any useful information.

The Immortal Gate truly lived up to its name.

'There really is something!'

Even the lowest-grade strongmen weren't rigid, lifeless puppets. To his surprise, Wang Ping found a complete spell hidden within their memories!

The spell was called Qi Restriction.

By circulating this method through the body, one could refine a peculiar energy called True Qi. It had the power to stop bleeding, regenerate flesh, mend broken bones and tendons, and render the body invulnerable to ordinary blades and spears.

At the thought of it, Wang Ping felt an irresistible itch to try.

If circumstances hadn't forced him to keep a low profile, he would have practiced Qi Restriction right then and there just to experience the thrill of casting a spell.

After all, practicing a spell required actual combat application; running mental simulations was useless.

But Wang Ping wasn't in a hurry.

'It doesn't matter. I'm a cultivation tool now, and it seems I've already been purchased. I definitely won't lack opportunities to practice my spells later.'

Comforted by that thought, Wang Ping waited patiently.

He lost track of time. A sudden, loud crash from outside the storehouse finally snapped him out of his deep study of Qi Restriction.

"Clang!"

The heavy doors were thrown open.

Piercing light immediately flooded Wang Ping's vision. When his eyes adjusted, he saw the scenery outside the storehouse: a naturally rustic Daoist temple.

The temple seemed to be nestled deep within an ancient, secluded forest. A brilliant morning sun hung overhead, shining down on an emerald wilderness. The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers and the singing of birds. Auspicious clouds drifted lazily, and streamers of light danced across the ground. Inside the temple courtyard, right at the entrance to the storehouse, Wang Ping saw three figures standing face-to-face—one on the left, two on the right.

"Senior Sister You, here are the ten strongmen you requested."

The two on the right were men. One was short and stout with a round face, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth when he smiled. The other was tall and thin, with a distinctively horse-like face.

But it was the third person standing opposite them who drew the eye.

She was a Daoist nun dressed in a blue-and-white robe. Her hair cascaded down to her waist. She carried such an ethereal air that she looked like a fairy ready to ride away on the wind beneath a moonlit sky.

"Many thanks, Junior Brothers," she said.

As her red lips parted, her clear, melodious voice washed away some of her otherworldly aura, adding a touch of mortal worldliness to her presence.

Wang Ping didn't consider himself a lecherous man, but the moment he laid eyes on this Daoist nun, a sudden, inexplicable surge of lust rose in his heart. Almost instinctively, his mind began conjuring savage fantasies of dragging her down from the clouds, pinning her to the ground, and violently tearing away that pure, ethereal grace.

'...Wait, this isn't right!'

Realizing something was wrong, Wang Ping quickly focused his mind on the strongman's memories. The wicked thoughts instantly subsided, fading into nothingness.

Almost at the exact same moment—

"Hm?"

The Daoist nun, who had been chatting with the two delivery disciples, suddenly knit her graceful brows. She turned, her gaze locking onto the storehouse.

Fortunately, there were ten strongmen in the storehouse.

In that moment, Wang Ping could actually feel the weight of the Daoist nun's stare. It felt like soft little hands caressing his body.

It thoroughly stimulated his senses.

Wang Ping could only pour all his focus into reading the contents of the strongman's memories, forcing himself not to think about anything else.

"Senior Sister You?"

Seeing Daoist Nun You staring blankly at the storehouse, the stout Immortal Gate disciple asked curiously, "What's wrong? Are the strongmen in this batch not to your liking?"

"...You misunderstand, Junior Brother."

Daoist Nun You shook her head and said indifferently, "The quality of these strongmen is quite good. They are more than sufficient for practicing the Immortal-Slaying Gourd True Explanation."

Wang Ping's heart skipped a beat when he heard that.

The Immortal-Slaying Gourd True Explanation. His strongman memories also contained information about this cultivation method, as it was one of the primary uses for strongmen in the first place.

'Under the Immortal Gate's rule, there are millions of different spells and methods, but without exception, all of them were derived from the Three Paths, Eight Methods, and Seventy-Two Arts. The Seventy-Two Arts have no restrictions and can be learned by anyone, but only a true transmission disciple has the right to view the Three Paths and Eight Methods.'

'And the Immortal-Slaying Gourd True Explanation is one of the Eight Methods.'

Wang Ping knew all this because this particular cultivation method required a strongman to act as a whetstone, and cultivating it required the strongman's active cooperation.

'It's kind of like dual cultivation.'

Even so, he only knew the parts the tool needed to know.

That included the Qi Restriction spell in his memory. Since a whetstone inevitably suffered wear and tear, this spell allowed the tool to repair itself after being worn down.

'Fuck me, they even make the tools do their own routine maintenance?'

Wang Ping couldn't help but curse in his heart. However, this indignation genuinely distracted him, making him momentarily forget that Daoist Nun You was still scrutinizing them.

As a result, he accidentally played his part perfectly.

Not far away, the two delivery disciples suddenly let out loud wails, their straight backs imperceptibly hunching over.

"Senior Sister... please spare us!"

The stout disciple was the first to beg for mercy. Bowing deeply, he cried, "You have a natural Bliss Immortal Physique, and you passed the Human Tribulation long ago! How could the likes of us withstand this?"

"You misunderstand, Junior Brothers."

Daoist Nun You shook her head. As her red lips parted, her tone grew even gentler. Her originally pure aura steadily decayed, giving way to an intoxicating, corrupting worldly decadence.

"It's just that your Senior Sister has been rather short on funds lately."

"I really couldn't scrape together enough dharma currency to buy the strongmen. I had no choice but to try this, hoping you two might be accommodating and let me pay the fee in a different way..."

As she spoke, the blue-and-white Daoist robe silently slipped from her shoulders.

Beneath the robe was a tight undergarment that barely wrapped around her full figure, exposing swathes of skin as pale as snow.

Her proud bust caught the slipping robe, preventing it from falling entirely to the ground.

Yet her expression remained completely serious, still maintaining the aloof, cold demeanor of an ethereal fairy.

This stark contrast immediately drained the color from the two delivery disciples' faces. The blood in their bodies surged downwards uncontrollably.

The two Immortal Gate disciples furiously cursed in their hearts.

'This damned witch! If we don't submit, she definitely won't stop. But if we really let her taint us, what hope do we have left for our path to immortality?'

But despite their inward cursing, the two hurriedly shouted, "A-a discount!"

"Senior Sister, please withdraw your Divine Powers! Cost price! Just ten dharma currency! We'll cover the rest out of our own pockets! This whole batch of strongmen is yours!"

The two men shouted with expressions as if they were avoiding venomous snakes, yet their bodies betrayed them, taking uncontrollable steps closer to the nun.

Daoist Nun You, on the other hand, looked relieved.

'Circulating my magic power with my cultivation at the Tribulation Transcending Stage would normally provoke evil thoughts in anyone, which I would then sense. But I haven't detected a third person.'

'It seems I was overthinking it.'

'Or perhaps it was someone else I met earlier. Someone far away harboring wicked thoughts about me, using a portrait of me, which triggered my senses.'

Wang Ping's caution was completely justified.

In truth, Daoist Nun You really had noticed something amiss earlier. What looked like an attack on the two delivery men was actually a test to gauge the strongmen's reactions.

'Sigh, I'm still just too poor.'

Daoist Nun You shook her head. Even after all her probing, it was hard to completely dispel her suspicions.

The best solution would actually be to simply scrap all the strongmen, tear them out by the roots, and get a new batch. That way, any potential problems would be solved.

But she didn't have the money.

She had practically bankrupted herself to afford this batch of strongmen. Being short on funds wasn't a joke; how could she possibly afford a replacement batch?

At that thought, Daoist Nun You stopped fretting over it. She turned back to the two delivery disciples, reeling in her worldly aura, and chuckled.

"In that case, let's settle the bill."

With that, she withdrew ten radiant talisman papers from her sleeve. They were engraved with countless spiritual patterns on both sides, with faint green smoke drifting off them.

'What are those? Dharma currency?'

Wang Ping, who had quietly regained his senses after feeling the seductive power vanish, peeked at the exchange with burning curiosity.

"That will be ten dharma currency!"

The two Immortal Gate disciples scrambled forward, snatching up the talisman papers Daoist Nun You handed them as eagerly as starving men. Genuine smiles returned to their faces.

"We wish Senior Sister an early mastery of the Divine Powers, advancing to Qi Refining and attaining the Dao."

"When the time comes, if you lack a handy magical treasure, you can always come buy one at our Heaven and Earth Pavilion."

The moment they finished speaking, the two disciples formed hand seals and chanted an incantation. They rode flashes of escaping light, fleeing out of the Daoist temple as fast as they could, as if running for their lives.

Bizarrely, the instant they exited the temple, they vanished entirely from the world.

Not a trace of them remained.

A second later, Daoist Nun You sneered. "Heaven and Earth Pavilion? Those Immortal Gate parasites. Scalping the sect's precious assets... they're truly mad for money."

"Who doesn't know that the Heaven and Earth Pavilion is backed by the Divine Weapon Courtyard? With the Eight Trigrams Furnace, refining treasures is as easy as taking a shit, and it costs them practically nothing."

"But when they sell them to the rest of us, the prices are exorbitant. They dress it up nicely, claiming it's to 'protect intellectual property rights,' but it's all bullshit. They're just squeezing us ordinary disciples dry. I'd rather buy second-hand magical treasures in the Ghost Market than ever pay that damned idiot tax at the Heaven and Earth Pavilion!"

Her words were dripping with resentment.

She then clasped her hands behind her back, turned around, and looked at Wang Ping and the other strongmen. Her cold voice echoed through the storehouse.

"Alright, all of you, come out."

—Wang Ping didn't move.

Not only that, he didn't even dare form a single thought. He once again forced himself to fully immerse his mind in the persona of a perfect human livestock tool from his memories.

'She didn't form a hand seal!'

According to his memory, every batch of strongmen had a driving talisman seal—something akin to a startup password. Without it, the strongmen would not activate.

Daoist Nun You had issued a command just now, but she hadn't formed the seal. At the very least, Wang Ping hadn't sensed any prompt from the talisman seal inside his body. He didn't dare move a muscle. If he did, he would be outright telling her that a fake strongman had infiltrated the premises!

'She's still testing!'

'She said all that out loud on purpose, and now she's using the startup seal as bait... She really does suspect someone snuck in among the strongmen!'

Wang Ping didn't dare think any further.

For a while, the storehouse was dead silent. Daoist Nun You issued a few more commands. Some included the talisman seal, some didn't. She ran the test several times over.

Wang Ping responded to all of them perfectly.

After all, strictly speaking, he really was a strongman, just one with self-awareness. As long as he was actively hiding it, this kind of test wouldn't expose him.

Even so, the ordeal gave Wang Ping a massive fright. How could these Immortal Gate disciples be so utterly paranoid, running test after test over a tiny shred of suspicion?

...

After a long while, Daoist Nun You finally stopped her probing, seemingly satisfied.

"All of you, come out."

This time she used the talisman seal. Wang Ping followed the other strongmen, slowly walking out of the storehouse and into the Daoist temple, lining up in a single row just as commanded.

"Stand still and behave."

"Next, all of you will circulate Qi Restriction at full strength. Raise yourselves to the level of invulnerability against weapons. Do not dodge. You must take my attack head-on."

This suited Wang Ping perfectly.

The moment Daoist Nun You finished speaking, he eagerly circulated the method. An intangible, formless current of heat surged from within his body.

This was True Qi.

The True Qi enveloped his entire body, restricting blades and weapons—this was the so-called invulnerability.

To injure Wang Ping in this state, one would either need an attack powerful enough to exceed the defensive limits of the Qi Restriction, or strike a vital spot not covered by the True Qi.

With that in mind, Wang Ping covertly sized up the nun once more.

'What is she trying to do?'

Lining all the strongmen up and ordering them to cast a defensive spell at full strength... it felt exactly like setting up targets before spear practice...

...Wait.

'Oh no!'

Rumble!

The instant Wang Ping realized what was happening, Daoist Nun You, standing directly in front of the strongmen, made her move. She parted her red lips, and with a clear, sharp whistle, a beam of sword light shot forth.

The sword strike was like the moon rising above the branches, leaping up in a blinding expanse of white. It looked slow but was impossibly fast, rushing forward like a mighty river before splitting midway. It fractured into countless majestic tributaries, sending spray flying, and simultaneously slashed across all the strongmen. The impact sent them flying backward, spraying blood.

Wang Ping was one of them.

"Gah!"

Coughing up a mouthful of hot blood, Wang Ping looked down at his waist. Despite the protection of his True Qi, his body had nearly been cleaved in half by the sword strike!

And that was just one strike.

He had seen it clearly. Daoist Nun You had split her sword light, drastically weakening the power that landed on each individual strongman. If she had concentrated it all on a single point...

'I would be dead!'

Qi Restriction? Invulnerability? In front of this Daoist Nun You, it was as fragile as wet paper. The terrifying gap in their power was like the distance between heaven and earth.

'This shithole is even worse than the Great Shun!'

Wang Ping smiled bitterly, feeling like he had just escaped a tiger's den only to stumble straight into a wolf's lair.

But he quickly forced himself to rally. He desperately circulated his Qi Restriction to heal his wounds, grasping its intricacies while he cheered himself on:

'Hold on!'

Being a piece of human livestock in the Immortal Gate after transmigrating was like walking on thin ice, but as long as he survived this wave, he could take these cultivation spells back to the Great Shun Dynasty and steamroll everyone!

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