The two skills of the Thief class were practical precisely because both were conceptual-level abilities.
The first, Passing Through the Garden of Ten Thousand Blossoms, allowed one to steal anything the target "possessed."
From tangible objects like money, weapons, or clothing, to intangible concepts such as cultivation techniques and spiritual power, even a "sect" founded under the target's name could be stolen.
Though described as entirely random, in the game there were in fact hidden probability adjustments depending on the value of the target.
The higher the value, the harder it was to steal.
The world's last jar of Drunken Spring Breeze, for instance, was of "Supreme Grade" value at the very least.
In theory, its worth was extraordinarily high.
However, Yi'er, being an orphan, possessed very little of her own. Talking with her for about an hour was enough to nearly rob her clean.
Under such circumstances, the chance of stealing Drunken Spring Breeze increased dramatically.
At this moment, the skill had displayed its most practical function, directly stealing the Wheel of the Sea of Calamity, the divine ability of the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity herself.
The so-called Wheel of the Sea of Calamity was a divine art derived from the cultivation method practiced by the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity.
It was also her core power.
Her title did not mean that she personally possessed four phases. She was a being of dual souls, not four.
The "four phases" referred instead to the four boundless tribulations that the Great Crucible of Heaven and Earth constantly underwent.
From birth to destruction, the world continuously experienced four boundless cycles, forming four corresponding states of existence, Formation, Abiding, Destruction, and Emptiness.
These four phases symbolized creation, prosperity, dissolution, and void.
According to the analysis of players, the reason the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity pursued annihilation and extinction of all things was her belief that the current Heaven and Earth were already within the "Destruction" phase, a degenerate age of Dharma's decline.
Thus, by following the Path of Extinction, she sought to guide the world back to its proper course, completing the Great Crucible's intended cycle.
From "Destruction" to "Emptiness."
From ruin to nothingness.
Her cultivation method revolved around the karmic power generated by all living beings through their deeds. Within her divine soul, this karma formed the Wheel of the Sea of Calamity.
This wheel, divided into four phases within her spirit, simulated a miniature world, an internal cycle mirroring that of the outer Heaven and Earth.
Within her own body, she reenacted the four phases of Formation, Abiding, Destruction, and Emptiness.
These constituted the four major realms of her cultivation.
At present, the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity had completed the phases of Formation and Abiding and was at the late stage of Destruction.
She stood at the peak of the Second Rank, a single step away from the First Rank.
The more frenzied her followers of the Extinction Path became, the faster she gathered karmic power.
Once she accumulated enough karma to transition from Destruction to Emptiness, her ascension to the First Rank, the moment of her breakthrough would also be the day the outer world met its end.
Though none yet knew the full horror of her true goal, the madness of the Extinction Path was already notorious.
Even the demonic sects secretly guarded against them, to say nothing of the righteous side.
It was common consensus: once an Extinction Path cultivator was identified, they were to be killed on sight.
For that reason, the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity's cultivation had progressed only slowly.
By the time the players entered the story, she was still at Second Rank. She died at Second Rank, her level unchanged.
But a Second Rank Heavenly Sovereignty Realm cultivator was already among the highest echelon of the entire game.
And besides, she was utterly insane.
If a player encountered her early on, the result was always the same, instant plot death.
Gu Fangchen was certain that, at this time, the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity was still in a dormant state.
She would not appear in the Sea Kingdom until later, when she initiated the major side quest Descent of the Nine Netherworlds. Only then would she visit Yi'er's tavern to steal wine and inquire about Lü Ping.
Ordinarily, when one of her dual souls was active in daily life, they did not swap at random.
He never expected the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity to suddenly take control so abruptly,
And, of all the worst possible timings, precisely when he fulfilled the contact condition for Passing Through the Garden of Ten Thousand Blossoms.
However, after a brief moment of cold sweat, Gu Fangchen inhaled deeply, steadied himself, and began to think quickly.
A misfortune, but one wrapped in a strange kind of luck.
He had always considered himself fortunate, but this time, his luck had truly exploded.
He had hit the jackpot.
Although he had not directly stolen her cultivation itself, the outcome was nearly as extraordinary.
The Wheel of the Sea of Calamity, originally a divine art formed within the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity's own soul, it bore the weight of countless karmic cycles, transforming those cycles into her cultivation through the inner rotation of the wheel.
But now, it had been stolen by Gu Fangchen.
Which meant that the accumulated karmic power tied to it had also transferred to him.
However, this divine art still belonged to the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity; Gu Fangchen had neither the foundation nor the matching technique to harmonize with it. He could not digest its karmic force.
In other words, he had become the vessel, the external conduit, for the Wheel of the Sea of Calamity.
He was now the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity's external extension, her karmic power bank.
As long as this situation persisted, for her to use her full power, she would first have to draw upon him.
And since the Wheel of the Sea of Calamity was a divine art, it could not simply be transferred at will.
Gu Fangchen had stolen it through a skill that didn't belong to this world. Even he had no idea how to return it.
If he died, his divine soul, and the Wheel of the Sea of Calamity within, would vanish together.
The karmic power would lose its vessel, instantly returning to the Great Crucible's cycle and dispersing into nothingness.
In other words, for now, the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity could not kill Gu Fangchen.
Otherwise, the karmic power she had accumulated over countless years would be erased, forcing her to start over from zero.
That one divine theft had, unintentionally, preserved Gu Fangchen's life.
But he now faced a new problem.
Could his mere Eighth Grade divine cultivation withstand the immense karmic burden of the Wheel of the Sea of Calamity?
Within moments of contemplation, Gu Fangchen felt it, the sudden emergence of a vast golden wheel within his divine soul.
The wheel was divided into four segments. The first birthed all things, the second sustained them, the third dissolved all phenomena, and the fourth returned them to Nirvana and silence.
Endless cycles of sentient beings and their tribulations arose and perished within it, pushing the immense wheel forward, completing one cycle of Heaven and Earth after another.
It was a boundless divine art that only a Second Rank Heavenly Sovereignty Realm expert could possibly bear.
The wheel had barely turned the tiniest fraction of distance, yet the karmic power contained within already numbered beyond calculation, like grains of sand along the Ganges River.
The overwhelming weight instantly tugged at Gu Fangchen's essence, pulling threads of causality from his very being into the void.