Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

"Later, the Skyfire Tribe recruited cannon fodder to mine on the front lines. In order to escape my status as a beast slave, I desperately signed up and went to Skyfire Holy City."

A dazzling light suddenly flashed in Rosa's eyes: "In the Holy City, I survived by the skin of my teeth, but by sheer chance, I obtained the highest inheritance of the Crimson Emperor ancestor in a ruin deep within a volcano!"

"At that moment, I felt like a god!"

"I rose from a lowly beast slave to become the most dazzling genius of the Heavenly Fire Tribe! My bloodline became incomparably pure, and my power far surpasses that of Tongji! The High Priest kneels at my feet, wanting to pass the position of clan leader to me!"

Rosa looked at Chen Fan, a self-deprecating glint in her eyes.

"At that time, I was extremely arrogant. I refused the position of clan leader because I felt that a mere ancient demon star could no longer contain me."

"I have chosen to leave. I want to hone my skills in the starry sky, to see a wider world, and to establish my unparalleled fame in the universe!"

Rosa's voice gradually rose, as if she had returned to that era of high spirits and arrogance.

But the light in his eyes dimmed instantly, turning into endless grayness.

"I did it."

"I earned my reputation through battle, I conquered countless cultivation stars, I established my own demonic domain, and I became an ancient demonic powerhouse whose name even human cultivators at the Mahayana stage trembled at the mere mention of my name."

Rosa's body trembled slightly, his hands clenched into fists. "But... when I am invincible, when I am laden with glory and endless resources, ready to return to the Black Rock Tribe in triumph, to make those who once looked down on me kneel at my feet, and to let those who once gave me a bowl of water live a good life..."

Rosa closed his eyes, and two lines of illusory tears of blood slid down his cheeks.

All I saw was ruins.

"The Black Rock tribe was wiped out by a rival tribe."

"There were no survivors. Soldiers died in battle, the old were slaughtered, and women and children were abducted. Even the stone house where I used to live was razed to the ground."

"My former friends, my former relatives, those clansmen who bullied me and whom I hated... they are all dead."

Rosa suddenly opened her eyes, which were filled with despair and endless regret.

"I possess the power to destroy stars! I can easily uproot that enemy tribe, extract their souls, and torment them for millennia!"

"But... what's the use?"

Rosa slumped, loosening his fist. "No matter how strong I am, I can't bring back those familiar faces; no matter how strong I am, I can't find that rough greeting again. I've won the world, but I've lost my roots."

Inside the stone house, there was a deathly silence.

Chen Fan stood quietly in place, his heart churning with turbulent emotions.

He finally understood why the third trial, "The Demon's Heart," was set in such a remote little tribe. Why Rosa had set up such a seemingly absurd yet profoundly insightful test.

Because this was Rosa's lifelong regret. It was a demon he could never overcome in his heart.

Luo Sha turned around, her gaze fixed intently on Chen Fan.

"Back then, I chose the starry sky and abandoned the tribe."

"And you..." Rosa looked at Chen Fan, her eyes sparkling with an indescribable sense of relief, "You are not an ancient demon, and you were even full of wariness and indifference towards us at the beginning."

"You received the Crimson Emperor's inheritance in the Heavenly Fire Tribe, and you now possess the power to easily crush this planet."

"But unlike me back then, you didn't choose to fly far away. You actually gave up supreme power and endless resources, choosing to return to this dilapidated tribe, to this drafty stone house, to grow medicine and treat the sick for those ignorant tribesmen, and to feed these lowly beasts!"

Luo Sha walked step by step toward Chen Fan, his illusory figure appearing incredibly tall in the moonlight.

"Do you know that in the fourteen years you've been here, all these seemingly insignificant little things you've done..."

Rosa's eyes reddened. "You did what I, Rosa, most wanted to do back then, but never had the chance to do again!"

"You're not just wasting your time; you're protecting! You're protecting this tribe, protecting these living, breathing people, in your own way!"

"This is the 'demon's heart'!"

Luo Sha's voice, like a grand and resounding bell, boomed in Chen Fan's mind.

"A sense of belonging isn't about condoning killing, or the brutality of the ancient demon race! It's about belonging to a family, belonging to those around you, even if they are uncouth or weak, who are willing to accept you!"

"Chen Fan, you did it."

Rosa let out a long breath, as if she had been relieved of a burden that had lasted for thousands of years, and her originally sharp aura became extremely gentle.

He looked at Chen Fan, a relieved smile appearing on his lips.

"You've passed the third hurdle."

As Rosa finished speaking.

"boom!"

Chen Fan felt as if the entire world before him had collapsed in that instant!

Stone houses, medicinal fields, Netherworld beasts, the sleeping Iron Bone, the distant Heavenly Fire Holy City... all of these things, like reflections in a mirror or the moon in the water, turned into countless fragments that rapidly dissipated in the void.

The desolate atmosphere that had accompanied him for fourteen years and had become ingrained in his very bones was also completely lost in this collapse.

However, at the very last moment when the world vanished.

Chen Fan seemed to hear Shi Dou's crisp laughter, Tie Gu's hearty laughter as he drank from a large bowl, and the old witch doctor Mu Gu's stubborn mutterings as he argued about the prescription.

These voices lingered in his ears, eventually transforming into a warm current that was deeply imprinted on his soul.

"it's over……"

Chen Fan slowly closed his eyes, letting his consciousness be drawn into the endless vortex of the starry sky.

When he opened his eyes again.

The surrounding area was no longer a gray-yellow wasteland.

There was no pungent sulfur smell, and no rough stone walls.

He found himself standing in a vast, boundless starry palace. The palace's dome was inlaid with countless dazzling stars, radiating a soft and mysterious light.

At the very front of the main hall, on a black throne exuding an ancient and weathered aura, sat the remnant soul of the ancient demon Rosa, quietly watching him.

Chen Fan lowered his head.

He discovered that the ancient demon body that had been with him for fourteen years had disappeared.

Instead, he took over the body of a human sword cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage. He wore a green robe, had long hair flowing down his shoulders, and the gray-white sword, Eleven, hung at his waist!

Within his body, the immense spiritual power of immortals and demons, which had been sealed for over twenty years, roared and surged wildly through his meridians like a flood bursting its banks!

"Late-stage Nascent Soul...Great Perfection?!"