You've only been cultivating for a few years, and you're already talking about cultivating

Zhu Yixin felt very happy.

Even though he was tortured and humiliated by the enemy every day, he felt it was all worth it as long as he saw the saintess's gentle eyes.

His heart seemed to melt under her gaze, becoming utterly soft.

He thought, this must be what it means to have good things after hardship.

One night, he suddenly woke up from his sleep.

The pillow was empty; the saintess was gone.

He paused for a moment, then got up to look for it. Just as he reached the door, he heard a faint groan coming from next door, along with intermittent whispers.

"...Master's hobbies are really peculiar."

Do you like it?

"I love it!"

That voice belonged to the saintess.

Zhu Yixin's mind went blank.

He thought the saintess loved him. He thought all that tenderness, all that care, all that cuddling under the starry night was real. He thought she had finally seen him.

But at that moment, those voices were like a bucket of ice water, poured over him from head to toe, chilling him to the bone.

He suddenly pushed open the door next door.

A truly appalling scene came into view.

The saintess was drenched in sweat, her cheeks flushed, and she was leaning against the enemy in an intimate pose that was almost blinding.

"You..." Zhu Yixin's lips trembled, "I..."

The saintess turned her head and glanced at him, her face showing no panic, but rather a hint of impatience.

"What are you looking at?" she said coldly. "It's all just the master's orders."

The enemy behind her revealed a wicked smile and slowly spoke:

"You think she loves you? It's just at my behest. Her concern and gentleness towards you are all things I told her to do."

Zhu Yixin stood there, trembling all over.

He could accept the saint's promiscuity. He had seen her flirt with other men and manipulate them at will.

He knew she wouldn't love them; she was simply indulging in desire itself.

But things are different now.

She was clearly in love with someone else. She was even willing to toy with his feelings for him.

"You bitch!" Zhu Yixin roared, her eyes bloodshot, as she lunged at him. "I'm going to kill you!"

But he was no match for that enemy, especially since the saintess was also helping the enemy against him.

He was no match for the enemy, let alone being mixed up with men and women.

In just a few moves, he was defeated by the attacker and trampled underfoot. Then, several ropes were wrapped around his wrists and ankles, suspending him in mid-air.

He struggled, the rope digging into his flesh, blood streaming down his arm.

Soon, the saintess entered with four burly men.

The four burly men were all broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with menacing faces. One of them was holding a pair of gleaming iron pliers, which shone coldly under the light.

"You bitch!" Zhu Yixin roared hoarsely, "What else do you want to do?"

The burly man carrying the iron pliers grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and slowly walked forward.

"Of course! To deliver the ultimate insult!"

The pliers swayed under the light, reflecting a blinding glare.

Zhu Yixin's pupils shrank suddenly as she struggled desperately, the ropes creaking against the roof beams.

"You...don't..."

His voice changed, filled with fear, anger, and something indescribable.

Screams echoed through the room.

Amidst this boundless despair and humiliation, a thought suddenly popped into Zhu Yixin's mind: If only this world were fake.

He couldn't accept that the world before him was real!

It's fake! It's fake! It's all fake!

Just as he uttered this cry in his heart, a gentle voice suddenly rang in his ears:

"Junior brother, you have passed the initial illusion."

The sound was like a drop of clear water falling into boiling oil, and the whole world exploded with a "boom".

The humiliation, the sneers, and the gleaming iron pliers before my eyes were like shattered mirrors, peeling away, collapsing, and turning into dust piece by piece.

Blinding white light poured in from the crack, engulfing everything.

Zhu Yixin felt a lightness in his body; the restraints on his wrists and ankles disappeared, as did the force that had been holding him up.

He staggered and found himself standing in a cave.

The cave was small, with several luminous pearls embedded in the stone walls, emitting a faint, cold light.

He looked down at himself. His clothes were intact, and there were no wounds on his body. The open wounds and dripping blood from before were all gone.

He subconsciously touched his face, then his crotch; all the parts were still there.

He let out a long sigh of relief; his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

"Where is this...?" Zhu Yixin raised her head and looked at the person standing in front of her.

The man wore a gray-white Taoist robe, had a thin face, and a faint sense of aloofness between his brows, but a gentle smile on his face.

As soon as he opened his mouth, Zhu Yixin knew it was him speaking.

"I am Yu Cang from the Ruthless Sword Sect, and I am here to guide you to the Ruthless Sword Sect."

"The Ruthless Sword Sect?" Zhu Yixin paused, then asked, "And Nanshan is...?"

Yu Cang stood with his hands behind his back and slowly said, "The Sword Immortal's residence that you see is actually a message released by our Ruthless Sword Sect."

"Every hundred years, we open our gates wide to recruit disciples from all over the world. Only those who have passed through the illusion and seen through love are qualified to become members of the Ruthless Sword Sect."

"Seeing through love and affection?" Zhu Yixin murmured to herself, her mind involuntarily flashing back to the various scenes from the illusion.

The saint's gentleness, the saint's betrayal, the whispers, the door that was pushed open, the gleaming iron pliers...

He couldn't help but clench his fists, his knuckles turning white.

Yu Cang glanced at him, a glint of something flashing in his eyes before quickly disappearing.

"Understanding love and affection will allow you to glimpse the Great Dao." He turned around and walked out of the cave. "Junior brother, come with me up the mountain."

Zhu Yixin stood still for a moment, then followed.

His gait was still somewhat stiff, as if he had just escaped from a long nightmare, his body still retaining the memory of that terror and humiliation.

Not far behind them, a ghost-like figure hovered silently in mid-air.

Qi Fei watched Zhu Yixin's departing figure and said thoughtfully, "Was the stimulation too much, causing him to enter the second layer of the illusion?"

"Sword" said, "That's right. That's why the first level of the 'Seven Illusion Sword Formation' is usually not designed to cause too much pain. Because intense pain will make people question the world, making it easier to wake up from the illusion."

"The first layer of the 'Seven Illusion Sword Formation' is to gradually blur people's perceptions and make them unknowingly become immersed in it."

Qi Fei nodded.

Pain, like greed and desire, is a bodily instinct.

His understanding of the "Seven Illusion Sword Formation" was far less profound than his understanding of the "sword".

The "sword" that is integrated with the sword formation is the one that truly understands the intricacies of the formation.