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

Zhu Yixin's training at the Ruthless Sword Sect went surprisingly smoothly.

On the day he entered the sect, the sect leader personally examined his physical attributes and said, "This child has a pure heart and is in line with my path," and then accepted him as a disciple.

Zhu Yixin knelt in the hall, her forehead touching the cold stone slab. Hearing these words, she felt nothing. No joy, no gratitude, not even a sense of relief.

Because he has become a heartless person.

He knelt until the sect leader finished speaking, then stood up and followed the senior brother who had led the way to his residence.

The rules of the Ruthless Sword Sect are completely different from those of the Shadow God Sect.

There are no morning or evening prayers, no incense offerings, and no mystical rituals.

There are only tasks, contributions, and exchanges. Disciples go to the task hall every day to receive tasks, such as patrolling the mountains, gathering herbs, hunting monsters, guarding mines, escorting caravans, and so on.

Each task has a clearly marked price, and the amount of contribution points you will receive upon completion is clearly written on a wooden sign.

Once you've accumulated enough contribution points, go to the Sword Pavilion to exchange for flying swords, to the Scripture Pavilion to exchange for cultivation techniques, to the Pill Room to exchange for pills, and to the Array Hall to exchange for talismans.

If you want something, earn it yourself. If you can't earn it, you have nothing. No one is forcing you, and no one is helping you.

This is the way of the Ruthless Sword Sect. Talking about feelings is too damaging to their interests; therefore, they show no mercy, only self-interest.

Your sect is not your support, your fellow disciples are not your brothers and sisters, and your master is not your father.

You are you, the sword is the sword, the road is the road. Cut off all dependence, all attachment, and all that is superfluous.

If you can keep going, then keep going; if you can't, then die out there, and no one will collect your body.

Zhu Yixin liked this kind of rule.

His first task, which he received from the mission hall, was to collect three "Cold Star Grasses" from the back mountain.

The grass grew on the northern cliff, which was covered in ice and as slippery as if it had been smeared with oil. The disciples who went with them tied ropes around their waists and slowly moved down the cliff. It took them half an hour to pick just one plant.

Zhu Yixin didn't use a rope. He stood on the top of the cliff, looked down, found a crevice in the rock, stuck his hand in, stepped on a protruding icicle, and clung to it like a gecko, moving down inch by inch.

His fingers were frozen stiff, his nails were cracked, and blood seeped out, freezing into ice crystals, but he didn't care.

A quarter of an hour later, he reached the bottom of the cliff, carrying three intact Cold Star Grasses in his arms. He looked up at his fellow disciples who were still dangling in mid-air, then turned and left.

When the steward of the mission hall inspected him, he glanced at him a few more times, noted his contribution points on the wooden plaque, and added a line of small print: "Excellent efficiency, extra 50 points reward."

Zhu Yixin used those contribution points to exchange for a flying sword and a set of cultivation techniques.

The sword was ordinary, but the cultivation technique was the "Severing Emotions Technique".

The book "The Art of Cutting Off Emotions" is a thin volume with only a dozen pages. It reads: "Emotions are the greatest desire of humankind. Desires are the thieves of the heart. Cutting off emotions means cutting off the thieves of the heart. When the thieves of the heart are gone, the true heart appears. When the true heart appears, the Great Way is revealed."

He carried his sword on his back and practiced it in the courtyard an hour early every day.

When there is no love in one's heart, drawing a sword is naturally swift.

Gradually, he also learned that over the centuries, the Ruthless Sword Sect had produced many talented disciples, but those who could truly reach the Golden Core, Primordial Spirit, Divided Spirit, and Great Ascension stages could be counted on one hand.

Most people get stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage, remaining stuck for decades, then descend the mountain to find a place to retire, or die in a mission.

Zhu Yixin didn't think about any of that. He just practiced his sword, did quests, accumulated contribution points, and exchanged for cultivation techniques.

His cultivation began to advance by leaps and bounds. Qi Induction, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core…

On the day he achieved the Golden Elixir, he sat for an entire day, watching the golden elixir swirl slowly and steadily in his dantian, like a heart that would never stop.

He suddenly found it funny. After so many years in the Shadow God Cult, he had desperately cultivated, practicing all sorts of messy techniques and worshipping those inexplicable gods, but in the end, he was nothing.

Upon arriving at the Ruthless Sword Sect, he forgot everything, thought of nothing, and sought nothing. He simply practiced swordsmanship, completed missions, and severed his emotional ties, thus cultivating a Golden Core.

After achieving the Golden Core, he went down the mountain to train, but encountered an accident and died fighting someone with his sword.

In a daze, he found himself standing on that familiar mountain path again. Senior Brother Yu Cang turned around and said to him, "Junior Brother, come up the mountain with me."

He was reborn. He returned to the day he was guided up the mountain.

Zhu Yixin clenched her fists, secretly making a tough decision!

In this lifetime, I must become an immortal!

This time, he worked even harder than in his previous life. His cultivation speed increased by leaps and bounds, and he was soon noticed by the sect leader and accepted as a direct disciple.

After achieving the Golden Core, he found the person who killed him in his previous life ahead of time, successfully killed him, and avenged himself.

But fate seemed determined not to grant him his wish easily. After reaching the primordial spirit stage, he was caught up in a major sect war and ultimately died in the chaos of battle.

After dying, he was in a daze and came back to life.

It was the same mountain path, the same Senior Brother Yu Cang, and the same words: "Junior Brother, come with me up the mountain."

Zhu Yixin was not discouraged.

Let's try again!

He went through it again and again. Each time he gave it his all, each time believing he could reach the finish line!

But each time, he died in some unexpected place.

Sometimes it's a training journey, sometimes it's an exploration of a secret realm, sometimes it's a natural disaster, and sometimes it's a man-made catastrophe.

Gradually, he became familiar with the posture of each death.

He could even predict which calamity he would encounter on which day of which year. But no matter how he prepared or how he tried to avoid it, death would always arrive on time, in a different guise.

He was like a donkey pulling a millstone, with the carrot called "becoming an immortal" always hanging in front of him.

Qi Fei watched from the sidelines like a ghost, observing his repeated rebirths in his quest for "immortality." He believed he was constantly moving forward, that each step brought him closer to his goal than the last.

In reality, he was just going around in circles.

He was like Ruyan, like Tong Daoren, like those trapped in the illusion; they chased different carrots, walked different paths, but were all the same kind of fools.

Qi Fei watched Zhu Yixin, who kept being reborn and cultivating immortality, and after watching a few rounds, he found it boring.

He turned to look at the illusions of the other people.

One, two, three... glancing over them quickly, most of them are pretty much the same.

Some are trapped in lust, some in hatred, some in fame and fortune, and some in immortality.

The radishes are different, but the donkeys are exactly the same.

Just as Qi Fei was getting a little tired of watching and was about to withdraw his consciousness, a unique illusion suddenly came into view.

It was a vast wilderness.

The sky was high and empty, with hazy clouds pressing low over the horizon.

In the middle of the wilderness stood a huge jujube tree, its trunk so thick that five or six people could not encircle it. Its canopy blocked out the sky, and its branches and leaves were laden with bright red jujubes, hanging heavily as if they were about to fall at any moment.

A Taoist priest stood under a jujube tree.