Chapter 1

Clouds churned as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth trembled.
Masses of violet cloud gathered in one place. Lightning like silver serpents darted through them, glaring hungrily down at the sealed chamber below.
“It’s here, it’s here! The legendary love tribulation of the Tribulation Crossing realm!”
Seeing that the tribulation clouds had already surrounded the special tribulation chamber below, even the disciples of the Way of Ruthlessness—who upheld ruthlessness at all times—could not help changing expression as they craned their necks and rose onto their toes.
“According to Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance’s deductions and research, the love-tribulation clouds of the Tribulation Crossing realm create an illusion of a lightning pool, through which the Heavenly Way tests whether any threads of emotion remain…”
One disciple immediately applied what he had learned, recalling a previous lesson: “If one can survive it and gain enlightenment, one has already stepped halfway into the realm of Sainthood!”
Cultivators in this world had reached Sainthood before, but none of them had cultivated the Way of Ruthlessness.
“Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance is a once-in-an-era genius, not only the foremost cultivator of the Way of Ruthlessness on Soaring Void Mountain, but in the entire cultivation world. If he can pass this tribulation smoothly, it will mark a major advance for the Way of Ruthlessness!”
“Exactly. The Extraterritorial Nightmares may yet return. We cultivators must continue to work hard and forge ahead! If research into the Way of Ruthlessness makes new progress, it will be a blessing to the whole world!”
The Extraterritorial Nightmares were the common enemy of this world, spurring all cultivators to strive ever harder.
For the disciples, Lan Jueqi’s love tribulation was not merely a rare spectacle but also an excellent opportunity to observe and learn. Thus, the senior leadership of Soaring Void Mountain allowed them to put aside their studies for the moment and watch Lan Jueqi undergo his tribulation.
Silver-serpent lightning danced wildly. Thick pillars of thunder crashed down, making the sealed chamber trapped within them look especially tiny.
Before long, mist began to rise. The disciples watching from outside could see only lightning coiling through the haze; the chamber had already been swallowed completely.
Ever since Lan Jueqi announced that he would enter seclusion to face his love tribulation, everyone on Soaring Void Mountain had treated the matter with utmost seriousness and made every preparation for him. Now that the tribulation had arrived on schedule, their hearts still hung in suspense.
Even Xie Tai, the sect master of Soaring Void Mountain, had personally come to wait at the scene.
On the sixth day, with only one day remaining before the love tribulation should end,
the tribulation clouds that everyone on Soaring Void Mountain had been watching without so much as blinking suddenly changed. Tiny cracks actually appeared throughout the heavy clouds!
The clouds and mist dispersed, and the massive pillars of thunder gradually thinned until they could no longer sustain themselves.
“What’s going on? Where did that enormous tribulation cloud go? How can it just disappear like that?”
“What happened? I don’t understand!”
“Th-this… this doesn’t count as successfully passing the tribulation, does it?”
Bright daylight tore through the tribulation clouds. Countless motes of stardust scattered from within, drifting and dancing through the air.
Lan Jueqi had failed.
For a moment, the scene was completely silent. No one spoke.
The tribulation clouds had dispersed too suddenly, and there was no resonance of heaven and earth that should have followed a successful tribulation. The senior members of Soaring Void Mountain exchanged looks and concluded that Lan Jueqi had failed to pass his love tribulation, filling them with worry.
For the Way of Ruthlessness, the hardest thing was severing the roots of affection and remaining untouched by desire. Lan Jueqi’s failure this time boded rather badly…
One elder could no longer restrain himself. Afraid that something had happened to Lan Jueqi inside, he demanded that they break open the chamber door and go in to rescue him.
Chaos erupted outside the sealed chamber.
“Silence! What kind of disgraceful commotion is this?” A square-faced young man said coldly. “It’s only a love tribulation. So what if he can’t pass it?!”
Even if Lan Jueqi failed this love tribulation, he would still be the foremost cultivator of the Way of Ruthlessness in the cultivation world!
“Exactly,” Xie Tai said. “The special tribulation chamber of Soaring Void Mountain isn’t so fragile. Jueqi will be fine inside. We’ll simply wait for him to come out.”
Xie Tai stared at the motionless stone door of the chamber, then turned to gaze toward the clear sky in the distance and let out a soft sigh.
Inside the sealed chamber.
Having escaped from the illusion of the love tribulation, Lan Jueqi propped his chin on one hand and sat facing a stone table without moving for a long time.
There was nothing on the stone table, yet its surface was pitted and scarred. These were not marks left by blades or axes, but deep and shallow finger gouges crisscrossing everywhere.
Lan Jueqi could not remember what he had experienced inside the illusion. The failure had come so suddenly and bewilderingly that he had no idea why it had happened.
How could this be?
Lan Jueqi looked at the finger marks, utterly baffled.
If one failed, one had to identify the cause. As a transmigrator with no special advantage and no System assistance whatsoever, Lan Jueqi had become an authority on the Way of Ruthlessness not only through talent and relentless hard work, but also through curiosity and a spirit of inquiry and exploration.
—At least, that was how Lan Jueqi saw it.
Lan Jueqi examined the marks carefully. They seemed to have been writing something.
There was a very high chance that this stone table contained insights he had gained within the illusion of his love tribulation.
Unfortunately, the entire tabletop was a mess. Old finger marks overlaid new ones, layer upon layer. Even if they recorded some secret never to be passed on, anyone looking at them now would see nothing but a tangle of weeds.
Outside the chamber, everyone waited and waited, yet Lan Jueqi still did not emerge.
The younger disciples began to develop concerns entirely different from those of the elders.
“Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance isn’t… researching some new theory in there again, is he?”
“Back then, when I learned after the Abyssal Reach Selection that I could enter Soaring Void Mountain, I thought I might have a chance to become Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance’s disciple. Then I discovered that I can’t even understand his introductory theories, boohoohoo…”
“The Way of Ruthlessness pursues absolute rationality, casting aside all stray thoughts to become emotionless and desireless. As the foremost authority on the Way of Ruthlessness, Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance might have gained some insight from this little love tribulation…”
“I’m terrified right now. What if Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance thinks this love tribulation wasn’t fierce enough and decides to save up…”
Before the disciple in front could finish, the excited voice of another behind him drowned him out: “To wait for an even fiercer love tribulation, then gain enlightenment from it and publish a new book afterward—Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance truly deserves to be the foremost cultivator of the Way of Ruthlessness!”
The young disciples were discussing it with great enthusiasm, completely oblivious to the throbbing veins on the elders’ foreheads. Light flashed in the hand of the square-faced young man, and a golden spirit-striking whip suddenly appeared.
A thunderbolt cracked across the clear sky. Sparks exploded, and the headpieces of quite a few young disciples instantly turned to charcoal.
“Cultivation is a process of ceaselessly striving upward. How can you become afraid of difficulty and then make such a racket over it?!”
The young disciples did not even dare adjust their heat-scorched headpieces. They kept their heads lowered obediently, not daring to look directly at Elder Yu Cheng while he was angry.
“You are all his martial nephews and nieces. Even if none of you formally entered his tutelage, you have received his guidance and studied his theories, so you can still be considered—”
Yu Cheng stopped abruptly, staring dumbly at the sealed chamber’s stone door as it suddenly opened.
There was clearly no wind, yet the young disciples could not help shivering.
Why had it suddenly become so cold?
At the entrance to the sealed chamber, Lan Jueqi stood in robes white as snow, black hair pinned up with a silver hairpin, his figure lean and elegant.
The blazing golden spirit-striking whip in Yu Cheng’s hand seemed to have had a bucket of cold water poured over it. Every tongue of flame went out, hissing as white smoke rose.
Lan Jueqi stood at the chamber entrance and glanced over.
The golden spirit-striking whip instantly fell completely silent; even the white smoke vanished.
At that, Lan Jueqi calmly turned his head and looked at Yu Cheng.
“Ra-Ra…”
Lan Jueqi did not move. He simply watched him without blinking.
Yu Cheng stumbled over the word once, then blurted at tremendous speed, “Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance has emerged from seclusion!”
As soon as he spoke, the young disciples behind him perked up and bowed in unison.
Lan Jueqi inclined his head expressionlessly and remained silent.
Yu Cheng nodded as well, standing where he was and watching Lan Jueqi walk forward while everyone else quietly studied him.
Although he had failed to pass his love tribulation, Lan Jueqi seemed to be in decent condition. His cultivation had not fallen; he remained the undisputed foremost cultivator of the Way of Ruthlessness in the cultivation world.
Having failed to break through the love tribulation and disappointed everyone on Soaring Void Mountain, Lan Jueqi was consumed with guilt. He really ought to apologize properly to the sect master and the senior leadership of Soaring Void Mountain.
Lan Jueqi turned his head slightly and swept his gaze around everyone present.
Whether elder or disciple, everyone on Soaring Void Mountain wore white sect robes. Everywhere he looked was a field of snowy white.
That white really was white!
Lan Jueqi swept his gaze around a second time.
Come to think of it… what did the sect master of Soaring Void Mountain look like again?
The greatest distinguishing feature of Soaring Void Mountain was that its sect robes were entirely white. At a glance, everyone looked ethereal and immortal, perfectly matching ordinary people’s imaginings of cultivators.
Every twenty years, during the Abyssal Reach Selection, countless people applied to join Soaring Void Mountain while dreaming beautiful dreams of one day wearing those white robes.
And then they were ruthlessly rejected.
Come on. Even if Soaring Void Mountain was the only one among the top ten sects without a particularly distinctive specialty, that did not mean just any random nobody could get in. Selecting the best from among the best was not excessive at all!
—That was how Lan Jueqi’s master, Bian Weichen, put it.
Back when Lan Jueqi had just entered his tutelage as his final disciple, Soaring Void Mountain’s research into the Way of Ruthlessness had not yet advanced to the point where it left every other sect far behind.
Therefore, even though only so many people qualified to become disciples of Soaring Void Mountain, Lan Jueqi, whose memory for faces was not very good, still found it difficult to pick out the person he wanted from a sea of white.
Lan Jueqi had once suspected that this was a distinctive feature Soaring Void Mountain had forcibly manufactured to compete with sects that actually had specialties: good looks made it easier to lure in naive young people who had little experience of the world and barely understood the cultivation world.
But it did not matter if he could not recognize anyone. The Way of Ruthlessness he cultivated emphasized coldness and detachment: if you could speak less, then you should not speak at all.
If you could speak less, then you should not speak at all—those words came from Bian Weichen, and they were not wrong.
Bian Weichen had explained that this was an attitude of restraint and caution. It did not mean complete silence or refusing to speak, but rather using silence as a means of communicating effectively and avoiding misunderstandings. Silence showed respect and courtesy, careful thought and attentive listening, while giving others an impression of mystery and composure…
If such abstract theory was too hard to understand, that was fine. Just follow it. No matter what happened, one must remain as steady as a mountain through wind and rain.
Since he had failed to recognize anyone, Lan Jueqi stopped making any obvious movements. The others naturally stepped aside for an elegant middle-aged man wearing a scholar’s cap set with a piece of white jade at the front.
Only then did Lan Jueqi straighten himself to bow.
Before he could complete the salute, a gentle breeze interrupted him.
Xie Tai withdrew his hand, his gaze kind. “It’s enough that Immortal Venerable Radiant Ascendance has emerged safely. Whether the tribulation was successfully passed is not important.”
Lan Jueqi inclined his head.
Master had indeed been right. He truly did not need to speak.
Lan Jueqi walked safely out of the chamber. Xie Tai seemed to let out a quiet breath of relief and offered a few more words of consolation.
The other elders echoed him.
If he could not pass this time, there would always be a next time. As long as Lan Jueqi remained, no one in the entire cultivation world could rival his understanding of the Way of Ruthlessness.
Lan Jueqi’s expression did not change, but inwardly he had already understood what everyone meant:
Whether or not he could pass the love tribulation, coming out alive counted as success!
The once-every-twenty-years Abyssal Reach Selection was almost here. If anything happened to him, Soaring Void Mountain would lose the public face of its Way of Ruthlessness!
Soaring Void Mountain badly needed him to trick—ah, no, to attract more young disciples aspiring to the Way of Ruthlessness into joining the sect!
At the same moment.
For the first time, the Soaring Void Mountain disciple stationed at the mountain-guarding grand formation saw anyone arrive with such arrogance. The visitor flew straight toward Soaring Void Mountain on his sword without submitting a calling card or reporting his arrival, and he did not even slow down. The disciple was just about to stop him when the man had already entered the formation’s defensive range.
The mountain-guarding formation did not attack him!
One of us?
The guard disciple stood there bewildered, but the figure was already gone. All he could see was the long trailing streak of rainbow light left by the sword aura.
By then, Lan Jueqi’s tribulation clouds had completely dispersed. A mote of stardust fell into the palm of the figure who had rushed here in a panic, only to arrive one step too late.
“Greetings, Host. This System’s full name is the Supreme Firmament Mystic-Spirit Coldheart Silent-Annihilation Sovereign Cultivation System of the Way of Ruthlessness. Its purpose is to provide the Host with one-stop, comprehensive cultivation support. As the Host sets foot upon this cold and solitary path of cultivating the Way of Ruthlessness, this System will be your strongest support, helping you break through every obstacle and become the Sovereign of the Way of Ruthlessness!”
The white-robed man flying at high speed on his sword stopped abruptly. An unfamiliar voice appeared in his mind, carrying the harsh scrape of metal, its tone entirely flat.
“Current Host name: Lan Jueqi; title: Radiant Ascendance; sect affiliation: Soaring Void Mountain; cultivation: Tribulation Crossing realm…”
The white-robed man stood where he was, his phoenix eyes curving slightly.
Whatever this System might be, it had been a very long time since he had heard such an amusing joke: brazenly claiming that it would help a peak Tribulation Crossing expert—already the foremost cultivator of the Way of Ruthlessness—become its sovereign.
The System busied itself mechanically following its procedures. “Host, please… bzzzt… bzzzt-bzzzt…”
A cold, gleaming sword tip pointed at his own brow. Through bursts of static, the System’s rigid mechanical notification stuttered: “…ac-acquiring… automatically… acquiring cheat… cheat skill…”
The System paused for a long time after those final words. The white-robed man kept his sword raised without moving. A thin red line split open between his brows, and warm scarlet beads of blood dripped down his forehead, staining his black eyelashes red.
Not far away, Lan Jueqi finally managed to extricate himself from the circle of concerned elders and disciples.
The elders and disciples of Soaring Void Mountain who did not cultivate the Way of Ruthlessness were easy enough to deal with. Once they opened their mouths, words poured out in a torrent until everything had been said. Lan Jueqi did not need to speak or do anything beyond making a few small nods.
Those who also cultivated the Way of Ruthlessness were much harder.
The two sides looked at each other, and what followed was a contest of endurance: whoever could not hold back first would have to say more.
This conversation was truly impossible.
Lan Jueqi sighed inwardly, while his face remained expressionless.
The breeze was clear and fresh, but within it lingered a faint, icy killing intent and the slightest trace of blood.
Lan Jueqi keenly followed the aura to its source.
It was…
“Senior Brother!”
Lan Jueqi’s eyes lit up, and he immediately rode the clouds and wind toward him.
The white-robed man had already put away his sword the moment Lan Jueqi stepped out of the crowd.
The System finally managed to finish its sentence smoothly as well.
“—Mind Reading.”
The white-robed man ignored the strange mechanical voice in his mind and turned toward Lan Jueqi, smiling as he waited.
“Bzzzt…”
“Current Host name: Lan Jueqi; title: Radiant Ascendance; sect affiliation: Soaring Void Mountain; cultivation: Tribulation Crossing realm…”
“Confirming Host cultivation… confirmation failed…”
“Confirming Host sect affiliation… Soaring Void Mountain, match correct; confirming Host name… confirmation failed…”
“Confirming Host name… bzzzt-bzzzt-bzzzt…”
“Confirming Host name… bzzzt-bzzzt-bzzzt…”
Lan Jueqi was already close enough to land. The mechanical voice in the man’s mind kept crackling with static. “Lan… Lan Jueqi… confirming name…”
“Confirming what?” the white-robed man suddenly asked. “My name?”
“Bzzzt…”
“—I am Xie Qingyuan.”
“Bzzzt…”
Xie Qingyuan spoke at an unhurried pace. “Xie Qingyuan; title: Illuminated Insight; sect affiliation: Soaring Void Mountain; cultivation: Tribulation Crossing realm…”
“Bzzzz… bang!”
After a long buzzing in his mind, an explosive sound suddenly filled Xie Qingyuan’s ears.
At the same time, every disciple on Soaring Void Mountain heard a voice—
【It really is Senior Brother!】
To the disciples of Soaring Void Mountain, the voice was both familiar and unfamiliar.
There was no question that it sounded pleasant, like a mountain stream just emerging from a crack in the rocks—fresh, vigorous, and brimming with life.
The only problem was that it was far too lively, overflowing with delight.
It did not fit the disciples’ image of Lan Jueqi, the foremost cultivator of the Way of Ruthlessness, at all.
The disciples all turned their gazes toward Lan Jueqi and saw him give Xie Qingyuan a perfectly proper bow, every movement precise and formal.