Chapter 60: Du Xian Sect 18 Part 1

Jiyang Zhenren, the First Generation Elder of Du Xian Sect.

A thousand years ago, a True Dragon emerged into the world. In a Cultivation World depleted of spiritual energy, cultivators sought a slim chance of survival. They turned the heavens and earth into a chessboard, rivers into guides, and ten thousand cultivators into the formation’s weight. At Trapped Dragon Hill, they set up the Dragon-Slaying Grand Array and slew the True Dragon.

That battle changed the color of heaven and earth. Countless disciples from major sects perished, and the Cultivation World suffered a massive blow to its vitality. At that time, Jiyang Zhenren was merely a small disciple in the Qi Refining Stage and had no qualification to join the array. Dangerous tasks did not fall to him, but he reaped the benefits. The True Dragon’s bones transformed into the Passing Immortal Bridge, which fell at the sect’s doorstep. Jiyang Zhenren’s Sect Leader senior brother immediately decided to rename the obscure little sect Du Xian Sect and volunteered to shoulder the heavy responsibility of guarding the Passing Immortal Bridge.

Day after day, bathed in surging spiritual energy, Jiyang Zhenren immersed himself in cultivation, and his realm advanced by leaps and bounds. However, he was lacking in talent with Mixed Spiritual Roots, dooming his path to hardship. When he failed to break through to Golden Core again, he stood atop the Passing Immortal Bridge, cursing the heavens for their unfairness, and swore to shatter the skies and stand tall.

His Sect Leader senior brother admired his boldness. Before ascending, he left him a drop of True Dragon Blood.

After the True Dragon fell, its flesh and blood dispersed into heaven and earth, but with so many participants, those with ulterior motives could use some tricks to preserve bits of its blood and flesh—it was not difficult. The first group of cultivators in the Cultivation World to achieve great success, ascend the Passing Immortal Bridge, and fly to immortality during the day—all had devoured its flesh and drunk its blood.

Jiyang Zhenren drank the Dragon Blood without hesitation. Pure spiritual energy burned away the impurities in his body, leaving only the most powerful Fire-type Spirit Root intertwined and fused with the Dragon Blood, impossible to separate.

His cultivation path faced no more obstacles. In just over a hundred years, Jiyang Zhenren shattered his core, formed his Nascent Soul, and became the talk of the Cultivation World. But a blade has two edges, and matters have two sides. The power of the Dragon Blood was too domineering. If he continued cultivating Sword Dao, he risked Qi Deviation.

After all the effort he had poured in and the pain he had endured to reach this point, how could he accept stopping here? Jiyang Zhenren refused to bow to fate, so he took others’ lives instead.

Jiyang Zhenren wielded the Chijun Sword and charged alone into the 72 Demon Cultivator Cave Mansions. Since he could not forge a sword heart, he would cultivate a killing heart—feeding blood with blood, slaying demons with slaughter.

He prepared himself for infamy as a bloodthirsty killer, spat upon by thousands. Who would have thought that infamy never came, but fame did?

The small sects that had suffered bullying and plunder from demon cultivators flocked to Du Xian Sect. They knelt and praised Jiyang Zhenren for his bravery and righteousness, his jade-like face and compassionate heart, single-handedly butchering demons with unparalleled merit.

Jiyang Zhenren finally realized that the Killing Dao only made the Dragon Blood more restless and uncontrollable, while the Merit Dao calmed it. To kill or to save was merely a flip of the hand. No matter what Dao one cultivated, it was all about putting oneself first, or heaven and earth would punish.

Jiyang Zhenren donned pure white robes, his sleeves fluttering as he transformed into the Immortal Venerable of the era—heart embracing the world, eyes filled with sorrowful compassion.

But merit was not like killing, where one could strike swiftly. To earn true gratitude, one had to save people from dire straits. And dire straits could not be predicted. Sometimes, by the time Jiyang Zhenren received word and rushed over, the ones who deserved death were dead, and the ones who deserved to live only resented him for not arriving sooner.

Jiyang Zhenren did not agonize over it for long. Cultivation waited for no one. Since he could not predict crises, he would create them. He fanned flames, sowed discord, and incited wars between sects; or severed mountains, parted seas, stirred winds and clouds, and brought disasters upon mortals. Once those sects fell into chaos, he resolved their grudges with thunderous might, winning hearts with gentle spring breezes and rains. When mortals faced death, he appeared as the savior to turn the tide, accepting worship with a bodhisattva’s compassion.

Jiyang Zhenren grew ever more adept. His left hand ignited fires, his right extinguished them. His fame rose like the tide, and his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. Thus, he soared onward, advancing to Soul Transformation and aiming straight for Tribulation Transcendence.

But after all his schemes, he had not accounted for the fact that the Heavenly Dao was no pushover. Such actions would eventually bring retribution—karma cycles back upon oneself. The tribulation lightning for his breakthrough to Tribulation Transcendence Realm came like the Heavenly Dao’s fury, vast and boundless, intent on erasing him completely from heaven and earth. He sacrificed all the life-saving magic artifacts he had accumulated over a millennium, barely preserving his life.

Jiyang Zhenren crawled out from the ruined formation, his white robes stained with blood, hair disheveled and filthy, his cultivation greatly damaged. He plummeted back to Nascent Soul Late-Stage, his Spiritual Veins exhausted, his lifespan burned away—he had walked into a dead end.

“Serves him right,” Xun Ji judged in his heart.

【Host, this is not the time for commentary. At the Immortal Alliance Conference, the original body’s hypocritical mask is about to be torn off. We need to think of a countermeasure quickly!】 The System looked distressed.

“I can’t do anything about it. It’s up to Lu Yun Ting to think.” Xun Ji lay on the bed in the small hut, idly flipping through the task panel.

Perhaps the exposure of his previous aliases had deeply stimulated Lu Yun Ting, as the Emotion Vein Restriction unsealing progress had reached 40%. Xun Ji had two more Scratch Cards in hand. But this time, he had learned his lesson and tossed them straight into his Storage Pouch. Scratch Cards activated upon scratching, and to avoid the embarrassment of half-transforming into a snake like last time, he decided not to touch the System’s gifts unless absolutely necessary.

【But the Protagonist isn’t hesitating between the Host and the sect? What if he still chooses to obey the sect’s orders, uphold righteousness over kinship, and kill the Host?】

“I’m Nascent Soul Late-Stage at least. He’s only Nascent Soul Early Stage. Even with his protagonist halo cranked up, if I can’t beat him, I can always run.”