Prologue

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

After the Degenerate Age, the aura of heaven and earth gradually thinned, and the road to immortality became incomparably arduous.

Unlike in the former glorious era, people nowadays have to devote great perseverance and countless treasures to improve a single realm of cultivation. Even so, nobody had reached the legendary paramount realm of cultivation, the Mahayana Realm!

The Mahayana Realm is the final stage of Comprehension, only achievable after going through the Nine Heavenly Tribulations. Countless prodigious cultivators were turned into ashes under this terrifying worldly power.

It is a pity that these matters were apparently nothing in front of Ye Xing.

Today was his eighteenth birthday, and also the day he would experience Tribulation. At his age, the ordinary cultivator would have only just embarked on the Road of Cultivation, but Ye Xing had already reached its end.

It was a little sad to say, but even he himself didn’t understand how he had just cultivated to the Mahayana Realm.

Qi Refining at age three, Foundation Building at age five, Golden Core at age seven, all the way to Tribulation; he had never encountered what other cultivators called a ‘bottleneck’.

Of course, this doesn’t mean his cultivation was a comfortable process. From the beginning of the Qi Refining Realm, that old fart made medicinal baths with various unidentifiable things, and even forced him to soak in them every day.

Every single item in those medicinal baths was enough to make a Golden Core go bankrupt or a Nascent Soul cry bitterly; the medicinal bath was so full of spiritual energy that the ordinary Golden Core could die by explosion after soaking for a few minutes. At that time, he was still a Qi Refining cultivator, who would stupidly obey the commands to jump inside. The overflowing spiritual energy almost gave him a stroke, and if it weren’t for the ‘Nine-Nine Profound Arts’ to strengthen his physique, we probably wouldn’t have the following story.

For more than ten years, except for occasionally going out with his master to fight with people, all the remaining time was spent on cultivation. Afterwards… he accidentally cultivated to the Mahayana Realm.

Speaking of the old fart – who never appeared after Ye Xing cultivated to the Tribulation Realm – there was no trace even as he was about to go through Tribulation.

Could it be that his master was back at that vile place having **? After all, master’s a VIP client there, Ye Xing thought, as he raised his middle finger towards the sky, looking at the continuously flickering Tribulation condensing above. Its emanated aura was enough to make Tribulation Realm cultivators shrink back.

Throughout history, when cultivators received their Nine Heavenly Tribulations, they would look for a paradise with rich spiritual energy, or a thousand-fold-secured secret location, or with myriad protectors to eliminate troubles.

But when Ye Xing faced Tribulation, not only was it a randomly chosen plain mountaintop, but there were also people coming to attack him.

“Shameless devil, return my 10,000-year-old Spirit Deer Branch!”

The violent old man holding an immortal sword bellowed in rage. With his immaculate white beard and hair and a face full of wrinkles, his expression was almost as if someone had slept with his Dao companion. No, to him, perhaps robbing the Spirit Deer Branch was even more unacceptable.

Wasn’t it just a heavenly treasure unencounterable for ten thousand years? Look at how anxious you are. It’s only natural to eat this kind of stuff as soon as you get it, now there’s probably only saliva remaining…

“Shameless devil, return my fairy pet!”

The middle-aged cultivator beside him shouted with a similar expression as the first.

You mean that big white rabbit? When you get that kind of thing, it’s only natural to eat it quickly…

“Shameless devil, return my Dao companion!”

You mean that cute little loli? When you get that kind of thing, it’s only natural to… wait, what exactly did that old fart do!

Outside the bare mountain, more than a dozen Tribulation Realm cultivators pointed their swords at the youth currently undergoing Tribulation. Every one of them was a giant in the contemporary world of cultivation; they would normally be received with the highest honours were they to visit any sect. A few of them even had hostile relationships, but now they united against a common enemy.

Regardless of what the old fart did to make so many people concurrently show up during his Tribulation, the robbed things were not returnable anyway. Ye Xing was disinclined to care about them and concentrated on facing his Tribulation instead.

The process of Tribulation was extremely soul-destroying.

Each of the first eight Tribulation Lightnings was enough to reduce cultivators at the peak of the Tribulation Realm to less than dust, though they could only be directly confronted. This was also the reason why those giants of the cultivation world only dared to shout from the afar and did not dare to come close and find faults.

The Nine-Nine Profound Arts that Ye Xing practiced was a physique-refining technique, rarely seen in the world of cultivation. What it pursued was the immortality of the body without relying on external factors. Thus, he chose to headbutt the Heavenly Lightning.

After receiving eight strikes of Tribulation Lightning, Ye Xing touched his scorched hair, wondering whether he should change his hairstyle or not.

The surrounding big shots were all stunned silly. Could Tribulation Lightning be faced like this? Did he practice the mythical Iron Head Technique?

The final strike of the Nine Heavenly Tribulations was the legendary Inner Demon Tribulation.

The Inner Demon Tribulation directly attacked the cultivator’s Heart of Immortality, ignoring all defences. Should one fail to endure, the body would disintegrate from the inside out, with absolutely no chance of survival. This was also the only opportunity for the big shots to avenge themselves. Since challenging the Inner Demon made one incapable of movement, one’s self-protection ability would be almost non-existent. This was the reason why everyone facing their Tribulation would choose a remote and quiet place, to guard against the unexpected.

After all the cultivators looked at each other a few times, it was finally still the violent old man who took the lead.

“Go!”

This was a truly world-shaking battle, with countless divine abilities that normal cultivators could hardly witness in their lifetimes appearing as if it were a military demonstration. The mountains and rivers were trembling; the world became discoloured; and the remnant calamitous energies would render this place barren for decades.

A battle that couldn’t be fully described with 10,000 words occurred.

In front of Ye Xing laid all the big shots, currently vomiting blood, with broken fragments of their various immortal treasures on the ground. In fact, he didn’t want it be like this, but each and every one of these people were far more inflamed than himself. If the outside world knew that they were defeated like this, the entire cultivation world would probably go crazy.

Anyway, he was about to ascend, and wasn’t going to proclaim this matter everywhere.

“Wait, you can’t ascend yet!”

From the violent old man who was vomiting blood on the ground, a bright light flew out and quickly transformed into a human form. This was a soul-possession technique, only useable by high-level cultivators.

Well, it’s still that familiar appearance, that familiar voice, and that familiar vulgarity. If this person dared to stand in front of him now, he would definitely use the strength of his Mahayana Realm cultivation to have an amiable exchange.

“Why shouldn’t I ascend? Just to play mahjong with you?” Ye Xing replied.

“Listen to me first, okay. If you ascend now, things will be terrible.”

Do you know what you’re talking about? It’s like if someone’s about to orgasm, but you make them hold it back? There’s nothing worse than this, right?

“Your lifelong path of cultivation was excessively smooth; I’m afraid that even Tribulation was also just a piece of cake for you.”

That’s right, it was really smooth, like skipping others’ struggles and just upgrading was enough. To be honest, it was actually… quite boring.

But what could he do? It’s not my fault that I’m strong.

“But this will cause your path of cultivation to be imperfect. Cultivation, cultivation, it requires not only the cultivation of the physical body, but also the cultivation of the True Self. In the former, you have reached the pinnacle and obtained ultimate power, but the latter may not necessarily be complete. Seeking the True Self is an important step in achieving the True State; even if you’re the son of heaven or wondrous prodigy, there’s no direct way to bypass it.”

Oh? This was actually a new theory, weren’t the themes of the world of cultivation stuff like “the weak are the prey to the strong”, “strength is respected”, and “survival of the fittest”? When you threw the Nine-Nine Profound Arts in front of me, didn’t you always instil me with these theories of power?

The old fart’s words seemed to open a new door, making him reflect upon his own path of cultivation.

Seems reasonable, I just skipped the ups and downs of life, the broken engagement and face slapping and such plots, so I always feel that there’s something missing in life. It’s like it’s about to end in only a few thousand words. Even without all that, and judging by intuition, he seemed to vaguely sense that his road of cultivation was not yet perfect. This was a very mysterious awareness that had nothing to do with his current cultivation realm.

Also, why should I rush to ascend? Who stipulated that you must ascend after completing Tribulation? Did they ask for the peoples’ opinions? At the age of seventeen years and three hundred and sixty-four days, compared with the few thousand-year-old bigwigs, I’m just a newborn, okay?

What really overwhelmed Ye Xing was the last sentence.

“As the first Mahayana Immortal after the Degenerate Age, have you never been in love before?”

Poof–––––!

Bang bang–––––!

When hitting someone, don’t hit the face! When hurting someone, don’t hurt the heart! Why do you bring up my sad history? Do you want to fight? All my time was spent on cultivation, where was the time to fall in love? Even if there was free time, there were no girls around! Whose fault was it for me not having a relationship? Whose fault was it for me to cultivate in the remote mountains for more than a decade? Whose fault was it that I did nothing but cultivate? Was it not your fault!

Ye Xing seems to feel a heavier pain than when receiving the Nine Heavenly Tribulations. This Mahayana Realm cultivator, invincible in the world, had actually never touched a girl. If later generations knew this matter, they would give him titles such as “Unmarried Celestial” or “Lonely Immortal”, and “Ascetic Cultivator” …

As the first person to survive the Nine Heavenly Tribulations after the Degenerate Age, he felt that he shouldered heavy responsibilities.

To make a long story short, in this “Battle of Heaven’s Judgment” recorded by the major sects of cultivation, more than a dozen peak experts of the cultivation world fought with the first Mahayana Realm cultivator after the end of the Degenerate Age. As a result, except for those few sect elders with profound cultivation, the rest of the world knew nothing. The only information released was that the battle was extremely tragic, and even immortal treasures were destroyed.

After this war, this Mahayana Immortal disappeared without a trace. Some people said he had already ascended into the void, while others believed that he had remained in the world of cultivation.

All hot topics would eventually cool down. As for the bits and pieces about the Battle of Heaven’s Judgment, they were included in the classics for future generations to read.

As for Ye Xing? He didn’t ascend of course! Ignoring what kind of unknown thing ascension was, the old fart’s words usually contained some truth even though the person was contemptible. If the old fart said that his cultivation journey was incomplete, there should be a reason.

The solution’s simple, since the problem is that my path of cultivation was too smooth. Having the strength of the Mahayana Realm, but lacking the experience of the Mahayana Realm, isn’t it sufficient to just increase my experience? It’s best to start from the bottom and try everything that ordinary cultivators should encounter.

Anyway, these are all the old fart’s words. Staying in this world, I’m not afraid of this debtor escaping if something goes wrong.

In order to prevent accidental exposure, he also sealed his Nine-Nine Profound Arts, and would only use it in special situations, otherwise there would be no point in the whole affair.

A Mahayana Realm cultivator instantly turned into a Qi Refining trash. With such an earth-shaking change in temperament, he was confident that even Tribulation Realm cultivators would not be able to discover himself.

The next step, like in all cultivation novels, was to find a sect to start from scratch, and experience the vicissitudes of life.

Now, he was complacently standing at the foot of a satisfactory sect, with a little excitement in his heart. After seventeen years of living in seclusion, he had cultivated to the Mahayana Realm. Today, he at last entered the world of cultivation.

Immortal Destiny Sect.

Name’s not bad, so I choose you.