Chapter 1: The Lone Star of Calamity
The man surnamed Rong was a lone star of calamity.
No one knew his background or his lineage of his cultivation; all that was known was that anyone who had even the slightest connection with him ended up dead.
Whether they died by accident or were murdered, they all died tragically.
Logically, the righteous sects should be filled with righteous indignation and work together to eliminate this scourge that disturbs the peace of the cultivation world.
However, Rong Zhao's cultivation had reached its peak, just one step away from attaining the Dao and ascending to immortality. Furthermore, in recent years, he had lived a quiet and secluded life, while other cultivators of similar levels were either in seclusion or busy with their own ascension. Consequently, the entire cultivation world was temporarily reluctant to provoke him.
Even the Immortal Alliance, which had previously been eager to fight him, had quieted down considerably, only praying that he would ascend quickly and go elsewhere to wreak havoc.
For a time, there was a rare period of peace.
However, recently a rumor quietly began to circulate. Its origin was unknown, and its content was absurd beyond belief, but it couldn't stop cultivators from discussing it with relish, spreading far and wide.
It was said that the capricious, violent, and ruthless Venerable Rong had suddenly become well-behaved because two years ago he met a mortal. He fell hopelessly in love at first sight and secretly brought him back to Cuiyu Mountain… and kept him in captivity.
________
Two years ago.
The rooster crowed three times, the mountain mist began to dissipate.
On the winding stone steps of Chuyun Mountain, unhurried footsteps echoed. Dew-dampened hems and cuffs of robes fluttered in the wind, suggesting the person had just descended from the mountain.
A passing woodcutter, carrying firewood, glanced curiously at him. Seeing his youthful appearance and unfamiliar face, he assumed he was a newly accepted disciple of the Chuyun Sect. He kindly reminded him, "The Chuyun Sect's morning lessons begin in a quarter of an hour. Where are you headed, immortal?"
Rong Zhao stopped.
His expression was indifferent, his face pale with a sickly pallor. His large black robes draped over his body, appearing even thinner in the mountain wind. He possessed none of the ethereal grace typical of an immortal, instead, he resembled more of a sinister ghost long deprived of sunlight. Only a glimmer of clear light in his dark eyes added a touch of life.
"Are you familiar with the Chuyun Sect?" His demeanor was icy and his voice was cold, yet surprisingly pleasant.
The woodcutter chuckled and waved his hand, saying, "Not at all, not at all. How could a mere mortal like me presume to be on familiar terms with the immortals? We just deliver a few loads of firewood up the mountain every day, and over time, I learned the time they ring the bell."
"That's good then." Rong Zhao brushed past him, "From now on, you don't need to deliver firewood up the mountain anymore."
"Wait, immortal...?"
He ignored the woodcutter's bewilderment and continued walking down the mountain.
_____
The morning mountain breeze carried the lingering chill of the previous night, dispelling the bloody smell that clung to Rong Zhao. What dampened his clothes and cuffs wasn't dew, but blood.
All sixty-eight members of the Chuyun Sect, including the sect leader, were dead, not a single one alive.
If the Immortal Alliance received the news, they would surely be in a panic.
He had faced attempts to hunt him down and eliminate him at least eight or ten times, yet none of them succeeded, so Rong Zhao remained entirely unconcerned.
Back then, the sect leader of the Chuyun Sect not only expelled him but also distributed his portrait everywhere, claiming that the sect had suffered a series of misfortunes because of him. He warned other immortal sects to be careful when accepting disciples, urging them to never take in someone cursed with the lone star of calamity.
He, on the other hand, only wanted to find a place where he could eat his fill and shelter from the wind and rain. He even brought the few spirit stones he had painstakingly saved as a gift for becoming a disciple. He had done nothing wrong, yet he was repeatedly told to get lost and nearly lost his life several times.
The culprit, however, received praise for his benevolence and righteousness
Many years later, or rather just last night...
Rong Zhao stormed into the mountain gate, tied the sect leader to a golden pillar in the main hall, slaughtered all the disciples of the Chuyun Sect. After wiping his sword clean, he walked to the sect leader, who was driven mad by the attack. He leaned slightly, his expression carrying an almost naive cruelty, and softly asked, "Why did they praise your benevolence back then?"
"It was you—it was you!" The sect leader's eyes were bloodshot, blood frothing at the corner of his mouth, his lips trembling. "Back then, I was momentarily soft-hearted and spared your life, never expecting it would implicate the entire Chuyun Sect… Heaven is blind, Heaven is truly blind!!"
"Soft-hearted? Spare my life? Where is that life?" This answer did not satisfy Rong Zhao. He lowered his gaze to his own right hand, his voice soft tinged with a hint of reproach, as if he were facing not the sect leader, but a child who had broken a bowl. "I remember before we left the mountain, you even severed the meridians in my right hand."
"You were so young yet so extreme in temperament, so vindictive. I had to be on guard against you!" The sect leader gasped for breath, laughing angrily, "Hahahaha... I never thought that more than twenty years later, sixty-eight members of the Chuyun Sect would still die tragically at your hands, their lineage destroyed. I, Yang, have failed our founding masters..."
Rong Zhao frowned, and with a flick of his hand,
"Bang!"
The incessantly chattering head exploded into a cloud of blood mist, its primordial spirit shattered, its soul was utterly obliterated.
"That benevolence was never meant for me." He dragged the sect leader's corpse, glancing around the main hall littered with limbs and heads. He felt a twinge of disappointment, yet also a sense of entitlement. "The kindness of this world has never been directed to me either. So you all deserve to die."
_____
He dragged the sect leader outside the empty hall, the longsword in his hand suddenly disintegrating into iridescent, crystalline threads, each one incomparably sharp, yet they obediently coiled around his slender fingertips, hanging down.
That was Rong Zhao's natal weapon,*Rao Zhi Rou* (Soft as a Finger's Caress)
The name sounded nice, but its purpose was far from pleasant.
Soon, the sect leader's corpse was chopped up and wrapped in his robes, blood dripped steadily from the bundle.
Every sect kept some ferocious beasts. Rong Zhao carried the bag of mangled flesh to the back mountain, feeding the pieces to the beasts one by one, watching them fight over it.
A moment later, a fleeting smile appeared in his pitch black eyes, as deep and still as an ancient well. The bloodstains splattered at the corners of his eyes seemed to lift with that expression. He was clearly smiling, yet his smile was utterly cold.
"However, your benevolence isn't entirely useless; at least it can feed them."
Before the words were finished, a deafening roar echoed as the restraints binding the ferocious beasts were completely destroyed. The fresh scent of blood wafted in with the mountain breeze. The beasts, having just devoured human flesh, growled softly, hesitated for a moment, and then galloped towards the front of the mountain.
_____
The feast on the mountain likely hadn't ended yet.
But none of that mattered to Rong Zhao anymore.
After a whole night of fighting, he was indeed exhausted. He stopped halfway up the mountain to rest for a moment, then pulled a book from his robes.
The cover prominently displayed the words "The Path of Ruthlessness."
Opening to the first page, he read, "The First Sword to Immortality: Slay the one you love."
Rong Zhao was very fond of this cultivation manual; when he was in a bad mood, he would take it out and read it several times.
He sat on a clean, flat stone, flipping through the book in his hands three times. Suddenly, he noticed that the last page, which he had previously refused to budge, seemed to have loosened. It appeared that as the past faded like smoke, his cultivation realm had advanced slightly. "
Rong Zhao hesitated for a moment, then turned to the last page.
What met his eyes was the familiar line: "The first sword to immortality, slay the one you love". But beneath it, a line of small annotation gradually appeared: "The final level of the Path of Ruthlessness is called Severing Worldly Ties. To use this to prove one's Dao and ascend, one must sever worldly ties, find the one who loves you deeply, and slay them. "
Rong Zhao paused, then read it again.
"someone who loves me… deeply??"
He didn't seem to have such a thing; on the contrary, there were plenty of people who hated him to the bone.
This wasn't something that could be stolen.
He understood the nature of romantic love between mortals well enough, but he couldn't understand how anyone could be so desperate for something so ethereal, intangible things.
Life was precious, and surviving was difficult. Exchanging his genuine heart for another's simply wasn't worthwhile for him.
Rong Zhao closed the book and gently tapped its spine with his knuckles.
He thought of the woodcutter from earlier.
Mortals always seem to harbor an inexplicable worship and reverence for cultivators. These feelings, if manipulated slightly, that sentiment could easily transform into a reckless, moth-to-a-flame kind of infatuation.
It was highly effective.
Rong Zhao stood up and dusted off the hem of his robe.
He decided to trick a mortal into coming to him to serve as catalyst for his enlightenment.
_________
Author's Note:
Let's begin! Here's a reading guide:
1. The protagonist Shou is clearly a scumbag, it's a one-sided redemption by protagonist Gong, happy ending;
2. The protagonist Shou only starts to frequently crawl, twist, and scream in darkness after his attempt to attain enlightenment by killing his husband backfires. He's doing well in the early stages and doesn't have these breakdowns.
3. The writing style is generally lighthearted, but there will still be some melodramatic moments.
TL: Here is the first chapter, I translated, edited and upload it using my old phone, so if there's any mistakes, please let me know in the comments. *If there's someone actually read this*
