Su Ling'er's Dao Heart

There was no solid feeling beneath her feet, just a hollow emptiness.

The sea of clouds and the sky before her, along with the faces both familiar and vague, all began to fade and peel away in that moment.

The world changed before her eyes once more.

When she opened her eyes, the scene before her was no longer the Dao Seeking Ladder, but Qing Xu Temple, where she had been a disciple for three years. It was the bluestone plaza of the outer sect, the one where she had to sweep fallen leaves every day.

The air was filled with the scent of damp grass and wood, and familiar footsteps grew closer.

"What a shame, such a good girl, the only four-element Pseudo Spiritual Root in our Qing Xu Temple. Her family spent a fortune to send her up the mountain back then. It looks like all their effort will be for nothing."

"Isn't that the truth? She's still a little better than those pure mortals with no spiritual roots at all. But... alas, all that money wasted. With her aptitude, she probably won't even get into the inner sect. Lingering in the outer sect is worse than leaving the mountain early."

"Yeah, I heard she got stuck at Qi Refining Level 3 and couldn't advance any further. Sect Master Xuan Yuan saw how diligent and capable she was in the outer sect, so he advised her to go down the mountain and get married. She's still a Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator, after all. As long as she's not too picky, she can still marry into a good family."

Those voices came from a series of blurred faces.

The senior brother who spoke those words had once helped her lift a water bucket when she was struggling;

The inner sect senior sister had also given her a few extra copper coins when she ran errands for her.

There was no malice in those voices, only pity, but that condescending attitude was suffocating.

Of course, it wasn't just pity; there was also undisguised mockery from many inner sect disciples.

"Junior Sister Su, you haven't even filled your water yet, and you're already slacking off and daydreaming?"

"You're thinking about Foundation Establishment with a Pseudo Spiritual Root? What a pipe dream!"

"Look at you. Since you don't want to go down the mountain, you'll be stuck doing chores for us inner sect disciples your whole life!"

In the illusion, she repeatedly tried to guide Qi into her body, but the spiritual energy rampaged through her meridians, refusing to obey her commands. Progress was still as slow as a crawling turtle, and a sense of powerlessness surged from all directions, threatening to drown her.

Why?

Is it because their spiritual roots are better than mine that they can soar to the heavens?

Why?!

I've worked so hard, why isn't it enough?!

Then, the indifferent face of the Qing Xu Temple Sect Master appeared before her.

"Whatever method you use, find out the truth about their cultivation techniques, gather irrefutable evidence that they are Evil Cultivators, and report all intelligence to me. Once this is accomplished, I will not only take you as a personal disciple, breaking the usual rules, but I will also personally perform Bone Cleansing Marrow Washing for you and reshape your roots and bones! In the future, let alone forming a Core, at least Foundation Establishment will surely be within your grasp."

Su Ling'er knew very well why she had been chosen.

Because she was just an insignificant pawn. If she were lost, no one would care.

She was merely an outer sect disciple who did chores.

But precisely because she was diligent, hardworking, and yearned for the Righteous Path and cultivation, she would faithfully carry out this perilous mission. This was her only chance to climb higher as an outer sect disciple.

She was fortunate, and yet unfortunate.

The true future of the sect would never be sent on such a dangerous mission. They were precious jade, while she was merely a roadside pebble.

But her heart still held resentment.

Why?!

Because my innate spiritual roots are inferior, I'm destined to be trampled underfoot?

Because of my poor birth, I'm destined to accept others' pity and endure their mockery?

She also wanted to be a player, no longer a pawn.

The Undercover Mission was poison, but it was also her only antidote.

In the outer sect of Qing Xu Temple, there were countless pebbles like her who never even got the chance to become a pawn, their lifespans simply exhausted in despair.

But she, Su Ling'er, had been chosen.

Even if the path ahead was a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, a bottomless abyss, the end of the road was the words "Foundation Establishment."

It was the first true scenic view on the path to immortality!

Dying on the road was better than rotting in place!

The noise in her mind was cut off by a single thought.

A Pseudo Spiritual Root, does it truly mean one cannot achieve immortality?

She wanted to see.

She was determined to see the view from the mountaintop!

Su Ling'er's eyes cleared within the illusion.

She lifted her leg and stepped onto the second step.

The third step.

The fourth step.

The tenth step.

Behind her, the illusions of Qing Xu Temple collapsed, and the voices faded away with them.

The scene before her changed once more.

This time, the sensation of scorching flames burning her skin instantly assailed her, so real it almost made her cry out.

She saw it.

She saw herself being held up by two Gui Xi Sect disciples and thrown into a massive alchemy furnace.

That obsessed alchemist, Lu Wu, was frantically casting alchemical techniques outside the furnace.

The furnace fire blazed, the copper walls glowing red, and she tumbled within the furnace cauldron.

She watched her own hands, from skin to flesh to bone, continuously melt away, turning to charcoal.

Flesh and bone were constantly refined, scorched, and finally forged into a living pill, its surface constantly showing her pained screams!

The scene shifted.

Clang, clang, clang...

Deafening hammer blows rang out, and she was tied to a forging platform again.

A giant hammer, shimmering with strange inscriptions, struck her body again and again.

Her bones shattered inch by inch, her flesh was beaten into a blur, and her body was forcibly twisted and stretched into the rough shape of a sword!

Her soul trembled at this moment!

Yet she had no chance to catch her breath; the ground beneath her turned into damp soil.

The despairing, numb aura of the Spirit Beast Garden surrounded her.

She would never forget.

She watched herself become one of them, her eyes vacant, shackles on her limbs, forced to toil in the fields, pulling minecarts.

The moment she paused, she would be whipped until her skin split and flesh bled.

And she could only painfully pull the cart forward step by step, serving the Gui Xi Sect disciples who chatted and laughed beside her.

Watching them enjoy the spirit stones she had painstakingly moved and the spiritual grass she had painstakingly grown.

While she could only gaze from afar, within this endless toil, she would eventually reach the end of her life.

Until her lifespan was exhausted and her soul annihilated, her fallen body would be dragged back to the sect and processed into a part of the Human Origin Soil.

This was the Gui Xi Sect!

This was a Demon Den where one couldn't see their fingers in the darkness!

Su Ling'er's soul trembled incessantly; every part of her body seemed to scream at her to run, to give up!

But why cultivate the Dao?

Was it not for eternal life?

Was it not to live as long as the heavens, roam freely between heaven and earth, and witness all the wonders of the world?

Was it not to control her own destiny, to no longer fear, to no longer be at the mercy of others?

She, Su Ling'er, was determined to achieve immortality!

Even if she only had a four-element Pseudo Spiritual Root, even if her innate talent and roots were extremely poor.

She still wanted to obtain all of this.

She would make all of this a reality!

She would trample all these fiends who treated human lives as playthings underfoot, and make these evil cultivators who disregarded human lives taste this kind of despair!

Her steps became heavy, each one bringing a spiritual agony that made her body tremble uncontrollably, but her footsteps never faltered.

Twenty steps!

Thirty steps!

Forty steps!

Below the Dao Seeking Ladder.

The scene erupted in a clamor, all eyes fixed on the slender figure steadily climbing upwards.

"Am I seeing things?

Little Junior Sister, isn't this her first time here?

And she's already reaching the forty-fifth step?!"

"What a joke!"

"Does this newly arrived native Little Junior Sister have such high hidden Will stats?"

"Look at her expression, why does it feel like she's not seeking the Dao, but seeking revenge?"

"I'm guessing her Dao heart or Will stats are terrifyingly high."

Others looked in unison at the Artifact Refining Pavilion disciples who had just come down from the ladder.

Those disciples who cultivated the Sword Refining Art.

When playing this Dao Seeking Ladder, which of them didn't have to come down after climbing ten or twenty steps the first time?

Even those who randomly got higher Dao heart and Will stats at the start, and cultivated the Sword Refining Art, many only managed thirty or forty steps.

In the end, they were either crushed by the pressure until they couldn't breathe, or driven insane by the Inner Demon illusions.

Lin Qingfeng also dropped his nonchalant expression, a hint of amusement playing on his face.

This Little Junior Sister... with such poor innate talent and bone structure in her initial data, a Pseudo Spiritual Root at that, and even a bit of artificial intelligence deficiency.

Could it be that her randomly assigned stats at the start were all allocated to Will or Dao heart?

Or perhaps, the judging mechanism of this Dao Seeking Ladder for native NPCs is different from ours, the players?