"You led me to Initiation; I'll lay you to rest."

Chen Qiu led Fat Dragon along the mountain path all the way to the Mocking Heaven Sect's mountain gate. Along the way, the other cultivators who had entered the secret realm warily watched one another. Ordinarily, "challenge"-type secret realms posed little threat to one's life.

You only needed to focus on clearing your trial.

But there was always someone with itchy hands.

Someone who just had to stab you in the back.

Beyond the mountain gate lay ruins amidst grand architecture. Moss covered everything, and waves of decay hung in the air. Behind the gate stood a bronze bell, a full ten zhang tall.

Several lines of large characters were carved upon the bronze bell, brimming with sword intent that looked down upon all beneath heaven.

"First Trial: Severing Worldly Attachments."

"Pass this trial, and you may become a menial disciple of the Mocking Heaven Sect. Only then may the path of sword cultivation be considered Initiation."

Not a speck of dust lay near the bronze bell, as though an invisible barrier kept the dust from settling. Clearly, once one stepped into this barrier, the first trial would officially begin.

By now, everyone had gathered before the bronze bell, staring at one another as they hesitated. No one dared to be the first to step forward.

The first person to eat crab often reaped a rich harvest.

But the first person to eat an arrow-poison pufferfish probably would not gain much.

Chen Qiu was in no hurry either. He and Fat Dragon stood quietly where they were, their gazes passing over the bronze bell to inspect the ruins behind it. Yet he saw no footprints belonging to Zhao Yishi. It seemed Zhao Yishi had not entered this trial first, but had gone elsewhere to search for treasures.

At that moment—

Quite a few cultivators came to their senses. Ignoring the first trial altogether, they headed for the other ruined buildings to see whether they could loot any treasures. These were the ruins of an ancient sect, after all; it was impossible for there to be no treasures at all.

They would be satisfied with something as simple as a hundred-thousand-year-old spirit herb.

"Let's go!"

Apart from those cultivators who preferred exploration, many still believed the rewards for clearing trials would be better. One middle-aged man, his face solemn and carrying the air of "the wind howled, the Yi River ran cold," strode toward the bronze bell.

The instant he stepped into the barrier's range—

He suddenly froze in place as though someone had struck him over the head with a club and knocked him senseless. But after one breath, he regained consciousness. His eyes were red-rimmed, and his body shook violently. Clearly, somewhere beyond the sight of the crowd, he had undergone something unknown.

The man said nothing. With reddened eyes, he strode around the bronze bell and headed deeper into the ruins.

"So that's how it is."

Fat Dragon nodded thoughtfully. "Looks like it creates an illusion and makes you kill your own family inside it. Is it really that simple?"

"Mm."

Chen Qiu said softly, "It was probably real in the past. But after the sect declined, for some reason it appeared in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, so it should have turned into an illusion."

With someone having set an example—

Those behind them stopped dawdling.

One after another, they strode into the barrier. After a single breath, each successfully cleared the trial. Yet everyone reacted differently: some had red-rimmed eyes, some trembled from head to toe, some wore savage expressions, some showed neither grief nor joy, and some were filled with sorrow.

A thousand people, a thousand faces—nothing could describe it better.

"We're going too."

Chen Qiu no longer hesitated and immediately stepped into the bronze bell's barrier. His heart jolted, his mind buzzed, and then he appeared in a white space. Clouds and mist wrapped around him, obscuring the distance.

And standing before him was... Fat Dragon.

"..."

Chen Qiu was a little speechless. Had it truly been unable to find his family, wife, or children, so it simply used Fat Dragon—the person closest to him—as his inner demon?

The Fat Dragon before him looked utterly innocent. Gazing at him pitifully, he asked in the same somewhat cautious manner as always, "Brother Qiu, where are we going later?"

At that moment—

A panel wrapped in cloud and mist slowly emerged beside Fat Dragon.

"This is your beloved friend and sworn brother."

"You once slew demons, cultivated, and fought shoulder to shoulder. He accompanied you through countless days and nights, and the two of you could safely entrust your backs to each other."

"To enter sword cultivation, first slay this man."

"Can you bring yourself to do it?"

"..."

Chen Qiu sighed softly. His favorable impression of this ancient sect, the Mocking Heaven Sect, diminished by another thread. No wonder it had declined; it was not without reason. Shaking his head, he ignored the innocent expression on Fat Dragon's face and casually flung out three Lightning-Channeling Arts.

Amid flashing lightning—

Fat Dragon had already become a charred human skeleton, and the air filled with the scent of roasting fat.

The surrounding clouds and mist gradually dispersed, and everything returned to normal. But just as Chen Qiu was about to turn around and go back to tell Fat Dragon something, he suddenly saw Fat Dragon standing outside the bronze bell. His body was covered in bloody wounds, his face filled with disbelief as he heavily toppled backward.

"Fat Dragon!"

Chen Qiu could not stop himself from crying out. He rushed forward in great strides, and at that moment, that hollow, ethereal voice from beyond the heavens rang in his ears again.

"Sever worldly attachments; enter sword cultivation."

"The inner demon you slew in this trial was not an illusion, but a manifestation. You personally killed your beloved friend and sworn brother. You now possess the qualifications to become a sword cultivator."

Chen Qiu rushed to Fat Dragon's side in disbelief, momentarily losing his composure. Just as he was about to take out some healing pills he had previously looted from corpses and feed them to Fat Dragon, he discovered that Fat Dragon had already breathed his last. Not a trace of life remained.

The surrounding crowd merely glanced in his direction before lingering no longer, striding into the bronze bell's barrier.

At last, he understood why every person who had cleared the trial wore such sorrowful expressions. They must have learned that the people they killed were not illusions, but manifestations—their own relatives had truly been killed by their own hands.

What kind of bullshit sword cultivation was this?!

He stood there in a daze, his face blank. Holding Fat Dragon's corpse in his arms, he sat upon the ground and looked around. For a moment, he felt dazed. There was no sorrow on his face, only the bewilderment of not knowing what he should do next.

His memories seemed to return to several days ago.

Fat Dragon had stopped him, snatched his pig head meat, taken him into the bamboo forest, and given him medicine that made him a Qi Refining Realm cultivator and awakened his first trait. It could be said that Fat Dragon had been his guide, and Chen Qiu had always felt grateful toward him.

In the first Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, Fat Dragon had helped him heavily injure many demons and yielded cultivation progress to him. It could be said that without Fat Dragon, his cultivation progress in the early stages could never have risen so quickly.

But now—

"..."

After a long while, Chen Qiu, sitting on the ground, let out a soft sigh. The light gradually returned to his lifeless eyes. After remaining silent for a long time, he finally rose and blasted a large pit into the ground with the Lightning-Channeling Art, then buried Fat Dragon's corpse within it.

He filled the pit back in.

"You led me to Initiation; I'll lay you to rest."

"Not bad, either."