Su Yueli looked down at Han Yu, who was kneeling on the ground.
Han Yu bit her lower lip, her gaze revealing a desperate stubbornness.
Looking at this young face, Su Yueli did not feel much pity in her heart.
Her own path was one paved with a sea of blood and bones. She carried a towering blood feud, and her enemies were all powerful cultivators of the Tenth Realm and above.
Taking a mundane martial artist along? That would only be an extra burden.
What was more, mortals had short lifespans. If she were dragged into Su Yueli's karma, she would only meet an even more miserable end.
“Get up.”
Su Yueli's tone was flat, leaving absolutely no room for negotiation. “I do not take disciples. The path I walk is littered with enemies and filled with deadly peril at every turn. Following me will only lead to your utter destruction, with not even your bones remaining.”
“Staying in Luochuan City and living out a peaceful life is the path you should choose.”
Hearing this, instead of getting up, Han Yu slammed her head heavily against the ground.
“Bang!”
The skin on her forehead immediately split, and blood flowed, but Han Yu seemed unable to feel the pain. She lifted her head, her red and swollen eyes filled with bloodshot veins and unwillingness.
Live out a peaceful life?
Having experienced today's tragic disaster and witnessed her father being casually crushed to death like an ant, she had completely seen through this cruel world!
Without strength, all peace was nothing more than charity from the strong!
If others were in a good mood, you could barely survive; if they were in a bad mood, they could slaughter your entire family on a whim!
That high-and-mighty Fourth Realm immortal master, that arrogant and overbearing Zhao family patriarch—which one of them had ever listened to reason?
The only logic in this world was fists!
“I don't want peace!”
Han Yu's voice was hoarse, her every word dripping with blood. “Without strength, if it's the Zhao family today, it will be the Li family or the Wang family tomorrow! I don't want to watch my loved ones die before my eyes ever again! I don't want to remain an ant waiting for death forever! I am not afraid of death; I am only afraid of dying without dignity!”
“I beg Sister Su to accept me as your disciple! As long as I can become strong, even if my body is torn to pieces, I will never regret it!”
Her words echoed with power, and a dead silence instantly fell over the main hall.
Looking at the blood on her sister's forehead, Han Qingling felt a sharp pang of pain in her heart. Her hand, which had reached out to pull Han Yu up, froze in midair.
She understood that their father's death had completely changed her sister.
Su Yueli quietly watched Han Yu's eyes, which were filled with resentment and longing.
This gaze actually bore some resemblance to her past self.
However, on the martial path, determination alone was not enough.
Su Yueli turned around and pointed to the guardian stone lion outside the main gates of the Han residence, which had been half-shattered by the shockwaves of the battle.
This half-lion was forged from cold iron rock and weighed over a thousand catties.
“If you want to become my disciple, you may.”
Su Yueli's expression was cold. “Without using your martial blood qi, seal all the meridians in your body. Relying solely on your mortal flesh, carry that half-stone lion on your back and walk from here, step by step, to the summit of the main peak of Cangji Mountain.”
“The time limit is three days.”
“If you can carry the stone lion up there within three days, I will accept you. If you cannot do it, or if you die along the way, then that is your fate, and you are never to mention becoming my disciple again.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Su Yueli's figure vanished from the hall like a wisp of green smoke, leaving behind only her cold requirement.
Han Qingling's face paled drastically. She hurriedly squatted down and hugged Han Yu. “Yu'er! Are you mad? The main peak of Cangji Mountain is several thousand Zhang high, and the mountain paths are rugged and steep! Your cultivation is only at the peak Second Realm. If you seal off your blood qi, your mortal flesh won't even be able to carry a few hundred catties, let alone that thousand-catty cold iron stone lion!”
“Listen to me, stay with me in the Han family. From now on, all of the Han family's resources will be tilted toward you. The two of us will run the Han family together. Isn't that better than throwing your life away?”
Han Yu pushed Han Qingling's hand away and messily wiped the blood and tears from her face with her sleeve.
Turning her head to stare at the massive, broken stone lion outside the door, only obsession remained in her eyes.
“Sister, Father is dead, and the Han family is now a piece of fat meat. Even with Sister Su's deterrence today, she will eventually leave. The people of Luochuan City will react sooner or later.”
Han Yu gritted her teeth and walked to the stone lion step by step, her hands suddenly wrapping around the rough stone. “The Han family needs a real backer! If I cannot even survive these three days, what right do I have to control my own destiny?”
“Bang!”
Han Yu tapped several major acupoints on her body with her fingertips, directly sealing off all the thin martial blood qi inside her.
Then, using nothing but her bare hands to grip the crevices of the stone lion, she gritted her teeth and hoisted the thousand-catty weight onto her slender shoulders.
Crack—
The moment she lifted it, Han Yu's shoulder bones let out an overloaded crack. Her knees bent sharply, and she nearly collapsed to the ground.
But she bit down hard on the tip of her tongue, using the sharp pain to stimulate her nerves. With trembling legs, she forced herself to walk toward the city gates, step by step.
...
Over the next three days.
Su Yueli did not leave Luochuan City immediately.
Like an ordinary mortal woman, she wore a mask and strolled through the streets and alleys of Luochuan City.
She drank coarse tea by the roadside, listened to storytellers in restaurants, and quietly watched the low-class mercenaries outside the city walls who risked their lives in the mouths of demon beasts just for a few copper coins.
The myriad aspects of the mortal world, birth, old age, sickness, and death.
She lingered amidst the mundane bustle of life, experiencing the struggles of the common masses, and the indifference belonging to a long-lived being grew even firmer in her heart.
During these three days, she would occasionally go to Cangji Mountain to check on the situation.
Initially, she had set that rule simply because she saw through the limits of mortals. She had wanted to make things difficult for Han Yu, forcing the girl to back down and give up.
For a Second Realm martial artist to climb a thousand-Zhang precipice carrying a thousand catties solely with their physical body and without using blood qi was fundamentally a dead end with absolutely no hope of survival.
But the scenes she witnessed brought a hint of surprise to her otherwise tranquil heart.
On the first day, Han Yu fell forty-seven times at the foot of the mountain. Every time she fell, the stone lion would crush her body.
Her shoulders were already torn and bleeding. To grip the mountain rocks, her fingernails had peeled off, leaving her fingers dripping with blood.
On the second day, a heavy downpour fell, making the mountain paths muddy and slippery.
Han Yu's physical strength had long been depleted to its limit. She could not even stand up anymore and could only crawl in the muddy water.
Gripping the mud with her bleeding hands and pushing the stone lion with her head, she nudged herself upward, inch by inch.
The heavy rain washed the blood from her body, leaving a glaring red trail along the entire mountain path.
On the third day, under the scorching sun, Han Yu had already fallen into a semi-conscious state.
The flesh on her legs was torn open, even revealing glimpses of her ghastly white leg bones. Every inch she moved upward felt like a slow slicing of her soul.
Several times, the stone lion rolled down, nearly crushing her head.
Yet, she always managed to unleash a burst of sheer ruthlessness at the most desperate moments to wedge the stone in place.
She should have died long ago.
Both her physical body and her mind should have collapsed long ago.
But what supported her was an obsession to pierce through the heavens, a nearly pathological craving for power.
Dusk of the third day.
The setting sun was as red as blood, dyeing the main peak of Cangji Mountain in a crimson glow.
At the edge of the cliff on the summit, a pair of bloody hands gripped the rim.
Right after, a figure completely covered in blood and mud used the very last ounce of strength in her life to violently push the massive, broken stone lion on her back onto the summit!
“Bang!”
The stone lion landed, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Han Yu collapsed onto the gravel at the summit, panting heavily. Her eyes were sealed shut by blood, her vision was blurred, and her consciousness was rapidly fading.
“I... I did it...”
Her lips parted slightly, but she could make no sound.
A gentle breeze blew past.
At some unknown point, Su Yueli was already standing by the edge of the cliff.
Looking down at the young girl on the ground, who had nearly lost half her life and whose breathing had almost stopped, a ripple finally flickered across her calm eyes.
Su Yueli sighed softly in her heart.
Her original intention was merely to use this hopeless situation to sever Han Yu's hopes.
She had not expected this girl to actually climb up the mountain relying purely on a single breath of determination.
“The matters of this world indeed all have their preordained destiny.”
Su Yueli shook her head.
Since she had planted this cause, and Han Yu had now completed the trial, she would naturally accept this effect.
As for how far this girl could walk on this bloody path of cultivation in the future, it would depend entirely on her own fortune.
Su Yueli slowly walked over to Han Yu.
Her flat voice echoed across the silent summit. “I have seen your determination.”
The moment she heard this voice, Han Yu, who was already on the verge of losing consciousness, suddenly shuddered.
In her blurred vision, that light blue figure stood tall under the setting sun like a deity.
A wave of wild joy erupted from the depths of her soul, miraculously granting a sliver of strength to her battered body.
Han Yu struggled to roll over, kneeling on the gravel and bowing her head at Su Yueli's feet.
“Disciple Han Yu...”
“Pays respects to Master!”
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