"hiss--"

After a hoarse, long hissing sound, a monstrous beast descended from the sky and crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

This monstrous beast had a huge and sturdy body, and its skin was covered with hard scales. It was jet black and as smooth as a layer of hard stone, which made people shudder.

The serpent's head resembled a lion's, with sharp fangs and menacing eyes. Its tail was like a giant whip, exuding an aura of endless ferocity.

But this terrifying beast was now lying on the ground, panting heavily, its forked tongue sticking out unwillingly.

Upon closer inspection, one can see that its body is covered with crisscrossing sword marks, a section of the tightly packed scales on its tail has been cut off, and even half of its fangs are broken off from its forked mouth.

At its seven-inch mark, a transparent sword lies across it.

Lu Zhaozhao touched the ground with both feet and walked step by step toward the demon snake.

The snake seemed somewhat wary, frantically thrashing its body, trying to escape, but Ni Ye firmly pinned it to the ground, not moving an inch.

When Lu Zhaozhao stood in front of it, it opened its huge, blood-red mouth as if to intimidate her.

But this trick didn't work on Lu Zhaozhao, because the broken fang in its mouth was one that she had just cut off herself.

She fought the serpent for five days. She defeated it in three days, and for the remaining two days, the serpent used the terrain to escape while she chased after it.

Ironically, she was just resting and meditating in the cave when this serpent somehow wandered in by accident and started biting anyone it saw, forcing her to retaliate.

Lu Zhaozhao looked at the demonic snake on the ground. It had stopped struggling, and its narrow eyes were staring at her with venom.

Lu Zhaozhao sneered, took out a dagger, and ended its life.

Then he pulled out a dagger and scraped it.

If you think about it carefully, she stepped into the back mountain a year ago today. In the past year, she has gone from being chased and fleeing for her life after provoking monsters to being able to seriously injure or even kill some monsters with slightly lower abilities. The hardships she has endured are hard to describe in words.

The first monster she killed was a fox demon six months ago.

The fox spirit is skilled at bewitching people's hearts; it weaves a dream.

In her dream, Lu Zhaozhao, dressed in red, gently placed her hand on the hand extended by the handsome man in front of her.

She was surrounded by admiring glances from male cultivators and envious, jealous looks from female cultivators.

Lu Zhaozhao didn't know if this was a common dream for female cultivators, but she knew it wasn't what she wanted.

Therefore, she easily broke through this crude dream.

The fox spirit has no fighting ability; its only weapon is weaving dreams. Dreams woven according to the desires of different species have never been so easily broken before.

Before the fox demon could react, Niye arrived first.

The fox spirit died, but Lu Zhaozhao, with Wei Zhanjie's guidance, obtained the fox spirit's demon core.

It was a small ball with a faint purple glow, buried deep in my heart.

Lu Zhaozhao was deeply shocked by her first dissection work. The image of the fox demon's broken body echoed in her mind day and night, lingering for a long time.

It wasn't until half a month later, when she single-handedly confronted the tiger demon and pierced its heart with a sword, that shadow gradually dissipated.

Wei Zhanjie told her that every cultivator who has just stepped out of the sect's protection is like this. They find it hard to accept their initial bloodshed, but as more and more blood accumulates in their hands and the corpses piled up at their feet, they become accustomed to it.

Lu Zhaozhao bit her lower lip tightly, lowered her head and remained silent, mechanically scooping out the demon core.

She sniffed and said in a muffled voice, "Can such a heart of stone really cultivate the path of ruthlessness?"

Wei Zhanjie looked at her with some pity and said, "No."

Lu Zhaozhao suddenly looked up at him with red eyes.

“But the demon core can help you cultivate faster,” Wei Zhanjie continued, nodding slightly with his chin to signal her not to stop what she was doing.

Lu Zhaozhao nodded and continued what she was doing, asking, "Then what should I do?"

“You must figure out your own path,” Wei Zhanjie said.

“But what Emperor Huizong taught was the path of cultivation that severes emotions and love.” Lu Zhaozhao said as she took out the demon core she had extracted.

Both the content of the book she read before transmigrating into the book and the knowledge she learned after transmigrating into the book told her that the Path of Ruthlessness is a path that requires severing all cause and effect, leaving no room for compromise, going all out, and disregarding all consequences.

This is why Yunxian and Nianzhi's relationship has been so bumpy.

Those who are dedicated to cultivating the Tao should avoid being swayed by emotions. Once they fall into lust, they will find it difficult to make further progress, or even lose all their cultivation.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhaozhao pouted, thinking that even Yun Xian, a child of destiny, had his cultivation level reduced to the Nascent Soul stage after he became certain that he liked Nian Zhi. This shows that the Path of Ruthlessness is just as its name suggests, and cannot be mixed with any emotion.

Lu Zhaozhao sighed and wiped the tiger demon's core with her sleeve.

This one is clearly rounder and brighter than the fox demon's, suggesting that the tiger demon is much stronger than the fox demon.

Wei Zhanjie looked at her like this, shook his head, and didn't say anything more.

The path of cultivation, and which path one cultivates, varies from person to person; one can only comprehend it for oneself, and further explanation from others is of no use.

Looking down, he saw Lu Zhaozhao carefully put the demon core into her Qiankun bag, bury the tiger demon's corpse, and then mutter something under her breath.

He leaned closer and realized it was the Rebirth Mantra.

A contemptuous laugh escaped his lips, and Wei Zhanjie spoke with a hint of malice: "You've already killed them, don't you find this pretentious?"

Lu Zhaozhao ignored him, finished reading to herself, dusted off her clothes, and said softly, "I killed it because I had to do it under the circumstances. As for what happened afterward, it was just to put my mind at ease."

Wei Zhanjie didn't understand. His famous battle in life was slaying a demonic dragon, and he had killed countless people since then, but he never thought about seeking peace of mind.

But he didn't want to stop them, because some people around him had done the same thing, just to put their minds at ease.

But that person didn't end up well.

Lu Zhaozhao stood up and looked into the distance, her brows furrowed with a hint of seriousness.

In the days that followed, her life consisted of finding monsters, fighting them, escaping for her life, or killing them.

This went on for a long time, and a year passed quickly. When Lu Zhaozhao reached the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage with the help of the demon snake's demon core, she suddenly realized something.

In this outer jungle, it seems she has no rivals.

She looked into the depths of the dense forest, and Wei Zhanjie appeared beside her at some point.

He was intrigued. "Let's go in and take a look!"

Lu Zhaozhao nodded, glanced back at the empty space behind her that had scattered like birds and beasts since she appeared, smiled, and strode into the deeper area.