However, Senior Brother Peijin is a very nice person, although he is a bit dull and emotionless.

He prepared a gift for An Zhengzheng: a jade pendant that could conceal one's cultivation level.

"I made this for fun. Every junior brother and sister has one. No one below the Golden Core stage can tell your cultivation level. Also, if the jade pendant breaks, it can notify me. You can crush it if you are in danger."

"You refined this, Senior Brother?" An Zhengzheng was somewhat surprised. "Isn't this a skill of the Weapon Sect?"

All that could be heard was Senior Brother Pei Jin saying calmly, "The Path of Ruthlessness has the most stringent admission requirements. Do you know why?"

"I don't know."

"Because the path of ruthlessness requires learning the skills of various sects, one will inevitably fail to succeed without talent and hard work."

An Zhengzheng nodded: "I understand. The children of prominent families who can pass the joint entrance exam will definitely make up one or two spots, so we only need the three most outstanding ones."

After all, the Ruthless Path only recruits the top three scholars (Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, and Tanhua). If the top scholar doesn't come to Siyue Sect to cultivate the Ruthless Path, the spot will remain vacant, and the fourth person won't be allowed to fill it.

An Zhengzheng said goodbye to her senior brother Pei Jin and turned to leave, but then she heard him call her back.

"Junior Sister!"

"Why are you so deeply in love?"

Having deep-rooted emotions is not conducive to cultivating the path of detachment.

Pei Jin looked at An Zhengzheng with doubt in his eyes: "Even ordinary women don't have such deep feelings."

An Zhengzheng had known about this since she was a child; the clan would conduct unified testing.

"That doesn't stop me from becoming a god, an immortal," An Zhengzheng replied before bidding farewell to her senior brother Pei Jin.

Pei-Jin raised an eyebrow.

In the end, An Zhengzheng still didn't dare to visit her senior sister.

She went to the library and flipped through books everywhere, trying to find ways to improve herself.

The Path of Ruthlessness differs from other paths; it requires cultivating everything, which also means having greater choices.

During this time, An Zhengzheng buried herself in searching for books, which attracted the attention of many people.

On the jade slip, everyone was inquiring about a female cultivator with exceptional beauty. At first, some people speculated that she might be from the Hehuan Sect, but the Siyue Sect did not have a Hehuan Sect.

Because the Hehuan Sect's cultivation method was introduced a thousand years ago when Demon Lord Xiao Junyan represented the Demon Realm in making peace with the Immortal Realm.

This is a cultivation method that mutated from demonic cultivation. Some absolutely righteous sects did not accept it, such as the Siyue Sect and the Xiansuan Sect.

Therefore, many people are secretly speculating about which sect this solitary female cultivator belongs to.

After the Siyue Sect stopped recruiting disciples, the sect officially opened its training hall to facilitate disciples who had entered Qi cultivation to receive their new student gift packs.

An Zhengzheng appeared with An Yirou that day.

An Yirou was innocent and gentle, and she quickly made new friends at Siyue Gate, but she did not forget her older sister An Zhengzheng.

She got up early and went with An Zhengzheng to pick up the freshman welcome package, where they ran into the girls next door.

When asked by others, she smiled and said, "This is my older sister, An Zhengzheng. She cultivates the Path of Ruthlessness."

An Zhengzheng smiled and nodded to them.

"Sister, you don't know, recently a lot of people on the Jade Slip Forum have been talking about a female cultivator, and I'm guessing it's you."

On the way, after greeting the neighbor girls, An Yirou and An Zhengzheng started gossiping.

An Zhengzheng thought about it and realized that recently many people had been secretly watching her, making her feel uncomfortable and her expression had turned cold.

"Are people on the forum talking about me?" An Zhengzheng had no idea what was going on.

She downloaded the beginner's guide on her very first day at Siyue Gate.

To avoid distraction, she immediately cast a spell to block the dynamic post after downloading it. Sometimes, when she was focused, she even had to cast a spell to lock the jade slip for a limited time.

Cultivating immortality and becoming a god is not easy, and she did not want to allow herself to have an unstable Dao heart.

So I've been doing this since I was very young.

An Yirou nodded: "Most of the discussion is about my sister's outstanding appearance. If everyone knew that my sister entered the palace as the top scholar, there would probably be a lot of discussion."

An Zhengzheng remained silent.

"Sister, are you unhappy?" An Yirou was sensitive and perceptive, and quickly caught An Zhengzheng's emotions.

An Zhengzheng paused for a moment, then explained softly, "It's not that I'm unhappy, it's just that I feel that every woman in the world is exceptional."

An Yirou thought for a moment, nodded, and agreed, "Sister makes a lot of sense."

Then, she said helplessly, "Luckily, I know you well, sister. I know you really don't care about these things. If it were someone else, they would probably think you're hypocritical."

An Zhengzheng smiled but didn't say anything.

When they entered the training hall, they saw a large group of disciples gathered together.

These are all disciples participating in the joint examination. They have already achieved Qi induction and will receive their reward package that very day. Ordinary people, on the other hand, will have to undergo a month-long assessment to achieve Qi induction.

They surrounded the senior student who was distributing gift bags.

"Hello, senior sister. We're here to collect our freshman welcome packs," An Zhengzheng greeted them, and then introduced herself to An Yirou.

Hearing the sound, everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the two sisters.

The senior sister raised her eyes and glanced at An Zhengzheng from head to toe: "You are the second female disciple of the Heartless Path?"

"yes."

"Born so beautifully, yet she cultivates the Path of Ruthlessness instead of the Joyful Union Sect?" The senior sister looked at An Zhengzheng and felt a little sorry for her. "What a waste of such a beautiful appearance."

After all, the other female cultivator who practiced the Path of Ruthlessness had already gone mad.

An Zhengzheng remained noncommittal, then asked, "I wonder what the new student gift pack for the Ruthless Path contains?"

"Disciples from aristocratic families are supported by their families, so the Siyue Sect doesn't provide basic pills or magical artifacts. However, the sect will allocate them. You ruthless disciples learn everything, so the gift package... is provided according to your innate destiny." The senior sister asked, "I wonder what your innate destiny is, junior sister?"

An Zhengzheng took out a small sword from her sleeve: "This is my natal sword."

The senior sister was even more surprised: "There are very few women who wield weapons, especially now that fans, flowers, and umbrellas can be used as magical tools. Nowadays, apart from sword cultivators, other female cultivators rarely use weapons."

An Zhengzheng said, "I like swords."

A three-foot sword lies across the two banks of the river, and the Five Ding crowns adorn the Palace of a Hundred Gods.[1]

How could she not like it?

An Zhengzheng accepted the freshman gift package from the senior sister who was shaking her head slightly.

It's called a big gift package, but it actually only contains a whetstone, a good thing specifically for sharpening swords.

"Junior sister, be careful not to hurt your hands while sharpening your sword."

After the senior sister finished speaking, she gave An Yirou a new student gift pack from the Talisman Sect. It contained a piece of graphite, a brush, and some cinnabar, all of which were tools to help with drawing talismans.

The disciples watching all secretly sized up An Zhengzheng, but none of them dared to step forward and speak to her.

They already knew that An Zhengzheng was the female champion when she introduced herself as a disciple of the Ruthless Path.

An Zhengzheng could vaguely hear someone muttering.

"Why would a perfectly good woman choose to cultivate the Path of Heartlessness?"

"Yes, it's such a waste that she's so beautiful. Who would dare to marry a woman who cultivates the Path of Ruthlessness? She's cold and aloof, not like a woman at all."

"Yes, wielding swords and knives doesn't seem like something a woman would do..."

——————

[1] Tang Dynasty, Lü Yan (Lü Dongbin), "Seven-Character Poem" (supplemented by reader mLLm)