First Calamity, Severing the Mortal Immortal, Return of Emotions

In the courtyard, the other disciples watched this scene, smiles involuntarily appearing on their faces.

Gu Changyuan withdrew his hand. His gaze swept across the disciples in the courtyard before finally landing on Ye Qingxue.

Ye Qingxue took a step forward. Without any unnecessary pleasantries or greetings, she began her report directly.

The tasks their Master had assigned a month ago had all been fully implemented. All disciples from the Celestial Holy Land, Sky Demon Pavilion, and Heavenly Fiend Sect who had reached the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm had finished their current missions and returned to their respective sect stations.

They were on standby, awaiting their Master's instructions at any moment.

Gu Changyuan nodded.

For the next two days, Gu Changyuan was in no rush to do anything.

He spent a day taking a slow stroll through the Celestial Holy Land.

Afterward, he chatted idly with his disciples in the courtyard for a while, inquiring about their cultivation progress over the past month. He then went to the Sky Demon Pavilion and the Heavenly Fiend Sect to visit the disciples there, soothing their nerves and telling them to prepare with peace of mind, free from any hidden worries.

Gu Changyuan returned to his room in the Celestial Holy Land, closed the door, and sat cross-legged.

He focused his mind and called out to the system within his Sea of Consciousness:

"System, how can I detect the location information and teleportation coordinates of the Upper Realm?"

The system's voice echoed in his Sea of Consciousness, as calm and emotionless as ever.

[Replying to the Host: The system needs to borrow the Host's cultivation base to travel to the Upper Realm and acquire the information for the Host.]

Gu Changyuan's brow twitched slightly.

Borrow his cultivation?

He pondered for a moment.

"How much do you need to borrow?"

[All of it.]

[After borrowing the cultivation, the Host will enter a state of zero cultivation for seven days. Therefore, please ensure that you are in a completely safe location.]

Gu Changyuan massaged his temples.

A full seven days without any cultivation.

In this Nine Heavens Realm, if any accidents were to happen within these seven days, he would be completely powerless to resist.

Gu Changyuan raised his head, looking outside through the window.

All of his disciples were present.

The grand defensive array of the Celestial Holy Land was fully activated, and the experts from the Sky Demon Pavilion and Heavenly Fiend Sect could provide support at any time via teleportation arrays.

In the Nine Heavens Realm, there was no faction capable of posing a threat to the Celestial Holy Land.

It was safe here.

Absolutely safe.

Gu Changyuan withdrew his gaze, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

Truth be told, he didn't feel averse to the idea of having his cultivation borrowed.

If it weren't for the system, he would have perished long ago.

Moreover, this system was likely the greatest trump card left behind by his past self.

Gu Changyuan had never sensed any malice from the system.

There was no control, no demanding extortion, and none of that cold, transactional feeling of "use it first, but you'll have to pay me back later."

Instead, he felt an indescribable sense of affinity towards it.

"Just borrow it then."

Gu Changyuan's voice was calm, as if he were discussing a trivial matter.

"Currently, there is no other faction in the Nine Heavens Realm that can threaten the Holy Land. This place is completely safe."

As his words fell.

In his Sea of Consciousness, that gentle light suddenly flared up.

In an instant, Gu Changyuan felt the spiritual energy within his body being drained completely.

It wasn't just his spiritual energy; his perception of spiritual power, his resonance with the laws of the world, and his control over his own body—all these sensations were rapidly fading away.

His body became heavy, and his senses dulled. The sunlight outside the window was no longer piercing, the sound of the wind rustling the leaves grew distant, and he could no longer feel the spiritual energy fluctuations emitted by the spiritual plants in his room.

The moment his cultivation was siphoned away, a series of crisp sounds echoed in Gu Changyuan's mind.

Crack— Crack— Crack—

It sounded like chains snapping.

One after another, they resonated from the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, from the origin of his soul, from corners he had long forgotten.

He was once incredibly familiar with these things, because he had set them up himself—layer upon layer of protective restrictions.

Crack—

The final restriction.

The sound was different from the previous muffled snaps; it was a crisp ding, like the shattering of fine jade.

The sound reverberated in his mind, its echoes lingering and refusing to dissipate.

And then, the world changed.

A storm of emotions violently swirled in Gu Changyuan's mind, sweeping across his entire consciousness.

It was the feeling of love.

Not the love of family, not the love between master and disciple, not the love between fellow sect members, but romantic love between a man and a woman.

In less than the span of a single breath, all these emotions flooded into Gu Changyuan's emotional world—which had been dry for over a thousand years—like a burst dam.

His body suddenly stiffened.

His right hand instinctively clutched his forehead, fingers burying deeply into his hair. His body hunched slightly, his entire frame trembling.

His eyes widened, his pupils quivering violently.

Under the impact of this emotional storm, a massive amount of memories became completely different.

Fortunately, even though his cultivation and spiritual energy had been borrowed, his physical body remained formidable, and the strength of his soul was far beyond that of ordinary people.

Although the emotional storm was fierce, it ultimately failed to cause any substantial damage to his divine soul.

Gu Changyuan straightened his posture.

He lowered his hand from his forehead, letting it hang by his side, and slightly clenched his fist.

He took a deep, deep breath, and then slowly exhaled.

Then he smiled—a complex smile, tinged with sudden realization and helplessness.

"So..."

His voice was very soft, as if murmuring to himself.

"So the feelings these seven girls have for me were already this obvious?"

He raised his right hand and looked at his palm.

"If the system hadn't suddenly borrowed my cultivation, I would have forgotten about this restriction engraved in my deepest depths."

The Nine Tribulations Sword Array, First Tribulation: Severing Mortal Ties.

The function of that sword strike was simple to describe, but profoundly mystical in practice.

With a single strike, it could toggle all emotional bonds, stripping away the seven emotions and six desires, and it could also restore them.

It could be used on others to sever their emotional attachments.

The fighting spirit born from affection, the goals ignited by love, and the obsessions fueled by hatred—under this sword, all of them would be cut away.

For some cultivators, their Grand Dao and inner righteousness were intrinsically linked to their emotions.

For instance, for a cultivator who entered the Dao through love, severing their love was equivalent to severing their Dao.

For a demonic cultivator who drew power from hatred, losing their hatred would cause their cultivation to plummet drastically.

Severing Mortal Ties could also make a person lose their fear and their will to live.

Of course, it could also be used on oneself.

To strip away one of the seven emotions and six desires, or several, or even all of them.

And what Gu Changyuan had stripped away back then was one of them: romantic love.

It all had to start from the Ruins of Disorder, the first time Gu Changyuan stepped into that chaotic death zone.

At that time, his cultivation was only at the Void Refinement Realm. In the Ruins of Disorder, where Immortals walked everywhere, he was even lesser than an ant.

There, Void Refinement Realm cultivators didn't even qualify to be cannon fodder.

During that period, Gu Changyuan acted with extreme caution.

He didn't dare to expose his whereabouts, didn't dare to stay in the same place for too long, and didn't dare to make contact with any strangers.

His spiritual energy was indeed infinite, but with his cultivation level at the time, many cultivators wouldn't even need to use spiritual power to kill him.

Until he met Qu Qianxue.