Qu Qianxue

She was a peerless beauty at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm. Dressed in white with long hair cascading like a waterfall, she held a slender curved blade in her hand.

When Gu Changyuan first saw her, he had already been in the Ruins of Disorder for about thirty years, and his cultivation had reached the early Mahayana Realm.

He was being chased by a mutated beast at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, fleeing wretchedly across the wasteland. His protective spiritual aura had already been mostly shredded by the beast's sharp claws.

The beast was faster and stronger than him. Had it not been for his boundless spiritual energy, which allowed him to cast his movement techniques continuously, he would have died long ago.

But even so, he could not hold out for much longer.

Just then, a white flash of a blade flew in from afar, silently severing the beast's head.

Qu Qianxue walked over from the distance, sheathing her curved blade. Not a single drop of blood stained her white clothes.

"Early Mahayana Realm?" Her voice carried a hint of surprise. "How have you survived until now?"

Gu Changyuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled bitterly.

"...Good luck."

Qu Qianxue stared at him for a few breaths, then suddenly smiled.

"Luck is also a part of strength."

As she spoke, she took a jade bottle from her robes and casually tossed it to Gu Changyuan.

"For healing. Take it."

He looked up at the unfamiliar woman before him, his heart filled with complex emotions.

"Why help me?"

Qu Qianxue thought for a moment and tilted her head.

"Maybe... it's just too boring being alone?"

When she said this, her tone was light, but Gu Changyuan noticed a fleeting, imperceptible trace of loneliness flash through her eyes.

He understood that kind of loneliness.

In a place like the Ruins of Disorder, being alone for too long could truly drive a person mad.

Gu Changyuan fell silent for a moment, then opened the jade bottle and poured the spiritual medicine onto his wounds.

"Thanks." He paused. "My name is Gu Changyuan."

Qu Qianxue's eyes lit up.

"Qu Qianxue." She said, extending her hand.

And so, the two became acquainted.

Qu Qianxue suggested exploring together, and Gu Changyuan agreed.

In a place like the Ruins of Disorder, having a powerful companion greatly increased the chances of survival.

With Qu Qianxue, who was at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, by his side, the threats to Gu Changyuan were vastly reduced.

The two traveled together through the Ruins of Disorder, walking across wastelands, passing through ruins, and exploring one ancient relic after another.

Qu Qianxue had a great personality.

She was cheerful but not noisy; strong-willed but not overbearing; smart but not deceitful.

Getting along with her made Gu Changyuan feel very comfortable—a comfort that was an unimaginably extravagant luxury in a hellhole like the Ruins of Disorder.

Gu Changyuan's cultivation improved at an astonishing speed in the Ruins of Disorder. That boundless spiritual energy meant he did not need to worry about resource consumption while cultivating; he only needed to continuously circulate his cultivation technique and break through bottlenecks.

Qu Qianxue was surprised by his cultivation speed, a surprise tinged with curiosity and inquiry.

Over time, Gu Changyuan developed special feelings for her in his heart.

He cultivated desperately, his cultivation soaring all the way from the early Mahayana Realm. He thought that one day he would be able to catch up to her and surpass her. At that time, he would propose the idea of becoming Dao companions, and then he would protect her, just as she had once protected him.

What a beautiful fantasy.

What a ridiculous fantasy.

Everything was nothing more than a person who had recently entered the cultivation world and fallen into the hellish Ruins of Disorder, grasping at a self-perceived lifeline in the darkness, and daydreaming.

Qu Qianxue's continuous questions about his spiritual energy recovery speed gradually aroused Gu Changyuan's vigilance.

But every time he showed wariness, Qu Qianxue would timely drop the topic and apologize.

He did not want to doubt her. She was the only person he trusted in the Ruins of Disorder, his only light in that land of despair.

He did not want that light to go out.

Until she lost her patience.

She no longer disguised herself, no longer probed, and no longer gave him the chance to prevaricate.

She set a trap and lured Gu Changyuan into an encirclement.

When dozens of figures stepped out from the shadows and surrounded Gu Changyuan, he finally jolted awake from that fantasy.

Her goal had never been him as a person, but the secret of the boundless spiritual energy within him. A secret enough to drive any cultivator mad.

When she personally thrust her long blade into his chest, Gu Changyuan heard the sound of his own heartbeat.

That sound was very strange, very slow, and very heavy.

Blood flowed down the blade to Gu Changyuan's feet, soaking into the dust on the ground.

What he did not know was that the land beneath his feet was exactly where the Nine Tribulations Sword Array was buried—an array bound by blood and triggered by life.

The ancient sword array bloomed beneath his feet.

Those array patterns, sealed under dust for untold years, surfaced from the ground, enveloping Gu Changyuan within.

Nine streams of sword qi rose from the sword array, spiraling, circling, and resonating around Gu Changyuan.

He felt his consciousness merge with the sword array at that moment, the sword intent of the Nine Tribulations Sword Array surging into his sea of consciousness.

Holding a long sword, he walked out of the sword array.

The power of the Nine Tribulations Sword Array surged within his body. Although his cultivation was not high, the might of the Nine Tribulations Sword Array was enough to allow him to cross realms and kill those high-level cultivators.

Qu Qianxue also fell, kneeling on the ground, before being pierced through her dantian by his sword, crippling her cultivation.

He stood before her, looking down at her.

The woman in white knelt in a pool of blood, her curved blade broken into two pieces, scattered by her side.

There was no fear on her face, no begging for mercy, only the calmness of the winner taking all and the loser facing ruin.

Then he struck, to vent the nowhere-to-be-placed emotions in his heart, until the long sword in his hand broke, until Qu Qianxue was completely devoid of breath.

Gu Changyuan stood up, looking down at the blood-soaked figure on the ground, and closed his eyes.

The Nine Tribulations Sword Array slowly circulated within his body, the power of the first tribulation flowing through his meridians—Severing Mortal Ties.

He used it on himself.

He stripped away love.

That stripping away lasted for over a thousand years.

So long that it made him feel that the state of being without love had long become a part of his body, long integrated into his Dao heart.

Even when he later left the Ruins of Disorder, returned to the Nine Heavens Realm, and rebuilt the Celestial Holy Land, he forgot to retrieve this stripped-away emotion.

It was also because of this that over the past century, the deep affection and love of the seven women, including Ye Qingxue and Bai Ling'er, were entirely filtered out by the restriction in his eyes.

It was not that he could not see it, but rather that what he saw was distorted.

Any feelings of love towards him would be distorted in his eyes, and he, too, was incapable of generating any feelings of love.

And now, that emotion he had personally stripped away over a thousand years ago had returned.