Chapter 15: The Wound of Heartache

Su Che continued on until he reached the depths of the grand hall, where he saw two examiners dressed in dark purple Taoist robes, leisurely drinking tea and chatting.

Not far behind them, on the wall, was a dark doorway, its destination unknown.

Generally, Tianxuan Sect would recruit over two thousand outer sect disciples each year. On average, less than ten people came for the examinations daily, so the role of examiner was undoubtedly very easy.

“Disciple Su Che, here for the examination,” Su Che said after bowing in greeting. He stepped forward and placed his identity jade token on one of the examiners’ tables.

The examiner had a large head and a relatively kind face. He picked up Su Che’s jade token, infused it with his spiritual energy to check the sect’s contribution value and information about his background. After confirming everything was correct, he said, “Su Che, congratulations. You’ve met the two requirements for entry. By rule, I must warn you that the final examination may result in injury or even death. Are you sure you’re fully prepared?”

“Thank you for the warning, senior. I’m fully prepared,” Su Che replied. Not knowing the examiners’ ranks within the sect, he could only address them as “seniors,” which was basic common sense in the cultivation world.

“Hmm.”

The examiner pondered for a moment before taking out a yellow jade token from a drawer and placing it next to Su Che’s original blue jade token. He ceremonially encouraged him, “Then give it your all. If you pass the examination, I’ll replace your jade token with one for an outer sect disciple.”

“Thank you, senior.”

“Enter that door!” The examiner raised his voice slightly, pointing at the dark doorway behind them. “Once inside, defeat whatever demons or monsters you encounter—be they beasts, spirits, extraterrestrial demons, or subterranean fiends… Do you understand?”

“Disciple understands!”

On the way here, Yu Qing had told Su Che about these examination details. Entering the examination door didn’t necessarily mean being transported to a specific room, nor did it guarantee encountering a certain type of monster—it was entirely random, depending on luck.

Tianxuan Sect arranged this this way because some people were experienced in dealing with beasts, some were good at hunting spirits, while others had little experience. To ensure fairness, random transportation was used, which could also be seen as a test of one’s fortune.

On the path of cultivation, innate talent, hard work, fortune, and connections—all are crucial! In other words, it’s understandable to fail in any of these areas; there’s no need to blame fate or others—only oneself. Originally, with Yu Qing’s introduction, Su Che could have avoided this assessment and directly become an outer disciple. But upon entering the grand hall, the atmosphere there ignited his fighting spirit, and he really wanted to give it a try to avoid being looked down upon by Senior Yu Qing. Before entering the examination room, the examiner reminded them one last time, “Remember, when fighting against demons, you can only rely on your own spells, martial skills, or innate abilities. You are not allowed to use any form of magical artifacts or talismans. Otherwise, it will be considered cheating, and you will forever lose the right to join our sect.” “Yes!” Su Che replied loudly. This rule made sense too—if candidates won easily by relying on powerful artifacts, it wouldn’t reflect their true abilities, and then the assessment would be meaningless. For this reason, Su Che had repeatedly instructed the little tower in his mind not to interfere or help him, nor to take action on its own to capture demons, so as not to reveal his greatest secret to the examiners. It was just unknown whether the little tower could truly understand his instructions… At this moment, full of fighting spirit, Su Che entered the dark doorway without hesitation. He felt a slight dizziness, followed by a sudden clarity as his vision returned to normal. It was a spacious room, about a hundred steps long and wide, with dim light coming from some crystals on the walls. The room had no windows or doors, being almost completely sealed. After entering, it was unclear how to exit. As soon as Su Che steadied himself, he saw a translucent gray mass floating nearby, rushing straight toward him. “What bad luck—running into the most formidable extraterrestrial demon!” Su Che thought with a bitter smile. Although it was his first time encountering such a demon, various books sold openly in Xuanji City often mentioned these creatures, describing their characteristics in great detail. After all, these demons were the enemies of all living beings, existing solely to harm them. Generally, demons had no physical form and were merely streams of energy, but they could mimic the appearance of any creature with extreme realism, making it hard to distinguish reality from illusion.

Only the highest-ranked Heavenly Demons can use their immense demonic flames to form a tangible body. Of course, such terrifying beings at the level of demon kings, who can kill countless Su Che with a single breath of demonic energy, cannot exist today, let alone here.

These demons are difficult to deal with because they have no physical form; ordinary attacks are ineffective against them. One must rely on spells or their own vital energy to completely vaporize them into nothingness in order to truly eliminate them.

The most terrifying aspect is that these extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons can perceive a person’s thoughts, instantly uncovering their inner weaknesses. They can even invade one’s brain, devour their soul, take over their body, and then harm other creatures.

Once possessed by a Heavenly Demon, conventional attack methods become useless. After all, one can’t just smash their own head with a slap. Thus, one can only rely on their mental strength to overcome it in the realm of thoughts, defeat it, and utterly erase it from existence…

Su Che knew somewhat about the horror of these extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons. So, as he saw this stream of energy rushing toward him, he quickly darted sideways and narrowly avoided it.

However, although he wasn’t possessed by this energy stream, he had no idea how it had detected his thoughts—deep-seated thoughts at that…

The energy stream flashed rapidly, circled Su Che half a time, and moved behind him.

Su Che quickly turned around, and his heart pounded wildly at what he saw…

“Xing’er!”

Behind him stood a delicate figure—his little wife Xing’er, who was pregnant and had a large belly!

“Brother…”

Her cry made Su Che freeze, almost rushing toward her…

“No! It can’t be you!”

Fortunately, his reason still functioned. Su Che shouted, knowing full well she was a manifestation of a Heavenly Demon, yet his eyes blurred with tears uncontrollably.

“Brother, save me! Please save me…”

The extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon was still exploiting Su Che’s inner weaknesses. With a face full of sorrow and fear, she stretched out her hands toward him—truly the desperate little woman he once knew.

“No!”

Su Che quickly stepped back, avoiding her advances time and again. He raised his hands several times, wanting to strike her, but he couldn’t overcome the struggle within him…

Where to hit her? Her face? Or that heavily swollen belly? How could he bring himself to do it!

The human heart… The human heart is so complex. Even one’s own true feelings cannot be fully controlled!

Fortunately, the room was quite spacious, allowing Su Che to keep moving around and maintain a certain distance from her, preventing her from closing in. But hiding like this indefinitely wasn’t feasible; sooner or later, she would find an opportunity to attack and possess him.

As time passed, Su Che continued to try his best to evade her.

The two examiners watching from outside used the Water Mirror spell to observe everything. They weren’t surprised by the tactics of the Outer Realm Demons, but they found this candidate quite interesting—so young, yet having chosen an older woman, even causing her to become pregnant, and seemingly deeply in love with her…

“This kid is really unlucky. So young and lacking resolve—he probably won’t be able to overcome this obstacle,” said the examiner with a goatee in a low voice.

“Not necessarily,” replied the examiner with a square face and kind appearance, shaking his head. “I think this child is special. I can’t explain exactly why, but…”

Just then, something changed inside the examination room.

“Xing’er, my wife, forgive me!”

Su Che murmured through tears. He asked for his wife’s forgiveness not only because he had promised to protect her for life, only to watch her turn to ashes while he was powerless, but also because he was about to strike at her image at this very moment.

On the path of cultivation, he had to painfully cut away certain things…

“Ah!”

A furious punch, carrying intense true energy and the man’s extreme sorrow, struck right at her heavily swollen belly.

That spot represented his wife and child—the most vulnerable part of Su Che’s heart.

Boom!

The punch landed, and the little woman’s body shattered into pieces.

Ugh!

Su Che’s heart felt as if it were being torn apart. Blood surged from his heart, and even though he clenched his teeth, it still flowed from his mouth and nose.

At this moment, the pain in his heart was beyond endurance.