The morning sunlight fell upon the earth, yet beneath its rays there was none of the vitality one would expect at dawn. Instead, all that could be seen was desolation and ruin.
A ragged, disheveled Daoist nun stood dazed amidst a landscape long reduced to ruins and craters.
Her chest was stained with blood, and the wounds had yet to heal; the blood fused her clothes to her skin, obscuring any trace of color. Her bare feet were also drenched in blood, the mixture of blood and earth turning a muddy brown. The Buddhist duster impaled in her back now had not a single filament left. In her hand, she clutched a broken stone tablet, upon which the faint, incomplete character 'Pure' could still be discerned.
Her hand trembled as she muttered to herself, "Puregate Sect, where is there still a Puregate Sect..."
The Puregate Sect's doctrine was to safeguard a realm of purity, to dispel all darkness, and to make heaven, earth, and oneself as immaculate as the body itself.
Back in the cultivation world, she believed that the world was ultimately untainted, beautiful, and clean. Whether or not disciples of the Puregate Sect were needed to protect it was of little consequence. To her, the sect's commitment to guarding a realm did not fully embody the ideals of the Puregate Sect.
The existence of the Puregate Sect was a pursuit of beauty and freedom, and this pursuit should include its disciples as well. She never took in disciples in the cultivation world—first, because she had not found anyone suitable to cultivate the Pure Path Canon, and second, because she hoped to present her views to the sect's founder in the Immortal Realm.
Her belief was that the Puregate Sect should not merely protect in silence from the shadows, but should spread its ideals, teaching others that only with a pure heart can one attain a pure body. The disciples of the Puregate Sect should step forward openly, showing the world what it means to embody compassion, humility, and reverence...
But now, her faith had suddenly collapsed—or perhaps, from the very moment she entered the Immortal Realm, it had already begun to crumble.
After all these years, what had she truly witnessed?
Ruins, bloodshed, desolation, helplessness, loneliness...
For a thousand miles, not a soul could be seen; for ten thousand, not a trace of life. In the Immortal Realm, there was nothing but bones and ruins.
One day, she spotted a fellow cultivator and approached in delight to ask for help. Instead, she was nearly killed—the other wanted her vital blood for their own cultivation.
What kind of world was this, and what kind of despair was this?
Here, everyone kills; here, there is no land left untainted.
Once driven by lofty ideals, the Puregate Sect that journeyed from the cultivation world to the Immortal Realm now had only half a broken stele left.
Her hand trembled, and so did her heart. As her faith began to collapse, she could no longer bring herself to believe that true purity still existed in this world.
......
Grand Fortuna City—the name sounded rather mundane, yet it gathered at least ten thousand cultivators. Its lord, Guy Jinxuan, was a genuine True Immortal, his true essence fully transformed into immortal essence.
Though called an immortal city, in reality it was little more than an ordinary fortress. From the outside, its mound-like shape bore no hint of the grandeur one would expect from a city of immortals.
Yet in an Immortal Realm where not a soul could be found for ten thousand miles, such a mound-like fortress was the very place everyone longed to enter.
But only a handful could enter—unless you could produce a billion Spirit Stones. As for Immortal Crystals, many cultivators who entered the Immortal Realm lived and died without ever seeing one.
The city lord's mansion in Grand Fortuna City, to put it plainly, was just a simple stone house.
Seated now in the lord's chair was a man whose age could not be discerned. His face was long, and his eyes were asymmetrical—one large, one small. Between his brows lingered a sinister, murderous air that made others instinctively shrink away.
He was the lord of Grand Fortuna City, Guy Jinxuan—a true True Immortal.
Guy Jinxuan was thoroughly content with his current life. Whenever he could not cultivate for long stretches, he preferred to sit alone in what he considered a spacious mansion, reminiscing about his arrival in the Immortal Realm.
Back then, all he saw was bleakness and ruin. Later, relying on a billion Spirit Stones, he arrived at Grand Fortuna City. He was like a dog, currying favor with the previous city lord—wherever that lord went, he would crawl after him.
Eventually, he seized an opportunity, schemed against and killed that fool of a city lord, and obtained a fortune in Immortal Crystals from him. Those crystals allowed him to convert his true essence to immortal essence, and to become the new lord of Grand Fortuna City.
Here, he was king. Anyone who defied his will—one look from him, and they would never see another sunrise. In Grand Fortuna City, any female cultivator he fancied would gladly and eagerly present herself to him.
He relished this life and looked down on those who survived by refining cultivators' vital blood. Such ants, who were not true blood cultivators yet still relied on refining blood to live, would one day lose all reason and become mindless fools.
"City Lord, your humble servant brings important news." A respectful, deferential voice sounded at the entrance to the mansion, interrupting Guy Jinxuan's reverie.
Hearing this voice, Guy Jinxuan was reminded of his old self. He knew exactly who was at the door—his advisor and lapdog, Quentin Yang.
Back then, he himself had been just like Quentin Yang—so humble and deferential, even more servile than a dog before the city lord. It was precisely this attitude that had allowed him to seize the chance to kill the previous lord and climb into the city lord's seat. Quentin Yang must be thinking the same; surely, he hoped to kill him and take his place.
A corpulent cultivator stood at the entrance, his head nearly touching the ground in deference.
This was Quentin Yang, Guy Jinxuan's attendant and lackey—a cultivator whom others saw as living in abject servitude, yet who considered himself to be living with flair.
After delivering his report, he heard no summons from the city lord to enter; he remained motionless, still bowing respectfully outside the door.
Only after nearly half a stick of incense had burned did he finally hear the city lord's voice: "Come in."
Quentin Yang hurried into the mansion, and when he was still several meters from the city lord, he fell to his knees with a thud. "City Lord, great news—truly great news..."
Amid his exaggerated, jubilant report, Quentin Yang lifted his head. Despite his corpulent body, his eyes were large and bright, giving him a guileless, easy-to-befriend look. But Guy Jinxuan knew better—Quentin Yang was full of cunning, every bit his equal in craftiness. Many of Grand Fortuna City's affairs had been orchestrated by Quentin Yang's schemes.
He was simply too useful; even knowing how he himself had once acted, Guy Jinxuan couldn't bear to replace him lightly.
"Oh? Let's hear it." Guy Jinxuan responded absentmindedly.
Quentin Yang spoke excitedly, "I've received news of a Puregate Sect disciple—a new disciple has arrived in the Immortal Realm, and it's a female cultivator..."
"What?" Guy Jinxuan could no longer contain himself. He rushed forward, grabbed Quentin Yang, and asked excitedly, "You mean a Puregate Sect disciple has come to the Immortal Realm again? And she's a female cultivator?"
Quentin Yang was just as excited. "That's right! A Puregate Sect disciple really has arrived in the Immortal Realm. Not long ago, a rogue cultivator came to seek refuge in Grand Fortuna City and told me about her. I checked his wounds—they were indeed inflicted by a Puregate Sect disciple..."
"Quick, bring that cultivator here!" Guy Jinxuan's voice trembled with excitement.
Quentin Yang immediately sent out a message and said, "I've notified him—he'll be here soon."
Without the city lord's orders, he would never dare bring anyone to the mansion's entrance—unless he had a death wish.
"Good, good! You've done a great service this time." Guy Jinxuan rubbed his hands, his face and eyes alight with excitement.
In the Twilight Immortal Realm era, the most precious thing was not Immortal Crystals or Immortal Pills, but Puregate Sect disciples.
To be admitted as a disciple of the Puregate Sect, one had to possess a flawless spiritual body and cultivate the Pure Path Canon. For this reason, Puregate Sect disciples were exceedingly rare.
Puregate Sect disciples were the ideal choice for any cultivator seeking a Dao companion, for marrying one would purify one's spiritual roots and body, greatly accelerating cultivation speed.
In the Twilight Immortal Realm era, Puregate Sect disciples had another enviable benefit: through dual cultivation, they could help a True Immortal ascend to the Golden Immortal Realm.
In this era, a True Immortal was already an untouchable force, reigning supreme—let alone a Golden Immortal. Yet, because the Immortal Realm had entered its twilight and fortune was abandoned, almost no one could reach the Golden Immortal Realm.
But Guy Jinxuan knew that two city lords had become Golden Immortals—each because they possessed a Puregate Sect disciple.
If he could obtain a Puregate Sect disciple and ascend to the Golden Immortal Realm, his tenure as lord of Grand Fortuna City would not only grant him an extra hundred thousand years of life, but his position would be utterly unshakable.
(Second update time undetermined!)