I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

【Kunlun Mountain - Ladder of Inquiry - Above the 3,000th Step】

[Time: 20:30 PM]

There were no flowers, no applause, and no legendary welcoming ceremony with fairies scattering flowers.

When Chen Ping stepped over the thousandth step, the terrifying gravity that had almost crushed his bones vanished without a trace in an instant.

Instead, a refreshing mountain breeze swept through.

He staggered and almost fell, his muscles, which had been tense for a long time, spasming violently from the sudden relaxation.

But he didn't fall. As a top assassin, his body control was freakish.

Chen Ping raised his head and looked around warily.

This is a huge stone platform suspended above a sea of ​​clouds, roughly the size of two football fields. At the end of the platform stands an ancient stone archway with three large characters inscribed on it: "Outer Gate".

"Is there... only this many people?"

Chen Ping whispered hoarsely.

Only eight figures climbed up behind him one after another.

The sick girl, Lin Xiaowan, climbed up. Her knees were worn raw and bloody, and she was in a semi-conscious state, crawling on the platform entirely out of a survival instinct.

The others included a veteran with a broken leg, a math lecturer with a fanatical, almost manic gaze, and a taciturn middle-aged migrant worker who looked like he had just finished working on a construction site.

These nine people looked like a group of demons who had just crawled out of hell, covered in blood and in a sorry state.

Where is there even a trace of the demeanor of an "immortal"?

……

[Taiqing Hall - Gu Qing's Perspective]

Gu Qing stood with his hands behind his back, high in the clouds, looking down at the nine "ants".

[System notification: The first batch of outer sect disciples has been selected.]

Average skill level: Mediocre.

Average willpower: Excellent.

[Suggestion: Host, the innate talent of this group is too poor. Apart from that girl with dual water and wood spiritual roots, the others have extremely low cultivation potential and may never be able to reach the Foundation Establishment stage in their entire lives.]

Gu Qing shook her head.

"System, all you do is look at data."

"If it were peacetime, I would select those geniuses with exceptional talent and nurture them with care."

"But now it's the eve of war."

Gu Qing's gaze fell on the assassin, Chen Ping.

"Geniuses develop too slowly and are often spoiled. But these nine people... they don't need me to teach them what cruelty is, because they are part of cruelty themselves."

"What I want is not a perfect 'seed of the Dao,' but a 'mad dog' that can bite."

……

[Outer Gate Plaza]

Just as the nine people were at a loss, a calm yet powerful voice came from behind the stone archway.

The voice was indistinguishable by gender or age, as if it resonated with the heavens and earth:

"Cultivating immortality is not about treating people to a meal."

"Following the natural order is mortal, defying it is immortal. These three thousand steps are not to prove how strong you are, but to prove how much you don't want to die."

hum-

The air vibrated.

Nine beams of azure light flew out from behind the archway and hovered precisely in front of each person.

Those were nine outer disciple tokens and a set of gray coarse cloth robes.

"Put it on."

"From this day forward, worldly names, identities, wealth, and sins will all be but fleeting clouds."

"Entering my Kunlun Sect, one only considers longevity, not one's origin."

The middle-aged migrant worker's hands trembled as he grasped the token in front of him.

His name was Zhao Tiezhu, and he was a fugitive. Twenty years ago, while trying to pay for his wife's medical treatment, he accidentally killed a thug who was forcibly demolishing their property. He hid in the deep mountains for twenty years, living like a wild man.

"Regardless of... background?"

Zhao Tiezhu's calloused hands gripped the token tightly, and murky tears rolled down his cheeks, splashing onto the bluestone slab.

"I...I have a home now?"

The assassin, Chen Ping, remained much calmer.

The moment he grasped the token, he immediately felt a strange flow of information rush into his mind.

That was an advanced version of the "Changchun Gong" and an explanation of the "Contribution Point Exchange System".

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Chen Ping's lips curled into a cold smile.

He saw in the information in his mind that to obtain higher-level cultivation techniques, elixirs, or even the legendary flying sword, he needed "contribution points".

And the source of contribution points—

[Task 1: Collect spiritual materials.]

Task 2: Clear out the mutated creatures that have not yet fully developed.

[Task 3: ...]

"So it's a mercenary organization." Chen Ping breathed a sigh of relief. "That's for the best. Fair trade, no sentimentality involved."

……

"Lin Xiaowan".

That grand voice rang out again, and this time, it called out names.

The girl lying on the ground struggled to lift her head, her eyes unfocused.

"Your body is inherently leaky. Ordinary medicine can't save you, but this can."

Gu Qing did not appear, but a soft, emerald-green ball of light descended from the sky and entered Lin Xiaowan's chest.

That was a [Marrow Cleansing Pill (Gaseous Form)] that Gu Qing had spent a huge sum of money to exchange for.

"Cough cough... Wow!"

Lin Xiaowan suddenly coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

After spitting out the blood, her deathly pale face quickly regained its rosy hue. Her chest, which had felt as heavy as if it were being crushed by a stone, now felt incredibly clear.

She stared in astonishment at her hands, and the suffocating feeling that had accompanied her vanished.

"You are an exception. Your spiritual potential is suited to be a healer or a planter."

"But don't get too excited."

"If you don't seize what Heaven has given you, you will suffer the consequences. Your assessment standard is twice that of others. If you cannot draw Qi into your body within three months, I will take it back."

Lin Xiaowan knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily into the void.

"Disciple...understands!"

……

[At the foot of the mountain - temporary command post]

Li Guozhong put down his binoculars.

The clouds and mist closed in again, obscuring everything on the mountaintop.

"We can't see them anymore," Li Guozhong sighed. "Nine people. Out of thousands of people, only nine made it in."

"Chief, isn't this elimination rate... a bit too high?" Zhao Feng asked with some concern. "And according to the information, Chen Ping, the first one to go up, is an extremely dangerous wanted criminal. Is it really okay to entrust our resources to someone like that?"

Li Guozhong turned around and looked at the newly printed "National Cultivation Promotion Plan" in his hand.

"Zhao Feng, you still haven't figured it out."

Li Guozhong pointed to the starry sky above.

"In the face of a disaster of that magnitude that is about to occur, the line between 'good' and 'bad' will become very blurred."

"That person sees things more clearly than we do."

"He doesn't need moral exemplars; what he needs are 'rebels' who can survive in this cruel world and dare to wield a knife to survive."

Li Guozhong took a deep breath and put on his military cap.

"Pass down the order."

"The area within 50 kilometers of Kunlun Mountain has been designated as an absolute military restricted zone."

"But as for those losers who come down the mountain... do not drive them away. Establish 'Seeking the Way Town' here."

"I have a feeling that these nine people are just the beginning. In the future, this place will become a new center of human civilization."