After Saving the Immortal Sect, I Became a Heartthrob - Chapter 1

Yellow sands filled the sky, and flocks of crows flew low.

“Gu Congxing, you devil, today is the day you die!”

“You practiced forbidden demonic arts and slaughtered nearly a hundred cultivators—you truly are beyond forgiveness!”

The siege was drawing to a close. A hundred cultivators had faced Gu Congxing alone; now, only a dozen or so could still stand.

However, Gu Congxing, surrounded on all sides, was clearly at the end of his tether. His body was covered in wounds of varying depths. His once elegant and handsome face was now smeared with crimson blood, and his eyes burned with a fierce, gloomy light.

The man who was once called the “Little Immortal Lord” now resembled a Rakshasa from a sea of blood.

“You all speak with such righteous indignation. Since you are so aggrieved on behalf of the dead…”

He circulated his spiritual power, golden light surging within his eyes, and he actually cracked a grin.

“Why don’t you go join them in hell!!”

As the words left his lips, a sudden burst of bloody light erupted around Gu Congxing. The pressure of a late-stage Golden Core exploded, and golden spiritual energy surged like a vast sea.

“Dammit! He’s going to self-detonate!”

Some cried out in alarm and fled on their flying swords, while others became even more ruthless, rushing forward in an attempt to kill Gu Congxing before he could detonate.

“Curse it… we’ve fought for so long and were just about to wear this fellow down! We can’t let him take those spiritual treasures and secret manuals with him in a self-detonation!”

Just then, an urgent cry came from the distance. Gu Congxing looked up; it was the rising star of the cultivation world who held a deep grudge against him, Xiao Wangyou.

“Gu Congxing! Don’t!”

Gu Congxing did not stop as requested. Instead, he sent out his spiritual sword, knocking the other man back a hundred meters. The Core within his body spun at high speeds, already strained to the point of showing multiple cracks.

Boom!

The moment the Yuan Core shattered, the sound of whistling wind and terrified curses reached his ears. Among them, there was even a heart-wrenching cry that seemed to bleed with grief.

“No”

“Congxing!!”

However, in just a breath, the Ninth-Revolution Golden Core completely shattered. The pure spiritual energy of his Metal-element single spiritual root lunged out like ten thousand heavy blades, flaying the skin and flesh of the cultivators lingering around him.

Within the golden sea of spirit, a mist of blood drifted, and screams were unending. The artifacts of the people trapped within vibrated and shattered, looking like stars scattered across the sky.

In the final moment before his consciousness faded, Gu Congxing thought: This scene of the end isn’t bad.

It could be considered grand, brilliant, and unbridled.

Looking back on his brief twenty-three years, he was born into a family of cultivators and had become a disciple under the Zhuoguang Sword Venerable in his youth. Traveling and practicing with his fellow disciples had been full of youthful spirit.

He had once “slain giant whales across the sea and brandished his sword to part the floating clouds.” He had been famous throughout the world, never failing his reputation as a genius. He even had a marriage partner one with exquisite looks and a hatred for evil—who was the envy of many.

It should have been a wonderful life, so why did it end like this?

Perhaps the sharp turn in fate began with his Shizun’s death.

His Shizun, the Zhuoguang Sword Venerable, was cold, solitary, and incredibly powerful, yet he was framed and set up. Ultimately, his Dao heart shattered, his cultivation was destroyed, and he fell from a cliff to his death.

The person who caused Shizun’s death was the very Xiao Wangyou who appeared today. He had mistakenly identified the Sword Venerable as the enemy who wiped out his clan. He had spent years planning his revenge, only to realize something was wrong as the man fell from the cliff.

The reason for this misunderstanding was all because of a Phoenix Feather—a gift Gu Congxing had given his Shizun upon joining the sect. Gu Congxing wasn’t unaware that the Phoenix Feather was a secret treasure of the annihilated clan, but he had been arrogant, thinking no one would find out. He never expected it would bring disaster to his Shizun.

After learning of Shizun’s death, Gu Congxing began a long journey of redemption. A bright moon had once hung high in the sky, only to be dragged into the mud. Gu Congxing wasn’t the only one who lost that moonlight.

After Shizun died, the Junior Brother fell into the demonic path, the Eldest Senior Brother became a solitary figure, and the Zhuoguang sect collapsed.

Gu Congxing left the Sword Sect and began practicing an ancient forbidden art of resurrection. This technique defied the heavens; it required the heart-blood of a hundred people as a sacrifice to open the resurrection formation and bring someone back to life.

To gather enough heart-blood, his tracks covered the Five Provinces. He hunted down fugitives of the Immortal Sects and slew cultivators he encountered during his travels who bullied mortals. As time passed, his enemies grew in number, making it easier to obtain heart-blood.

Gu Congxing thought that despite his hands being soaked in blood, he would eventually achieve his long-cherished wish. Unfortunately, he failed.

When he was only a few people short, the matter of the forbidden art was discovered by his proud and upright future Dao companion Si Junjian.

Gu Congxing knew that if this matter came to light, it would inevitably draw the pursuit of the righteous path. To be safe, he should have killed Si Junjian to silence him. But in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He fed Si Junjian a Heart-Losing Pill, locked him away on an island, and went back to collecting heart-blood.

Yet, just as he was one person short, he was cornered by a hundred cultivators. Amidst the curses of the many cultivators, Gu Congxing realized that he was now a “devil” pointed at by a thousand fingers. Si Junjian was rescued by his sect members, the truth of his forbidden cultivation was exposed, the Gu family publicly announced his expulsion, and even his sect claimed he was a discarded disciple.

He had lost his reputation and was abandoned by everyone.

In this inevitable death trap, the only thing he could do was transmit a strand of divine sense to Xiao Wangyou, informing him of the resurrection technique. Gu Congxing had failed, but Xiao Wangyou still had a chance to bring Shizun back.

“Let it end here.”

With that thought, his consciousness fell completely into chaos.

Host’s vital signs being monitored… Ding! Connected to Host: Gu Congxing Ding! Current Redemption Level: 3%, Points: 0!

A cold, strange, and monotonous voice pierced through the chaos. Gu Congxing snapped his eyes open!

Sandalwood smoke curled, bamboo shadows swayed, and spiritual cranes cried—he had returned to his residence in the Qingxuan Sword Sect!

He rolled out of bed and rushed to the bronze mirror. The youth in the mirror had clear and elegant features; where was the gloom and ruthlessness of his previous life? He focused and checked himself the Yuan Core in his spiritual field was intact, though his cultivation had returned to the late stage of Foundation Building.

“I’ve been reborn? This is… seventeen years old?!”

Before his shock and joy could even explode, the air in front of him suddenly twisted. A floating, colorless stone tablet appeared, flashing with silver-light characters.

[Ding! Host Gu Congxing, binding successful. This is the Beautiful-Strong-Pitiable Redemption System 02.]

“Redemption System? What kind of monster are you!” Gu Congxing’s gaze turned icy cold. His sword intent instantly condensed, and he slashed at the stone tablet without mercy!

Boom!

The nearby golden-thread phoebe table shattered, but the stone tablet in the air remained motionless.

If the Host refuses the mission, the reborn life will be reclaimed immediately. A wave-less announcement rang out.

The strength in Gu Congxing’s body receded like a tide, and a searing pain of depletion hit his spiritual sea! He groaned, falling to one knee as cold sweat poured down. This “System” truly could control life and death!

“…What do you want me to do?” He forced the words through gritted teeth, cold light surging in his eyes.

Ding! Please, Host, reverse the established fate and redeem the target characters. If you fail, you will personally experience their tragic deaths. Since there are three targets, you have a total of three lives; one has currently been used.

Three lives? Experience their deaths? Gu Congxing’s inner sneer grew this threat…

Core Target: Shen Mu.

Shen Mu!

His Shizun’s name struck like a thunderclap! Gu Congxing looked up abruptly, the defiance and hostility in his eyes instantly swept away by an unbelievable wave of light: “Shizun?! You can really save him?!”

The news of Shizun’s fall from the cliff, the despair of the failed forbidden resurrection art… all his obsessions boiled over at this moment! As long as he could save Shizun, what did it matter if he had to deal with this monster? Even if it meant a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, he would do it gladly!

“I agree!”

Ding! Connection confirmed!

As the system’s voice fell, the strength in Gu Congxing’s body instantly returned. He adjusted his spiritual breath and immediately asked, “Who are the other two targets you mentioned?”

Lan Jue, Zhong Ming.

Two names popped up coldly.

Eldest Senior Brother Lan Jue and Junior Brother Zhong Ming?! They actually perished in the previous life as well?! Gu Congxing’s heart felt as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer. The tragic scene of the sect’s collapse in his previous life surfaced, and a sharp pain spread like needle pricks.

But before he could think deeply, the system’s voice rang out again—

Ding! Detection of Main Mission: Aid the Junior Brother! Commencing!] [Warning! Warning! Target Zhong Ming: ‘Heavily Injured and Blackened’ node is about to be triggered!] [Mission Location: Danqing Peak!

The characters on the stone tablet instantly turned a blinding blood-red!

“Heavily injured and blackened?!”

Could it be that Junior Brother’s descent into the demonic path in the previous life began right here?! Exactly which pieces of trash dared to strike and heavily injure him within the sect?!

Gu Congxing looked at the flashing characters on the stone tablet, his spiritual power churning.

Dammit, I hope I’m in time!

Golden light erupted around Gu Congxing as he shot out toward the peak like an arrow from a bow!