Chapter 1 : The yandere apprentice comes to visit!

Void Profound Realm, Xu Ling Sect, Duanqing Peak.

“Duanqing Peak, Duanqing Technique. Once you master it, I guarantee you’ll sever attachments, lock away love, and cultivate a clear and open heart…”

“Bah! Pure false advertising! If this technique really cut off attachments and locked away love, then why did those yandere girls kill me so many times while I was just playing the game?”

With that, Lu Li kicked the crooked old tree at the entrance of his own cave dwelling, shaking the withered leaves loose as they fluttered down.

He then glanced at his system panel, where only seven days of lifespan remained, and plopped down on the ground in utter despair, complaining aloud.

“Sigh… Master! You really have ruined me!”

Lu Li, a game reviewer from Blue Star, had been transmigrated into this world for over four years.

Four years ago, he was invited by a mysterious company to secretly test a yet-to-be-released game.

Just as he was about to complete the game’s full collection, an accidental electric shock caused his physical body to transmigrate into this world.

Fortunately, shortly after his arrival, a wandering grand cultivator, recognizing his innate talent for cultivation, took him as a personal disciple.

And Lu Li’s talent proved extraordinary.

With his own peerless gift and his master’s resources poured in, within four years he had advanced to the mid Foundation Establishment stage.

Just as Lu Li was excitedly thinking that, with his cultivation talent, he would surely attain Dao and become an immortal emperor who could subdue all eternity,

His master—whom Lu Li had regarded as a lone cultivator during their four years of traveling—suddenly revealed that he was actually backed by a sect and intended to bring Lu Li back to the sect, then enter seclusion for ascension preparation.

Upon hearing this, Lu Li was initially very pleased…

After all, in traditional cultivation novels, it was a must to savor the scene where a secret disciple returns to the sect and publicly humiliates others!

However, after returning to the sect and receiving the Dao name “Chong Yangzi” from his master,

Lu Li suddenly realized that he had transmigrated into the world of the virtual reality romance game he last played before transmigrating—The Heartless Immortal Path.

What’s worse, he had inexplicably become the unlucky protagonist in the game, Chong Yangzi, the Duanqing Peak sect leader who was tormented to death by five yandere female disciples.

He was currently situated one week before the main storyline of the game officially began.

The moment Lu Li grasped this, his fragile heart shattered into pieces!

Because, according to the game’s plot, Duanqing Peak’s ancestral technique, Supreme Heartless Technique, had a fatal flaw.

The flaw was that female disciples who practiced it would develop nearly obsessive possessive feelings toward male disciples who also practiced the technique.

The higher their cultivation, the more twisted this emotion became.

Simply put, this cursed technique was a breeding ground for obsessive yandere apprentices…

And precisely because of this wicked setting, the five female disciples the player collected in the game all had varying degrees of yandere tendencies.

The eldest sword cultivator, Feng Lingshuang, twisted and darkened in Ending One, ultimately committing patricide and attaining Dao in the Fireblade Ending…

The second disciple, alchemist Gong Shangyu, in Ending Two forcibly turned her master into a cripple with drugs, binding the protagonist to her evil elixirs for life.

The third disciple, mechanical cultivator Mo Qingyou, was even more extreme; in one storyline, she assimilated other disciples into her puppets, ensuring her master’s love belonged only to herself.

The fourth disciple, talisman cultivator Zhou Ruoxi, seemed normal but was secretly full of malice, imprisoning the protagonist with her talismans in several endings and turning him into her furnace.

Lastly, Gu Qingying, the fifth disciple, appeared to be the most normal but was actually the most terrifying.

Because she harbored a split personality, and her second personality was jealous of the original.

Once Gu Qingying’s affection for the protagonist reached a certain level and she advanced to Nascent Soul, her second personality would awaken and manifest as a separate physical body.

The worst part was, because the second personality envied the original for always receiving the master’s favor, it would immediately fall into darkness, forcibly cultivate the protagonist in front of the original Gu Qingying, and ultimately kill him through cultivation.

Though Lu Li enjoyed watching these yandere storylines while testing the game,
liking yandere elements in stories didn’t mean he wanted to be surrounded by yandere in real life!

Ah… what was that saying again?

Right!

Loving yandere is just for stories!

Being loved by yandere is an accident!

“Ahhh! Why did I become Chong Yangzi!”

“If I’d known I’d transmigrate, I wouldn’t have named the protagonist Lu Li when testing the game, nor would I have made Chong Yangzi look exactly like me!”

“Ahhh… I’m doomed! I’m doomed…”

Since accepting that he was the protagonist Chong Yangzi, Lu Li had resolved never to accept any disciples and close the sect gate.

Just thinking of the outrageous acts those treacherous disciples did to their master in the game made him shiver in fear.

Though the game had no-death and even harem endings,

Lu Li never managed to get those perfect endings even with unlimited saves during testing.

Now that he only had one life after transmigrating, he dared not take any risks.

Instead of gambling his sole life on whether he could get a perfect ending, Lu Li thought it safer to just close the sect gate and accept no disciples.

But ideals are full, reality is harsh…

Just yesterday afternoon, when Lu Li had already decided to close the sect and accept no disciples,

he suddenly, and unfortunately, awakened the game’s cursed disciple recruitment rebate system.

[Host: Lu Li]

[Newbie Task: Branch out and spread the legacy. Within one week, recruit at least one high-quality personal disciple for Duanqing Peak.]

[Reward: Increase cultivation by one minor realm.]

[Failure: Soul shatters and disperses!]

[Task Countdown: 6 days 12 hours 59 minutes 32 seconds]

Staring at the blood-red countdown timer on the system taskbar and feeling his life force rapidly drain away, Lu Li’s head ached.

Sigh…

What should I do?

If I stick to the plan and don’t recruit disciples, I’ll definitely die when the week is up…

But if I do recruit disciples… I’m probably going to relive those five painful deaths in the game…

Hiss… The eldest’s sword, the second’s pills, the third’s puppets, the fourth’s talismans, and that worst little number five’s second personality in her head…

Just recalling the cutscene and the near-death experience from the virtual reality game sent a chill straight to his brain!

“No… no way! Absolutely not!” Lu Li anxiously paced back and forth in the courtyard. “Female disciples are death talismans! The Heartless Technique is a total trap!”

“Ahhh… what should I do?!”

Biting his finger, Lu Li stared intently at the rapidly ticking red countdown in the system, and a wild idea quietly sparked in his mind.

“Hey? That’s right! The system only said ‘disciple,’ it didn’t specify gender!”

At that thought, his eyes lit up.

“How did I forget this! The fatal flaw of this damned technique only twists female disciples’ feelings toward the opposite sex! If I recruit male disciples, it should be fine, right?”

“Yeah! That’s it! Male disciples only! Duanqing Peak will only recruit male disciples! When recruiting, the gender gate has to be locked tight!”

Feeling reinvigorated, Lu Li straightened his robe and strode down the mountain to recruit disciples.

***

Time flew like white clouds and rolling dogs.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

At the Xu Ling Sect’s mountain gate square, Lu Li’s temporary Duanqing Peak disciple recruitment stall was deserted.

Lu Li slumped behind the stall, looking like a salted fish whose bones had been pulled out, utterly lifeless.

It was only when Lu Li resolved to come down to the sect square to recruit disciples that he remembered a desperate fact…

Xu Ling Sect had very few male disciples!

The sect’s male-to-female ratio was roughly one to nine; it was practically a daughter’s kingdom!

In the game’s story, Chong Yangzi only took female disciples not because he didn’t want male ones, but because there simply weren’t any!

Ahhh… It’s been three days!

A full three days!

Lu Li had sat here for three whole days without seeing a single male disciple who met the system’s “high-quality” standards!

On the other hand, he had seen plenty of female disciples who met the criteria, but he had turned them away with the excuse of only recruiting males!

“I’m saying… System master! Does our “high-quality” standard really have to be so strict? That guy I interviewed yesterday with triple spiritual roots wasn’t bad either!”

Lu Li complained silently in his heart while sneaking a glance at the system panel.

[Task Countdown: 3 days 12 hours 03 minutes 17 seconds]

Staring at the blood-red numbers signaling death, feeling his lifespan and vitality nearly exhausted, Lu Li’s resolve began to waver.

“If it really doesn’t work, I’ll have to take female disciples first and think of another way later…”

Recalling the yandere endings in the game, Lu Li shivered, as if the eldest’s sword and second’s pills were already pressed to his throat.

“Ahhh… no! Too dangerous…”

He clutched his head in pain, then resolutely declared,

“Fine! I have to recruit male disciples!”

“Hmph! I refuse to believe that in this huge Xu Ling Sect, there’s not a single male disciple meeting the system’s standards!”

“If it comes to it, I’ll go down the mountain and snatch one!”

“Even if I have to kidnap him, I will bring back a high-quality male disciple!”

“But… what if I can’t find one? The system’s deadline is less than four days away…”

Just as Lu Li felt utterly desperate, a somewhat delicate, clear, young voice timidly rang out in front of his recruitment stall.

“Uh… Master Lu… Elder Lu Li, may I ask if Duanqing Peak is still recruiting?”

“Hmm?!”

Startled, Lu Li raised his head sharply, hope lighting up his eyes as if he had been rescued from the abyss.

Standing before him was a slender boy of about thirteen or fourteen, wrapped in an oversized dark black brocade robe.

The fabric was exquisite, making his frame appear even thinner.

More striking than these was his raven-black hair tied with a purple ribbon and those purple eyes that made Lu Li feel a strange sense of déjà vu.