Golden rays from the rising sun brushed against the face of a young man seated atop a small, secluded peak deep within the forest. The Young was none other than Lestes. This mountain peak was somewhat secluded, located in the remote corner of the forest, far from the paths of ordinary cultivators. The air was quiet, undisturbed.
After waking, Lestes had already bid farewell to Ling Xing Yue, Ning Waner, and Xiao Linger. He had been away from Fortune Cave for a long time, leaving Feng Lou Chen alone; he had almost forgotten her. Ling Xing Yue has also been away from Sunset City for a long time. She also wanted to return soon. Her injuries are nearly healed.
Ling Xing Yue was injured in the beast tide while returning from consulting a renowned alchemist regarding Ning Waner's soul injury. Her condition had improved dramatically after dual cultivation with Lestes; injuries have improved, and she even shows faint signs of breakthrough. This was also one of the reasons she entrusted her life to Lestes.
She, Ling Xing Yue, a Core formation cultivator, was willing to be Lestes's slave, who had just stepped into the cultivation world. When Lestes met Ling Xing Yue and Ning Waner for the first time at the lake, Lestes was just a level six Qi Condensing realm. He was as weak as an ant in front of Ling Xing Yue.
But after dual cultivation with him at the lake, she found that Lestes's essence had a miraculous effect on Ning Waner's soul injury, and she also experienced a subtle change in her qi. And the profoundness of the 'Yin-Yang Fusion Art' assures her that only then does she agree to become Lestes's slave.
Ling Xing Yue wanted Ning Waner to remain with Lestes so she could cultivate regularly and stabilise her soul injury. However, Lestes firmly refused. He said that she doesn't need to worry much; Lestes would seek them in a month.
The results of cultivation were already evident.
After several days of dual cultivation with Lestes, Ning Waner's once pale complexion had taken on a healthy glow. A faint blush now colored her cheeks, a clear sign that her vitality had recovered significantly. At the very least, her life was no longer in immediate danger.
Ling Xing Yue reluctantly agrees to him.
Lestes had been here for almost two days. During the last two days, Lestes has been observing his inside.
Within his divine sense realm, he discovered a thin strand of dark-purple energy—unnaturally pure and steeped in a foul aura. Compared to the vastness of his divine sense, it was insignificant, yet it gave Lestes an acute sense of danger. It continuously released a corrupting, lust-filled influence, slowly polluting his inner world.
During the previous dual cultivation with Xing Yue and the others, Lestes had nearly lost himself to pleasure. If not for his practice of a special technique, the Heart Question Art, which helped him steady his heart and clear his mind, he would have completely lost control.
Thanks to 'The Heart Question Art', nothing unexpected happened. If Lestes really had lost his mind, he wouldn't stop until he was tired and would grow rougher and rougher with Ling Xing Yue and others; if that happened, he wouldn't be better than a mindless beast.
As he observed the dark violet-coloured strand, Lestes realised that it had leaked from the seal of the Nine-Headed Serpent after he had forcibly broken through into the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Yes! In the forest, during the confrontation with the enemy leader, Lestes' force fully broke through on the situation demand. This was one of the main reasons after the battle, Letes broke his foundation and returned to the ninth level of the Qi condensing realm.
After closely observing the dark-violet strand of foul aura within his divine sense realm, Lestes concluded that his situation was even more perilous than he had initially believed. With the passage of time, the dark violet colour strand continued to grow stronger, revealing that although it appeared independent, it was in fact deeply bound to his very being.
Thinking of consequences made Lestes face grim, but it also contained a sting of hope.
Lestes, for certain reasons, it's been a long time since he developed a new emotion.
Long ago, Lestes had injured his own colourful root, the very source that allowed humans to perceive and experience emotions. Every emotion, desire humans feel, perceive, you can say the very thing that differentiates between humans and a puppet is a colourful root.
It is said that humans are governed by seven emotions and six desires.
The seven emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred, and desire—are the currents that stir the heart and give meaning to every choice. The six desires—sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought—anchor the soul to the mortal world, allowing one to perceive, long for, and respond to existence itself.
Together, these emotions and desires are what allow living beings to call themselves alive. Through them, creatures experience instinct, intuition, and awareness- pain and pleasure, hope and despair. Without them, existence becomes hollow, no different from an unfeeling shell that merely moves without truly living.
Together, they form the Colourful Root, the spiritual origin through which a human experiences life. It is this root that allows a cultivator to feel instinct, intuition, affection, and resolve. Without it, one may still move, think, and cultivate—but such existence becomes hollow, devoid of warmth and resonance.
Long ago, Lestes had damaged his own Colourful Root, severing his ability to perceive emotions as ordinary humans did. Save for a few lingering feelings tied to old acquaintances, he was no longer capable of truly sensing joy or sorrow. Only in their presence could he faintly remember what it meant to be alive.
After being separated from them, that fragile connection vanished as well. From then on, Lestes existed like a puppet—moving, acting, and cultivating with purpose, yet hollow within. His heart remained mostly sealed, cold and nearly closed to the world.
Even so, traces of sensation occasionally surfaced through the cracks of his damaged root. But such moments were rare, appearing only when something struck deeply at the core of his heart, powerful enough to momentarily awaken what had long been buried.
He could barely keep pace with his peers, yet through cold intelligence and unyielding logic, he maintained a relationship that was, at best, tolerable. He neither sought closeness nor feared isolation. While others spoke and laughed, he observed.
In their company, he discerned many truths. A fleeting change in tone, an unconscious gesture, the tightening of facial muscles—through words, actions, and behaviour, he could determine whether a person harboured anger or joy. What others dismissed as instinct, he reduced to calculation.
This was no talent bestowed by fate, but the product of a mind tempered to dissect, evaluate, and see through human nature. What he perceived, however, were not true emotions nor authentic desires—only their superficial echoes.
Yet, he had also benefited from this loss. The damage to his Colourful Root made him less human, stripping away hesitation and emotional restraint. As a result, his cultivation skyrocketed at a terrifying pace, and the path before him became broader and clearer than that of ordinary cultivators.
He had travelled far from his homeland in search of either a divine medicine or a heavenly method capable of restoring his damaged Colourful Root. He never anticipated that fate would grant him such a miraculous opportunity along the way.
Since beginning this round of cultivation, he had unknowingly dual-cultivated several times. At first, he believed it to be the lingering influence of the Nine-Headed Serpent. Only in hindsight did he realise the truth—the Colourful Root was responding to the serpent's lustful aura.
For Lestes, this was both fortune and calamity.
It was a fortune because the Colourful Root's response to lust meant it could be stimulated, repaired, or even restored through this opportunity. Yet it was a calamity because indulgence carried a price. Should he fail to restrain himself and descend too deeply, the same force that promised healing could instead consume him entirely.
Now, with the Nine-Headed Serpent's corruption seeping into his soul, that once-damaged root had become a fatal weakness. The serpent's influence fed upon the remnants of his emotions, amplifying desire while eroding restraint. What Lestes lacked by nature, the serpent supplied in excess—warping his instincts, clouding his judgment, and threatening the fragile equilibrium he had preserved for so long.
Thus, the very injury that once freed him from emotional burden had transformed into his greatest flaw.
And yet—
It was also his only chance to reclaim what he lacked most… and what he desired most.