Turns Out I Cultivate the Path of Ruthlessness

An Xiangxue had always thought that joining the Hehuan Sect was the greatest stroke of luck in his life.

He was born with an ice spirit root and a furnace physique. Anyone who cultivated with him could advance by leaps and bounds.

The sect masters and young masters of countless prestigious orthodox sects would spend fortunes and pull out every trick in the book, all just to spend one night with him.

Fortunately, the entire sect protected him, and An Xiangxue never suffered the slightest harm.

His master and senior brother always favored him most, and the Demon Emperor was his childhood friend.

The terrifying Demon Lord was his fiance. They all cherished An Xiangxue with the gentlest love.

However, on the day of his thousandth birthday, his dear friend tricked him into drinking poisoned wine, and his senior brother flayed his exquisite, ice-white skin and bones.

His fiance, the Demon Lord, watched coldly as An Xiangxue's master raised a sword and plunged it into his bloodied chest.

They said, "A-Xue, don't be afraid. Hand over your Ice-Skin Jade-Bone Glazed Heart, and you'll be free."

An Xiangxue finally understood. Everything he had was only because every part of him was a rare, top-grade magical treasure.

After his skin was flayed, his bones extracted, and his heart carved out, An Xiangxue dragged his ruined body through the endless whiteness of the snow before collapsing.

He had no heart left, and yet his heart still felt like it was being torn apart.

To kill without drawing blood, to destroy someone's heart: that was exactly what it meant.

When he opened his eyes again, An Xiangxue discovered that he had woken in a celestial palace in the heavens.

A row of immortals knelt beside his bed, calling him, "Your Highness!"

Only then did An Xiangxue remember that he was the youngest son of the Celestial Emperor, the god who governed winter.

He had been born with a heartless Dao physique, incapable of love or hate, joy or sorrow.

All love and hate, all the passions of the mortal world, were empty to him.

Everything that happened in the mortal realm was merely a trial.

He had never had a heart to begin with.

After An Xiangxue died, the lower realms descended into chaos.

The Demon Lord married his memorial tablet with the honors due to a Demon Empress.

His master's Dao heart shattered, and his senior brother left the sect to establish his own.

The Demon Emperor gave all his life's cultivation to the ghosts of the Yellow Springs, hoping only to bring An Xiangxue back to life.

Yet over the thousand years that followed, they searched all six realms and failed to find even a wisp of An Xiangxue's scattered soul.

Until, at the Celestial Emperor's birthday banquet that year, they saw the figure they had longed for day and night in the palace hall.

An Xiangxue's appearance was unchanged. Dressed in white, he moved with a dark fragrance, holding a wintersweet blossom as flowers fell with every step.

He smiled faintly, his eyes cold and still, as he bowed before the Celestial Emperor.

"Thank you, Father, for arranging my marriage. Your son accepts the decree."

Reading guide:

1. 1v1 for each arc, with a changing top. The bottom is not a virgin. Happy ending.

2. The bottom wins the men's hearts and powers up. A chaotic revenge saga, with old-school angst and melodrama.

3. The bottom combines the heartless Dao with the Hehuan Sect's dual cultivation. He has severed love and desire, but still has sex.

[Important: This is self-indulgent writing, so pure-love readers should beware. It might launch you into outer space.]

*Content warning: There is a hermaphroditic top who has been sexually assaulted and will be topped by the bottom. He is not the endgame love interest. Skip the relevant scenes if you don't like that.

The title and blurb have both been screenshotted and archived. Saved December 15, 2023.

Theme: Love life and fulfill your potential