The Ruthless Sect is said to be comprised entirely of heartless individuals, with extremely stringent recruitment conditions. Because of this, their followers are the fewest in number among the Four Great Devil Sects.

Of course, in terms of the number of followers, it still doesn't compare to the Heavenly Court Sect, which, though only established two years ago, has a history of four hundred thousand years.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

It is unclear whether the philosophy of the Ruthless Sect genuinely possesses some merit, or whether they have other methods, but the cultivation levels of the Ruthless Sect's followers are generally quite high.

"The philosophy of the Ruthless Sect is that only those who sever all ties of compassion and righteousness can attain the Dao and achieve the highest immortal status. Worldly relationships are seen as shackles to them, and emotions such as familial love, romantic love, and friendship are considered poison, not to be touched.

Even if such feelings exist, they must be cut off early on," Lu Yang recounted the intel on the Ruthless Sect to his ancestor.

The Daoist Xiantian didn't know much about the Ruthless Sect, similar to how Lu Yang at his initial Foundation Establishment stage only knew of the name of the Eternity Sect.

But now, Lu Yang was different; outwardly, he maintained a good relationship with Dai Bufan, who was in charge of intelligence, and secretly, relying on his status as Young Sect Master, he was able to gather a lot of information from the Jiuyou Sect and the Yaoyang Sect.

However, the Ruthless Sect was naturally exclusionary and indifferent towards the Jiuyou Sect and the Yaoyang Sect, which is why these two sects couldn't completely clarify the situation within the Ruthless Sect.

"Is that the stronghold of the Ruthless Sect there?"

The place where Lu Yang and others were located was a jungle. The two men they were tracking knocked on the bark of a large tree and were then sucked into it, disappearing from sight.

Using his Spiritual Sense, Lu Yang discovered that the inside of the tree was hollow, with roots serving as channels, transporting people to an underground cavity below the root system.

"This must be the fifth cultivator who entered the underground, right?" Meng Jingzhou communicated telepathically with the others; they were unsure about the situation here and were observing as, besides the two cultivators who had just gone in, three more cultivators entered the underground cavity alone.

"Then it must be correct; today is the day the Ruthless Sect recruits members," the Daoist Xiantian was certain he hadn't heard wrong. "I'll head down first."

"Wait, wait," Lu Yang quickly grabbed the Daoist Xiantian, "My brother and I have some experience in this area; how about we accompany you down?"

Lu Yang didn't feel at ease letting the Daoist Xiantian go to the Ruthless Sect alone.

The Daoist Xiantian thought for a moment and felt that Lu Yang made sense. Although his own cultivation experience surpassed that of these two juniors, in terms of infiltration experience, he was inferior.

"Alright."

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou put on masks, altered their appearance, and suppressed their realms to the early stage of Foundation Establishment.

As long as the Ruthless Sect underground had no one in the Divinity Transformation Stage, they would not see through their cultivation level.

The three, together, followed the process they had learned earlier, tapping a specific part of the tree's bark, and a suction force pulled them into the tree, sliding down to the underground cavity.

"Oh, more people have arrived, and three at that?" The people from the Ruthless Sect were somewhat puzzled when they saw Lu Yang and his companions; logically, heartless people rarely teamed up. To see two together was rare enough, but three was even rarer.

However, it wasn't unheard of, so they did not suspect too much.

"Follow me," the Ruthless Sect follower at the entrance said expressionlessly.

Lu Yang used his peripheral vision to survey this underground cavity; it was just like a large inn buried underground, and it was uncertain how long this stronghold had been constructed.

This area belonged to Ye City, so the precise name of this stronghold should be the Ruthless Sect Ye City Rudder.

The leading Ruthless Sect follower had a cultivation level that was not low, fast approaching the Golden Core Stage.

Along the way, several more Ruthless Sect followers were patrolling, all of them at the Golden Core Stage.

The follower led Lu Yang and the others to the deepest part of the underground cavity. At this time, seven cultivators had already arrived there, wishing to join the Ruthless Sect—with cultivation levels ranging from both high and low, some as high as the Golden Core Stage, and others at only the third layer of Qi Refinement.

However, it seemed the Ruthless Sect was not particularly concerned about cultivation levels from their reaction.

"Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivators, huh? Understood, you may leave," said the cultivator in charge of selecting sect disciples, nodding his head with an indifferent expression and dead fish eyes that made everyone look like a corpse to him.

Lu Yang noticed that he was the highest in Cultivation Level here, a Mid-stage Nascent Soul.

"How did you find this place?" asked the Nascent Soul Mid-stage cultivator.

Lu Yang replied in the same tone, "We followed some people here. The three of us have always wanted to join the Ruthless Sect, and now that we have finally found an opportunity, we came."

There was no need to lie about how they found this place. It was more characteristic of Demon Cultivators to follow others here.

The Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator didn't respond to Lu Yang's answer, but the fact that he didn't dismiss Lu Yang suggested that he didn't suspect him.

Or rather, he didn't need to suspect at all; he only believed in the results of the test.

After Lu Yang, another two hours passed with no new cultivators wishing to join the Ruthless Sect, and the Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator coldly said:

"That's enough, no more waiting. Even if others come, they are not fated to join our sect."

"My name is Niu Qianshan, and I am the Rudder Master of this branch. There's no need to elaborate on your purpose here; it is to join my Ruthless Sect," he said.

"Our sect does not care about your background or your Cultivation Level. As long as you can be ruthless and heartless and uphold the path of ruthlessness, you are one of us."

Niu Qianshan took out a stack of yellow papers, on which were drawn Array Methods that Lu Yang couldn't understand. He gestured for his subordinates to distribute the yellow papers to all the cultivators.

"Wow, such a brilliant Array Method. The person who designed this is definitely talented," complimented Fairy Eternity, a rare praise from her.

Niu Qianshan continued, "The entry test of our sect is not as tedious as those of the Jiuyou Sect or the Yaoyang Sect. Our test only has one criteria, and that is to prove that you all are ruthless and heartless!"

"What you need to do next is to meditate and enter tranquility on these yellow papers."

"After entering tranquility, the Array Method on the yellow paper will peer into your minds, learn of the people you are closest to deep in your heart—possibly your parents, your elders, or friends—and will materialize them."

"And you will forget your current situation, forget that this is a test, and believe it to be reality. You need to kill the people you see!"

By the end, Niu Qianshan showed madness and ferocity, his entire demeanor twisted.

He himself had killed his wife and children to join the Ruthless Sect.

"Of course, considering that your opponents might have a higher Cultivation Level than you, making them difficult to kill, the Array Method will materialize people with the same Cultivation Level as you."

"The test begins!"

Niu Qianshan issued the order impassively. Ten testers, including Lu Yang, sat down on the Array Method to meditate. They were all ruthless individuals with firm Daoist hearts and quickly entered tranquility.

When Lu Yang woke up again, he felt his mind was in chaos, as if he had forgotten something. Soon, with the help of Fairy Eternity, he came to his senses.

"I remember now, I am taking part in the Ruthless Sect's test. I need to kill the people that appear in the Illusionary Realm. Since I've regained my consciousness, passing the test shouldn't be hard..."

Lu Yang didn't finish his sentence when he saw two familiar figures approaching him. One was Yun Zhi, the other was Yellow Bean.

"..."

As if I could win against them! Ha!