Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 292: The Ambition of Youth, Bright as the Moon

My name is Song Yuanyi.

Once upon a time, I was the brightest star in the Central Continent, the favored son of heaven.

I was born into a prominent Cultivation clan, blessed with exceptional talent, and raised like a moon surrounded by adoring stars. I did not disappoint. I became the first in my generation to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, bringing boundless glory to my lineage.

The clan elders wanted to hand me the seat of the Patriarch. I laughed and turned them down.

Power? Authority? Those were chains. I yearned for the unfettered freedom of the skies, to wander between heaven and earth and seek the true meaning of the Great Dao. That, to me, was the original intent of Cultivation.

Those years were the happiest of my life.

I traveled to the Western Region and gathered a circle of like-minded souls. Every one of them was a hero in their own right. We indulged in the beauty of the mountains and rivers, debated the Dao, sparred with our swords, and drank to brotherhood. Though they looked to me as their leader, there was no hierarchy between us—only the pure camaraderie of fellow travelers.

The road to the Great Dao is long and lonely. With friends like these, what more could a man ask for?

Then, I met her. Lin Yue.

She was like a celestial maiden descended from the Ninth Heaven. Her background, her cultivation, her grace—everything about her matched me perfectly. We were, in the eyes of the world, a match made in heaven.

Even my brothers tried to play matchmaker. Emboldened, I confessed my feelings to her.

She rejected me gently. Her heart, she said, held only the Sword Dao. She saw me as nothing more than an elder brother.

Heh.

Am I, Song Yuanyi, the kind of man to cling to rejection?

“Dao Companion”—the emphasis is on the Dao. If we are companions on the path to immortality, why must we be bound by the vulgarity of romantic love?

Since she had no interest, I buried my feelings. I treated her as a cherished younger sister, and our bond became even purer, deeper than before.

I thought those carefree days would last forever.

As our cultivation deepened, the Song and Lin clans, under our guidance, rose to unprecedented heights of prestige. We were the golden generation.

But the wheels of history turn without mercy. The Central Continent underwent a seismic shift.

A force known as the “Su Clan” rose from obscurity to unify the continent.

I met their leader once. She was a woman with snow-white hair and cultivation as deep as the abyss. The Song Clan, the Lin Clan, and every major sect bowed their heads in submission.

This Su leader was idealistic to the point of naivety. She exhausted herself trying to mediate conflicts and establish order, often receiving nothing but ingratitude in return.

I watched coldly from the sidelines. The Cultivation world is built on blood, hierarchy, and tangled interests. Could mere idealism govern such a beast? I was glad I had kept my distance from the vortex of power.

Meanwhile, in the West, a Half-Demon King emerged. She was a woman of the Fox Clan, ruling the Western Region with an iron fist.

Friction between the West and the Central Continent was inevitable. My family and Lin Yue’s clan were located near the border, and we were dragged into the conflict.

Friends began to die. Old faces Perished; new faces joined. The world of Cultivation has never lacked for blood or partings.

It was during this chaotic era that we met Wang Ye.

He crashed into our lives like a meteor. He was bold, humorous, generous to a fault, and his cultivation was a bottomless well.

He won us over instantly. Even me.

I genuinely admired him. He spoke of shocking, unconventional things—democracy, parliaments, something called “science”—that sounded absurd at first but held profound truths. He invented Go. He recited poetry that moved us to tears. He even offered exquisite insights into our cultivation.

He was filled with an insatiable curiosity about the world. I appreciated that spirit, so I taught him everything I knew about artifact forging and alchemy.

To my shock, he surpassed me in no time at all.

I felt not a shred of jealousy. Why should I? The world already had the Su Clan leader and the Half-Demon King. What was one more genius like Wang Ye?

I, Song Yuanyi, sought only freedom. Why fight for empty fame?

Wang Ye naturally became the core of our group. I was happy to step aside.

But then, I noticed something else. Wang Ye was exceptionally skilled at pleasing women.

Even Lin Yue—whose heart had always been as still as a frozen lake—began to look at him differently.

When I realized this, my chest felt tight, as if a stone were pressing against my heart.

But I forced myself to let it go. Wang Ye was better than me in every way. If Lin Yue could find happiness with him, I should offer my blessings. I wasn’t petty enough to resent their joy.

Until that day.

Wang Ye confessed his secret to us. His true form was a demon. He was the legendary ruler of the West—The Drifting King.

We were stunned. The name “Drifting King” was thunderous, second only to the Su leader and the Half-Demon King.

Only Lin Yue remained calm. She had known all along.

The group nearly fractured. We almost broke ties with him right then and there. Only Lin Yue stood firmly by his side.

Wang Ye pleaded with us. He explained that he had come to the Central Continent for two reasons: to make true friends, and to bridge the deepening hatred between humans and demons.

Listening to his sincerity, remembering our years of brotherhood, I wavered.

I was the first to stand up and support him. United by this grand ideal, our bond seemed stronger than ever.

The following years were a blur of diplomatic maneuvering and power struggles. I saw the greed and hypocrisy of the high-ranking sects up close. But thanks to the joint efforts of Wang Ye and the Su Clan, a peace treaty was finally signed.

The Su Clan made the biggest sacrifice, even stepping down from leadership to appease the conservatives.

I didn’t care about world politics. What mattered was that Lin Yue became pregnant. She asked me to be the child’s godfather.

I was overjoyed. Even when Wang Ye’s identity was leaked and the world spat on Lin Yue—calling her a traitor, a concubine to a beast—I stood in front of her, blocking every insult.

My only grievance was that Wang Ye, despite having Lin Yue, seemed to be pursuing the Su Clan leader again.

The man was simply too philandering.

But back then, these seemed like small ripples in a perfect life. I wished those days could last forever.

However, beautiful dreams are fragile things.

One day, Wang Ye fled back to us in a panic. He was covered in blood, hunted by a terrifying battle puppet.

We couldn’t believe it. Wang Ye was a Half-Step Soul Formation expert, nearly invincible under the heavens. How could a mere puppet drive him to such a state?

But the reality was absurd and cruel.

We rallied to defend him. It was the hardest, most brutal battle of my life.

We were no match. We were utterly crushed.

Wang Ye begged me to use a secret technique to help him deploy a grand formation, which barely managed to weaken the puppet.

The cost was catastrophic. My life-bound spiritual treasure shattered. Lin Yue and I were gravely injured. Several of our sworn brothers—men we had laughed and drank with for decades—fell in battle, their souls extinguished forever.

Wang Ye lured the puppet away, fighting as he fled. I was too exhausted to follow.

Later, I heard he finally destroyed it on the shores of the Southern Region.

When he returned, he was full of guilt. He showered us with treasures and resources to make amends.

My heart was filled with grief and anger. Dead brothers cannot be bought back with spirit stones!

But seeing his haggard, remorseful face, how could I scold him?

Lin Yue was the most heartbroken. Several of her kinsmen had died in the battle, making her position in the Lin family even more precarious.

I asked Wang Ye where the puppet came from. He was evasive, claiming it was an accident.

I investigated secretly. The trail led back to the Central Continent’s Su Clan.

Knowing Wang Ye’s hero complex, it was eighty percent likely he had provoked this disaster trying to help the Su leader. Only this time, he couldn’t handle the consequences.

I didn’t press him further. But a thorn had buried itself deep in my heart.

The crack in our friendship had begun.