The spiritual artifact flying sword was indeed as invincible as the legends claimed.
This cultivator, in front of Chen Hao, had killed his family.
In the prince's mansion, Chen Hao's father, mother, wife, and children, one by one, died before Chen Hao's eyes.
Yet, Chen Hao couldn't even see the cultivator's face.
Only a flying sword was visible.
It moved with unhurried grace, weaving through the crowd. Every second that passed, another life was extinguished.
After the cultivator annihilated Chen Hao's entire family, his triumphant laughter echoed.
"Chen Hao, how does it feel to be powerless in front of your own family?"
"Everything you hold dear, everything you cherish, was destroyed beneath the flying sword."
"And yet, you couldn't even harm me in the slightest."
"Are you in despair?"
The cultivator eagerly awaited a flicker of fear in Chen Hao's eyes.
He expected to see despair, sorrow, and regret.
He anticipated seeing Chen Hao realize his foolish arrogance in challenging a cultivator's authority as a mere martial artist.
But Chen Hao showed none of these expressions.
His gaze was calm.
The cultivator could not find any trace of fear or regret in his eyes.
These were the eyes of someone utterly devoid of emotion.
The cultivator, being human, had never imagined that someone, after witnessing the death of their entire family, would harbor no resentment.
Not a shred of sadness.
Only a yearning for the martial path, a challenge for greater strength.
No wonder he dared to openly defy the unwritten rules of the thirty-six northwestern kingdoms as a martial artist.
This man had never been afraid.
He simply wanted to witness the power of a cultivator with his own life.
This was a madman.
A madman consumed by martial arts.
The cultivator was also terrified.
Even after killing Chen Hao's entire family, he felt that Chen Hao was more of a demon, more of a lunatic than himself.
Who could witness their wife, children, and parents die before their eyes and remain unmoved?
If this wasn't demonic, if this wasn't the deepest form of heresy, then what was?
...
Even when facing the cultivator's flying sword attack, Chen Hao's emotions remained undisturbed.
For normal people, death was final.
But for him, he could reload his save at any time.
Not to mention, with automatic saving upon death, he could return to his youth.
At that time, he could naturally see his parents again.
Therefore, why would Chen Hao need to experience emotional turmoil?
He didn't.
The deaths of mortals held no finality in his eyes.
The relationship between an enemy and a friend was different for him than for ordinary people.
For ordinary people, friends were friends, and enemies were enemies.
But for Chen Hao, someone who was an enemy in this life could be a friend in the next.
If he were to enter his third life, Chen Hao could even forge friendships with the emperors of the Eastern and Li kingdoms.
Even the cultivator before him, an enemy, could be befriended, relationships built, rather than openly opposing him.
It was like choosing between a righteous path or a villainous path in a game.
Chen Hao could choose the righteous path in his second life.
Or he could choose the villainous path in his third life.
Ultimately, it was merely a choice.
An NPC could be befriended in one save file, and an enemy in another.
Chen Hao simply wanted to increase his "level"!
And through countless saves, reloads, and restarts, he was bound to find an "ending" that reached the highest peak, cultivating to the highest level.
This was inevitable.
From the moment Chen Hao obtained the Life Simulation System, it was destined that through countless world lines and restarts, he would reach the pinnacle.
Therefore, what the cultivator considered important was utterly insignificant in Chen Hao's eyes.
They were ultimately just NPCs!
He merely wanted to know how far he was from becoming a cultivator, what the gap was, and to test the cultivator's strength.
The cultivator, in the Opening Light stage, though shocked by Chen Hao's ruthless indifference, found the gap in their strength to be immeasurable.
The outcome remained the same: Chen Hao was killed by the flying sword, ten miles away.
Chen Hao died.
This once again solidified the authority of cultivators.
The many martial artists of the thirty-six northwestern kingdoms, while lamenting the invincibility of cultivators, also sighed inwardly, lamenting the bleak future of martial artists.
Even a martial arts fanatic like Chen Hao, who dedicated his life to martial arts and possessed unparalleled talent, ultimately reached the pinnacle of the martial path, with no further avenues to explore.
Such a person was eventually slain by a cultivator's flying sword.
A low-grade spiritual artifact, the most basic magical treasure used by cultivators, could kill a martial artist who had reached the end of their path without even meeting them.
A Grandmaster of martial arts, a supreme master, perished just like that.
Even a supreme master was so powerless against a cultivator.
For them, martial artists who couldn't even reach the end of the martial path, how tragic were they in the eyes of cultivators?
...
The third life arrived.
Chen Hao returned to his youth.
Back to the age of fifteen.
Unlike his second life, when he was reborn, he only possessed the experience of having cultivated to the Grandmaster realm.
In this third life, upon rebirth, he carried the experience, insights, and understanding of having cultivated to the Supreme Grandmaster realm.
How smooth would it be to retrace the path he had already walked?
Chen Hao walked it once more.
Thus, in three months, he reached the Innate realm.
In two years, he ascended to the Grandmaster realm.
A Grandmaster-level expert at seventeen.
Three years later, he advanced to the Great Grandmaster realm.
A Great Grandmaster at twenty.
At twenty-six, Chen Hao re-attained his previous life's ultimate realm.
Supreme Grandmaster.
A Supreme Grandmaster at the young age of twenty-six.
This was the result Chen Hao achieved through continuous rebirth.
Although in each life, his true qi, physical strength, and soul strength could not be inherited.
His insights and understanding of the martial path, however, could not be erased.
With each subsequent rebirth carrying the memories of a past life, his next life became smoother, allowing him to cultivate to higher realms at the same age.
In his first life, at twenty-six, despite relying on the abundant cultivation resources of the prince's mansion, he was only at the peak of the Acquired realm, still a considerable distance from the Innate realm.
In his second life, at twenty-six, he was already a Grandmaster, having left Yun Kingdom and fought battles across the thirty-six northwestern kingdoms.
Now, in his third life, at twenty-six, he was a Supreme Grandmaster, having reached the recognized pinnacle of the martial path at such a young age.
Across the thirty-six northwestern kingdoms, there were many Great Grandmaster martial artists, with each kingdom having at least one Great Grandmaster over the age of twenty.
But Supreme Grandmasters were few, with only three or four scattered across the entire thirty-six northwestern kingdoms.
And these were all elderly individuals, approaching the natural limit of human lifespan, around one hundred and fifty years old.
Supreme Grandmasters, too, were mortals, and mortals naturally had differences between youthful vigor and the decline of age.
An elderly Supreme Grandmaster could overwhelm all Great Grandmaster martial artists through their realm difference, but they could not compare to a younger Supreme Grandmaster of the same rank.
Throughout history, martial artists in the thirty-six northwestern kingdoms who reached the Supreme Grandmaster realm were typically in their eighties or nineties, or at least their seventies.
Breaking through to the Supreme Grandmaster realm at sixty was already considered astonishing.