Yes, Qinghan was undergoing a series of sufferings. Now, he was struggling in the Illusion Trial yet again.

Qinghan had spent the last eight months, almost around the clock, in cultivation. Fortunately, he finally broke into the Realm of the Prince as he wished. Another thing worth mentioning was that Qinghan was now 17 years old. He had entered the Realm of the Prince half a month after his birthday. A 17-year old Prince-Realm cultivator, he had set a new record in the cultivation world, once again.

Of course, the arduous efforts behind the result should not be forgotten, which was believed going proportional to his impressive achievement. The spirit fruits in the forest, on the other hand, also contributed to his success.

It was true that any of the five prominent families was able to create such a genius as long as they bought him ample amount of spirit herbs.

But no family would be moronic enough to invest their entire family’s property in any potential cultivator at the age of seventeen. Obviously, it was a risky deal. In the cultivation world, one was considered as immature until he or she broke into the Realm of the Emperor. What if the genius they created had no potential in grasping any of the Laws of Heaven and Earth, after wasting so many treasures on them? That would be a fatal loss for that family.

As for Qinghan, this Prince-Realm achievement would mean nothing to him if he failed to pass this trial. Even if he miraculously became an Emperor-Realm cultivator, he was nothing if he was still locked in this damn mountain, where many predecessors’ white bones were buried beneath the ground, many of whom were immortal-level cultivators.

After one-day’s rest, Qinghan was determined to reap the remaining six spirit fruits from the trees of the seven human emotions, thus the Illusion Trial might be passed earlier.

Since he had become a Prince-Realm cultivator, his soul power had become increasingly powerful, especially when he integrated with his battle beast.

On the first day, it only took him five minutes to pass the Illusion of Happiness, and soon after that, he got the spirit fruit of happiness accordingly. The next day, he spent half an hour around another ancient tree until the Illusion of Evil eventually disappeared. On the third day..

Today was the sixth day after straightly passing the previous five illusions. Now, he was standing in front of the tree of lust. This was going to be the last illusion that he was supposed to pass in the first trial. If he succeeded, the seventh spirit fruit would be obtained, and the Illusion Trail would be successfully passed by him at that time.

Qinghan was crystal clear what kind of man he was. As an aspiring young man, he was greatly influenced by lust. Before coming to this mountain, he had already accumulated experience in practicing lust on two separate occasions with two different girls. Alas, how could he be able to resist the luring temptation of the Illusions of Lust..

....

Someone once said that men were merely a kind of species that only cared for the wellbeing of the lower part of their bodies. Qinghan favored this saying and believed he was no exception. In his previous life, there was a man called Liu Xiahui, who chose to suppress his sensual passion when a beautiful girl was sitting on his lap. Many praised this guy as an exemplary idol of ascetic spirit. From Qinghan’s point of view, however, this Liu Xiahui must be a sexless eunuch.

Why did the industry of prostitution prevail in any given dynasty? It was said that prostitution was among the three most ancient professions, apart from politicians and killers.

Qinghan believed however, no one was born to be lust. It was the growing male sex hormone that played the trick, which helped arouse a man’s physical demand whenever they met the body of a beauty. It was undeniable, though, the ideology of the society also played a part in forming people’s values over sex. Most men regarded their love for the graceful, feminine body as a justifiable demand.

A simple analogy to this hypothesis would be, when an uncivilized wild man was thrown into human society, he would, in his rutting period, pick any woman with female characteristics to release his hormones, no matter how this woman looked like. It was a man’s intuitive behavior.

As civilization took hold of the human world, there gradually emerged standards of beauty, varied interests among different classes.. The upper class usually monopolized most of the recourses, including the beauties.

The demand and supply equation was forcefully imbalanced, which prompted the emergence of prostitutions. As a group of weak citizens, the females tended to cling to powerful men to survive, to obtain more material gains..The female culture therefore, went downward into the amoral pit..

Driven by both inside and outside reasons, either the intuitive demand of the body or the social values, Qinghan firmly believed no man in this world was immune to lust. The eunuchs, of course, weren’t on the list, since they had no “tools” left.

Thus, Qinghan found no moral guilt for admitting the lust side of him, because every man would do the same if they were in his shoes. Back in the An’yue Hotel, he climbed onto the big pink bed with no regrets; at the Breaking Blade Summit, he had explored the most secret parts of Ye Qingcheng’s body; in one of the rooms arranged for the Ye Family in Immortal City, he contaminated Qingwu’s purity in a drunken night, and wished to marry her so that he could repeat the pleasure every night afterwards.

However.. no matter how justifiably Qinghan tried to defend himself, he had to face lust right here, right now – the Illusions of the Lust!

Actually, Qinghan had experienced some scenes of lust in the previous illusions he had encountered, before finally stepping out of them. But, this time was different, for the force of the illusions were much more powerful. The seductive illusions might be the tomb of this young hero. He had no clue as to what would happen next. The unknown dangers ahead drove him upset, because he was afraid to slip into the sensual pleasure and fail to wake up. Yet, deep in his heart, he did expect the upcoming nasty scene..

“Phew! I shouldn’t be like this..”

Qinghan cursed himself for being wishing for the coming of the illusions. He realized this wasn’t for fun, it was a life-and-death matter!

Slowly closing his eyes, he started releasing his Battle Qi as he cultivated. He forced himself to stay peaceful in mind by shielding away all distracting thoughts.

“No matter in what position, I shall follow the principle of Zen. A petal from the flower reflects the appearance of the whole world; a leaf from the tree foretells the existence of Buddha. The flowers will turn smelly at the time when spring visits us, and the yellow leaves will fall from the trees when autumn comes. Endless freedom and the deepest tranquility are what I’m longing for.”

The Battle Qi had been circulating within Qinghan’s twelve meridians until he opened his eyes, chanting these Zen phrases. The peaceful flow of his mind rejected all possible obscene desires, he even felt, at this moment, that the whole world was static.

“Integration!”

Immediately, he summoned Little Black out and integrated with him, before he resolutely spurted towards the tree of lust.

As soon as he stepped in the periphery of that ancient tree, he bumped into a red-light district, where numerous indecently-dressed prostitutes lived. Walking along the dim lane, Qinghan could see the red light behind the windows, behind which many beautiful girls with heavy make-up were gesturing at him, hoping to lure him or his soul in..

“All of reality is a phantom, and phantoms are real. The form is nonexistent, and nonexistence is the form. None of the red flowers growing along the riverbank are real, as are the piercing mountains and the turbulent ocean.”

Qinghan intentionally refrained himself from staring sideway, so that he could avoid feeling the temptation. At the same time, he kept murmuring the Zen phrases, hoping this could help him calm down. Since he had enjoyed the most superb services of two stunning beauties, these girls here weren’t seductive enough to stir him up.

From XianXiaWorld