Chapter 617
The Seed of Doubt: Once planted, the path to the ultimate is completely severed.
More than a thousand years!
This is not merely a cold, chronological number; rather, it represents a long and heavy period of time, weighing heavily on the souls of every participant in the Extreme Path Project.
[Over a thousand years of solitary meditation, ascetic practice, and attempts, all with unwavering dedication, followed by failure.]
[It keeps repeating!]
If the Red Heart Society hadn't already reached an unbelievable pinnacle in life science technology, and if they hadn't spared no expense in supplying them with rare and precious materials capable of reshaping the very essence of life, they would probably have died of old age long ago.
From the cellular-level Star Essence Elixir to the Primordial Anchoring Enzyme that rewrites telomere length, and then to the Mind Stasis Compound personally formulated by the Heart Demon God to stabilize the soul and prevent it from collapsing during prolonged torment.
The resources that the Red Heart Society has invested in the participants of the Extreme Path Project are far too many.
Each participant is employing an application of technology that can only be described as extravagantly combined.
These ninth-level professionals, who have staked their entire lives on the path to becoming demigods, already have a future that differs from the rest of the group.
[But what Chixin has poured into the Yakuza Project is far more than just resources for extending lifespan.]
[This also represents the culmination of all the wisdom accumulated by the Red Heart Society across multiple dimensions of time and space.]
In the realm of cultivation techniques, the Myriad Laws Pavilion, led by Zhou Mo, has already pushed the secret arts of refining battle qi, magical power, soul, and physical body to their theoretical ultimate perfection.
Each core cultivation technique is like a manifested instruction manual for the rules of the universe.
In terms of esoteric arts, those forbidden techniques involving resonance of rules, attraction of origins, and breakthroughs to the limit are far more complex and sophisticated than the inheritances of the ancient gods.
[In the realm of extraordinary technology, there are high-dimensional energy focusing matrices to aid in spiritual cultivation, inner universe calculation units, and mental purgatory chambers that simulate extreme cosmic environments to temper one's will.]
The level of technology represented by these devices is so advanced that it would make even a true god take notice.
It can be said that the resources and environment enjoyed by those who participated in the Extreme Path Project are a dreamlike realm that you, the founder of the Red Heart Society, could never have imagined when you were pioneering the cause.
What did you use back then?
[A crude, primitive stone-working technique!]
[It is riddled with fatal theoretical flaws that, in later generations, can be considered fundamental errors, enough to lead cultivators astray or even cause them to explode and die.]
What you rely on is only your irreplaceable, miraculous personal talent and unwavering will.
This is why, whether it's the Red Heart Society's top think tank, the Tenth Generation Red Heart, conducting billions of deductions based on massive amounts of data, or the numerous True Gods who participated in providing guidance, all of this demonstrates the power of the Red Heart Society.
Even you, the founder, made this prediction with absolute certainty.
The first Supreme Demigod should have been born no later than five hundred years ago.
The conditions are so favorable, far exceeding those of the pioneers back then!
There's no reason why this wouldn't work!
This is an unspoken consensus among all those in the know!
To ensure success, the Red Heart Society poured unimaginable effort into it.
The true gods of the rules took turns personally answering the questions and resolving the doubts of these seeds, dissecting the origins of the rules down to the most minute particle level.
[Aglaus, a veteran first-tier true god, even went so far as to expend his own precious divine power during a break in his rest to personally perform the deepest cleansing and purification of these seeds.]
That divine power, imbued with an indomitable fighting spirit and unwavering loyalty, flowed like the purest cosmic current, repeatedly washing over and tempering their bodies and souls, attempting to ignite the fuse for their breakthrough.
With such a massive investment, such a prestigious team of mentors, and based on rational calculations, logical deductions, and abundant resources, they should have succeeded!
[It should have succeeded long ago!]
However, reality delivered a harsh slap in the face to everyone.
The birth of the first Supreme Demigod was delayed far beyond even the most pessimistic predictions.
The beacon of hope grew faint during the long, dark wait, and anxiety and confusion spread like a plague among the elite.
Where exactly does the problem lie? Is it that there can only be one Ultimate Demigod?
Or are you the only one perfectly suited for the path of the ultimate yakuza?
This question hangs like a Damocles' sword over the core decision-making body of the Red Heart Society.
[Until Lin Xue, the true god who wields the rules of the soul, personally descended upon the core cultivation base of the extreme path, and conducted a probing examination in a manner akin to a soul dissection.]
[After delving into the most subtle soul fluctuations and subconscious imprints of those seeds that were given high hopes but remained stuck at a bottleneck, the truth finally came to light.]
[Cold logic, rational planning, precise calculations]
None of these are wrong!
The physical strength, energy reserves, rule compatibility, and even soul resilience of the seeds have long been enhanced to the theoretical peak limit of the ninth level of cultivation through countless checks and resource accumulation.
However, all the inference models seriously misjudged a terrifying factor that cannot be fully quantified with cold, hard data.
[The participants' own accumulated and fermenting mental stress and emotional storms over thousands of years.]
These seeds, carrying the highest expectations of the entire Red Heart Society and the focus of countless resources and attention, are keenly aware of the immense mission they bear.
The sacred path trodden by the founders, with its unparalleled glory and immense pressure, is like an insurmountable sacred mountain.
As a year, a decade, or a century passes, they remain stuck at some seemingly insignificant bottleneck.
They watched as their companions struggled in despair, feeling time relentlessly eroding their forcibly extended lifespans.
That deep-seated sense of defeat, self-doubt, and fear of letting down expectations, like the most vicious curse, quietly took root and spread.
The mentors and demigods who govern the rules of the mind offered constant guidance, but their efforts were like a drop in the ocean compared to the inner demons accumulated over millennia.
Can I really do this?
Can I truly replicate the great path taken by pioneers?
Am I just a piece of trash who has wasted countless resources of the organization?
Everyone says I'm a genius, so why am I such a failure?
These silent questions, like millions of heart-eating ants, gnaw at their Daoist hearts day and night.
Once the seed of doubt is planted, the path of the extreme path is almost entirely out of their reach.
After all, you, the pioneer, never imagined you would fail, no matter how many times time and space changed.
I will definitely succeed!
I'm sure I'll succeed!
If once doesn't work, try twice; if twice doesn't work, try ten times!
In any case, your time is practically endless.
It is precisely in this intense self-confidence and unprecedented self-doubt that you can truly condense the rules of the ultimate path.
[But when the first successful member of the Extreme Path Project stands before you, your brow furrows suddenly.]
The rules surrounding the opponent resembled ultimate rules, yet they were not.
According to data analysis and various calculations, these are all external manifestations of the rules of the extreme path.
[But as the first Supreme Demigod in the universe, and one who has mastered 2,438 rules, you can see the difference at a glance.]
Even if the members of the Red Heart Society follow the same path to perfection as you, the ultimate path they have cultivated is still vastly different from yours.
[The design is still there!]
[But internally, they are far from it!] (End of Chapter)