Demon Slaying, Gaining 60 Years of Cultivation From the Start Chapter 274 227: The First Stage, Refining the Heart3

For three full years, Gu Chen led a life where he wandered through a multitude of temptations untouched. In his thirty-eighth year, Gu Chen's career soared even higher as he monopolized even the overseas markets, amassing a net worth of over one hundred billion. Wherever he went, he was the center of attention.

However, it was in that sa year that his father suddenly fell gravely ill, becoming paralyzed and bedridden. His mother, anxious because of his father's illness, grew physically weaker than she used to be.

In that sa year, at his parents' urging, Gu Chen abandoned his absurd life of unattachnt and chose the most beautiful and compatible woman among his many female friends to marry.

When Gu Chen turned forty, his company's stock price suffered a Waterloo mont, its market value evaporated by hundreds of billions overnight, and that was also the year when his child was born.

No one can be smooth-sailing forever, and Lady Luck won't always stay by soone's side.

As ti passed, the child grew up, but Gu Chen's company's stock continued to fall, and by the ti his child finished elentary school, his company was on the brink of bankruptcy.

He went from a business prodigy adored by the masses to soone on the verge of being heavily in debt and labeled a scapegrace.

His wife, who had been affectionate for so many years, seed to beco a different person. Before the company went bankrupt, she divorced Gu Chen, taking everything he had left except for their child, whom she left with him.

Gu Chen's father had been paralyzed for many years, surviving only because Gu Chen spent vast sums of money to prolong his life; his mother, due to his father's condition, had always been ntally unwell and in poor physical health.

With his company bankrupt, his duty to care for his parents and child, and the burden of massive debts, Gu Chen had no choice but to start vending on the street.

Suddenly, the news of a hundred-billionaire business tycoon street vending hit the headlines, drawing countless onlookers every day and even attracting forr business competitors to mock his downfall.

But Gu Chen endured it all; barely managing to support his child through high school. Before he could see better days, his body began to fail him.

Due to years of staying up late, Gu Chen's body was riddled with chronic illnesses. As he aged, these maladies erupted simultaneously and not long after, he passed away, leaving this world behind.

"Looking back at my life, what have I really left behind?" In the last mont before death, as darkness approached, Gu Chen asked himself.

"I've experienced glory and fall, pride and disappointnt, but are these what I truly desired? What is it that I really wanted?" Gu Chen fell into deep self-doubt.

What is the true purpose of life?

Suddenly, a voice rang out from the deepest part of Gu Chen's heart: "Let it go... let it go... relinquishing everything, perhaps death is the ultimate destination."

"Yes, to let go... after letting go, I won't be tired anymore…" Gu Chen murmured to himself.

At this mont, the burdenso pressure in his heart suddenly vanished, replaced by an unprecedented sense of relaxation. Gu Chen had never felt so comfortable, so at ease, with not a single trace of pressure left on him.

But in that final mont, a thought suddenly flashed across Gu Chen's mind, a faint voice echoing in the depths of his heart.

"No... I can't give up... All of this is fake!"

Instantly, Gu Chen's mind sharpened. Decades of living each scene deeply etched into his heart, his mories of Da Xia nearly obliterated; everything seed all too real.

Yet at the final juncture, his deepest instincts reminded him that all of this was false— he was still in the midst of the Pure Yang Martial Sect's trial, he was in the midst of refining his heart!

"I am Gu Chen, Gu Chen of Da Xia, the commander of the Jing Tian Departnt in Tiandu. Everything that just happened was fake!" At that mont, Gu Chen suddenly awoke.