Lu Mingyu fell silent, while Zhang Bairen quietly waited for his answer.
After an unknown length of time, Lu Mingyu slowly said, "Senior, what do you think Teacher will choose?"
"Of course, he will fulfill your wishes, just as he fulfilled the wishes of Yin Qi and the others."
"He knows better than anyone how proud you are deep down."
"At present, there are only two people capable of pioneering the Bitter Sea Emperor Realm System: you and me."
"His idea was for the two of us to pioneer the Bitter Sea Emperor Realm System together, achieving the best of both worlds. But I refused."
"Why?"
Lu Mingyu asked instinctively. Zhang Bairen glanced at the distant sky and said,
"I waited two hundred thousand years for this opportunity. I do not wish to hand it over to someone else so easily."
"You have your pride, and I have my convictions. Even if the road ahead is fraught with hardship, I, Zhang Bairen, do not need some junior like you to share my burden."
"And what else?"
Lu Mingyu spoke again.
But faced with that question, Zhang Bairen fell silent for two breaths.
"Because I respect him, I want to help him once."
As he spoke, Zhang Bairen smiled faintly, and memories of those bygone days seemed to flicker through his eyes.
"Two hundred thousand years ago, I met him for the first time."
"At the time, he had some capital, but his arrogance knew no bounds."
"I thought then that someone like him surely would not live long, because far too many people stood in his way."
"To avoid clashing with that 'Madman,' and also because I approved of his unwavering faith, I withdrew from the competition for the Destiny of that era."
"After that, Wu Li emerged out of