"Senior, you know what it is?"
Li Xiaoyu's voice trembled almost imperceptibly with excitement.
This gourd was his greatest secret, and the very foundation of his survival.
Yet he had always understood little about its origins and true use, as if trying to see flowers through a fog.
Now, at last, someone who might know its secrets had appeared before him. How could he not be excited?
Xiao Bai slowly withdrew her finger. She looked up at Li Xiaoyu's eyes, full of anticipation, but didn't answer right away.
Instead, she asked a completely unrelated question.
"Little fellow, what do you think a magical treasure is?"
Li Xiaoyu froze at her question. He hadn't expected Xiao Bai to ask him that.
He pondered for a moment, then answered seriously, drawing on what he had learned. "A magical treasure is an instrument wielded by a cultivator through external power, harnessing the might of Heaven and Earth to slay demons and vanquish devils."
"It's an extension of a cultivator's arm, a vessel for the Dao."
"Half right."
Xiao Bai shook her head, picked up her cup, and took a delicate sip.
"That's true of ordinary magical treasures."
"But the truly top-tier ones, especially the spirit treasures passed down from the ancient primordial age, are themselves living beings."
"They have their own spiritual nature, their own will, and even their own Dao."
"When they choose a master, they aren't choosing someone to wield them. They're choosing a companion who can grow alongside them and attain the Dao together."
Xiao Bai's words opened a door to an entirely new world for Li Xiaoyu.
He had never considered the nature of magical treasures from this perspective.
"The gourd in your hands belongs to the latter kind."
Xiao Bai's gaze fell once more on the Immortal-Slaying Gourd,