You began by explaining your concerns about Consort Yu's future life. You said that having Xu Fu by her side would put your mind more at ease. At the very least, Xu Fu was quick-witted, and you had already planned out her path to immortality. Staying by Consort Yu's side for two thousand years would not be a problem. You also told her that you would meet again in the future, giving Consort Yu the exact time and place.
Consort Yu did not react much as she listened. She merely nodded, then followed your instructions, sold off her property, took Xu Fu with her, and left human society.
However, you did not die.
The Azure Emperor had played a neither-too-big-nor-too-small joke on you, making you think you were about to die. You went to Mount Tai again and slapped the Innate Eight Trigrams down on the Azure Emperor's table.
"Ah," Azure Emperor Taihao said cheerfully as he looked at his junior. "I am not good at killing, but I did not want to suffer a loss either, so I gave you a little payback. Surprised? Unexpected?"
"I've realized something. Every last one of you Four Royals and Five Elders loves watching a show."
Azure Emperor Taihao waved his hand. "Ah, ah~ That is what happens when you live too long. Every day, everyone either cultivates, transcends, or keeps a straight face while discussing the Dao. It has less flavor than being human. Now that I have finally seen someone who likes making trouble, of course I like you immensely. Forget everything else—will you learn my Qimen?"
Bai Ming dearly wanted to say, "I'm not learning that," with some backbone, but in the end, he obediently said that he would learn.
Simulation Ended
You learned the Innate Eight Trigrams, then left the Azure Emperor's abode.
You did not intend to look for Consort Yu, nor did you intend to look for Liu Bang. You planned to use this time to properly train your other abilities, so you began walking from the Han Dynasty toward Israel.
Consort Yu traveled with Xu Fu for more than ten years before driving Xu Fu off to Kunlun Mountain, returning to a life alone. Though Consort Yu was unaccustomed to it, she could endure it, all so that she could reunite with you at the time you had mentioned.
Yet heaven did not grant people their wishes. In 202 BC, before you had even completed half your journey, you were caught by the wandering Consort Yu.
Consort Yu sat atop a rock and quietly watched Bai Ming, whom she had stopped. Her gaze shifted back and forth as though she were thinking about something. Bai Ming, meanwhile, casually touched Yu as usual, quietly looking at Consort Yu and occasionally reaching out to arrange the hair that the wind had tousled.
The atmosphere was deeply silent.
At this point, Consort Yu was far from as accustomed to speaking as the future Akuta Hinako—though even in the future, Akuta Hinako was someone who spoke very little. Thus, Bai Ming and Consort Yu found themselves awkwardly stuck.
Breathing, staring at one another, and the occasional physical interaction.
Anyone unaware of the situation would have mistaken them for two deaf-mutes trying to communicate.
At last, Consort Yu could not hold back anymore. "Don't you have anything to say?"
"Hmm..." Bai Ming's eyes wandered before he casually plucked a wildflower from the roadside and tucked it into Consort Yu's hair. "What I want to say can wait."
The two fell silent again, and Consort Yu simply stared straight at Bai Ming with her eyes.
"I love you, Consort Yu."
This was the second time those words had come from Bai Ming's mouth.
"Who asked you that?!" Consort Yu bristled like a cat on the spot, but quickly calmed down. "Is there anything else besides that?"
"I wasn't lying to you. Even now, our timelines have not synchronized."
Consort Yu dearly wanted to complain that she did not care whether he had lied or not. By "anything else," she had meant whether he had any other words that would make her feel embarrassed upon hearing them. But when she saw that Bai Ming was not on the same wavelength as her at all, she abandoned that thought and asked instead, "What exactly do you mean by timeline synchronization?"
Though Consort Yu met the Daoist concept of an immortal to a certain extent, she did not possess the ability to see the past and future—or rather, the vast majority of immortals lacked such an ability. The ones Bai Ming had met were all great powers in their own right.
Therefore, Consort Yu had no idea that you came from the future and were disrupting her present.
You explained to Consort Yu how the you of the past had met the her of the future, while the you of the present had met the her of the past. Therefore, your timelines could only synchronize once you died this time. Consort Yu said she did not understand.
"I don't understand, but I don't mind waiting over two thousand years."
Consort Yu thought, I'm used to living alone like a wild person anyway. No matter how much human society develops, I can always find somewhere to live like a wild person.
"It isn't worth it."
"Whether it is worth it is for me to decide."
Consort Yu still wore a cold expression, while Bai Ming let out a long breath.
The long years of wandering like a wild person had left Consort Yu exhausted. She had neither kin nor a group she could rely on. All alone, she loathed and feared humanity, fleeing from the ever-expanding human society and living in seclusion.
To her, as long as she could find even a brief place to settle down, it did not matter if it led to her destruction. Only your appearance brought some change. Human society, the concept of "home," even the courage to face the future—she had drawn all of it from you over those ten-odd years.
You felt something called guilt—at least, you felt it when facing Consort Yu. But that guilt quickly vanished.
After all, this was Akuta Hinako... Even now that you understood what was going on, after returning, your relationship with Akuta Hinako would still be brothers by day and husband and wife by night. Whatever guilt there was could be discussed in bed.
Mentioning waiting for over two thousand years made you involuntarily think of the woman who had stolen your first time, Morgan.
Although you had never said anything as sickeningly sentimental as "I love you" to Morgan, you still felt guilty for making Morgan wait over fifteen hundred years.
You activated Clairvoyance [EX] and looked around at random. Morgan was studying magecraft within the Inner Sea of the Stars. Seemingly sensing your gaze, she used magical energy to write a warning: Be careful in the Sixth Singularity—Mordred might rape you.
You saw Wise King Gilgamesh saying that you had been slacking off too much and telling you to hurry to Uruk to help him. You replied that the capable should do more work, then shut off Clairvoyance [EX].
"You have already made such a resolution. If I keep acting coy, that would be going too far."
Bai Ming sat down beside her. "Come, Yu. Sit on my lap. I want to see what your eyes look like when they turn red."
Usually, Consort Yu's eyes and hair were extremely similar in color, both dark brown-black. But when she absorbed life force, her eyes turned red.
Consort Yu sat on Bai Ming's lap with a complicated expression. Her thin lips parted as she bit down on Bai Ming's neck.
The sound of sucking rang out. A moment later, Consort Yu stopped. Scarlet blood stained her lips red, and her glowing crimson eyes looked at Bai Ming. "Satisfied?"
"Satisfied."
You killed yourself before Consort Yu. Consort Yu cremated your body, then left.
Consort Yu became engrossed in crafting techniques of the immortal realm, turning into a technical geek. She gave Kuaiji Zero a major upgrade, adding an extra power source alongside your pseudo-solar power system.
Kuaiji Zero autonomously activated during the modern era. With its exceptional performance, it bombed every nation throughout modern history, only ceasing operations once the world had been unified again. Consort Yu dragged it away from the scene with a look of utter disgust.
Simulation ended.
The results you obtained have been rewritten into and substituted for Pan-Human History.
The panel and relevant information have been generated. Further details will not be elaborated upon here.
Bai Ming opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, falling into thought. Putting everything else aside, had Consort Yu prepared a jar of snake gall wine that had aged for over two thousand years?
The man sat up and checked the time beside him, then lay back down and closed his eyes.
◇A New Day
Today in Chaldea was another day when there was no rush to repair Singularities. Bai Ming checked the date. This simulation had taken three days, and during those three days, Akuta Hinako had already resolved the Fourth Singularity by herself.
Roman continued teaching Fujimaru Ritsuka Jacob's Limbs. Mash continued combat training against simulated Servants in the simulation battle room. Olga Marie brewed a pot of black tea and sat in Bai Ming's room reading a book.
Bai Ming, meanwhile, took the initiative to seek out Akuta Hinako. Naturally, Bai Ming was not the kind of man who would get up early in the morning to talk about love. He grabbed Akuta Hinako and dragged her to the training room. "Training."
Akuta Hinako glared fiercely at Bai Ming, then finally sighed and was dragged to the training room against her will.
Character Card After the Third Simulation, Caster Name: Bai Ming Class: Caster Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Strength: A Endurance: A++ → A+ (Rank lowered due to Consort Yu sucking his blood, but his actual parameters remained unchanged) Agility: A++ Mana: EX Luck: C → D+ (Rank lowered due to being toyed with by the Azure Emperor) Class Skills Item Construction: A+ The ability to create tools imbued with magical energy—at least on the surface, it appeared to be around B to A rank. However, Kuaiji Zero, which bombed the entirety of modern history, was his creation. Thus, this ability surpassed its normal limit and reached A+ rank, though only when making ordinary tools. When he began making improper, joke-like tools, its rank instead reached the EX that humanity could hardly attain. High-Speed Incantation: C The ability to accelerate magical incantations. Although it was high-speed, he found chanting too troublesome and often muddled through the process with vague, nonsensical words. Eye Penetration: EX Those with Eye Penetration see through all things, behold the Three Honored Ones, are not confused by the five colors, recognize neither yin nor yang, neither small nor great, and see everything. Simply put, it was Clairvoyance. There was nothing it could not see and nothing that could conceal itself from it—in other words, it was even stronger than King Solomon's Clairvoyance, which was granted by God and could not see inside Chaldea. Yet, aside from Merlin, it seemed that the other possessors of Clairvoyance [EX] did not enjoy using it. Divinity: C Having honestly acknowledged his identity as an immortal and displayed his power, he was inevitably granted Divinity upon registration. However, because this fellow did too many bizarre things, his Divinity actually dropped by a major rank within China. Personal Skills Ruler of Life and Death EX A skill akin to the protection of the Underworld. It was obtained through struggles against the Chinese Mount Tai divine system, the 108 Stars, and even more heavenly soldiers, heavenly generals, and deities. After the First Emperor and Han Gaozu spread the matter from the Qin-Han Era onward, later emperors granted him the title of Underworld God. Greatly increases attack power, grants enemies a high chance of instant death, grants immunity to instant death, grants special attack against undead, divine, and demonic beings, grants Guts, and increases maximum HP. Hero Creation: A The First Emperor had twenty-three sons. Apart from Huhai, all became his disciples. He had twenty-one Three-Seven Youths and one disciple, Fusu. The Three-Seven Youths ordinarily lived within his Kunlun cave abode and served in the underworld as twenty-one war generals. His disciple Fusu bore the Daoist name Qiaosongzi and excelled in mathematics, conquest, scriptures, artifact refinement, and the five schools of Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, Military strategy, and Mohism. He repeatedly appeared in the human world to provide guidance like a sage, making his master Bai Ming widely known. Sha Po Lang B Seven Killings, the lone star of restraint and slaughter, was also the solitary star of success and failure. It governed authority and life and death, was mercurial in joy and anger, and acted with measured advance and retreat. Greedy Wolf, master of calamity and fortune and star of peach blossoms, loved debauchery, held intense loves and hates, had uncertain good and evil, and was mercurial in joy and anger. Army Breaker hated the six relations, was estranged from flesh and blood, loved movement and disliked stillness, had an unrestrained nature, and craved excitement. With the three directions and four cardinal positions converged, it should have been an unassessable EX rank. However, because he abandoned traits such as mercurial emotions and hatred for kin, its rank dropped from EX to B. Greatly increases attack power. Noble Phantasms Innate Eight Trigrams: Bai Ming Style Rank: A The Innate Eight Trigrams learned from Azure Emperor Taihao Fuxi. It was said to be an array derived from the River Diagram, clearly different from King Wen's Later Heaven Eight Trigrams and Wei Yuangao's Midheaven Eight Trigrams. After Bai Ming modified it in whatever way was convenient for himself, it became the Innate Eight Trigrams: Bai Ming Style. Yet fundamentally, the Innate Eight Trigrams: Bai Ming Style and Fenghou Qimen, created by Fenghou based on the Innate Eight Trigrams, shared the same underlying principle. Two Principles: Bai Ming Style (Not Yet Reached) Rank: B The Two Principles meant the number two, and two meant balance. Principle meant "spirit," while "spirit" meant myriad forms of bearing—meaning an outdated acupoint-striking technique. Bai Ming evolved the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams from the Innate Eight Trigrams, but he only knew how to reverse the Later Heaven into the Innate. Thus, by accident, he skipped the Four Symbols stage from the Innate Eight Trigrams and directly reverse-engineered the Two Principles stage. The Book of Changes has the Great Ultimate, which gives rise to the Two Principles. The Two Principles give rise to the Four Symbols, the Four Symbols give rise to the Eight Trigrams, the Eight Trigrams determine fortune and misfortune, and fortune and misfortune give rise to great undertakings. ----------------- List of Items Held After the Third Simulation Divine Artifacts: Yasakani no Magatama, Yata no Kagami, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, Ame-no-Nuhoko, Futsunomitama, Ame-no-Makakoyumi, a large number of swords, Kurayami Kiba Yomi, Kosodena from the second simulation The Exquisite Treasure Pagoda, the Heavenly Court's wine gourd that produced Nectar of the Immortals, and several jars filled with Nectar of the Immortals from the third simulation Items: Several peaches of immortality, all publicly available stockpiled elixirs of Lord Lao, several of Grand Master Xuandu's publicly available stockpiled elixirs, several portions of Jade Pool water and soil Magic Materials: An enormous number of Wyverns, a large number of Evil Bones, a large quantity of herbs, all of Vortigern except his heart and penis, all of Fafnir except his Dragon Heart, the corpses of Japan's gods, and pure energy formed after the system erased the subjective consciousness from the spirits and souls of Japan's gods.
Your Mother's Wretched Beast, Bai Ming
The training process was extremely quiet. Akuta Hinako and Bai Ming both said nothing. Akuta Hinako had realized something, but pretended that she knew nothing.
Hehe, now it's time for my revenge, Akuta Hinako.
But then Akuta Hinako suddenly realized something. Bai Ming was relatively passive when it came to matters of affection. In other words, if she did not bring up the topic herself, Bai Ming might never mention it at all.
"Um—"
Akuta Hinako had just opened her mouth, but lost her nerve at the last moment. Bai Ming asked, "What is it?"
"N-Nothing."
Ah! Damn it, how am I supposed to bring this up and confirm it?
Akuta Hinako roared inwardly. Would she seem too wanton if she asked directly? But if she did not ask, how was she supposed to confirm it?
Bai Ming spoke. "You definitely have something on your mind. Ask."
Before you continue