Bai Xiao's Ideals

Qian Renxue retorted, "You're right. The reason high-level Soul Masters hold such lofty status isn't merely because they possess great power—it is also because lower-level Soul Masters yearn for and revere the power they wield.

Just as high-level Soul Masters seek to break through Rank 99 and become gods, eternal life is something all of us humans long to possess."

Bai Xiao's expression turned serious. He had not expected Qian Renxue to say such a thing.

"What do you think of eternity and decay?"

Qian Renxue found it strange that Bai Xiao would ask such a boring question. "Eternity is something that even time cannot erase, something that can exist forever. Decay is when life is worn away by time."

Bai Xiao shook his head and smiled. "No. Your understanding of eternity and decay only skims the surface. Let me give you a few examples! Do you think Soul Beasts live long lives? Let us first define the lifespan of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast as eternity."

Bai Xiao glanced at Qian Renxue and noticed her frown. He paid it no mind and continued,

"Suppose that long ago, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast took human form. While traveling the continent, she encountered a frail, ordinary scholar.

He was not even a Soul Master, yet when the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was at death's door, he saved her, while losing his own life.

That scholar appeared at the moment when she was most deeply moved.

The Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast survived and ultimately broke through, becoming a Soul Beast with two hundred thousand years of cultivation.

Yet the scholar's shadow remained forever frozen at that moment in her memories, continually beautified there until it approached perfection.

The scholar lived eternally within her heart.

This was a story of 'eternity.'"

Qian Renxue seemed somewhat dissatisfied, but Bai Xiao ignored it and continued his tale.

"Now for a story about decay. Long ago, a Title Douluo inherited Godhood, killed his enemies, and took his beloved with him to the Divine Realm."

Hearing this, Qian Renxue smiled with satisfaction, and Bai Xiao continued.

"On the lower realm's Douluo Continent, legends of his ascension to godhood began to spread. Yet for the next ten thousand years, no one else could become a god. Though he had already come to feel the Divine Realm's dullness and boredom, he still refused to relinquish his Godhood.

Ten thousand years later, only one person became a god. The people of Douluo Continent did not know that this person was his son-in-law. And so another ten thousand years passed, and still no one else became a god.

During those ten thousand years, who knew how many astonishingly gifted Soul Masters reached Rank 99, only to be unable to become gods because there was no Godhood for them. In the end, time ground them into grains of sand, and they vanished into the long river of years.

Because he wanted to leave his Godhood to his own son, countless young men and women who had grown up beneath his legend struggled to become gods, only to die in despondency when they stood just one rank away from godhood because of him.

Because his heart had already decayed. He possessed an eternal lifespan, yet did not dare give it up.

He let countless striving, impassioned youths die in his stead, forgetting that he, too, had once been one of them—that he, too, had been that youth...

This was a story of 'decay.'"

After hearing this, Qian Renxue fell silent. Bai Xiao quietly watched her.

Qian Renxue suddenly asked Bai Xiao, "What is true eternity?"

Bai Xiao laughed heartily. "Forever young!"

Qian Renxue was abruptly startled. When she looked at Bai Xiao again, her eyes were filled with profound meaning.

Unaware of it all, Bai Xiao continued, "A youth emerges from the Great Wilderness, cutting down every enemy beneath heaven..."

Bai Xiao gave Perfect World to Qian Renxue, and Bai the Great Charlatan continued his cultural invasion of another world.