"The ultimate goal you pursue is self-realization, rather than everlasting life and immortality?"
Yu Bao found Li Chen's words somewhat incredible.
Li Chen said, "Correct. But that doesn't mean everlasting life and immortality are unimportant. Rather, the reason they have become a higher form of life that all Dao Paths pursue and recognize is really just the fanciful imagining of the Emperor's Golden Shoulder Pole."
"A shoulder pole made of gold is certainly precious, but what meaning does it hold for an emperor? Some ancient Puppet Masters even concluded through their research that longevity should originally have been an inherent state of life, not a Dao Fruit that could only be obtained through painstaking pursuit."
"If Immortals and Gods exist, they probably wouldn't give everlasting life and immortality a second glance, nor consider such an ability particularly precious. To them, it would be a natural state of existence, just as mortals can live for several decades."
Yu Bao thought it over and felt there was some truth to that.
Short-lived species indeed found it difficult to imagine the many facets of long-lived species, but they could still make judgments through experience and logic.
Would immortal beings such as Immortals and Gods truly make much of their own everlasting lives?
Would the scales they perceived truly be identical to those of short-lived beings like themselves?
Perhaps they, too, lamented how bitterly short the lives of Immortals and Gods were!
Li Chen continued, "Do you know what life is?"
Yu Bao said, "I would welcome a detailed explanation."
Li Chen said, "We often define things possessing certain activities such as independent growth, reproduction, sensation, and consciousness as life. Extending that reasoning, does virtual life count as life? Does intelligence produced by artificial intelligence count as intelligence? When I succeed in the Creation