Xu Ziyan looked indifferently at the white-haired young man.
"Zhai Yuan, my heart is dead. Stop wasting your efforts."
As though he had long known Xu Ziyan would say this, the white-haired young man remained unruffled. He still tilted his head up and smiled at her with narrowed eyes.
"Dear Ziyan, nothing in this world is absolute."
At this, Xu Ziyan gazed hollowly toward the courtyard entrance.
"Apart from Qingxiao, there is nothing left in this world that I cherish."
When Xu Ziyan mentioned Dugu Qingxiao, the white-haired young man abruptly rose to his feet, his expression darkening.
"Xu Ziyan, in what way am I inferior to Dugu Qingxiao?"
He turned his back to her and said with an arrogant expression,
"In the Mortal Realm below, I possessed a golden spirit bone and broke through realm after realm, reaching the Heaven Shocking Realm. After going to the upper realm, I was chosen by Venerable Bugu of the Kunlun Ruins and successfully achieved Dao Integration in less than three hundred years."
"Later, my master and I discovered the secret to ascending to heaven from the Yellow Springs. We descended into the Yellow Springs together and wrested Evil Dog Ridge from several Great Ghost factions and Daoist Dian, establishing our own power."
"Next, in just three or four hundred years, my master and I will be able to find a way here in the Yellow Springs to ascend to the Divine Realm together!"
Having finished, Zhai Yuan looked proudly at Xu Ziyan.
"In all these things, how am I not stronger than Dugu Qingxiao?"
Xu Ziyan met Zhai Yuan's gaze without expression, then shook her head, her eyes hollow.
"In my heart, even if you were already in the Ascension Realm, you would not compare to him in the slightest."
"To me,