Upon hearing this, the Nether Emperor fell silent for a long time.
He had left the Nether Department when he was very young, been tricked into coming to the Mortal World, and never left the Demon-Suppressing Prison again.
But he had still experienced many earth-shaking events and encounters beyond imagination.
None of those had struck him as powerfully as these words from Jing Jiu.
Looking back now at that earlier exchange between him and Jing Jiu, its deeper meaning gradually surfaced. It still concerned his wish.
The Nether Emperor burst out laughing and raised his right hand toward the flowering tree more than a hundred feet away.
Invisible soul fire pinched off several flowering branches like fingers, then grasped their stems and delivered them to Jing Jiu.
"Pluck the flowers while they may be plucked; do not wait for the spring breeze to warm your dwelling," the Nether Emperor said.
"Fine verse," Jing Jiu said.
"That appraisal of yours really couldn't be less heartfelt."
The Nether Emperor then asked, "Does the Sword Ghost method you created using Soul Fire Control have a name?"
Jing Jiu shook his head. He had never intended to name this art in the first place. After all, in the foreseeable past and future, he alone could use it.
"Over these three years, I've occasionally thought about that," the Nether Emperor said. "What do you think of calling it the Netherworld Immortal Sword?"
In a sense, this entirely new Sword Ghost method had been created jointly by Jing Jiu and the Nether Emperor. A name containing both "Netherworld" and "Immortal" was very fitting.
Moreover, "Netherworld" and "Immortal," two utterly different, mutually conflicting concepts, seemed incomparably harmonious together, as though naturally made to be one.
It was just that "Immortal Sword" really was an arrogant name.
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