A Will Eternal

Bai Xiaochun suddenly realized that he missed spirit tail chickens, and yet, the fact that he had found something similar to them in the Eternal Lands was a wonderful thing….

The Giant Ghost King smacked his lips, and then eyed a fish bone for a moment before tossing it into his mouth and crunching it to bits. He then prepared to speak, but before he could, he shivered, and a searing heat rose up inside of him that caused white mist to build up in the area.

“An immortal fish!” he exclaimed. He quickly settled down cross-legged to begin doing breathing exercises.

After the Giant Ghost King experienced such success, Bai Xiaochun waited for a long moment to see if something similar would happen with himself. However, no heat appeared inside of him.

“What’s going on? It worked for the Giant Ghost King. Why not me?” Then he looked around, and realized that there were a lot of bones around that they hadn’t eaten. After randomly picking up a few, he crunched them up in his mouth and swallowed them, which was exactly when the warm current began to flow through him.

Delighted, he closed his eyes. Soon, the warmth turned into something like a huge wave that pushed his Live Forever Codex further toward completion.

Suppressing his excitement, he focused on the energy in his body. Time passed. Soon, roughly six hours had gone by since Bai Xiaochun and the Giant Ghost King began meditating.

At that point, the Giant Ghost King opened his eyes, threw his head back and laughed uproariously. In that short six hours, the Giant Ghost King had made significant progress toward the late Demigod Realm.

“It’s too bad we only had one,” he said. “If I could eat fish like that more often, I could reach the great circle in no time!”

At that point, Bai Xiaochun also opened his eyes, and they glittered with bright light.

Although he hadn’t made as much progress as the Giant Ghost King, that was because he was already further past him in general. Even still, the little bit of progress he had experienced was very exciting.

If he wanted to break through to become a celestial, then he needed to reach the great circle of the Live Forever Codex. Unfortunately, he was still some distance away from that level. And unfortunately, the Live Forever Codex differed from the Undying Codex in that he had not actually personally cultivated it. It had been consecrated upon him.

Although he had developed the divine abilities of the technique all the way to creating his Live Forever Lamp, the truth was that he still didn’t really understand how to actually cultivate the technique.

After the gravekeeper consecrated him, he came to the Eternal Immortal Domains and achieved a bit of progress. But it was slow to the point of being almost nothing. At the moment, his Live Forever Codex had reached the point where it was holding him back. He was basically at a major bottleneck.

Based on what he could tell, if he practiced ordinary cultivation with the spiritual energy in Saint-Emperor City, then he couldn’t achieve in ten years or more what he had just achieved by eating half of a heavenly dragonfish.

Considering that, it was almost impossible to calculate how long it would take him to break out of the Demigod Realm by ordinary cultivation alone!

His original plan had been to acquire some special medicinal pills or something similar. But now, looking around at the handful of fish bones that were left over, he realized that a new path had just been opened up.

“One fish is worth at least fifteen years of cultivation!!” All of a sudden, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes began to shine as brightly as a mouse that hadn’t eaten for several years. “If I could get enough of those fish… breaking through this bottleneck would be super easy! I could become a celestial very soon!!”

He was already getting very excited. For one thing, he would have much more longevity and life force after becoming a celestial, and for another, he would have his Daoseed, which meant he could be resurrected if he died. All of a sudden, he had the desire to reach the absolute pinnacle of this strange new world he was in. And it all came down to the heavenly dragonfish.

“I need fish!!” He immediately began to look around and grab up all fish bones he could see. However, the Giant Ghost King seemed to have come to the same conclusion as him, and lunged to interfere!

“Hey, Giant Ghost King, the Saint-Emperor gave me this fish as a reward. Don’t you dare fight me over it!” Bai Xiaochun’s eyes widened into a glare.

“Like hell! I’m your father-in-law, fool! Haven’t you heard of filial piety!?”

At this point, Bai Xiaochun furiously resorted to a trump card. “This is one of <em>my</em> leftovers! I actually licked it already!!”

“Oh yeah? Well I licked all the other ones you already ate! We’re related anyway, so it doesn’t matter!” Not willing to be outdone, the Giant Ghost King leaned forward and spat toward the fish bones on the ground….

Perhaps it was because of some divine ability that he cultivated, but that one bit of spittle somehow managed to spread out and cover all of the bones….

Bai Xiaochun stood there, stunned at the Giant Ghost King’s despicable and yet devastating tactics. Although he had to admit that the man was definitely thicker-skinned and a much better schemer than himself, that didn’t explain how he was able to spit out so much saliva in one shot….

As he stood there hesitating, the Giant Ghost King waved his sleeve, collecting all of the fish bones up and depositing them into his bag of holding. With that, he smiled complacently.

“You’re too inexperienced to fight with me, kid.” With that, he laughed heartily.

Dumbfounded, Bai Xiaochun sighed and was about to say something when both he and the Giant Ghost King realized that someone was approaching the blessed land. A moment later, they heard someone speaking outside.

“Duke Heavenspan, it’s Chen Su, here for a visit.”

This was the first official visit Bai Xiaochun had received in Saint-Emperor City, and shockingly, the visitor was a celestial! Not only was Bai Xiaochun curious to see who it was, he also didn’t want to cause any offenses, so he hurried over, waving his hand to open the main gate. Revealed outside was an old man with gray hair.

He wore a long, blue robe, and bore the demeanor of a transcendent being. Smiling faintly, he clasped hands in formal greeting.

“I was wondering why the birds were singing so happily earlier!” Bai Xiaochun said. “It was because an honored guest was on his way! I never imagined it would be you, Fellow Daoist Chen! Please, come in!” Bai Xiaochun’s broad smile and clearly spoken words made him seem completely different than he had moments ago, struggling with the Giant Ghost King over fish bones.

Chen Su laughed heartily at Bai Xiaochun’s pleasing words. Nodding, he stepped into the blessed land.

The Giant Ghost King was also curious about this visitor. Neither he nor Bai Xiaochun were cultivators of the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, and were considered foreigners. Although they both had official government positions, based on the information he had gathered earlier, he knew that most of the other government officials viewed them with a certain measure of contempt.

And yet, almost overnight, someone had come to pay their respects. Furthermore, Chen Su was one of the four kings of the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, someone with a rank similar to Gu Tianjun. Shocked, the Giant Ghost King quickly clasped hands in a greeting of his own.

Chen Su nodded at the Giant Ghost King, but then ignored him. After looking around the courtyard, he made some small talk with Bai Xiaochun, until finally clearing his throat.

“Fellow Daoist Bai, where is the heavenly dragonfish that His Majesty rewarded you with?”

“Heavenly dragonfish?” Bai Xiaochun had been curious about the nature of the visit, so when Chen Su brought up the heavenly dragonfish, he was a bit taken aback.

“Yes, the heavenly dragonfish,” Chen Su replied warmly. “If you’d be willing to part with it, Fellow Daoist Bai, I’d love to take it in trade.” Chen Su, despite being a celestial, actually had no heavenly dragonfish. After all, they were considered the personal property of the Saint-Emperor, and were rarely given out as rewards. In fact, throughout all history, only a few hundred had ever been distributed.

Each one was considered beyond priceless, and they were commonly referred to as national treasures, which was no exaggeration. In the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, people would pay astronomical prices to acquire even one. One of the main reasons for that was that their blood could be used as an immortal ingredient to concoct immortal pills.

Chen Su was convinced that his proposal would not be rejected. Bai Xiaochun was a newcomer to the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, and wouldn’t want to offend a celestial over a fish.

Bai Xiaochun hesitated for a moment, then said, “Uh… sorry, Fellow Daoist Chen, you’re a bit late. I ate it already.”

When Chen Su heard Bai Xiaochun’s response, his eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

“Did you just say… you ate it?”

Bai Xiaochun blinked a few times and then nodded. “Yep. Ate it.”

As far as Chen Su was concerned, Bai Xiaochun was obviously making up excuses. Voice cold, he said, “Come on, Fellow Daoist Bai. Don’t treat me like I’m three years old or something. If you don’t wish to part with it, just say so directly. Heavenly dragonfish are national treasures, and precious beyond imagination. Nobody who acquired one would ever possibly eat it! The best thing to do is keep it in a pond and extract its blood occasionally!”

With that, he flicked his sleeve as if to leave.

At this point, Bai Xiaochun sighed and gave the Giant Ghost King a look. The Giant Ghost King, despite not really wanting to, produced some fish bones from his bag of holding.

“See these fishbones, Fellow Daoist Chen….”

When Chen Su looked back and saw the bones, his eyes went wide. When he opened his mouth to speak….

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