“Xiaoyao, is that why you betray me?”
“If Your Majesty must think that this is a betrayal, then I have nothing to say. However, for the Immortal World to degenerate from the leader of the ten thousand worlds to today, it should be obvious to Your Majesty who is the betrayer.”
“The Immortal World is still the leader of the ten thousand worlds.”
“Yes, the Immortal World has been fighting for many years, destroying thousands of worlds, and dominating the ruins. Your Majesty, when you ascend the throne, you did not promise us so.”
In the ninth sky, the dialogue between the Immortal King Xia Yu and Xiaoyao continued.
For thousands of years, Xia Yu had lived in the Palace of Three Purities. Apart from Senior Immortal Xiaoyao, no one has ever had such a long conversation with him. Xia Yu always had extraordinary patience and tolerance for Xiaoyao. Even this time, when Senior Immortal Xiaoyao admitted his betrayal to the Immortal King, his patience had not been exhausted.
Xia Yu looked at Xiaoyao with complicated eyes and asked, “Xiaoyao, how long have you lived?”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao said, “Thirteen thousand and five hundred years. In the Immortal World, I’m relatively young. I can achieve today’s achievements thanks to Your Majesty’s appreciation. But…”
Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Xia Yu.
“Do you know how long I have lived?”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao pondered for a moment. He had doubts about this issue and had long had his own speculation.
“It was thirty thousand years ago that Your Majesty ascended to the throne of the Immortal King. Using this as the basis of calculation…’
“I have lived for a hundred thousand years.”
“What?”
Although Senior Immortal Xiaoyao had long doubted about the age of the Immortal King Xia Yu, he was really surprised by the answer that the Immortal King personally admitted.
This was much longer than he expected, and even beyond common sense… Immortals were not truly Immortal. Generally speaking, ordinary Immortals, which was the True Immortal level, could live for ten thousand years. If it were in Nine Regions, they would be eternal giants. At the level of Senior Immortal, one could extend one’s life to twenty thousand years. As for the Immortal King, apart from Xia Yu, few people, only a few people in the history of the Immortal World had ever reached this level. According to the previous records, the lifespan of the Immortal King was about fifty thousand years, which could be extended to sixty thousand and up to seventy thousand years by special means. And it would be impossible to prolong it any longer.
It was the supreme law that encompassed all the worlds that all men must die. The more one went against the sky, the heavier one would be restricted by the law, and the harder it would be to extend it even for a bit. Before Xia Yu, there was an Immortal King who did everything he could to pursue longevity, but when he eventually had to end on his seventy-five thousand years old birthday, he used the resources of the entire Immortal World and spared no effort to prolong his life by five thousand years.
Xia Yu said that he had lived for one hundred thousand years… It was hard to imagine how much it had cost to achieve this.
No, in fact, there was nothing unimaginable. The Immortal World had changed from the supreme of the ten thousand worlds to the ruins on an isolated island. Thousands of Immortals had either died in the flames of war, or died when the Immortal World was exhausted and the laws that governed heaven and earth changed. Even the vast Immortal World was split into countless pieces… At first, people thought that this was the natural change in the laws of heaven and earth, similar to what happened to Nine Regions in the Age of Chaos. But now, it seemed that the Age of Chaos in the Nine Regions was caused by the plunder of the Nine Regions by the Immortal World. The destruction of the Immortal World was obviously the price Xia Yu had to pay for his one hundred thousand years of lifespan.
“Your Majesty, for your own personal interest, you even disregarded the Immortal World…”
“Immortal Cultivation is for personal interest.” Xia Yu said unceremoniously, “Otherwise, what is the purpose of Immortal Cultivation? Wine, sex, avarice, and temper? Power over the world? Then why do you need to ascend to the Immortal World? You can be like a fish in water instead in the Nine Regions. The essence of Immortal Cultivation is to seek longevity. There is a great horror in the line between life and death. It is this horror that drives generations of cultivators to explore the Immortal Path. You shouldn’t be ignorant about this truth.”
“But what’s the meaning of this kind of keeping on living at the death’s door?”
Xia Yu said, “You have only lived for about thirteen thousand years, naturally, you are far from realizing the wonderful taste of longevity. When you live to one hundred thousand years like me, you can naturally understand the meaning of longevity. It’s true that, for me now, every extra day that I live I have to pay an amazing price, but at the same time, I get an astonishing pleasure. This is an equivalent exchange, which is also the supreme law that governs all worlds.”
“… I understand. His Majesty might have your own reason. But please forgive me for not being able to agree.” Senior Immortal Xiaoyao said seriously, “But again, still that sentence, my allegiance is to the Immortal World, not the Immortal King. Your Majesty destroyed the Immortal World for his own personal interest…”
Xia Yu said, “What if I say that I will share my longevity with you?”
Xiaoyao said in surprise, “Share your longevity with me? Why?”
As a Senior Immortal who was under one person but above the many, Xiaoyao was very clear that for the King, there were many things that couldn’t be shared. Xia Yu valued longevity so much that he couldn’t wait to spend all the resources in the world in exchange for the extension of lifespan… How could such a person share longevity with others?
Unless…
The next moment, Xia Yu suddenly solved the mystery, which was not unexpected.
“Because you are my child.” Xia Yu said, “Your mother is a great cultivator, but unfortunately, I can’t give her a proper status. So, I have never told anyone about your identity. However, among my many children, you are the only one who have truly inherited my mantle. Like Xia Xiaohe, they were but arrogant fools who borrowed the name of the Immortal King’s daughters and sons to act unscrupulously.”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao’s emotion was difficult to calm. There were many words that he wanted to say, but he didn’t know where to start.
His path in the Immortal World was too smooth. Even the Immortal King Xia Yu was almost obedient to him. Many people joked that he was the illegitimate son of the Immortal King, which deeply violated his taboo. However, unexpectedly, that old joke was actually true!
He was really the son of the Immortal King!
“But, even if I’m your child, I’m merely a relatively high-level sacrifice for you… For longevity, you can even ignore the Immortal World, let alone a son.”
“No, you are wrong. Only you, I will never sacrifice. Because you are the key to my longevity.”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao was surprised again and asked, “Do you want to reincarnate in someone else’s body? Just like how you dealt with Xia Xiaohe and the others, you want to borrow my body to extend your existence?”
“No, my existence is almost over.” The Immortal King Xia Yu sighed desolately and said, “In the past tens of thousands of years, I have exhausted everything, and the one hundred thousand years is my limit. Even if we purge the Nine Regions clean this time, it will not help me continue to prolong my life.”
“So…”
“What I did, everything is for you. After my death, you will inherit everything I have and become a new me. You ought to have heard of the saying children are the continuation of parents’ lives.”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao sneered, “I don’t want to continue your life like this. I am who I am, and I will never become anyone else.”
Xia Yu desolately said, “Those words that you have just said, I have already said it seventy thousand years ago.”
“…”
“Whether you admit it or not, you are almost a copy of me. Xiaoyao, since you entered the Immortal World, every move of yours is under my control. Why do you think that you can really become an independent individual?”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao was silent. Thinking of the fact that the Immortal King had taken care of him in the past years, sweat gradually oozed from his forehead.
“So, this rebellion of yours actually didn’t surprise me. If I was at your age, I would have done the same thing. You want to delay time and let that bastard back, but do you really think he can change anything?”
“…”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao had nothing to say. He did have an extremely high expectation of Wang Lu. However, if all this was also in the calculation of the Immortal King, then his so-called expectation of Wang Lu was just a foolish dream.
In the silence of Senior Immortal Xiaoyao, the Immortal King suddenly raised his hand and an invisible wave spread to the distance. Silently, it shattered the connection between the Sky Tower at Stellar Peak and the debris of the two-worlds passage.
“Now, he can’t come back.”
However, at this moment, a sudden laughter came in.
“I really feel sorry for you two, I’ve already come back.”