A Will Eternal

“How is a person supposed to live like this?!?!” To Bai Xiaochun, it felt like being trapped in a pit of despair. By this point, he was absolutely furious at the Nine Heavens Cloud Lightning Sect.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the situation. He couldn’t beat six devas in a fight, and that wasn’t even mentioning the demigod patriarch. Therefore, he simply had to endure.

“Grin and bear it!” he growled, tugging furiously at his hair. He had never been in such torment in his entire life, a situation in which all he could do was sit there and stare off into the sky.

He couldn’t cultivate his Sun-Moon Vast-Sky Incantation. And when it came to his Undying Blood… he didn’t have enough life force to work with.

Other than sitting around bored, the only thing he could do was… sit around bored. Eventually, Du Lingfei came over to see him, and could tell from his disheveled state how dispirited he was, and that he was having a difficult time enduring.

“Xiaochun, just wait a little bit longer,” she said comfortingly. “And absolutely, positively do not do anything rash. I have an important mission to accomplish here for father. I’ll try to get it done as quickly as possible, and then we can leave this place.”

Bai Xiaochun nodded dully, not even glancing at her as he continued to stare out into nothing.

Du Lingfei sighed, looked at him for a long moment, and then flew out of the sect.

Several more days passed, during which Bai Xiaochun simply sat around with nothing to do. Eventually, the northern devas realized that he was going to behave himself. However, they simply snorted coldly and proceeded to keep a very close eye on him.

There was nothing else Bai Xiaochun could do other than stare off into the distance. The truth was that he really had no idea of what else to possibly do. He tried reaching out to the little turtle, but didn’t get even a single response.

As for the baby girl in the coffin, he didn’t dare to bring her out, not with so many eyes monitoring him day and night.

Eventually, he had been sitting around bored for about half a month. One evening, he was sitting there as listless as usual, watching the deep red sunset, and the moon climbing up into the sky.

It was in that very moment that, without any warning, he heard a faint sigh.

Along with the sigh, he sensed certain fluctuations in his bag of holding….

“The aura of home….”

Bai Xiaochun very nearly gasped, but managed to keep himself under control. Despite the tsunamis of shock battering at his heart, he kept the expression of boredom on his face.

Without the slightest hesitation, he spoke into his mind, “Are you speaking to me, true spirit?!”

A long moment passed in which he got no response. Anxious, he was just contemplating taking the coffin out to look at, when the same faint voice was again transmitted into his mind.

“It’s me…. Thank you for letting me once again feel… the aura of home….”

Bai Xiaochun was feeling very deeply shaken. To have the baby girl awaken in his moment of profound boredom had him feeling extremely excited. Therefore, he didn’t hesitate to respond.

“How are you able to wake up without a River-Defying Pill?”

“My body isn’t awake,” continued the voice, “only my mind…. The north used to be my home, and the spiritual energy here is very beneficial to me…. If I can absorb enough of it, then it will be just as effective as a Hundred Breaths River-Defying Pill…. Unfortunately, even my mind can’t stay awake very long right now….”

Worried that she would fall asleep soon, he quickly went on with the conversation. “The aura of home? Patriarch Spirit Stream once told me that the Spirit Stream Sect used to be a riversource sect from the north… the Frigid School. Is that what you’re talking about?”

“The Frigid School….” The baby girl laughed softly, a bitter laughter that seemed filled with reminiscence. “You’re right. The Frigid School…. Once upon a time, I was the Celestial’s top apprentice. In his campaign against the Arch-Emperor Dynasty, I killed multiple heavenly kings. I eventually helped him drive the dynasty completely out of the Heavenspan River region…. Later, it was to help him defend the northern river region that I founded the riversource sect here… the Frigid School!”

“What?” he said, stunned. He had originally been interested in talking mostly because he was so bored. Never could he have imagined that a single question on his part would reveal astonishing secrets! It seemed almost unbelievable that this baby girl had once been the Celestial’s top apprentice. After all, the current apprentices of the Celestial were the demigod patriarchs of the four riversource sects.

“How did….” he began, but then hesitated.

“You want to know how I ended up like this, and why the Frigid School was replaced by the Nine Heavens Cloud Lightning Sect…?

“Well, the answer is simple…. The Celestial wanted it that way. Otherwise, there is no way that Zhou Daoyi… could have possibly been a match for me, even if he was a demigod!”

Bai Xiaochun’s eyes went wide, and he began panting. This new information from the baby girl was simply too astonishing. He simply couldn’t imagine what the Frigid School’s demigod expert could possibly have done to cause the Celestial to ignore the Master-apprentice bond and kill her. And why was she still around, a discarnate soul in the form of a baby girl?!

The baby girl could sense what Bai Xiaochun was thinking. After a moment of silence, she continued, “Child, I’m prepared to give you some spectacular good fortune, if you dare to take it!”

After a moment of hesitation, he asked, “Is it dangerous?”

This time, half an incense stick’s worth of time passed before her voice thrummed in his mind again.

“I'm very curious why the Spirit Stream Sect would possibly give my coffin to you….”

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Bai Xiaochun decided to explain himself a bit. “Uh… I guess it must be because I like to play things safe. Hahaha….”

Ignoring him, the baby girl continued. “Back when I realized the Celestial was planning to kill me, I made plenty of preparations. Although my true self died, I managed to send out a soulclone…. The soulclone possessed the body of a true spirit, and erased all traces of my aura from it. Because of that, it was impossible for the Celestial to detect me.

“However, I only possessed the true spirit because my first plan failed. I originally wanted to possess a world treasure! The world treasure was not completed in time. If it had, then given the Celestial’s cultivation base at the time, I might have been able to take him out!”

Unable to hold back, Bai Xiaochun asked, “World treasure?”

“The lands of the north in their entirety form the foundation of a world treasure. It was forged starting from the very depths of the ice here…. Do you understand what type of magical item I’m talking about? A world treasure!” In this moment, the baby girl seemed completely domineering and powerful!

As for Bai Xiaochun, his eyes were nearly popping out of his skull.

“You took all of the lands of the north and used them to create a treasure? But… the north is so huge….” After all, the north was just like the east, almost like a continent in terms of size.

And yet, here this baby girl was saying that those lands were used as the foundation of a magical item, albeit one that was never completed….

Despite being a deva, this sounded like nothing more than a fairy tale to Bai Xiaochun.

“Heavens!” he thought. “I was just bored and wanted someone to talk to! Who would have thought that the conversation would be as monumental as this!?” He couldn’t help but look down at the ground below and think about the idea of it being part of a huge magical item.

At this point, the baby girl continued speaking. “I can sense that after all the years which have passed, the magical item… has fully taken shape. I need your help to finish the process. Once I become the spirit automaton of the treasure, I can repay you… by bonding the item to you!

“The only requirement I have… is that you kill the Celestial!

“The treasure will be incredibly powerful. It will take all of the lands of the north, remove them from the Heavenspan Realm, and transform them into… a frigid greatsword!

“The cultivators who live in the north, as well as any other living beings who have proliferated here, will not die. They will live in the world of the magical item. And once the sword is bonded to you… you will be its owner and master!

“At the same time… when I fuse with the world treasure, I can give you access to the boundless spiritual energy of heaven and earth that has built up in it over the years. In a very short period of time, your cultivation base… may very well jump all the way into the Demigod Realm!

“That is the good fortune I wish to give you… And now, you need to tell me whether or not you dare to take it!” The baby girl spoke with decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron!