A Will Eternal

“Bai Hao! Considering that you’re a member of the Bai Clan, if you simply hand the giant ghost king over, I’ll count it as a meritorious service and pronounce you clan chief!” The rumbling pressure coming from the Bai Clan patriarch completely surpassed that of the other two patriarchs.

Although the Cai Clan patriarch didn’t seem very happy about what the Bai Clan patriarch had just said, he didn’t say anything. Clearly, the patriarchs had come to an agreement of some sort. However, when it came to the Chen Clan patriarch, his desire to kill Bai Hao had actually far surpassed that of the Cai Clan patriarch, although no one knew that.

The things Bai Hao had accomplished so far were completely shocking, so much so that they would eventually shake all of the Wildlands. As a result, the Chen Clan patriarch was absolutely certain that if Bai Hao returned to the Bai Clan, they would eventually control all of Giant Ghost City.

“We can’t leave him alive,” he thought. “If he sticks around, the Bai Clan will get so powerful that nobody will be able to stop them!”

Bai Xiaochun blinked a few times and braced himself as he looked up into the sky at the three patriarchs. Although the Bai Clan patriarch’s offer seemed great, Bai Xiaochun didn’t trust him at all.

Sighing inwardly, he tried to decide what to do when, all of a sudden, a voice entered his ears that he hadn’t heard for several days. It was none other than the little turtle!

“Don’t agree, little punk!” he said urgently. “Lord Turtle hasn’t appeared for the past few days because he didn’t dare to! Dammit! I knew something was off. The giant ghost king... is already awake! He woke up much, much earlier! If Lord Turtle’s guess is correct, he’s actually already back at full strength!!

“The wily old fox! Listen, punk, I’ve been helping you out for a long time now, but this time, I had to make a lot of preparations to be able to send you this message behind the giant ghost king’s back. He’s a demigod, after all. I have to go now, so as for what exactly you should do now, just play it by ear.”

Bai Xiaochun was complexly flabbergasted, but didn’t let it show on his face. After glancing back at the giant ghost king for a moment, he looked up in thought. Then, his veins of steel began to pulse, making it seem to those who could see him as if he would continue on his current course no matter what setbacks he encountered. His eyes were now bloodshot, and he stood there looking like a lone wolf, valiant and heroic.

Swishing his sleeve, he spoke out in a hoarse voice that was both decisive and fierce, “Forget it! On the day that I, Bai Hao, left the Bai Clan, I swore an oath to never again be part of that clan! Although you are surnamed Bai just like I am, the meaning of that character is completely different between the two of us!

“The giant ghost king gave me a new lease on life, and is like a brother to me. I promised to keep him safe for a month, and I’ll do that no matter what!

“You people want the giant ghost king? Sure, you can have him. By stepping over my dead body!”

As he spoke, his voice grew louder and louder, until he was shouting with dauntless courage. There was a lofty arrogance to his words that would make anyone who didn’t know him think that he was the most noble and righteous type of person in the world.

“Even if I, Bai Hao, end up dying in the process, I will never hand over my brother the giant ghost king!! I didn’t abandon him in Giant Ghost City, and I’m not going to abandon him here!!” Even as his words rang out, he unleashed the power of his cultivation base. Making sure the giant ghost king was secure on his back, he began to flee again, musing about how amazing his speech had been just now. After hearing it, there was no way the giant ghost king wouldn’t be moved.

At the same time, he was feeling quite nervous, not because of the three devas, but because of the fact that he knew the giant ghost king to be a very slippery character....

He also couldn’t stop thinking about how he had slapped the man on the side of the head several times.

Up above, none of the three clan patriarchs said anything in response. Suddenly, the huge face which represented the Cai Clan patriarch blurred, and he emerged from its forehead in nascent divinity form. As he looked down at Bai Xiaochun, his lips quivered as though he were murmuring something. Then, thunderous rumbling could be heard as several lightning bolts appeared and shot toward Bai Xiaochun.

As they moved through the air, they formed together into a sphere of lightning, pulsing with shocking energy that caused the air around it to distort and then ignite into flames!

As that happened, the Chen Clan patriarch also emerged from the giant face that represented him. Brightly colored light flashed in heaven and earth as the entire 50-kilometer area around him suddenly became an enormous sealing mark!

Bai Xiaochun’s eyes opened wide. Aware that he couldn’t avoid this attack, he looked at the incoming sphere of lightning and roared, “Even if I die, I’ll never let any of you hurt my big bro!!”

He stamped his foot onto the ground, causing a huge crater to appear below. Then he gently put the giant ghost king down behind him and pulled out his Eternal Parasol to defend the both of them.

Massive rumbling sounds echoed out, and the ground quaked. Rifts spread out as sparks of electricity showered about in all directions, creating something like a lake of lightning. The Eternal Parasol twisted and distorted, and behind it, Bai Xiaochun trembled and coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. He was trembling on the verge of collapse, bones breaking inside of him as he withstood the force of the attack. After it was over, he gritted his teeth, grabbed the giant ghost king again, and took to flight.

As he sped along, he continued to cough up blood. An expression of despair appeared on his face as he looked at the giant ghost king and then spoke in a voice so soft only the two of them could hear.

“Everyone dies one day. Compared to the kindness you have shown me, my brother... what does death count for!?!?” At this point, his expression of despair began to turn into one of madness. “I just hate the fact that my cultivation base is so weak. And the fact that I can’t fulfill my promise to you, my brother!!”

With that, he threw his head back and roared in frustration. Inside, he was thinking that he had continued with the act for long enough. If things kept going on like they were, he really would be flirting with disaster.

He had gone all out to defend against that attack just now, and knew that the only reason he had survived was because the Cai Clan patriarch was in nascent divinity form, making his attacks much weaker than normal. If the Chen or Bai Clan patriarchs attacked him in his current state, he probably wouldn’t be able to take it.

“How far does the giant ghost king want to take this!? If he doesn’t do something soon, I’ll end up dead, and so will he....” Bai Xiaochun was virtually weeping inside by this point.

Up above, the Bai Clan patriarch sighed in regret about how things were turning out. However, he was a cold-hearted person, and therefore, since this Bai Hao was just too stubborn, he knew he had to act.

“Fine then, just die!” he said, launching a fist strike toward the ground.

RUMBLE!

A huge, illusory fist appeared, and as it descended, incredible pressure weighed down in all directions. That fist represented the will of the heavens, and was so powerful that it could destroy anything it touched!

Within moments, it was bearing down on Bai Xiaochun, causing the ground to quake dangerously!

An intense sensation of deadly crisis erupted inside of Bai Xiaochun. He could tell… that this was not the type of attack he could absorb in defense. Nor could he evade it in time. If it hit him, he would be killed beyond the shadow of a doubt!!

“Fudge!” he shouted inwardly. “Come on, King Giant Ghost, don’t tell me you really do want me dead?!” Although he was shaking and terrified, the words that actually came out of his mouth were a bit different than his inner monologue.

“It’s not that I don’t want to live up to my promise, my brother. I really do. I guess the only thing now is for the both of us to stroll the pathways of the Yellow Springs together!”

He looked up at the enormous fist, his heart filled not with terror and alarm, but with peace. Although he was trembling physically, he wasn’t nervous or scared anymore. He knew that if the little turtle was correct, and the giant ghost king really was awake, abandoning him wasn’t a viable option. Furthermore, considering how things had developed just now, there was no way he could escape from the three deva patriarchs this time.

“No more gambling and no more acts,” he thought. “Fudge! I guess if I’m really gonna lose my life, then I sure as hell am not going to go out looking terrified....” Gritting his teeth, he put the giant ghost king behind him protectively.

Even as the entire world filled with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering rumbling, and the enormous fist was about to crush Bai Xiaochun, even as a huge crater opened up beneath him, and nearby mountains crumbled into dust, even as the air shattered....

The Bai Clan patriarch, instead of breathing a sigh of relief, suddenly began to tremble. His eyes went wide with disbelief, and his face fell as he shouted, “King Giant Ghost!”

He wasn’t the only one to react in such a way. The Chen and Cai Clan patriarchs both began to shake, their minds reeling as though they were being struck by hundreds of thousands of lightning bolts. Never could they possibly have imagined that in this exact moment... the person who had just been lying unconscious behind Bai Xiaochun, would suddenly stand up and walk forward!

He was none other than... the giant ghost king!!