【you:"……"】

[Bai Bing Immortal Lord: "This is a language I learned from some gods. 'Bei Bi' means 'treasure.' Do you like it? My Bei Bi?"]

You coughed lightly and nodded: "Don't rush into enlightenment. This state can last for a day, and I can continue to apply it to you later."

"I just need you to do one thing for me—"

"What is it?!" Immortal Lord Bai Bing was on high alert, his expression extremely serious, eager to complete the task you had given him.

"Simple, it's just..."

Half a day later, several sentences began to echo throughout the entire Fourth Ring Road area.

[It wasn't just Immortal Lord Bai Bing and his War Immortal Camp who were running around shouting for help; his "Pan-Immortal Domain Alliance," and even more than a dozen other alliances, were also making similar calls.]

From a True Immortal in the seventh realm to a King in the fifth realm.

The sound traveled from the fourth ring road, spreading across trillions of light-years, then into the third and first ring roads, and even outwards.

Within just a few days, across a radius of trillions of light-years from the center of the universe, various songs and shouts echoed everywhere.

"Baihe, I'll fuck your horse!"

"Bai He's head, like a ball, was kicked into the vast ocean of stars."

"I'm talking to you, Qi Yun Dao Jun Bai He, you're dead!"

"You idiot, Baihe, come and hear my assessment of you: you're an idiot!"

[One day, two days, three days.]

[Until this foreseeable end, 271 hours later.]

Bai He did not come to visit.

You have reached a preliminary conclusion that the area is safe.

"Maybe I'm being too sensitive. A billion years have passed. Bai He must have gotten tired of this universe long ago."

[After you make your decision, you'll give them a premonition every few days, instructing them to shout slogans everywhere in the future. This way, if problems arise, you can get rid of them more than ten days in advance.]

"But since he's not here, I can give it a try without worry."

[Give a True Immortal some points so they can comprehend the relevant Dao principles, then ask them to help you escape this universe?]

No—this is not what you should be doing.

"I'm fleeing for eternity... I don't want to keep running away this time."

You recall that yellow star, the mortal realm, the spirit realm, and the celestial realm where you are now.

Beyond these worlds, there is much, much more!

[The millennia that have passed since you escaped the cosmic membrane have gradually solidified that idea in you.]

"Even if we're escaping, it can't be just me, or a small group of people, escaping!"

In reality, you see Immortal Lord Bai Bing appear before you.

[First, he descended three times, raising his strength to be comparable to his own, thus securing his right to speak.]

You're still in the process of rebuilding your life; you don't want him to instantly destroy this incarnation.

[Immortal Lord Bai Bing: "You junior... um?"]

He sensed your aura surge in an instant, leaping from below the level of a True Immortal to a level comparable to his!

[Although strangely, he couldn't sense any Dao power from you, feeling like you were a sixth-realm cultivator... perhaps you possess a special hidden Dao principle, and he didn't seem to care about that.]

You waved your hand, preemptively asking, "Do you want to live? Do you want to survive the cosmic collapse nine million years from now?"

Immortal Lord Bai Bing frowned: "What do you mean by this, fellow Daoist?"

You continued, "You just need to answer yes or no."

You know you're showing off, and it's a forced, contrived display.

But you feel you deserve it.

Damn it, just thinking about what you're going to do next makes you feel like you can't go too far no matter what you do!

You fucking deserve everything!

[After a long silence following your meaningful words, Immortal Lord Bai Bing said, "Of course I want to live. Tell me, who here doesn't want to live?"]

"Mortals are born in the morning and die at night. They may crave a moment of brilliance and splendor, and they can disregard life and death because they are destined to die!"

"But I'm different! I'm an immortal, a profound immortal, an immortal who won't die even after a hundred billion years. I don't want to die, I'm not reconciled!"

When he roared, the entire immortal realm trembled. This was his world, its fortunes changing with his joys and sorrows!

"Yes, you don't want to die, but many others don't want to die either, including the mortals you mentioned, even though many of them won't even live to the end of this universe (even a Nine-Turn Immortal's lifespan is only three to four million years)."

"Many people want to live, don't they?" You turned halfway to look at him and said softly.

[Immortal Lord Bai Bing: "..."]

He really wants to beat you to death, you jerk who's always trying to act tough in front of him.

Although your strength doesn't seem weaker than his, it's not significantly stronger either. Similar strength isn't enough for you to show off in front of him!

He didn't sense at all that you were showing off; he just thought you were an idiot.

"I ran away for a very, very long time. It was a great catastrophe; everyone died, but I chose to run away," you thought to yourself, without uttering the words aloud.

"If I don't want to die, there's probably nothing in this world that can kill me, right?"

[You reflect on this, thinking to yourself, "Actually, I've thought about it for a long time. I've been wondering whether or not to do it, because I feel like I'm just making trouble for myself, but in the end, I've decided to do it anyway."]

You extend a finger and tap it against the center of Bai Bing Immortal Lord's forehead.

"I need to make a decision."

He frowned, his instinctive reaction being to attack, or at least push you away.

But a strange premonition suddenly arose in his mind. He looked at your outstretched finger; there was not a trace of energy fluctuation, not a trace of killing intent.

[You may have been concealing your murderous intent, which erupted the moment your finger touched his forehead. Even if his head were blown off, it wouldn't affect his life, but it would still put him at a disadvantage in the ensuing conflict.]

【so--】

He didn't stop you; he just stared intently as the finger drew closer and closer, letting it poke your forehead.

He made the right bet.

[Immortal Lord Bai Bing once bet that this universe would not end; he was wrong that time.]

But this time, he achieved a victory that surpassed all the gambles he had ever made in his life!

"To be honest, it's not that much of a gamble."

"Twelve must have known he wouldn't dodge, otherwise he would have used another simple method to directly confront him."

...

(Four o'clock? (ˉ﹃ˉ?))