The afterlife blew up Gensokyo

"Okay, let me ask you a question."

With what seemed like a soft sigh, Shi Bai began to speak.

"If there were a pill in front of you that could save all the unfortunate, but would surely kill you if you ate it, would you choose to eat it or not? I want to hear your honest answer."

"...I won't eat it."

"So why would you risk your life for a few ordinary humans? What would you do if I hadn't gotten there in time?"

Shi Bai rolled his eyes, his words filled with disappointment and frustration.

"When saving someone, you also need to consider your own situation. For example, I would never do something like helping someone to the point of tears. Don't be a pushover, and definitely don't be some so-called saint. Why worry about so much? It's better to..."

"But teacher, you certainly wouldn't have hesitated at all back then, right? And aren't you the biggest pushover yourself?"

She interrupted him, and Huo Qing'e turned to look at her.

"Giving all our money to those refugees and leaving us with nothing but wild fruit, spending countless hours researching antidotes to save the world and benefit humanity... I was just learning from you, teacher."

"Well……"

After thinking for a moment, Shi Bai raised his hand and delivered a chop to the other person's neck.

"You are the only one who talks a lot."

Huo Qing'e: "???"

"What I'm going to teach you today isn't the so-called distinction between good and evil, but rather the art of making choices. In your situation, you should have killed that evil dragon first, instead of risking your life to save the fishermen who had fallen into the water. If you had been seriously injured and on the verge of death, do you think those fishermen on the river would have survived?"

Looking at the other person's half-soaked body, Shi Bai's lips twitched slightly before he moved the oil-paper umbrella in his hand a considerable distance closer to the other person.

"Do you know what I hate most? What I hate most is when the good guys are about to win, and the bad guys suddenly kidnap some innocent people to threaten them into putting down their weapons and giving up resistance. At that moment, I just want to jump in and smash that good guy's head in..."

"...You've already done it."

Covering her head with one hand, Huo Qing'e muttered something under her breath.

"...In short, after all I've said, you should know exactly where you went wrong today, right?"

Shi Bai silently turned his head to look ahead, where the gate to the small courtyard where his group had rented their room was not far away.

"Shouldn't we have gone to save them...?"

Huo Qing'e asked tentatively, her voice trembling with apprehension.

"No, the mistake is that you are not as strong as your teacher. If you were as strong as me, would you need to think so much? So your path of cultivation is still very long. Becoming an immortal is just the minimum standard."

He casually handed the oil-paper umbrella to the other person and stepped into the courtyard first.

"But no matter what... I'm proud of how you did back then."

..................................................................

As the saying goes, "One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black," and Shi Bai himself was quite pleased to see the change in a so-called evil immortal.

After all, given Huo Qing'e's past way of thinking, the other party would never do something that would not benefit them at all. So, doesn't this also subtly indicate that... she is actually a good person at heart?

However, what happened today should give him something to think about.

As if he had thought of something, Shi Bai frowned slightly.

"...Going to sea?"

Upon hearing the suggestion made by her teacher at the dinner table, Huo Qing'e was slightly taken aback.

"That's right. After we finish eating, let's pack our things and then set off."

With the bamboo flute he had finally managed to retrieve from Xiao Hong and Mei Ling twirling in his hand, Shi Bai nodded.

He always acts decisively and efficiently.

"Since you are so obsessed with cultivating the Tao, you must have heard the legends of the immortal mountains overseas, right?"

"It's...it's Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, those three overseas fairy mountains!?"

After a moment of stunned silence, Huo Qing'e's eyes immediately lit up.

"It is said that immortals like He Xiangu once cultivated on these overseas immortal mountains. Is our next step to cultivate there? But it is said that it is very difficult to find. Every year, countless people set sail to search for those overseas immortal mountains, but most of them return empty-handed or even perish at sea... Is it really possible to reach such a sacred place of cultivation?!"

Huo Qing'e appeared unusually excited.

"Ah, of course you can. After all, I have nothing more to teach you. If you want to take it a step further, going there is the best choice."

Shi Bai tucked the bamboo flute back into his waistband with a noncommittal expression.

"The task I'm giving you this time is to cultivate yourself into an immortal there."

Shi Bai had given considerable and serious consideration to the future development of Huo Qing'e and Xiao Hong Meiling.

Becoming an immortal through cultivation is not something that can be achieved overnight. Even though Huo Qing'e has been by his side for nearly so many years, especially with the help of Xiao Hong Meiling, who walks the dragon vein, she is still quite far from the level of an immortal.

If immortals truly achieved such great things, then the celestial realm would have been overflowing long ago. Since I cannot help Huo Qing'e become an immortal, I might as well let her follow her original life trajectory.

Huo Qing'e's original life trajectory was to fake her death and escape from the Huo family after achieving some success in Taoist arts, wandering the world alone without a place to call home.

—How many changes have occurred since then?

Qing'e cultivated herself into an immortal, gained some power, and maintained her youthful appearance, thus achieving immortality.

To reach her current level, she did many things in public that were feared by others, but it seems that heaven did not recognize her efforts, and in the end she became an evil immortal.

To achieve her goals, she did not hesitate to deceive her own family. Perhaps it is this very personality trait that has shaped her into who she is today.

If, because of his own actions, the other person fails to become an immortal and dies of old age... Shi Bai felt he would bear a great responsibility.

Therefore, considering all these factors, Shi Bai ultimately made this decision.

Even though Huo Qing'e possesses magical powers and some cultivation, she is still human in essence. If she fails to cultivate into an immortal and live forever, she may die of old age in a few decades.

A few decades? Quite a short time.

Furthermore, based on his estimation, given Huo Qing'e's current cultivation progress, she might not be able to become an immortal even before she dies. The previous incident served as a wake-up call for him.

Shi Bai has always abhorred such theories about lifespan, and naturally, he would never allow such a thing to happen to him.

So after careful consideration, he set his sights on the overseas immortal mountains.

Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou—these are the three overseas immortal mountains I once found. As the final destination of those clans on the Divine Continent, after so many years of development, they have undoubtedly been transformed into true holy lands.

Since I can't teach him anything more, perhaps that place can bring him some other unexpected surprises.

Besides Huo Qing'e, Xiao Hong Meiling is another person he needs to worry about.

He has been extremely worried about this little guy who still insists on calling him "Dad" and has remained steadfast in doing so for over a decade.

As a walking "dragon vein," Xiao Hong Meiling, in game terms, would be a super boss with unlimited mana and unlimited health.

As long as the dragon vein exists, she is immortal.

The problem is that the dragon vein is destined to be severed in a few hundred years...

Therefore, before that, he had to find a way to ensure the other party's survival even if the dragon vein was severed within these few hundred years. After more than ten years of thinking, although he still had no clue, he had vaguely begun to understand.

Making the other person learn those extra skills was also for her own considerations... She needed to have something of her own.

After sending Huo Qing'e and Xiao Hong Meiling to the overseas immortal island to continue their cultivation, he planned to go to the Demon Realm to discuss things with Shen Qi, Mo Duoluo Yinqina, and the others.

In matters like this, the other party undoubtedly knows more than he does.

......................................................

Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou are three overseas fairy mountains, but unless one is destined or carries a great deal of fortune, it is virtually impossible to reach them.

However, this kind of thing is nothing to Shi Bai.

After sailing on the vast ocean for no more than seven days, they had already arrived at this legendary overseas fairy mountain.

Although a considerable amount of time has passed since that distant era, the clans living on the overseas immortal mountains have undoubtedly not forgotten his existence.

These clans treated this "immortal" from afar with the highest honors. They called themselves the "Remnant Clan" and showed him considerable courtesy. They also solemnly promised to fulfill his request.

Compared to the two, Shi Bai felt a little embarrassed.

Shi Bai stayed here for seven days. In the early morning of the seventh day, instead of waking the sleeping Xiao Hong Meiling, he quietly headed towards the beach. However, he did not expect that someone was already waiting for him there.

"Alright, then stay here and cultivate properly."

Shi Bai glanced at the vast, boundless sea behind him and smiled at Huo Qing'e, who had come to see him off.

"This is the place you've always wanted to come to, so don't let me down. I'll come to see you when I have time. Also, remember to take good care of Hong Meiling."

"........."

Huo Qing'e nodded silently.

A few days ago, she might have insisted on leaving together, but now that that strange person has approached her yesterday, she understands which path she should take in the future.

...I must become stronger.

"I'm glad you made the right choice."

After her teacher disappeared from her sight, a voice rang out, and a figure emerged from behind the stone, smiling and extending a hand towards her.

"Since he chose this person, I suppose he won't disappoint me. Also, my name..."

"Its name is Pure Fox."

In .jpg

P.S.: Good morning! ヽ(ー_ー)ノ

Chapter Thirty-Three: Shinki and Yumeko

"...Has it really been completely abandoned?"

After lying on the ground for a while, Shi Bai calmly stood up after patting off some non-existent dust from his body.

After properly settling Huo Qing'e and the others, he naturally wouldn't be a fool and spend several more months crossing the ocean, as that would be both a waste of time and utterly inefficient.

Rather than committing suicide and resurrecting at the designated resurrection point, Shi Bai, after careful consideration, chose to resurrect at a teleportation point that had been set up long ago using a teleportation scroll.

However, after a long period of time, the bamboo forest has been completely abandoned, and the original bamboo hut has become a ruin, with weeds growing among the broken walls and dilapidated buildings.

"If only this place were enveloped by the power of eternity... What a pity..."

After looking around but finding no trace of the past among the broken walls and ruins, Shi Bai shook his head with some regret, turned around, and walked out of the bamboo forest on the bluestone slabs covered with bamboo leaves.

...It's just a bit of a regret.

Demon world.

After stepping through the gates of the Demon Realm, passing through the ruins of Vina, passing the Fallen Temple and startling the construction worker Sariel, walking through the Demon Realm city under construction, and traversing the icy world filled with snow and ice, and encountering countless strange monsters along the way, Shi Bai finally arrived at the center of the Demon Realm, the Temple of Ten Thousand Demons.

"What happened? You don't seem to be doing too well."

In the spacious and bright reception room, Shi Bai frowned slightly as he looked at Shen Qi, who had arrived late and whose face was clearly tired.

"No, I just never imagined that building a world from scratch would be such a tiring thing."

After glancing at Shi Bai and giving a weak reply, Shen Qi sat down at the table and began to pour out her grievances.

"You have no idea, I have to make all the decisions in the Demon Realm, big or small. I thought creating those demons would make my job easier, but who would have thought I'd be busier than before!?"

The words of a certain demon god were tinged with obvious resentment.

"A demon..."

Recalling the crowds he had passed through in the under-construction Demon City, Shi Bai looked thoughtful.

As the creator god of the demon realm, everything in the demon realm was created by Shinki. When he came to the demon realm before, there was only the Wanmo Palace, which was magically moved from Takamagahara and modified. The number of living beings in the demon realm was only a handful.

However, in just over a century, the Demon Realm has undergone earth-shattering changes. Not to mention the demons created by Shinki based on humans, there are all sorts of demons, all kinds of complex and diverse icy and snowy terrains, and even the maid Yumeko who led him here to wait... It would be strange if he wasn't exhausted to see such a huge change in the Demon Realm in such a short time!

Thinking of this, Shi Bai couldn't help but feel speechless.

"Where's the succubus? Didn't she help you?"

Shi Bai pressed his forehead with his hand and sighed.

"And isn't there still Sariel, the former archangel? She should still have some management skills, right? And isn't Modoro Okina helping you? Is it necessary to make yourself so tired?"

"The succubus has gone into seclusion to write a magic book; lately, she seems to have shown considerable enthusiasm for magical research. Sariel has gone to build her Fallen Temple, and has vowed that one day she will storm Heaven and demand back the wages owed to her. As for Modoro Okina…"

With her hands outstretched, Shenqi wore an innocent expression.