Cthulhu Gonfalon

After getting all the details of the situation, Sui Xiong went silent. He looked at the two nervous yet incredibly determined Legendary Masters and couldn’t help being a little moved. Of all the difficulties they’d faced throughout the ages, all they feared was death!

Speaking of which, these two Legendary Masters were already quite old. If this was back on Earth, even that slightly younger one would have lived longer than a great majority of the civilizations in the world. The older one was so old, he could probably compete with the pyramids. The two were basically live human fossils!

Normally, one would say they’d lived long enough not to be afraid of death, but the centuries had failed to give them the bravery to calmly face death. Instead, it made them fear it even more than before.

This wasn’t all that strange, and it happened quite a lot on Earth, in fact. Forget the Qin and Han dynasties, even Sui Xiong himself had met a 100-year-old man before who constantly talked about healthy living habits with the attitude of someone who wanted to live another 500.

Indeed, 100 years didn’t mean much to these two Legendary Masters, as the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was no more than their junior, but when it came to wanting to continue living, they were all the same.

Sui Xiong didn’t discriminate against them or mock them at all. Not being afraid of death was certainly worthy of admiration, but being afraid of it wasn’t something to make fun of. He was just a little rueful—these two had already lived to pretty much the peak of “mortal” lifespans. Looking at their extremely old and frail appearances, it looked as if they were paying a great price for every day they continued to live, but despite that, they still continued to struggle at death’s door, refusing to actually die.

“You two… really aren’t easy!” he said with a sigh. “Is death really that scary? Judging by your statuses, you could be accepted into a God’s Kingdom after death. If you wanted, the Master of Mystery could even accept you right this moment—if you did that, then wouldn’t that also be avoiding death?”

“That’s different,” said the older Legendary Master. “Whether it’s as followers or as Oracles, they’re both essentially phantoms relying on divine energy for their continued existence; that can’t be counted as truly living. Likewise, liches and monster statues are no more than shadows left behind by once-living people, not the once-living people themselves.”

Sui Xiong nodded slightly, obviously not because he agreed with this point of view, but because he understood their position on the subject. This ideology was a particularly famous one coming from an ancient sage. That sage believed no one in the world could live forever. Once your flesh body rotted and your spiritual body withered, everything would dissipate. Even if you could change your form and continue living, keeping your old memories and feelings, that was no more than a shadow of olden days.

This ideology had a very strong influence, with many life-extending secret spells being invented because of it. Sui Xiong had put some effort into this field himself in order to help lengthen Rhode’s life, so he naturally knew about it. He even knew quite a few things that had been derived from it and could see at least ten different life-extending methods being used on the Legendary Mages standing before him right now.

Some of these life-extending methods were harmless, but others had serious side effects, some to a particularly serious degree. For example, he could envision one method called “Pain Is Life.” Using this method to lengthen your life would place you in constant pain, and the longer you lived, the stronger the pain would be. This pain couldn’t be contained or eliminated either, or else the life-extending spell would fail on the spot.

Considering their ages, the pain they were going through was probably already at a terrifying level. To put it in layman’s terms, you’d be willing to die just to let out a breath of air, yet they continued struggling to survive, still wanting to continue living.

Sui Xiong couldn’t help feeling bad for them, actually. Living like that was truly ugly beyond words and without a single bit of dignity!

“You two… want to continue living like this?” he couldn’t help asking.

“We do,” replied the younger Legendary Master without hesitation. “We are willing to pay any price to live!”

The older Legendary Master followed up with, “We know that we are insignificant in your eyes. We don’t know what we can trade that would be capable of satisfying you, so we can only promise. We are willing to pay any price at all if it will give us a piece of a real god’s flesh to complete our Wine of Eternal Life, thus allowing us to live for eternity.”

Sui Xiong was silent for a while and looked at the mixed fear, hope, and determination showing on their terrifyingly old faces. Finally, he let out a very heavy sigh. “To tell the truth, I really dislike you two,” he said. “Although I can understand your fear of death, the lengths you’re willing to go in order to ‘live’ are extremely ugly. I can clearly see the essence of old age and death lingering around your bodies. It disgusts me.”

Not waiting for the two Legendary Masters to explain, he continued, “I can also see that you’ve used quite a few sinister methods in order to lengthen your lives. Many of these methods are outrageous and offensive—how many people have you harmed in order to live ’til now? Five hundred? One thousand? Or even more, I’d guess.”

The two Legendary Masters stopped trying to explain themselves, instead silently lowering their heads. This had been what they were most afraid of. As a good god, His Majesty, the Void Mask was able to see all the sins they bore.

“But I also noticed something very interesting,” Sui Xiong said, changing the topic. Compared to the sins you’ve collected trying to extend your lifespans, those few other sins you’ve committed are basically insignificant—or to put it in other words, aside from those meant to extend your lives, you haven’t really done any other evil deeds, which is quite a rare thing.”

“Because we don’t dare to,” explained the younger Legendary Master. “If we do too much evil, heaven knows when a warrior of justice would come to punish us…”

“And yet you’ve still done a lot of evil in order to live.”

“If we can’t keep ourselves alive, there’s no point bothering with anything else.”

Sui Xiong laughed, shaking his head. “In short, what I see before me is a pair of men willing to sacrifice everything in order to survive. You’ve really reached the pinnacle in that respect, and even I can’t help being moved and feeling a little bit of admiration for you… So I’m willing to offer you a hand, but the price I want you to pay isn’t a small one.”

The two Legendary Mages were energized again, and they answered hurriedly.

“Please instruct us! Whatever price it may be, we’re willing to pay it!”

“That’s right! Any price at all is fine!”

Sui Xiong smiled and said, “Once you’ve succeeded in lengthening your lives, what you’ll have gained is an endless lifespan. In which case, I want you to spend that lifespan devoting yourselves to improving people’s lives, allowing them to live in safety and comfort.”

The two Legendary Masters stared blankly at the unexpected demand. They exchanged looks with each other, not understanding what Sui Xiong meant.

Of course, Sui Xiong could tell what they were thinking, so he laughed and said, “You don’t get it? That’s fine, you’ll have plenty of time to slowly think it over before you start putting it into practice.”

He slowly lifted a tentacle, and golden divine blood dripped down from it. The blood floated in the air before the two and then transformed into a pair of red-gold gems the size of fingernails.

“If you’re willing to accept this condition and pay this price, then you can take the divine blood I’ve granted you. Or else…”

Not waiting for him to say it, the two Legendary Masters unhesitatingly pulled out specially-made medicine bottles and collected the divine blood. They then worshipped before Sui Xiong.

“His Majesty, the Great Void Mask, we will use the remainder of our lives to fulfill our promise to you!”

“Yes, if we ever violate our promise, allow us to drop straight down into hell!”

Under the shine of Sui Xiong’s Divine Power, their pledge transformed into a fantastic imprint engraved upon their souls. Even the greatest level of Divine Power couldn’t alter this pledge.