Chapter 721: Love and Hate

Be born, grow old, and die...

Baili Zhu stared at the void. It had returned once again to that vast expanse of pale nothingness.

The truth hit Baili Zhu like a devastating blow, causing her mind to go blank.

She wasn't alone. Fang Chunyang, Lie Qingqing, Shi Keqing, and Xu Anping had followed Li Pin on his journey and watched how he broke through the Void Divine Treasure World. They all felt the same way.

The great Void Emperor was a man who was seen as invincible, surrounded by countless halos of glory. But it turned out that what he truly longed for was simply to lead an ordinary life. To live in peace like any common man, to grow old naturally, and to pass away quietly in his sleep without regrets.

But what had they done instead? She, Shi Yiyi, Baili Changkong—everyone he had once called family or friend—had pushed him forward, step by step, until he sat on that distant, unreachable throne. They had shaped him into the very image they wanted him to be.

They took pride in it, celebrated it, and even moved themselves with the belief that all their sacrifices had helped him ascend as the Void Emperor. They gave everything, held nothing back, and paid any price to raise him to the divine pedestal.

However, in the end... all they did was push him further from the path he truly longed for. They crushed the very intention he had started with.

Baili Zhu whispered, "My hatred..."

Did she hate Baili Qingfeng? She had destroyed an entire world for him, yet he locked her away for a lifetime. Even in death, he never let her go.

And in his eyes? Again and again, he gave in. Again and again, he compromised. Just when he thought that, despite losing everything, he could still build and protect a peaceful world... she destroyed it. Baili Zhu destroyed it all.

The world she claimed to have ruined for his sake had, in truth, wiped out everything he ever wanted, and everything that made him human.

In the end... just as she had wished, he became the Void Emperor. But not as the radiant guardian of the Three Domains. No, he became eternal birth, eternal death, eternal void, eternal nothingness—the true Void Emperor.

So then... should he hate her? Should he hate them all?

A suffocating pain clenched around Baili Zhu. "Hate..."

Though she had long perished and existed only as a lingering will, the mere thought of that word still sent a wave of unbearable agony through her.

Her fading consciousness wavered. "Why... why did it have to end like this..."

The Void Divine Treasure World began collapsing at an alarming pace.

The pioneers, suspended in that pale void, were suddenly flung out as the world shattered, thrust before the towering gates of the Void Divine Treasury Hall.

The sight snapped Fang Chunyang, Lie Qingqing, Xu Anping, and the others back to their senses.

The divine treasure world has been shattered! What about our rewards?

The remnant will of the divine treasure world's owner was crumbling. The world was collapsing, similar to how the descent of a Cosmic Radiance would tear a divine treasure world apart. Everything inside was being reduced to nothingness.

Now, the Void Divine Treasure World was experiencing the same fate. With Baili Zhu's will disintegrating, its collapse had become inevitable.

In the end, it didn't matter whether someone had spent a thousand stellar years or just a few decades inside. No one would gain anything.

Li Pin understood this too. He quickly realized something was wrong.

This isn't how the Void Divine Treasure World is supposed to break.

Or rather, this divine treasure world should not end like this. It should not be concluded by Baili Zhu's inability to accept reality. The reality that they had destroyed Baili Qingfeng, forcing him to become the true Void Emperor, until she utterly collapsed.

Even the Void Emperor himself wouldn't have wanted the world to end this way.

Just then, Li Pin thought of the words Baili Qingfeng had asked his daughter to deliver.

Li Pin was momentarily dazed. He uttered the two words. "Thank you."

These words... did not belong to the Baili Qingfeng that Baili Zhu had known within the divine treasure world. They did not belong to the Baili Qingfeng who had already deviated from his original path. They had come from....

Li Pin lifted his gaze, staring into the void.

The power of the Great Dao Radiance surged through him, sharpening his perception. But still, he saw nothing. He sensed nothing.

"Gone?"

From the moment of his "death," had he already left?

And now... how is this problem to be solved? Would he truly, like the void itself, fulfill his last lingering obsession and completely depart from this world? Even if Baili Zhu's lingering will collapsed entirely, would he not spare it a single glance?

After all... the real Baili Zhu had already died long ago. Or perhaps...

Li Pin fell silent, lost in thought.

The divine treasure world continued to collapse at an alarming pace.

Lie Qingqing and the others couldn't help but call out, "Captain..."

Yet, Li Pin remained unresponsive.

Baili Qingfeng... has he truly become the Void Emperor?

No! If he had fully ascended as the true Void Emperor, an existence that had completely aligned with the void, then... he wouldn't have cast his gaze upon this divine treasure world more than once. Nor would he have, in his final moments, conveyed those two words to me through another. Therefore...

"Sasha, I need your help," Li Pin said.

"Please give your command," Sasha responded. "However, I must remind you, my power exceeds this world's capacity. If I use my true form's strength, it will accelerate the collapse of this divine treasure world."

"It's already collapsing," Li Pin replied. "I need you to gather and retrieve all information in this world related to the Void Emperor. Not Baili Qingfeng. Only what aligns with the Void Emperor."

He emphasized, "Do it as quickly as possible."

"As you wish," Sasha responded.

In the next moment, an invisible ripple spread, sweeping across the world that had already crumbled into the void.

Yet, those visible ripples concentrated on Baili Zhu, hastening her collapse.

Before long, the intelligent lifeform delivered its answer, "Apologies, but no information matching the Void Emperor has been found."

Li Pin murmured, "Nothing..."

Nothing... there really was nothing. Had the Void Emperor truly abandoned everything and fully embraced the void? But... is that really the case?

"Void," Li Pin whispered. "I believe in you, just as... I believe in myself."

He fixed his gaze on the collapsing divine treasure world. It could no longer even sustain the space where Lie Qingqing, Fang Chunyang, and Xu Anping stood, forcing them out.

"I trust my judgment. It cannot be wrong."

Images of his closest encounter with the Void Emperor flashed through his mind. Not in this cycle, but in the previous one, in the battle between him and the Void Emperor.

"Sasha, I need your assistance in capturing every instance where my perception detects the Void Emperor," Li Pin commanded.

"As you wish," Sasha's voice remained steady as ever.

In the next moment, the Great Dao Radiance surged forward.

Its light shone directly upon Baili Zhu, who was on the verge of collapse.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Time began to flow backward.

This wasn't a true reversal of time, but rather a mere process of "retrieval." They were retrieving all recorded information from Baili Zhu, the world's owner, as she maintained its operations. Or rather, it was a reconstruction of the world's fundamental code, searching for traces that had long been overwritten.

Time flowed rapidly, flickering through every piece of information regarding the Void Emperor and Baili Qingfeng of this cycle.

The speed exceeded the limits of anyone's perception or reaction. Even if an Astral God Divine Essence were present, they would be unable to "see" a single scene clearly.

But through Sasha's capture, every image was precisely projected into Li Pin's perception, analyzed and computed.

The entire cycle passed in an instant. Just as Sasha had said, there wasn't a single trace of the Void Emperor.

So, the search leaped further, into the previous cycle.

Back into the past. A cycle where Baili Zhu had been imprisoned, one that followed the main trajectory of events.

The cycle continued to rewind. After imprisoning Baili Zhu, the Void Emperor never appeared again.

Even at the moment of her death, he did not return.

Before long, under the illumination of the Great Dao Radiance, the search arrived at the scene of the battle between Li Pin and the Void Emperor.

From a third-person perspective, Li Pin personally "witnessed" himself being "expelled" from the Void Divine Treasure World.

Then, Baili Zhu's collapsing will suddenly froze.

It wasn't just her. Li Pin stopped too.

The power of the Great Dao Radiance fully illuminated this moment in time, and through Sasha, it was revealed with absolute clarity.

She heard it; he heard it as well. It was a voice, silent, yet undeniably present at a certain moment.

It was a message that served as the perfect response to Baili Zhu's collapsing heart.

"Actually... I never hated you..."

There was no hatred in his heart. Even though he had retreated time and again, tolerated everything, even when Baili Zhu utterly destroyed his last shred of hope for creating a better world, he still... never hated her. Nor did he hate anyone.

Baili Zhu's lingering will clung to the message, delivered after countless stellar years. She murmured to herself, "No hatred..."

At that moment, tears streamed down her face. The agony she had buried so deeply, the pain so suffocating that even her remaining consciousness had been consumed by it... all poured out at once.

Just then, a beam of light pierced through the endless darkness, descending upon the world.

Just like that moment long ago, when she had been trapped in that vast, cavernous world, drowning in loneliness and despair, he appeared.

Now, golden sunlight flooded the heavens. As far as the eye could see, the sky stretched high, the seas vast, and the clouds drifting freely.

"Brother Qingfeng..." Baili Zhu murmured.

The darkness, the resentment, the unwillingness... all of it faded away. Only peace remained.

For the first time, she felt at ease. With that, she closed her eyes, as though finally able to rest.

Her body dissolved into shimmering light, vanishing completely. And with her, the Void Divine Treasure World reached its end.