Chapter 40 - Dying Quietly and Surprise Everyone?

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was 9 pm. At this time, the road wasn’t too crowded. After passing through a few alleys, Ye Xiu walked into a dark area. Following this shortcut, he could buy some vegetables and return home. It wouldn’t be long before he reached home.

“Hmm?”

After avoiding a few piles of trash, Ye Xiu suddenly discovered an old man in tattered clothes lying on the empty ground beside the path not far away.

The old man’s face was covered with vegetable leaves. His entire body was dirty, and his hair was completely white. His clothes were covered with dust and dirt, just like a beggar on the side of the road. However, he could still barely recognize the clothes. It was a set of expensive leather clothes, one of the shoes on his foot was missing, but just looking at the remaining one, it could be estimated that the price wasn’t low.

To be able to afford such expensive clothes and shoes, yet he had fallen to such a state. It seemed like he was an old man with a story.

At this moment, the old man was looking at the sky with a blank expression. He didn’t care about the gazes of others, nor did he care about the dust on his clothes. His eyes were empty and lifeless as if he didn’t want to miss the world and wanted to die.

The families here weren’t rich, and they didn’t want to get into trouble.

After all, if they saved someone, they had to take responsibility. If they didn’t save him, they would have to bear the responsibility and implicate their family. No one was willing to help.

Ye Xiu took a look. Just as he was about to take a detour, he suddenly froze. He stopped and looked closely at the old man. He felt that his face was somewhat familiar as if he had seen him somewhere before.

Suddenly, he realized that this old man’s appearance was somewhat similar to the person in the picture scroll that Ban Feimeng had given him. It was her teacher’s elder, that very special old man.

However, it could just be that he looked similar. After all, the hair on the picture scroll wasn’t that white.

It could also be an old painting, or that he had suffered some sort of blow and ended up like this?

Looking at the old man’s death-seeking expression, it was clear that he had run into something that he couldn’t get over. No wonder Ban Feimeng hadn’t been able to pay attention to her painting practice and had been so anxious to look for this old man. It seemed like she was afraid that he was seeking death.

With his relationship with Ban Feimeng, he still had to persuade the old man.

Ye Xiu thought for a moment. He came to the old man and squatted down. He said, “From the looks of it, you don’t want to live anymore?”

The old man’s eyes twitched.

Even if he didn’t want to live anymore, when he heard this young man’s greetings, he couldn’t help but feel a bit speechless. Were people these days this cold?

He had originally thought that if this young man was here to comfort him, he could give him some magic items. He couldn’t change the course of his life. At the very least, he was rich.

Right now, it was better to wait for death.

The old man continued to be absent-minded, pretending that he hadn’t heard or seen anything.

Ye Xiu squatted by the side and quietly observed the old man’s reaction from a blind angle.

In the past, he had met many people who had lost hope in life, so he understood that for this kind of desperate person, ordinary comfort was useless. They wouldn’t listen, nor would they want to listen. They had to be stimulated enough, only then would there be a reaction.

From the old man’s photo, it could be seen that this kind of temperament clearly showed that he had experienced many things and was very rich. He had probably heard a lot of praises.

He had to start from a different angle.

“I know you can hear me.”

Ye Xiu observed the changes in the old man’s facial muscles from his blind spot and said, “Maybe you’ve suffered some setbacks, but I don’t want to know. Don’t think too much. I don’t plan on persuading you to live in peace.”

The old man forcefully controlled his facial muscles and suppressed the anger in his heart. He continued to lie still.

“I can see that there’s something wrong with your body, but even if there’s no problem, you won’t live long. There’s no problem with your way of dying.”

Ye Xiu continued to provoke him. “After all, in this world, if there’s life then there will be death. No matter if you work hard or if someone was like you, they won’t be able to escape death in the end.”

The old man glanced sideways at Ye Xiu, then slowly turned his body. His back was facing Ye Xiu. He said in a low voice, “Then let me die quietly.”

“You want to quietly die and surprise everyone?”

“That means you still care about the things you experienced before you die.”

Ye Xiu continued, “However, even if you die like this, how many traces can you leave behind? Once you die, no matter what dreams you had, no matter how glorious your past was, everything will be meaningless to you. Death is death.”

“To others, time will quickly wash away the traces of your past existence. No one will care how you died.”

The old man’s heart didn’t waver. He continued to remain unmoved.

Ye Xiu tried his best to use the philosophical statements he remembered from his previous life. He tried his best to make sense of what he had said so that the old man would have a sense of survival.

“After death, everything is meaningless, but that’s for you. But for others?”

“Even ancient legendary mages will die one day, but before that, they will give back to the earth and repay the world that raised them. As for you? Do you have a family? If not, what about your friends?”

“Your life is about to come to an end. Everything you do is meaningless to you after you die, but it can give other people a meaning to live on. They will remember your existence and protect the traces of your past.”

Even though he didn’t know what he was saying, Ye Xiu felt that he was very reasonable.

He paused and smiled as he asked, “Fairy, you should understand, right?”

After a long while, the old man asked in a low voice. “Since there’s no meaning after death, then what’s the point of being remembered?”

Ye Xiu’s mouth twitched.

Why did he meet such a smelly and stubborn old man?

He was so good at arguing, why didn’t he work as a lawyer?

Ye Xiu tried his best to say calmly. “People come to this world alone and leave alone. Don’t you want to leave something behind? Like those ancient legendary mages, or do you have any unfinished wishes?”

The old man didn’t even turn his head and directly said, “I want to live in this world forever. It’s best if I become a legendary mage and leave my name in the world. Is that okay?”

Ye Xiu didn’t know what to say.

He had thought that this old man didn’t want to live anymore. It turned out that he wanted to live, and he even had such a big ambition. He even wanted to become a legendary mage and leave his name in the world.

Why didn’t he think about directly ascending to the Divine Realm?

Ye Xiu took a deep breath and calmed himself down. After thinking for a moment, he said, “I can’t fulfill your wish, but I feel that you can’t accomplish it even if you dream of it. I’ll draw you a picture, and you can fantasize about it.”

In his heart, he was mumbling to himself. He hoped that this old man would be able to divert his attention and not blindly seek death. He wanted to buy some time to inform Ban Feimeng to come over.

After saying this, Ye Xiu used his foot to casually fool him. In any case, with this old man’s appearance, he would probably wait for him to leave before turning around to look at him. After looking at it, he would still be angry for a while.

The old man continued to lie on the ground with his back facing Ye Xiu. He didn’t say anything.

He only sighed to himself. Even though this young man’s words were blunt and not gentle, his intentions were good. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t live past today. In fact, in less than two hours, the two opposing laws in his body would directly destroy him.

Rather than letting others see his miserable state and not daring to spy on the path of the ancient legendary mage, it would be better to just die by the side of the road and leave hope in the human world..