Li Qiye turned his attention towards the old man before shaking his head. The youth did the same thing. In fact, he had plenty of questions regarding this mysterious fella but didn’t dare to ask. Li Qiye also didn’t seem to be hostile so he started calming down. Curiosity struck next. “Sir, why does he want to stay here? He can start his own sect given his cultivation and fortunes.” The youth eventually asked Li Qiye. “Honorable One” didn’t feel that right to him so he changed it to “sir” instead. “It is an obsession that can make his dao heart even firmer. Everyone has a different pursuit in life. Invincibility and power aren’t his. He considers them ephemeral.” Li Qiye said. “Obsession.” The youth murmured. “Go, don’t bother him anymore. Just a waste of time.” Li Qiye turned and left. The youth hurriedly gave chase, no longer afraid of Li Qiye unlike before. Li Qiye didn’t seem to care about his previous transgression so the youth felt much better and wanted to find out more. “Unaffected after making it this far means that your talents are great.” Li Qiye glanced back at him: “However, your dao heart would have been affected by this light power if it wasn’t for your treasure.” “You’re right, Sir.” The youth smiled wryly, putting his pride aside and recognizing this truth. “Your dao heart needs more sharpening before it is a match for your great talents. That’s when your future will truly be bright enough to reach the apex.” Li Qiye said, wasting more breath than usual since he appreciates the youth’s talents. “I, I should be able to.” The youth scratched his head and said humbly, not exuding the same bravado as before. After all, everyone thought that he could reach the apex. He believed this as well. “Not necessarily, there were plenty of geniuses in history yet so few true masters. Not to mention the True Fardao level, just Fardao Everlastings were rare enough. Waste your youth away and you will accomplish nothing!” Li Qiye said flatly. “The real Fardao realm...” The youth was shaken. He didn’t have a good idea of what constitutes as the apex, only a general understanding. As the youngest half-step in this generation, he thought that reaching the top would only be a matter of time. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮 However, Li Qiye’s criticism made sense too. There have been geniuses in the past that rival him. How many of them actually became a progenitor or reached the Fardao realm? Very, very few. Fardao Everlasting was the one after the supreme level. The first to reach this level was Fardao himself, hence the name. However, Fardao himself didn’t stop at this level. This was someone who had killed progenitors before. Future people who reached this level couldn’t compare to Fardao. [1] Therefore, another belief and one word were added - True Fardao. The youth only had a general outline for his future aspirations. Now, Li Qiye woke him up and gave him a concrete goal - becoming a True Fardao! This realization left him out of breath. Though his talents were amazing with few peers in history, one could count the number of True Fardao with their fingers. He thought that he could reach the peak in this generation but this goal was far loftier. He understood that he wasn’t excellent enough to make this a sure thing. Li Qiye’s comment also served as a warning, telling him to stop being so confident and conceited. No one else would dare to say this to his face. They weren’t qualified to do so. Plus, he wouldn’t have taken them seriously but Li Qiye was a different story. “You still have a chance.” Li Qiye said: “Youth and arrogance come together, you just need to stabilize your dao heart and then you can be arrogant all you want. A firm dao heart will take you to your goal and as for your style, that doesn’t matter, just act as you please.” The youth listened carefully and memorized the sound piece of advice. It greatly affected him, seemingly coming from a teacher or a good friend. “Thank you for your guidance and for correcting my mistakes, Sir.” The youth eventually bowed towards Li Qiye. “Good boy.” Li Qiye accepted the gesture. The youth was in a great mood right now after getting a clear goal and becoming “enlightened”. Li Qiye didn’t say anything else and moved on with the youth right behind him. “Sir, my, my golden eye witnessed your boundless grand dao, but there’s one thing. I don’t know if I’m just seeing things but it seems... that there is a dark existence inside you...” The youth thought about something and hesitated for a while before asking. He wasn’t sure of what he saw since he was scared out of his mind during the observation process. That darkness could easily crush the firmaments and all else. “Just a supreme overlord, that’s all, consider it an apex existence of the dark affinity. I’m destroying it right now.” Li Qiye casually smiled. “An overlord? How strong...?” The youth became afraid and blurted out. “Killing a progenitor is as easy as eating a meal for it.” Li Qiye chuckled. “...” The youth turned cold. Progenitors were considered unbeatable regardless of their level. Now, Li Qiye was suppressing a being capable of massacring them? Just how strong was Li Qiye then?! He celebrated the fact that he was smart enough to run away. Li Qiye would have killed him with a single finger back then if he had kept on provoking the guy. “From this, we can see that there is more potential to be forced out from your golden eye.” Li Qiye added while the kid was trembling with fear. “Thank you, Sir. I will definitely keep on experimenting.” The youth regained his wits and said. He has been very satisfied with his golden eye, thinking that he had trained it to its maximum potential. Now, it sounded like he could still take it to a higher level. 1. The plural for progenitor is unknown, not sure if many or one. The plural is usually assumed