Revelation, Persuasion

'Huh?'

Both what Guihu Luixing said, and the way he said made Serana dumbfounded.

'What is this boy talking about?'

It was only natural. If a five years old body came to someone saying that if you followed him he would show them sights he never imagined to be possible, people with unbelievable power and places more wondrous than someone's wildes fantasies, anyone would simply not believe the boy.

Serana also didn't believe.

The way he said it also was weird. It was as if that was something obvious and she was wrong in the head for not realising it.

Serana thought that Guihu Luixing might be the one wrong in the head instead.

'Huh. What are you talking about? How can you even promise something like that? You're just a kid.'

Hearing that, Guihu Luixing believed her doubts weren't unfounded. If he heard someone his age promise something like that to him, he might think they spent too much time with Yewan Meiling, and became infected with her family's trait.

"I understand you scepticism. If someone else promised such thing to me, I would also think they are insane. But things are different when I say that." he said with a confident tone.

Serana now was sure he was either crazy or very arrogant.

"You might not believe it," Guihu Luixing continued "but I am a person that needs to reach the top. Not want to, or aims to. I need to. The whole universe needs me to."

Guihu Luixing sounded more and more like a stuck up child with grandiose dreams.

"The universe is in great danger, and I am to lead and guide select people of great talent in order to survive the calamity to come."

Guihu Luixing decided to reveal his circumstances. Serana was bound by a contract to him with the Heavens as witness anyway. She would never be able to reveal it. The Heavens would completely obliterate her the moment she tried.

To Serana, although he sounded extremely arrogant, he didn't sound like a liar. Serana lived many years involved in business and commerce and saw all kinds of people and heard all kinds of stories. Because of that she had more practice in identifying liars. But also because of that, she knew that were many people in the world that could fool her completely without her noticing.

She wasn't really believing him, but she would have been lying if she said his promise wasn't enticing her.

'Then, can you prove that?'

"Prove?" Guihu Luixing was a bit surprised she wasn't totally incredulous to his words. He knew it was not an easily believable story.

"I believe I have ways to prove it, yes." He said "But I don't think I need to nor can I spare my currently sparse resources to prove it to you."

It was not a lie. He could prove it quite easily. He just needed to recruit her as an agent under him, however, the number of spots available was dependent on his cultivation. Right now he only jad two spots. He didn't know if he could take these spots back if a recruit died, betrayed or was incapacitated, so he didn't want to risk it now.

Serana felt offended by Guihu Luixing's words. It seemed hia opinion of her wasn't high at all.

'You've got nothing and want to me to obey you just because you have some weird grandiose dream. I value my freedom above anything else. I don't want to be caged again!'

"Are you stupid?" Guihu Luixing asked with a mocking tone "If you want freedom you should be begging to serve someone like me."

Her emotions still alternating rapidly, Serana scoffed at his words.

'Oh yeah? And why is that?'

"Because freedom without strength is fleeting and illusory." he answered without hesitation. "As soon as at least one being stronger than you notices you, your life, death and freedom are dependent on their whims."

Guihu Luixing's words hit Serana like a hammer. She understood that completely. More than anyone else.

If she were stronger than her parents, would they still not allow her to travel with them? Or at least would they be able to stop her if she really wanted to leave?

Is she were more powerful than her family, would they steal her parents' business and lock her in a room, only to sell her later?

If she was stronger than her husband, would she still be beaten everyday? Would he still have the guts to play with other women and bring them to their room on their house?

No! Of course not! But she was not strong enough, so she had to suffer through all that.

"If you follow me, although I can't promise to make you the strongest, I can say with confidence that I'll make you strong enough you wouldn't have to worry about your freedom everyday. You would be able to fulfill your dreams and even more."

He continued "Should you deny my proposal and be swallowed by that mass of negative emotions instead, then you'll become a wraith, a evil spirit that is slave to their own emotions, perpetually bound by their past, until someone ends your existence."

Guihu Luixing was also not dumb. By her words, he understood that she had been heavily restricted in some manner during her life. Aiming to use that in his favor, he used words like freedom, slave, bound and dependence.

His strategy seemed to be successful as Serana was "silent" for quite some time.

'...Can I...trust you?'

"I don't think you have a choice. But yes, you can trust me. I value trust greatly."

If one looked how Guihu Luixing treated Dark Moon, his parents, his senior or his classmates, one might be lead to believe he is a gentle, caring and polite child. That however, was not the truth.

People he was close and cared, like his parents and Dark Moon, he naturally treated them with respect and love.

Seniors and classmates could become future human resources, so he treated them with politeness and seriousness.

Part of it was because the Heavens, when designing his soul, aumed for a more cold and calculated personality. The other part was because of his natural structure, surroundings and raising.

A living being's personality is composed by three factors. Soul, body and environment.

Soul is about 40 percent of one's personality. It's usually kept even when one properly goes through the reincarnation cycle.

Body is around 30 percent of one's personality. How the brain works, how their body responds to stimuli, how healthy they are. All these aspects also affect one's personality. It can also happen that when a soul occupies someone else's body, their personality, if not being already solidified by the passage of time, might show radical changes.

Finally environmental aspects like how one was raised, if they lived in a dangerous or violent place or if the place required special characteristics in order to it's inhabitants to survive also obviously affected one's personality.

So it wasn't entirely the Heavens fault that Guihu Luixing was cold, calculating and detached from people he was not close with. That's how he is.

"So, what's your answer?"

'...'