Since the matter involved Gu Qingfeng, Fei Kui didn't dare speak too directly and cautiously asked, "Young Master, I wonder if you remember a man named Cang Yun from the Taiji Sect?"
Cang Yun?
Gu Qingfeng tried to recall. He did know a few people from the Taiji Sect, vaguely remembering some of their elders, but that was about it. As for their Daoist titles, he had no impression. As for Cang Yun, he seemed to have a faint memory, but upon careful thought, he couldn't quite place it for the moment.
"I have a vague impression, but I can't recall. Who is this Cang Yun?"
"He is now the Deputy Sect Master of the Taiji Sect."
Deputy Sect Master?
Gu Qingfeng truly had no impression. "What does he have to do with me?"
"You beat him up severely back in the day!"
"There was such a thing? I don't remember it at all."
Due to his relationship with Tang Hengshu, Gu Qingfeng had been on fairly good terms with the Taiji Sect back then. He knew several of their elders, had even been a guest at the sect, and crucially, he had no grievances with them. He didn't recall ever clashing with anyone from the Taiji Sect, let alone a Deputy Sect Master.
"Cang Yun wasn't the Deputy Sect Master in the Ancient Era; he was a direct disciple of the Taiji Sect's sect master, hailed as the foremost among the Taiji direct disciples. Back then, among the younger generation within the Yanluo Kingdom, he was also a leading figure."
At this point, Fei Kui paused, glanced at Gu Qingfeng, and only then dared to continue, "Back then, the Empress was also cultivating at the Taiji Sect. Cang Yun was particularly infatuated with the Empress and had been pursuing her, but the Empress had no interest in him and had rejected him. Later, when the Empress was with you, Cang Yun..." Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng finally began to remember.
"So that's why the name Cang Yun sounds so familiar. He was that little bastard who ambushed me back then."
Back in those days, when he was with Tang Hengshu, he knew there was a man named Cang Yun who admired her, and they had met a few times. However, he hadn't paid it any mind at the time, and he had absolutely no intention of forming a Daoist partnership with Tang Hengshu.
Later, Cang Yun approached him several times, clearly telling Gu Qingfeng that Tang Hengshu was his woman and that Gu Qingfeng should stay away.
Gu Qingfeng had explained that he wasn't pursuing Tang Hengshu; they were just friends, nothing more.
Unfortunately, Cang Yun refused to believe him and repeatedly warned him. Gu Qingfeng couldn't be bothered to engage and didn't take it to heart. But who would have thought that bastard Cang Yun would be relentless? Later, Gu Qingfeng remembered very clearly, it was also at a Yanluo Temple Fair that Cang Yun publicly challenged him.
Gu Qingfeng did not accept the challenge. To avoid causing trouble for Tang Hengshu and for himself, not only did he not accept, he even voluntarily conceded defeat.
Alas.
Even so, Cang Yun still wouldn't let him go, being aggressive and verbally insulting. Gu Qingfeng endured it all.
When he tried to leave the temple fair, Cang Yun stopped him. At that time, disciples of the Taiji Sect surrounded him layer upon layer, leaving him no way out. Finally, pushed to the brink, Gu Qingfeng flew into a rage, grabbed Cang Yun, and gave him a savage beating.
He was still young then, full of hot blood. Once pushed to the edge, he nearly lost his senses and beat Cang Yun half to death on the spot. If the Taiji Sect elders hadn't intervened at the last moment, with his temperament back then, he would have definitely beaten Cang Yun to death.
Gu Qingfeng had cultivated for five hundred years, and his journey had been paved with fights. He was either fighting or on his way to a fight every day, never idle in all those five hundred years. The number of fights he'd been in was as countless as the stars in the night sky. If Fei Kui hadn't just mentioned Tang Hengshu's admirer, he really wouldn't have remembered someone like Cang Yun.
"After you beat Cang Yun half to death back then, he went into seclusion. He only emerged after you had left this world. Hearing you were gone, he started pursuing the Empress again. However, back then, the Empress abdicated the throne just to search for you, so Cang Yun naturally had no chance. I heard Cang Yun even spoke ill of you, which enraged the Empress, and she gave him a severe lesson."
"And then?"
"From then on, Cang Yun began to harbor deep resentment, not only viewing the Chixiao Faction as an enemy but also becoming extremely antagonistic towards the Yanluo Royal Family."
"And that caused a rift between the Yanluo Royal Family and the Taiji Sect?"
"It's not exactly a rift, but then again, it is."
"Have you learned to speak in riddles, you bastard? Speak plainly to me!"
Fei Kui was startled and quickly bowed his head to explain, "This lowly one has no intention of being cryptic. It's just... it's like this, Young Master. Although Cang Yun is only the Deputy Sect Master of the Taiji Sect, he is a man of deep cunning, skilled at winning people over, so he is very influential throughout the sect. Most importantly, he is also from the Baiyu Family of the Four Great Families and a direct disciple of the old sect master, so his words carry some weight within the Taiji Sect."
Fei Kui then shifted his tone, "However, that's about the extent of it. After all, the Yanluo Royal Family and the Taiji Sect have deep historical ties. Most of the Taiji Sect's elders are royal clansmen of Yanluo. Even if Cang Yun is antagonistic towards the royal family, he is but one man against the tide. The 'is it or isn't it a rift' I mentioned earlier is precisely for this reason. From any perspective, Cang Yun's existence alone shouldn't have a major impact on the relationship between the Taiji Sect and the Yanluo Royal Family."
"Is that so? That's good."
Gu Qingfeng sighed, "If my existence back then caused a rift between the Taiji Sect and the Yanluo Royal Family, then I'd be carrying an unjust black pot."
As Gu Qingfeng chatted with Fei Kui, he gazed at his own tombstone—or rather, not exactly at the tombstone itself, but at a young girl.
The girl looked to be about seventeen or eighteen, dressed in a green silk dress, appearing delicate and frail, as if a strong wind could blow her over. Her eyes, in particular, were pitifully charming, truly enough to stir compassion in anyone's heart.
Gu Qingfeng was no lecher, and he had no interest in girls so young. The reason he was looking at her was because he discovered this little girl's physique was extraordinary—it was the exceedingly rare Pure Yin Extreme Body.
Extreme Bodies, Absolute Bodies, Venerable Bodies, Tyrant Bodies, and Saintly Bodies were hailed as the five supreme physical forms between heaven and earth. Once these supreme physiques matured, the terrifying power they possessed was unimaginable, far beyond what any mere Treasure Body could compare to. Even Immortal or Demonic Bodies paled in comparison.
The Pure Yin Extreme Body was an extremely rare type of Extreme Body.
In the Ancient Era, let alone this world, even among the countless Three Thousand Great Worlds, there were only a handful.
Gu Qingfeng had once been fortunate enough to encounter a Pure Yin Absolute Body in the Nine Nethers. That could only be described with the words 'terrifyingly formidable'.