"Is there a difference? You tell me, is there any difference between fate being preordained and karma being incidental? Everything that was supposed to happen has already happened. Whether it was fate or karma, does it even matter?"
Gu Qingfeng shrugged, offering no definitive answer.
Indeed.
Just as Tang Hengxi had said, everything that was supposed to happen had already happened. Arguing now about fate being preordained or karma being incidental held little meaning.
Noticing Tang Hengxi staring at him intently, Gu Qingfeng asked, "Why are you looking at me like that? What is it? Has it been so many years that you don't recognize me anymore?"
"You haven't changed. You're still the same as you were back then—indifferent to anyone and anything, never caring, solitary and unbothered."
"That really doesn't sound pleasant to hear. What do you mean 'indifferent to anyone and anything, never caring'? I'm not that heartless. At the very least, I still care about you, I still mind you..." As Gu Qingfeng spoke, Tang Hengxi suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with mockery.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Gu Tianlang, back then I had reincarnated, my mind was unawakened, my memories were not yet roused. I was completely an ignorant and naive young girl. That's why I believed your nonsense. But now I have long since awakened. Please don't try to deceive me with these lies anymore, okay?"
"I'm not deceiving you. I truly do care about you..."
"Enough! Don't say anymore. You say you care about me, is that it? Then let me ask you, did you come to Yanluo for me?"
"Yes."
"For what purpose, for me?"
Tang Hengxi's question truly stumped Gu Qingfeng.
"I'll ask you again, for what purpose, for me?"
Gu Qingfeng still didn't know how to respond.
Tang Hengxi asked once more, and Gu Qingfeng remained unable to answer.
"You came to Yanluo looking for me, not because you care about me, but because you care about your own inner feelings. If you have any feelings for me, they are nothing but guilt, nothing else. What Jun Xuanji said about you is absolutely correct. She said that on the surface, you appear sentimental and righteous, but in truth, you are the most heartless, the most unprincipled. Any woman in your eyes is merely an object to fill the emptiness in your heart. You fundamentally do not care, nor do you mind."
Tang Hengxi's words left Gu Qingfeng speechless. He lifted his head, opened his mouth, but when the words reached his lips, he ultimately could not utter a single one.
"Others cultivate their hearts, and you cultivate yours. Others cultivate a heart of compassion, a heart of fearlessness, but you cultivate a heart of freedom. What you pursue is the great liberation of life, so how could you possibly care about others' feelings?"
"Jun Xuanji said that in this world, what can make Gu Tianlang lower his head and fall silent is not heaven and earth, nor gods and Buddhas, nor even immortals and demons, but guilt. Is that right?"
Here and now.
Gu Qingfeng indeed had his head lowered, maintaining his silence, feeling extremely awkward. Even so, he forced himself to say one thing: "Don't believe Jun Xuanji's nonsense. She doesn't understand me at all. She's deliberately misleading you."
"I believe she understands you better than anyone, even better than you understand yourself."
"When did you meet her?"
Tang Hengxi shook her head, as if unwilling to answer this question.
With Tang Hengxi falling silent, Gu Qingfeng truly didn't know what else to say.
"Regarding today's events in Yanluo, thank you for intervening."
"It was a matter of convenience. However, since you're here, aren't you going to see them? Old Monster Tang and the others have been worried about you all along. They all thought that in searching for me, you had gone missing, your fate unknown."
"Isn't that the case?"
"Alright, even if it is, you disappeared so abruptly back then. Couldn't you at least go back to see them, give them some closure, so they don't have to worry anymore?"
"My affairs are none of your concern."
Perhaps sensing Tang Hengxi's intention to leave, Gu Qingfeng asked, "You're leaving, aren't you?"
"What needed to be seen has been seen. What needed to be said has been said. What point is there in staying?"
"Where are you going?"
"To where I ought to go."
"Where ought you to go?"
Silence. No answer.
"Fine."
Gu Qingfeng sighed, then asked again, "Since you don't want to say, I won't press further. Will we have a chance to meet again in the future?"
"We will definitely meet again."
"That's good."
"However..." Gu Qingfeng raised an eyebrow. "However what?"
"However, the next time we meet, it will be either your death or my survival."
"Why?"
"You will know in the future."
Gu Qingfeng gazed at Tang Hengxi's faint, illusory figure before him, frowning as he pondered her words. In a daze, he felt she seemed familiar. This familiarity did not come from the Tang Hengxi of the past, but rather a sense of déjà vu. This déjà vu was both an inexplicable feeling of having met before and a sensation from a distant past.
"Did we meet in the Heavenly Realm?"
"No."
Although Tang Hengxi denied it without a second thought, Gu Qingfeng could tell from her reaction that she was lying.
"Who was your previous life's identity? Or should I ask, after you awakened back then, what was your identity in the Heavenly Realm?"
"You will know in the future."
After Tang Hengxi finished speaking, her already faint and illusory figure became even more ethereal and hazy, truly like smoke beginning to dissipate bit by bit in the wind.
"You've shrouded this external incarnation of yours so tightly, are you afraid I'll recognize your true identity? And after meeting, you dissipate directly—are you afraid I'll find you?"
"I'm not afraid of you finding me."
"Then what are you afraid of? Afraid of karma? Or afraid of the Sea of Bitterness? If you're afraid, I can face it with you. If you fall into the Sea of Bitterness because of me, I will definitely fall into the Sea of Bitterness to accompany you."
"You don't understand."
Tang Hengxi's figure grew increasingly blurred, her voice also becoming fainter.
"What is it that I don't understand?"
"I am already in the Sea of Bitterness, and you are no exception. How could you understand? How could you accompany me? If you accompany me, it will only make me sink deeper, and make you sink deeper as well."
"I'm in the Sea of Bitterness? How come I don't know?"
"When you set foot on the path of Seeking the Dao of Karma, you had already fallen into the Sea of Bitterness. It's just that you haven't realized it yet. One day, you will understand."
"I don't understand, and I don't want to understand."
"You will understand."
Gu Qingfeng did not try to force her to stay. He simply watched as Tang Hengxi dissipated bit by bit, watching her like that, and said, "Is it really necessary to be like this? Must it be so?"
"If you still cherish the feelings we shared in Yanluo back then, even if it's only guilt, I beg you, please don't look for me anymore. Forget me, and forget the Tang Hengxi of the past."
"I can't forget. And I will look for you."
"You will regret it..."
"Between you and me, the only thing I regret is not cherishing you back then."
"You know what? After you left Yanluo back then, I went looking for you. If I remember correctly, you said the exact same thing to me back then. Gu Tianlang, ah, Gu Tianlang, you are really enough... Get lost! I warn you, don't come looking for me, or you will truly regret it!"
"Finally, this palace will give you a message I've always wanted to say but never had the chance to tell you."
"What message?"
"You really are a heartless, unprincipled, shameless bastard of a scoundrel!"