Gu Qingfeng had encountered this woman once before.
It was over a decade ago, somewhere in the Great Northwest.
An ancient secret realm had undergone a strange transformation. Within that realm lay an old temple, and beneath that temple, a demoness was sealed.
As for what exactly this demoness was, or why she was sealed within the secret realm, Gu Qingfeng did not know. He only vaguely remembered that the demoness seemed to be called Man Tu Fan.
"You know her?"
Su Hua seemed to harbor some hostility toward Man Tu Fan. Seeing that Man Tu Fan appeared to recognize Gu Qingfeng, she felt both surprised and deeply curious.
"I wouldn't say I know her. We've merely crossed paths once."
Gu Qingfeng looked Man Tu Fan up and down. Back in that ancient secret realm, he had clashed with her and knew she possessed considerable strength. But that wasn't the important part. What was important was that Man Tu Fan gave him a sense of déjà vu.
That was true back then.
It was even truer now.
And the feeling was far stronger than the last time.
"Just who are you?!"
Man Tu Fan stared intently at Gu Qingfeng, her voice tense as she demanded, "Are you a person from the Wu Dao Age?"
Then she shook her head. "No!
You are not from the Wu Dao Age. But why do you give me a feeling connected to it?
And…
Why does your existence make me feel this sense of familiarity?
It's even stronger than when I last saw you!"
Gu Qingfeng did not respond. If he could, he too would like to know the answer to that question.
At that moment.
Two more streaks of light sped over—two more people.
One was an elderly man in white robes who looked every bit the transcendent immortal.
The other was an inscrutable man in blue robes.
Gu Qingfeng did not know them, and they did not know Gu Qingfeng. Upon their arrival, their gazes swept over him repeatedly, their expressions growing increasingly astonished and suspicious.
"Fairy Hua, is this gentleman a friend of yours?"
The transcendent-looking old man in white seemed to know Su Hua and spoke up to ask.
Su Hua did not reply immediately, seeming hesitant. After a moment, she shook her head and responded, "He is not my friend."
Suddenly.
Chaos erupted within the ruins.
The dark clouds obscuring the sky churned like raging waves. Lightning bolts grew frenzied. A howling gale swept up sand and dust, roaring like countless azure dragons. The mountains floating in mid-air began to plummet. The entire ruin shook violently.
Seeing this commotion.
The man in blue, the old man in white, even Man Tu Fan and Su Hua—their expressions changed drastically, as if they knew something terrifying was about to happen.
Immediately after.
The man in blue vanished in a flash.
The old man in white also disappeared.
Man Tu Fan glared at Gu Qingfeng and shouted, "I will find you again."
With that, she too flashed away and vanished.
"Oh no!
That senior is coming again!"
Su Hua's face was urgent as she said to Gu Qingfeng, "Quick, get out of here! Leave now!
Hurry!"
"What's wrong?"
Gu Qingfeng didn't know what was happening. Watching everyone flash away from this place, he was deeply puzzled and asked, "Who did you say is coming?"
"A mad, eccentric old senior!"
"What's there to fear from a crazy old man?"
Though Gu Qingfeng said this, he reckoned that if a crazy old man was truly appearing, that old fellow was definitely not someone to be trifled with. Otherwise, Man Tu Fan and the others wouldn't have so decisively fled the moment they sensed him. If nothing else, the sudden, abnormal changes in the ruins were enough to prove that the arriving crazy old man was absolutely extraordinary.
"A crazy old man isn't frightening in itself, but that senior is from the Wu Dao Age!"
"Oh?"
Hearing this, far from feeling fear, Gu Qingfeng grew somewhat excited. "No wonder this place suddenly went haywire. So it's a character from the Wu Dao Age coming. In all my years, I've never seen what someone from the Wu Dao Age looks like."
Boom! Rumble—CRACK!
A tremendous sound erupted, as if the heavens themselves were collapsing. The entire ruin descended into utter chaos.
"That old senior from the Wu Dao Age possesses terrifying power, capable of destroying Heaven and Earth. You…" Su Hua was frantic with worry. She knew Gu Qingfeng's existence was also terrifyingly formidable—so formidable that even the divine judgment hailed as the Gods' Verdict couldn't touch him. Yet, despite this, she was still concerned. The reason was simple: that mad, eccentric old senior hailed from the Wu Dao Age, and everything from that era was beyond imagination and could not be judged by ordinary logic.
Just think, the Wu Dao Age could destroy Heaven and Earth, could throw causality into chaos, could annihilate even the gods. What wasn't possible?
"Gu Qingfeng, no!
Gu Tianlang, I advise you…" Before Su Hua could finish her sentence, chaos erupted once more within the ruins. The seething clouds burned like a sea of fire, incinerating everything.
"The Great Cataclysm of a Thousand Ages births Heaven and Earth!"
Abruptly!
An ancient, aged voice rang out.
Its resonance was vast, like primordial sacred thunder, its sonic might boundless, penetrating heaven and earth.
The force of it struck Su Hua, who let out a muffled groan. Her face, capable of toppling kingdoms, instantly turned deathly pale. Not daring to linger another moment, she immediately flashed away and vanished.
Only Gu Qingfeng remained standing there.
Feeling the vast resonance and boundless sonic might of that voice, even Gu Qingfeng's expression was shaken into unnaturalness, and his spirit suffered a violent tremor.
"Three Cycles of Reincarnation, Ten Thousand Ages Manifest!"
"Past Life, Present Life, Causality Revealed!"
"Who Commands Whose Fate Must Look to Heaven!"
The voice continued unceasingly. The ruins grew increasingly chaotic, a mess like a boiling pot of porridge, chaotic as the Primordial Chaos itself.
"Having wisdom, having confusion, distinguishing object and self!"
"A hundred kinds of Yang, a hundred kinds of Yin, transforming into Heaven and Earth's harmony!"
"Not seeing good, not seeing evil, only cause and effect remain!"
"A thousand kinds of sage, ten thousand kinds of demon, left for others to say!"
This voice was too powerful, too bizarre. Gu Qingfeng had never encountered such a terrifying sound before.
As it echoed, even his physical body began to blur and distort continuously.
Fortunately, his body was hard enough, tough enough, and strong enough. Moreover, he possessed the ability for Nirvana Rebirth. Gu Qingfeng felt no fear. He shook his head, forcing his blurred consciousness to clear, and listened intently to the mysterious voice. For some reason, these words seemed familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before. Yet they were also strangely alien. He seemed to grasp something, yet also seemed not to understand. Lost within them, he became momentarily disoriented.
He didn't know how much time passed.
When Gu Qingfeng regained his senses, he was instantly drenched in a cold sweat, inwardly cursing the sheer eeriness of it.
He lifted his head and looked out. From within the chaos, he could vaguely make out a figure.
Perhaps it was a person.
Gu Qingfeng truly couldn't see clearly.
It was profoundly mysterious, ethereal and blurred, shifting between reality and illusion. It seemed to be within Heaven and Earth, yet also seemed to exist outside of it. Divine Sense could not detect it; his physical eyes could only barely perceive it.
Could this be the legendary person from the Wu Dao Age?
He didn't know.
Gu Qingfeng could only vaguely see a disheveled old man wearing tattered gray robes. The old man appeared dazed, his eyes vacant, wandering through the chaos, muttering to himself: "False, all false, everything is false…"