"It certainly looks that way, but what does that prove?"
The ethereal figure retorted, "Do you really think he's changed his nature? Become merciful? I'm telling you, Nalan Qianqiu, wake up! Don't forget, a leopard cannot change its spots. This fellow's temper might have mellowed compared to the old days, but it's just mellowed—he absolutely hasn't become merciful. The reason he didn't go on a killing spree is probably exactly as he said himself: he's sick of killing, too lazy to kill anymore. What do you think he is, some kind of saint?"
Nalan Qianqiu sighed. "Alright, pretend I never said it."
The night passed.
The next morning, as the sun rose.
Shangqing Sect, back mountain.
After leaving, Gu Qingfeng went nowhere else but returned to the courtyard at the back mountain and simply lay down on that red-leaf tree to sleep.
Having been busy for two consecutive days, he was genuinely exhausted. That weariness wasn't just physical; more of it came from a profound fatigue of the soul's essence, energy, and spirit. He needed a good sleep lasting several days and nights.
As for what had happened earlier at the foot of Shangqing Sect's mountain, he didn't dwell on it. Ever since fusing with a drop of Sin Blood nine years ago, he had already known his predicament. He knew full well that neither the Heavenly Dao, the Immortal Dao, nor the Three Thousand Great Daos would easily let him off. He didn't expect Heaven and Earth to tolerate him either.
Whether what lay ahead for him was a dead end or a path of no return, Gu Qingfeng didn't care. His only thought now was to make up for the regrets left behind from those years, and by the way, to figure out exactly what was going on with Wudao Mountain. He would deal with everything else after clearing those things up.
Fighting the Great Dao, or battling the Azure Heaven—Gu Qingfeng didn't mind.
Nor did he mind turning Heaven and Earth upside down once more.
If fate was already predetermined, then Gu Qingfeng had no choice but to defy heaven and change his destiny.
He slept just like that.
He didn't know how long he slept. Hazily, Gu Qingfeng seemed to faintly hear the sound of a zither. The music was very ethereal and elusive, both familiar and strange. When he opened his eyes, he found himself inexplicably transported to a mysterious place.
This place was like a sea of clouds.
The cloud sea stretched boundlessly, and within it stood only a solitary peak.
The zither music came from that solitary peak.
Where was this?
He didn't know.
Gu Qingfeng only knew this was a dream, a dreamscape.
And the more he listened to this zither music, the more familiar it felt. As he listened, a person suddenly flashed into his mind.
With a thought, the next moment he appeared atop that solitary peak.
And on the solitary peak.
A woman was gently plucking an ancient zither.
The woman wore a thin red gauze garment. Her features were stunningly beautiful, breathtakingly lovely. Her beauty was neither seductive nor enchanting, nor was it ostentatious. It was the kind of beauty that could make fish sink and geese alight, a beauty of peerless elegance and grace—dignified, grand, like a magnificent, awe-inspiring, unparalleled painting.
This woman's surname was Ye, given name Tianlan.
She was the current Sect Master of Shangqing Sect, also known throughout this world as the Lady Sect Master.
Seeing Ye Tianlan, Gu Qingfeng wasn't particularly surprised, because the moment he heard the zither music, he had already guessed the player was Ye Tianlan.
In this world, there were two people Gu Qingfeng least wanted to see.
The first was Jun Xuanji. The second was this Ye Tianlan.
These two women, one more mysterious than the other, played tricks that were illusory and real, true and false.
The only difference between them was that Jun Xuanji's methods were earth-shattering and explosive, while Ye Tianlan's methods were calm, unadorned, and imperceptible.
Gu Qingfeng considered himself fairly clever. In five hundred years of cultivation, he had rarely been deceived. However, he had been tricked once when he met Jun Xuanji, and once when he met Ye Tianlan.
To this day.
He still clearly remembered every detail from those years with Ye Tianlan.
Back when he was cultivating under punishment at Shangqing Sect, he didn't know Ye Tianlan, but he knew there was such a person in Shangqing Sect. Moreover, many times Gu Qingfeng had noticed Ye Tianlan watching him, yet she had never spoken a word to him, not even a single sentence.
It wasn't until the sixth year at Shangqing Sect that Ye Tianlan first spoke to him. And with that first utterance, she laid out Gu Qingfeng's secrets one by one—she even knew he was using the power of the sealing restriction to rebuild his foundation. After becoming acquainted, they had some exchanges, but they were all rather lukewarm.
It wasn't until the ninth year at Shangqing Sect, on the eve of the World Martial Assembly, after Gu Qingfeng used the sealing restriction's power to rebuild his foundation and, in one go, attained Earth Immortal status overnight, that Ye Tianlan proposed a strange wager: the Immortal-Fated Cultivation Partner bet.
At the time, Gu Qingfeng refused without a second thought. But Ye Tianlan? She used every method to force him to agree.
Later, with no other choice, and driven nearly mad by the pressure, Gu Qingfeng agreed to Ye Tianlan's wager during the World Martial Assembly.
To be honest.
Even now, Gu Qingfeng couldn't understand why Ye Tianlan was so determined to form an Immortal-Fated Cultivation Partner bond with him.
And in order to become his dual-cultivation partner, this Ye Tianlan truly went to 'any lengths necessary'.
First, she forced him to declare it before the entire world at the World Martial Assembly. After being refused, she personally went to Chixiao Sect. Gu Qingfeng had felt something was off about Ye Tianlan back then, so he didn't agree. Ye Tianlan, rejected again, left Chixiao Sect heartbroken, distraught, almost as if possessed. For that, Gu Qingfeng had felt immensely guilty at the time.
Later, something happened that made Gu Qingfeng feel even more indebted to Ye Tianlan.
Because the Immortal Dynasty accused Ye Tianlan of colluding with him, intending not only to eradicate Shangqing Sect but also to imprison Ye Tianlan.
Upon learning this news, Gu Qingfeng dropped everything and rescued Ye Tianlan at all costs.
After saving Ye Tianlan, Gu Qingfeng felt even more guilty. At that time, Ye Tianlan was truly in mortal peril—genuinely on the brink of death.
Gu Qingfeng's guilt then was so intense he wished he could slaughter himself.
He decided right then that if Ye Tianlan could recover, he would definitely form the Immortal-Fated Cultivation Partner bond with her and elope far away.
Really.
Gu Qingfeng truly had that thought back then.
But later, when he accidentally discovered Ye Tianlan's other identity as the Eldest Princess of the Immortal Dynasty, Gu Qingfeng realized he had been deceived—tricked on a scale he had never experienced in his life. And from that point on, he knew that everything from the World Martial Assembly onward was merely a scheme, a manipulation played by Ye Tianlan.
All that heartbreak, that mental instability, that near-possession, all that talk of colluding with him, that mortal peril—it was all just an act, damn it.
What made Gu Qingfeng even angrier was that when he went to confront her, Ye Tianlan didn't deny it. Instead, she candidly admitted it outright, even saying everything she did was only to form an Immortal-Fated Cultivation Partner bond with him.
Gu Qingfeng asked her why?
Ye Tianlan said he would understand later.
Now was 'later,' yet Gu Qingfeng still couldn't understand why Ye Tianlan was so determined to form that bond with him.