"Hah, are you still angry with me even now? That doesn't seem like you."
"You deceived my feelings. How could I not be angry?"
"What?" Perhaps not expecting Gu Qingfeng to suddenly say such a thing, Ye Tianlan was first taken aback, then chuckled softly. Her expression was as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world. After laughing, she pressed her hands on the table, leaned forward, looked at Gu Qingfeng, and said very seriously, "Gu, I'd like to deceive your feelings, but do you even have any?"
Before Gu Qingfeng could respond, Ye Tianlan shook her head and continued, "You have no feelings. Back then, although I deliberately created a bond, it wasn't insincere. I wouldn't dare say I fell for you or developed feelings, but I was always very serious about creating a bond that belonged to just the two of us. And I'm certain that if a bond had formed between us unintentionally, rather than me deliberately creating it, you would have treated me just as coldly and heartlessly."
"That's not necessarily true. If I hadn't accidentally found out back then that you were the Eldest Princess of the Immortal Dynasty and that all of this was just a game you were playing, I might have truly formed an Immortal-Fated Dao Companion bond with you, leaving the disputes behind to live together, flying side by side."
"Oh, come off it!" Ye Tianlan unceremoniously shot Gu Qingfeng a look of disdain. "That's just an excuse of yours. Even if you had truly believed me, you wouldn't have formed an Immortal-Fated Dao Companion bond with me. 'Living together, flying side by side'? Pah! How can you even bring yourself to say those words? You, when it comes to feelings, have always been passive, never refusing, never taking responsibility, and never treating any relationship seriously. The word 'feelings' in your eyes is, at best, just a seasoning for life, something to pass the time and ease the loneliness and emptiness in your heart, nothing more. To put it nicely, you're a lonely wanderer. To put it bluntly, you're a thoroughly fickle-hearted scoundrel."
Faced with Ye Tianlan's disdain, Gu Qingfeng did not speak, choosing silence instead.
Although he didn't want to, he had to admit that Ye Tianlan's words left him unable to refute them.
In truth, sometimes when he carefully reflected on his experiences over these five hundred years of cultivation, Gu Qingfeng really felt that he might indeed be someone who didn't take feelings very seriously. It wasn't that he was irresponsible, but that he had never truly treated them with earnestness. Perhaps it really was as Ye Tianlan said: feelings, to him, were merely a seasoning for a dull life, a way to pass the lonely, empty hours of the heart.
Seeing Gu Qingfeng fall silent, Ye Tianlan snorted coldly. "What's this silence? Did I hit the mark?"
"Enough, let's not bring up the past anymore. Even if I am a scoundrel, I don't owe you anything."
Gu Qingfeng didn't want to dwell on this topic any longer and asked, "You lured me into this dream today, surely not just to tell me these things, right? Is there something else?"
"I know you're searching for Wu Dao Mountain."
Gu Qingfeng did not hide it, nodding in acknowledgment. "That's right, I am indeed looking for Wu Dao Mountain. What about it?"
"I'm looking for it too."
Gu Qingfeng asked indifferently, "And so?"
"And so, I want to cooperate with you."
"Cooperate? How do you mean to cooperate?"
"Wu Dao Mountain will reappear in this world not long from now."
"Oh?" Gu Qingfeng's heart stirred. "How do you know?"
"I divined it."
"That thing can be divined?" Divination was a very profound and mysterious supernatural ability, belonging to the unorthodox path of fortune-telling. Although Gu Qingfeng had dabbled in it a little, it was only dabbling. Since he had been very resistant to the concept of fate since childhood, he didn't really want to engage with this field. In his five hundred years of cultivation, he had never performed any fortune-telling or divination. In his view, life should be full of the unknown—that's what made it life. If you could divine dangers or foresee the future, what would be the point?
"Of course. You've never believed in fate, and I suppose you disdain delving into the Dao of Divination as well."
Gu Qingfeng was surprised again, staring blankly at Ye Tianlan. "I find that you understand me better than I understand myself."
"Heh." Ye Tianlan smiled without speaking.
"You divined that Wu Dao Mountain will reappear not long from now. But how long is 'not long'?"
"I don't know. I can only divine that Wu Dao Mountain will appear soon. As for how soon, I cannot divine."
"Then what did you mean earlier about cooperation? Cooperate on what?"
"You." Looking at Gu Qingfeng, Ye Tianlan sighed helplessly.
"What about me?"
"Your state of mind now is truly as carefree as it can be, as unrestrained as it can be... Sometimes I really admire you. How can your heart be so vast? Don't you know what situation you're in now? To say you're the target of all is no exaggeration at all. And you? You don't care in the slightest, not at all. Do you really plan to just take things one step at a time?"
"What do you mean?" Gu Qingfeng thought carefully and asked, "Are you saying that when Wu Dao Mountain appears, they might make a move against me?"
"Not 'might'! They definitely will."
Gu Qingfeng shrugged. "It doesn't matter. If they want to make a move, I can't stop them."
"You really are..." Ye Tianlan pointed at Gu Qingfeng, her expression one of utter helplessness. "Don't think that just because the Divine Judgment can't do anything to you, you're immortal and indestructible. The essence of heaven and earth is currently being reborn. The Divine Judgment is merely an empty shell for now. Once the essence of heaven and earth is reborn, try facing the Divine Judgment again and see if it can erase you!"
"I never said I was immortal and indestructible."
"It seems you still haven't figured out what kind of existence you truly are."
"That's right, I really haven't figured it out. What about it? Do you know?"
"I don't know either. But I do know that your existence is a mistake, a mistake belonging to Original Sin. Moreover, this mistake of Original Sin has given rise to many chaotic, erroneous karmic ties. Do you know how serious the erroneous karmic ties derived from your Original Sin mistake have become? It's not just threatening the Three Thousand Great Daos."
"What else is it threatening?"
"You should know that what rules heaven and earth is not just the Three Thousand Great Daos. Compared to those true sovereigns, the Three Thousand Great Daos are merely a facade. Those true sovereigns have already begun to gradually awaken..." Gu Qingfeng nodded, very much in agreement. He also believed that the Three Thousand Great Daos were merely a facade for those true sovereigns, just like the Immortal Dynasty established by the Nine Heavens in the Great Thousand World. The true sovereigns were those old-timers who had lived for who knows how many years and weathered countless tribulations. He might not know about the Immortal Dao or the Heavenly Dao, but he had some understanding of the Monster Dao, after all, he had once ascended to become the Nine Nethers Emperor, which also fell within the Monster Dao. And the true sovereigns of the Monster Dao were the legendary old demons, like Chi You, Xing Tian, Hou Qing, Han Ba, Jiang Chen, and that bunch of old fellows.
"I've heard a bit about them, but I've never seen them."
"Good. I believe that when Wu Dao Mountain appears, you will definitely get to see them, because they have already begun to take notice of you."
"Is it really that uncanny?"
"There's something even more uncanny. Do you want to hear it?"
"What is it?"
"The people from the Wu Dao Era have also begun to take notice of you."