Jun Xuanji left.
She had come suddenly, and left just as suddenly. It was always like this with her, as if she had never appeared at all, vanishing without a trace.
Gu Qingfeng was already accustomed to it.
However, he was accustomed to Jun Xuanji's ghostly comings and goings, but he could not get used to the things she said.
Gu Qingfeng could not figure it out, could not understand it.
He simply could not comprehend what Jun Xuanji's words truly meant.
What did it mean that someone wanted him to become that 'Master Wu Dao'? And what did it mean that others hoped he would become a second 'Wu Dao Zun Shang'?
Was it perhaps fate?
Or perhaps Karma? Or maybe it was Original Sin?
Or something else entirely?
And what did it mean that once he lost his way on the path of seeking Karma, he would become that 'Master Wu Dao'?
And what did it mean that he had severed all Karma, so he had no past life, no present life, and no future life...
That he belonged only to himself, was the only version of himself?
First, she said if he lost his way he might become a second 'Master Wu Dao', then she said he had no past or present lives.
Wasn't that contradictory?
What exactly was she trying to say?
What was the real meaning?
Alas.
No matter how hard Gu Qingfeng racked his brains, he couldn't come up with an answer. The more he thought, the more confused he became, the more muddled his thoughts. Thinking made his head hurt, hurt so much he wanted to curse out loud.
Gu Qingfeng knew Jun Xuanji was not in her right mind. She probably didn't even know the meaning of her own words. Yet, for some reason, every time Jun Xuanji spoke, her words always affected him.
"Damn it all!
What a fucking mess!"
Since he couldn't figure it out, Gu Qingfeng truly couldn't be bothered to think about it anymore. He glanced at this nightmare realm that resembled a chaotic world, shook his head, cursed angrily, and left directly.
Of course.
He had only left this nightmare.
Gu Qingfeng's physical body was still in slumber, devoid of any vitality, like an immortal corpse. He had no intention of waking up for now, planning to continue sleeping.
Originally, he had considered letting this wisp of his consciousness also enter a selfless, chaotic state and slumber along with his body. But Gu Qingfeng felt rather displeased, or more precisely, plagued by a nameless unease.
Indeed.
Jun Xuanji's words made him very uneasy, though he didn't know what exactly he was worried about.
After turning it over in his mind, Gu Qingfeng decided to enter his own Sea of Consciousness to take a look.
Every person has their own Sea of Consciousness.
This thing is a person's mental world, their spiritual world, the world of heart and soul.
Everyone's experiences are different, their hearts are different, their personalities are different, their worldviews are different, so their mental worlds are also different.
Some people's mental worlds are very chaotic, filled with distracting thoughts everywhere.
Some people are inherently evil, their mental worlds also relatively dark.
Some people are kind-hearted, their mental worlds must also be bathed in light.
If one's nature is like raging fire, their mental world must also be turbulent and unstable. If one's heart is like still water, their mental world is also without ripples.
But whether they are evil people, kind people, fiery by nature, or calm as still water, their mental worlds all have distracting thoughts floating about to a greater or lesser extent. Even a Great Luo Golden Immortal is no exception. If one has no distracting thoughts, they are either a Buddha or a God.
Gu Qingfeng's mental world also had distracting thoughts, and quite a few of them. These distracting thoughts floated in his mental world like dark clouds. These thoughts might be concerns, or perhaps guilt, or love, hate, passion, and enmity—all were possible.
His mental world was very...
Strange.
It couldn't be called dark, nor could it be called bright. Instead, it was gray and hazy everywhere, just like after the end of the world—extremely desolate and bleak, filled with an incomparable loneliness and deathly stillness, devoid of any vitality.
Yet, it was precisely in this gray, lifeless mental world that it seemed to contain boundless vitality. Like flowers and grass blooming, like mountains and rivers flowing, like flames rising, like the earth growing, like demons and monsters baring their fangs and claws, like Immortals and Buddhas delivering all living beings, like Gods bestowing grace upon the earth, like the multitudes of living beings paying homage.
It looked like a magnificent, epic scene of the earth returning to spring and all things renewing themselves, more like a flower of life in bloom.
However.
It was very strange.
Because Gu Qingfeng's mental world was utterly devoid of life.
This feeling was like a flower of life blooming in hell. Even if it possessed endless vitality, under the influence of hell, it only manifested as the renewal of all things, yet held no true vitality.
Regarding this.
Gu Qingfeng did not find it strange at all.
Because he knew that this magnificent existence, like the renewal of all things and the flower of life, was none other than the 'All Beings' Slaughter, Myriad Forms Pay Homage' he had previously gestated and manifested.
As for why his mental world was devoid of vitality, Gu Qingfeng also knew it was probably related to his Avici Uninterrupted Evil Asura soul. That thing presided over death. From what he could recall, ever since he had inexplicably fused with the Avici Uninterrupted Evil Asura, his mental world had become like this.
Yes.
Inexplicably.
As for how his soul had become the Avici Uninterrupted Evil Asura, Gu Qingfeng himself did not know. Because back then, he had fallen into demonhood, his self-awareness gone. What he did during that demonic period, he himself was not clear about. He only knew that when he regained his self-awareness, his soul had become the so-called Avici Uninterrupted Evil Asura. At first, he didn't know either; it was the old monk residing within the Silent Extinction Bone Jade who told him.
The old monk said the Avici Uninterrupted Evil Asura presided over death.
Other than that, he said nothing else.
He only taught Gu Qingfeng a sutra to use to suppress his Avici Uninterrupted Evil Asura soul.
Gazing at the endlessly transforming 'All Beings' Slaughter, Myriad Forms Pay Homage' within his mental world, Gu Qingfeng couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
He was pondering a question.
That was, was the gestation and manifestation of this 'All Beings' Slaughter, Myriad Forms Pay Homage' truly accidental?
Was it really accidental?
Not necessarily.
He still clearly remembered that before gestating the 'All Beings' Slaughter', he had once gestated a Golden Core. That Golden Core was inexplicably gestated from a single Tear of a Lonely Star, a single Seed of the Great Natural Order's Life, and his own Nine Nethers Ancestral Flame.
The Nine Nethers Ancestral Flame was his.
But that Seed of the Great Natural Order's Life had been forced upon him by the Great Natural Order. Moreover, it was shortly after he had first awakened in this world and successfully rebuilt his foundation that the Great Natural Order suddenly bestowed this Seed of the Great Natural Order's Life upon him.
Although Gu Qingfeng didn't understand the Great Natural Order very well, he knew that thing was definitely not a simple life seed. Because its existence was ceaseless, truly like a seed of life.
Gu Qingfeng did not believe he was just lucky, that he had stumbled upon some great fortune to gestate such a ceaseless, great creation.
Not only that, he was almost certain that Seed of the Great Natural Order's Life had definitely been forced upon him by the Great Natural Order.
As for the reason, that was unknown.
Since it brought no harm and instead many benefits, Gu Qingfeng hadn't paid it much mind.
As for that Tear of a Lonely Star.
It made him even more baffled.
He also clearly remembered that at the time, he was cultivating when he encountered an extremely rare phenomenon: the Great Dao's Flowing Nectar. And that Tear of a Lonely Star had fallen from within that Great Dao's Flowing Nectar, hitting Gu Qingfeng squarely.
To put it more accurately, it wasn't that it hit him; it was more like that thing seemed to have been aiming for him from the start. At the time, Gu Qingfeng didn't even have time to defend himself before that Tear of a Lonely Star inexplicably merged into his body.