"The Heavenly Dao has always been this inscrutable and profound."
Hu Meiniang sighed. "Who knows what trick the Old Man of Heaven is playing this time."
"Perhaps the Old Man of Heaven is simply... waiting."
"And what about your Demon Path? Isn't it the same?"
"Who isn't?"
Nailuo and Hu Meiniang both knew that the so-called waiting wasn't for anything else, but for Fate.
Faced with someone like Gu Qingfeng—a sinner of the Daoless Age and a variable of the Present Era—all the Three Thousand Great Daos could do was wait for Fate to descend.
"We are all waiting for Fate."
Gazing at the boundless, desolate ruins, Nailuo murmured, "And it seems Fate is also waiting..." Though Nailuo didn't say it explicitly, Hu Meiniang understood. If Fate was also waiting, then it could only be waiting for the Daoless Mountain.
But.
Who knew if the Daoless Mountain was also waiting?
If the Daoless Mountain was also waiting, what was it waiting for?
The answer was only two words.
Karma.
All things between heaven and earth, be it grudges and favors, love and hate, or anything else—no matter how convoluted, they could never circumvent or escape those two words: Karma.
The cycle of Karma was endless and inexhaustible. It had a beginning, but never an end.
...
Within the ruins.
A man sat cross-legged.
His snow-white robes fluttered slightly, his jet-black hair danced gently in the wind. His stern face was somewhat pale, his expression grave, his eyes tightly shut, his brows deeply furrowed.
It was none other than Gu Qingfeng.
At this moment, he was observing his own physical body.
The state of his body was even more complex and worse than he had imagined.
Ever since he fused with that strange and sinister blood moon, the Blood of Original Sin could be said to have fully awakened. It was now eroding his physical body bit by bit—every inch of skin, every pore, every acupoint, every sinew and bone, every meridian, every drop of blood—all undergoing mysterious, unknown changes.
Not only that, his Dao of Silence, his Dao of the Absolute, his Dao of Slaughter, his Dao of Life, his Dao of Death, his Dao of Purgatory, and even the Ancient Taboo Incarnation of the Human Path Ancestor—"From the highest heavens to the Yellow Springs below"—which he had just achieved, as well as his Avici Asura soul... everything about his body, down to a single hair or a stray thought, was being eroded bit by bit by the Blood of Original Sin, all undergoing mysterious, unknown changes.
As for what kind of changes they were,
Gu Qingfeng did not know.
But one thing was certain: they were definitely not good changes.
This 'not good' was not in terms of being harmful to his physical body, soul, or destiny. On the contrary, these changes not only held no drawbacks but instead made his physical body, soul, and destiny exceptionally powerful.
If the old Gu Qingfeng could blow a mountain range to dust with a single breath, then the current him, with one breath, would likely cause the entire world to tremble!
Gu Qingfeng hadn't tested it, but he could clearly feel it.
The reason it was 'not good' was because the Blood of Original Sin was eroding not only his physical body, soul, and destiny, but also his Heart of Great Freedom, his fearless and dauntless spirit, his unyielding will, and even his self-consciousness—all were undergoing changes.
Once the Blood of Original Sin completely fused with him, Gu Qingfeng had no idea if his self-consciousness would still exist, or if he would still be himself.
Yes.
He didn't know.
Stop it?
Faced with the erosion of the Blood of Original Sin,
Gu Qingfeng simply couldn't stop it.
Because he had no ability to stop it.
That wasn't important. What was important was that even if he had the ability to stop it, Gu Qingfeng wouldn't. He wouldn't refuse the erosion of the Blood of Original Sin; he would even welcome it.
Just like back then, when facing the fusion with the Blood of Original Sin, he couldn't refuse either.
Back then.
In the Great Northwest.
Facing the fusion with the Blood of Original Sin, it felt as if someone was calling out to him, and he felt that the Blood of Original Sin originally belonged to him. It wasn't that he couldn't refuse, but that faced with the Blood of Original Sin, the very concept of refusal didn't exist at the time. It fused naturally, without any discomfort.
Now, facing the erosion of the Blood of Original Sin, this feeling was even stronger.
To be honest.
Having cultivated for so many years, Gu Qingfeng had never felt anything like he did now. Being eroded by the Blood of Original Sin felt like embracing a long-lost relative. Not only was there no discomfort, but he felt excited, even a sense of completion.
Under such circumstances,
how could Gu Qingfeng refuse?
How could he stop it?
There was another, even more important reason: Gu Qingfeng always had a feeling that only by perfectly fusing with the Blood of Original Sin could he find his own Karma.
As for what he would become after perfectly fusing with the Blood of Original Sin, or whether he would still be himself,
apologies,
but that wasn't a problem Gu Qingfeng should consider.
At least, not for the time being.
"Amitabha..." The Old Monk's voice came.
Gu Qingfeng focused his mind and entered the Bone Jade of Annihilation.
In the misty world, there was a misty mountain. On the misty mountain, there was a misty temple. In the misty temple lived an Old Monk Gu Qingfeng had never seen before.
However, it seemed this misty world was also undergoing mysterious and bizarre changes.
"Oh? I didn't expect the Bone Jade of Annihilation to be affected too..."
"Layman Gu has long since fused with the Bone Jade of Annihilation. Now that the Blood of Original Sin has awakened, everything about Gu Qingfeng will be affected. The Bone Jade of Annihilation is naturally no exception."
"What about you?"
"This Old Monk is the same."
"Then why don't you hurry up and leave?"
Gu Qingfeng laughed. "What, you want to be eroded by the Blood of Original Sin too?"
"This Old Monk has long since fused myself into this Bone Jade of Annihilation. I cannot leave, nor do I wish to leave."
"Cannot leave, nor wish to leave... You fused yourself into the Bone Jade of Annihilation, so I understand you can't leave. But why don't you wish to leave?"
"This Old Monk, faced with the Bone Jade of Annihilation, cannot leave nor wishes to leave. And Layman Gu, faced with the Blood of Original Sin, cannot refuse, nor wishes to refuse. Is that correct?"
"Correct."
"May This Old Monk ask why Layman Gu does not wish to refuse?"
"It's unclear, indescribable. If I must say, it should be a feeling... hmm...
It's a feeling. It's this feeling that makes me not wish to refuse. It's not that I don't wish to refuse...
but rather..." Gu Qingfeng tried to describe that feeling, but unfortunately, that feeling could not be described in any language.
"Layman Gu is like this, and This Old Monk is the same."
After a pause, the Old Monk continued, "This is Layman Gu's only path to Karma, and it is also This Old Monk's own Karma. Before, This Old Monk did not know. Only now has This Old Monk finally realized that when This Old Monk fused myself into this Bone Jade of Annihilation, and when the Bone Jade of Annihilation chose Layman Gu, everything was already destined."
"Hahaha!"
Gu Qingfeng laughed heartily. "Old Monk, oh Old Monk, you're only realizing now that we're grasshoppers tied to the same rope!"
"No, This Old Monk and Gu Qingfeng are not grasshoppers on the same rope. If one must say it, This Old Monk is at best an ant on that rope. Wherever Layman Gu goes, that rope goes, and This Old Monk is no exception. Even if This Old Monk is unwilling, I am powerless to stop it. Once I got on this rope, This Old Monk could never get off again..."