"He will die. He must die."
"If he does not die, even if the Great Dao does not perish and Heaven and Earth do not reincarnate, the Daoless Age will reappear in the mortal realm. The black hole of Karma will sweep forth, the curse of Original Sin will descend, and then Karma will fall into chaos. Past lives and present lives will meet, and Original Sin will dominate everything... everything..."
"Therefore, he must die."
"Junior Sister, I imagine you can sense all this even if I don't say it..."
Yes.
Su Hua could sense it.
And this feeling was growing clearer and stronger. Yet, even so, a sliver of hope still lingered in her heart—hope that there might be another way to resolve this.
She did not want Gu Qingfeng to die.
Truly, she did not.
Was it because Gu Qingfeng was her Karma? Because Gu Qingfeng could help her unlock the secrets of the nightmare? Or because she had truly fallen in love with Gu Qingfeng?
Su Hua did not know.
At this moment, she did not want to know. She only wanted Gu Qingfeng to live.
As long as Gu Qingfeng could live, she was willing to pay any price.
But now, no matter what she paid, Gu Qingfeng was undoubtedly doomed to die.
Was there truly no room for reversal?
If it were only the Great Dao, only Heaven and Earth seeking to erase Gu Qingfeng, perhaps there might still be room.
But now, those seeking to erase Gu Qingfeng also included her senior martial sister, Jun Xuanji, and Genggu Wuming.
Her senior martial sister represented the ancient sacred lands.
Jun Xuanji represented the people of the Daoless Age.
And Genggu Wuming was the embodiment of Karma, the very messenger of Fate.
In other words.
Those who now wished to erase Gu Qingfeng were not just the Great Dao, not just Heaven and Earth, but also the ancient sacred lands, the people of the Daoless Age, and most crucially, Karma itself, and this very Fate.
When even Karma and Fate sought to erase Gu Qingfeng, where was there any room for reversal?
Su Hua knew.
There was simply no room for reversal.
Thinking of this, Su Hua closed her eyes, feeling as if the sky had darkened and the earth had crumbled, utterly despairing.
In the pavilion.
Watching the despondent, hopeless Su Hua, Nalan Qianqiu asked, "You don't truly care about so-called Karma, nor about so-called nightmares. What you truly care about is him, the person. Junior Sister, you've fallen in love with him, haven't you?"
"What meaning is there in saying this now?"
When she awoke from the nightmare and Nalan Qianqiu said Gu Qingfeng was dead, Su Hua had indeed been heartbroken.
When she learned Nalan Qianqiu was only joking and Gu Qingfeng was still alive, Su Hua had been overjoyed.
When Nalan Qianqiu solemnly revealed the cruel truth, the feelings in her heart made her truly realize she had already fallen in love with Gu Qingfeng. Unfortunately, it was all too late. She hadn't had time to confess her feelings to Gu Qingfeng, hadn't had time to share moonlit moments with him, hadn't had time for anything. Not even this love had time to begin before it was already over.
"I don't know what I've done wrong, for Fate to toy with me so."
The Su Hua of this moment was like a young girl lost in darkness—so helpless, so powerless, so adrift.
"I have lived two lives, cultivated for over a thousand years. I have never harmed anyone, never. You told me to do something, and I did it. I never raised any objection, never defied your will. I have always been obedient, always..."
"I have never asked for anything, never wanted to obtain anything, never sought to exchange for anything."
"But in the end, you even took away the fate that should have belonged to me, that belonged only to me..."
"And you took it away twice."
"In my previous life, you made me form an Immortal Fate Dao Companion bond with someone I didn't like, even despised. Though I was deeply unwilling in my heart, I still did not defy your will. You said this Heavenly Fate of mine was important, even crucial to the Great Dao. So, I complied, without complaint."
"I thought I would never encounter a fate of my own in this lifetime. But the appearance of one person gave me hope. He was the one who rescued me, who took me away, who freed me from suffering."
"He was a man both ruthless and tyrannical, both lonely and insane, and also God mysterious and eerie. Before, I had never met such a man. Never."
"He was ruthless. When ruthless, he killed without mercy. I asked him why he killed. He said if he didn't kill others, others would kill him."
"He was also tyrannical. Tyrannical to the point of recklessness, lawlessness, following only his own will. I asked him why he was like this. He said he wanted to be."
"He was also lonely. When lonely, he would often space out alone. I've seen him spacing out, and I could feel the loneliness in his heart, very clearly. I asked him, 'Are you lonely?' He said no, he wasn't lonely. Precisely because he said he wasn't lonely, he was even more lonely. I knew, though he did not enjoy loneliness, he was long accustomed to it."
"He was also insane. Insane to the point of disregarding Immortals, Demons, and Buddhas, disregarding the Three Thousand Great Daos, even disregarding Heaven, Earth, and the firmament. I asked him why. He told me to go ask those Immortals, Demons, and Buddhas, to ask those Three Thousand Great Daos, to ask this Heaven, Earth, and firmament."
"Before, I never understood why he said that. Later, I realized why he told me to ask Heaven, Earth, and the Great Dao. It wasn't that he wanted to be insane, but that Heaven, Earth, and the Great Dao could not tolerate him. He had no choice but to be mad!"
Su Hua spoke like this, her tone exceedingly complex: "Senior Sister, do you know? All along, I've felt everything was so false, so hypocritical. The Immortals are, the Buddhas are, the Three Thousand Great Daos are, even this Heaven and Earth are hypocritical. But he is real. On him, you see no hypocrisy, not even a trace."
"Though the time I spent by his side was very, very short, I still fell helplessly in love with him. Only after I left did I learn he was the Nine Nethers Emperor, whom Heaven and Earth could not tolerate."
"I knew the existence of the Nine Nethers Emperor was intolerable to Heaven and Earth. Yes, I knew. But I still couldn't restrain myself. Not only couldn't I restrain myself, I sank deeper and deeper."
"The Nine Nethers Emperor said he did not wish to be an enemy of the Great Dao, nor of Heaven and Earth. He said so, and acted so. But you still refused to let him go, until the time of the ancient cataclysm, when you judged him to ashes, only then did you relent."
"The man I admired in my previous life, the only man I admired in that lifetime, was thus judged to ashes by you. This fate had not even begun before it ended..."
"What it left me was only grief, and a past I wished to recall yet dared not, forever sealed deep within my heart."
"When the ancient era ended, the Gate of Reincarnation opened. Many chose reincarnation. I also chose reincarnation. You thought I reincarnated to seek Karma. In truth, only I myself knew I reincarnated only to forget that fate which had ended before it began."
"After reincarnating and being reborn, I thought I could forget everything of my previous life. But the more I tried to forget, the clearer the memories became. In the early days after rebirth, I suffered a living death. To forget everything of my previous life, I kept myself busy. So, I could only seek that elusive, intangible Karma."