The ancient bell tolled ceaselessly.
The tolling was solemn and dignified, as if it came from the heavens above, or perhaps from the earth below. It seemed to echo from the past, yet also from the future.
No one knew what this bell toll truly was. They only knew that here, the sun and moon, yin and yang, light and darkness were all in...
Primordial Chaos.
Primordial Chaos was everywhere.
Within the chaos, a mountain appeared at some unknown time.
This mountain was particularly twisted and extremely blurred, like mist and smoke, changing along with the fluctuations of the chaos.
This mountain was also ethereal and illusory. Its illusory nature made it seem as if it had never existed, its ethereal quality making it seem as if it did not belong to this world, nor to heaven and earth, nor even to this place.
This was Wu Dao Mountain.
When Wu Dao Mountain manifested in the world, Genggu Wuming and Cang Yan were the first to charge inside. Immediately after, swish, swish, swish—one streak of radiance after another, like shooting stars, tore through the chaos and plunged into Wu Dao Mountain.
Wu Dao Mountain was not a mountain.
At least, not a mountain in the true sense of the word. You could not touch it, nor could you feel it. Many people could not even see it.
The interior of Wu Dao Mountain was more like an ethereal, illusory world-space.
Within it.
There was no azure sky, nor was there any vast earth.
No.
It was not that there was no azure sky, nor that there was no vast earth.
Rather, this azure sky, this vast earth, and even this entire ethereal, illusory world were like something burned by flames until only ashes remained, dissipating bit by bit into smoke and mist.
In this world of flying ashes and vanishing smoke, a person was strolling about.
It was a man, a man drinking wine while carrying a wine jar.
His snow-white robes were spotless, his ink-black hair fluttering slightly. His lonely figure stood solitary, his cold, stern face expressionless, his dark eyes profound and silent.
It was none other.
Than Gu Qingfeng.
When Wu Dao Mountain descended, he too had charged inside at the first moment.
The world inside Wu Dao Mountain gave him a very special feeling, as if he had seen it before, yet also as if it were particularly familiar.
Not only that.
The Blood of Original Sin within his body was extremely excited, as if it had returned home. Every inch of Gu Qingfeng's skin, every acupoint, every drop of blood, every restraint, his entire physical body, even his consciousness and soul, began to be influenced by Original Sin, undergoing changes. These changes were bit by bit devouring his self-awareness.
He did not know what he would become after his self-awareness vanished, but one thing was certain: by then, he would no longer be himself.
Gu Qingfeng did not try to stop it.
He could not stop it, nor did he want to.
He understood better than anyone that when he fused with the Blood of Original Sin, the moment he awakened the Blood of Original Sin, all of this had already been destined.
And so, he slowly strolled through this dissipating, misty Wu Dao world, watching, gazing, feeling.
He could feel that somewhere in this world was calling to him, or more precisely, calling to the Blood of Original Sin within him, just as the Blood of Original Sin had once called to him.
Yes.
He could feel it, and the feeling was very clear, very intense.
"From wisdom comes, from confusion comes, distinguishing object and self!"
"A hundred kinds of yang, a hundred kinds of yin, transform into the harmony of heaven and earth!"
"Seeing not good, seeing not evil, only cause and effect remain!"
"A thousand kinds of sage, ten thousand kinds of demon, let others say what they will!"
A voice came.
It was the voice of that woman from the Original Sin Nightmare.
If Gu Qingfeng could not sense the woman's presence within the Original Sin Nightmare, then now, having arrived in this Wu Dao world, he could already sense her existence—right there, in that place that was calling to him.
"You've come...
You've finally come after all...
Why did you come...
Why..." The woman's voice sounded.
"Weren't you waiting for me here?"
"Yes!
I was waiting for you here, I've always been waiting for you. I knew that one day you would come, but...
I didn't want you to come...
I didn't want..." At this moment, the woman's voice was filled with confusion, also filled with hesitation.
In response.
Gu Qingfeng merely said lightly, "You've also come to kill me, haven't you?"
Perhaps before, Gu Qingfeng did not know why the woman from the Original Sin Nightmare said she had been waiting for him at Wu Dao Mountain. However, after comprehending the Great Illusion, many things had become clear. He could sense that this woman from the Original Sin Nightmare had been waiting for him, waiting to kill him.
"Kill you?
Yes...
Kill you!
I was waiting for you here...
Waiting to kill you...
Only by killing you will all of this end...
Only by killing you will all of this not begin."
"Only by killing me will all of this not begin..." Gu Qingfeng murmured these words, raised the wine jar, tilted his head back to drink, and laughed, "Before, I always thought that the so-called Wu Dao Age was merely the past, that the so-called Karmic Curse had long since ended. It wasn't until today that I understood: the so-called Wu Dao Age is not the past at all, but the future. The so-called Karmic Curse never ended, because it hasn't even begun yet..." Raising the cup to drink, Gu Qingfeng said with melancholy, "Fate has really played a huge joke on me this time!"
"No!
You're wrong...
Truly wrong. The Wu Dao Age is not the future, but the past...
No!
Not the past, but the future!
No!
That's not it either. The Wu Dao Age is neither the past nor the future, but the present..."
"Whether it's the past, the future, or the present, does it matter?"
"Does it matter?
Heh heh heh!"
The Nightmare woman laughed bitterly, "Yes...
Does it matter...
I don't know...
I'm lost...
I've also forgotten...
I only remember that you buried me here...
Heh...
It was you...
Who personally buried me here..."
"You say I buried you here. I wonder, are you speaking of the past, the future? Or the present?"
"I don't know...
I'm lost...
I've also forgotten..."
"You say you're lost, you've forgotten, you don't know if the Wu Dao Age is the past or the future. Then, do you remember who you are?"
"I don't know, I'm lost...
I've also forgotten..."
"That phrase... sounds quite familiar..." Gu Qingfeng laughed as he drank, "I don't know if you are her, but...
Whether you are or not, it seems it no longer matters..." As he spoke, Gu Qingfeng suddenly remembered a legend and murmured, "The eternal calamity derived from heaven and earth, three cycles of reincarnation manifest through the ages, past life and present life meet through Karma, whose fate is whose depends on heaven..." He shook his head and sighed, "Truly, the longer you live, the more things you encounter...
Having lived so many years, it's only now that I'm starting to get a feel for what living is...
What a pity!
What a pity it's too late..."
"Why!"
The Nightmare woman asked, "Why must you do this...
Exactly why?
Why must you overturn heaven and earth, why must you change your own Karma, exactly why..."
"You clearly severed the Karma of the past, so why must you recreate your future Karma...
Why!"
"What exactly do you want to do!"
As the Nightmare woman's voice came out, Gu Qingfeng laughed, "If you come from the past, then go ask the me of the past. If you come from the future, then go ask the me of the future. My apologies, I belong neither to the past nor to the future. I am only a me from the present, and I only belong to the present me."