What is the past? What is the present? And what is the future?
What is a previous life? What is this life? And what is the next life?
In the past, Gu Qingfeng would have believed the past was the past, the present was the present, and the future was the future. A previous life was a previous life, this life was this life, and the next life was the next life.
However, since comprehending the Great Illusion, he seemed to understand, yet felt even more lost. He no longer knew what the past or a previous life was, nor what the present or this life was, let alone the future or the next life.
Perhaps the past and previous life were the present and this life. Or perhaps the present and this life were the future and the next life.
He did not know.
Nor did he wish to know.
Just as he did not wish to know whether cause was cause and effect was effect, or whether cause was effect and effect was cause.
Suddenly.
A hoary, ancient voice rang out.
"The eternal calamity born of heaven and earth!"
"Three cycles of reincarnation manifest through the ages!"
"Previous life and this life, cause and effect revealed!"
"Whose fate belongs to whom depends on heaven!"
The voice was vast and mighty, like a sacred thunderclap from remote antiquity, its sound and power permeating the heavens and the earth.
In this fading, dissipating Daoless world, a disheveled Elder was staggering along. The Elder appeared utterly mad, his expression dazed, his eyes vacant, filled with nothing but confusion and bewilderment. He muttered, "What is a previous life? What is this life? And what is the next life?"
"A previous life is a previous life, this life is this life, the next life is the next life... No!"
"That's not it!"
"A previous life is this life, this life is the next life..."
"The next life is also the previous life..."
"And what is Karma?"
"Cause is cause, effect is effect. Cause is effect, effect is also cause..."
"Hahahaha..."
"False!"
"It's all false!"
"No!"
"It's all true!"
"What is true and false?"
"True is true, false is false. True is false, false is also true. True and false, false and true..."
"False and true, true and false..."
"Who can distinguish them clearly?"
The mysterious Elder's expression grew increasingly dazed, increasingly bewildered, and increasingly lost. He simply wandered, babbling incessantly.
Gu Qingfeng watched this mad Elder. He remembered this Elder; he had even shared wine with this old man amidst the ruins of the Daoless Era.
When he had seen this old man before, there had been a sense of déjà vu. Now, encountering the old man again, that feeling was even stronger.
"Old Senior."
Gu Qingfeng called out.
The mad Elder halted his steps and looked at Gu Qingfeng. His face truly resembled the withered bark of an ancient tree, and his eyes were truly hollow and vacant. He stared at Gu Qingfeng for a long, long time. His dazed expression grew even more confused, his empty eyes even more bewildered.
"Gu... Gu kid?"
The mad Elder's voice came. Gu Qingfeng's heart gave a violent jolt, and he quickly pressed, "Might I ask the Old Senior's esteemed name?"
"Esteemed name?"
The mad Elder seemed unfamiliar with these words. He thought for a very long time but simply could not remember. He just shook his head, saying, "This old man has forgotten... forgotten what his surname is, forgotten what his name is..."
Gu Qingfeng cautiously inquired further, "Then, Old Senior, do you recognize me?"
"This old man..."
"This old man seems to know you..."
"Yet also seems not to know you..."
"This old man cannot remember..."
"Cannot remember at all..."
"Then why did you just call me 'Gu kid'!"
"Gu kid?"
"Yes!"
"Why did this old man call you 'Gu kid'!"
"Why?"
"Why exactly?"
"And who is 'Gu kid'?"
The mad Elder grew increasingly bewildered, increasingly lost.
"My surname is Gu, my given name is Tianlang, also called Qingfeng."
"Gu Tianlang?"
"Gu Qingfeng?"
The mad Elder murmured these two names, muttering distractedly, "Such familiar names..."
"Why..."
"This old man has no impression at all, why..."
Gu Qingfeng asked again, "Do you come from the past, or from the future?"
"The past?"
"The future?"
The mad Elder, like a lonely wandering ghost, murmured, "What is the past? What is the future?"
"The past is the past, the future is the future... No!"
"The past is the future, the future is also the past..."
"Old Senior, do you truly not remember anything at all?"
Gu Qingfeng still did not give up, pointing at himself and asking, "Take a closer look. Do you have no impression of me whatsoever?"
"Are you the Gu kid?"
"No!"
"You are not the Gu kid."
The mad Elder's hollow, vacant eyes stared at Gu Qingfeng as he muttered, "Are you the Venerable?"
"Are you the Wu Dao Zun Shang?"
"No!"
"You are not the Wu Dao Zun Shang either..."
"Who!"
"Who exactly, who are you, and who is this old man!"
"Why can't this old man remember anything!"
"Why!!"
The mad Elder roared hoarsely and charged toward the sky that had no sky.
Gu Qingfeng watched the mad Elder recede into the distance and couldn't help but sink into deep contemplation.
At that moment, another voice came.
"He is lost..."
"No matter how much you ask, it is meaningless."
As the voice fell, a person materialized out of thin air.
It was a person entirely wrapped in white cloth, bound tightly from head to toe, with only a pair of eyes like black holes exposed.
This person again.
Gu Qingfeng clearly remembered the first time he saw this person was shortly after he had just awoken. This person had inexplicably appeared and had even tried to erase him.
The second time was in the Original Sin Nightmare. It was he who informed Gu Qingfeng that the woman of the Original Sin Nightmare had been personally buried here by the Wu Dao Zun Shang.
At that time, Gu Qingfeng had asked him who he was.
He said he came from the Daoless Era and was also a person of Original Sin.
That was not important.
What was important was that he had also said one sentence that left a deep impression on Gu Qingfeng: he said that whoever Gu Qingfeng was, he was.
At the time, Gu Qingfeng had not understood the true meaning of those words.
Now, he seemed to have some inkling.
"Who is he?"
Gu Qingfeng asked.
The mysterious man responded, "Whoever he makes you think of, that is who he is."
Gu Qingfeng merely uttered an "Oh" and said nothing more.
After a long while, he spoke again, asking, "Then who are you?"
"I have said, whoever you are, I am."
"Have you also come to kill me?"
"Perhaps yes, perhaps not."
"Perhaps?"
"Perhaps."
"You haven't decided yet?"
"Whether I decide or not lies with you, not with me."
Gu Qingfeng uttered another "Oh," then suddenly laughed. After laughing, he lifted his wine jar and drank heartily.
When Gu Qingfeng laughed, the mysterious man opposite him also laughed. He, too, somehow produced a wine jar and likewise raised his head to drink deeply.
"What are you laughing at?"
Gu Qingfeng and the mysterious man asked in unison.
"Suddenly remembered a saying."
The two responded in unison again.
"What saying?"
The two asked in unison once more.
After asking, they both spoke simultaneously: "The eternal calamity born of heaven and earth! Three cycles of reincarnation manifest through the ages! Previous life and this life, cause and effect revealed! Whose fate belongs to whom depends on heaven!"
After speaking, they both burst into loud laughter, each laugh more solitary and proud than the last, more domineering, more unrestrained, and also more free and unfettered.
Gu Qingfeng said, "In this life, I have drunk with many people, but I have never drunk with myself."
The mysterious man responded, "Likewise."
"Come!"
"Let's raise a great toast!"
Each holding a wine jar, they clinked them together and both drained their jars in one go.