"Why?"
"No reason. Just a feeling."
"Is that so..." "Compared to that feeling, I'm more curious about how exactly that fellow managed to ignite the Karmic Fire of Original Sin."
Zixiao King sounded somewhat puzzled. "What exactly did he finally comprehend through Great Nirvana Silence, Great Freedom, and False Compassion? Truly curious..." As Zixiao King's words fell, the Heir Apparent and the Third Prince exchanged glances, as if they had both seen something in each other's eyes, or perhaps harbored some suspicion, and they both looked toward Zixiao King.
The Heir Apparent asked, "You seem very familiar with Original Sin..." The Third Prince also said, "And not just familiar—it seems more than that."
Then, both asked simultaneously, "Just who are you?"
Facing their suspicion, Zixiao King smiled mysteriously. "What do you think? Hehehe..." Zixiao King said no more, simply laughing as he departed.
"Gentlemen, we shall meet again in the Great Wilderness. I think it will be quite lively then..." Watching Zixiao King's departing figure, both the Heir Apparent and the Third Prince fell into deep contemplation.
"Do you think he might be..." The Heir Apparent shook his head. "There are only a handful of people who have been incarnations of Original Sin over the generations."
"But I haven't seen a single one of them in the Guixu. Have you ever seen them?"
"I haven't either."
Perhaps sensing something, the two looked up at the void once more, then vanished together.
High in the void, Genggu Wuming and Cang Yan watched as Zixiao King, the Heir Apparent, and the Third Prince disappeared one after another, lost in thought.
"After the Guixu collapsed, all the demons and monsters have returned..." Cang Yan sighed. "That karmic storm from the ancient cataclysm came at such a perfect, perfect time. What kind of karma is this, and what kind of fate..."
"Who knows?" Genggu Wuming shook her head. "No one knows. The only thing certain is that from now on, this Heaven and Earth will not only be very lively but also become extremely chaotic..."
"If all this truly ends, that would be for the best. But if it hasn't ended, and is only a beginning... then things would be truly terrible, terrible..." Cang Yan tried to deduce: if this didn't continue, Original Sin would return, seeking new incarnations. And when the ancient era ended, the Guixu had already collapsed; all demons and monsters would appear. Those beings previously suppressed in the Guixu were all ones who thrived on chaos; they would surely fight to seize Original Sin. They wouldn't care about the Great Dao, the common people, or the life and death of Heaven and Earth.
Thinking of this, Cang Yan couldn't help but smile.
Her smile held a touch of irony and self-mockery. "I don't know why, but I suddenly feel that if all this hasn't ended, and that fellow surnamed Gu remains an incarnation of Original Sin, it might not be a bad thing. At least he still has humanity, doesn't he?"
Seeing Genggu Wuming remain silent, she asked again, "The Book of Fate records that when Original Sin finds its true master, the Great Dao will fall, Heaven and Earth will be reborn, and the Age Without Dao will begin... Tell me, does that sentence refer to the past, the present, or the future?"
"Perhaps the past, perhaps the present, or perhaps the future." Genggu Wuming repeated the phrase. "Who knows? No one knows."
After speaking, she also smiled, her smile equally filled with self-mockery and irony—mocking herself as the Messenger of Fate yet not knowing what fate intended, and ironic that she was an incarnation of karma yet not knowing what karma intended.
After a silence.
Genggu Wuming murmured to herself, "I've been pondering a question: the Book of Fate records that when Original Sin finds its true master, the Great Dao will fall, and Heaven and Earth will be reborn. What kind of scene would that be?"
Even Genggu Wuming couldn't imagine it; Cang Yan knew even less.
"For all living beings, is the fall of the Great Dao and the rebirth of Heaven and Earth truly just a cataclysm? Is the legendary Age Without Dao truly a terrifying era? Or is all this merely what we assume?"
Genggu Wuming's words plunged Cang Yan into contemplation as well.
Upon careful thought, it did seem reasonable.
The Great Dao of today, in its struggle to dominate Heaven and Earth, has constantly been engaged in open and covert strife. In striving to dominate, who has cared about the life and death of the common people?
No one has cared, not even the Western Heaven Buddhist Dao, hailed as the leader of the Great Dao, has fallen to this.
Nowadays, the purpose of the Great Dao has long betrayed its original intent. What use is such a Great Dao?
If it's useless, what harm is there in destroying the Three Thousand Great Daos? Wouldn't it be better to let Heaven and Earth have no Great Dao at all?
Thinking this, Cang Yan shook her head, forcibly cutting off her train of thought, not daring to continue.
She knew these thoughts could only remain thoughts.
She also couldn't imagine what the so-called Age Without Dao would truly be like.
Beside her.
Genggu Wuming simply stood there, gazing, thinking.
The more she thought, the more confused she became; the more she thought, the more lost; the more she thought, the more adrift she felt.
She found herself increasingly unsure of what karma truly was, what fate truly was. She didn't even know whether Original Sin was truly a sin...
After a long while, Genggu Wuming let out a long sigh.
She sighed for the countless confusions in her heart, and for the endless sense of drift.
"Where should we go from here?"
Cang Yan asked. Genggu Wuming answered with a single word: "Wait."
"Wait for what?"
"I don't know what to wait for either."
Genggu Wuming's figure began to grow ethereal. "Whether all this will end, whether he will return, whether what the Book of Fate records is the past, present, or future, what the so-called Age Without Dao is like... All of it, everything, I don't know. And I can do nothing. I can only wait... Just wait like this, let time tell me the answer."
With these words, Genggu Wuming vanished...
As if she had never appeared.
Watching Genggu Wuming gradually disappear, Cang Yan pondered for a long, long time. Then she looked into the distance.
In the distant void, a person had been standing there quietly all along.
A woman.
A woman in snow-white robes, with hair as black as ink, ethereal as mist within smoke.
She stood, standing alone.
She also gazed, her gaze hollow.
Her flawlessly beautiful face held no expression; her eyes held no color, as if vacant. She simply stood and gazed, never leaving.
"Will you return?"
Cang Yan asked.
The woman shook her head. "No."
"Why?"
"I'm waiting for him. He told me to wait for him."
"He's gone."
"He's only gone temporarily. He said he was just going to sleep."
"He won't come back..." "He will come back... He said he would come back."
"How long will you wait?"
"Until he returns."
"What if you never do?"
"I will wait for him."
"Do you believe what he said?"
"What harm is there in believing him one last time?"