At that moment, Qiānniǎo was both agitated and excited. This feeling was like witnessing a small life about to hatch from its shell. She didn't shout again, but instead widened her eyes, covered her mouth, and held her breath, afraid she might startle him.
The man lying quietly on the stone bed had perhaps been asleep for too long, making his limbs stiff. He could only move his fingers slightly and couldn't even lift his arms.
Qiānniǎo watched nervously, her gaze fixed on the Mysterious Man's shifting eyeballs. After who knows how long, the Mysterious Man's eyes finally opened.
Good heavens!
What kind of eyes were those?
She didn't know.
Qiānniǎo only knew that when the Mysterious Man opened his eyes, she felt as if she had fallen into a world filled with light, filled with darkness, filled with sanctity, filled with evil, filled with life, filled with death, and like chaos itself. This world seemed to have no time, yet time felt eternal.
Qiānniǎo didn't know why she felt this way, and at that moment, she didn't ponder it deeply. She just stared incredulously at the now-awakened Mysterious Man and said, "Good heavens, you've really woken up!"
No one responded to her. The Mysterious Man still lay quietly, his pair of deep, dark eyes seeming to contain endless confusion and boundless uncertainty.
Then the Mysterious Man's lips moved, as if saying something. Though it was very faint, Qiānniǎo still heard clearly. The Mysterious Man spoke three words: "Who am I?"
Subsequently, the Mysterious Man's lips moved again, and he said, "Where did I come from...
And where am I going..."
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Where am I going?
Qiānniǎo stared at him with immense shock and doubt.
She wondered if the Mysterious Man had been unconscious for so long that his mind was still in a state of chaos. Otherwise, how could he not know who he was?
After saying these three sentences, the Mysterious Man spoke no more and closed his eyes again.
"Hey!
Hey!
Can you hear me?" Qiānniǎo hurriedly asked.
But still, no one responded to her.
Again, after who knows how long, when the Mysterious Man opened his eyes once more, the confusion and uncertainty in them had dimmed considerably. He murmured, "Alive... I'm actually...
still alive...
I...
Why am I still alive..."
"Hey!
What are you muttering to yourself about?
Is your mind clear now?" Qiānniǎo deliberately leaned over, almost pressing her face against the Mysterious Man's, and blinked her big eyes as she asked, "Can you see me?"
"You...
who are you?" The Mysterious Man stared at Qiānniǎo, seeming to find her unfamiliar, and asked weakly.
This question thrilled Qiānniǎo immensely. Since he could ask this, it meant the Mysterious Man's mind was clear and his consciousness wasn't blurred. She quickly introduced herself, "My name is Qiānniǎo."
"Qiānniǎo?
Who is that?
I...
do I know you?" The Mysterious Man tried to sit up, but his body was too stiff. Qiānniǎo hurriedly reached out to help him sit up and said, "Of course you don't know me."
"Oh." The Mysterious Man lifted his eyes and looked around, finding himself in a mountain cave, and asked, "This is...
what place?"
"Xiaoluo Secret Realm."
"Xiaoluo Secret Realm?" The Mysterious Man thought for a moment, seeming to have no impression, and asked again, "How did I get here?"
"It's like this. Ten years ago, Ling'er-jie and the others went out to train and found you in the Liúshā Small Secret Realm. So they brought you back, you know?
Aunt Xuěhuān put in a tremendous effort trying to regulate your physical body, but in the end, she still couldn't fix it. Yet no one expected you would actually wake up...
It's truly incredible."
"Thank you." The Mysterious Man sat on the stone bed, hanging his head, his eyes closed, looking utterly listless.
"No need to thank us. It's what we should do. By the way, we still don't know your name."
"My name?" The Mysterious Man shook his head slightly, hesitated for a moment, then replied, "I forgot..."
"Ah? You forgot?" Qiānniǎo asked again, "Then do you remember who you are?"
"Forgot..."
"Where did you come from?"
"Forgot..."
"Then you've also forgotten how you appeared in the Liúshā Small Secret Realm?"
"Forgot..."
"This..." Facing the Mysterious Man's complete lack of answers, Qiānniǎo seemed somewhat disappointed.
Originally, she had been extremely curious about the Mysterious Man's origins. For example, if he wasn't a Dao cultivator, why did he appear in the Liúshā Small Secret Realm? What exactly had he experienced that caused his physical body to become so bizarre?
Yet, the Mysterious Man had forgotten everything.
"Can't you remember anything at all?"
"Can't remember..."
"Alright, if you can't remember, then you can't remember. Don't worry for now. Maybe you've been unconscious for too long, and your mind is still a bit chaotic, your consciousness somewhat blurred. After recuperating for a while, you should be able to remember."
The Mysterious Man asked again, "How long...
have I been unconscious?"
"You've been unconscious in our Xiaoluo Secret Realm for a full ten years. As for how long you were unconscious in the Liúshā Small Secret Realm, that we don't know..."
"Is the Great Dao still present?"
"The Great Dao? Of course the Great Dao is present."
"Has the Heaven and Earth undergone Reincarnation?"
"Reincarnation? How could Heaven and Earth undergo Reincarnation?"
The Mysterious Man murmured, "The Great Dao remains...
Heaven and Earth have not undergone Reincarnation... So it seems...
nothing has happened..."
Qiānniǎo grew more confused the more she listened and asked, "Hey, is your mind not clear? What nonsense are you talking about? I don't understand a word."
"What era is it now?"
"It's the Present-Ancient Era, year ten thousand."
"Present-Ancian Era, year ten thousand..." The Mysterious Man murmured, "Present-Ancient Era...
Ten thousand years have already passed in the Present-Ancient Era..."
"Well, yeah?" Qiānniǎo advised, "You've just woken up. I think you shouldn't think too much for now. Better lie down again."
After helping the Mysterious Man lie back down on the stone bed, Qiānniǎo also felt somewhat at a loss. After thinking it over, she decided it would be best to first inform Dānqīng Lǎozǔ about the Mysterious Man's awakening.
"Hey, you lie here and don't move. I'm going to call the Patriarch."
With that, Qiānniǎo didn't dare delay and immediately vanished.
On the stone bed.
The Mysterious Man closed his eyes, as if recalling something.
It wasn't that he didn't know his surname or given name. He clearly knew his surname was Gu, his given name Qingfeng.
He just didn't know why he was still alive.
Back then.
He ignited the karma fire, burning himself to ashes, and also burning the incarnation of original sin.
He didn't know if doing so could incinerate the incarnation of original sin, but he could only do this, because there were no other options left.
At the time, he didn't expect to survive either.
Moreover, back then he also felt he had lived long enough. If he died, so be it; there was nothing he couldn't bear to part with.
However.
He never imagined he could actually come back to life.
Had the original sin been burned away?
He didn't know.
He didn't even know why he could survive.