"You Di?"
Gu Qingfeng sneered disdainfully. "What's he worth? Back in the day, if I'd wanted to kill him, it would've taken no more than a snap of my fingers."
"Liar!"
"Keep lying! Go on, lie harder!"
"The bigger the lie, the better. Best if you could blow yourself right up to the Ninth Heaven with a single puff of hot air."
"Hahaha!"
Gu Qingfeng was amused, laughing heartily.
"Honestly, I've never seen anyone dare to spin such a tall tale in my entire life."
"That's because you're a woman. If you were a man, you'd have seen it plenty."
Gu Qingfeng chuckled. "Men, you know? Have a drink, spin a yarn—perfectly normal. Pour me a few more cups of that Five Evils Wine, and I'll spin you a tale so wild you'll start questioning your whole life. Believe it?"
"Truly hopeless."
Xiao Ya shook her head. She had just begun to suspect that Gu Qingfeng might once have been a Great Old Master who commanded awe in his domain, and a sliver of reverence had stirred within her. But after this bout of bragging from Gu Qingfeng, that newly sprouted sliver of reverence vanished like mist.
"Since the Great Old Master was so mighty back then, even looking down on You Di..."
Bai Susu appeared very calm, her expression serene. She did not refute Gu Qingfeng, merely continued asking, "...then why did you lose your cultivation?"
"How to put it? Guess my luck just wasn't good."
Gu Qingfeng drank the Five Evils Wine, speaking half-truths, then shook his head again. "Actually, not bad luck. More like I brought it on myself. When I was young, I was competitive, loved picking fights for no reason. Kept fighting, and ended up provoking something I shouldn't have..."
"From then on, I stepped onto a path of no return. That path was littered with entanglements. At first, I could still struggle a bit. Later, I got too tired from the struggle and just didn't want to anymore. So I set myself on fire. Burned my Physical Body and Soul clean away."
"Set yourself on fire?"
"Physical Body and Soul, both burned clean away?"
"That would be complete annihilation."
Bai Susu asked, "But you didn't die. And you aren't a reincarnation either."
"Little sister, can't figure it out, can you?"
"I truly cannot."
"Good that you can't. Don't say you can't—I can't figure it out myself either. That's why the ancestors say life is full of surprises everywhere."
"Heh."
Bai Susu gave a faint smile, picked up a cup of Five Evils Wine, took a small sip, and said, "Then, Great Old Master, what are your plans for the future?"
"No plans. I told you, I'm not an ambitious man. I just like drinking some wine, listening to some tunes, occasionally teasing a girl or two. A girl like you, little sister, fits my taste just fine."
"Pervert!"
Xiao Ya was inwardly full of contempt.
Bai Susu looked at Gu Qingfeng, a trace of a strange smile curling at the corner of her mouth. "The Great Old Master truly has refined tastes."
"Of course."
Gu Qingfeng gazed at Bai Susu with a smiling expression. "How about we find a place to chat alone?"
"Chat?"
"About what?"
"Talk about life, of course. What else?"
"Alright."
Horse King, standing behind Gu Qingfeng, never could have imagined Gu Qingfeng's audacity was this great. Before Bai Susu, he called himself Great Old Master, referred to himself as 'this lord', and now he was brazenly flirting with Bai Susu. But what surprised Horse King even more was that when Gu Qingfeng suggested chatting alone, Bai Susu actually agreed.
What game were these two playing?
Not only did Horse King not know, even Xiao Ya wore a puzzled expression, unsure what Bai Susu intended.
After finishing the wine in her cup, Bai Susu said, "Xiao Ya, take them away first."
"Miss..."
Xiao Ya was about to say something, but Bai Susu waved her hand, signaling them to leave.
Xiao Ya shot a glare at Gu Qingfeng, then had no choice but to lead Steward Li and Horse King away for the time being. The Old Matron nearby also tactfully took her leave.
In the pavilion, only Gu Qingfeng and Bai Susu remained.
Gu Qingfeng looked around, then turned his gaze to Bai Susu. "I say, little sister, what act are you putting on?"
"Didn't you want to chat with me alone?"
"I was just joking."
Bai Susu stood up, picked up the white jade cup, and personally poured a cup of wine for Gu Qingfeng. "But I took it seriously."
"Little sister, what do you want to do?"
"A lone man and a lone woman."
Bai Susu turned and sat directly in Gu Qingfeng's lap. Holding the wine cup with her fingers, she brought it to Gu Qingfeng's lips. "What do you think we can do?"
Gu Qingfeng didn't say anything, just downed another cup of Five Evils Wine. "Little sister, this lord is a proper gentleman, you know."
"Oh?"
"Let me see, then."
"How?"
"Legend says the eyes are the windows to the soul. From the eyes, one can see a person's Soul. Whether you are a proper gentleman or not, I'll know with one look."
Bai Susu sat in Gu Qingfeng's lap, one arm hooked around his neck, the other holding Gu Qingfeng's right hand and placing it on her own waist. Gazing at Gu Qingfeng, she murmured, "Look into my eyes, alright?"
"Alright."
Gu Qingfeng raised his head. Their eyes met.
A faint smile played on Bai Susu's lips. Her charming, captivating eyes underwent layer upon layer of change, flickering with a bewitching, sinister crimson. Seeing Gu Qingfeng's gaze grow vacant, Bai Susu immediately released a strand of divine sense to probe—probing Gu Qingfeng's Physical Body.
But the more she probed, the deeper Bai Susu's frown became, and the stronger the shock and bewilderment in her heart grew.
She had never seen such a chaotic, disordered Physical Body. Whether it was the acupoints or the bones and sinews, the meridians or the blood, even the internal organs were tangled and intertwined together—chaos upon chaos. What was more severe was that the acupoints, bones, sinews, and meridians all seemed to have rusted. His body was filled with incredibly turbid impurities, everywhere, densely packed, completely clogged and blocked. The entire Physical Body felt ancient, as if it had decayed over countless millennia.
"No wonder you were unaffected after drinking so much Bi Tao wine, and even this Five Evils Wine is the same. So your Physical Body has decayed to this state."
After probing, Bai Susu roughly understood why Gu Qingfeng could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk and remain unmoved after consuming so much Five Evils Wine. It was likely due to the decay of his Physical Body.
But Bai Susu didn't understand: what had this fellow experienced? How had his Physical Body become so chaotic and decayed like this?
What made her even more incredulous and utterly unable to comprehend was: with a Physical Body so chaotic and decayed, how was this fellow still alive?
In Bai Susu's view, this was simply impossible.
Just as Bai Susu was lost in confusion, Gu Qingfeng's voice sounded by her ear: "I say, big sister, if you wanted to see this lord's Physical Body, you just had to say so. It's not like I wouldn't have shown you. Why play games with bewitching eyes? You're just a little Jade Rabbit spirit—since when did you start doing a fox's work?"
Hearing this.
Bai Susu was instantly greatly alarmed. Setting aside the many doubts in her heart, she instinctively tried to dart away. But just as she was about to move, she abruptly found she couldn't budge an inch.
"Since you're already here, why run? Didn't we agree to chat about life together?"