The Great Desolate.
The Dual-Pole Celestial Domain.
A luxurious Grand Carriage, pulled by a full nine Fire-Cloud Crimson Flame Tigers, was racing through the vast expanse of the void.
The driver of the carriage was a tall, burly man with a powerful build.
The man wore black-scale immortal armor, a bright red cape draped behind him, and held a Fire-Cloud Whip, looking quite imposing.
Beside him was a wide, comfortable chair, upon which sat a young man dressed in white. The man lay lazily reclined in the chair, sipping from a wine flask as he admired the magnificent scenery of the Great Desolate's boundless heavens.
These two were none other than Gu Qingfeng and Horse King.
"Great Old Master, where are we heading?"
After leaving the Xiaoluo Secret Realm, Horse King had been driving the Fire-Cloud Grand Carriage, wandering aimlessly through the Dual-Pole Celestial Domain. As for their destination, Gu Qingfeng hadn't said, and Horse King didn't know either.
"Let's just drift for now. Wherever we drift to, that's where we'll go."
This question truly stumped Gu Qingfeng, because he didn't know where he was going either. He had thought about it for a long time but still hadn't come up with an answer. Gazing up at the void, observing the countless Myriad Heavens and Worlds twinkling like stars, Gu Qingfeng asked, "Old Ma, tell me, what exactly do people live for?"
"Live for what?"
Gu Qingfeng's question also stumped Horse King. He scratched his head, pondered hard for a while, and replied, "Great Old Master, to be honest, I've never really thought about such a profound question. If you ask me what I live for, I don't know either."
"If you don't even know what you're living for, then what's the point of living day after day?"
Horse King felt like crying but had no tears. His face fell as he said helplessly, "Great Old Master, I'm just an ordinary little Immortal, and the most wretched kind of gambler at that. Sometimes I don't know where my next meal is coming from. When I win money, I eat, drink, and have fun. When I lose, I go out honestly to earn a few Immortal Stones. To put it bluntly, I spend my days running around for those measly scraps. When have I ever thought about such a profound question as what I live for? Being able to live is enough; why bother with what it's for?"
"Not bad."
Gu Qingfeng took a swig of wine, mulling over Horse King's words, and nodded. "Thinking about it carefully, what you just said, kid, makes a hell of a lot of sense. In fact, when you think about it, you're living quite a happy life."
"Great Old Master, you call this a happy life?"
"What?
Are you saying your life isn't happy?"
Horse King shook his head vigorously. "To be honest, Great Old Master, I've lived until now and still haven't tasted what happiness feels like."
"You're blessed but don't know it."
Horse King scratched his head, not quite understanding.
"Let me put it this way: when you're gambling and you win, are you happy or not?"
"Of course I'm happy!"
"And when you lose?"
"When I lose, I'm definitely not happy."
"Silly boy, that's happiness."
"This can be called happiness too?"
Horse King grew even more confused.
"At the very least, winning money makes you happy, losing money makes you unhappy. When you have money, you eat and drink lavishly; when you don't, you honestly go out to earn some. Compared to me, you're living a life that couldn't be happier."
Horse King grinned. "Great Old Master, please stop teasing me. I think you're the happiest person, and the most carefree one I've ever seen."
"How so?"
"Look, you have money when you want it, power when you need it. You drink when you feel like drinking, bask in the Sun when you feel like basking. What a carefree, comfortable life you lead."
"That kind of life is indeed comfortable and carefree, but you can't live like that forever, can you? A year is fine, ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years are all fine. But if it's ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, a million years of the same, eventually you'll grow weary of it."
Gu Qingfeng sighed. "You know how to be happy when you win money. In my current state, winning money gives me no feeling, and losing money gives me no feeling either. Whether you've ever tasted the flavor of happiness, I don't know, but I haven't tasted what it means to be happy or unhappy for a very, very long time. To say something a bit sentimental, I'm living a very boring, very dull, very tasteless life right now. Just like when you asked me earlier where we're going, I simply have no damn clue where I'm going or what I want to do."
Horse King couldn't possibly comprehend what kind of feeling Gu Qingfeng meant by living a boring, dull, and tasteless life.
Yes.
He couldn't comprehend it.
Throughout his years of cultivation, he had spent his days running around just to make a living and survive. He never had the opportunity, nor the mood, to feel bored, because he knew very well that if he didn't strive for a living, he simply couldn't survive in this Great Desolate.
This was also the fundamental reason why he couldn't understand Gu Qingfeng's current state of mind.
It was also the difference between him and Gu Qingfeng.
He had to survive, so he had to strive for a living.
But Gu Qingfeng was different.
Gu Qingfeng didn't need to toil and strive for survival.
If Horse King didn't strive for a living, not only would he fail to survive, he might even die.
Gu Qingfeng was different.
He wasn't afraid of death.
Ever since attaining Great Nirvana, he had experienced Life and Death countless times—he was used to it, numb to it. Moreover, he had long since transcended Life and Death.
In other words, life and death were no different to him. Life was death, death was life.
In fact, if you asked him to die now, he wouldn't even know how to kill himself. Even if he did manage it, he wouldn't know when he would be reborn from nirvana.
Once you've transcended Life and Death, who would still bother with trivial matters like survival?
Gu Qingfeng was now growing more and more lost, more and more adrift the longer he lived. Especially after attaining the Four Great Mental States, not only had he transcended Life and Death, he also felt as if he had seen through the mortal world. The longer he lived, the less meaning he found in it.
"The so-called Four Great Mental States truly live up to their origin from the supreme Buddhist teachings."
Gu Qingfeng tilted his head back and drank. "They've left me now feeling utterly empty in all four aspects, almost as if I want to renounce the world, become a monk, and enter the gate of emptiness."
Gu Qingfeng pondered that continuing like this wasn't a solution. Even if he didn't enter the gate of emptiness in the future, his spirit would surely develop problems.
Before, he had never been able to understand why those old-timers who had cultivated for who knows how many years all seemed a bit abnormal in spirit—some were mystical and cryptic, others were crazy and eccentric, and some were foolish and dull.
Now he somewhat understood and could empathize.
Those old-timers must have also grown more lost and more adrift the longer they lived.
Once a person loses their pursuits, they start to overthink, pondering the meaning of life, the true essence of existence, and all sorts of other messy questions.
Once you start overthinking, it's easy to develop obsessions.
Once obsessions arise, you're not far from Qi deviation.
Although Gu Qingfeng felt that living was meaningless, he also didn't want to become crazy and eccentric in the future. He said, "Looks like I need to quickly find something to do. Otherwise, continuing like this will inevitably lead to problems sooner or later."