With wisdom comes confusion; distinguishing self from other, a hundred kinds of yang, a hundred kinds of yin, transform into the harmony of heaven and earth.
Seeing neither good nor evil, only cause and effect remain; a thousand saints, a thousand demons, let others say what they will.
Gu Qingfeng had been traveling continuously through the Great Desolate for a long time, and both his mind and body were utterly exhausted. He had originally intended to take this opportunity to sleep soundly on the Xuantian Great Ship, but no sooner had he fallen asleep than he was once again drawn into the Illusory Land by that voice, both familiar and strange.
The Illusory Land was still shrouded in heavy mist, shifting and changing, ethereal and elusive.
This was clearly not just the Illusory Land; it was also the Original Sin Nightmare.
Since it was a nightmare,
Gu Qingfeng knew he wouldn't be able to leave for a while.
However,
he did not wander aimlessly or explore within the Original Sin Nightmare as he had in the past.
The reason was simple.
He simply couldn't be bothered to move.
Even within the nightmare, he couldn't be bothered to move.
He just floated there amidst the mist-shrouded Original Sin Nightmare, as if asleep within a dream, or perhaps more like he had merged with the nightmare itself, shifting and changing along with it.
He didn't know how long he had floated, nor how long things had shifted and changed.
Suddenly.
Gu Qingfeng felt something was amiss. When he came to his senses, he found himself in a strange place.
Here, there was still no Azure Heaven, nor any Great Earth.
It was similarly wreathed in mist.
What differed from the Illusory Land was that this place was not empty. There were many, many mountains, countless, one pressed against another, everywhere. And atop each mountain was a peak, which at first glance looked like grave mounds.
No!
These *were* graves.
The mountains were graves, the peaks were tombstones. Carved upon the tombstones were inscriptions: 'Tomb of the Immortal Dao', 'Tomb of the Demonic Dao', 'Tomb of the Witchcraft Dao', 'Tomb of the Buddhist Dao', and so on.
This was the Great Dao Graveyard.
Gu Qingfeng had been here once before.
He clearly remembered that within the Great Dao Graveyard, there was also a mysterious old man who called himself the Gravekeeper.
Gu Qingfeng looked around. Sure enough, upon one of the Great Dao graves, he saw an old man holding a broom, sweeping fallen leaves from the grave.
Last time, when Gu Qingfeng had inexplicably intruded, the mysterious old man had been indifferent, not even lifting his head. This time, with Gu Qingfeng's return, the mysterious old man remained just as indifferent, similarly not lifting his head or even glancing over, as if he were completely unaware of anyone's intrusion.
"Old Senior, we meet again. I trust you've been well."
Gu Qingfeng walked over and greeted the mysterious old man.
"Thank you for your concern, young friend. This old one is quite well."
The old man asked softly and calmly, "And I wonder if the young friend is also well?"
"Me? Same as always. Drinking a little wine every day, basking in the sun. Life's passable."
"To live in this world, one should be as carefree and happy as you, young friend. Otherwise, one lives in vain as a human."
The mysterious old man had not once looked up at Gu Qingfeng from beginning to end, diligently sweeping the fallen leaves from the grave.
"Is that so?
I think so too, hahaha!"
Gu Qingfeng joked, "How about it? Come out for a stroll with me. I'll treat you to a couple of drinks."
"Thank you, young friend. Unfortunately, this old one cannot leave."
"Why can't you leave?"
"As the Gravekeeper, this old one must naturally guard these Great Dao graves."
"What's there to guard in this broken place? It's not like anyone would come here to rob graves, would they?"
"Grave robbers, no. But there are many who come to seize graves."
"Seize graves?
Seize what?"
Gu Qingfeng looked at the rows of tombstones and said, "Don't tell me these graves really contain the origins of the Great Daos."
"When the young friend came to this place last time, this old one said that what is buried within these graves is both the essence and the root of the Great Daos, their foundation and their heart, and even their very source!"
"Really?"
Last time he was here, Gu Qingfeng had secretly tried to probe these tombstones. Unfortunately, he couldn't discern anything. It wasn't that he couldn't probe them, but rather that these Great Dao graves felt to him like light—visible but intangible. They were just like the people from the Wu Dao Age he had encountered: ethereal, a mix of truth and falsehood, reality and illusion.
Like Jun Xuanji.
Can Yang Wu You.
Including the mysterious Gravekeeper before him now.
"Young friend, do not waste your efforts. You cannot see through these Great Dao graves, nor can you probe them."
"Why not?"
"Although the young friend's state of mind is remarkable, having transcended all and even transcended the self, you are, after all, not a person of the Wu Dao Age. In the end, you cannot see through these Great Dao graves."
The mysterious old man sighed, "This old one has said that the Wu Dao Age is a cursed era, an era of error and chaos, an era where cause and effect are inverted, an era that should not have existed. Everything from this era should not exist. Its people are thus, and so are these Great Dao graves. How can the young friend see through things that should not have existed in the first place? How could you probe them out?"
"Listening to you, Old Senior, it sounds quite reasonable."
Gu Qingfeng pondered for a moment, then asked, "However, although I am not from the Wu Dao Age, I have a very, very deep connection to it."
"It is merely a connection. No matter how deep, a connection is just a connection."
"You say I have such a deep connection to the Wu Dao Age. In the future, might I become a person of the Wu Dao Age?"
"That question, young friend, you should not ask this old one."
"Then who should I ask?"
"Ask yourself."
"Ha."
Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng laughed, then sighed with emotion, "I've figured it out. You people from the Wu Dao Age... either you're lost, mentally unsound, acting crazy and deranged, speaking half a sentence and forgetting the other half; or those who are mentally sound and not crazy pretend to be confused, speaking half and hiding the other half."
"The young friend is a variable, and moreover, the most mysterious and unknown variable between heaven and earth in the Present-Ancient Era."
The mysterious old man's voice was flat, devoid of any emotional color. "Any decision you make, any choice, even a single thought, could have unimaginable consequences for the Great Daos of heaven and earth, for all living beings, and even for the past and future."
He paused, then continued, "Given this, who would dare tell you too much? No one dares. If telling you too much influences your decisions, who could bear the responsibility for that? No one dares, and no one can bear it."
"So after all that talk, it turns out you esteemed gentlemen from the Wu Dao Age are all afraid of taking responsibility."
Gu Qingfeng gave a faint smile and joked, "It seems this black cauldron of the Present-Ancient Era's great calamity, I'll have to carry it whether I want to or not, right?"
"Young friend, that is not a joke to be made."