Gu Qingfeng slept for a solid ten days to half a month. When he awoke, the Xuantian Great Vessel had already departed from the Golden Sun Celestial Domain and entered another one. The next celestial domain would be the Brocade Net Celestial Domain. The speed was considerably faster than he had imagined.
After waking, Gu Qingfeng first went to soak in a hot spring and take a bath. With nothing better to do, he began strolling around the Xuantian Great Vessel.
The great vessel had many maidservants and menial laborers.
Like Gu Qingfeng, they were all worldly mortals.
The difference was that Gu Qingfeng possessed no cultivation, while they all had some level of cultivation, some of which seemed quite decent.
In the Present-Ancient Era, all things had revived. Spiritual energy was abundant, rich, and pure. Moreover, with the Immortal Courts established by the Nine Heavens across the myriad realms, cultivation sects in the mortal world were countless.
One could say that for mortals in the mortal world today, cultivating was not the least bit difficult. Far from it, it was actually very easy. One could simply join any cultivation sect in the mortal world.
However,
there were also many young people with dreams who wanted to try their luck in the Great Desolate. After all, the Great Desolate was filled with high-level Immortals. If they were lucky enough to be noticed by an Immortal, entering an Immortal realm to cultivate would give them a much higher starting point than joining a mortal world sect. Even receiving a few pointers from an Immortal would be of immense benefit.
In the Present-Ancient Era, the number of worldly mortals wandering the Great Desolate was beyond count. Among them were also experts who had made a name for themselves and risen to prominence, such as the famous Ten Directions Human Kings, Thousand Reversals Star Lords, and the Glazed Flame Immortal King, among others.
Like many worldly mortals, they had come to the Great Desolate with dreams, starting from the lowest positions as menial laborers or maidservants. They had endured countless hardships along the way until they ascended to the thrones of Great Dao Star Lords, their might shaking the various celestial domains.
Of course,
those who could rise to prominence were ultimately a minority. Most young dreamers wandered the Great Desolate for a long time, not only failing to make a name for themselves but even failing to secure a foothold. Some even paid with their lives for it.
After strolling around the Xuantian Great Vessel for a while, Gu Qingfeng felt somewhat stifled and made his way to the vessel's deck.
To say the deck of the Xuantian Great Vessel was large was an understatement. Gazing out, it looked like a vast plaza.
The deck also had many exquisite tables and chairs. Small groups of people gathered together, drinking and chatting while admiring the boundless expanse of the Great Desolate, truly a picture of carefree delight.
Gu Qingfeng casually found a seat and sat down. As he took out fine wine and sipped slowly, thoughts of the Original Sin Nightmare involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
Previously, in the Great Dao Cemetery, he had discovered that the tombs of all the various Daos were there, except for the Human Dao. Gu Qingfeng had already realized then that the Wu Dao Age might be related to the Human Dao. Recalling his master Zhenjue's teachings about human nature, combined with the phenomenon of All Beings' Floating Tu Myriad Forms Paying Homage that he himself had gestated, Gu Qingfeng was now basically certain that the so-called Wu Dao Age was not truly without Dao, but an age with only the Human Dao.
Back when he had gestated the phenomenon of All Beings' Floating Tu Myriad Forms Paying Homage, he had been puzzled. Why would the myriad forms of existence—Immortals, Buddhas, Demons, Monsters, Ghosts, and the like—pay homage to him?
Now Gu Qingfeng understood. They weren't paying homage to him, but to the Human Dao. More precisely, they were likely paying homage to Wu Dao Daozun.
In other words, in the so-called Wu Dao Age, the Human Dao was the absolute sovereign, just as the Heavenly Dao was the hegemon in the Present-Ancient Era, with Immortals, Buddhas, Demons, Monsters, and Ghosts paying homage to the Heavenly Dao.
And Wu Dao Daozun of the Wu Dao Age was like the present-day Lord of Heaven, ruling and dominating Heaven and Earth.
If this were truly the case,
then Wu Dao Daozun would not be the 'Daozun of No Dao', but the Daozun of the Human Dao. Perhaps it should be said he was the hegemon who ruled the Source of the Human Dao!
Suddenly,
Gu Qingfeng remembered another time back in the mortal world when he had also gestated an incarnation of a Human Dao taboo: Ascending to the Azure Heavens, Descending to the Yellow Springs.
If the Wu Dao Age was truly the Human Dao Age,
then a creation like Ascending to the Azure Heavens, Descending to the Yellow Springs was probably not merely an incarnation of a Human Dao taboo. It might very well be an incarnation of Original Sin.
Thinking of this,
Gu Qingfeng couldn't help but feel a creeping dread upon deeper reflection.
In his mind, if everything was truly as he guessed—if Wu Dao meant Human Dao—then that meant he had already become an incarnation of Original Sin long ago, only he had been completely unaware of it back then.
He hadn't understood before.
He hadn't understood how a single drop of Original Sin blood could gestate an Original Sin person.
For a time, he had also been troubled over whether he was even human, or if he had parents?
Looking at it now,
there was nothing to be troubled about.
Wu Dao was Human Dao, and Wu Dao Daozun was the Daozun of the Human Dao. A drop of blood from the Daozun of the Human Dao could, of course, gestate a person.
There was just one point he still couldn't quite figure out. What exactly had happened during that Wu Dao Age back then? What scheme had Wu Dao Daozun carried out? Why did the perfectly fine Human Dao become entangled with Original Sin? Was the extraction of the Human Dao's three souls by Heaven, Earth, and Fate also related to Original Sin?
Gu Qingfeng didn't know, and he couldn't imagine.
He pondered that if he wanted to clarify this issue, he would first have to find the Source of the Human Dao.
Once he found the Source of the Human Dao, all the secrets of the Wu Dao Age would be revealed to the world.
But where should he go to find this Source of the Human Dao?
Since the Primordial Era, the Source of the Human Dao had vanished without a trace. Through the Ancient Era, the Archaic Era, and up to the Present-Ancient Era, it had never appeared, not even once. Where could one possibly look for it?
The only thing certain was that the Source of the Human Dao still existed to this day. If it had long since turned to ashes, there wouldn't be so many living beings across the myriad realms.
The Source of the Human Dao was probably hidden somewhere now.
Suddenly,
Gu Qingfeng thought of Wu Dao Daozun again.
If this lord was truly the hegemon who ruled the Human Dao in the Wu Dao Age, then he must know the whereabouts of the Source of the Human Dao. There was even a possibility that the Source of the Human Dao was hidden by this lord before he disappeared.
And before this lord disappeared, he had transformed into three thousand Illusory Selves.
He himself was one of them.
Gu Qingfeng pondered that if he could find his True Illusory Self, even if he didn't become the Wu Dao Daozun of the Wu Dao Age, he would become the Wu Dao Daozun of the Present-Ancient Era. And perhaps only by becoming Wu Dao Daozun could he discover the whereabouts of the Source of the Human Dao.
The problem was, once he found his True Illusory Self, he would also achieve the True Body of Original Sin.
The two were mutually dependent.
Although the Old Monk had said that Illusion was Original Sin, but Original Sin was not Illusion.
Gu Qingfeng felt that the so-called Illusion was Original Sin, and Original Sin was Illusion. The two were fundamentally inseparable.
Whether it was true or not,
after twisting and turning, going around in a big circle, he still couldn't escape those four words: Illusion and Original Sin.
Since his profound awakening from self-confusion, Gu Qingfeng had grown much more indifferent towards the words 'Illusion' and 'Original Sin'. He didn't care about resisting or accepting them. He neither resisted nor accepted. Everything followed fate, everything followed its natural course.