Amidst the crowd's cheers and applause, Mo Baiyu departed from the deck.
Following this, the assembled Immortals also dispersed one after another. Shangguan Dong cast a glance at the Old Daoist, then at Gu Qingfeng, and finally at Yunyan Xianzi before letting out a disdainful snort and leaving as well.
Gu Qingfeng continued to drink with Yunyan Xianzi, Yi Shangxing, and the Old Daoist, chatting idly about heaven and earth.
He could see, and he knew, that Yunyan Xianzi was a Demon Monarch.
As for that handsome youth named Yi Shangxing, he was a Child of Monster-Demon.
The so-called Child of Monster-Demon, as the name implies, is the offspring born from the union of a Demon and a Monster.
Demons and Monsters generally do not bear offspring.
As for the reason, it seems to be related to an ancient legend and an ancient curse.
The story goes that a long, long time ago, the progenitor who mastered the Monster Dao origin and the progenitor who mastered the Monster Dao origin once had a past together, and they even conceived a child—also a Child of Monster-Demon.
However, this Child of Monster-Demon not only possessed terrifying innate power but also harbored immense ambition. His temperament was cold and ruthless, savage and violent.
In the end, he not only seized the two great origins of the Monster Dao and Monster Dao from the two progenitors but also attempted to fuse these two great origins together. Not only that, he even sought to exterminate the entire Demon and Monster races, planning to create a single great Demon-Monster race after merging the two origins.
To ensure the survival of the two great races, the two progenitors could only reluctantly erase the Child of Monster-Demon.
And to prevent future generations from repeating their mistake, the two progenitors jointly swore a heavenly oath—a curse—explicitly forbidding marriage between the Monster Dao and Monster Dao. Even if such a union occurred, it would be impossible to conceive offspring.
Apart from this old, hackneyed legendary tale, Gu Qingfeng had also heard another version.
It was also an ancient legend and an ancient curse.
The difference was that this was not a story about the two Demon and Monster progenitors sacrificing their kin and painfully killing their own child.
On the contrary, it was a legend about the Child of Monster-Demon defying fate to change the destinies of the two great Demon and Monster races.
The existence of Demons is formed from the condensation of turbid energy.
Monsters, on the other hand, are beasts that absorb turbid energy to cultivate.
Turbid energy is the ultimate yin of heaven and earth.
In other words, whether Demon or Monster, they are both yin spirits.
Since ancient times, only yin and yang can generate each other. Yang and yang, yin and yin cannot generate life—just as a union between two women or two men cannot produce offspring.
However, nothing in the affairs of heaven and earth is absolute.
Yet, in history, there just happened to be a pair of Demon and Monster who, after uniting, gave birth to a Child of Monster-Demon.
This Child of Monster-Demon was also immensely powerful from a young age, possessing extremely terrifying strength. Unlike the previous legend, this Child of Monster-Demon did not harbor delusions of merging the two great origins of Demon and Monster, nor did he maniacally slaughter the two great races to create a single Demon-Monster race.
Not only did he not do these things, he instead led the two great Demon and Monster races to conquer the myriad realms of the heavens, expanding territories. It is said he even conquered the Immortal Dao and dominated the Great Desolate Heaven and Earth. However, it is also said that during his conquests of the myriad realms, he caused untold suffering among living beings, with rivers of blood flowing, committing heinous sins.
In the end, he was judged by Heaven and Earth…
From then on, a new legend spread throughout the world.
If a Demon and Monster ever conceive a child, that Child of Monster-Demon may be a great calamity star and a great scourge upon the world.
Actually, what great calamity star, what great scourge—it's all nonsense.
Others might not understand, but Gu Qingfeng had some insight.
In this world, any existence that threatens the Immortals, Buddhas, or even Heaven and Earth itself is considered a calamity star and a scourge in their eyes.
This is a consistent tactic and trick of the Immortals, Buddhas, and Heaven and Earth.
For uncontrollable, unknown variables, the various Great Daos always like to pin the label of 'calamity star' on them.
He himself was one of the victims.
And Demons and Monsters are both formed from turbid, ultimate yin energy. They inherently cannot generate life together. If they were to conceive a Child of Monster-Demon, that child would inevitably be a variable. Even if not a variable, for the various Great Daos, it would absolutely be an uncontrollable, unknown existence.
As for why this Child of Monster-Demon named Yi Shangxing was on this great ship, he didn't know, couldn't be bothered to think about it, and didn't care.
Compared to a Demon Monarch like Yunyan Xianzi and a Child of Monster-Demon like Yi Shangxing, Gu Qingfeng was actually a bit more interested in this Old Daoist who looked unkempt and slovenly.
The existence of Daoists, whether in the Current Era, the Ancient Era, or even the Primordial Era, has always been exceedingly rare.
In his lifetime, Gu Qingfeng hadn't seen many Daoists either; he could count them on one hand.
And in his memory, every Daoist he had encountered was, without exception, rather peculiar.
Say they were Immortals? Not quite. Say they weren't Immortals? Yet they were.
Say they were Humans? Not quite. Say they weren't Human? Yet, damn it, they were.
Immortal yet not Immortal, Human yet not Human—that was the feeling.
As to whether Daoists belonged to the Immortal Dao or the Human Dao, Gu Qingfeng had never been able to figure it out. It felt like Daoists didn't belong to any Great Dao, yet also seemed to belong to all Great Daos.
He had once encountered a Daoist in the Great Desolate, and the two had a decent relationship.
Gu Qingfeng had also asked that Daoist a question: What exactly is a Daoist?
To this day, he still clearly remembered the Daoist's response: "One who walks the Great Dao is called a Daoist. Body and mind follow principle, devoted solely to the Dao. Taking the Dao as their affair, hence they are called Daoists."
Back then, Gu Qingfeng hadn't understood. Now, pondering these words carefully, he felt he understood a bit more.
He reckoned that the existence of so-called Daoists should be traced back to a very, very long time ago, perhaps before the Primordial Era, even before the Era of No-Dao, back to the Primordial Era.
Because only in the Primordial Era was the Dao purely the Dao, not divided into Immortals, Buddhas, or Humans, nor into Demons, Monsters, Ghosts, or Fiends.
In that era, cultivation cultivated the heart, and one walked the Dao. Hence they were called cultivators of the Dao, also known as Daoists.
Of course, this was just Gu Qingfeng's own speculation. Whether Daoists truly originated from the Primordial Era, he really didn't know.
After all, the Primordial Era was a mythical era, utterly beyond his reach.
And regarding things passed down from the Primordial Era, apart from some myths and legends, only a few mythical tales remained.
This Old Daoist before him styled himself as a Daoist. Gu Qingfeng looked at him and found him quite similar to the Daoists in his memory. The only thing that made Gu Qingfeng curious and puzzled was that he sensed the Old Daoist seemed to be a Wu Dao person.
That's right.
Only a Wu Dao person, not an Original Sin person.
All Original Sin people are Wu Dao people, but not all Wu Dao people are Original Sin people.
He just didn't know whether this Old Daoist was someone who had survived from the Era of No-Dao, or whether he had some karmic connection to that era.
If it were only this, it wouldn't be enough to puzzle Gu Qingfeng so.
But he also sensed a rather familiar feeling from the Old Daoist.
As if they had met before.
He couldn't figure out whether this sense of familiarity was because the Old Daoist's existence was related to the Era of No-Dao, or if there was some other reason.