"Nonsense! Forget the Saintess Empress, even I want to kill you right now."
Huode glared at Gu Qingfeng with utter disdain. "The Saintess Empress was utterly devoted to you! She searched for you across the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, and what about you, you brat? You're here living it up all by yourself! And even more shamelessly, you're actually seducing that Demon Monarch, and even... even playing around with her! I say, Gu kid, can you be any more shameless?"
"Get lost! I've never formed a Dao Companion with anyone in my life. I'll seduce whoever I like, and I'll have fun with whoever I please. Not even the Heavenly King himself can tell me what to do."
"But the Saintess Empress was so devoted to you, and besides..." Gu Qingfeng waved his hand, cutting Huode off. "I've said it before. If you don't understand some of these matters, don't go shouting about them."
"How could I not understand? Isn't it just that the Saintess Empress is the one destined to bear the True Mandate in the Present-Ancient Era, and you, you brat, are that damn Original Sin person?"
"Oh?" Gu Qingfeng laughed. "Not bad. You even know about that?"
"I say, Gu kid, don't look down on people, alright?" Huode tilted his head back and took a swig of Little Tipple. "Back in the Mortal Realm, I admit I didn't understand anything and hadn't seen much of the world. But I've been roaming the Great Desolate for ten thousand years now, I've ventured into various Great Daos. I wouldn't dare call myself experienced or knowledgeable, but at least I'm not as ignorant as I used to be."
As he spoke, Huode added with a touch of pride, "I even know a thing or two about the Wu Dao Age."
"Give you an inch, and you take a mile, you old codger." Gu Qingfeng ate a spirit fruit, chuckling. "Speaking of the Wu Dao Age, there's something I want to ask you. How on earth did you, an old fellow like you, get involved with the Wu Dao Age?"
"Damn it! Don't even mention it. Just thinking about it fills me with rage. It's all your damn fault!"
"What the hell does it have to do with me?"
"If you hadn't reforged my physical body back then, how would I have gotten entangled in the karma of the Wu Dao Age?"
"I say, Huode, let's not be ungrateful and spout nonsense, alright?" Gu Qingfeng said. "I reforged your body for your own good. Besides, even with all my abilities, I'm not powerful enough to alter someone else's karma."
"I can't really explain exactly what happened. All I know is that after you reforged my body, my consciousness has been in a state of chaos ever since. And then... for some reason, I started dreaming about my previous life."
"Dreaming about your previous life?" Gu Qingfeng was puzzled. "What's going on?"
"As for what's going on, I don't really understand it either." Huode scratched his head, drinking as he spoke. "My previous life seems to have been from the Wu Dao Age, and..."
"And what?"
"No, I can't say. If I tell you, you'll just laugh at me again."
"Why would I laugh at you? Go on, what about your previous life?"
"You better not laugh at me."
"Fine."
"I've been thinking... my previous life might have had a bit of a problem here." Huode pointed to his own head. "A bit crazy, not quite right in the head. And... how should I put it? Now I'm starting to feel like my own mind isn't quite right either... I've been having more and more dreams, dreaming about my previous life more and more often. Sometimes, I can't even tell the difference between my previous life and my current one."
"That's actually quite normal."
"This is damn normal?"
"It's not just you. I reckon anyone with karma tied to the Wu Dao Age will gradually start to lose the distinction between past and present lives. That includes me as well."
"You too?"
"My situation is much more severe than yours, old man. You can't tell past from present. A while back, I didn't even know who I was. I was lost in myself for a time."
"And now?"
"Much better now."
"So you've transcended the self?"
"You could say that."
"What do you mean, 'you could say that'?"
Gu Qingfeng shook his head. "It's not something that can be explained in a few words."
"True." Huode nodded as if he deeply understood.
Not wanting to dwell on the topic, Gu Qingfeng asked, "But how did you, an old fellow like you, end up becoming a Daoist?"
"Don't ask me, I can't explain it either. Ever since I started dreaming about my previous life, as I cultivated, I just... ended up like this. Cultivated into this neither-fish-nor-fowl state. I'm in the Human Dao, yet also in the Immortal Dao. And yet, it seems I'm neither in the Human Dao nor the Immortal Dao. I've cultivated myself into a state of confusion. I don't know if I'm Human, Immortal, or some damn thing else." Huode said. "I reckon my previous life was a Daoist, so... in this life, I just went back to my old trade. To be honest, walking this path now feels quite smooth. I can casually perform all sorts of divine abilities, sometimes even have sudden enlightenments about certain techniques. It's really not bad. Of course, compared to you, my little skills are nothing."
Huode looked Gu Qingfeng up and down, sighing in amazement. "Damn it, I just don't get it."
"What don't you get?"
"Back in the Mortal Realm, when I couldn't see through you, that was one thing. But how the hell is it that now, even with a bit of skill of my own, I still can't see through you? Just how unfathomably profound are you, you brat?"
Truth be told, Huode didn't want to compare himself to Gu Qingfeng.
Because back in the Mortal Realm, he had already learned from Gu Qingfeng what true disparity meant.
Back when Gu Qingfeng was still wandering beneath the Crimson Flame Ridge, just trying to get a decent meal, Huode was already a fairly renowned Golden Core expert.
Gu Qingfeng joined the Yunxia Sect, left, and then returned. In just a few years, not only had his cultivation surpassed Huode's, but he had also obtained several great fortunes.
After that, it was even more unbelievable. Gu Qingfeng advanced against all odds, even in the Mortal Realm he had ascended to the peerless throne of Immortal and Demon, and later even destroyed the Immortal Dynasty and defied the Nine Heavens.
After the end of the Ancient Era, when Gu Qingfeng returned to the Great Northwest, not only had his Immortal-Demon throne been taken, but his cultivation was also completely lost.
At the time, Huode had asked what Gu Qingfeng had been up to in the Great Desolate after leaving the Mortal Realm. Gu Qingfeng had said he did nothing, just wandered around the Great Desolate, got homesick, and came back for a visit.
Huode knew Gu Qingfeng.
He knew what kind of person Gu Qingfeng was, and he was even more certain that with Gu Qingfeng's temperament, it was impossible he had just 'wandered around' the Great Desolate.
He was well aware that this kid must have stirred up some major trouble in the Great Desolate to have incurred Heaven's punishment.
It wasn't until Huode left the Mortal Realm and began roaming the Great Desolate himself that he learned Gu Qingfeng had not only ascended to the peerless Immortal-Demon throne but had also, damn it all, ascended to become the Nine Nethers Emperor. Only then did he realize he had underestimated Gu Qingfeng's temperament. The deeds this kid had pulled off in the Great Desolate back then weren't just 'major trouble'—he had damn near burned down the Nine Heavens with a single flame, had single-handedly challenged the Three Thousand Great Daos, and had even, with a single slash, cleaved a rift right through the Great Desolate.