Gu Qingfeng loved wine, and was addicted to it.
He had once drunk all the fine wines from the vast Great Desolate, the heavens above and the earth below, and the endless worlds.
If asked what wine in this world was the strongest and hardest to swallow, Gu Qingfeng would answer with four words: Mortal Past.
That's right.
In his view, the wine called Mortal Past was the strongest, the hardest to swallow, and the easiest to get drunk on.
This wine did not intoxicate the person, only the heart.
Gu Qingfeng lay reclined on the chair, legs crossed, eyes slightly closed, toying with the stone pendant in his hand, saying nothing.
And Feiyue stood beside him, also not speaking further, just standing there quietly.
She was Ouyang Ye's aunt.
Even though Ouyang Ye's past life memories had long since awakened, and she was now the Lady of Nature, Yun Nishang, she still regarded Feiyue as her aunt.
Regarding the mortal past between Yun Nishang's two lives and Gu Qingfeng, she knew all about it. Not only did she know, she had even heard Yun Nishang recount in detail every bit of that year.
Therefore.
She also knew the entire story behind this stone pendant.
Precisely because she knew, she chose to remain silent.
After a long while.
Gu Qingfeng opened his eyes, tilted his head back, and drained the wine in his cup in one gulp.
The wine was the Hell Impermanence Wine gifted by the Unending Demon Emperor, Ren Tianxing.
However.
When Gu Qingfeng raised the cup, this Hell Impermanence Wine was no longer Hell Impermanence Wine, but a cup of wine infused with Mortal Past.
In the past, whenever Gu Qingfeng finished a cup of wine, he would continue to pour another.
But this time, after draining the cup, he felt an indescribable sensation in his heart. He looked at the utterly empty cup, turned it upside down and shook it, but nothing came out, not even a single drop.
"Did she only ask you to give this thing back to me?
Did she say anything?"
Feiyue shook her head and said, "Yeye only asked me to return this stone pendant to you. As for the rest...
she said nothing at all."
"Oh, it's good she didn't say anything."
Gu Qingfeng murmured, "It's good she didn't say anything..." Gu Qingfeng stood up, poured two cups of wine, and said, "If you see her again in the future, please relay a message to her for me."
"What message?"
Gu Qingfeng handed one of the cups of wine to Feiyue, while he picked up the other himself, saying, "One lifetime's love begins karma, on the path of fate do not look back. Mortal past is but a cup of wine, drink down love, hate, affection, and enmity. Toasting her years without ripples, toasting my remaining life without sorrow or joy."
Having said that.
Gu Qingfeng drained the wine in his cup.
Feiyue opened her mouth as if to speak, but then stopped herself. She looked down at the cup of wine in her hand, then at Gu Qingfeng. Placing the wine in her hand on the table, she said, "This message...
I cannot relay it for you."
"Why not?"
"No reason. You...
should tell her yourself when you see her in the future."
"I don't know if I'll ever see her again."
"I believe you will definitely see Yeye again."
"Alright, if that's the case, then forget it."
Gu Qingfeng looked at the stone pendant in his hand and smiled, "There is one thing I'm quite puzzled about. She asked you to return this thing to me, which means she knew I would definitely come to Yunxia Sect?"
"Perhaps."
"The Lady of Nature truly lives up to her title, foreseeing events with divine accuracy."
Gu Qingfeng sighed while drinking his wine, "I, your lord, merely slept for ten thousand years. After waking up, every single one of them has become a damned fortune-telling divine crone."
"Since the stone pendant has been returned to you, I...
should take my leave. You...
please continue your rest. I won't disturb you further."
"Leaving so soon?
Won't you stay for a couple more drinks and chat?"
"No."
"Alright, then you may go."
Feiyue gave a slight bow, paid her respects, then turned and left, leaving only the vast garden and Gu Qingfeng alone once more, drinking fine wine in solitude.
Looking at the stone pendant in his hand, Gu Qingfeng couldn't help but fall into contemplation.
It wasn't because he was feeling melancholic, nor was he sighing with emotion, nor was he reminiscing.
Although Hongxiu was the first woman he had ever developed feelings for in this life, ever since learning that Hongxiu was the reincarnation of Yun Nishang, Gu Qingfeng had long since grown indifferent to that past relationship and held no lingering attachment.
He stared at the stone pendant lost in thought because he remembered something.
That was, why did he wear this stone pendant around his neck when he was little? Who exactly left it for him?
Could it be his biological parents?
Regarding his biological parents, Gu Qingfeng had not the slightest impression. He had once inquired everywhere for news of his birth parents, but to no avail. No one knew who his birth parents were. According to the common folk at the foot of Chiyan Ridge back then, when they discovered him on Chiyan Ridge, he was already wandering all over the ridge.
Moreover, Gu Qingfeng's earliest memories were of himself wandering on Chiyan Ridge, eating wild fruits when hungry, spending his days with a lone wolf as companion, scrambling up and down Chiyan Ridge.
Gu Qingfeng pondered: even if he was born from the blood of Original Sin, he should still have biological parents, right? He couldn't have just sprung out from a crack in a stone, could he?
What's more, that Bai Chou was the same as him, both nurtured from the same drop of Original Sin blood, and she had biological parents. It was impossible for him not to have any.
Why did he have no impression whatsoever of his biological parents?
Gu Qingfeng looked at the stone pendant in his hand again, wondering if this thing might have been left for him by his birth parents.
If so.
Why was this stone inscribed with precisely the character 'Gu'?
What meaning lay behind this character 'Gu'?
Could it be that he was abandoned by his birth parents on Chiyan Ridge?
Gu Qingfeng clearly remembered that when he was wandering on Chiyan Ridge, he was at most three or four years old. What about the memories before those three or four years?
Why was there not a single trace of them?
Even if he was abandoned by his birth parents, he should still have memories from before, right?
And how did he even come to Chiyan Ridge?
Why specifically Chiyan Ridge?
In the past, Gu Qingfeng hadn't thought carefully about this matter. Now thinking about it, he felt his origins seemed to carry a sinister air, somewhat mysterious and elusive.
The more Gu Qingfeng thought about it, the more something felt off. The more he pondered, the more this matter seemed steeped in strangeness.
However.
After thinking for a long time without reaching any conclusion, he simply stopped dwelling on it.
The Gu Qingfeng of today had already grown very open-minded and indifferent towards many things. Be it karma, fate, Original Sin, delusion, or anything else, it was all the same. His origins were no exception.
Now, towards anything and everything, he did not take initiative, did not force matters. He let everything follow fate, letting nature take its course.
Suddenly.
Another person hurriedly rushed into the garden.
It was none other than Huode.
"Good heavens, kid Gu, you're too damn good at sleeping! You slept for a good half a month before finally waking up!"
Seeing Huode's flustered appearance, Gu Qingfeng said indifferently, "What?
Has the sky fallen?"
"The sky hasn't fallen, but it's about to."