Looking at Jun Xuanji here, for some reason, Gu Qingfeng felt very uncomfortable in his heart.
Perhaps it was guilt, or perhaps it was self-blame.
Gu Qingfeng always felt that he was the one who had harmed Jun Xuanji like this. If he hadn't teased her back then, there wouldn't have been the later love and hatred. If he hadn't been so heartless to her back then, Jun Xuanji might not have fallen into demonhood, nor would she have lost herself...
Even to this day, Gu Qingfeng still didn't know whether Jun Xuanji's claim of having feelings for him back then was true or false, or if she had another purpose.
But in his heart, he still felt very sorry for Jun Xuanji.
"Don't feel guilty...
And don't...
Blame yourself."
After finishing a jar of Hell Impermanence Wine, Jun Xuanji gazed at Gu Qingfeng and said softly, "It was me...
Who chose to lose myself...
It has nothing...
To do with you."
"Don't...
Have emotions, don't have any emotions at all...
Because emotions...
Will become your shackles."
"If a person doesn't even have the seven emotions and six desires,"
Gu Qingfeng said lightly, "then what's the point of living?
What difference is there from a walking corpse?"
"Having the seven emotions and six desires...
Means having shackles, and having shackles...
Makes it easy to...
Have karma grafted..." Jun Xuanji's dazed and bewildered eyes stared into Gu Qingfeng's dark eyes as she said distractedly, "Back then...
I...
Perhaps...
Was precisely to graft karma with you..."
"Heh!"
Gu Qingfeng laughed. "Even if you were grafting karma, I accept it."
"Why?"
"At the very least, you brought me a very complicated memory, didn't you?
Otherwise, wouldn't my life be too monotonous and dull!"
Gu Qingfeng jumped down from the plum blossom tree, stretched lazily, and looked at the faintly visible full moon in the night sky. "What's more, having karma grafted by a great beauty like you is also my honor."
"One day...
You will regret it..."
"Which day is 'one day'?"
Gu Qingfeng squatted down and picked up a few plum blossom petals. "I've always lived in the present. As for things in the future, sorry, I can't be bothered to think about them."
"You...
Have you really decided to continue trying to escape the Original Sin?"
"What else can I do?"
Gu Qingfeng toyed with a few plum blossom petals, shaking his head. "I've already fallen into the abyss of Original Sin. There's simply no other path to take. The only way is to climb upward, to climb out the same way I fell in."
"But...
Have you ever considered...
A very terrifying question: if you want...
To escape the Original Sin, you must understand the Original Sin...
And...
When you truly understand what the Original Sin is, it means...
You have already completely fallen into it...
And can never...
Climb out again..."
"There's an old saying, I don't know if you've heard it."
Gu Qingfeng responded, "To be reborn after being placed in a deadly situation; without destruction, there is no establishment; after destruction comes establishment. If I want to escape the Original Sin, I must figure out what the true Original Sin is. As for whether I can establish myself anew after understanding the true Original Sin..." He paused before continuing, "Let fate decide. It can only be left to fate. Regardless of the outcome, I have to give it my all, take a gamble. Life is a gamble anyway. What if I win this bet? Even if I ultimately lose the bet, then so be it. At the very least, I tried my hardest, I won't regret it, I'll have no regrets. That's enough. It's also giving my own heart an answer."
Looking at Gu Qingfeng, Jun Xuanji shook her head slightly. "You can't win...
You will definitely lose."
"I say, sister, I haven't even placed my bet yet, and you're already predicting my doom?
What?
Do you have so little confidence in me?"
"When you...
Decided to try to escape the Original Sin, you had already lost..."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Because when you...
Truly understand the Original Sin, you will...
Discover...
That you yourself have already become the Original Sin...
If you yourself become the Original Sin...
How can you escape the Original Sin?
Can you...
Escape from yourself?"
Hearing this.
Gu Qingfeng stopped toying with the plum blossom petals, casually crushing them and scattering them on the ground. He stared at Jun Xuanji. "Why are you so certain that truly understanding the Original Sin means one will definitely become the Original Sin?"
"The one...
Standing before you...
Is the Original Sin."
When Jun Xuanji said these words, Gu Qingfeng wasn't particularly surprised in his heart, because he had already guessed it. He said, "In order to escape the Original Sin, you also sought to understand it, but later discovered you had already become the Original Sin...
So, you chose to bury your own soul, to bury the self that had become the Original Sin, right?"
"Perhaps yes, perhaps not...
I...
Have forgotten..."
Gu Qingfeng continued, "After burying your Original Sin soul, you reincarnated with a wisp of divine sense...
Hoping to start anew. But you probably never expected...
To encounter someone like me, an Original Sin person, after reincarnation, and even less expected to form karma with me. When the memories of your past life awakened, you found that even after burying your Original Sin soul, you still couldn't escape the Original Sin...
So you chose to lose yourself...
Right?"
Jun Xuanji repeated her earlier words, distractedly saying, "Perhaps yes, perhaps not...
I...
Have forgotten..."
"Whether our meeting is due to karma or fate's arrangement, I don't know. The only thing I know...
Is that there is no grafted karma between us."
Gu Qingfeng spoke very calmly. "Perhaps it was the Original Sin that made us meet, or perhaps it was predestined in the unseen...
Who knows? No one knows."
Silence.
Silence again.
Jun Xuanji didn't speak, and Gu Qingfeng said nothing more.
Plum blossoms drifted down, a gentle breeze brushed past, time flowed on, and the night seemed to be fading away.
"Since that's the case..." After a long time, Jun Xuanji spoke again, asking, "Will you still... try to escape...
The Original Sin?"
"Of course. I said, I have no other path to take...
Only this one path remains. I also said, I'm determined to take this gamble. Winning or losing doesn't matter, but I must give myself an answer."
"What if...
In the end...
You become the Original Sin?"
"Then I become the Original Sin."
"What if...
In the end...
You ultimately cannot escape the Original Sin?"
"Then I cannot escape it."
"What if...
In the end...
You also lose yourself..."
"Then I lose myself."
Jun Xuanji stared at Gu Qingfeng, just stared. After another long while, she finally asked, "Why?"
"No reason why."
Gu Qingfeng also stared at Jun Xuanji and smiled. "I want to become the Original Sin, to lose myself together with you. Is that reason sufficient?"
Hearing this, Jun Xuanji's faint, weak, and ethereal figure trembled violently. A complex light flashed in her dazed and bewildered eyes. Then, she turned around, closed her eyes, and said, "You will...
Regret it..."
"In this life of mine, I have never known what regret is."
As he spoke, Gu Qingfeng walked over and embraced Jun Xuanji from behind. But suddenly, Jun Xuanji's figure dissipated like a bubble, vanishing without a trace, as if she had never existed.
"Hahahaha!"
Gu Qingfeng laughed heartily. Though he didn't know where Jun Xuanji had gone, he knew she would certainly be able to hear his words. He shouted toward the night sky, "Jun Xuanji, wait for me. I will do everything in my power to end what you wish to end. If it cannot be ended, I will also become the Original Sin and lose myself together with you...
When that time comes, we'll continue our past connection, hahahaha!"