"Hahaha!"
"There's an old saying, isn't there? A man who isn't a bit of a rake in his youth wastes his youth. While I'm still considered young, I should flirt with a few girls, have my fun. Otherwise, when I'm old, even if I want to, I won't be able to. I'll just be left staring at beauties with empty tears."
Gu Qingfeng laughed heartily. "What's more, Fate has bestowed so many karmic connections upon me, taken such good care of me. If I weren't a bit of a rake, I'd be letting down the old lady Fate herself, wouldn't I? What do you say, Lady Tianji? Isn't that the way of it?"
"Your Karma has nothing to do with Fate."
Genggu Wuming said indifferently, her tone devoid of any emotion from start to finish. "Fate does not govern anyone's Karma, especially yours. Even if Fate wished to govern it, it could not."
"Whether Fate governs Karma or not, I don't know. But..." A playful smile touched the corner of Gu Qingfeng's mouth. "...grafting some Karma, arranging some Karma, even sometimes turning a blind eye, that's certainly possible."
"No."
"You are mistaken. Fate cannot govern Karma. It is Karma that governs Fate. This is what I have always wanted to tell you."
Genggu Wuming's tone remained utterly flat. "Fate has always been in one's own hands. No one can govern another's Fate. One can only govern one's own."
"Is that so..." Gu Qingfeng smiled without speaking further.
"You may not believe it, but I can explain it to you. I also wish to clear up your misunderstanding of me. That is the purpose of my visit this time."
"Misunderstanding?"
Gu Qingfeng shook his head with a laugh. "Sister Nameless, you've got it wrong. I have no misunderstanding about you. I simply find you unpleasant to look at, that's all. To be precise, I find Fate unpleasant to look at. However, this thing called Fate, I can't see it or touch it. I don't even know if it exists. So, I can only find you unpleasant to look at. Who told you to be known as the Incarnation of Karma, the Messenger of Fate? The black pot of Fate can only be carried by you, can't it?"
"Heh."
Beside them, Cang Yan chuckled. "You're quite blunt."
"Of course. I've said it before, I've always been an honest man living a proper life in the mundane world."
A short while later, Xiao Jinr brought over many spirit fruits, all picked by her own hands. Knowing Gu Qingfeng didn't like vegetarian fare and preferred meat, she had even personally gone to the kitchen to prepare several plates of delicious dishes for him.
With a *thump*, Gu Qingfeng opened a jar of fine wine and laughed. "Since Xiao Jinr has gone to the trouble of personally preparing a table full of delicious dishes, we should at least have some wine to celebrate. What do you say, you two ladies? Want to down a few jars to get a good buzz going?"
Cang Yan remarked, "Heh, it's actually Hell Impermanence wine."
"Oh? Sister Cang Yan has a good eye."
"What a coincidence."
Gu Qingfeng asked curiously, "How is it a coincidence?"
In response, Cang Yan also took out a jar of wine. The difference was, the jar of Hell Impermanence wine looked like a black jade cauldron, exuding an aura of darkness and profundity, while the jar Cang Yan produced resembled a white jade cauldron, radiating light and sacredness.
Seeing the white jade cauldron-like jar, Gu Qingfeng's eyes immediately lit up. "So it's Heavenly Dao wine."
Cang Yan also smiled. "Your eyesight is quite good too."
"What a truly remarkable coincidence."
Gu Qingfeng said, "Above, there is a Heavenly Dao; below, there is a Hell Impermanence. Heavenly Dao intoxicates the Nine Heavens, Hell Impermanence inebriates the Nine Underworlds. Lying prone across the Great Wilderness, roaming heaven and earth, intoxicated and dreaming through a cycle of reincarnation. Excellent, excellent! Truly excellent! Now we can truly lie prone across the Great Wilderness, roam heaven and earth, and embark on a grand dream of reincarnation!"
In the Great Wilderness, a saying had always circulated:
Heavenly nectar intoxicates the Nine Heavens; underworld vintage inebriates the Nine Underworlds.
The so-called 'heavenly nectar intoxicates the Nine Heavens' referred to the Thirty-Six Peerless Wines of the Nine Heavens. 'Underworld vintage inebriates the Nine Underworlds' referred to the Seventy-Two Peerless Wines of the Nine Underworlds.
The Heavenly Dao wine Cang Yan produced was one of the Thirty-Six Peerless Wines of the Nine Heavens, and moreover, a leader among them, reputed to cause one to lose themselves in the Nine Heavens with a single cup.
Gu Qingfeng's Hell Impermanence wine was similarly one of the Seventy-Two Peerless Wines of the Nine Underworlds, also a leader among them, reputed to cause one to become thoroughly drunk in the Nine Underworlds with a single cup.
Legend had it that if Heavenly Dao and Hell Impermanence were blended together, a single cup would allow one to lie prone across the Great Wilderness, spirit-roam heaven and earth, and become intoxicated, dreaming through ten thousand ages in a single cycle of reincarnation.
As he spoke, Gu Qingfeng combined a jar of Hell Impermanence wine and a jar of Heavenly Dao wine into one, blending them together. He shook the mixture while saying to Huode, "Huode, come! Sit down and have a couple of cups with us. And you, Sister Qianqiu, you two don't need to keep standing either. Sit down and have a couple of cups."
Huode shook his head. Nalan Qianqiu and Mo Ruyi both changed expressions slightly and also shook their heads.
They dared not sit down, especially Huode, whose head shook like a rattle-drum. One was the master of Langya Sacred Land, hailed as a legend of the Primordial Era. The other was Lady Tianji, the Incarnation of Karma and Messenger of Fate. Even if Huode's courage were ten times greater, he wouldn't dare sit at the same table with these two supreme beings who stood above the Three Thousand Great Daos.
Although he very much wanted to taste the legendary Heavenly Dao that could intoxicate the Nine Heavens and the Hell Impermanence that could inebriate the Nine Underworlds, he also knew such things were not for him to enjoy. A single cup, and being drunk for eight hundred to a thousand years would be a light consequence. Whether he could ever wake up in this lifetime was an unknown. As for a cup of the blend of Heavenly Dao and Hell Impermanence... the issue probably wouldn't be whether he could wake up, but whether he could even survive.
Exaggerated?
No.
Not in the slightest.
Not only did Huode not dare to taste it, even Mo Ruyi, and even an Empress of the Nine Heavens Immortal Dao like Nalan Qianqiu, wouldn't dare taste it lightly. She might not have drunk Hell Impermanence wine before, but she had once tasted a cup of the Heavenly Dao vintage. That single cup had left her as if she had lost herself, muddle-headed for over two hundred years before she recovered.
And that was just Heavenly Dao alone. If it were blended with the Hell Impermanence wine reputed to inebriate the Nine Underworlds, it would be like fusing the Yin and Yang of the natural world. Throughout the Myriad Heavens, there were few who could withstand it.
"Let me tell you, this stuff is absolutely top-notch. How much of the Nine Heavens' Heavenly Dao is left, I don't know. But the Nine Underworlds' Hell Impermanence is almost gone! Every jar you drink is one less jar. In the future, wanting to gather a jar each of Heavenly Dao and Hell Impermanence will probably be harder than ascending to the heavens! Hahaha!"
After blending the Hell Impermanence and Heavenly Dao into one jar, Gu Qingfeng stood up directly and shook it vigorously, his expression one of immense delight.
Beside him.
Cang Yan shot a glance at Genggu Wuming and sent a sound transmission: "See? My suggestion to bring some Heavenly Dao wasn't wrong, was it? This fellow is obsessed with wine, never happy without it. If you want to sit down and talk with him, you can't do without wine. Only after this guy has drunk his fill, satisfied his craving, will he probably sit down and talk seriously with you."
Genggu Wuming responded, "I've put you to expense."
"It's not just expense. To help you, I've brought all the Heavenly Dao treasured collection from Langya. You should think about how to compensate me for my loss..."
"Are you taking advantage of my predicament to extort me?"
"Why else? You should know, I haven't even been willing to let the ancestral elders of our Langya drink this Heavenly Dao..."