"What do you want to ask?"
"I want to know the purpose of those who don't want to open the Wu Dao Age. Why do they stop others from opening it? What are they trying to hide?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Gu Qingfeng looked at Genggu Wuming and said, "Aren't you supposed to be omniscient?"
"It is Fate that is omniscient," Genggu Wuming responded softly, meeting his gaze. "Not me."
"Though you are not Fate, you are still the Messenger of Fate."
"I am merely a messenger. I am not Fate, and Fate no longer exists now. I told you Fate perished long ago with the end of the Wu Dao Age."
"Heh."
Gu Qingfeng chuckled dryly and asked, "From what I know, you're not just the Incarnation of Causality and the Messenger of Fate, are you?"
Genggu Wuming remained silent, as if waiting for Gu Qingfeng to continue. Gu Qingfeng didn't beat around the bush and said bluntly, "You should also be from the Wu Dao Age, right?"
"Perhaps."
"Perhaps?"
Genggu Wuming affirmed, "Perhaps."
Gu Qingfeng smiled playfully. "You don't even know if you're from the Wu Dao Age?"
"It's not that I don't know, but that I cannot be certain. Hence, perhaps."
Genggu Wuming said faintly, "I have forgotten many, many things..."
"Forgotten!"
Gu Qingfeng rubbed his chin, squinted his eyes, and looked at Genggu Wuming. "That sounds very familiar. Jun Xuanji often says she's forgotten things too... Now you're saying you've forgotten as well. She buried her soul and became lost... Could it be you also buried your soul and became lost?"
"I did not bury my soul," Genggu Wuming said. "Because I have no soul to bury."
Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng was taken aback and asked in surprise, "You have no soul?"
"No. I might have had one before... Or perhaps, like Jun Xuanji, I buried it... Or perhaps it dissipated with the end of the Wu Dao Age... After I awoke, I simply had no soul..."
For some reason, Gu Qingfeng suddenly detected a trace of sorrow and helplessness in Genggu Wuming's words, along with the same confusion and bewilderment he heard from Jun Xuanji. He asked, "Don't tell me you're lost too!"
Genggu Wuming closed her eyes and shook her head slightly, murmuring to herself, "Perhaps... I don't know..."
"You don't know whether you're lost or not?"
"I don't know."
The Genggu Wuming of this moment seemed somewhat desolate, and that confusion and bewilderment grew even stronger. Gu Qingfeng intended to ask further, but the words died on his lips, and he ultimately remained silent.
"Since ancient times, throughout the Myriad Heavens and all living beings under the Great Dao, each of us has had different experiences, different perplexities, different confusions. You are like this, Jun Xuanji is like this, Nameless is like this, and none of us are exceptions."
The speaker was not Genggu Wuming, but Cang Yan. She stood up, left the pavilion, walked into the courtyard, and casually plucked a flower petal, saying, "Throughout the Myriad Heavens, everyone knows Genggu Wuming is the Incarnation of Causality, the Messenger of Fate, omniscient across heaven and earth, past and present."
"Heh."
Cang Yan shook her head and smiled, her tone rather complex—as if speaking to herself, as if defending Genggu Wuming, as if reprimanding Gu Qingfeng, and as if sighing with emotion. She said, "But who truly knows how ironic Genggu Wuming's existence is? She is the Incarnation of Causality, yet does not know her own karma. She is the Messenger of Fate, yet does not know her own fate. She is hailed as omniscient, yet knows nothing about herself."
Turning around, Cang Yan looked at Gu Qingfeng and said, "Tell me, what is that if not irony?"
Gu Qingfeng nodded. Thinking carefully, if what Cang Yan said was true, then Genggu Wuming's existence was indeed profoundly ironic.
"You reject your own karma, dislike your own fate. Tell me, who doesn't reject their own karma? Who can truly accept their own fate?"
"You want to sever your own karma, change your own fate. Tell me, who doesn't want to sever their own karma? Who doesn't want to change their own fate?"
"You want to control your own karma, dominate your own fate. Tell me, who doesn't?"
"Hey, Sister Cang Yan, what's your point?"
Gu Qingfeng looked at Cang Yan beside him and said, "Why are you suddenly dragging me into this for no reason? I never said I wanted to sever my karma or change any fate."
Cang Yan questioned, "If you don't want to change fate, then what have you been messing around with all these years? Trying to rid yourself of Original Sin?"
"What? From the sound of it, you think I shouldn't try to rid myself of Original Sin? Should I just accept my fate?"
"That's not what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?"
"I just want you to know that we are not your enemies, and we have never thought of being your enemies."
"Fine, I get it. You're not my enemies."
Gu Qingfeng asked casually, "So what?"
"There is no 'so what'! We just want you to understand that we are not your enemies, that's all."
"Is that so..." Gu Qingfeng returned to the pavilion and leaned against a stone pillar as he sat back in his chair. "But this doesn't quite make sense. If there's no 'so what,' then why are you explaining so much to me? What's the meaning? What's the purpose? What? Are you afraid I'll treat you as enemies? Even if I do treat you as enemies, so what? Could I actually kill you? Taking a step back, even if I had such thoughts, I don't have the capability."
Genggu Wuming spoke up in response, "Don't overthink it. We explained to you truly without any other purpose. We just don't want misunderstandings between us to deepen and cause unnecessary trouble."
"What trouble?"
Gu Qingfeng's voice came. Genggu Wuming raised her head and stared at him. "You clearly know, so why pretend to be ignorant? Must I say it outright?"
"Since this fellow is pretending to be ignorant while knowing full well, you might as well just say it outright."
Cang Yan stared at Gu Qingfeng and said bluntly, "Since you insist on hearing it, I'll tell you. We... no! Not us, but Nameless, she doesn't want to have any connection with you, not even a misunderstanding."
"What misunderstanding or not."
Gu Qingfeng waved his hand, his tone also impatient. "To put it plainly, you're just afraid of forming karma with me. Why beat around the bush!"
"You!"
Cang Yan was left speechless. Perhaps sensing that Gu Qingfeng's mood had suddenly turned odd, she didn't continue.
"It seems I'm destined to be a loner."
When karma was mentioned earlier, Genggu Wuming had seemed desolate. Now, with karma brought up again, Gu Qingfeng looked even more desolate than Genggu Wuming had moments before. He reclined in his chair, closed his eyes, and toyed with an empty wine cup in his hand. He said no more, not even a single word.