If one were to ask just how many spaces exist within the Great Wasteland Heaven and Earth, no one knows. It is only known that within the Great Wasteland Heaven and Earth, spaces are conceived and born at every moment. Some of these spaces form all manner of worlds, others form all manner of secret realms, and still others form all manner of spirit realms, and so on—countless and endless.
Similarly, within the Great Wasteland Heaven and Earth, spaces also perish and die at every moment. Some of these spaces, encountering void storms, disintegrate; others, losing their origin vitality, fall into ruin.
However, disintegration does not mean disappearance, and ruin does not mean disappearance either. When a space disintegrates, it forms numerous spatial fragments. And a ruined space is merely one that has deviated from the operating track of the Heaven and Earth Order, gradually forgotten and exiled by Heaven and Earth. These ruined spaces cannot be seen with the naked eye, nor can they be detected by Divine Sense, but they do exist, and there are many of them—countless.
Legend has it that for every space conceived by Heaven and Earth, there is a space that is forgotten. These forgotten spaces drift within Heaven and Earth like lonely ghosts and wild spirits. If they encounter stormy chaotic currents, they might reappear in the world—for example, most ancient ruins are spaces that perished in great calamities, forgotten by Heaven and Earth, and then encountered stormy chaotic currents to see the light of day once more.
However, more forgotten spaces may never, ever see the light of day again. Because forgotten spaces have no vitality whatsoever, and having lost the nurturing warmth of Heaven and Earth, they are like abandoned, wandering orphans—you simply don't know what they might become.
The reason world-spaces have mountains and rivers, flowers and grass, sun and moon, is not only because they are nurtured by the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth, but also because the vitality of nature conceives all things. If they lose the nurturing spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and lack nature's conception of all things, over time they will evolve into mysterious, bizarre, irregular existences. For instance, hells, abysses, Gui Xu, desolate ruins, and so on, are all formed from forgotten spaces.
Because these forgotten spaces have deviated from the operating track of the Heaven and Earth Order, once one falls into them, it is almost impossible to return.
Gu Qingfeng once mistakenly entered an ancient Teleportation Array and fell into a forgotten space—and not just once, but three times.
The first time was to evade the pursuit of the Three Thousand Great Daos. He mistakenly entered an ancient Teleportation Array. Because the array had not operated for too long, when Gu Qingfeng forcibly activated it, it suddenly disintegrated mid-teleportation. As a result, Gu Qingfeng fell into a forgotten space, a memory that remains vivid to this day. He clearly remembers that forgotten space, filled with a turbid, poisonous gas. Even with his profound attainments and vast vitality at the time, after falling in, he nearly died inside.
Moreover, who knows how many years those spaces had been forgotten by Heaven and Earth. They had no origin, no vitality, no order, no laws—boundless, endless, completely irregular existences. No matter how powerful your strength, you couldn't break out. Without order, there were no barriers; without laws, there were no walls—so how could one break out? Back then, Gu Qingfeng exerted every ounce of his skill but couldn't get out. It was a feeling of utter powerlessness, having strength but not knowing where to apply it.
In the end, he was able to escape only because he was lucky enough to encounter a chaotic current. The forgotten space returned to the track of the Heaven and Earth Order, reappeared in the world, and only then did he manage to break free. After that, Gu Qingfeng swore that even if he were beaten to death, he would never blindly venture into ancient Teleportation Arrays again.
Unfortunately, the peace didn't last long. He fell into a forgotten space a second time. That time wasn't because he blindly ventured into an ancient Teleportation Array, but because his greed for wine got him into trouble. Back then, an ancient ruin reappeared in the world. Gu Qingfeng thought he'd go in and see if he could find some treasured fine wine. Not long after entering, that newly reappeared ancient ruin inexplicably deviated from the track of the Heaven and Earth Order again and fell into ruin once more. Gu Qingfeng didn't find any fine wine; instead, he was trapped in a forgotten space yet again.
As for how long he was trapped inside, even Gu Qingfeng didn't know, because within a forgotten space, there is simply no concept of time. With the experience from the previous time, Gu Qingfeng didn't struggle blindly this time. He simply waited for a spatial chaotic current. However, his luck wasn't as good as the first time. He waited a long time but no spatial chaotic current came. By the end, his spirit was nearly on the verge of collapse.
Gu Qingfeng thought waiting like this wasn't a solution—who knew when he might encounter a spatial chaotic current? But he also didn't know how to get out from inside. It felt as if the forgotten space wasn't even within Heaven and Earth at all. If that were truly the case... Gu Qingfeng once tried to open the Gate of Reincarnation to see if he could reincarnate. However, it simply wouldn't work. Forget the Gate of Reincarnation; even the Gates of Hell, any Gates of the Great Dao—he couldn't open them. Within a forgotten space, there was simply no Great Dao to speak of.
Later, having no other choice, Gu Qingfeng finally committed suicide. That's right! He committed suicide. Of course, when others commit suicide, they might truly die. But when Gu Qingfeng committed suicide, he wanted to test whether he could leave the forgotten space through Nirvana Silence Rebirth. Fortunately, after Gu Qingfeng was reduced to ashes, undergoing Nirvana Silence Rebirth again truly allowed him to emerge from the forgotten space.
Whether it was because of the many sins Gu Qingfeng committed in the past, or because Heaven deliberately wanted to punish him, whether it was bad fate or terrible luck—over ten years after Gu Qingfeng emerged from the forgotten space the second time, he fell into one yet again.
The first time was mistakenly entering an ancient Teleportation Array. The second time was mistakenly entering an ancient ruin. The third time was being Judged by various Great Daos. It wasn't that the Judgment by the various Great Daos caused him to fall into a forgotten space, but rather that back then, the Great Daos Judging him were simply too numerous. Not only the Heavenly Dao, but also the Immortal Dao, the Buddhist Dao, including the Monster Dao, and so on. Gu Qingfeng didn't know exactly how many Great Daos descended their Judgments, because the Judgments descending were simply too many, causing spatial turbulence and triggering void chaotic currents. Gu Qingfeng was just swept into a forgotten space by those void chaotic currents.
The third time he fell into a forgotten space, Gu Qingfeng didn't know how long he was trapped inside either. He also didn't commit suicide again to use the method of Nirvana Silence Rebirth to get out. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but rather that the method of Nirvana Silence Rebirth was something Gu Qingfeng simply couldn't control. It wasn't that he wasn't confident about undergoing Nirvana Silence Rebirth after being reduced to ashes. On the contrary, Gu Qingfeng was very confident. Every time he was reduced to ashes, barring accidents, he could undergo Nirvana Silence Rebirth. But the problem lay precisely in those words 'barring accidents.' Nothing in the world is absolute, and Gu Qingfeng didn't dare say that every time he was reduced to ashes, he would absolutely be able to undergo Nirvana Silence Rebirth.
Another problem was: after Nirvana Silence Rebirth, when would he be reborn? Where would he be reborn? Gu Qingfeng couldn't control that either. Last time, after Nirvana Silence Rebirth, he could emerge from the forgotten space. Next time, after Nirvana Silence Rebirth, that might not be the case. For Gu Qingfeng, every Nirvana Silence Rebirth was also like deviated from the order track and being forgotten. The difference was: when a space falls into ruin, it's because it has deviated from the track of the Heaven and Earth Order. And when Gu Qingfeng undergoes Nirvana Silence Rebirth, it feels like deviated from the track of the life order, as if being forgotten.