At the foot of Bingxuan Sect, inside the four-horse carriage.
Gu Qingfeng had long since stopped drinking. He now stood on the carriage, his handsome face wearing a grave expression as he gazed into the distance.
At this moment, Leng Yanqiu sat cross-legged within the cold light that resembled an icy flower, her body completely merging with the radiance as if they were one. Floating around her were six Taiyin Seeds.
Gu Qingfeng released his divine sense to carefully investigate.
Others might not know, but he remembered clearly.
He had previously possessed one soul pearl, and using a drop of blood spirit from Yunxia Sect, he had opened it. The soul sealed within had already returned to Ouyang Ye's body.
If the Bingxuan Heart was truly connected to the seven soul pearls, then Ouyang Ye would inevitably appear at this time.
Yet, no matter how long he waited, there was no sign of Ouyang Ye.
Just then, the six soul pearls revolving around Leng Yanqiu were unsealed. The six souls sealed within emerged, appearing like clusters of cold mist.
Suddenly.
A flash of fiery light inexplicably appeared beside Leng Yanqiu. This flash seemed to emerge directly from the cold light, merging with the six souls and beginning to revolve around Leng Yanqiu.
Gu Qingfeng felt suspicious and sent his divine sense to investigate. To his shock, he discovered that the flash of fiery light was none other than Yun Nishang's soul.
How could this be?
Witnessing this scene, Gu Qingfeng was utterly astonished. In his understanding, since that previous soul had merged into Ouyang Ye's body, when Leng Yanqiu opened the Bingxuan Heart here, Ouyang Ye—that is, Yun Nishang—would definitely appear.
But now, not only had Ouyang Ye not appeared, how had the seventh soul emerged on its own? Moreover, it had emerged from the Bingxuan Sect's Bingxuan Heart, as if that soul had been inside the heart from the very beginning.
What was going on?
Gu Qingfeng couldn't quite figure it out.
He was perplexed.
Over in the crowd, Wei Qing, Liu Piaopiao, and Wan Wei also wore expressions of bewilderment and helplessness. Watching as the Empress's seven souls gradually merged into Leng Yanqiu's body, Liu Piaopiao grew extremely anxious. Gritting her teeth, she was about to leap forward to stop it when Wan Wei held her back.
"The Empress instructed us to observe."
"But the Empress's souls are about to merge into Leng Yanqiu's body! Are we just going to stand by and watch Leng Yanqiu replace the Empress?"
Liu Piaopiao was frantic with worry. She looked at Wan Wei, then at Wei Qing.
At this moment, Wei Qing's expression was also one of great anxiety, but more than that, it was filled with confusion. His heart was in turmoil. He took a deep breath, shook his head, and said nothing. Clearly, he too didn't know what to do.
As they watched the Empress's seven souls gradually merge into Leng Yanqiu's body, the expressions of the three grew increasingly strange. Because they discovered that although Leng Yanqiu was merging with the Bingxuan Heart, the Empress's seven souls were not. Not only were they not merging, they even noticed that the Empress's seven souls were gradually dissipating.
They were truly dissipating, as if severing their connection with the Bingxuan Heart.
How could this be?
They didn't know.
It wasn't just Wei Qing and the other two who noticed this. Standing on the four-horse carriage, Gu Qingfeng had also been using his divine sense to investigate. He too saw that Leng Yanqiu was merging with the Bingxuan Heart, while Yun Nishang's seven souls were gradually vanishing.
What was happening?
Leng Yanqiu was merging with the Bingxuan Heart.
Yet Yun Nishang's seven souls were disappearing.
Gu Qingfeng knew that a blood spirit connection existed between the Bingxuan Heart and Yun Nishang's seven souls. But now, that blood spirit connection was fading.
Hadn't Wei Qing previously said that Zhuxia was using Leng Yanqiu to merge with the Bingxuan Heart and fuse with Yun Nishang's seven souls in an attempt to replace her?
Now, it looked nothing like that. It seemed more like Zhuxia was using Leng Yanqiu to merge with the Bingxuan Heart while simultaneously severing the blood spirit connection between Yun Nishang's seven souls and the heart.
What kind of trick was this?
And where was Ouyang Ye now?
Just as Gu Qingfeng was pondering this in shock, his heart suddenly trembled.
Previously, he had used a great technique to conceal Yunxia Sect and had locked it down with a strand of his divine sense.
Now, with this tremor in his heart, something must have happened at Yunxia Sect!
Activating his divine sense, he was shocked to find that the technique he had deployed had been broken. Yunxia Sect had reappeared.
Incredible!
Without another word, Gu Qingfeng flashed and vanished.
In the void, he took a single step, shrinking the earth beneath his feet. In the blink of an eye, he had returned to the Qingyang region.
Sure enough, the Yunxia Sect he had hidden had reappeared. Without further thought, Gu Qingfeng immediately rushed inside, heading straight for Yanyang Peak.
Yanyang Peak was the foundation of Yunxia Sect, the source of its spiritual veins located in the underground stone chamber of the peak.
When Gu Qingfeng appeared in the underground stone chamber of Yanyang Peak, he was shocked to see blood mist violently surging from the spiritual vein source. A woman floated within the blood mist.
It was a young girl.
A young girl with crimson-red long hair, possessing exquisite features. She wore green robes and a skirt, floating in the blood mist, standing perfectly straight with her arms outstretched, her head slightly raised, and her eyes closed.
It was Ouyang Ye.
Seeing this, Gu Qingfeng was completely dumbfounded. He discovered that seven streams of light were revolving around Ouyang Ye, gradually merging with her. These seven streams of light were none other than Yun Nishang's souls.
Leng Yanqiu was merging with the Bingxuan Heart over there. Why were Yun Nishang's seven souls merging with Ouyang Ye here?
Even more bizarre was that Gu Qingfeng could see a seal beginning to form around Ouyang Ye's body.
And once this seal was fully formed, it would seal away these seven souls.
What did this mean?
Yun Nishang's seven souls were all returning to their rightful place. Why seal them away?
Gu Qingfeng had successively ascended to the thrones of the Immortal Monster King and the Nine Nethers Emperor. He considered himself a man of vast experience who had seen great things. Yet, faced with everything happening here, he was completely at a loss.
"So it really is you...
It really is you again...
Why is it still you...
It seems it truly is you..." Suddenly.
A voice came.
Although Ouyang Ye remained floating in the blood mist, head raised, eyes closed, arms outstretched, and not opening her mouth, Gu Qingfeng was certain the speaker was none other than Ouyang Ye.
Gu Qingfeng's heart jolted. He asked, "Who are you!"
"Who am I...
Heh...
Who am I..." Ouyang Ye's voice was complex, tinged with hesitation and even more so with helplessness. "You can think of me as Hongxiu, or you can think of me as Yun Nishang...
As you wish...
Everything as you wish..."
Hongxiu?
Yun Nishang?
Although Gu Qingfeng didn't understand what game this woman was playing, nor could he figure out the current situation, he couldn't be bothered to think too much about it. He just wanted to know if all this had any so-called karma with him.
"What karma is there between you and me?"
But as soon as he asked this, Ouyang Ye suddenly began to laugh.
It was a strange laugh, like a bitter chuckle, filled with helplessness and heavy with self-mockery.
"Believe me, I want to know the answer to that question even more than you do."
What did that mean?
Gu Qingfeng was confused. What did she mean, 'even more than you do'?
"I don't know what karma exists between us. I never knew from the beginning. Even now, at this very moment, I still don't know. To understand the so-called karma between you and me, I've done everything I should have done, and everything I shouldn't have done... yet I still don't know the karma between us..."