A roar—the furious bellowing continued to resound.
The Desolate Ancient ruins, which resembled empty space, trembled violently. As they shook, mysterious runes flickered in and out of view within that void, spreading across the entire emptiness like stars.
What in the world is this?
Gu Qingfeng cautiously extended his divine sense to probe, but he couldn't see through the mysteries of these runes, nor did he know what they were. He only vaguely sensed they might be some kind of seal.
Could something be sealed here?
Unclear.
Gu Qingfeng tried to find a breakthrough point within these void ruins, but after searching high and low, he found none. The void ruins kept shifting, layered like endless overlapping spaces, extremely bizarre.
What puzzled him even more was that, although he hadn't found a breakthrough, he discovered this place concealed many presences.
There were immortals, Buddhas, demons, and monsters, and a few others Gu Qingfeng couldn't even identify.
Who exactly these presences were, Gu Qingfeng didn't know either. The only certainty was that none of them were likely simple.
"Kid Gu!"
Suddenly hearing someone call his name, Gu Qingfeng was startled. Turning, he saw a ragged monk in tattered robes and a worn-out monk's hat, his face covered in wrinkles, appearing out of thin air before him.
It was none other than Da Xing the Mad Monk.
"Da Xing?"
Gu Qingfeng truly hadn't expected to run into Da Xing the Mad Monk here. "What are you doing here?"
Da Xing raised a finger to his lips, signaling Gu Qingfeng to stay quiet. With a wave of his hand, Gu Qingfeng found himself inside a mysterious formation.
Evidently, Da Xing the Mad Monk didn't want to be exposed and had used a formation to hide himself and Gu Qingfeng.
Truth be told, this hiding method was quite sophisticated, at least in Gu Qingfeng's eyes—but that was all it was.
There is no absolutely foolproof method of concealment in this world; no matter how ingenious, none can hide completely.
Moreover, this place was swarming with experts. The formation Da Xing the Mad Monk deployed could, at best, conceal their auras and spiritual breaths. As for their physical presence, it couldn't escape the discerning eyes of those masters.
"Kid Gu! Why are you still here?"
Da Xing the Mad Monk grabbed Gu Qingfeng's wrist, his face filled with urgency. In a choked, low voice, he said, "Didn't I tell you to get the hell out of this place? Why won't you listen? How did you even end up here?"
Da Xing's words left Gu Qingfeng baffled. He stared at Da Xing in confusion. "What do you mean? When did you tell me to leave here? I just arrived; I don't even know where this place is."
"I'm not talking about here!"
"Then where?"
"I'm talking about the black hole! This Desolate Ancient Black Hole!" Da Xing the Mad Monk exclaimed with agitation. "I told you to get out of the Desolate Ancient Black Hole immediately!"
"I say, Da Xing, are you out of your mind? What did I do to you? Or did I offend you somehow? Why should I leave the Desolate Ancient Black Hole? What, is this black hole your family's property?"
"Dammit! Do you have any idea how dangerous your situation is? Let me tell you, if you don't get out now, nine times out of ten, you'll perish here!"
"Get lost. Go cool off somewhere else."
Gu Qingfeng waved his hand, truly unwilling to listen to Da Xing's nonsense. Every time he met Da Xing the Mad Monk, nothing good came of it, and this time was no exception. Even now, he was still deeply annoyed by Da Xing's trickery in luring him here.
This drove Da Xing the Mad Monk to utter frustration.
To be honest, when he had lured Gu Qingfeng from the Great Desolate before, he had genuinely wanted to use Gu Qingfeng's formidable strength to protect their Zen Sect's secret treasure, which was about to emerge. Of course, besides that, he also had his own little scheme: to help Gu Qingfeng seek the Original Sin as much as possible, preferably allowing him to ascend to the pinnacle and become the Original Sin True Lord.
Firstly, he felt that, given the current situation, only a lone wolf like Gu Qingfeng ascending to become the Original Sin True Lord might stabilize the chaotic state of affairs.
Secondly, he understood Gu Qingfeng. He knew Gu Qingfeng was wild and unrestrained, with not a shred of desire for power. Even if he became the Original Sin True Lord, he wouldn't seek to dominate the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
Thirdly, Gu Qingfeng was the greatest variable. After ascending to become the Original Sin True Lord, he would be filled with unknowns—causality, fate, the future, all of it.
To others, this was a fatal problem; no one would want the future fate of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth to be filled with uncertainty.
However, in Da Xing the Mad Monk's view, letting Gu Qingfeng, this greatest variable, ascend to become the Original Sin True Lord had both disadvantages and advantages.
The disadvantage was that the future fate of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth would be filled with unknowns.
The advantage was also that the future fate of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth would be filled with unknowns.
If someone else ascended to become the Original Sin True Lord, even if the future fate of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth became fixed, that fixed outcome wasn't necessarily immutable. Once it changed, the consequences would be endless. Moreover, once the future fate became fixed, no one knew whether that fixed outcome would be good or bad. If it was good, fine; if it was bad, there would be no chance to salvage it.
But if Gu Qingfeng, this greatest variable, ascended to become the Original Sin True Lord, although no one would know whether the future fate would be good or bad, precisely because it was unknown, no one would dare act rashly.
Da Xing the Mad Monk thought that the Present-Ancient Era had already descended into utter chaos, both in the heavens above and the earth below, from ancient times to the present.
If anyone could suppress this chaos, that person would undoubtedly be Gu Qingfeng, the greatest variable.
To put it bluntly, Da Xing the Mad Monk wanted to place a bet on Gu Qingfeng—for himself, for the Zen Sect, for all living beings under the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, and for the future causality and fate.
He knew this grand gamble would carry risks.
It wasn't until he met the Empress and heard her words that he realized how foolish his gambit had been. Especially after entering the Desolate Ancient Black Hole and discovering some unspeakable secrets, his heart was filled with nothing but regret—so much regret that he wished he were dead for having lured Gu Qingfeng here.
The Empress's words made him realize that if Gu Qingfeng became the Original Sin True Lord, the consequences would be unimaginable. Not only would it fail to stabilize the situation, it might even plunge the already chaotic state into even greater turmoil, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times worse than now.
The current chaos was confined to the heavens above, the earth below, the Nine Heavens and Nine Netherworlds, as well as the Ruins of Return, the Desolate Ruins, forbidden lands, and holy lands.
But the Empress said that if Gu Qingfeng ascended to become the Original Sin True Lord, the curse of Original Sin would reappear in Heaven and Earth. Then, yin and yang would invert, time would fall into disorder, the Great Dao would perish, Heaven and Earth would end. The present would no longer be the present, the past would no longer be the past...
The future would no longer be the future...
If anyone else had said these words, Da Xing the Mad Monk naturally wouldn't have believed them. But these words came from the Empress herself. Da Xing believed them—he had to believe them—because he knew the Empress's existence surpassed even that of Geng Gu Wuming, hailed as the Envoy of Causality and the Embodiment of Fate.