"I've never annihilated the Three Thousand Great Daos."
"You, kid, might not have annihilated the Three Thousand Great Daos," Da Xing the Mad Monk shot Gu Qingfeng a sidelong glance, "but over these years, you've certainly given them a good run for their money. And there's one point you can't deny: your appearance not only withstood the slaughtering blade of the Three Thousand Great Daos but also shattered the situation where they had been eradicating Original Sin since the Primordial Era."
Gu Qingfeng shook his head. After listening to Da Xing the Mad Monk ramble for so long, he still hadn't grasped the main point. Impatiently, he said, "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"Don't be in such a hurry, kid. Listen to me slowly." Da Xing the Mad Monk asked very seriously, "Let me ask you a question first. Do you know what Original Sin is?"
"If I, your grandpa, knew what Original Sin was, would I be squatting here listening to you, an old bald donkey, spout nonsense?"
"My fault, my fault! I shouldn't have asked like that." Da Xing the Mad Monk offered an apologetic look. "I wonder if you've heard of the origin of Original Sin?"
"The origin of Original Sin?" Gu Qingfeng thought for a moment. He really hadn't heard about this.
"Let me put it this way. Do you know how Original Sin appeared? Let me be more detailed. Do you know the relationship between Original Sin and Anomalies?"
"Original Sin is related to Anomalies too?"
"Nonsense, of course it's related!"
"What's the relationship?"
"You, kid... I really don't know what to say. You are both a person of Original Sin and a person of Anomaly; you are both the deepest Original Sin and the greatest Anomaly. Yet you, your grandpa, don't even know the relationship between Original Sin and Anomalies. It's just too damn ironic!"
Hearing Da Xing the Mad Monk say this, Gu Qingfeng also shook his head with a bitter smile, utterly speechless.
Not only did Da Xing the Mad Monk find it ironic; sometimes Gu Qingfeng himself felt it was deeply ironic.
"Then tell me, what's the relationship between Original Sin and Anomalies?"
"Forget about what Original Sin is for now. You should at least know what an Anomaly is, right? And you know how Anomalies appear, right?"
"I've heard a little. I don't remember who mentioned it, but they said Anomalies are all formed from erroneous Karma."
"Exactly!" Da Xing the Mad Monk nodded. "Since ancient times, the Anomalies that have appeared between heaven and earth have all been formed by a series of erroneous Karma. Exactly how many Anomalies there are, and how many erroneous Karmic chains, probably no one can say clearly."
He paused, then continued asking, "Do you know why you are the greatest Anomaly?"
Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng immediately perked up. To tell the truth, this was a question he had always wanted to know.
Da Xing the Mad Monk began scribbling on the ground again, but this time he wasn't drawing a chessboard. Instead, he drew a horizontal line. "For example, this horizontal line represents one erroneous Karmic chain."
As he spoke, he drew many more horizontal lines. These lines intersected chaotically, without any pattern.
Da Xing the Mad Monk pointed at one of the points with the most intersections. "This point, where many erroneous Karmic chains intersect, is the greatest Anomaly. Of course, I'm not saying this point is you, kid. At that time, you might not even have been born yet. I'm just saying this point is the source of the greatest Anomaly."
"Once this source forms, it gradually grows larger, like a Black Hole vortex, drawing all Karma into it. The more Karma gets drawn in, the more chaotic the Karma becomes."
"This thing is terrifying. You have to understand that each Karmic chain involves the past and present, and each Karmic chain is connected to other Karmic chains. Once one Karmic chain gets drawn in, it spreads like a plague..." Gu Qingfeng gazed at the Karma diagram Da Xing the Mad Monk had drawn on the ground, pondered for a moment, and said, "This thing looks so much like the legendary Karmic Black Hole."
"Right!" Da Xing the Mad Monk suddenly exclaimed loudly. "You're absolutely correct, kid! This is the Karmic Black Hole!"
After saying that, Da Xing the Mad Monk leaned his head forward, speaking earnestly with a very serious expression. "The reason you are the greatest Anomaly is because you, your grandpa, were born inside this Karmic Black Hole!"
"As you say, even if I was born inside this Karmic Black Hole, surely I'm not the only one born inside this thing, am I?"
"Indeed, it's not just you. There should be quite a few. As far as I know, there are several. The problem is..." At this point, Da Xing the Mad Monk started drawing on the ground again. He drew ten interlocking circles around the previous intersection point and explained.
"If the Karmic Black Hole has ten layers, those other great Anomalies were born in the tenth layer, some in the ninth, eighth, maybe fifth, fourth, and so on. Only you, kid..." Da Xing the Mad Monk pointed at the previous intersection point. "Even if you weren't born right at this Black Hole source, it must be pretty damn close."
Gu Qingfeng studied it for a while, feeling that Da Xing the Mad Monk's words made a lot of sense. He asked, "You just said Anomalies are also related to Original Sin. What exactly is the relationship?"
Da Xing the Mad Monk wasn't in a hurry to answer this question. Instead, he took a few sips of fine wine, rested for a bit, and then continued. "Anomalies are formed from erroneous Karma. Once there's one erroneous Karmic chain, a second will appear, then a third... and then more and more. But do you know how the first erroneous Karmic chain appeared? A perfectly fine Karmic chain couldn't just become erroneous, could it?"
Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng pretty much understood what Da Xing the Mad Monk meant. "You mean the source of erroneous Karma is Original Sin?"
"Original Sin, Original Sin! As the name implies, it refers to the most primitive sin. And all the sins in heaven and earth, from ancient times to the present, were formed from that initial first erroneous Karmic chain."
"In other words, Original Sin is the source of erroneous Karma. Finding the source of erroneous Karma is equivalent to finding Original Sin."
"That's the principle." Da Xing the Mad Monk sighed with emotion. "Since ancient times, the Three Thousand Great Daos have been eradicating Original Sin, and even this heaven and earth, along with that woman Gengwu Wuming, have been taking action to cast Original Sin into the Return-to-Void Desolate Ruins. Do you really think they have nothing better to do? Of course not. They have no choice. Original Sin is like a malignant tumor or a plague. If it's not suppressed, the Karma drawn in will only become more and more chaotic. Sooner or later, all Karma will become completely chaotic, and then it'll be game over!"
"Even..." Da Xing the Mad Monk hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping. After a moment's pause, he added, "In the Desolate Ancient Era, there were many, many people of Original Sin, too many to count. I suspect that the great calamity of the Desolate Ancient Era might have been because... everyone was drawn into the Karmic Black Hole, everyone's Karma became chaotic..." "Otherwise, those Great Dao Patriarchs couldn't have all perished... They must have used some method back then to eradicate Original Sin, ending themselves and also ending the Desolate Ancient Era... all for the sake of suppressing the Karmic Black Hole and preventing it from harming later generations."