Gu Qingfeng let out a wry laugh, unconvinced. "How am I not within the bounds of common sense?"
"Do I really need to spell it out?" Da Xing the Mad Monk explained, "Didn't I just say it earlier?"
"When did you ever say that?"
"You kid, really. So young, yet your memory is already this poor." Looking at Gu Qingfeng, Da Xing wore an expression of deep disappointment, as if lamenting his lack of ambition. He sighed helplessly. "Aren't you the greatest variable? And the deepest Original Sin? Original Sin itself is a series of erroneous karmic links, right? You, kid, are the source of these erroneous karmic links. In other words, you don't even have a 'cause,' so naturally, you can't have a previous life."
After a pause, Da Xing continued, "To put it bluntly, you're like someone who popped out of a crack in a rock. Your current existence *is* the cause. If you, kid, had a previous life, you yourself would *be* that previous life."
"There's such a saying?" Gu Qingfeng frowned in deep thought. This was the first time he had heard such an outlandish claim. He didn't know if Da Xing was just pulling his leg or stating a fact.
However, someone had indeed told Gu Qingfeng before that he had no previous life. Who exactly it was, Gu Qingfeng didn't know. Back when the Ancient Era ended and he was reborn in the Current Era, a Great Dao Seed fell from the sky and inexplicably fused with him. A voice from within that seed told him he had no previous life.
He had never been able to understand why he had no previous life. Now, hearing Da Xing say this and thinking it over carefully, damn it, it actually made a bit of sense.
"So, I advise you, kid, not to be too stubborn in seeking the Original Sin. You should prioritize keeping your little life safe first. Even if you don't consider yourself, you should think about your next life. If not your next life, then think about your descendants, right?"
Here we go again. Obviously, Da Xing still hadn't given up. Whenever he had the chance, he would try to persuade Gu Qingfeng to abandon his quest for the Original Sin.
Gu Qingfeng paid no heed to this, merely smiling faintly. He wandered aimlessly through the Primordial Black Hole, lost in thought.
Remembering the phrase, 'The Desolate Ancient Cataclysm gave birth to heaven and earth, endless cycles of reincarnation appear, past and present lives meet through karma, whose fate is whose depends on heaven,' many faces surfaced in Gu Qingfeng's mind: Jun Xuanji, Yun Nishang, Su Hua.
Back in the Lingluo Sky Domain, when radiant light enveloped the domain, it was said that the legendary Lingluo Patriarch who founded it would manifest. Gu Qingfeng later learned that the so-called Lingluo Sky Domain was actually Jun Xuanji. Or perhaps it should be said that the Lingluo Patriarch was Jun Xuanji's previous life. And the Jun Xuanji Gu Qingfeng met in the Plum Blossom Secret Realm of Lingluo Sky Domain might no longer have been the original Jun Xuanji, but a Jun Xuanji who had awakened her past life.
No! He couldn't call her a Jun Xuanji who had awakened her past life. Gu Qingfeng still remembered Jun Xuanji saying she had buried her soul before reincarnating. That meant Jun Xuanji never wanted to awaken her previous life from the start. Not only did she not want to, but to prevent it, she had even buried her soul.
Then there was Yun Nishang. Yun Nishang had also reincarnated many times. Ouyang Ye of the Current Era and Hongxiu of the Ancient Era were both her reincarnations. However... Hongxiu was long gone, Ouyang Ye was long gone, all that remained was Yun Nishang. Perhaps the Yun Nishang of now was not the Yun Nishang of back then either. Although Gu Qingfeng hadn't seen Yun Nishang for a very, very long time, he had heard news of her. It was said Yun Nishang was now the Great Nature Empress, renowned throughout heaven and earth. That suggested the current Yun Nishang might have also awakened her past life memories.
As for Su Hua, Gu Qingfeng vaguely remembered she reincarnated to search for him. The reason for searching for him was simple: to seek karma, to seek her own previous life. The current Su Hua was the famous, widely known Saintess Empress. He didn't know if she had found her karma yet, or if she had awakened her past life memories.
Suddenly, Gu Qingfeng thought of another person. Huode. The current Huode was also no longer the Huode of old. His previous life had come knocking, and Huode's previous life was a mysterious and terrifying mad old man from the Daoless Age. This mad old man would pop out from time to time. Who knew what the final outcome would be when Huode and his previous life met—who would devour whom?
Unfortunately, Gu Qingfeng couldn't be of much help with this. If he could have helped, he would have settled it for Huode back in Lingluo Sky Domain. For one, he worried that intervening might affect Huode's karma. For another, Huode's previous life was too mysterious and too terrifying. Gu Qingfeng estimated he probably wasn't a match for Huode's previous life; even if he intervened, it likely wouldn't make a difference.
Thinking of Huode's previous life reminded Gu Qingfeng of something. Back when Huode's previous life emerged, that mad old man seemed to recognize him. Gu Qingfeng remembered clearly that the mad old man had even called out his name personally. In Gu Qingfeng's mind, Huode's previous life belonged to the Daoless Age and couldn't possibly know him. If he did know him, did that mean Gu Qingfeng had a previous life that also belonged to the Daoless Age? That didn't make sense either. Even if he had a previous life, the name couldn't be the same, could it? Thinking back carefully, the mad old man's words were all mystical mumbo-jumbo, rambling about karma, past and future, saying karma was reversed, past and future were chaotic, a whole mess of nonsense. Every time he remembered this, Gu Qingfeng got a headache.
He shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it further. He wandered around the Primordial Black Hole a while longer, originally hoping to wait for that tremendous clamor to sound again, to see if he could learn something from it. However, he waited a long time, and the clamor never came. The voice accompanying the clamor didn't return either.
Out of boredom, Gu Qingfeng randomly picked a Desolate Ancient ruin and flew into it. He had come here to seek the Original Sin. Although he had no interest in becoming the True Lord of Original Sin, if attaining that title was the only way to grasp the Original Sin, then Gu Qingfeng wouldn't mind aiming for it either. The only thing frustrating him was that within this vast, mysterious Primordial Black Hole, he had no clue where anything was. He didn't know how to go about seeking the Original Sin, feeling completely at a loss, forced to wander aimlessly like a headless fly, going wherever looked interesting.
Above, a massive chaotic vortex swirled slowly. Below, an endless expanse of desert ruins stretched out. It looked no different from other Desolate Ancient ruins—still devoid of any Law or order, with no spatial structure to speak of. If there was any difference, it was that this Desolate Ancient ruin was far larger than all the others Gu Qingfeng had entered combined. He didn't need to probe with his divine sense to tell; he could see it just from the massive chaotic vortex in the sky.
"This Desolate Ancient ruin seems rather lively," Gu Qingfeng mused. After wandering inside for a while, he had already spotted several groups of people.