Da Xing the Mad Monk looked utterly lost, as if he had suffered some shock. He wept and laughed intermittently—it seemed like laughter, yet also like crying—muttering to himself incessantly.
Indeed.
He had been shocked.
And it was a powerful shock, one he found utterly unacceptable.
His shock did not stem from witnessing the incarnations of these Great Dao Experts in heaven and earth being annihilated like ants before Gu Qingfeng.
To be honest, while this matter had greatly affected him, that was all it was.
He couldn't care less about the life or death of these Great Dao Experts.
Not only that, but seeing Gu Qingfeng obliterate one incarnation of a Great Dao Expert after another, Da Xing the Mad Monk should have been overjoyed.
Unfortunately!
He couldn't feel any joy.
Not only could he not feel joy, but it filled him with boundless despair, a despair so deep it extinguished all hope.
Because he could see that the Gu Qingfeng here had already lost his reason, like a mad demon. In other words, Gu Qingfeng's self-consciousness might have already been devoured, and his physical body might have been seized. Gu Qingfeng was no longer the Gu Qingfeng he once was.
This was what Da Xing the Mad Monk least wanted to see, least hoped would happen.
When he learned that the Omen Object within Gu Qingfeng was beginning to stir, he had prayed to the Buddha Lord, hoping the Buddha Lord would protect Gu Qingfeng through this trial.
When a mysterious breath flowed from Gu Qingfeng's body—a breath that existed outside the order of Dao Laws—Da Xing the Mad Monk's heart had already stirred with an ominous premonition.
When he saw a Desolate Ancient Era ruin being reduced to dust and smoke by the ancient, domineering might accompanying that mysterious breath, the ominous feeling in his heart grew stronger.
When he saw that even the Void of the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces could not withstand that gray-white smoke, the ominous premonition intensified further.
When Gu Qingfeng's roar shook the sky, filling it with cracks and holes, and also shook Da Xing until blood spurted from his mouth and nose, the ominous feeling in his heart had already reached its peak.
When he witnessed with his own eyes Gu Qingfeng's slight sway, which caused the Void of the Li Palace to disintegrate and vanish, the ominous feeling in his heart was gone. Because that single sway not only caused the Li Palace Void to disintegrate and vanish, it also shattered and dispersed the ominous premonition in his heart.
What replaced it was collapse, and despair!
Especially when he saw Gu Qingfeng's hair turn gray-white, his eyes turn gray-white, and he began slaughtering the incarnations of Great Dao Experts lurking in the Void like a mad demon, the last shred of hope in Da Xing the Mad Monk's heart was utterly extinguished.
What he feared most had ultimately happened.
Gu Qingfeng was no longer Gu Qingfeng.
Exactly whose self-consciousness had devoured Gu Qingfeng's, whose physical body had seized and occupied his—was it the Omen Object, or the Evil Asura of Avici, or the one who searches high and low, or the Blood Glutton that devours heaven and earth?
Da Xing the Mad Monk did not know.
Nor did he want to know.
This question was no longer important to him. What was important was that Gu Qingfeng was no longer Gu Qingfeng.
When Gu Qingfeng was no longer Gu Qingfeng.
Would those Great Dao Experts who guarded the Heaven-Earth Great Dao and schemed for the True Lord of Original Sin join forces to eliminate him?
Would those Great Dao Experts who yearned for the Wu Dao Age and previously supported Gu Qingfeng eliminate him?
Would those women connected to Gu Qingfeng by Karma eliminate him?
Would Genggu Wuming eliminate him?
Da Xing the Mad Monk similarly did not know, and similarly did not want to know.
This question was similarly no longer important to him.
As long as Gu Qingfeng was no longer Gu Qingfeng, then everything became unimportant to Da Xing the Mad Monk. Even whether the Heaven-Earth Great Dao could be preserved, whether the Wu Dao Age would open—everything, everything became irrelevant because Gu Qingfeng was no longer Gu Qingfeng.
Da Xing the Mad Monk had staked everything, betting all he had on Gu Qingfeng. What he gambled on was neither this Heaven-Earth Great Dao, nor this Wu Dao Age, but the future behind the Heaven-Earth Great Dao and the Wu Dao Age.
Unfortunately.
This hand, he had lost.
Lost terribly, terribly.
So terribly that he had lost before this gamble had even truly begun.
Lost until he was bankrupt, lost until he had nothing left, lost his Karma and Fate, and lost the future.
Here.
The Void was still the Void, but it was not the Void from before.
After the previous Void was reduced to dust and smoke by Gu Qingfeng's slight sway, the ever-changing, infinitely profound Void of the Li Palace began to gradually heal.
However.
The sky-filling gray smoke, like a raging inferno, burned the healing Void, emitting sharp, crackling explosions.
The Great Dao Experts lurking in the Void were dead, perished, fleeing, escaping...
And Gu Qingfeng's figure grew increasingly distorted and blurred, increasingly ethereal and elusive, flickering in and out, as if gradually merging into that sky-filling gray-white smoke.
In the distant Void, a mountain still lay hidden.
The mountain was Blackwater Mountain.
On Blackwater Mountain stood two people.
One man, one woman.
The woman wore a black robe that wrapped her tightly from head to toe. The man was an old man, with disheveled hair and an unkempt appearance that made him look like a beggar.
One was Blackwater Lady, the other was Old Beggar.
Both were figures who had emerged from Guixu.
And their backgrounds and identities were each more formidable than the last.
It was said that Blackwater Lady was once one of the Five-Colored Envoys of Great Nature.
Old Beggar was a Monster Dao Patriarch, and moreover, a Monster Dao Patriarch from the Desolate Ancient Era.
The two of them had been secretly observing Gu Qingfeng. However, their purpose in observing was neither to guard the Heaven-Earth Great Dao, nor to scheme for the True Lord of Original Sin, nor even to eliminate Gu Qingfeng.
On the contrary.
It was to observe Gu Qingfeng's condition, and one could even say, to secretly protect Gu Qingfeng.
Because these two were precisely the Great Dao Experts Da Xing the Mad Monk had mentioned—those who hoped Gu Qingfeng would ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin and secretly supported him.
As Da Xing the Mad Monk had said.
If the Great Dao Experts in heaven and earth wanted to eliminate Gu Qingfeng, they would certainly step in to stop it—provided Gu Qingfeng was still Gu Qingfeng.
Da Xing the Mad Monk knew that several Children of Original Sin with unknown purposes resided within Gu Qingfeng; they knew it too.
Da Xing the Mad Monk worried that Gu Qingfeng's self-consciousness would be devoured; they worried too.
When Gu Qingfeng sat cross-legged atop the Desolate Ancient Era ruin, trying to suppress the stirring Omen Object, Da Xing the Mad Monk wanted to help but was powerless; they also wanted to help, and were equally powerless.
When the mysterious breath outside the Great Dao flowed from Gu Qingfeng, Da Xing the Mad Monk had an ominous premonition; they did too.
When Gu Qingfeng's figure grew increasingly distorted and blurred, losing his reason and beginning to slaughter the incarnations of Great Dao Experts like a mad demon, Da Xing the Mad Monk collapsed; they collapsed too.
Da Xing the Mad Monk had staked everything, betting the future on Gu Qingfeng. Although these two had not bet absolutely everything on Gu Qingfeng, it was nearly the same.
When Gu Qingfeng was no longer Gu Qingfeng, Da Xing the Mad Monk lost; they lost too.
Da Xing the Mad Monk was in utter despair, with all hope extinguished; the situation for these two was much the same.
Standing on Blackwater Mountain, Blackwater Lady's beautiful face turned pale then flushed, her eyes filled with shock, with disbelief, and with an inability to accept.
Beside her, Old Beggar looked even more despairing than Blackwater Lady. In his despair, he plopped down onto Blackwater Mountain, staring wide-eyed and muttering to himself, "This kid actually...
actually...
is just gone like that?"
"This old man was counting on him to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin, to slaughter the Three Thousand Great Daos, and counting on him to open the Wu Dao Age... how could this kid just vanish like that..." "With this kid gone, who will ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin?
Who will slaughter the Three Thousand Great Daos, and who will open the Wu Dao Age?"
"This old man...
has waited from the Desolate Ancient Era until the present Ancient Era...
waited who knows how many years, and now that kid just vanishes? Then haven't all these years of waiting been in vain?"
Despair!
Deep despair!
Old Beggar now even felt like dying, despairing to the point of wanting to end it all.
He was a Monster Dao Overlord from the Desolate Ancient Era, who had always dreamed of one day slaughtering the Three Thousand Great Daos and opening the Wu Dao Age.
Therefore.
When the Blood of Original Sin appeared in the Desolate Ancient Era, he was the first to seize a drop, successfully merging it into himself to become a Person of Original Sin. His goal was to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin, slaughter the Three Thousand Great Daos, and thereby open the dreamt-of Wu Dao Age.
Although Old Beggar was ultimately furious and disheartened at failing to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin, at least someone else had ascended as the True Lord of Original Sin, had slaughtered the Three Thousand Great Daos, and successfully opened the Wu Dao Age.
Failing to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin, as long as he could step into the Wu Dao Age, was still a cause for joy for Old Beggar.
But what Old Beggar could never have imagined was that when the Wu Dao Age opened back then, before he could even experience the so-called Wu Dao Age, before he even knew what was happening, then...
there was no 'then'...
At the very moment the Wu Dao Age opened, Judgment descended, Cataclysm descended, the Apocalypse descended, the heavens collapsed, the earth split, and the Desolate Ancient Era ended so abruptly and inexplicably...
Back then, to escape the Cataclysm, Old Beggar entered Hell, and entered the Abyss. He thought he could avoid this Cataclysm, but never imagined that Judgment would ultimately descend upon him. It did not judge him to dust and smoke, but instead cast him into Guixu.
Guixu was a place without sun or moon, without heaven or earth, without time, without space, a place with nothing at all.
Where one couldn't even die.
Because Guixu had neither life nor death.
After being cast into Guixu, what awaited you was endless loneliness, endless emptiness, endless solitude.
Old Beggar was suppressed in such a place for countless years, from the end of the Desolate Ancient Era until the opening of the present Ancient Era, when Guixu disintegrated, and he was fortunate enough to see the light of day again.
While in Guixu, he had heard that the Book of Fate recorded that the True Lord of Original Sin would be born in the present Ancient Era, and would slaughter the Three Thousand Great Daos and open the Wu Dao Age.
He had been waiting for this day to come.
After emerging from Guixu, he did nothing else, constantly searching for the True Lord of Original Sin recorded in the Book of Fate.
He searched for a long time, and finally found Gu Qingfeng.
Although the Book of Fate did not specify by name who would ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin, Old Beggar was, after all, a Monster Dao Patriarch from the Desolate Ancient Era, had merged with the Blood of Original Sin, and had witnessed the opening of the Wu Dao Age with his own eyes. He could still discern a thing or two about who the True Lord of Original Sin recorded in the Book of Fate was.