The sun set in the west.
After a whole afternoon of work, only after planting the entire acre of Spirit Field did he finally leave.
As for the matters Ouyang Ye was worried about, he didn't take them to heart at all. Instead, the worry the little girl had shown gave Gu Qingfeng a sense of déjà vu. To be precise, the words her senior sister had spoken this afternoon had deeply moved him.
Back in the day, when he was a laborer at the Yunxia Sect, he had fallen for a senior sister. He had expended a great deal of effort to win her over. Unfortunately, he was merely a laborer back then, while that senior sister, like Ouyang Ye, was an inner disciple of the Yunxia Sect.
Later, when this relationship was discovered, the outcome was predictable. Everyone in the Yunxia Sect opposed it. The various humiliations from fellow disciples and the scorn from the sect elders remained fresh in his memory to this day.
Although the young Gu Qingfeng of that time was arrogant and reckless—the more people opposed, the more he persisted—unfortunately, he had nothing to his name back then: no status, no position, and no cultivation. In the end, to avoid causing trouble for his senior sister, he had no choice but to leave with bitter regret.
He still remembered his senior sister's name: Hongxiu.
That was his first love.
Afterwards, he had returned to look for her, only to learn that Senior Sister Hongxiu had already married. Since then, Gu Qingfeng had never inquired about any news regarding Hongxiu.
Now, after five hundred years, returning to the Yunxia Sect, he had actually encountered a situation eerily similar to the past. Although this matter had started merely as a favor to help Ouyang Ye and wasn't real, the words Ouyang Ye's senior sister spoke this afternoon had truly touched him deeply.
He shook his head, sighed, and didn't dwell on it further.
By the time he returned to the Spirit Seclusion Garden on the rear mountain, it was already evening. He didn't know where that old man Huode had gone; he hadn't been seen all day. With nothing else to do, Gu Qingfeng began to meditate in stillness.
After being judged by the Heavenly Dao, his Great Dao foundation was destroyed, his cultivation completely dissipated, and his Immortal Demon Throne was seized. This meant his peerless Immortal-Demon physique had also been reduced to its original form, becoming mere mortal flesh.
If he wanted to cultivate again, there was only one path: to re-establish his foundation.
Foundation Establishment was no difficult matter for Gu Qingfeng. Although he had been reduced to his original form and lost everything, his physical body had, after all, been tempered by the Nine Nether Ancestral Flames. The Heavenly Dao might have reduced his peerless Immortal-Demon physique to mortal flesh, but it could not destroy the Nine Nether bloodline within him.
Relying on the Nine Nether bloodline and his five hundred years of cultivation experience, re-establishing his foundation was as easy as turning over his hand.
Over the past few days, Gu Qingfeng's weakened soul and body had gradually recovered. He didn't need to deliberately practice breathing exercises because every pore on his body was a dantian, autonomously absorbing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth every single moment.
As an endless stream of spiritual energy entered his body through his pores, nourishing his internal organs and meridians, within just a few days of arriving at the Yunxia Sect, the spiritual power within him had begun to flow through his meridians like a river.
He meditated in stillness like this throughout the night.
The next morning, as the sun rose.
Gu Qingfeng was surprised to find that old man Huode still hadn't returned.
"That old man Huode is really too much. After not seeing each other for hundreds of years, I finally come back to catch up with him, and damn it, he actually plays disappearing games with me."
Gu Qingfeng didn't know where Huode had gone, nor did he bother to look. Fortunately, the old man had privately stored quite a bit of fine wine.
After washing up in the morning, he fetched two jars of fine wine from Huode's secret chamber and sat in the courtyard to bask in the sun.
"Old man Huode is supposed to be a connoisseur of wine, why doesn't he keep some truly good stuff?"
Gu Qingfeng loved to drink; he had never stopped since childhood. From this world all the way to his ascension to the celestial realm, he had tasted almost every drinkable wine. The ones he reminisced about most were the few jars of 'Reincarnation Drunk' he had won from the Black Sun Old Demon in the Nine Nethers. One sip of that wine was absolutely a drunken reincarnation—it was truly a delightful drink.
"I do remember the recipe for the Black Sun Old Demon's Reincarnation Drunk, but the resources listed in the recipe aren't easy to find..." Gu Qingfeng pondered, thinking he might brew some wine himself if he had the chance. Even if he couldn't brew the true Reincarnation Drunk of the Black Sun Old Demon, he could start by making a fake version.
Just as he was thinking this, Wang Dashan suddenly rushed in. The man looked flustered, his eyes red, covering his cheek. Seeing Gu Qingfeng, he called out "Young Master" and then hurried towards the inner room.
"Dashan, what's wrong with you?"
"It's... it's nothing..." Wang Dashan said with his back to Gu Qingfeng, seeming somewhat guilty.
Gu Qingfeng walked over, looked at him, and asked, "You look like you've been crying... What happened?"
"Young Master, I... I'm fine..."
"What's wrong with your face?" Gu Qingfeng pulled Wang Dashan's hand away and couldn't help but frown. Dashan's right cheek was badly swollen, with a bloody palm print on it, and there was a bit of blood at the corner of his mouth.
"Weren't you going to the Spirit Field? Who was so vicious as to beat you like this?"
"Young Master, I'm really fine, please don't ask..." Wang Dashan covered his face, head bowed, not daring to look up.
"What exactly happened?"
Gu Qingfeng sensed something amiss from Wang Dashan's evasive eyes and asked, "Does it have something to do with me?"
Seeing Wang Dashan remain silent, Gu Qingfeng added, "You might as well tell me. If you don't, I'll find out when I go to the Spirit Field later anyway."
Hearing that Gu Qingfeng intended to go to the Spirit Field, Wang Dashan quickly said, "Young Master, you mustn't go!"
"Oh? So it really is because of me..." Gu Qingfeng could more or less guess the general situation. "I'll go take a look at the Spirit Field."
"Young Master, please don't go! Senior Sister Ouyang said you shouldn't go!"
Hearing Ouyang Ye's name, Gu Qingfeng pretty much understood. He found some ointment from the garden's medicine room and first treated the wound on Wang Dashan's cheek. As he bandaged it, he asked, "What exactly happened?"
"It's like this... This morning, I... I was harvesting in the Spirit Field when a few outer gate senior brothers, without a word, dug up the seeds you just planted yesterday. I... I couldn't stand it, so I said a couple of things... and then they... they beat me up. Later... later, Senior Sister Ouyang somehow found out about this... She told me to come back first and specifically told me not to tell you about it. The senior sister said she would handle the matter."
"A bunch of little brats, their feathers aren't even fully grown, yet they strike so viciously."
After bandaging Wang Dashan's wound, Gu Qingfeng stood up and said, "Let's go, take me to the Spirit Field."
Wang Dashan looked miserable with worry. "Young Master, you... you really shouldn't go!"
Gu Qingfeng drained the wine from his cup and said calmly, "Destroying my Spirit Field is a minor matter; I don't care about that. But you took this slap for my sake, and that absolutely cannot be left unsettled."
He then stuffed the wine jar into his storage bag. Gu Qingfeng's expression showed no emotion as he fastened the buttons on his robe one by one, speaking coldly.
"In this life of mine, I can endure almost anything. But there is one thing I absolutely cannot tolerate: someone getting hurt because of me. I couldn't tolerate it when I was young, I can't tolerate it now that I'm grown, I couldn't tolerate it in the past, and I won't tolerate it in the future. This is my principle as a person, my most basic bottom line."
"Young Master, let it go... They are outer disciples of the Yunxia Sect, we... we can't afford to provoke them! Let it go..."
"They're just a few little brats. Never mind that they're disciples of the Yunxia Sect; even if they were immortals or demons, I wouldn't care. Even if the heavens themselves slapped you because of me, I would still get justice for you!"
"Let's go!"