"Changfeng, I find I truly understand you less and less."
At this moment, Gu Changfeng stood still, gazing in the direction Gu Qingfeng had departed, lost in thought. Qianye Immortal King, standing beside him, glanced at him and shook her head slightly, saying, "Since you keep saying that if you meet the You Emperor on the battlefield, you definitely won't hold back, why did you rush into the Li Palace to tell him these messages?"
Qianye Immortal King understood clearly in her heart that Gu Changfeng had barged into the Li Palace not because of the invitation from Elder Yu Ji of the Xuantian Immortal Dao, but because he was worried about Gu Qingfeng's safety, hoping to inform him of the news as soon as possible so he could be prepared.
"That's not contradictory. I've said that the You Emperor is both my opponent and my friend. On the battlefield, I will fight him to the bitter end, but..." Gu Changfeng didn't finish, but Qianye Immortal King continued for him, "But you also don't want to lose him as a friend, right?"
Gu Changfeng nodded.
He truly didn't want to lose a friend like Gu Qingfeng.
"You clearly know that you can't have both the fish and the bear's paw. If you want to protect the Great Dao, you are destined to lose the You Emperor as a friend. Conversely, if you don't want to lose the You Emperor as a friend, you cannot protect the Great Dao. Since ancient times, loyalty and righteousness have been difficult to reconcile."
"Just now, I told the You Emperor that if I see him on the battlefield, I definitely won't hold back. I also hope he won't hold back."
Qianye Immortal King didn't understand why Gu Changfeng suddenly said this and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I can do it, but he might not be able to."
"You mean to say that on the battlefield, the You Emperor would absolutely not annihilate you?"
Before Gu Changfeng could respond, Qianye Immortal King couldn't help but pour cold water on him, saying, "My dear husband, aren't you being a bit presumptuous and sentimental? What makes you think the You Emperor wouldn't kill you on the battlefield?"
"It's just a feeling."
"A feeling?"
Qianye Immortal King smiled bitterly, utterly speechless. "You really overestimate this so-called relationship of being both enemy and friend with the You Emperor. You might care deeply about your friendship with him, but that doesn't mean he does too. Moreover, it's not like he hasn't killed you before."
"You don't understand."
Gu Changfeng only said these three words and spoke no more.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes! I don't understand!"
Qianye Immortal King truly didn't understand. She had never been able to comprehend why Gu Changfeng placed such heavy importance on this relationship of being both enemy and friend with Gu Qingfeng—so heavy that he disregarded her persuasion, her feelings, and even ignored her presence to rush into the Li Palace to find Gu Qingfeng.
"Husband, I'm not deliberately trying to dampen your spirits. I just feel you place far too much importance on your friendship with the You Emperor—so much that it has already begun to affect your decisions, your stance, including your principles. Judging by what you just said, based on my understanding of you, if you and the You Emperor truly cross swords on the battlefield, you might not actually be able to bring yourself to annihilate him."
"No, I said that on the battlefield, I definitely won't hold back against him. I, Gu Changfeng, mean what I say."
"Then tell me, what is the battlefield?"
"If I am determined to protect the Great Dao, and if the You Emperor is determined to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin, that is the battlefield."
"I knew you would say that."
Qianye Immortal King rolled her eyes at him. "As far as I know, the You Emperor's attitude has never changed from the beginning, has it? He has repeatedly and publicly stated he has no interest in the True Lord of Original Sin, will not contend for it, and will not slaughter the Great Dao. Doesn't that mean there is no so-called battlefield between you and the You Emperor, and you won't cross swords?"
"Don't forget that the You Emperor is a variable, and the greatest variable at that. Anything is possible. And I remember you said that the issue now isn't whether the You Emperor is interested in the True Lord of Original Sin, but whether Original Sin is interested in the You Emperor. If Original Sin chooses the You Emperor, aside from accepting it, he can only accept it. There is no second choice."
"I..." Qianye Immortal King hadn't expected Gu Changfeng to use her own words to refute her. She was instantly furious. "Fine! Even if that's the case, what about you? Have you decided to protect the Great Dao?"
Mentioning this matter gave Qianye Immortal King both a headache and deep regret—regret so intense she wished she could beat herself to death.
Originally.
Gu Changfeng had always been unwavering in his determination to protect the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
Even after entering the Primordial Black Hole and facing probes from various mysterious forces, he still insisted on protecting the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
However.
Qianye Immortal King was different.
She wasn't as pure and simple as Gu Changfeng, so she thought more, especially after entering the Primordial Black Hole. She increasingly felt that everything was like a scheme—a scheme meticulously arranged by Causality and Fate, a scheme painstakingly laid out by the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. And so-called 'bearing the Heavenly Mandate' and 'bearing the True Mandate' were all just chess pieces in this scheme.
Then she began to feel lost, and began to wander.
She didn't know whether she should continue protecting the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, or perhaps more accurately, whether she was willing to be a chess piece for Causality, Fate, and the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
To be more precise, whether she was willing to have her own fate controlled by others.
When she told Gu Changfeng about the loss and wandering in her heart, her original intention was to have Gu Changfeng guide her, to dispel the loss and wandering in her heart. Because she knew Gu Changfeng firmly believed that good and evil are rewarded, fate is determined by heaven, good causes yield good results, evil causes yield evil results—what kind of cause you sow, you reap what kind of fate.
However.
What Qianye Immortal King never expected was that Gu Changfeng not only failed to dispel the loss and wandering in her heart, but was instead influenced by her and actually began to feel lost and wander himself.
What made her even more devastated was that after being influenced, Gu Changfeng seemed to have matured a great deal overnight. He was no longer as simple and pure as before; his whole person had become something she couldn't fathom, even making Qianye Immortal King feel that Gu Changfeng seemed like a stranger.
Qianye Immortal King didn't know why it had become like this, nor did she know whether Gu Changfeng changing like this was right or wrong.
Therefore, Qianye Immortal King deeply regretted it, regretting that she had ever confided her inner loss and wandering to Gu Changfeng.
Alas, it was too late for regret now. It was easy for a person's state of mind to change from simple to complex, but to go from complex back to simple was simply a fantasy.
Whether she admitted it or not, Gu Changfeng was no longer the simple, pure Gu Changfeng of before.
"Whether I protect the Great Dao does not depend on me, but on the Great Dao itself. If this Great Dao is worthy of my protection, I will definitely protect it. If this Great Dao is not worthy of my protection, then why should I protect it?"
Looking at Gu Changfeng now, Qianye Immortal King felt more and more that he was a stranger. She murmured in a lost voice, "Changfeng, you've changed, truly changed. The old you would never have said such things."
"I haven't changed. What has changed is merely my state of mind."