This was Gu Qingfeng. If it were anyone else, they would have long since perished on the spot.
One must know that his Spiritual Power also contained some Judgment Lightning.
Fortunately, when he had laid his foundation back then, he had used Nine Nethers Fire as the base, and the Purple Mansion he had opened was a small world unto itself.
At this very moment.
His Purple Mansion was being scorched by Purple-Gloomy Flame.
Within it, the turbid Spiritual Power churned and boiled violently, mixed with countless strands of Judgment Lightning. This Spiritual Power was extremely violent, not only boiling within Gu Qingfeng's Purple Mansion but also rampaging wildly through his meridians.
"It seems you can't hold back any longer..." Gu Qingfeng sighed. His condition had long since warranted condensing a Golden Core, and there was even more than enough to nurture a Nascent Soul, or even conceive a Primordial Spirit.
However, he had not done so.
First.
The Primal Chaos Seed that the Great Nature had forced upon him had already begun to grow. Moreover, Gu Qingfeng had discovered that every time he advanced a realm, the Primal Chaos Seed would grow even more powerful. Right now, he was still confident he could suppress it. But if he advanced several more realms, he didn't know to what extent this Primal Chaos Seed would grow, nor could he be sure he would be able to suppress it then.
Second.
Back when he had condensed his Golden Core before, he had condensed eighty-one of them. His current Spiritual Power was even more vast, boundless, and complex than it was back then. If he were to condense a Golden Core now, who the hell knew what kind of monstrosity he would end up with.
Third.
And this was the most important.
His temperament was carefree and unrestrained. He cultivated the Great Freedom Heart Realm, which emphasized following nature's course.
Regarding anything, he neither forced it nor refused it. You lot can fuss however you like, and when I'm in the mood, I'll fuss however I like too.
Therefore.
He was in no hurry about the Golden Core.
When the feeling came, he would deal with it then.
He observed the dim Lonely Star Tear again. This thing had now lost its vitality once more, like a stone lying dormant within a turbulent sea. It was unaffected by the Primal Chaos Seed, unaffected by the turbid Spiritual Power, and not even affected by Gu Qingfeng's Nine Nethers Fire.
Just what the hell was this thing?
Even now, Gu Qingfeng hadn't figured it out.
Why did the emergence of its vitality affect his state of mind? Gu Qingfeng still didn't understand that either.
He only felt that this thing seemed familiar, as if it had been with him since birth. The feeling was strange. He clearly didn't know what the Lonely Star Tear actually was, yet he felt no discomfort at all, as if it had always belonged to him, not the slightest bit out of place.
"The longer you live, the more bizarre things you encounter."
Ever since Gu Qingfeng embarked on the path of cultivation five hundred years ago, he had encountered all sorts of strange and bizarre things.
Eighty-one Golden Cores, terrifying Nascent Souls, evil Primordial Spirits—these were nothing worth mentioning to him.
His Purple Mansion had once housed a peerless old demon, concealed a small world, transformed into a purgatory, and even nurtured evil wraiths...
Too many, far too many strange and bizarre things, countless beyond reckoning.
Gu Qingfeng was used to it. However, he had never encountered anything that gave him the feeling of familiarity, of being innate from birth, like this Lonely Star Tear.
"Truly strange."
The more Gu Qingfeng probed this Lonely Star Tear, the stronger that feeling of familiarity, as if it had always been part of him, became.
He continued probing like this.
Suddenly, Gu Qingfeng's mind was thrown into disarray once more. Immediately after, a voice inexplicably flashed through his consciousness.
"Why?
Just why?
Tell me, why!"
"Why must it be this way?"
"This is fate...
You cannot change it!
None of us can change it..." The voice appeared suddenly in his mind and vanished just as quickly.
Gu Qingfeng was utterly astonished. He was certain the voice that had just flashed through his mind came from this Lonely Star Tear.
But whose voice was it?
And what did it mean?
What 'why'?
What 'must it be this way'?
What was 'fate'?
And what was 'cannot be changed'?
He did not know.
Gu Qingfeng truly couldn't figure it out. He continued probing the Lonely Star Tear, but the voice from before never appeared again.
A long time later, Gu Qingfeng gave up. He opened his eyes, took out an exquisite wine flask, poured a cup of wine, raised his head, and drank it all in one gulp. Recalling the voice from his mind just now, he murmured, "Strange things happen every year, but this year seems especially full of them..." The wine was the Sea-Blue Moon left by Chen Yue.
The cup was the Taixu Cup he had personally refined.
He poured again, drank again.
"After the Great Calamity, all things revive, and all sorts of chaotic nonsense has come back to life along with it..."
"The Primal Sources are being reborn, the Great Dao is being re-derived, all laws are like this. Such a chaotic time truly feels a bit eerie."
"The Mandate of Heaven for the Current Era hasn't been determined yet, right?
Once it is determined, I'm afraid things will become even more chaotic then."
"Karma will probably become chaotic too, right?"
Gu Qingfeng knew that all things between heaven and earth existed within Karma. This Lonely Star Tear definitely hadn't appeared in his Purple Mansion for no reason.
As for whether this Karma had existed long ago, or whether it had only just begun, that was impossible to know.
Especially since that Original Sin woman had mentioned the Karma Black Hole before, saying that after the Great Calamity, a Karma Black Hole was condensing and deriving, and it had already swept many people into it. He was one of them. In other words, the Karma he was currently in contact with might not necessarily be his own Karma; it might belong to someone else's Karma within the Karma Black Hole.
"This is...
A bit messy."
Gu Qingfeng shook his head helplessly. Then he took out from his storage bag a painting, an Ice Heart, a turbid crystal, and a Dragon-Elephant stone.
When he had awakened this time, his original intention had been to seek out his own Karma, to find the first branch of Karma that belonged to him—the Flaming Sun Heart he had fused with back at the Yunxia Sect. As a result, before he could find the Flaming Sun Heart, he had found this pile of troublesome things instead.
That painting, the Ice Heart, and the turbid crystal were all related to Yun Nishang.
The painting was what Yun Nishang had asked Ancestor Bingxuan to leave for him.
The Ice Heart was what Yun Nishang had condensed and left behind.
The turbid crystal was also found within Yun Nishang's cave abode.
These three things were all related to Yun Nishang.
As for that Dragon-Elephant Seed, although it didn't seem to have any direct relation to Yun Nishang, it was somewhat related to Jun Xuanji.
That woman Yun Nishang clearly knew something and had long since begun making arrangements...
If the Dragon-Elephant Seed was truly created by Jun Xuanji, Gu Qingfeng was almost certain that this woman probably also knew something and had long since begun making her own arrangements.
Yun Nishang didn't know what kind of Karma chess game she was playing. If the Dragon-Elephant Seed was truly Jun Xuanji's doing, then this woman also didn't know what kind of Karma chess game she was playing.
"Sigh."
Gu Qingfeng sighed heavily and said, "I regret acting a bit too late...
If I had listened to that old demon back then and made preparations before the Great Calamity, I wouldn't be so passive now."