Having displayed what could be called peerless mastery in Musical Arts, Gu Qingfeng now found the Little Hidden Dragons stepping forward one by one to challenge him in martial arts. Although this was somewhat shameful, for these Little Hidden Dragons, the humiliation of having just sought guidance in Musical Arts from Gu Qingfeng was already the ultimate disgrace. Compared to that, losing a little face by challenging him in martial arts was utterly insignificant.
Losing a little face to regain a great deal of face—this was a trade naturally worth making. And the Ten Little Hidden Dragons were confident they could double the face they had lost by reclaiming it in the martial arts domain.
However, those wishing to salvage their pride in the martial arts domain were not limited to the Ten Little Hidden Dragons. The young masters of the Thirty-Six Hua Pavilions, heirs of various major sects, and a host of other geniuses also stepped forward to challenge Gu Qingfeng. Each wore a swaggering, domineering expression, as if they would not rest until they had beaten Gu Qingfeng half to death today.
"What's the matter? Weren't you incredibly arrogant and overbearing just now?"
Seeing Gu Qingfeng continuously demur, the Ten Little Hidden Dragons grew even more certain he was afraid. Especially Tu Gao, who was desperate to recover the face he had just lost. Pointing at Gu Qingfeng, he said disdainfully, "Now, this young master merely wishes to exchange pointers with you. It's not about taking your life. Do you not even have the courage for that?"
"Can't be helped. I'm just born timid," Gu Qingfeng shrugged, then stood up and addressed the crowd. "Everyone, I do have some talent in Musical Arts, but I'm utterly ignorant of other immortal arts. Especially martial arts—I'm really not much good, and certainly no match for any of you. So, let's not make a fuss. Let the Fairy begin her lecture on the Dao."
Gu Qingfeng, adopting an attitude of appeasement, deliberately showed weakness. Little did he expect these Little Hidden Dragons would not buy it. Not only that, seeing him yield, they became even more aggressive. Tu Gao and the others were even on the verge of taking action. Fortunately, Su Hua intervened in time to calm the situation.
Although Su Hua stepped in to persuade them, the Little Hidden Dragons did not give up. They were determined to reclaim their lost face from Gu Qingfeng no matter what, while Su Hua earnestly and patiently tried to talk sense into the crowd.
Gu Qingfeng watched Su Hua in the midst of this, and the more he looked, the more contempt he felt. Beside him, Huo De watched these endless little bastards with great displeasure. Seeing Su Hua's painstaking efforts to persuade them only made him more anxious, and he couldn't help but sigh.
"The Fairy is famously gentle and kind. That's both her virtue and her flaw. Usually, she's too approachable, which is why these little bastards have no fear of her. If you ask me, there's no need to waste words on these brats. Whoever doesn't listen should get a few hard slaps to the face. Let's see who dares to chatter nonsense then."
"If she did that, she wouldn't be Su Hua," Gu Qingfeng said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he watched Su Hua trying to persuade the crowd. He remarked disdainfully, "That woman cultivates the Great Kindness Heart of Compassion."
"Great Kindness Heart of Compassion? What's that?"
"A supreme Buddhist state of mind. Cultivating this state, one's supreme goodness is like water, compassionate and well-ordered."
As he spoke, Gu Qingfeng suddenly remembered the words of the Daughter of Original Sin. It seemed Su Hua was very important, valued by many Great Daos. Previously, Gu Qingfeng hadn't fully understood, but now, having discerned Su Hua's Great Kindness Heart of Compassion, he suddenly realized.
No wonder so many Great Daos valued this woman. No wonder the Daughter of Original Sin said Su Hua was extremely important. This woman cultivated the Great Kindness Heart of Compassion. This supreme Buddhist state of mind emphasized fairness and impartiality. In other words, all things between heaven and earth were equal in her eyes, without any exception—treated equally. Humans were, demons were, immortals and devils were, and even the Great Dao was the same.
If this woman was a person destined for the tribulation and also cultivated the Great Kindness Heart of Compassion, her future destiny would undoubtedly be pivotal. One could even say that a single move from her could affect the entire situation.
Thinking of this, Gu Qingfeng somewhat understood why the Daughter of Original Sin had been urging him to stay away from Su Hua.
Now that his own karma was entangled in some kind of karmic black hole, if he dragged in someone like Su Hua—a tribulation-destined person with a Great Kindness Heart of Compassion—the future contention among the Great Daos would be a spectacle to behold.
Considering this, Gu Qingfeng truly felt an impulse to involve Su Hua. But after careful thought, he decided against it.
Although he very much wanted to see those Great Daos make fools of themselves, he really didn't want to stir up trouble again in this lifetime.
It was too exhausting.
"Kid Gu, I'm thinking the Fairy Su Hua might not be able to persuade these bastards. I think..."
"Not able to persuade?" Gu Qingfeng sneered. "She's not unable to persuade them; she simply has no intention of persuading them at all."
"Kid Gu, you saw it yourself. Fairy Su Hua has been painstakingly trying to persuade them, but these bastards just won't listen. They insist on causing trouble for you."
"Painstakingly, my foot. That's all just an act for you to see."
Gu Qingfeng picked up his Taixu Cup, took a sip, and looked at Su Hua, finding it somewhat amusing.
Others might not see it, but that didn't mean he couldn't. From the very beginning, he knew this woman Su Hua's intentions were not pure. He could even be certain that the moment he arrived at the Taixuan Platform, Su Hua already knew and had been observing his every move. She was just pretending not to know.
As for the earlier incident with the Little Blue Flower Language, Gu Qingfeng also knew it wasn't that Su Hua couldn't dissuade them; she simply didn't want to. He was absolutely sure that woman wanted to know his background more than anyone else. So, this probing by the Little Hidden Dragons suited her intentions perfectly.
Precisely because he knew this, Gu Qingfeng had put on a grand show earlier. His aim was to tell Su Hua: Since you want to probe, I'll let you probe to your heart's content in one go, saving you the trouble of testing bit by bit.
The reason for doing this was also to shake off Su Hua, to prevent her from having any further doubts about him, and to stop her from continuing to investigate him.
After all, Su Hua's existence was too special. Gu Qingfeng didn't want to get involved with someone like her.
He had thought that revealing his mastery in Musical Arts would resolve Su Hua's doubts. Even if it didn't fully resolve them, it would at least make her somewhat wary and know when to stop. However, to Gu Qingfeng's surprise, this woman showed no sign of stopping. Looking at her 'painstaking' efforts to persuade the crowd, it was clear she had tested his Musical Arts and now wanted to test his martial arts as well.
Gu Qingfeng felt rather helpless about this.
To be honest, if this matter could be resolved by force, he wouldn't have bothered with Musical Arts from the start.
The key was that his current condition wasn't suitable for fighting.
Ever since the Great Natural Order had forcibly bestowed upon him a Seed, Gu Qingfeng had been suppressing his cultivation.
That was a Seed of the Great Natural Order. It had already fused with him and was autonomously growing. The higher Gu Qingfeng's cultivation, the faster that Seed grew.
The gift forced upon him by the Great Natural Order was too heavy—so heavy that Gu Qingfeng felt a bit 'unable to bear it.' Therefore, he reckoned that before finding a solution, while he could still suppress it, he didn't want this Seed of the Great Natural Order to grow too quickly, lest he be unable to handle it later.
Gu Qingfeng's physical body could autonomously absorb spiritual energy.
The Seed of the Great Natural Order was endlessly self-generating.
The rate of spiritual energy growth was becoming more frenzied by the day. Originally, everything was still under control, but then he had acquired that 'Lone Star Tear.' That thing's commotion at Liu Ren Mountain directly caused the spiritual energy within his body to fall into a state of chaos.
Even now, it remained so.
And it was growing increasingly intense.
If he were to fight now, one could imagine that Gu Qingfeng would have no choice but to elevate his cultivation, whether he wanted to or not. What frustrated him most was that the spiritual energy within his body was too vast. When the time came to condense his Golden Core, he had no idea what kind of monstrosity he would end up with.