An old saying goes: debts from a past life must be repaid in this one.
To be honest, Gu Qingfeng did not agree with this old saying.
In his view, a past life was a past life, and the present life was the present life. There should be no connection or entanglement between the two.
This was indeed what he believed.
But that was only his personal belief.
In reality, the cause lies in the past life, the effect manifests in the present one.
What cause is sown in a past life inevitably yields what fruit in the present life. A good cause brings good fruit, an evil cause brings evil fruit.
What is Karma?
This is the so-called Karma.
Whether you agree with it or not, Karma is there, destined never to change.
The same goes for karmic retribution.
If you venture out into the world, sooner or later you must pay your dues. You may escape your past life, but you cannot escape your present one; you may escape your present life, but you cannot escape your next one.
No one is an exception.
Humans are not, demons and ghosts are not, and even Immortals, Demons, Buddhas, and Gods cannot escape Karma.
Gu Qingfeng gazed at the Tai Chi stone, which was evolving and transforming, brimming with infinite life and vitality. Within it, a drop of his blood and a drop of Yun Nishang's blood intertwined and interwove like Yin and Yang, each containing the other, inseparable.
Gu Qingfeng tried to extend his spiritual sense to probe it, but he could detect nothing.
Those two fused drops of blood acted like a seal, isolating his spiritual sense outside.
This was a blood seal.
It could only be opened with the blood of the person who cast it. Gu Qingfeng pondered for a moment, then bit his finger and let a drop of blood fall.
After the blood merged into the Tai Chi crystal, the blood belonging to him and Yun Nishang inside instantly began to boil. In an instant, it dyed the Tai Chi crystal blood-red, transforming it into a blood crystal.
Sensing something, Gu Qingfeng immediately extended his spiritual sense to probe.
Sure enough, the seal had been opened. Within, his spiritual sense detected a faint, weak spiritual will, more like a fragment of residual consciousness.
This fragment of residual consciousness had been in a deep slumber. When Gu Qingfeng's blood dripped in, it gradually awoke.
Gu Qingfeng carefully probed and sensed it, finding this fragment of residual consciousness strangely familiar.
Suddenly, he thought of someone: Yun Nishang.
Could this be a fragment of Yun Nishang's residual consciousness?
"Yun Nishang?"
Gu Qingfeng called softly.
No one responded.
He called again, but still no one answered.
And that fragment seemed extremely weak, so feeble it might dissipate at any moment. Even the endless life and vitality contained within the Tai Chi stone could change nothing.
When he called out once more, the fragment of residual consciousness finally transmitted a faint voice.
"You…
finally came…
I…
finally waited for you…"
Hearing the voice, Gu Qingfeng's heart jolted, and he quickly asked, "Are you Yun Nishang?"
"It is me…"
"So it is you!
What did you just say?
Waiting for me?
Waiting for me for what!"
"Waiting for you for what?"
Yun Nishang's voice was as weak as her residual consciousness. Each word seemed to drain all her strength. "I don't know why I waited for you either. I've forgotten…
Truly forgotten…"
Forgotten?
Now, whenever Gu Qingfeng heard these two words, it gave him a headache. He even felt a shadow over them.
Jun Xuanji was lost.
Could it be that Yun Nishang was also lost?
Upon inquiry, Yun Nishang responded, "Lost?
I once thought I was lost too…
Later, I realized I was not lost…
I have been waiting for you, but…
I truly do not know why I waited for you…
I don't know if I've forgotten, or if I truly never knew…"
"What Karma exists between us?"
"What Karma?
Hah, believe me…
I want to know the answer to that question even more than you do."
"You don't even know what Karma lies between us?"
"I don't know…
I very much want to know, but I truly do not know…
I have paid a great price for this. What should have been done, what should not have been done, I have done it all…
The ridiculous thing is, in the end, I still don't know what Karma truly exists between you and me…"
Gu Qingfeng did not understand, nor did he fully comprehend. He asked, "The Icexuan Heart of the Bingxuan Sect, the Yanyang Heart of the Yunxia Sect—did you create them to seek out this Karma?"
"It was me…
and yet not me…"
Gu Qingfeng asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Everything is predestined, ordained by fate long ago…
Karma needs no seeking…
It has always been there…
always there…
Causality is happening every moment, without cease…"
Whether Yun Nishang's words were too profound or something else, Gu Qingfeng simply could not understand. He could only voice the many doubts in his heart: "If you were not lost, why did you bury your own soul…"
Ouyang Ye was not Yun Nishang's reincarnation.
Nor was she a soul seizing a new body for rebirth.
It wasn't even a form of bloodline inheritance.
It was a type of blood sacrifice.
This thing was an extremely ancient taboo, and also a terrifying self-curse, known as the 'Soul-Burying Forbidden Curse.' Once performed, it buries the soul and erases the self.
The reason this method is called a Forbidden Curse is that in the past, some attempted to use it to evade the arbitration of fate, while others tried to use it to escape the retribution of Karma.
Whether one can truly evade the arbitration of fate or escape the retribution of Karma, no one knows.
But one thing is certain: once this method is performed, one will inevitably suffer a Curse—a Curse from fate, and a Curse from Karma.
Curses are extremely terrifying, especially those involving fate and Karma. Their terrifying degree is simply unimaginable.
Gu Qingfeng could not understand: since Yun Nishang was not lost, why would she employ such a terrifying Forbidden Curse as Soul-Burying?
What was she escaping from?
Was it Karma?
Escaping the Karma between herself and him?
If that were the case, then Gu Qingfeng understood even less: what Karma existed between him and Yun Nishang that would make her go so far as to use a blood sacrifice to bury her soul, willingly enduring a karmic Curse, just to escape this Karma?
"The reason I performed the blood sacrifice and buried my soul was because I did not want to face the Karma between us…"
"Why?"
"Because…
it is terrifying…"
"Terrifying?"
Gu Qingfeng grew even more confused. "Didn't you say you don't know what Karma lies between us? Since you don't know, why do you say it's terrifying?"
After speaking, Gu Qingfeng seemed to realize something and asked, "Could it be because of the so-called Karma Black Hole?"
"Karma Black Hole?
That is not terrifying…"
"If it's not the Karma Black Hole, then what is it?"
"The Mysterious Era…
the legend of Wu Dao…"
The Mysterious Era?
The legend of Wu Dao?
Gu Qingfeng knew that the so-called Mysterious Era referred to a mysterious, unknown epoch within heaven and earth.
He also knew that the so-called legend of Wu Dao referred to Venerable Wu Dao, the one who attained True Godhood during that Mysterious Era.
But he did not understand: what connection did these matters have with the legend of Wu Dao from the Mysterious Era?
"That painting…
I once…
once had someone deliver a painting to you…"
Yun Nishang's voice came through, and Gu Qingfeng's heart jolted. He immediately recalled that back at the Bingxuan Sect, the Bingxuan Patriarch had indeed given him a painting, one called 'The Painting of Nirvana and Self-Forgetting.'
"What about the painting?"
"Within the painting…
lies everything you wish to know…
Everything…"