Boom!
A series of popping sounds echoed as colorful radiance blossomed around Ouyang Ye like layers of lotus petals. She wielded the Cloud-Color Sword, unleashing one profound immortal art after another.
In the garden, Gu Qingfeng simply sat there casually, leisurely drinking his wine. When Ouyang Ye's immortal arts came surging toward him, he merely gave a light wave of his hand, and the incoming attacks instantly dissipated and vanished.
One attack was like this, and so were ten, a hundred—all the same.
No matter how profound and pure the spiritual power contained within Ouyang Ye's Nascent Soul was, and no matter how mysterious or powerful the immortal arts she unleashed, before Gu Qingfeng, they were like mere smoke—a wave of his hand, and they scattered.
Ouyang Ye grew more and more shocked the longer she fought, increasingly finding it unbelievable. She unleashed nearly all the techniques she had learned in her lifetime, until her spirit grew weary and her Nascent Soul began to wither, yet she failed to budge Gu Qingfeng even a fraction—not even his sleeves or a single strand of his hair.
Finally, Ouyang Ye stopped.
Panting heavily, she crouched on the ground, her face deathly pale, sweat beading on her forehead. She could barely stand steady.
After her Nascent Soul withered, she was on the verge of collapse.
She stared at Gu Qingfeng, gasping for breath, just staring, unable to utter a word.
Earlier, when Gu Qingfeng had crushed a Great Nature's Seven-Treasure Prismatic Crystal with his bare hands, she had still been skeptical.
When Gu Qingfeng had kicked Bi Lan until he bled from all seven orifices, she still hadn't fully believed it.
Even after learning that Aunt Xue hadn't possessed him, she remained unconvinced.
Only now, after personally taking action, did Ouyang Ye completely believe.
"You...
Could it be that you're really like that guy Gu Qingfeng...
you also!
You also possess the unshakable Bedrock Physique?"
"Of course. I told you, whatever Gu Qingfeng has, I have too."
"You!"
It wasn't that Ouyang Ye couldn't accept that a second person in the world possessed the Bedrock Physique; she simply couldn't accept that someone claiming to be Young Lord Chiyan also possessed it.
Gu Qingfeng finished his last cup of wine, glanced at the sky—already growing light with dawn—and said, "Alright, it's getting late. Time to rest."
With that, he stood up, stretched lazily, and prepared to leave.
"I don't believe it!
I don't believe you really have the Bedrock Physique too...
Stop right there! Let's see if you can withstand...
withstand my power of the Great Natural Order!"
Upon hearing Ouyang Ye mention invoking the power of the Great Natural Order, Qian Shan and Han Dong immediately stepped forward to stop her. They both knew Ouyang Ye could wield the power of the Great Natural Order, and that power was terrifyingly formidable. Precisely because it was so terrifying, they intervened—Ouyang Ye currently had no control over that power. Once unleashed, the consequences would be unimaginable. Even more frightening, after using the power of the Great Natural Order, Ouyang Ye would become delirious, her mind unclear, like a raving demon.
"Why are you...
stopping me...
I don't believe he's really like Gu Qingfeng...
that he also has the Bedrock Physique, I don't believe it...
I must expose him...
I must..." Ouyang Ye, so drained she could barely stand, still clamored to fight and kill. Seeing this, the two could only take her away from the garden first.
Returning to their residence,
Han Dong immediately took out medicinal pills for Ouyang Ye to take. After all, her Nascent Soul had withered; if she didn't regulate her breathing in time, it would affect her later.
Normally, after taking pills, with the aid of an array and secluded meditation to regulate breathing, one could recover quickly.
But after Ouyang Ye took the pills, she didn't use an array or enter secluded meditation. She just sat weakly in a chair. No matter how the two urged her, Ouyang Ye refused to go into seclusion. Unable to persuade her, they stopped trying.
Others might need secluded meditation to recover, but Ouyang Ye did not. She possessed the Endless Life Great Natural Order Totem on her body; her Nascent Soul would soon recover to its original state.
"How could he possibly have the Bedrock Physique too!
How could it be such a coincidence!"
Ouyang Ye, frowning with worry, kept repeating this phrase, while Qian Shan and Han Dong were also puzzled by the matter. They too found it utterly unbelievable.
"He has always claimed to be Young Lord Chiyan..." Han Dong said with a furrowed brow. "Could it be he hasn't been deceiving us..."
"Impossible!"
Ouyang Ye shook her head. "That guy Gu Qingfeng, though he usually liked to boast and talk big, that was just what others thought—they considered his words empty boasts. Actually, they weren't. But look at that Lao Jiu; the big talk he spouts isn't just what we consider empty boasts—he's genuinely bragging and exaggerating, and it's all outrageous exaggeration, absurd tall tales. How could he be Gu Qingfeng?"
"But...
Ye Ye, didn't you say his speech and mannerisms are very similar to Gu Qingfeng's?
The same laziness and casualness, the same free-spirited unrestraint, the same leisurely ease, even his fondness for drinking is almost identical. And I remember you said Lao Jiu has made you feel mistaken several times. If he weren't the real Gu Qingfeng, he couldn't imitate him so perfectly, right?"
As Han Dong spoke, she added, "A person's hobbies can be imitated, their habits can be imitated, even their speech and mannerisms can be imitated, but a person's innate temperament can never be imitated, nor can the feeling they give others."
Han Dong's words touched on what Ouyang Ye found most perplexing.
In her heart, she firmly believed Lao Jiu couldn't be Gu Qingfeng.
Yet her feelings told her otherwise. Just as Han Dong said, she had felt mistaken several times. Lao Jiu's every word and action, his behavior, always made her feel that way—it was too similar, simply like the same person.
What tormented Ouyang Ye even more was that she could no longer distinguish whether it was because Lao Jiu resembled Gu Qingfeng so much that it created the illusion, or because she missed Gu Qingfeng so deeply that she projected the illusion onto Lao Jiu.
"Heavens!
Who can tell me if he really is Gu Qingfeng or not!"
Ouyang Ye grabbed her hair and let out a frustrated scream, as if on the verge of a breakdown!
"Let's drop this matter here."
At that moment, Qian Shan spoke up. "Ye Ye, I can tell you very responsibly that Lao Jiu is definitely not Gu Qingfeng."
Looking at the deeply conflicted Ouyang Ye, Qian Shan felt it was better to say some things outright. "Something truly terrifying once happened to the real Gu Qingfeng."
"What thing?"
"You should know that although Gu Qingfeng was only at the Golden Core cultivation stage, his spiritual power was as if infinite—bizarrely strong and terrifyingly potent. The aura of his Golden Core was the same."
"Right!
Exactly!"
Hearing Qian Shan say this, Ouyang Ye realized she had only been focusing on the Bedrock Physique and had forgotten about the real Gu Qingfeng's bizarrely powerful Golden Core. She said, "That guy Lao Jiu is also at the Golden Core stage, but his Golden Core aura is very ordinary, completely common. I imagine his Golden Core spiritual power is nothing special either. Looking at it this way, he really isn't Gu Qingfeng."
Ouyang Ye closed her eyes, seeming somewhat dejected and sorrowful.
"But that's not the reason I'm certain."
Qian Shan said very seriously, "Do you know why Gu Qingfeng's Golden Core was so powerful and terrifying?"