Regarding the incident of Gu Tiansheng fifty years ago, Gu Qingfeng had heard Old Man Huode mention it once before back in Yunxia Sect. He had originally thought it was just an ordinary swindler, but he never expected the deception to be so earth-shattering, nearly swindling treasures from almost half of all the sects in the Great Northwest.
After Miss Qingxi left, Gu Qingfeng immediately asked what exactly had happened with Gu Tiansheng.
Li Pangzi only knew the general outline and couldn't explain clearly, but Old Man Liu seemed to know quite a bit.
"Speaking of the matter of Gu Tiansheng fifty years ago, this old man knows a thing or two," Old Man Liu said. "That Gu Tiansheng claimed to be the offspring of the Monarch and Empress Wolan..."
"Wait, who did you say? Wolan?"
Gu Qingfeng was very familiar with the name Wolan and blurted out, "Is it Empress Wolan of the Blue Sea?"
"That's right, it's Empress Wolan of the Blue Sea."
"I know about this!" Li Pangzi chuckled. "I heard that back when the Monarch's primordial spirit scattered and he went into seclusion in the Blue Sea, he met Empress Wolan. Isn't the famous tune 'Drunken Chanting of the Blue Sea' left by the Monarch a commemoration of those years? I heard that after the Monarch and Empress Wolan met, they quickly fell in love, and moreover..."
"That's pure nonsense!" Gu Qingfeng explained. "Back then, I... no! Back then, Gu Tianlang did indeed go into seclusion in the Blue Sea, and he did know an Empress Wolan, but... but they definitely didn't have any offspring!"
"How would you know whether they did or not? Besides, the Monarch and Empress Wolan even became Dao companions and cultivated together. I heard... back then, the Monarch almost became a live-in son-in-law for the Blue Sea. Since they were already Dao companions, what's strange about having offspring?"
"They were Dao companions, that's true, but it was limited to dual cultivation. Between them..." Gu Qingfeng suddenly realized this issue was really hard to explain. Back when he was in seclusion in the Blue Sea, he did have a past with Wolan, but he dared to swear there were absolutely no offspring. Yet, saying this out loud, no one would believe him. So he said, "Let's not discuss for now whether they had offspring or not. That Gu Tiansheng claimed to be their offspring, and others just believed him?"
"At first, everyone was suspicious too, but that person had the Monarch's token in hand."
"Token? What token?"
"The Monarch's calligraphy and painting, a piece he personally wrote for Empress Wolan."
Gu Qingfeng was extremely exasperated. "That damn thing can be called a token? Gu Tianlang wrote countless pieces of calligraphy and painting in his lifetime. Does that mean anyone who brings out a piece is his offspring?"
"Brother Gu, you need to listen clearly. The calligraphy and painting in that person's hand was personally written by the Monarch for Empress Wolan. If they hadn't obtained Empress Wolan's permission, how could they have gotten that painting? Moreover, that person didn't just have that one token; they also had the Karma Ring jointly forged by the Monarch and Empress Wolan when they became Dao companions."
"..." Gu Qingfeng was very puzzled. He knew about the Karma Ring, and he knew that ring had always been in Wolan's collection. How could it have fallen into a swindler's hands for no reason? He couldn't figure it out and asked, "Didn't anyone go to the Blue Sea to ask if this was true?"
"They did! And it was Lord Heishui who went personally. Only after asking did Lord Heishui believe it was true. I heard when Lord Heishui went to the Blue Sea to inquire, almost everyone in the Blue Sea knew that Gu Tiansheng was the offspring of the Monarch and Empress Wolan..."
"This is really bizarre..." Gu Qingfeng asked again, "Then how did they later find out he was a swindler?"
"No one knew. The person themselves announced it."
Gu Qingfeng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That works too?"
"Guess what? That Gu Tiansheng not only publicly declared themselves a swindler, but... and when that person revealed their true face, everyone was dumbfounded."
"What happened?"
"It was a woman."
Gu Qingfeng, who was drinking at the time, choked on his wine when he heard Gu Tiansheng was a woman. He asked, "Damn it, couldn't anyone tell if it was a man or a woman? Are Heishui's eyes just for decoration?"
Hearing Gu Qingfeng speak so disrespectfully of Lord Heishui, both Old Man Liu and Li Pangzi were startled. Fortunately, with Miss Qingxi gone, the crowd had dispersed. Old Man Liu said in a low voice, "This matter was really strange anyway. I heard when Lord Heishui found out Gu Tiansheng was a woman, his face turned green with anger."
"What happened later? Where's the swindler?"
"Ran away!"
"Ran away?"
"Ran away, and hasn't been found to this day. I heard Lord Heishui took his men and searched the entire world, and the first place he rushed to was the Blue Sea. But over there, everything was gone, vanished without a trace... Lord Heishui searched for a full ten or twenty years, and still hasn't found that swindler..."
"Truly, the bigger the forest, the more kinds of birds you find!" Gu Qingfeng sat in the pavilion, drank a cup of wine, and sighed. "Live long enough and you'll encounter all sorts of bizarre and strange things."
"Young man, you must be new here, right? Never been to the Divine Land? This matter isn't considered rare there."
"This isn't considered rare?"
"Let me put it this way. This matter might be a rare event in our Great Northwest, but if you put it in the Divine Land, tsk tsk, it wouldn't even make the list. Have you heard of the 'Ten Greatest Cases of Truth and Falsehood After the Monarch'?"
"'Ten Greatest Cases of Truth and Falsehood After the Monarch'? What does that mean?"
Li Pangzi beside him laughed. "I know about this. It seems to refer to the ten world-shaking events involving people impersonating the Monarch, his descendants, or his successors."
"That's right. Compared to those ten earth-shattering greatest cases, the matter of Gu Tiansheng fifty years ago is nothing. Among the ten greatest cases of truth and falsehood, there was a swindler impersonating the Monarch's successor who nearly caused the Crimson-Letter Manor to go to war with the Immortal Court. There was another swindler impersonating the Monarch who swindled the demon race out of all their treasures. And there was another swindler, even more formidable... who swindled so badly the Immortal Court had to invite down an immortal from the Nine Heavens..."
"And there's more! In the Southern Sea, a swindler impersonating the Monarch tricked the Great Hero Wang so badly he even gave up being the founding emperor..."
Listening to Old Man Liu and Li Pangzi talk about the so-called Ten Greatest Cases of Truth and Falsehood After the Monarch, Gu Qingfeng grew more and more helpless, more and more torn between laughter and tears. By the end, he couldn't help but want to curse out loud.
"Those swindlers, each and every one of them possessed mysterious, bizarre, and heaven-defying abilities. Whether they were real or fake, no one could tell, no one knew. To this day, there's no definitive conclusion."
"Exactly! Even if they were fake, no one dared to say so. Which major sect was it back then? Didn't they say a certain Monarch was fake? And what happened? Not long after, that fake Monarch came knocking on their door, and even the Earth Immortal guarding the major sect was hung up and beaten..."
"Who says it isn't so? It was precisely because of that incident back then that swindlers impersonating the Monarch's successors and descendants sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, swindling everywhere under the Monarch's banner. Ordinary people simply didn't dare offend them; when they saw them, they had to treat them with reverence! It's better to revere a fake than to offend a real one."
"Yes, yes! The Monarch was such a romantic figure. All the peerless beauties of the ancient era had affairs with him. Who knows if he ever had children with any of them..."