Gu Qingfeng fought with increasing ferocity, one fist following another, beating the Taohua Old Daoist into continuous retreat, utterly defenseless. His skin and membranes kept exploding, his bones kept shattering, his flesh kept blurring—he was already unrecognizable.
"I didn't expect you, old fellow, to be quite sturdy," came Gu Qingfeng's playful voice.
The Taohua Old Daoist roared in fury, "Bastard Brat! Get in here and die for me!"
Whoosh!
It was unclear what method the Taohua Old Daoist employed, but Gu Qingfeng instantly felt as if he had plummeted into a Space Barrier. As the Space Barrier rotated, it rapidly condensed, seemingly intent on crushing Gu Qingfeng into a pulp.
Gu Qingfeng threw out a punch, and the Space Barrier exploded into fragments. Immediately, another Space Barrier enveloped him.
Bang!
Another punch, and the Space Barrier shattered once more!
However.
The Space Barriers seemed endless, an inexhaustible stream, one linked to the next, countless in number.
"Little Bastard Brat, aren't you supposed to be incredibly capable? No matter how boundless your strength, this time there's only death for you!" The Taohua Old Daoist's furious shout was filled with rage.
"Old fellow, I was just playing with you. Do you really think I can't break it? It's nothing but a spatial trick. Open your eyes wide and watch!"
As his words fell, the evil, savage, and ferocious Golden Core power around Gu Qingfeng erupted. He raised his arms, crossed his fingers and clenched his fists, as if lifting the axe of Pangu to cleave heaven and earth—a move that could startle the heavens and make ghosts and gods weep.
"Break for me!"
His hands slashed down furiously. Crack!
Without an axe, it surpassed an axe. Under this one 'axe', the endless Space Barriers were utterly annihilated, vanishing into smoke and thin air.
When Gu Qingfeng reappeared, this was no longer the void, but the Peach Blossom Secret Realm, blooming with peach blossoms everywhere.
"Little Bastard Brat, what in the blazes... are you!" From mid-air in the Peach Blossom Secret Realm came the Taohua Old Daoist's cry, still shaken and filled with boundless terror.
Gu Qingfeng looked at the surging winds and clouds of the Peach Blossom Secret Realm and chuckled. "I knew long ago you, old fellow, were connected to the Peach Blossom Secret Realm. Only today did I realize it's not just a simple connection. You, old fellow, have actually merged with this Peach Blossom Secret Realm, becoming one and inseparable. No wonder your body is so tough, impossible to scatter no matter how much I hit you. So that's how it is."
"Bastard Brat! Speak! Who exactly are you!"
With one roar from the Taohua Old Daoist, the entire Peach Blossom Secret Realm immediately surged with wind and clouds, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling.
"Damn it, it's only been how many years? How come you don't even recognize who I am anymore?"
"Kid, who are you!"
Here, the Taohua Old Daoist was the Peach Blossom Secret Realm, and the Peach Blossom Secret Realm was him. Just as Gu Qingfeng had said, the two were inseparable.
"Enough, stop messing around. If we really start fighting later and I can't hold back, accidentally shattering your Peach Blossom Secret Realm, then things would get out of hand."
"You ignorant, reckless Bastard Brat! With just you? Believe it or not, if I mobilize the Secret Realm Law, I can make you vanish into thin air in an instant!"
"Alright, enough already. Mobilize the Secret Realm Law? Who are you trying to scare?" Gu Qingfeng shook off the lingering energy fluctuations from his sleeves, glanced at a pavilion not far away, flashed over, and sat down inside. He took out the peach blossom wine and leisurely took a small sip. "You've only merged with the Peach Blossom Secret Realm. Merging is just merging; it doesn't mean you can command it. 'Mobilize the Secret Realm Law'—look at you, acting all capable."
"You..." The Taohua Old Daoist was speechless. Clearly, he hadn't expected Gu Qingfeng to see through such matters so thoroughly.
"It's not that I look down on you. Even if you've only merged with this Peach Blossom Secret Realm, even if you could truly command its Law, you still couldn't do anything to me. So, save your energy. Come out quickly, stop showing off, and let's have a chat."
"Bastard Brat, you... you damn... damn..." The Taohua Old Daoist's heart burned with fury! He was so angry he wished he could immediately use the power of the Peach Blossom Secret Realm to teach this reckless fellow a lesson.
Although he couldn't mobilize the Secret Realm Law, he could still use the secret realm's power, though the cost was somewhat high and it would greatly affect the Peach Blossom Secret Realm. That wasn't the main issue. The important thing was, after fighting for so long, he wasn't even sure if using the secret realm's power could shake that kid.
"Come on, what are you waiting for? Don't you want to know who I am? Come out and I'll tell you."
The Taohua Old Daoist hesitated for a moment, then finally flashed into appearance.
He was in a wretched state, as wretched as could be. Disheveled hair and a dirty face, his nose and mouth somewhat crooked, traces of blood from all seven orifices. His clothes were more tattered than a beggar's. Perhaps because the earlier fight had been too brutal, the Taohua Old Daoist was quite wary of Gu Qingfeng. Even after appearing, he stood far away, glaring fiercely, watching closely. If he noticed any movement from Gu Qingfeng, he would immediately use the secret realm's power.
"Hahahahaha!"
Seeing the Taohua Old Daoist in such a miserable state, Gu Qingfeng laughed heartily.
"Bastard Brat! Have! You! Laughed! Enough! Yet!"
The Taohua Old Daoist's eyes seemed about to spit fire. In his lifetime, he had fought countless battles—against Reincarnations, against peerless geniuses, against immortals and demons. Although he had suffered setbacks before, he had never suffered such a great loss, never been beaten so thoroughly and left utterly defenseless. And his opponent was merely a stinking kid with Golden Core cultivation!
"Come, sit down and have a couple of drinks. We'll chat while drinking."
"This is wine I brewed!"
"That's right, I never said it wasn't brewed by you. But you only brewed it. Since I snatched it, it's my wine now. Isn't that logical?"
"Little! Bastard! Brat!"
The Taohua Old Daoist no longer wanted to dwell on the peach blossom wine he had painstakingly brewed. Now he only wanted to know who this guy really was.
"You really don't recognize me anymore?"
The Taohua Old Daoist examined Gu Qingfeng carefully again, but look as he might, he was certain he didn't know this kid. He wasn't a Reincarnation, nor a possession rebirth, and had no special destiny. His cultivation was merely Golden Core, at best a youngster in his early twenties. The Taohua Old Daoist thought hard; he truly didn't recognize him. Moreover, he was certain that someone as peculiar as the kid before him—if he had really met him before, he would have left a deep impression.
"Looks like you, old fellow, really don't remember. Fine, I'll give you a hint. Over four hundred years ago, I really was a young kid, hunted down with no way out, hiding in the Peach Blossom Secret Realm to cultivate in seclusion. Somehow, you, old fellow, discovered me. Back then, to figure out that bit of destiny on me, you gave me quite the hard time, nearly costing me half my life."