110 Chapter 110
Because this pair of lovers would quarrel uncontrollably whenever they were in the same space, after a brief negotiation, the interview was forced to be divided into two groups.
"I'm so sorry, Elder Xu Hengzi, I lost my composure just now." Gu Mao, who had been away from Hua Jingqiu, quickly regained his composure. He looked gentle and polite, a stark contrast to the red-faced and angry guy who had just argued. "I heard from a junior fellow that you had something to ask me?"
The two interviewing Gu Mao were Ji Chuanbai and Xu Hengzi, both from the Tianyan Sect. Having never interviewed before, they were a bit nervous and reserved. Ji Chuanbai lowered his head and kept flipping through the interview manuscript in his hand. "Ah, yes, that's right. Please wait..."
Xu Hengzi then directly asked the question that concerned him the most: "You have clearly experienced love, yet your cultivation has improved so rapidly. Can you tell me the reason behind this?"
"Ah, so this is what you want to ask..." Gu Mao seemed to have anticipated this question. He sat down on the chair and sighed, then held his forehead with a tired expression.
"I can't verify the specific reason, but my guess is that it's probably because I'm too tired. Love is really making me extremely tired..."
"Why on earth is this happening?" Ji Chuanbai couldn't help but ask after seeing his expression, "Didn't you guys go through countless hardships to finally be together?"
"We have so many disagreements, so many that arguments become a daily occurrence. I've told myself before that trivial matters like these aren't worth sacrificing our precious friendship, but..." Hua Jingqiu sighed deeply as she sat in her chair.
"Three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, four hundred and twelve years, one hundred and fifty-three hundred and eighty days. Adding this number to a problem, no matter how small, makes it unbearable."
"Actually, our relationship wasn't always like this. In the first few decades we were together, I felt like the happiest man in the world." Gu Mao recalled the distant past and finally smiled for the first time since they met.
"If only time could stop at that moment, I would be willing to trade all my current cultivation for it."
"Maybe... we're just not suitable for each other... Actually, if you think about it calmly, he hasn't done anything wrong to me." At this point, Hua Jingqiu's eyes finally reddened. "But we just can't go on."
Zi Qiu, who was still in the passionate love period, sat opposite Hua Jingqiu and looked into her sad and tired eyes. She couldn't help but feel sad. She gently held Hua Jingqiu's hand and asked, "Do you still love him?"
"Love or not... probably not anymore, that morning when I recovered my cultivation." Gu Mao lowered his head and gently stroked the edge of the teacup, his expression blurred in the darkness.
"We were arguing in the room, maybe about her spending money lavishly, or maybe about me staying out drinking too late yesterday...
Anyway, suddenly I felt my body suddenly lighten, and then the whole world became familiar and clear again. After we came to our senses, we didn't speak for a long time. I didn't feel sad, and she didn't cry. We had a quiet breakfast after a long time, and then packed our bags and went our separate ways.
"Maybe I stopped loving him a long time ago, but I only suddenly realized it on the morning when his cultivation recovered." Hua Jingqiu focused his gaze on a point in the void, his eyes slightly narrowed as if he was lost in memories:
"I watched his cultivation skyrocket before my eyes, and instead of feeling the heartbreak I'd expected, I felt a sense of relief. For years, I've felt guilty about his destruction. Now, after all these years, he's back to where he was, and we finally don't have to be tied together anymore."
The interviewee didn't react much, but Zi Qiu's eyes reddened as she listened: "Don't you have any regrets at all?"
"Maybe, but time is like the white water mixed with love, constantly diluting the feelings in our hearts. Now looking back, the joy and pain are gone, and the taste is so bland that I can no longer taste anything."
On the other side, Ji Chuanbai looked at Gu Maoyun's calm face and didn't know what else to ask. He hesitated whether to end the interview. Instead, Xu Hengzi spoke again. He patted the shoulder of his disciple beside him:
"This fool has also regressed to this level due to his obsession with love. As a senior, do you think it's necessary for this relationship to continue?"
Ji Chuanbai didn't expect that his master, who had been quiet for a long time, would suddenly take advantage of this moment to attack him. His mind went blank and he lost the ability to react. He opened and closed his mouth in vain for a long time, but he couldn't utter a word of rebuttal.
What could I say? Could Ziqiu and I never end up like this? Could our relationship last forever, could we stay together for centuries and millennia?
The promise is too beautiful because we are too young.
But such a naive promise is simply vulnerable in the face of such a heavy reality, and it sounds as childish and laughable as a stubborn child.
Gu Mao finally looked up at the pale and stiff "junior". His face still had the vigor of a young man, and his eyes were full of eagerness and spirit. His face was full of stubbornness and reluctance, and he was waiting for his further attack in panic.
After looking at it for a while, he smiled and said, "Since he likes it, why not give it a try?"
As soon as these words came out, not only Ji Chuanbai, but even Xu Hengzi's face showed an expression of disbelief: "Why? What's the point of going through such a painful experience?"
"It doesn't have to have any meaning, right? It's more like our attitude towards love is too heavy." Gu Mao looked at Xu Hengzi and showed a helpless smile:
"This is something I only understood after we broke up. Love is nothing more than a matter of fate. It comes together when fate arises and separates when fate ends. It cannot be avoided or forced. It's essentially no different from family, friendship, or mentorship.
Instead, we deify love, banish it, and even fear it. We plant the seeds of taboo in our disciples' hearts with a secretive attitude, impose numerous tests to highlight its preciousness, and finally cut off our disciples' escape routes with desperate decisions. That is why love ultimately becomes an inescapable shackle on the path of ruthlessness.
He looked at Xu Hengzi's expression, which was as if he was facing a great enemy, and spoke solemnly, word by word: "The inner demon is not an external thing, but is born from within. Elder Xu Hengzi, aren't we the ones who are trapping us disciples bit by bit with love?"
Elder Xu Hengzi was speechless.
He sat there, his heart filled with shock beyond words. Suddenly, he recalled Ning Shu's words:
"If it weren't for your interference, many relationships would have ended in a few months or even years. It was your interference that injected new life into this relationship."
So this is what he meant. Xu Hengzi finally understood what Ning Shu meant.
The inner demon is a projection of the fear in the heart of the cultivator. The more afraid one is of love, the greater the influence of love will be on the cultivator, until finally the cultivator's cultivation is completely destroyed. Only by seeing through the emotional barrier can one return to the right path.
After the interview, Gu Mao and Hua Jingqiu did not choose to meet for the last time. They strode away in two directions without looking back.
"What's wrong with you? Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Ning Shu looked at the shocked Elder Xu Hengzi and couldn't help but wave his hand in front of him. "How can a lifelong bachelor like you still be frightened by the mess in your marriage?"
Xu Hengzi still had a trance-like expression and couldn't come back to his senses. Finally, Ji Chuanbai stopped Ning Shu's childish behavior and sighed with a complicated expression:
"No wonder Senior Brother Gu Mao was able to achieve such a breakthrough in such a short period of time. I think with his state of mind, even reaching the Spiritual Transformation Stage will be no problem."
"Of course, that's a marathon superman who can maintain a 400-year marriage. With this mentality, he will succeed in everything he does!" Ning Shu also agreed with Ji Chuanbai's opinion, and took the depressed Zi Qiu into the flying boat first:
"Next stop, next stop! Everyone cheer up! After two incredibly sad BEs, we're finally going to see that precious HE! We can finally witness the legendary true love!"
Zi Qiu finally perked up. She glanced at the information in her hand and said, "Is that Senior Song Yunting? He said he and his Taoist partner have been together for almost a thousand years, which is a long time even for a cultivator! It's truly remarkable!"
"Yes, that's him. He's the one who's been married the longest among the five couples who haven't broken up." Ning Shu nodded and added, "Because his place of residence is too remote, the disciples responsible for contacting him can't come to his house at all. After barely communicating for a few words through the sound transmission talisman, the senior said that he and his partner are still as loving as ever."
"No more information or intelligence? What a pity..." Ji Chuanbai reluctantly flipped through the thin paper in his hand. After experiencing the tragic fate of the previous two couples, he and Zi Qiu were particularly concerned about this "last remaining" couple:
"If I knew more, I could ask more targeted questions. Now I feel like I can't ask much more..."
Ning Shu didn't really care about this: "I think the fact that they've been in love for nearly a thousand years is magical enough. Just put the title out there and it will attract a lot of attention. I'll just ask any questions. How about asking about his secret method for prolonging his life?"
After all, he could live for more than 900 years even though his cultivation was completely destroyed. Even in the world of cultivation where there are so many masters, anyone who sees it would sigh as a "metaphysical miracle."
"Young Sect Master, how could you ask such irrelevant questions? This is a huge waste of this interview opportunity!" Zi Qiu couldn't help but jump up and retort, "This way, the impression of love will be too strange for the audience. It's either regret or chaos. Do you want to add some curiosity? I absolutely cannot accept this result!"
"I agree with Qiu'er!" Ji Chuanbai immediately stood beside his girlfriend and agreed. "Love has its precious and beautiful side. It's a very positive emotion! We want to let the audience realize this through this couple who have been in love for thousands of years!"
So the young couple kept chattering along the way about the questions that should be asked in the interview, trying to highlight the sweetness of their love more.
The flying boat set off again, and its destination was the last destination of this interview - the Yinshi Ghost Forest where corpses were rampant.
【Author’s words】
Ning Shu: When you saw this destination, didn't you feel anything was wrong? I think this curious impression is definitely something I can't get rid of... [helpless]
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