"Very unfamiliar. Utterly desolate."
Hearing this, Ouyang Boxiao smiled as well. "Gu Qijie, I am truly glad to see you return to life."
"Likewise."
Gu Qijie's gaze gradually settled, and he asked softly, "Even after living this long, you still think this way...?"
Ouyang Boxiao clasped his hands behind his back and slowly turned around. "That year, mountains and rivers shattered, old friends all fell. Among all living beings, I watched the protagonists of one era after another slowly grow through the years, rise to prominence, and blaze with brilliance..."
"When I saw heaven and earth changing with each passing day, when I saw the Immortal Dao flourishing... heh, all I wanted then was to hide away, curl up in a corner. I was terrified to the extreme. I was even afraid of seeing living beings."
"Futian..." Gu Qijie's expression suddenly turned exceptionally grave.
The mighty Futian of the Supreme Unity Immortal Court had actually been in such a wretched state. Yet Gu Qijie held no mockery in his heart; he felt it all too deeply.
"I felt that I was facing something more terrifying than annihilation." Ouyang Boxiao continued calmly. "A great terror I had never experienced before. Later, I gradually came to understand—it was loneliness."
"This loneliness was not the simple loneliness of having no one by one's side, of walking the Great Dao alone, unknown to all beneath heaven."
Smiling, he spoke so much for the first time. "It was the desolation of years while dwelling deep amid the mortal world, the loneliness of an era. Now, this feeling reached its peak in my great battle with that junior, Chen Xun."
"Indeed." Gu Qijie let out a long, wistful sigh. "I remember Supreme Fortune once said he did not wish to become too entangled with Gu Shenyu.