Chapter 1900: Pepe

"Shou Ye, why do you say that?"

Gan Shi Shengdi appeared slightly surprised, showing unfamiliarity with the name "Dao Qiongcang":

"Although Dao Qiongcang is a member of my Gan Shi Dao clan and possesses extraordinary talent, he refused to undergo the Heart-Asking ritual and does not wish to become a successor to the Shengdi. He has been practicing the Dao in the Five Domains for over thirty years now, almost completely cutting off contact with our clan. How can you confuse him with me?"

No?

Xu Xiaoshou chuckled, patting the horse beside him.

With a grunt, the old Yuan returned, then, terrified, quickly slipped away.

Gan Shi Shengdi pulled out a palm-sized jade bottle from his hand. As he inverted its mouth, the old Yuan was drawn inside.

Xu Xiaoshou did not stop him.

Through the brand left on the Yuan's back, he could sense that the world within the jade bottle was merely an ordinary biological space.

However, after the old Yuan entered the bottle, the brand was swiftly eroded by the power of the stars, and then nothing more was gained.

"Three breaths..."

It took a full three breaths to erase the brand of the Yi Dao Disk.

This was enough time for Xu Xiaoshou to do many things, such as transferring the brand to the jade bottle, and then from the jade bottle to something else.

He did not do so.

A common person's "three breaths" might truly be three breaths, but the "three breaths" of someone named Dao could be a tactic to show weakness to the enemy.

Just like what Gan Shi Shengdi said...

"Practicing the Dao for over thirty years?"

Xu Xiaoshou smiled, the wolf-hair brush reappearing in his hand, "I don't think it's just that, is it?"

Gan Shi Shengdi smiled, indicating he didn't understand what Xu Xiaoshou was saying, so Xu Xiaoshou continued:

"Dao Qiongcang's Dao of Memory is transcended. From the speed at which you just erased my brand, your Dao of Memory is no less than his."

"Dao Qiongcang is skilled in Heavenly Mystery Arts. When performing Heavenly Mystery Arts, he uses the power of the stars, which also somewhat corresponds to your Dao of Stars."

"Dao Qiongcang is like a dog..."

At this, Xu Xiaoshou paused, staring up at him.

Gan Shi Shengdi's expression remained unchanged, as if the insult wasn't directed at him, and he didn't like to proactively take offense.

Xu Xiaoshou then became more audacious:

"Dao Gou, this person, likes to mark his territory by urinating every place he passes through."

"When useful, he performs 'Great God Descent Art' to return."

"In the Divine Ruins, he told me the principle of the Great God Descent Art, and in exchange, we became friends."

Gan Shi Shengdi listened quietly, seemingly still not understanding what Xu Xiaoshou was trying to convey.

Xu Xiaoshou said, "After all that talk, I just want to tell you, Dao Qiongcang, my friend, there's no need to pretend in front of me; you and I are comrades-in-arms, friends for life."

"It's truly not a pretense..." Gan Shi Shengdi chuckled, genuinely helpless, "Shou Ye, Dao Qiongcang is Dao Qiongcang, and I am I. We are two independent individuals."

"Independent individuals cannot be one and the same?" Xu Xiaoshou's words were astonishing.

This caused Gan Shi Shengdi to fall silent for a moment, then his face showed a reminiscent expression, as if he had heard such an absurd idea a long time ago.

Seeing his silence, Xu Xiaoshou changed direction: "When the Demon Ancestor sought cooperation with me..."

At this, Gan Shi Shengdi's expression finally changed.

He was still bothered by the two ancestral god life-forms that had appeared in Xu Xiaoshou's hand.

Xu Xiaoshou knew that no one could ignore this matter. His cooperation with the Demon Ancestor was a false pretense, but he had indeed communicated with the Demon Ancestor privately and received so many things from him; this was true.

Moreover, at the scene, only he and the Demon Ancestor were present.

After coming out, with Xu Xiaoshou's mouth, wasn't whatever he said true?

Who could question it?

Who dared to question it?

Anyone who doubted it could go to one of the parties, the Demon Ancestor, to verify it, if they dared!

Xu Xiaoshou continued, "At that time, the Demon Ancestor was in a stone hall. Inside the stone hall, there was a stone statue, and on the statue, there was a pattern..."

Gan Shi Shengdi's eyes lit up when he heard this.

With a flip of his hand, a "Jiong" character pattern appeared in his palm: "Is this what Shou Ye is talking about?"

That's right!

An identical pattern!

Seeing this Jiong character robot, Xu Xiaoshou still felt a tremor. After all, he had only seen this thing when Dao Qiongcang dealt with Cui Yin and the Demon Ancestor, so its level must be high.

When he first saw it, it even overturned all his perceptions of Dao Qiongcang; it would be believable to say that this person was from ancient times.

Combined with everyone here hearing Gan Shi Shengdi refer to him as "Dao Zu" again and again, it was difficult for Xu Xiaoshou not to overthink.

"Dao Ganshi, don't tell me you're still going to tell me this is a coincidence?" Xu Xiaoshou narrowed his eyes, analyzing the pattern, but unfortunately, he gained nothing.

It was just an ordinary pattern.

Compared to the one in the stone hall that could deceive even the Demon Ancestor's will, there was a vast difference in energy form.

Gan Shi Shengdi smiled wryly: "Shou Ye, you've said it all, how should I respond?"

After a pause, he answered earnestly:

"It really is a coincidence!"

Xu Xiaoshou scoffed, then put his pen to paper, quickly writing "Zheng" characters in his small notebook.

Gan Shi Shengdi was dumbfounded, and again explained proactively:

"When our Dao clan's ancestor established the realm, he left behind a legacy, writing the 'Dao Dian'."

"Within the 'Dao Dian,' the three thousand Great Daos are meticulously expounded upon. Among them, only the Dao of Stars reaches the Ancestral God level; Heavenly Mystery Arts are merely mentioned in passing... Of course, that's not important."

Even after Xu Xiaoshou finished writing the "Zheng" characters, Gan Shi Shengdi was no longer in a hurry, speaking with a sense of resignation, as if he had given up:

"An interesting thing is that when our ancestor wrote the 'Dao Dian,' he always stamped this pattern at the end, as a small hobby."

"All of us Dao clan members who have read the 'Dao Dian' have seen this pattern, and it's common for us to imprint it in various places when we're out and about on a whim."

After explaining the coincidence, he spread his hands and looked back at Xu Xiaoshou, saying:

"Dao Qiongcang likes this pattern, and so do I."

"Not just us, all Dao clan members like it, after all, it's something left by our ancestor."

"And Shou Ye may have seen where Dao Qiongcang left this pattern, and then saw something similar in that so-called stone hall, but to conclude that Dao Qiongcang and I are the same person based on that alone, isn't that too arbitrary?"

Whether it was arbitrary or not, Xu Xiaoshou didn't know.

His Yi Dao Disk was at 99, and his intuition told him that Dao Ganshi was lying. He trusted his intuition.

After all, in today's world, almost no one could guide him without being detected by gods or ghosts, unless Nuo Zu descended!

Following his intuition, Xu Xiaoshou asked, "What's your Dao clan's ancestor's name? It wouldn't happen to be Dao Qiongcang, would it?"

Gan Shi Shengdi shook his head, pressing his lips together, and said:

"Gan Shi."

Xu Xiaoshou was stunned: "Your name?"

"Gan Shi."

This is too much... Xu Xiaoshou was shocked: "So, you are your ancestor?"

Gan Shi Shengdi answered earnestly: "After the ancestor, all family heads of the Gan Shi Emperor Realm are called 'Gan Shi'."

What kind of ridiculous rule is this?

Shouldn't it be a taboo?

"Then what's your real name?" Xu Xiaoshou mused, "Dao Qiongcang? Dao Cangqiong?"

Gan Shi Shengdi shook his head again.

This time, he didn't seem to intend to speak?

Seeing this, Xu Xiaoshou indicated his understanding and once again raised the wolf-hair brush in his hand high.

"Peipei."

A sudden sound interrupted his movement. Xu Xiaoshou looked up, puzzled: "Huh?"

"My real name, Dao Peipei."

After a moment of愣, Xu Xiaoshou almost burst out laughing. Seriously, Dao Peipei? That name sounds like...

It’s also a good name.

But how does it feel a bit hard to connect with Gan Shi Shengdi?

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly realized.

Trying to use this roundabout way to distract him? Even the method is so Dao Qiongcang...

"Very good."

Xu Xiaoshou nodded, giving up on making Dao Peipei personally admit that he was Dao Qiongcang.

As long as he recorded it in his small notebook, this guy could explain anything, but only this one thing, he wasn't afraid of Xu Xiaoshou remembering...

Was he so confident that he and Dao Qiongcang were two different people?

Or was he trying to use this roundabout and preparatory method to make Xu Xiaoshou truly believe, from the bottom of his heart, that they were indeed two independent and non-interfering individuals?

"Never mind."

It needed to be this entangled.

In fact, whether Dao Ganshi was called Peipei or Qiongcang, his level of disgustingness was already at the "Dao Qiongcang" level.

Xu Xiaoshou had other questions to ask and didn't intend to get stuck at this point, wasting unnecessary energy.

"Dao Peipei, has anyone ever told you that you look a lot like a friend of mine?"

"Is it A Jie?" Gan Shi Shengdi didn't care that Xu Xiaoshou called him by his given name. His mind was indeed spinning fast; no matter what Xu Xiaoshou said, he could always interpret his true intentions immediately.

"Yes."

Xu Xiaoshou bit his pen and nodded, "Dao Qiongcang once, a long time ago, dabbled in... well, you tell me, Peipei."

Gan Shi Shengdi knew that Xu Xiaoshou wanted to learn the details of his own Dao clan descendant's past from his mouth, which might unconsciously reveal something.

But his very existence was not problematic; he generously explained in detail the past of his Dao clan descendant to Xu Xiaoshou:

"Dao Qiongcang was born extraordinary, possessing the same constitution as my Dao clan ancestor, the Zhongheng Sacred Body."

Very good, one more coincidence.

Xu Xiaoshou counted them.

"He learned to read at one, controlled spirits at two, touched the Dao at three, could operate at four, first grasped Heavenly Mystery at five, and returned to ordinariness at six."

The birth of a genius?

At six, why did he return to ordinariness?

"Remaining among ordinary people until he was ten, Dao Qiongcang once again displayed his talent in Heavenly Mystery. He attempted to create a Heavenly Mystery puppet for the first time."

"He used my likeness."

So, it wasn't that he looked like A Jie.

Rather, A Jie's creation utilized Gan Shi Shengdi's face and physique?

Was this cultivating strength in obscurity and showing talent again? But it was a bit outrageous for just a child...

"Number One was born."

"Over the next few years, Dao Qiongcang always experimented with the best sacred crystals and the latest insights into Heavenly Mystery Arts on Number One."

"He succeeded; Number One gained sentience."

Number One was A Jie.

It was precisely because it gained sentience that it was sanctioned by the five great Sacred Emperor families. Xu Xiaoshou knew this consequence, but not the reason behind it.

"Only later did we learn that Dao Qiongcang had already colluded with Bei Huai."

"At that time, Bei Huai's research into the Dao of Life had already become extreme. As their creation, Number One must have been guided by the Medicine Ancestor."

"He shouldn't have been researching these things in the Gan Shi Emperor Realm."

A Jie, is he even connected to the Medicine Ancestor now?

Xu Xiaoshou frowned, feeling that something was off, but he couldn't pinpoint why.

"At my initiation, the five great Sacred Emperor families jointly sanctioned and suppressed Bei Huai's life research, while temporarily 'exiling' Dao Qiongcang to Void Island."

"There, accidents continued to happen, and sure enough, his Number One was destroyed."

The rest is that Elder Sang went to Void Island, got A Jie, and brought him back to the Tiansang Spirit Palace.

Elder Qiao outwardly claimed he couldn't understand the research, placing it in Tianxuan Gate as a treasure to guard the realm, but secretly he has been pondering it to this day.

From Dao Qiongcang to Elder Sang...

The transition in between is too abrupt!

In the past, Xu Xiaoshou would have thought it was a coincidence, but now he feels there must be a guide, but he keeps silent and continues to listen to Dao Peipei:

"Dao Qiongcang already possessed some ability."

"Although Void Island is a place of exile, it also happens to reject excessive intervention from the Five Great Sacred Emperor Families... You should know that Wang Ze Shengdi tried it."

"Dao Qiongcang then preserved Number One's residual spirit, and also seized the opportunity to guide Number One to Sang Qiye of Tiansang Spirit Palace, who is your master."

Why?

Xu Xiaoshou was surprised that Dao Peipei was so honest, selling out Dao Qiongcang without hesitation and saying so much in one breath.

At the same time, he didn't understand why Dao Qiongcang suddenly wanted to guide Number One to Elder Sang. At that time, shouldn't everyone still be relatively unknown?

Xu Xiaoshou quickly realized he had taken it for granted.

"The Four Sons of the Sacred Palace, their names shook the world."

"Qiao Qianzhi, hailed as the top prodigy of the Sacred Palace, delved into array formations, succumbing to an obsession and proposing extreme ideologies."

"Coincidentally, Dao Qiongcang endorsed this path. While publicly guiding Number One to Sang Qiye, he had been secretly observing Qiao Qianzhi for a long time."

How perverted!

Xu Xiaoshou was shocked.

He knew Elder Qiao's thoughts; there was absolutely no interaction with Dao Qiongcang.

He never thought that it was Dao Qiongcang who secretly admired Elder Qiao for so long, and A Jie was also a child he secretly sent over?

Wait!

Elder Qiao, is still sealing the Saint...

Xu Xiaoshou's face changed. Elder Qiao has been in secluded cultivation in Tianxuan Gate for a long time, and his sealing of the Saint had no tribulation, nor the status of a Half-Saint, which was very strange.

This path, to put it nicely, was ahead of the Demon Ancestor and Cui Yin; to put it badly, it was likely to have problems.

Even the Holy Ancestor split into the Demon Ancestor, and then systematically merged into one and returned to zero. What virtue and ability does Qiao Qianzhi possess... Oh, Dao Peipei even called him "the top prodigy of the Sacred Palace." Is it really possible?

Then what Dao Qiongcang was staring at was this freedom not bound by the Sacred Emperor Families, and the potential talent that could be learned from by Ancestral Gods like Ba Zun'an?

Elder Qiao...

Xu Xiaoshou felt terribly distressed.

Such a person, born from humble beginnings, unable to see the cage beyond the heavens, clearly spent his entire life cultivating the Dao with all his might, putting everything on the line, just to succeed.

He never expected that outside the world, he was already under the watchful eyes of all; all Sacred Emperors and Ancestral Gods were waiting for him to fail so they could mock him, or succeed so they could seize his Dao?

And to this day, does Elder Qiao know these ancestral divine secrets?

"Holy Slave..."

The freedom that Ba Zun'an pursued was once again given meaning.

Xu Xiaoshou's emotions quickly calmed down. After all, he was no longer a pawn in the game, but the one controlling the board from outside.

If possible, he would help Elder Qiao.

He vaguely remembered that at the end of the group stage of the Wind and Cloud Tournament, Elder Qiao was the only one who had given him help, although it was just a bottle of tenth-grade scarlet gold pills.

Dao Peipei finished talking about Dao Qiongcang's past, then paced back to Xu Xiaoshou:

"Later, Number One, or as you call him, A Jie, fell into your hands."

"Perhaps it's a coincidence, perhaps it's destiny, I no longer pay much attention to it."

"Dao Qiongcang's achievements are now no weaker than mine. What he is thinking, perhaps only you can find out by asking him yourself."

Xu Xiaoshou nodded, then changed the subject: "Peipei, do you know 'Number Zero'?"

The question was surprising, and Gan Shi Shengdi was still not quite used to such an intimate address.

"Number Zero?"

Even this repeated question was very Dao Qiongcang-like!

No matter how Xu Xiaoshou looked at Peipei, he was Dao Qiongcang; the two were almost carved from the same mold. He no longer bothered to dwell on it:

"Dao Qiongcang once joked that he had a 'Number Zero,' but he only mentioned it casually."

"There's Number One, there's Number Two. According to the sequence, Number Zero might have been before Number One?"

Gan Shi Shengdi shook his head after hearing this: "I've never heard of it."

A very calm reaction...

He didn't even ask any further questions...

But after all, he was a devious person; perhaps he was extremely curious at the moment but didn't dare to show it, only planning to furiously investigate later...

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly realized.

Unbeknownst to him, even though he still believed the two were the same person, he had already started to consider Dao Peipei and Dao Qiongcang as two independent individuals when thinking about problems.

This cannot be.

How difficult super-transcendence was, Xu Xiaoshou knew.

Without the assistance of Nameless Power, or the passive system, he might still struggle with even one Dao's super-transcendence, but Dao Peipei and Dao Qiongcang both super-transcended in the Dao of Memory. This was too coincidental!

Even more coincidental was that he now respected himself immensely, clearly knowing that his Dao of Intention had made a breakthrough, but this happened in the Gujin Wangyou Building. Dao Qiongcang knew, but Dao Peipei shouldn't really know!

"You cultivate memory?" Xu Xiaoshou asked casually.

Gan Shi Shengdi glanced at the small notebook in his hand and nodded: "More than that."

At this point, he no longer explained anything, as if he knew explanations were useless, or perhaps he wanted to start misleading Xu Xiaoshou from a different direction.

There was a very important premise!

Xu Xiaoshou was too calm. He knew why Dao Qiongcang cultivated the Dao of Memory: because there was no one above him in this Dao.

Dao Qiongcang never touched anything that Holy Demon Medicine Ghost and Cui Xiu had cultivated, precisely because he was afraid of encountering harm.

So why did Dao Peipei cultivate the Dao of Memory, and Dao Qiongcang also cultivate it? Did he suddenly become an imitator?

Was he not afraid of running into Dao Peipei?

"Be careful of Dao Qiongcang."

Xu Xiaoshou kindly reminded him: "He might try to seize your Dao." Then he observed Peipei's reaction.

"Thank you."

Gan Shi Shengdi was very grateful: "I'll also give you a piece of advice: be careful of Dao Qiongcang, after all, you had contact with Number One."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Anyone who didn't know would have thought they were old friends who had known each other for years, secretly discussing how to deal with the same enemy.

"Speaking of 'advice'..."

Xu Xiaoshou pressed down on the matter of Number One, and also on the memory of Dao Qiongcang asking Ba Zun'an for advice in the Divine Ruins.

This time, he came to Gan Shi with a basketful of questions. Now, he stared at Peipei, a look of confusion on his face:

"Peipei, I've been to Baiming Emperor Realm and met the Ghost Ancestor."

"He also gave me a piece of advice: 'Do not go to Gan Shi'."

Gan Shi Shengdi continued to smile, his expression seemingly etched on, like a Heavenly Mystery puppet.

Seeing his indifference, Xu Xiaoshou said with distress:

"Peipei, you are smarter than I am. What do you think the Ghost Ancestor was trying to express?"

Please visit: m.bqq999.cc