Su Hua did not know whether Gu Qingfeng had vanished.
Nor did she know if Gu Qingfeng would ever return.
She did not even know when she might wait for Gu Qingfeng.
She did not know.
Nor did she wish to know.
She only wished to wait like this.
Day after day, year after year.
She lost track of how many sunrises and sunsets she had witnessed, how many springs had turned to winter, how many dusks she had waited through.
She simply waited.
She waited at the Scarlet Flame Ridge where Gu Qingfeng had wandered in his youth.
She also waited at the Yunxia Sect where Gu Qingfeng had first embarked on the path of cultivation.
In the Great Northwest, in the Kingdom of Yanluo, at the Shangqing Sect, she waited at every place within this world that Gu Qingfeng had ever visited.
She walked again through every place Gu Qingfeng had once been, not for nostalgia, not for longing, but only for that anxious yet profoundly steadfast wait within her heart.
Year after year, a century passed in a flash.
Su Hua left this world and journeyed to the Great Desolate Celestial Realm, not to forget, nor to give up, but only because the wait in her heart had grown more anxious, yet also more steadfast.
She walked again through all the places Gu Qingfeng had once visited in the Great Desolate Celestial Realm. By the time she had retraced every footprint Gu Qingfeng had left there, a full millennium had passed.
The wait in her heart had become even more anxious, and even more steadfast.
She continued waiting, never giving up. No matter how lost, how anxious she felt, she never once considered abandoning her vigil.
After the millennium, she began wandering between Heaven and Earth, traversing the Three Thousand Great Daos, preaching and lecturing throughout the myriad realms of the cosmos.
For this.
She roamed many places between Heaven and Earth.
For this.
She attained enlightenment in many Great Daos.
For this.
She visited countless, innumerable Great Thousand Worlds.
Not to admire the myriad mountains and rivers between Heaven and Earth.
Nor to comprehend the boundless mysteries of the Three Thousand Great Daos.
Even less to guide lost souls and save all living beings.
Only to make all living beings, the Three Thousand Great Daos, and the myriad things of Heaven and Earth understand her intent.
She had always been waiting, only the wait in her heart grew ever more anxious, and ever more steadfast.
She waited.
From her past life, until this present life.
From being the Mystic Maiden of the Nine Heavens Immortal Dao ten thousand years ago in the Ancient Times, until becoming the Saintess of the myriad Daos in the Present Era ten thousand years later.
Yes.
Ten thousand years.
She had waited for over ten thousand years, and was still waiting.
Someone once asked her why she loved the sunset and the evening clouds. She said it was not the setting sun nor the evening clouds she loved, but the dusk that follows the sunset and the fading clouds.
Someone asked her why she could not forget the Nether Emperor. She said, why should she forget?
Someone else asked her if this ten-thousand-year wait was painful.
She said, her heart held only the wait.
Still another asked her if all of this, waiting for the Nether Emperor, was worth it.
She said, for him, the so-called worth or not worth it—if he wants it, if I have it.
After ten thousand years.
All living beings, the Three Thousand Great Daos, the myriad things of Heaven and Earth, all knew that Su Hua was waiting for a man. A man she could not forget, would not forget, and did not wish to forget.
A man who had once shaken the Great Thousand Worlds.
A man who had destroyed immortal dynasties, severed immortal rivers, dominated the Firmament, trampled divine palaces, defied the heavens, and ascended to the unparalleled throne of Immortal and Demon—the Scarlet Firmament Monarch.
A man who had once wreaked havoc upon Heaven and Earth in the Great Desolate Celestial Realm.
A man who had burned the Nine Heavens, slaughtered the Western Heaven, breached forbidden lands, trampled sacred grounds, a man who dared oppose the Three Thousand Great Daos, whom Heaven and Earth could not tolerate—the Nine Nethers Emperor.
A man who had once been a mystery.
When he smiled, he was lazy and casual, free and untrammeled, like the carefree, unfettered Qingfeng wind that laughs proudly at Heaven and Earth.
When he was enraged, he was cold and ruthless, aloof and domineering, like the Tianlang wolf that roams Heaven and Earth without fear or dread.
His surname was Gu—the Gu of eternity.
…
The Present Era had already passed for ten thousand years.
Over these ten thousand years, the Present Era had undergone earth-shattering changes.
As the Source of Heaven and Earth re-evolved and grew increasingly complete, the spiritual energy between Heaven and Earth grew richer and richer. Various spiritual veins, spiritual objects, spiritual beasts, and all manner of spiritual life flourished and bore fruit throughout the myriad realms. Even those spiritual beings that had gone extinct as far back as the Ancient Times, the Primordial Era, or even the Archaic Era gradually revived.
Was that all?
No.
All sorts of strange and wondrous secret realms, mysterious and bizarre spaces, and profoundly mysterious Great Thousand Worlds also emerged as the times demanded.
Benefiting from the increasingly complete Source of the Present Era’s Heaven and Earth, all living beings across the myriad realms also reaped immense benefits.
In the Ancient Times, cultivating to become an Immortal might have required a very, very long time—a hundred years, a thousand years, even ten thousand years was not unusual. Back then, Immortality was a distant, unreachable dream for cultivators.
But today, ten thousand years into the Present Era, cultivating to become an Immortal—forget ten thousand years, forget a thousand years—even a hundred years was considered slow by many.
Nowadays, it took decades at most, years at least. Those gifted geniuses might need only months; once-in-ten-thousand prodigies, mere days; and those heaven-defying talents could achieve Immortality in a single thought—such cases were not unheard of.
Exaggerated?
Not in the least.
As the spiritual energy between Heaven and Earth grew denser, not only did the various spiritual veins, spiritual objects, and spiritual beasts grow increasingly powerful, but humans were no exception. Bloodlines, bone foundations, aptitudes, comprehension—each generation grew stronger than the last.
The so-called geniuses of the Ancient Times, in today’s world ten thousand years into the Present Era, might not even compare to ordinary folk.
The so-called Immortal Second Generations of the Ancient Times, who once stood high above—in today’s world ten thousand years into the Present Era, Immortal Second Generations were everywhere. Finding an Immortal First Generation had become difficult.
The so-called Colorful Spirit Fortunes of the Ancient Times, once one-in-ten-thousand—in today’s world ten thousand years into the Present Era, the fortunes of that era were like trash, littered everywhere. Forget seeking them out, people wouldn’t even want them if given freely, considering them burdensome.
Of course.
Such a thriving state was not solely due to the increasingly rich spiritual energy between Heaven and Earth; the Immortal Dao was also pushing the waves from behind.
As the Source of Heaven and Earth gradually perfected, so did the Source of the Immortal Dao. Moreover, as the Immortal Dao’s Source re-evolved and grew increasingly complete, the various Daozuns of the Immortal Dao gradually awakened. Seizing this opportunity, the Immortal Dao frenziedly ‘expanded its territory,’ establishing immortal dynasties, immortal mansions, and immortal sects in one Great Thousand World after another, dominating realm after realm, teaching the masses, and cultivating batch after batch of endless Immortals.
Especially five thousand years ago, when the re-evolution of the Immortal Dao’s Source was completed, the Immortal Dao directly opened the Nine Heavens Immortal River, showering Immortal Rain upon the myriad realms, bestowing grace upon all living beings, and single-handedly inaugurating an Immortal Dao golden age that shook the past and illuminated the present, propelling the Immortal Dao to its absolute peak.
Developed to this day, the Immortal Dao had become the absolute hegemon among the Three Thousand Great Daos. Over the past ten thousand years of the Present Era, it dominated billions of Great Thousand Worlds and cultivated countless, innumerable Immortals.
In comparison, the once-leading Great Dao, the Heavenly Dao, grew increasingly low-key and mysterious.
The Demonic Dao, too, drifted further away, as if in decline, its presence growing ever fainter.
As for the Demonic Dao and the Ghostly Dao, they became mere appendages of the Immortal Dao. The former Monster Kings and Ghost Kings, Demon Emperors and Ghost Emperors grew fewer and fewer, while Monster Immortals and Ghost Immortals proliferated.
(The mortal realm storyline concludes here for now. The Great Desolate arc begins below, and the previous plot holes should be filled…)