"Still owe?
What do you mean? Are you saying besides Su Huan, there's someone else?"
"Kid Gu."
Old Huode leaned in, his voice low and strained. "Do you remember Ouyang Ye?
That young girl who used to cultivate at our Yunxia Sect back in the day."
"I remember."
"She's not that cheerful young girl anymore. She's now the renowned Empress of the Great Natural Order, Yun Nishang."
Gu Qingfeng nodded. Even if Huode hadn't mentioned it, he knew.
He not only knew Ouyang Ye was the Empress of the Great Natural Order, Yun Nishang, but he also knew that the first woman he admired in his youth, Hong Xiu, was the reincarnation of Yun Nishang.
"Back when I was rebuilding Yunxia Sect, not only did the Holy Lady come, but Ouyang Ye...
No, I should say the Empress of the Great Natural Order, Yun Nishang, also came."
"She came too?"
Gu Qingfeng asked, "Did you invite her?"
"Heavens above, I swear! Ever since I reshaped my fleshly body and awakened, I've never seen Yun Nishang. I'd even forgotten there was such a person. If she hadn't told me herself that both Ouyang Ye and Hong Xiu were her reincarnations, I probably still wouldn't know."
"So, like Su Huan, she came uninvited?"
"You could say that."
"She came to show her support for you too?"
"Well...
That's what she said."
"If she came to show support, so be it. What does that have to do with me?
After all, she was once a disciple of Yunxia Sect. Sentimentally and logically, isn't it normal for her to come support you?"
"If the Empress of the Great Natural Order were just Ouyang Ye, it'd be nothing. The key is she's also Hong Xiu! Didn't you have that past with Hong Xiu back then?"
"That was ages ago. I've long forgotten."
"Kid Gu, this matter probably isn't that simple. Have you forgotten?
Yun Nishang was once the founding ancestor of the Bingxuan Sect, and our Yunxia Sect had deep ties with the Bingxuan Sect in the past. Tell me, why would the founding ancestor of the Bingxuan Sect reincarnate to become a disciple of our Yunxia Sect, and even reincarnate twice? Once as Hong Xiu, meeting you, and reincarnating again as Ouyang Ye, also meeting you. That can't be a coincidence, can it?"
"There are no coincidences between heaven and earth, only karma that cannot be severed."
"Are you saying there's karma between you and the Empress of the Great Natural Order?"
"Remember some things I told you?"
"What things?"
"I am a body of Original Sin, a self of delusion, and also a variable of the Modern-Ancient Era. So, along my journey, there's been a lot of inexplicable karma. This karma might have been deliberately arranged by fate, or forcibly grafted by the Three Thousand Great Daos. Of course, it's also possible it was originally there."
Gu Qingfeng sighed. "Whether the karma between me and Yun Nishang was arranged by fate, grafted by the Great Dao, or pure karma, I currently don't know."
"I see..." Huode thought for a moment, then said, "Kid Gu, you know what?
When the Empress of the Great Natural Order came, she also gave me a treasure."
"You old geezer have deep fortune indeed! Su Huan, hailed as the Holy Lady, comes to support you and inscribes the stele. Now Yun Nishang, hailed as the Empress of the Great Natural Order, also comes to support you. What did she give you?"
"Don't you think the Spiritual Energy of Yunxia Sect feels different?"
"Spiritual Energy?
Different?"
Gu Qingfeng carefully sensed it and was shocked to find that Yunxia Sect's Spiritual Energy was truly extraordinary. This Spiritual Energy was vibrant with life force, very special, like the particularly precious seven-colored Spiritual Energy of the Great Natural Order. Wait!
Not just like—this was exactly the vibrant, life-filled seven-colored Spiritual Energy of the Great Natural Order.
Gu Qingfeng then released his divine sense to sweep the area and discovered that beneath Yunxia Sect ran a seven-colored Spiritual Vein that traversed the entire Great Northwest. However.
The place with the densest seven-colored Spiritual Energy in the entire Yunxia Sect wasn't this Spiritual Vein below, but a tree on a mountain ridge.
It was a vibrant, life-filled Seven-Colored Exquisite Tree.
"Yun Nishang gave you a Seven-Colored Exquisite Tree?"
Huode nodded heavily.
"Then your old geezer's ancestral grave can really be smoking with green smoke this time. This thing is a rarity even across the Myriad Heavens and Worlds. With such a vibrant, life-filled Seven-Colored Exquisite Tree in your Yunxia Sect, forget the great Immortal Realms and families of the Lingluo Heaven Domain getting jealous—even the Immortal Dynasty of this World would covet it."
"Exactly! You probably don't know, but back when the Empress of the Great Natural Order bestowed that Seven-Colored Exquisite Tree upon me, those bastards from the Immortal Dynasty were scared witless on the spot. All those Immortal Realm ancestors from the Lingluo Heaven Domain were green with envy."
"So that's how it is. No wonder you managed to develop Yunxia Sect so massively in just ten thousand years."
Gu Qingfeng laughed. "When Yunxia Sect was founded and established, both Su Huan and Yun Nishang came to show support. One personally inscribed the sect stele, the other bestowed a Seven-Colored Exquisite Tree. One is the Holy Lady renowned across the Great Desolate, the other is the Empress of the Great Natural Order who envelops heaven and earth. Their statuses and positions are each more transcendent than the last. With these two great backers, forget the Immortal Realms of the Lingluo Heaven Domain—even the damned Thirty-Six Cave Heavens, Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, and even the Three Thousand Great Daos would have to think twice before moving against you!"
Exaggerated?
Not at all.
For ten thousand years of the Modern-Ancient Era, Su Huan has traveled across the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, healing the world and enlightening all living beings. Her title of Holy Lady is well-deserved. Most importantly, she is also the Tribulation-Bearer who bears the True Mandate from above. Her influence is so great she can even sway the life and death of the Three Thousand Great Daos.
As for Yun Nishang.
Although she rarely appears, her title of Empress of the Great Natural Order alone is enough to make the Three Thousand Great Daos pale in comparison.
You must know, although the Great Natural Order also belongs to one of the Three Thousand Great Daos, it stands above the Great Daos.
As powerful as the Immortal Dao is, if it wants to dominate a World, it must first seize the World's origin. Only by seizing the World's origin does that World belong to the Immortal Dao, and only then will the sun, symbolizing the light of the Immortal Dao, appear within that World.
However.
The Great Natural Order is different.
The Great Natural Order doesn't need to seize World origins, because the Myriad Heavens and Worlds are inherently within the Great Natural Order. One could even say the Myriad Heavens and Worlds were conceived and born from the Great Natural Order, including the Spiritual Energy and all things between heaven and earth. If not for this, the master of the Great Natural Order wouldn't be revered as the Mother of the Great Natural Order.
Even the sun, symbolizing light, and the moon, symbolizing darkness, belong to the Great Natural Order.
It's just that since the Primordial Era, for unknown reasons, the Great Natural Order has fluctuated, risen and fallen, gradually declined, and its Spiritual Energy has become scarce. The sun has become a symbol of Immortals and Buddhas, and the moon has become a symbol of demons and monsters. So, many have forgotten about the Great Natural Order.
But the Modern-Ancient Era is different. Everyone knows the Great Natural Order has begun to recover in the Modern-Ancient Era...
Whether Yun Nishang, as the Empress of the Great Natural Order, is the legendary Mother of the Great Natural Order, no one is clear. Even if she isn't the Mother of the Great Natural Order, the mere five words 'Empress of the Great Natural Order' are enough to make the Three Thousand Great Daos extremely wary.