There was another woman.
When she appeared, the sky was filled with myriad colors.
The myriad colors changed endlessly—like the first sunrise, like the setting sun, like the arrival of dusk, like the rising night moon, like the passing of spring and autumn, like the blooming and withering of flowers, like the gathering of clouds and winds, like thunder and lightning, like the flurry of rain and snow, like the blazing sun, and like piercing cold.
The endlessly changing myriad colors brimmed with vitality, like the constant renewal of days and months, like the renewal of all things, and even more like the alternation of Yin and Yang, like the cycle of the Five Elements.
The Ancestral Patriarchs present all knew that these endlessly changing myriad colors filling the sky were the manifestation of the Great Natural Order.
This was the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces within the Endless Sea of the Outer Heavens. The Three Thousand Great Daos could not envelop this place, and the Great Natural Order was even more impossible.
Throughout the ages, only one person's appearance would be accompanied by the manifestation of the Great Natural Order.
That was the Empress of the Great Natural Order.
Those who knew, knew that the Empress of the Great Natural Order, like Empress Wuyue and Empress Wuyou, had reincarnated multiple times since the Desolate Ancient Era. Yun Nishang, Ouyang Ye, and Hongxiu were all reincarnations of the Empress of the Great Natural Order.
It was widely known.
Since the Desolate Ancient Era, the Great Natural Order had been in a state of slumber. As a result, after the Desolate Ancient Era, the spiritual energy of the myriad heavens and worlds grew thinner and more turbid day by day, only gradually recovering in the current era.
Some said that the Great Natural Order, like many Great Daos, fell into slumber with the end of the Desolate Ancient Era.
But that was not actually the case.
Other Great Daos might have fallen into slumber with the end of the Desolate Ancient Era, but the Great Natural Order did not.
Any Ancestral Patriarch who had experienced the Desolate Ancient Era knew that the Great Natural Order had already fallen into slumber during the Desolate Ancient Era itself. The spiritual energy was still relatively abundant and pure, but only relatively so. Relatively abundant did not mean absolutely abundant, and relatively pure did not mean absolutely pure.
According to legend.
Before the Desolate Ancient Era, when the Great Natural Order had not yet fallen, the spiritual energy was both absolutely abundant and absolutely pure—abundant enough to fill the entire sky, pure without any impurities.
Unfortunately.
Before the Desolate Ancient Era, a great calamity occurred. That calamity not only caused the Nine Heavens and Nine Nethers to fall one after another but also caused the Great Natural Order to fall. Since then, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was never as abundant and pure as before, growing increasingly thin and turbid.
The legends about the Great Natural Order had always been a perplexing mystery.
Some said the first generation to dominate heaven and earth as the leader of the Great Daos was not the Sage Path, but the Great Natural Order. The Sage Path was only the second generation to dominate heaven and earth as the leader of the Great Daos, and the Heavenly Dao was the third generation.
Before the Desolate Ancient Era, it was always the Great Natural Order that dominated heaven and earth. After the Desolate Ancient Era began, the Sage Path ascended to become the leader of the Great Daos and dominated heaven and earth. By the time the Heavenly Dao dominated heaven and earth, it was already the late Desolate Ancient Era, making it the third-generation leader of the Great Daos.
Others said that the Great Natural Order did not belong to the Three Thousand Great Daos at all, because the Three Thousand Great Daos were born from the Great Natural Order. Hence, the Great Natural Order was also revered as the Mother of the Great Natural Order, or the Mother of the Great Daos.
Still others said that the Great Natural Order was the so-called heaven and earth, the so-called Great Dao.
What the truth actually was, no one had ever known since ancient times; opinions had always varied.
Within the scene.
Accompanying Empress Wuyou's appearance, besides Empress Youming and Empress Tianzong, and the Empress of the Great Natural Order, there was another woman.
When this woman appeared, she was not like Empress Youming, filling the sky with the Breath of Death; nor was she like Empress Tianzong, whose Heavenly Might was vast and mighty like the Milky Way of the Nine Heavens; nor was she like the Empress of the Great Natural Order, whose myriad colors filled the sky with boundless vitality.
Even when this woman appeared, no imposing aura spread, nor did any radiance flash.
There was nothing.
She simply appeared in the void without any warning, wearing a pure white robe, her three thousand black hairs naturally cascading down. Her peerlessly beautiful face held no emotional color—no sorrow, no joy, no worries, no anxieties—only a pair of incredibly clear eyes, clear without any distracting thoughts.
This woman's existence was too pure, too sacred.
Pure to the point of being spotless, pure to the point of being incompatible with this chaotic Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces, pure as if she did not belong to this heaven and earth at all.
Sacred to the point that all the Ancestral Patriarchs present, upon seeing her, felt a sense of self-conscious inferiority. Sacred as if she were a legendary Saint, making people's hearts involuntarily feel a desire to worship and pay homage.
The sacredness on this woman made the so-called Sage Path Ancestral Patriarchs from the Holy Land seem utterly unworthy of comparison.
Not to mention those Sage Path Ancestral Patriarchs, even the so-called Nine Holy Sons of the Sage Path, including the so-called Quasi-Saints and Half-Saints from the Holy Temple, could not be mentioned in the same breath.
Yes.
Not just unworthy of comparison, but impossible to mention in the same breath.
The Ancestral Patriarchs of the Holy Land each possessed a sacred aura stronger than the last, their holy light more dazzling than the last. Especially the Nine Holy Sons, whose sacred auras were so powerful they each seemed like Sons of the Sacred, their holy light as dazzling as sacred great suns.
However.
When this woman appeared, looking again at the Nine Holy Sons who were like sacred great suns, everyone realized how ostentatious that dazzling holy light was, how vain that vast and mighty sacred aura was.
It was also when this woman appeared.
That Xuan Yuan Hao, who had fallen into confusion, gradually became clear.
After her confusion, she was like trapped in endless darkness, and the woman's appearance was like light appearing in that endless darkness.
Xuan Yuan Hao had never known what the true essence of the Sage Path was, nor what true sacredness was, until this woman appeared. Then she finally understood.
After understanding, looking at herself again, at the Nine Holy Sons, at these Ancestral Patriarchs of the Holy Land, Xuan Yuan Hao realized how ignorant, how naive, how laughable she had been before.
She also finally understood why, after the Desolate Ancient Era, no one in the Holy Land had ever ascended to achieve Sagehood.
These so-called Ancestral Patriarchs of the Holy Land all wanted to use this calamity to make the Sage Path ascend as the leader of the Great Daos, thereby dominating heaven and earth. Their minds were full of desires, so how could they possibly ascend to achieve Sagehood?
The so-called Half-Saints, the so-called Quasi-Saints, the so-called Holy Sons—from the very beginning, they were nothing but means of self-deception.
There were no Half-Saints, no Quasi-Saints, and no Sons of the Sacred.
Only by being like that woman, letting go of the seven emotions and six desires, emptying the four great elements, and single-mindedly seeking the Great Dao, could one ascend to achieve Sagehood.
Only by becoming a true Saint would one be like that woman—pure to the point of being spotless, sacred to the point of making anyone who looked at her feel self-conscious inferiority.
Before.
Xuan Yuan Hao did not know whether the current Sage Path was worth protecting. Now she knew.
Before.
She did not know what the Sage Path in her heart truly was. Now she also knew.
The woman's appearance was like a guiding beacon, allowing the confused Xuan Yuan Hao to find herself again.
Xuan Yuan Hao knew this woman. Not only did she know her, it could be said that most of the Ancestral Patriarchs present knew this woman.
The woman's name was Su Hua, and she was the only Holy Maiden Empress since the Desolate Ancient Era to have ascended to achieve Sagehood.