A figure descended along with the tunes - one peerless woman holding a zither, looking as transcending as can be.
She looked ethereal and illusory with her appearance shrouded as if she was hiding in the river of time. People couldn’t help wanting to take a look.
Despite the vagueness of it all, she still overshadowed all the girls in this world. Even someone as gorgeous as Holyfrost Emperor paled in comparison, mainly due to the woman’s ultimate temperament and aura.
She seemed to have come out of a painting as if she wasn’t a real existence, only a legend.
“Zither Empress…” The bull murmured.
“Is it really her?” Supreme and the others exchanged glances, shocked.
Fire Ancestor was mysterious enough for future generations. However, his tales and legends still passed down, especially his expedition. There were records of these historical events. Many wise sages of the past have met him as well.
This wasn’t the case for Zither Empress. It was as if she came to this world alone and left in the same manner, not leaving behind a system, her legacy, or descendant.
Someone like her appeared briefly on the river of time before disappearing. Thus, her origin, skills, lineage, and everything else were a blur.
The proof of her existence came from the ancient scrolls of a few dao systems. Of course, nothing in detail. Nonetheless, this enigmatic progenitor’s existence remained a contentious debate.
Now, this legend was proven to be true.
“It’s that zither again.” Holyfrost saw the zither coming by to stop the soul summoning process a while ago back on the ship.
A few ancestors activated their heavenly gaze but couldn’t see through the empress at all.
“Just a dao avatar.” Li Qiye revealed while looking at her.
“A dao avatar?” The group became surprised before stealing glances over at the trio and Fire Ancestor.
Everyone here was dead. What about her? Was she dead too?
This question lingered in their head but none gave them an answer.
“Whatever happened in the past might have involved even more progenitors?” One ancestor wondered.
So far, there have been Phenom, Sword Saint, Skysplitter, Divine Moon, and Zither Empress.
This made the group shudder. They realized that the scale of this event was massive. Many progenitors being involved meant that many of them might have died, evident by the group seen here.
Thus, their own progenitors might either be dead or worse, becoming a fallen one like Fire Ancestor.
Progenitors were considered supreme in their own systems. This seemed rather obvious.
However, what if their progenitors did something to break this image and reputation? How could their descendants handle this?
“What about all the other progenitors that have entered the expanse?” Supreme asked.
For millions of years, virtually all progenitors have gone there. None ever returned.
What did they experience there? The same fate as the ones here? This made the group very pessimistic.
They were actually thinking that it might be best for some of the progenitors to die. At the very least, they wouldn’t become someone like Fire Ancestor.
The worse thing was, these possibilities were actually quite plausible.
“Empress, your dao avatar is depleted. You can’t stop me.” Fire Ancestor said.
“Fire Ancestor, you are dead and should stop.” The empress’ voice seemed harmonious with nature.
“Dead but my obsession lives on for an eternity.” Fire Ancestor said: “Never give up doing what must be done, that’s the dao heart all cultivators should have.”
“A single erroneous thought leads to a mile of mistakes.” The empress continued: “The karma here has been settled, you can’t change it.”
“I will still do what I must and leave the outcome to the heaven.” Fire Ancestor replied.
“Nothing will come of it even if you succeed. You’re only an evil thought that won’t disperse, no longer the real you.” She said.“There is still a chance if I can get it!” His eyes turned towards the sealed palace.
This made the spectators look over as well. They didn’t know what was hidden in there but it was precious enough to make Fire Ancestor and the other progenitors risk everything.
“The teachers didn’t leave that thing for you or me. It is meant for the Three Immortals and its inhabitants.” The empress shook her head.
“Its very presence will cause trouble for Three Immortals.” He asserted.
“Those with wisdom see different things.” She disagreed: “I will cross your evil intent over to the other side today. As you have said, it is time for this to end and for everyone to return to the earth. This isn’t our era anymore."
“You can’t take me down.” He said: “Our dao are different. My darkness is eternal, not even the light can do anything about it. I am me now, not someone else.”
She fell into silence. Meanwhile, the group started pondering.
They could see that Fire Ancestor wasn’t the same as before. His power wasn’t his own; it came from a mysterious source of darkness and allowed his flame to be indestructible.
This was one of the reasons why the trio couldn’t take him on.
They were dead and relied on their true blood for empowerment. Once this source of power was gone, they would be no different from ordinary corpses.
On the other hand, Fire Ancestor could always recover even after being utterly defeated, provided that he wasn’t turned to dust in full. He could live for as long as the evil flame was around.
This was also why he grew stronger versus his first appearance during the ceremony. The evil flame grew stronger with time and added more dark power to him.
The only way to take him down was to annihilate him and the evil flame in one move, leaving nothing left.
“True.” She finally admitted: “I can’t cross you over as I am now, but someone else can.”
“Who?” He asked.
“This Fellow Daoist over there.” Her eyes fell upon Li Qiye.
Fire Ancestor’s eyes flashed brightly and looked over at Li Qiye. His expression changed after recognizing the guy.
The trio of progenitors also stared at Li Qiye, the same with his own group.
All eyes were on him now.