Phoenix, as the first being to come into contact with the Ninth-Order Road and the earliest to leave the Barren Ancient World, had already spent several thousand years away.
At this moment, she had only completed her Ninth-Order Road a few hundred years ago. She was already a Weak Ninth-Order and could step into the complete ninth order at any time. Having reached just over ten thousand years of age, she had advanced steadily, though her speed was merely average.
After all, gods lived for less than ten thousand years. Even the greatest geniuses generally completed the Ninth-Order Road within ten thousand years. Otherwise, they would simply die of old age.
And Phoenix had only become a Weak Ninth-Order now, so she was indeed a step slower.
Di Qi, Caroline, and the others had all taken shortcuts. Di Qi cultivated and attained the Dao with three bodies at once, while Caroline attained the Dao in dreams. Phoenix took no shortcuts and broke through the Dao by force, so she was slower.
Furthermore, her knowledge and cultivation methods were far too ancient and isolated. She had never interacted with the outside world and had fallen behind the times.
Yet even now, as a Weak Ninth-Order who could break through at any moment, and once the supreme Dao Lord of the Barren Ancient World, she felt an unimaginable instability in her Dao heart and a violent tremor in her mind. One could only imagine how great the impact on her Dao heart was.
The life she had believed was free had merely been a scheme! She had lived in the enemy camp all along, taking a thief for her father!
Even the most powerful beings would suffer a moment of mental turmoil. The journey of life she had traveled for ten thousand