Thus, Heavenly Lord of Morality Laozi joined Primordial Lord of Heaven, riding the clouds and breaking through the void as they entered the sacred realm of Huoyun Cave in the Thirty-three Heavens, where they paid their respects to the three Human Saints—Fuxi, Shen Nong, and Xuanyuan.
Rosy clouds billowed before the cave, while vast clear qi surged like a sea, washing over the stairways of the Thirty-three Heavens. Immortal music rang sonorously in the sky, jade pendants chiming clear and endlessly. Auspicious qi condensed into rolling cloud-waves that churned for thousands of miles. A Golden Phoenix led the way, Azure Luans sang in harmony, horned dragons coiled around pillars, and phoenixes bore sacred fungi in their beaks. Auspicious light spilled across hundreds of millions of miles of sky. A Milky Way spanning heaven and earth came rushing from the void, every splash of its waves swirling with flowing runes.
The two Saints entered the cave and sat facing the Three Sovereigns, their sleeves lightly brushing as their auras remained calm and still.
Laozi stroked his beard and spoke. "Great upheavals have recently shaken the mortal world. Human Emperor Ying Zheng has Acted Against Heaven, burning the classics as though setting dry grass ablaze, burying worthy scholars as though slaughtering dogs, and abolishing the Hundred Schools as though severing rivers. The Dao lineages are crumbling, and the cultural legacy is on the verge of extinction. Immortals and Buddhas throughout the heavens have grievances soaring to the skies; day after day, they kneel outside my Xuandu gate, begging us to reclaim the heavenly balance and choose the Human Lord anew. Though this humble daoist governs the Human Sect, Sage Su Yang, the Saint Father of humanity, has long remained in seclusion and has yet to return, his traces vanished without a sign.