In the eastern sky, a seven-colored auspicious cloud drifted silently into view.
Upon it, a magnificent Phoenix Chariot shimmered in and out of sight. Luanniao birds circled the chariot, and immortal music played of its own accord, yet an invisible force held it all in check. Not a single note escaped, nor did the slightest trace of a Saint's might leak out.
It was Empress Nuwa, who had come from Wa Huang Palace.
Her arrival was utterly unlike Venerable Yuanshi's domineering entrance, which had announced itself to all of the Primordial Era.
She was like a drop of water, slipping soundlessly into the sea.
The Phoenix Chariot stopped on a cloud far from the battlefield at Xiqi, concealed within the void.
Nuwa's gaze was cool and composed as it pierced layer after layer of space and settled upon the chaotic battlefield.
The first thing to catch her eye was the Taiji Diagram, spread across the entire sky.
"The Taiji Diagram..."
Nuwa's gaze sharpened slightly.
She could sense that Senior Brother Taishang and Senior Brother Yuanshi were contending through the Great Dao within the diagram. Yuanshi's Jade Purity Immortal Light was domineering and fierce, crashing again and again against the world within. But Taishang's yin-yang Taiji Dao was like an enormous net; no matter how powerful the force, it could be effortlessly unraveled and dissolved into nothing.
"Senior Brother Taishang is truly unfathomable," Nuwa thought to herself.
As a Saint herself, she knew all too well that Taishang's cultivation was without a doubt the strongest among the Six Saints. Yuanshi was formidable, but breaking the Taiji Diagram was all but impossible.
She looked away from the Taiji Diagram and down at the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation.
Gazing at the great formation, with its churning yellow mists and soaring baleful aura, and at the three figures inside—tense, yet still standing straight—Nuwa's expression grew complicated.
The Three Cloud Sisters of the Interception Sect.
As it happened, these three immortals had attained the Dao from three clouds in the distant sky. Clouds gathered and dispersed as a natural part of the world; tracing their origins, they could be considered part of the demon race in the broadest sense.
But they had entered the tutelage of Junior Brother Tongtian and cultivated the orthodox Mystic Gate's Shangqing Immortal Method. They had long since left the category of the demon race.
Now, however, because of that promise, Nuwa had to count them among her own side.
"Help the Three Cloud Sisters of the Interception Sect hold back Taishang..."
Nuwa silently turned over in her mind the command from the master of the Investiture of the Gods.
It was an extremely thorny task.
Hold back Taishang?
How?
Charge in and fight Senior Brother Taishang?
Give me a break.
Even setting aside whether she could beat him, she had no reason to attack Taishang.
If she attacked a fellow senior brother for no reason—especially the eldest senior brother of the Mystic Gate—how could she ever hold her place in the Primordial Era again? She would have no way to explain herself to Dao Ancestor Hongjun, either.
So she needed a reason.
A perfectly justifiable reason, one that would leave everyone speechless.
As Nuwa considered her options, her brow suddenly furrowed slightly.
Her gaze shifted to another side of the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation.
There, a Saint's presence—exceedingly faint, yet filled with greed and scheming—was sneaking toward the formation, trying to infiltrate it.
"Zhunti?"
A cold curve appeared at Nuwa's lips.
The fellow from the West certainly had a keen nose.
The moment trouble broke out in the East, he came running at the scent.
There was no need to guess: he had his eyes on the treasures inside the formation, as well as the twelve Golden Immortals of the Sect of Explanation who had been cast down into the mortal world.
"Good. Your arrival will save me quite a bit of trouble."
Nuwa immediately came up with a plan.
She had been worrying that she lacked a suitable reason to intervene. Zhunti's appearance was just what she needed.
When Zhunti tried to sneak into the formation a second time, only to be driven back by Nuwa's Saintly Might, he flew into a rage and frantically swept his divine sense across the area.
That was when Nuwa made her move.
She did not reveal herself, nor did she communicate with Zhunti in any way.
She simply sat in the Phoenix Chariot and gently unfurled one corner of the Mountain River Society Map before her.
It was a painting.
Within it were mountains and rivers, the sun and moon, stars, birds and insects, and countless living things.
As the painting unfurled, an invisible force—the source of the Great Dao of Fortune—silently enveloped the space within a radius of a million li.
This force had neither the all-encompassing scope of the Taiji Diagram nor the sheer dominance of Yuanshi's Saintly Might. It was gentle and natural, yet present everywhere.
It was like a spring breeze sweeping over the land, bringing all things back to life.
It was like a fine rain nourishing a dried-up riverbed.
Zhunti was frantically using his divine sense to search for his opponent when he suddenly felt it sink into a mire.
No, something worse than a mire.
His divine sense swept over a mountain range, and the mountains seemed to come alive. Stones, trees, and plants all brimmed with vitality, gently pushing his divine sense away.
His divine sense skimmed a river, and the river seemed to gain a soul. The water surged and churned, sending up waves that softly swept his divine sense aside.
Everywhere his divine sense reached, the whole world seemed to become a living being, resisting his probing in a subtle, imperceptible way.
"This is... the Mountain River Society Map?!"
Zhunti's face turned darker than the bottom of a pot.
At last, he was sure!
The one hiding in the shadows really was Nuwa!
Only Nuwa's proof of the Dao, the Mountain River Society Map, could possess such terrifying power—transforming an entire world into a genuine reality and creating a self-sustaining cycle of creation!
"Nuwa! What do you mean by this?!"
Shocked and furious, Zhunti sent a roar with his divine sense toward the source of the power of Fortune.
"You and I have always kept to our own business. Why are you stopping me?!"
There was no answer.
Nuwa simply couldn't be bothered with him.
She quietly maintained the open Mountain River Society Map, turning the region into her domain.
Within this world, evolved from the Mountain River Society Map, she was the sole creator.
Every one of Zhunti's actions was under her control.
He wanted to enter the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation?
Fine.
He just had to break through this world, evolved from the Mountain River Society Map.
But that meant he would first have to fight Nuwa, a Saint.
Zhunti's expression shifted between dark and uncertain.
He couldn't understand why Nuwa was doing this.
Was she really after those treasures, too?
That didn't make sense.
As the Saint of the demon race, Nuwa was immensely wealthy. Though her wealth couldn't match the Three Pure Ones', surely she wouldn't care about these few things?
Besides, she had never been fond of fighting. Why was she acting so out of character and being so forceful today?
Zhunti couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Nuwa, meanwhile, was also deep in thought.
Using the Mountain River Society Map to trap Zhunti was only the first step.
It could merely keep Zhunti, the "mantis waiting to catch the cicada," from interfering for the time being.
But her main task was to "hold back Taishang."
Taishang and Yuanshi were still "discussing the Dao" inside the Taiji Diagram. How could she intervene, make Taishang stand down without irreparably falling out with him, and ensure that the Three Cloud Sisters and the Sect of Explanation were completely at odds, leaving no room for reconciliation?
She needed a precisely chosen opening.
Nuwa's gaze returned to the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation.
She looked at the three women on the high platform. They were bewildered and helpless, able only to wait for fate to pass judgment. Suddenly, a daring idea came to her.
Perhaps she could use them to make an issue of this.
At the same time, Nuwa grew increasingly curious about the mysterious master of the Investiture of the Gods.
Who exactly was this person?
He seemed to understand the situation in the Primordial Era inside and out.
He knew Yuanshi and Taishang would clash.
He knew Zhunti would come to swoop in like a mantis waiting to catch a cicada.
He even seemed to have calculated that she would choose to act for the sake of the demon race's future.
Step by step, he had drawn her, Zhunti, Taishang, and Yuanshi into this game.
He was like the most brilliant chess player, while they, the lofty Saints, had all become pieces on his board.
The thought sent a shiver through Nuwa.
But at the same time, it also excited her.
Cooperating with an entity like this was dangerous, but it was filled with endless possibilities.
"The future of the demon race..."
Nuwa murmured to herself, her resolve growing stronger.
Whoever he was, as long as he kept his promise, she would play along to the end today!
She would show the entire Primordial Era that she, Nuwa, was not only the Holy Mother of the Human Race, but also the... Empress of the demon race!
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