The blazing, sunlike aura drew inward, and as the golden radiance faded, a valiant young woman appeared before Li Ling and his wife.
Her long, jet-black hair flowed like a waterfall, bound in the middle with a golden rope and hanging naturally down her back. She wore ancient armor cast from bronze, rugged in design yet imposing, and held a spear in her hand, radiating a powerful aura.
This was Radiance Heavenly Lord, a celestial general who had descended from the Heavenly Court in her divine carriage, the presiding officer of the Fire Division, a guardian deity, and one of the Heavenly Lords personally appointed by Mystic Heaven Dao Venerable.
Li Ling and Mu Qingsi stared in astonishment, vaguely feeling that her face was familiar. Looking more closely, they realized it was precisely how their Old Ancestor, Yellow Cloud True Person, had looked in her youth.
Her aura was familiar as well, but something was missing from her three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls. In its place was the piercing intensity of sunlight, faintly accompanied by the fierce, smoky heat of burning incense, candles, and paper money. These were the hallmarks of a deity sustained by incense offerings, though after cultivating to the pinnacle, she had escaped some of that path's limitations.
"Y-you're the Old Ancestor?" Mu Qingsi exclaimed, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Li Ling examined her carefully. She was indeed their Old Ancestor, yet she was so different from before that he scarcely dared acknowledge her.
"Indeed. I am Radiance Heavenly Lord, and I am also Yellow Cloud. As you can see, although I died, Heaven favored me and bestowed merit upon me, allowing me to preserve my primordial spirit, reforge my divine body, and be reborn as the Heavenly Lord presiding over the Heavenly Court's Fire