Light flickered within the great hall.
Xu Xuan gradually recovered from the pressure of witnessing the Phoenix Lord earlier. His thoughts raced as he began considering Gao Chen's words. What she had said ought to be true, but he struggled to unravel the connections within.
"This True Lord Upper Successive Union had 'Xuan' in his honorific, so he was presumably an Immortal Rank beneath supreme clarity. In that case, would the Pure Brahma Heaven reserved in Sindhu's orthodox dharma correspond to mystic qi?"
"Precisely."
Gao Chen shifted her gaze slightly and continued:
"That True Lord Upper Successive Union once expounded on the transformations of the three qi, and his teachings spread far and wide. According to him, primordial qi runs throughout the Cosmic Light River, existing everywhere. Time exists because this qi exists. Primordial qi is like a ruler, with mystic qi at its beginning, thus opening heaven, and origin qi at its end, thus bringing destruction."
"This is a theory of the Dao that places mystic qi first. As it happens, Sindhu's orthodox dharma describes Pure Brahma creating the world, All-Pervading preserving it, and Utmost Wrath destroying it."
At these words, something stirred in Xu Xuan's heart. This differed from what he had heard in the past, and he asked doubtfully:
"When I first heard of them, primordial qi belonged to the opening of heaven, mystic qi to the present, and origin qi to the final calamity. Their distinctions were as clear as the Jing and Wei Rivers, yet that differs from the theory you have just described, Phoenix Maiden."
Gao Chen merely answered calmly:
"That places primordial qi first, and it is not necessarily wrong. The three qi undergo countless transformations. Perhaps at some particular stage, that theory is correct. Our elder once said that even those at