Yuanfeng's Divine Sense, Frost Phoenix Enters Guixu

A phoenix cry rang across the Northern Sea.

The sound passed through Guixu's Blackwater, through the cold mist of Dragon-Suppressing Pass, like divine fire descending from the southern heavens.

Outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass, the Southern Bright Fire around Elder Zhu Yan instantly withdrew.

He knelt upon the Blackwater, his forehead nearly touching the sea's surface.

"Greetings, Her Majesty Yuanfeng!"

Feng Li also knelt with the Frost Phoenix Lineage.

The Frost Phoenix Clan wore complicated expressions.

They revered Yuanfeng.

But they also feared her.

Within the Phoenix Clan, Yuanfeng was the supreme origin.

All Phoenix Clan bloodlines were naturally subject to her command.

But at this moment, they had already entered Guixu.

They had already been judged by the Book of Cause and Effect.

They had already settled in the outer city of Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

They knew perfectly well that if Yuanfeng insisted on taking them away, they would be unable to resist.

Even with Guixu behind them, no one dared underestimate the majesty of the Phoenix Clan's ruler.

The flames in the south grew increasingly brilliant.

A massive phantom of a fire phoenix slowly appeared outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

That phantom was not her true body.

Yet it was enough to make the entire Northern Sea boil.

When the fire phoenix spread her wings, even Guixu's Blackwater seemed to be dyed crimson gold.

Yuanfeng's divine sense had descended.

Her gaze did not immediately fall upon Zhu Yan.

Nor did it immediately turn toward Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

Instead, it landed on Feng Li.

"Feng Li."

Her voice was cool and distant, carrying innate nobility.

Feng Li lowered her head.

"Feng Li greets Your Majesty."

Yuanfeng slowly said, "You wish to remain in Guixu?"

The moment those words fell, the entire Frost Phoenix Lineage held its breath.

A trace of delight flashed through Zhu Yan's eyes.

In his view, with Yuanfeng personally speaking, Feng Li would surely not dare defy her.

But Feng Li remained kneeling atop Dragon-Suppressing Pass. After a long while, she slowly raised her head.

"I do."

With that single word, Zhu Yan's expression immediately changed.

"Feng Li!"

He shouted angrily.

"Before Her Majesty, you still dare cling to your delusion?"

Yuanfeng merely glanced at him.

Zhu Yan instantly fell silent.

Feng Li took a deep breath, her voice clear.

"The Frost Phoenix Lineage has been repeatedly conscripted these past years."

"More than half of the clan's young and strong have died or been wounded."

"Our young are difficult to settle."

"If we continue to the southern battlefield, our clan will sooner or later be wiped out."

"Guixu permits us to avoid the tribulation. The Book of Cause and Effect has revealed our clan's merits and sins, and the Emperor has clearly stated that those who enter Guixu do so only to avoid tribulation and will not take part in the struggle among the three clans."

"Feng Li is willing to lead the Frost Phoenix Lineage in remaining within Guixu."

After she finished speaking, she kowtowed once more.

"I beg Your Majesty to grant this."

A deathly silence fell over Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

The Frost Phoenix Clan's eyes reddened.

Feng Li's words had nearly voiced the thoughts in all their hearts.

It was not that they did not acknowledge the Phoenix Clan.

But they wanted to live.

They did not want to be used as Frostflame tools to suppress the aquatic clans in a war with no end in sight.

Zhu Yan's expression was ugly.

He wanted to rebuke them, yet he did not dare interrupt Yuanfeng again.

Yuanfeng looked at Feng Li and remained silent for a long time.

Then her gaze finally shifted toward the sky above Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

There, the Guixu Dharma Body slowly appeared.

Lu Chen truly did not want to show himself.

The Ancestral Dragon had only just come, and now Yuanfeng had arrived.

One after another, the overlords of the Primordial World's three great clans were running to the Northern Sea. The feeling was terrible.

Right now, he only wanted to seal his turtle shell shut and pretend he did not exist.

But Yuanfeng's divine sense had descended, and Feng Li was the leader of the Frost Phoenix Lineage that Guixu had accepted.

If he did not show himself at all, the clans of Guixu would also grow uneasy.

Lu Chen could only condense his Dharma Body.

A hazy phantom of the Black Tortoise hung above Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

Yuanfeng looked at him.

Her aura was utterly different from the Ancestral Dragon's.

The Ancestral Dragon was like the Four Seas pressing down from above.

Yuanfeng was like heavenly fire burning the world.

Her gaze was exceptionally sharp, as if it could directly burn through the Guixu mist surrounding the Dharma Body.

"Black Tortoise."

"You intend to teach the Phoenix Clan's bloodline on my behalf?"

Lu Chen's heart tightened.

That was not an easy question to answer.

He had never actually intended to teach the Phoenix Clan.

Feng Li's willingness to teach at the Academy had been arranged by Lan Shuang.

He had barely intervened from beginning to end.

But he could not make it sound too evasive.

Thus, Lu Chen answered with only the safest line.

"Those who enter Guixu must abide by Guixu's rules."

"The Frost Phoenix entered Guixu only to avoid tribulation."

"If they are unwilling to abide by the rules, they may leave on their own."

Yuanfeng's eyes shifted slightly.

"What if I wish to take them away?"

The atmosphere around Dragon-Suppressing Pass suddenly tightened.

Excitement appeared in Zhu Yan's eyes.

The Frost Phoenix Lineage, meanwhile, tensed in spirit.

Feng Li knelt upon the ground, even her fingertips turning white.

Lu Chen was silent for a moment.

He could not appear too cowardly.

The Ancestral Dragon had only just left behind the Reverse Scale and departed. If Yuanfeng immediately took the Frost Phoenix Lineage from Guixu, Guixu's rules would become a joke.

His voice remained calm.

"If they wish to leave, Guixu will not stop them."

"If they wish to remain, Guixu will protect them."

The moment those words fell, the clans at Dragon-Suppressing Pass were shaken to their core.

The Emperor's words were exceedingly steady.

The Phoenix Clan could take away any Frost Phoenix willing to leave.

But Guixu would protect those unwilling to go.

That was Guixu's rule.

It did not ask about the origins of one's bloodline.

It asked only about one's own wishes and karmic merits and sins.

Feng Li abruptly raised her head.

Her eyes were slightly red as she deeply kowtowed toward the Guixu Dharma Body.

"Feng Li wishes to remain in Guixu!"

The Frost Phoenix Clan behind her also kowtowed one after another.

"We wish to remain in Guixu!"

Zhu Yan was so enraged that flames flickered wildly around him.

"Your Majesty, they are betraying the Phoenix Clan!"

Yuanfeng finally looked at Zhu Yan.

"Silence."

Zhu Yan shuddered all over and no longer dared speak.

Yuanfeng's divine sense swept over Feng Li and the Frost Phoenix Lineage.

Of course, she could see that the Frost Phoenix Lineage had already been exhausted to the limit.

In recent years, the conflict between the Phoenix Clan and the Dragon Clan had grown increasingly intense.

Their branches had been conscripted in great numbers.

Relying on the Southern Bright Fire, Zhu Yan's branch had forcibly pushed the Frost Phoenix into the most dangerous battlefield at the boundary of water and fire.

Yuanfeng was not wholly unaware of this matter.

But the general momentum of the three clans was rolling relentlessly forward, and she could no longer attend to many details.

Now that the Frost Phoenix Lineage had chosen to enter Guixu, she instead saw another possibility.

Yuanfeng looked at Lu Chen again.

"Black Tortoise, do you know that accepting the Phoenix Clan's bloodline will entangle you in the Phoenix Clan's karma?"

Lu Chen silently sighed in his heart.

He was already entangled.

The Ancestral Dragon's Reverse Scale was sealed within Dragon-Suppressing Pass. One more phoenix feather probably would not make much difference.

He answered, "Guixu accepts only the karma of avoiding tribulation."

Yuanfeng fell silent.

The Ancestral Dragon had heard those words.

She understood them as well.

The karma of avoiding tribulation.

Not the karma of vying for supremacy.

This Black Tortoise had always drawn the boundary very clearly.

He was not taking the Phoenix Clan's bloodline for himself.

Nor was he using the Frost Phoenix Lineage to wage war against the Phoenix Clan.

He was merely sheltering the branch that wished to avoid tribulation.

Yuanfeng suddenly gave a soft laugh.

"You are quite slippery."

Lu Chen pretended not to hear.

Yuanfeng raised her hand.

A phoenix feather interwoven with icy blue and crimson gold slowly descended from the fire phoenix phantom.

The feather burned with Frostflame, yet within it was hidden an exceptionally pure trace of Yuanfeng's aura.

When Feng Li saw the feather, her expression drastically changed.

"Your Majesty..."

Yuanfeng said blandly, "This is the Frostflame Phoenix Feather."

"If the Frost Phoenix Lineage can survive this tribulation in Guixu, this branch will be under your own command."

"If you die in the Great Tribulation, then it will prove that you chose the wrong path."

Tears welled up in Feng Li's eyes.

She kowtowed heavily.

"Feng Li thanks Your Majesty for granting this!"

The Frost Phoenix Lineage also knelt in unison.

Zhu Yan's face flushed red, yet he did not dare utter another word.

By leaving behind the Frostflame Phoenix Feather, Yuanfeng had effectively acknowledged the Frost Phoenix Lineage's temporary residence in Guixu.

At least during this Great Tribulation, Zhu Yan could no longer forcibly take them away in the name of the Phoenix Clan.

After the Frostflame Phoenix Feather entered Dragon-Suppressing Pass, Lu Chen immediately swept it with the Guixu Womb Membrane and the Heaven-Deceiving Tortoise Shell.

Only after confirming that there was no strong aura of surveillance did he allow Lan Shuang to receive it.

The system's voice rang out as well.

"Yuanfeng's Frostflame Phoenix Feather has been detected entering Guixu. Please choose."

"First, refine the Frostflame Phoenix Feather and seize the Phoenix Clan's fire fortune. Reward: Southern Bright Li Fire Divine Ability."

"Second, reject the Frostflame Phoenix Feather and avoid karmic ties with the Phoenix Clan. Reward: three Fire-Avoiding Talismans."

"Third, transform the Frostflame Phoenix Feather into a tribulation-avoiding token for the Frost Phoenix Lineage, stabilizing Guixu's balance of fire and frost. Reward: a fragmentary insight into the Nirvana Shell-Swapping Technique."

Lu Chen decisively chose the third option.

"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a fragmentary insight into the Nirvana Shell-Swapping Technique."

A profound realization flooded into his Primordial Spirit.

Unlike the weighty secrecy of the Chaos Shell-Shedding Method, this fragmentary insight into the Nirvana Shell-Swapping Technique carried the Phoenix Clan's path of nirvana.

Rebirth amid flames.

Exchanging one's life in a death tribulation.

Lu Chen was overjoyed.

This thing perfectly complemented the Chaos Shell-Shedding Method.

If, during the future mending of the heavens, his Old Shell bore the mandate while his true body escaped the tribulation, then used this fragmentary nirvana insight to restore its vitality, his chances of escaping alive would rise considerably.

"Good stuff."

"Yuanfeng is a good person too."

The moment the thought arose, Lu Chen immediately suppressed the latter half.

He could not praise her carelessly.

Yuanfeng's divine sense had not yet gone far.

At Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

The Frostflame Phoenix Feather descended into Guixu Outer City.

Feng Li personally planted it by the Northern Darkness Sea.

When Frostflame touched the water, it did not go out.

Instead, it transformed into a tiny spiritual root.

Half of the spiritual root was icy blue, while the other half was crimson gold.

Its roots sank into the watery vapor of the Northern Darkness Sea, while its branches and leaves absorbed Guixu's cold mist.

In only a few days, it grew into a small tree three zhang tall.

Upon seeing this spiritual root, the Frost Phoenix Clan members all knelt.

"Frostflame Parasol Tree!"

Feng Li's eyes filled with excitement.

This was the future foundation of the Frost Phoenix Lineage.

In the past, they had depended on the Phoenix Clan and had never possessed a true ancestral land of their own.

Now, the Frostflame Parasol Tree had taken root in Guixu.

The Frost Phoenix Lineage finally had a place of its own to dwell.

Yuanfeng's divine sense watched this scene, and her gaze softened slightly for an instant.

Then she looked toward Lu Chen's dharma body.

"Black Tortoise."

"I hope you can truly protect them."

Lu Chen said, "Those who follow the rules will be protected by Guixu."

Yuanfeng's divine will gradually dissipated.

Zhu Yan did not dare linger any longer and could only leave dejectedly with the Phoenix Clan cultivators.

Before leaving, his gaze at Feng Li was full of unwillingness.

But Feng Li was no longer afraid.

She stood before the Frostflame Parasol Tree, with the phantom of a Frost Phoenix spreading open behind her.

At this moment, the Frost Phoenix Lineage had truly joined Guixu.

At Dragon-Suppressing Pass, Lan Shuang looked at the Frostflame Parasol Tree, then toward the direction where the Ancestral Dragon's Reverse Scale was sealed.

The Ancestral Dragon's Reverse Scale.

Yuanfeng's Frost Feather.

Guixu had already accepted the ember tokens of two clans.

A thought suddenly arose in her heart.

What if the Qilin Clan came as well?

Deep within Guixu.

Lu Chen thought of the same thing.

He silently shrank his neck.

"Please don't."

"The Dragon Clan and Phoenix Clan are troublesome enough already."

"The Qilin Clan had better not come."

The moment he finished speaking, a chill ran through his heart.

There were some things in the Primordial World that truly could not be said.

"Choose."