Beside him, Aman had not followed the Immortal Phoenix King's path wholesale either. Instead, he focused on the power to bring the dead back to life within the Precious Technique's nirvana divine flame arts. He delved deeply into the instant of transition from death to life and the explosive power unleashed at that moment, comprehending the mysteries of nirvana's return from annihilation. For now, he left aside the Divine Flame's vigorous upward growth, continuous regeneration, and sustained eruptions of power.
The latter still leaned toward fire, but the mysteries within that instant of passage from death to life, of rebirth through nirvana, belonged to the wood element.
The Phoenix's nirvana art was a process of water generating wood, and wood generating fire. Deathly stillness began to turn, then rose without end.
This move had most likely been passed down by the Phoenix race's founding ancestor, a compulsory subject for every Phoenix lineage.
Otherwise, even ice-attribute Phoenixes such as the Snow Phoenix would not have been reborn through bathing in fire. Tracing it back could only lead to their founding ancestor.
Aman's path of Blood Moving transcendence resembled gathering myriad kinds of blood and nurturing a hundred scriptures within a furnace. What he needed was not endlessly ascending power built through quantitative change, but the instant when nothing became something-the moment of qualitative transformation when anything was possible.
A Phoenix of a strikingly different hue flew out from behind him. Its feathers were greener than an Azure Phoenix's, carrying the vitality of all things newly born. Five colors blended along the tips of its wing feathers and tail plumes, concealing the order of the five elements deep within.
With his comprehension of the instant of nirvana as its core, he evolved a different Phoenix manifestation.
Suddenly, the Phoenix manifestation collapsed, withering into rune fragments amid an abrupt flash of lightning. Yet those fragments assembled along arcane trajectories, forming a giant runic egg. Within it, an embryo seemed utterly extinguished, only to suddenly reveal vitality amid azure light that crashed like wind and thunder, rapidly developing into the shape of a Phoenix. But soon, the Five Elements Divine Light on the Phoenix withdrew, returning to a state of chaos. Another streak of azure light flashed out of nothingness, like an axe cleaving heaven and earth apart.
The Phoenix spread its wings and broke out of its shell, cleaving the void, cleaving chaos, even seeking to open heaven and earth anew!
From nothing to existence, the opening of chaos, the beginning of the five elements taking their ordered places.
Although this was only an evolved projection of the art, not something achievable now, it already revealed the prospects of the future.
This was a move from the Divine Phoenix Precious Technique: Phoenix Soaring Through the Nine Heavens. Originally evolved from the mysteries of infinite ascent, with the Immortal Phoenix King's fire element at its heart, it was now unleashed in an entirely different way through the wood-centered mysteries of opening heaven and earth. It was just as earthshaking.
As expected of an Immortal King-level Divine Ability and art. Even though much of the Precious Technique comprehended here has been redirected toward the Fire Phoenix, it still won't constrain those who come later from extracting its core mysteries and combining them with their own Precious Techniques to evolve their own paths. Even arts with different attributes can help advance their deductions. Having extracted the mysteries of the five elements and happened to be taking a break, Chen Yao watched Aman's path of evolving an Azure Phoenix.
He glanced at Shi Hao again. Oh, Shi Hao was playing with a Fire Phoenix, following the steps in order. Nothing to worry about there, then.
The milk-loving little fellow had never feared the hidden pitfalls of copying outright. According to the original story, he could usually extract the supreme mysteries in the end, then merge them into the arts he created himself as nourishment, while he himself remained forever transcendent above them.
His great "Self-Transformation Freedom" photocopying art already said it all.
Just then, an illusory egg of primordial spirit flew out of the Willow Deity's body, with creation immortal qi spilling from it. Astonishingly, it materialized out of nothing, becoming a real Phoenix Egg that settled on the ground. After reincarnation immortal qi helped her reincarnate within the Void God Realm, she would naturally develop a physical body, just like other beings throughout history. It was simply that this process would not begin until she left the Void God Realm.
With a soft thud, the Phoenix Egg landed. Divine light flowed over it, and an auspicious aura spilled forth, constantly nourishing Stone Village's soil and elevating the very nature of this place. Where a Phoenix roosted, heaven and earth responded.
Soon after the Phoenix Egg landed, vitality enveloped its surroundings. Crimson-gold flames containing five-colored divine light of order burned across the earth, and the vegetation continually withered and flourished again. Amid species evolution occurring at an unimaginably rapid pace, wutong wood actually sprang from the ground.
Wutong wood had actually evolved from weeds!
What the hell? The Phoenix Precious Technique can do this too? With Grand Luo Insight, Chen Yao could tell that the plants' mutations came from the Phoenix Egg casting an art, rather than heaven and earth changing on their own. He had yet to evolve such a wondrous transformation art.
Aman, who was evolving his Azure Phoenix nearby, was immediately drawn over, his gaze fixed intently on the rune changes deliberately highlighted within the Phoenix Fire. The Immortal Phoenix King was actively evolving them for him, demonstrating the essence of the mysteries of qualitative transformation.
As the Immortal Phoenix King continued the demonstration, the Azure Phoenix behind Aman grew ever more vivid and alive. Opening heaven and earth, bringing existence out of nothing, transforming death into life, the beginning of disorder-all manner of supreme wood-element mysteries were displayed through the Phoenix manifestation by way of changes in the five elements' order, blending into one coherent whole.
The manifestation condensed into a five-colored Phoenix rune shrouded in azure light, containing the mysteries of qualitative transformation and creation. Setting aside the mysteries of the five elements within, which had been copied by drawing a gourd from a model, the still-immature azure light had only just evolved independently. Although it was far less profound than the fire-element radiance of the Immortal Phoenix King's rune, it was a good beginning.
The rune merged into his body and directly took command of the core blood essence that was nurturing a hundred scriptures within a furnace under his transcendent Divine Ability. As the most central force of evolution, it sublimated, fused, and reshaped rune after rune at dozens or even a hundred times its previous speed. The blood within Aman's body boiled like roaring mountains and surging seas, its fundamental nature improving further as his flesh underwent another transformation.
The innate Bone Texts of the Fierce Beasts he had previously devoured, the portions of Six Treasury Immortal Thief Chen Yao had taught him, the soul-hand aspect of Twin Hands, and the complete Qi-State Origin-Flow all evolved rapidly under the Phoenix rune's command. They continuously combined and were continuously eliminated, following instinct as they gradually assembled the arrangements and new runes best suited to their host.
In the end, even the bloodline aura emanating from Aman began to change, and a Phoenix cry actually rang out.
A Phoenix bloodline was actually developing within his body after birth! It was not pureblooded, but it was genuine!
Changing species? Some of the mysteries of Seventy-Two Transformations? He actually achieved it first? Chen Yao was astonished.
"What a pity you were born in this era. Back in Immortal Ancient, there would have been a fair chance of an Immortal King accepting you as a nominal disciple. If you could maintain this momentum, becoming a direct disciple would not be impossible either," the reborn Immortal Phoenix King sighed.
"Thank you for your guidance, Senior. You flatter me," Aman thanked her politely, showing exceptional respect toward this member of the Ten Fiends.
With her help, he had taken another step in transcendence within the Blood Moving Realm and gained a new Divine Ability.
Aside from the Blood God Transformation he had gained at the beginning, he now possessed Bloodline Mimicry as well. He could mimic the bloodlines of other races, doing so perfectly as long as the rank of their race did not exceed a certain limit. He could also freely wield their racial gifts.
After taking the first step in transcendence, further expansion before the death tribulation would come as naturally as water flowing into a channel, provided an opportunity arose.
Now, for instance, fierce azure flames blazed over his body. Unlike the endlessly rising fire-element Phoenix Fire, this was wood-element Phoenix Fire that remained in a continuous world-opening eruption under the mysteries of creation.
Beside him, Shi Hao was already a little dumbstruck. He stared blankly at the rather unimaginative crimson-gold Fire Phoenix flames on his own body, and suddenly the Ten Fiends Precious Arts he had just learned did not seem quite so enticing anymore.
"You've all done well, gaining an initial understanding of the Immortal Phoenix Precious Technique and mastering its various transformations so quickly." The Willow Deity's calm voice reached them, but she offered no assessment of their evolutions.
"Willow Deity, aren't you going to learn it?" Shi Hao asked curiously.
"I learned it before," the Willow Deity said.
"Oh..." Shi Hao lowered his head and stared blankly at the Phoenix Fire.
Cave Heaven! I must achieve Cave Heaven Transcendence! I'm going to rise! I can't let a Precious Technique I've learned remain merely a Precious Technique! Shi Hao silently made up his mind, glaring fiercely at his own Cave Heavens.
I always used to feel so much pressure about defeating Shi Yi, but now that I'm with Brother Aman and Brother Yao, it suddenly doesn't seem so difficult. His strongest assets have always been his eyes and my Supreme Bone. But Brother Yao and Brother Aman cultivated their greatest strengths themselves. That's what makes a young supreme! Eyes and bones don't decide it!
Without realizing it, through spending time with these two top geniuses, Shi Hao had also begun setting his sights farther afield. He no longer focused entirely on Shi Yi as he had in the original story, crushing himself beneath the pressure until he could hardly breathe.
Under the guidance of the Willow Deity and the Immortal Phoenix King, Stone Village's trio also carefully arranged the village. Taking advantage of the momentum created by a Phoenix roosting there, they filled it with the Sacred Medicine and spirit medicine Chen Yao had tinkered up through his cheats, turning Stone Village into a divine land. Both newborn children and the existing villagers could build their foundations and begin coming into contact with cultivation.
More than a month passed in the blink of an eye. With no further developments, the undercurrents within the Martial King Manor gradually subsided, and Shi Yi finally set off for the Heaven Mending Pavilion.
Before you continue