[After delivering those boastful words, you felt refreshed, then began testing your strength against the First Elder.
Although the First Elder was a mid-stage Eight-Star Dou Sheng, his strength was slightly inferior to yours as an early-stage Seven-Star Dou Saint.
The Ancient Heavenly Phoenix royal bloodline and Ancient Void Dragon royal bloodline within you had been fully awakened. Combined with the enhancement from the Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit, either bloodline in your body, even taken on its own, now ranked among the very finest in the Beast Realm, let alone the two fused together.
The fusion of the two bloodlines complemented their respective strengths and weaknesses, while also stacking their power.
The bloodlines and physiques of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan and Ancient Heavenly Phoenix Clan were among the very finest in the Beast Realm. With both stacked upon you, even the mid-stage Eight-Star Dou Sheng First Elder fell far short of you.
You easily clamped down on the First Elder's wrist, then exerted a sudden burst of force, snapping the bones of his forearm outright.
Horrified, the First Elder broke free with all his might and used spatial power to launch a shredding attack at you.
You also mobilized spatial power, but faster. Though your attack came later, it arrived first, slicing through half the First Elder's body instead.
The extreme speed bestowed by your Ancient Heavenly Phoenix bloodline brought you before the First Elder in an instant. You struck with a claw, your palm force carrying spatial power, shattering his heart and head instantly.
The mid-stage Eight-Star Dou Sheng First Elder had lasted only two moves against you.
The Dragon-Phoenix Bloodline awakened through the royal bloodlines of the two races was even stronger than those of other Dragon Phoenixes recorded in history.
You felt that, as you were now, you need not fear even a Nine-Star Dou Sheng.
You devoured the First Elder outright, storing him in your belly for the time being to digest later.
You left Ancient Dragon Island and joined the battle between the two clans.
With the extreme speed and beast flame bestowed by your Heavenly Phoenix bloodline, your attacks against these magical beasts weaker than you were on an entirely different plane.
You quickly drew the attention of both clan leaders. Your Ancient Void Dragon grandfather was overjoyed to see your valor and fought even harder.
Your Ancient Heavenly Phoenix maternal grandfather, however, was shaken to his core. He was certain that unless he killed you here today, you would become a great scourge to the Ancient Heavenly Phoenix Clan in the future.
He burned the blood essence within his body, briefly boosting his strength and speed, and charged before you, intent on killing you on the spot.
You neither dodged nor evaded. Protected by the Dragon Phoenix Ancient Armor, you let the momentum of the blow send you flying backward, continuing to hunt down other Ancient Heavenly Phoenix experts, killing each with a single strike before swallowing them into your belly.
Your Ancient Void Dragon grandfather immediately moved to block him, continuing to grapple with your Ancient Heavenly Phoenix maternal grandfather. Watching you constantly hunt down his clan's experts, your Ancient Heavenly Phoenix maternal grandfather's eyes nearly split with fury. After some hesitation, he ordered an immediate retreat.
The Ancient Heavenly Phoenix Clan swiftly withdrew. With their innate extreme speed, even the Ancient Void Dragon Clan could not catch them. You could, but you did not risk pursuing them.
Once you had digested all the spoils from this battle, you would naturally pay the Ancient Heavenly Phoenix Clan a visit.
The battle ended in a great victory for the Ancient Void Dragon Clan. Their only casualty was the First Elder, whom you had killed when he tried to ambush you.
With a great victory in the war against their sworn enemies and the emergence of you, a Dragon Phoenix, the Ancient Void Dragon Clan felt their future was bright.
Your clan leader grandfather declared that you would be the next clan leader.
You refused outright, saying you did not want to be bound. Your clan leader grandfather was somewhat disappointed, but could hardly force you.
Having become a Dragon Phoenix, you could easily defeat any enemy below Nine-Star Dou Sheng, and could escape with ease even against a Nine-Star Dou Sheng. On the current continent, aside from that Dou Di of the Stone Clan, no one could threaten you anymore.
You prepared to enter seclusion to digest all the magical beasts you had devoured during this battle. Before doing so, you asked about Shi Huang's whereabouts. Learning that he had been successfully rescued, you were reassured.
You entered seclusion again on Ancient Dragon Island and began digesting the magical beasts within your body. No one dared disturb you.]
[Year 107: You finished digesting all the magical beasts you had devoured-a full five Dou Sheng from the Ancient Heavenly Phoenix Clan and the First Elder of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan.
Your cultivation soared madly, rising from early-stage Seven-Star Dou Saint to mid-stage Eight-Star Dou Sheng.
This rate of growth shocked all the magical beasts.
And all of this was thanks to the secret art you had created back then and Shi Huang had improved.
Now that you had become an Eight-Star Dou Sheng, even your clan leader grandfather felt apprehensive toward you and admitted he was no longer your match.
You paid no mind to his attitude and left the Ancient Void Dragon Clan directly, arriving in the Central Plains.
You began asking around about Shi Huang's whereabouts.
Unsurprisingly, you learned nothing of his whereabouts.
You simply stopped actively searching and instead spread word that you were in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains of the Beast Region.
You waited in the Beast Region for a few days, then suddenly slapped a rock beside you. Shi Huang abruptly jumped out, asking in alarm whether you were trying to kill him.
You said yes, that was exactly what you intended.
Shi Huang fled in terror, then came running back a while later, this time with a serious expression as he congratulated you on becoming a Dragon Phoenix.
Through your questions, you learned that during these years of hiding here and there, he had actually broken through to become a Two-Star Dou Saint.
You understood. No wonder his aura-concealment art had become so formidable that even you only sensed him at close range.
You told Shi Huang to come with you and grow stronger using the Ancient Void Dragon Clan's resources.
Shi Huang refused, saying that only by venturing into the outside world and tempering himself could he truly reach the summit.
He said, "I really have to thank the Stone Clan for extracting my Dou Di bloodline. Otherwise, I might not have become a Dou Sheng by now."
You said little more and parted ways with him.
Your bond had not weakened; it was simply that neither of you needed to huddle together for warmth anymore.
After parting with Shi Huang, you went to the Northwest Continent.
Just as before, you wanted to leave an inheritance for your future main body.
But only upon reaching the Northwest Continent did you discover that, in this era, even the Magical Beast Mountain Range had yet to form. There was no familiar terrain at all where you could leave your inheritance.
Helpless, you could only leave your inheritance in the desert region of the Northwest Continent, hoping this desert would be the future Tagor Desert.
Within the inheritance, you left your self-created devouring secret art along with various secret arts lost to later ages: methods of refining puppets, methods of refining artifacts, methods of creating Flying Dou Techniques, and a secret art that could continually refine one's bloodline and increase its concentration.
These secret arts were all extremely precious even now, and would surely prove even more valuable in later ages.
Aside from these, the most important thing you left was your own blood essence.
You completely sealed the blood essence with spatial power, slowing the loss of its energy as much as possible.
You did not know how much energy this blood essence would retain by the time it reached later ages, but you had to try regardless.
After finishing all this, you entered seclusion to restore your condition.]
[Year 110: You recovered from your injuries, your condition returning from weakness to its peak.
You left the Northwest Continent with only one target: the Ancient Heavenly Phoenix Clan!]
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