Vermilion Bird

"Little friend, wait." Just as Lei Chong was about to strike, the Heaven Severing Sect elder suddenly intervened and held him back.

The secret realm was right before them. If they fought now and left both sides badly injured, wouldn't they simply give others an advantage? It was hardly a wise move.

"Fellow Daoist, you've gone too far, haven't you?" The Heaven Severing Sect elder looked at Jin Lie.

"You want to fight me?" Jin Lie's face was icy, his eyes as sharp as swords, as though he wanted nothing more than to cleave the elder in two.

"This young friend is an honored guest of my Heaven Severing Sect. Are you going to attack the Heaven Severing Sect?" The elder's face also turned cold.

Jin Lie's expression did not change in the slightest, and he remained just as confrontational. "Others may fear your Heaven Severing Sect, but my Archaic Divine Mountain does not."

The two stood with swords drawn and bows bent, ready to strike at any moment. But with the secret realm right before them, neither started a battle here.

Whoosh!

Just then, a streak of fire shot from the altar, and a figure emerged from it. It was Lei Chong's spiritual body.

The spiritual body dissolved into a mass of light particles and entered Lei Chong's Heavenly Passage.

The instant the spiritual body returned, all its memories entered his sea of consciousness.

After receiving its memories, Lei Chong immediately rushed toward the gate of light.

The change came so swiftly that no one else had time to react.

Whoosh!

Lei Chong entered the gate of light. He rushed onto the altar and was transported away.

"Stop him, quickly!" The Divine Flame Man's expression changed, and he immediately reached out a hand to pull Lei Chong back.

But he was a step too late, and his hand grasped only empty air.

Whoosh!

The Divine Flame Man also stepped forward and rushed onto the altar beyond the gate of light. A blaze of fire enveloped him, and he vanished from the spot.

In the next instant, countless giant hands reached out, but they all grasped empty air. They had failed to stop the Divine Flame Man.

Boom!

A terrifying presence erupted in full, making the entire valley tremble.

Fortunately, they held themselves back and did not start an earth-shaking battle. None of those present were of ordinary status, and they were not about to fight to the death over this.

In the end, the various factions discussed the matter and agreed on the order in which they would enter the gate of light.

Purple Qi came from the east, and all was peaceful.

Lei Chong was the first to land, and he surveyed his surroundings.

Ancient trees stood sparsely throughout the area, but all were immensely vigorous. Each was so thick that more than a dozen people would have had to link arms to encircle it, and their cracked old bark resembled dragon scales.

Their branches and leaves were not dense, and daylight could be seen through them.

The trees stood far apart, with wide stretches of open ground between them. Purple mist drifted through the air, accompanied by rosy light, most of it surging in from the eastern region.

Farther away stood a colossal mountain that soared into the sky. It was so immense that its height was unknown, reaching thousands of miles, and its base was even more boundless.

All sorts of ancient trees grew lush and green on its slopes, far more abundant than in the outer region. The higher the mountain rose, the denser the trees became.

At the very summit of the mountain stood a parasol tree several thousand zhang tall.

A bird's nest several thousand zhang across rested in the parasol tree. There were no eggs in the nest, only a burning palace.

The flames were strange, looking remarkably like a True Phoenix bathing in fire.

Before long, however, the flames in the palace vanished. The place was completely undamaged, as though nothing had happened.

The flames in the nest were strange. They resonated with the sound of chanting outside, and whenever the chanting sounded, flames would blaze in the nest.

This was a true small world, far larger than an ordinary ancient kingdom.

The Spiritual Qi within was so dense that the world outside could not compare.

Lei Chong did not linger. His spiritual body had already explored the place and gained some understanding of it, so he knew where to go.

Whoosh!

Just after Lei Chong left, the Divine Flame Man arrived. A spiritual body came rushing after him and entered his body.

At the same time, the Reincarnation Disk above his head trembled and sent out a faint ripple, telling him that cultivation realms were suppressed here.

Anyone above the Venerable Realm would be suppressed here.

"Heh, now this is interesting." On hearing the Reincarnation Disk's message, the Divine Flame Man showed no fear. Instead, a cold smile appeared on his face.

Whoosh!

He too sprang into the air and flew off in one direction.

While exploring in another direction, his spiritual body had also discovered a place where an opportunity lay.

Some time after the two had left, a large crowd appeared.

They were the experts from outside, who had also entered this place.

The instant they entered this space, several of them had a sudden change of expression. They sensed the suppression and could only exert the strength of the Venerable Realm.

But on second thought, given the realms they had reached, even if they could only exert Venerable Realm strength, they would still far surpass ordinary Venerables.

Lei Chong circled the enormous mountain, rushing toward its rear.

As for the phoenix nest on the mountain, he could not reach it for now. A protective formation surrounded the mountain, blocking the way up.

The formation at the foot of the mountain was powerful. His spiritual body had tried for a long time without shaking it in the slightest, so he could only give up on the place for now.

The spiritual body had then explored elsewhere and encountered the Divine Flame Man's spiritual body. Lei Chong's spiritual body had shown no restraint and killed the other spiritual body outright.

A cluster of volcanoes appeared behind the enormous mountain.

Scarlet magma bubbled and surged, and the pungent stench of sulfur was suffocating. A terrifying wave of heat swept over him, lending the surroundings a desolate air.

Even in such a place, special forms of life existed.

An enormous ancient tree grew atop the largest crater. Its bark was cracked and its trunk vigorous, like an old dragon coiled there. Its roots plunged into the scarlet magma, drawing in divine power.

The ancient tree was highly unusual. It could be seen from far away, its entire body giving off a soft glow. Its leaves were crystalline, and its Spiritual Qi was overwhelming.

Lei Chong arrived and looked up from below the tree. There was a bird's nest there, not very large, but shining like a small sun and giving off powerful fluctuations.

The nest was woven from crystalline branches.

They did not belong to this ancient tree, looking more like branches from the gigantic parasol tree.

Within the crystalline nest lay a white piece of bone, like a piece of mutton-fat jade, with intricate patterns carved upon it.

A red feather was attached to the bone.

The feather was about a foot long, and faint waves of heat emanated from it.

Fragments of bone lay around the nest. They had turned black, clearly scorched by flames, and some parts had melted.

Beside the bone fragments were some scales and patches of blackened blood. Though the blood had not yet dried, the divinity within it had long since dissipated.

Lei Chong entered the nest and reached out to seize the bone. It was the divine bird's primal rune bone, along with its Primal True Feather.

Yet the rune bone seemed fixed in place. No matter how much of his strength he used, he could not budge it in the slightest.

With no other choice, he could only stay there and study it, seeking to comprehend the rune bone's precious technique.

Soon, he understood that this was a Vermilion Bird's rune bone, and its runes were extremely complete, far beyond anything a later-generation descendant could compare with.

The special precious technique contained in the rune bone was somewhat different from the precious techniques of descendants.