Blue Phoenix

Hearing Lan Feng's words Hui Yue was excited. He was not completely sure what exactly this longevity blood would do for him, but since it had been added to the list of treasures, it had to be a great treasure.

Hui Yue did not think for long before he opened his mouth and with a steady voice said, "I choose the Longevity Blood of the Vermilion Bird." There was no hesitation in his voice, and he could no longer feel anything but excitement.

"Good choice." The Vermilion Bird's voice once more sounded through the chamber. It was clear that this voice was filled with as much excitement as Hui Yue felt.

"Most experts would not pick this item due to the low chance of successfully merging with the blood. As for whether or not you have a way to improve your success, or if you just like to gamble, I really do not know but none the less I am grateful. My longevity blood, when fused with your body will give you my ancient bloodline. Every bird will obey you; every beast will look up to you. Your power will soar to the heavens and your control over fire will rise. There are many benefits to receiving my longevity blood. Longevity blood is blood refined from blood essence. It keeps a trace of who I am within and this blood, when consumed, will increase your lifespan by a few thousand years. This might sound like the least interesting increase in power for someone who already has near infinite lifeforce, but it is not so simple."

"Out there in the vast sea of space, many worlds exist. There are so many worlds that it is impossible to count them all. Some worlds have the same kind of energy that we do, and they also rank their cultivators the same way, but there are many worlds which have changed over their many years of evolution. Their energy is different from ours, and their way of ranking experts is also different."

"In these worlds, many different types of energy exists, and in a few of these worlds, lifeforce is the kind of energy used. The more you use, the weaker you become but from killing others they absorb their lifeforce. Therefore by gaining more lifeforce you will be able to increase your strength. If you ever go to these worlds, you can learn how to change these years of life into lifeforce which might be able to save your life one day."

Hearing the Vermilion Bird talk about lifeforce Hui Yue was shocked. He already knew about these energies, but from his memories from the green witch then, only certain individuals known as witches were capable of harvesting lifeforce. Shrugging his shoulders, Hui Yue came to the conclusion that it had to be different from one world to another.

"Take the blood and fuse with it. I will not start the next trial before you have finished."

"Do not worry about the time it takes. Any time within this tower is only a brief moment outside. These are small space-time dimensions where the time flows far, far slower inside than outside. You can be here for a year and only a few days will pass in the outside world."

Hearing this, Hui Yue was deeply shocked, but a smile appeared on his face. This would be a great benefit to him. If he were able to train while using much less time to do so, then that would be of immense help.

In front of him, a vial of purple jade appeared. Hovering in the air, Hui Yue reached out his arm to pick up the vial.

The moment his hand came into contact with the vial the lid vanished and the drop of blood flew towards him. Hui Yue had no clue how or why this happened, all he could do was watch as the drop of blood slowly sunk into his forehead.

Heat. Heat was all he could feel when the drop of blood entered his body. It was as though every cell was on fire. Every drop of energy within him felt like it turned into scorching flames. He felt as though he was being burnt from the inside, but he grit his teeth and tried to stay calm. The blood turned into streams of energy which entered every part of his body. His muscles were strengthened, and his blood boiled. His bones were recreated as they broke and were mended all over.

He felt severe pain all over, and it came crashing down upon him like waves. As soon as one stopped another would appear, and the pain was constantly increasing. This made it almost impossible for Hui Yue to persevere through the ordeal. Black dots appeared in his vision, and he was starting to fall unconscious from the overwhelming pain.

The pain lasted for a full day before it subsided, and by this time, every single cell in Hui Yue's body had been replaced. His bones were now as durable as iron. They were almost impossible to break unless someone had strength far above Hui Yue’s. His blood was now rushing through his body as it was filled with vitality and he could also feel that the lifeforce in his body had increased many times over. Just as the Vermilion Bird had said, the extra life had turned into roughly four thousand years of lifeforce; an amount simply astronomical for Hui Yue.

His skin had also transformed, and for someone to break his defenses would be quite a feat.

His body structure was not the only thing which had changed. The flames in his middle dantian, especially the Fire elemental flame, had all increased in size. The Fire elemental flame was now at least three times as big as it had been before while the others were double their original size. It was clear that his control over the elements had greatly increased after absorbing the longevity blood.

The Ancestral Worldpower within Hui Yue was of the fire attribute, and thus his control over it also increased. The strength he could now use was even more astonishing than before, and his Phoenix Descent would be far more dangerous than it was previously.

'There are a lot of changes you have not noticed just yet.' Lan Feng commented from within the dantian cave. 'Your soul was already merged with me and had the characteristics of being one with the Vermilion Bird bloodline. Now that you have the actual blood, you and I are even closer than ever before."

Hui Yue snorted, being closer to Lan Feng was not a bad thing, but if he were to end up becoming like this silly bird then he would have to say no thank you.

'Now now don't be personal.' The phoenix laughed as he rustled his feathers. 'Anyway let’s continue with these trials. Even if you’ve passed the first trial, you are not the first person to do so. The second trial is much more difficult and the third even more so. I can’t wait to see if you are capable of producing a miracle.'

Hui Yue snorted. He knew his abilities, and he already had to use his wolf head attack to overcome the first trial. To pass the other two, he was likely in a bad position.

'Don't be too pessimistic.' Lan Feng sighed. 'That snake-woman you met is quite hard to deal with. I used to know her, and she was the strongest beast of the third generation beasts in the entire Divine Beast World. Even I never managed to beat her, and she really enjoyed beating me to a pulp.' Lan Feng commented sourly, his words surprising Hui Yue.

Previously when they had fought the snake-woman, Lan Feng had said nothing about knowing her, but now he admitted to it.

'Doesn't that mean that I will be fighting a second generation expert now… Then a first generation expert when it is time for the final trial?'

Hui Yue decided not to dig into the thoughts of Lan Feng and this snake-woman because, after all, they shared their emotions. Hui Yue had already guessed the relationship between these two was not as simple as the phoenix made it sound.

'No way.' Lan Feng said while shaking his head. 'It’s possible that you will face off against a second generation expert in the second trial, but there is no way you would fight a first generation genius. After all, there are only four of them.’ Lan Feng explained, and Hui Yue nodded his head. It made sense that the first generation was just the divine beasts.

'Every living creature within this world was created by or from my father and his companions. Some were made from their blood, and they are the species we call magical beasts. That is also why they have beast cores instead of using dantians like humans.'

'Humans are created by the essence of the heavens and the earth, and this is why they use Qi, spiritual energy, and Wu Wei.'

'Some beasts have been blessed by the heavens and the earth as they have a very high density of the blood lineage with the Four Divine Beast Gods, and thus they are referred to as divine beasts. This also means they are capable of using both Wu Wei, Qi, spiritual energy, and the beast energy in their beast cores.'

Hearing Lan Feng's comments, Hui Yue understood more and more about the world he had lived in for a very long time.

'The first generation was the Four Divine Beast Gods who we all come from. The first beasts they created are known as the second generation of beasts, and their descendants are the third generation.'

'So.. Are second generation beasts divine beasts or magical beasts?' Hui Yue asked a little confused. They had been created from the blood of the Divine Beast Gods, so they had to have amazing power, but was this power manifested in Wu Wei or beast energy? This was something Hui Yue did not know.

Lan Feng shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't know for sure.' He said. 'I never had much to do with the older generations. It is true that I am the son of the Vermilion Bird, but I was born after the world had been created and all the creatures created. The second generation beasts and I have nothing in common, so I never bothered them.' Lan Feng's arrogance once more shined through, and Hui Yue could not help but laugh.

'Okay, I guess we'll find out when we start this trial. We might not make it, but let’s give it our all!' Hui Yue said excitedly while stretching his body. He rushed the energies through his newly recreated body, and the more energy that rushed through his body, the more excited he was. It was clear that he could control much more energy at once and all the energy he had was denser and purer than before. His energy had undergone a transformation as heaven-defying as his body’s transformation had been.

"Please start the next trial!" He called out with a steady voice. As he spoke, the chamber was bathed in light. An overwhelming presence descended on the small room, and a large rhinoceros appeared in front of Hui Yue. His size was so outstanding, and his eyes were filled with intelligence. This rhinoceros’ hide was like iron, and looking at this beast, Hui Yue felt his heart beat rapidly. He wasn't excited from fear, but anticipation!

'Ah, crap!' The phoenix within the dantian cave said emotionally. 'That old geezer actually wants us to fight him! Be careful, this guy is from the second generation!' His voice was filled with trepidation.

Hearing his words, unlike what Lan Feng thought, Hui Yue was not too discouraged. Instead, his heart was aflame with a blazing desire to fight and see just how strong he was compared to one of the members of the second generation. He wanted to know just how strong these beings that had been created by the Divine Beast Gods truly were!