"How could it be the Phoenix Divine Identification Technique? Of all the manuals, why did he have to pick this one... Why!" The Phoenix Race Elder was so frustrated he wanted to spit blood. ’If one of our own had gotten it, that would be one thing. But for a human to obtain our greatest Ultimate Skill... This is infuriating enough to make me cough up blood.’
The Phoenix Ruins were meant for the Phoenix Race alone, so it wouldn’t have been an issue no matter what was chosen. Now that an outsider had made a selection, they would have been vexed no matter which manual he picked. If he’d drawn an ordinary one, they might have been able to accept it. But he had drawn the very best one. That was truly enough to make them cough up blood in frustration.
"That’s my boy! His luck is incredible! He even managed to get the Phoenix Race’s best Divine Technique!" Jin Wei laughed heartily, feeling overjoyed. How could he not be happy that Lin Xuan had obtained the Phoenix Race’s finest Martial Arts?
"I knew that boy’s luck was good. It’s always been exceptional," the Fox King said with a smile.
Si Yun, however, was stunned. The Phoenix Race’s strongest Martial Arts had been taken. She didn’t know what to feel. ’Am I happy, or is this just ironic?’
’At least, I don’t feel any sense of loss or unhappiness. After all, if we hadn’t forced our way in, we would never have been qualified to enter the Phoenix Ruins in the first place. That means all the Martial Arts and benefits inside would have been completely out of our reach.’
’For a human to get the best one now... there’s a certain irony to it. Even a regular member of the Phoenix Race would have found it difficult to obtain, yet now it’s been taken by a human. It’s quite ironic, really.’
In truth, Lin Xuan hadn’t relied on luck at all. He had used the Soul Pearl to see the words inside the Energy Shield. Under normal circumstances, the text was impossible to see with the naked eye. It couldn’t even be perceived with Spiritual Sense—not in the slightest.
With the Soul Pearl’s help, however, he had seen it easily; there was no difficulty to speak of. Once he’d seen through it, obtaining it was simple. So, it wasn’t a matter of luck at all.
Relying on luck, it would have been nearly impossible to pick the best one from among so many manuals. Of all the others, only a few were particularly good, but there was only one that was the absolute best: the Phoenix Divine Identification Technique!
The moment Lin Xuan took the Stone Slab, it transformed into a stream of Energy that bored into his mind. This way, only he would be able to view its contents. No one else could see it; it was a pure stream of memory flooding into his brain.
The Soul Pearl smoothly received and recorded all of it. If he wanted to review the technique, he could call it up at any time.
’The Phoenix Divine Identification Technique... This is some seriously good stuff.’
As Lin Xuan processed the memories of the Phoenix Divine Identification Technique, he compared it to the Martial Arts from the Phoenix Soul’s memories. The difference was night and day. The Martial Arts from that Phoenix Soul’s memory were utter trash in comparison. ’But that makes sense,’ he thought. ’This is the best Divine Technique, so of course it’s on a completely different level.’
After getting a brief sense of its power, Lin Xuan began to walk forward again. He had basically collected everything he needed and committed the good stuff to memory. It was time to proceed to the next trial.
He took a step forward and vanished, teleported to the next trial. At the same time, everyone else passed the third trial and entered the fourth one along with him!
「A moment later.」
Lin Xuan was teleported to a spacious area. What lay before him was a volcanic Purgatory. He was surrounded by countless volcanoes under a bleak, gray sky, with no visible exit.
’Doesn’t this place look just like the Magma Cultivation Chamber?’ Seeing the scene before him, a familiar memory surfaced. It was just like the Magma Cultivation Chamber he had encountered in the Ice and Snow Tower, only this place was much larger, and the temperature was far more staggering.
’Clearly, the one in the Ice and Snow Tower was an imitation of this place... That was called the Magma Cultivation Chamber, and this is called Phoenix Nirvana...’ Lin Xuan surmised that the chamber in the Ice and Snow Tower was a copy. The Phoenix Ruins had existed for a very long time, so it was obvious which was the imitation.
’In that case, I wonder if the Youlan Emperor has been in here before?’ He guessed that he probably had. Considering he had been courting the previous Clan Leader of the Phoenix Race, it would have been perfectly normal for him to have entered.
The way to pass this trial was very simple: he just needed to endure for ten days to proceed. He didn’t have to do anything else at all—just stay here for ten days. It was that simple.
If he had to spend this much time in the Magma Cultivation Chamber, Lin Xuan would have been burned to a crisp. But the difficulty here was drastically higher. Just from the feel of this terrifying temperature, he knew how horrifying it was.
’This trial really is fitting for a Phoenix.’
Lin Xuan nodded. All the trials here were well-suited for a Phoenix. They were primarily based on either high temperatures or speed. They were highly focused, serving both as a test and as an opportunity to improve one’s Cultivation.
This was a true trial, and a highly beneficial one at that.
Just as he was about to find a place to sit and meditate, a red figure suddenly flickered in the distance. When he got a clear look, he was shocked to see that it was the Fire Phoenix King!
The Fire Phoenix King had successfully passed the third trial and also arrived at the fourth! When she appeared, she scanned her surroundings, her gaze pausing on Lin Xuan for a moment. Then, she turned to him with a cold smile. "I didn’t expect you to be so fast, reaching the fourth trial this early... Sometimes, arriving early isn’t a good thing. Now, get over here!"
The words had barely left her mouth when Phoenix Wings sprouted from her back. She shot toward him, reaching out to grab him. Her goal was to completely restrain Lin Xuan, not simply to kill him.
Lin Xuan’s expression changed. ’It seems the Fire Phoenix King wants to capture me and use me to threaten Bingxin! Or maybe kill me right in front of her.’ As long as he didn’t throw away the Stone Slab he carried, he wouldn’t be ejected from this place.
Therefore, once the Fire Phoenix King had him under control, she would certainly not give him any opportunity to discard the Stone Slab.
In that instant, a figure of intermingled blue and red appeared before Lin Xuan, meeting the Fire Phoenix King’s attack head-on.
"BOOM!"
With an explosion of Elemental Power, two figures were thrown back. When Lin Xuan focused his gaze, he saw that the one who had come to his rescue was none other than Bingxin!
It seemed Bingxin had also completed the third trial and arrived at the fourth. The two arch-nemeses had finally met face-to-face. They glared at each other with hateful eyes, looking as if they might try to kill each other at any second.
In the end, however, they only exchanged a glare and chose not to continue the fight. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to fight to the death, but that wasn’t their main objective here. If they both ended up grievously injured, it would be much harder to obtain the Heart of the Fire Phoenix later.
If they were going to fight to the death, it should at least be in front of the Heart of the Fire Phoenix, not here. Therefore, both of them calmly chose to stop,