Douluo Continent: Long Live the Spirit Hall

"No, I don't want to."

Although the Queen said no, Yan could feel that her body was still very honest. However, the goddess was not very experienced, and after this little bit of fuss, her ears were already bright red.

Seeing the raging flames, Yan couldn't resist touching them again. After a long tender moment, the two finally got to a more serious topic.

"Xiao Yan, are you talking about mythical beasts with the phoenix bloodline? If the Vermilion Bird counts, then it should be the closest, right?"

After learning about Yan's predicament, Lieyan thoughtfully helped him solve his problems. The ancient beasts on the Douluo Continent had almost lost their lineage due to a series of events between the God Realm and the Human Realm.

However, there are still many ancient mythical beasts on the Five Elements Continent. Not to mention the Ten Heavenly Stems Divine Beasts, each of them has an extraordinary bloodline. There is also the Three-Legged Golden Crow, which is known as the Sun Bird. On the Five Elements Continent, it is just one of the gatekeepers of the Earth's core world.

Yan embraced the goddess with one arm, while his other arm remained mischievous. "Vermilion Bird. If I remember correctly, the ten Heavenly Stems of the Five Elements Continent must guard fixed territories, right?"

"Ah."

The blazing flames adopted a policy of non-resistance to someone's petty actions, which only fueled that person's arrogance. The goddess's jade face was flushed, but she was still softly telling what she knew, "Of the ten Heavenly Stems on the Bright Five Elements Continent, apart from the Ren Fire's Tengshe, the other nine are all guarding fixed territories."

The Vermilion Bird of the Bing Fire realm is located in the Earth Spirit Mountains of the Bright Five Elements Continent. Speaking of the Earth Spirit Mountains, that little fellow named Ji Dong who ventured into the Earth's core world last time seems to have been training there recently.

Upon hearing the Flame Queen mention another man, and specifically that guy named Ji Dong, Yan immediately became alert and quickly asked, "Ji Dong? Has he been acting strangely lately? How did you come to know about him?"

Lieyan seemed to have noticed Yan's attitude and pouted, "No, I just used my divine sense to explore the entire Five Elements Continent plane and, when I was confirming the location of the Vermilion Bird, I found that little guy was there too."

"I see. It seems that the Flame Queen has made another breakthrough. How amazing!"

Yan blushed, but couldn't help teasing Lieyan. Taking advantage of the goddess's blushing face, he intensified his attack, and the two rolled into the lava once again, having a different kind of lovemaking inside the lava.

……

"Sigh! I wonder how Senior Brother Fury and Junior Sister Bao'er are doing. Is this still the Earth Spirit Mountain Range?"

Deep within the Earth Spirit Mountains of the Bright Five Elements Continent, a disheveled figure slowly rose from a dense primeval forest. He had just been transported to this place by a remote teleportation array, and his mind was still foggy, leaving him somewhat confused about the situation.

This disheveled figure was none other than Ji Dong, the transmigrator invested in by Yan. With Yan's help, he successfully followed the original path to rise to power and joined the Heavenly Stems Academy of the Bright Five Elements Continent. He then came to the Earth Spirit Mountain Range for trials with his senior brother Fury and junior sister Lan Bao'er.

Everything was going smoothly until they encountered other Yin-Yang Masters during the trial and a great battle broke out. Ji Dong was unfortunately caught in the trap and was teleported by the teleportation array to this forest located in the core area of ​​the Earth Spirit Mountain Range.

While lamenting his bad luck, he got up to replenish his magic power with magic cores, and carefully crouched down to observe the surrounding scenery.

He was currently in a mountain hollow. To his left was a low hill, while the mountain peaks to his right blocked out the sunlight, their heights obscured by their proximity. The forest was extremely dense, surrounded by numerous bushes, making it difficult to see far into the distance.

Just as Ji Dong was trying to figure out the direction and save himself, he suddenly heard a distant rumbling sound like rolling thunder. The sound seemed to be coming from the other side of the mountain in front of him. Although it was very far away, the thunder invigorated him.

He recognized the voice. On the Five Elements Continent, there were very few magicians who were not of the Five Elements attribute, let alone those of the Lightning attribute. The only one he knew was his senior brother Fury, so this voice must be Fury looking for him.

Ji Dong was secretly delighted and quickly ran towards a small hill near the direction from which the sound came, intending to reach the top of the hill and release a fire signal to call for Fury to come and rescue him.

However, shortly after Ji Dong climbed the hill, he suddenly discovered a dark cave in the mountainside ahead. The cave was about ten meters high and twenty meters wide, its depths unfathomable. Although curious, his immediate priority was survival. Just as he was about to bypass it and continue on his way, an unexpected event occurred.

An incredibly powerful suction force suddenly emanated from the cave, causing the surrounding plants to rustle loudly. The suction force was so strong that it created a surging gale around the mountainside, catching Ji Dong off guard and pulling him in.

His body was swept into the cave by the gale and kept crashing against the mountain wall. The cave went straight up at an angle, and as he went deeper, he was surrounded by darkness.

During the roll, Ji Dong curled his body into a ball as much as possible, circulating magic power on his skin to avoid injury from colliding with the mountain. As he went deeper into the cave, Ji Dong vaguely sensed that the space was actually getting larger the further in he went.

Suddenly, the space ahead gradually brightened up. It wasn't that we had arrived at an exit, but rather that there was another light source.

The light emanated from the surrounding stone walls, which emitted a dark red glow that intensified as one moved inwards. Further in, the surrounding stone walls resembled rubies.

Moreover, Ji Dong could clearly sense that the surrounding fire element had become extremely dense. This density of fire element was even greater than the magma world in the Earth's core that he remembered visiting once.

However, unlike the scorching underground world, the temperature here is not high, and the dense fire element around us seems to come only from the stone walls.

Just as Ji Dong was barely able to see his surroundings, the powerful suction suddenly stopped, and with a thud, he was thrown around, completely disoriented.

Immediately afterwards, Ji Dong saw a pair of crystal-red eyes, not very large, but radiating a crystal-red color even deeper than that of a lava lake.

Chapter 395 Bing Fire Vermilion Bird

“This is…” Ji Dong, who had just stood up from the ground after being drawn into a cave by a strange power deep in the Earth Spirit Mountain Range, lost his ability to move.

Even though he kept channeling his power into his right arm, he still couldn't get any response, which naturally made Ji Dong panic.

Ji Dong felt a little flustered, but he forced himself to calm down and scanned the cave with his eyes.

The deepest part of this cave is over thirty meters in diameter. What's most peculiar is that the cave walls are an extremely bright red, as if this place was originally a huge ruby, and the cave was carved out of this ruby.

What shocked him most was the towering tree in the center of the cave, which covered almost half of the cave's area.

This large tree is entirely dark red, and its shape resembles that of a sycamore. The dark red color of the tree body is slowly changing, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, as if the tree itself is breathing.

Standing deep within this cave, Ji Dong felt as if he were immersed in magma, with extremely dense fire-attribute energy surrounding him.

However, the situation here is different from the inner world we visited last time. On the inner lake, both Bing and Ding fire elements coexist, but here there is only pure Bing fire element.

The crystalline red gaze that had shocked him earlier came from this tree, or more precisely, from a large bird perched on its canopy, a bird entirely fiery red.

It has a chicken's head, a swallow's chin, a snake's neck, a turtle's back, and a fish's tail. Its entire body is a fiery red that shimmers with golden light. Its long tail extends three times the length of its body on the tree. Although it doesn't look very big, it is at least ten meters long from head to tail.

"Vermilion Bird." Two words suddenly came to Ji Dong's mind: Vermilion Bird. In his memory, the myths of his previous life described the phoenix as an auspicious bird, with five colors.

The pure red phoenix governs the flames of heaven and earth, and is known as the fire phoenix, which is also the Vermilion Bird, the divine bird that guards the south, and is also an incarnation of the phoenix.

The phoenix perches on the parasol tree; everything before one's eyes seems to foreshadow the identity of this large red bird.

"Human, how dare you!" A sharp voice came from the Vermilion Bird's mouth. Just that voice made Ji Dong's body tremble uncontrollably, and blood flowed from all seven orifices at the same time.

"Huh?" A red light flashed in Suzaku's eyes, clearly indicating some confusion.

"So weak? How dare you even enter my territory?"

"He's just an unlucky guy who was teleported here. Of course, he wouldn't have been able to come to your territory on his own." Just as Ji Dong was about to speak, a voice suddenly came from the cave entrance behind him, a voice that Ji Dong found strangely familiar.

"Who!" When Suzaku heard the voice, a sharp glint flashed in her crystal red eyes, and a powerful and surging aura rushed directly towards the cave entrance.

"How should I introduce myself? Speaking of which, I have some connection with that human in front of you; he should be considered one of my subordinates!" The voice from outside the cave sounded again, accompanied by a relaxed and calm male voice. A red-haired, red-eyed youth slowly walked up to Suzaku.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Yan. In the Bright Five Elements Continent, I would consider myself a traveler." The fire phoenix stood on a tree branch, looking down at him.

"Traveler? Laughable human, are you provoking me?" The Vermilion Bird on the dark red phoenix tree was not satisfied with Yan's answer and felt that it had been provoked. It suddenly spread its wings, which were five meters wide, and a loud and high-pitched phoenix cry rang out instantly. The moment the phoenix cry rang out, Ji Dong fainted.

"This kid hasn't paid back my debt yet, I can't let him die like this." Yan casually threw out a ball of flame that enveloped Ji Dong, saving the life of Ji Dong who was bleeding from all seven orifices and on the verge of death. Yan's almost disregard for the bird only further enraged the Vermilion Bird in front of him.

"You're courting death." The Vermilion Bird suddenly spewed out a ball of scorching red flames. As a special divine beast of the Ten Heavenly Stems, the Vermilion Bird in front of him definitely possessed an ultimate level of flame. This red Bing Fire was even comparable to the Bingwu Yuanyang Sacred Fire of some Nine-Crowned Demon Masters in terms of strength and power.

However, this ball of flame posed no threat to Yan. Before the crimson flame could land on him, a red light appeared on his body. The hazy red light quietly spread out, and familiar red lotus petals gently swept over and slowly enveloped Yan's body.

The phoenix's cry abruptly ceased, and two almost tangible golden flames suddenly spewed from the Vermilion Bird's eyes, spreading for several meters before slowly receding. That was the ultimate Yang fire unique to the Five Elements Continent, the Bingwu Primordial Yang Sacred Fire.

"Red Lotus Flame, Flame Queen. What is your relationship with her?" Zhuque's voice was filled with shock and anger, but also revealed deep fear. She carefully observed the red lotus flames surrounding Yan's body and did not launch another attack.

"Zhuque, we meet again. Don't worry, Yan came to find you this time with no ill intentions. He can represent me to make demands and conditions on your behalf. He can fully represent my will..." Lieyan's voice lingered around Yan, and then slowly dissipated after saying these words. She was a thoughtful girl who understood Yan's feelings very well.

After Yan finished speaking, he continued, "Let's discuss terms. Zhuque, I can help you." Zhuque was taken aback.

"Help me? You think a mere human like you can help me? Do you even know what I want?"

"Isn't this the True Flame Spirit Seed that the Flame King and Dark Flame Demon King possessed back then? But you're not human. Even if I could give it to you, would you really dare to take it? Are you sure the God Realm won't pursue this?" As Yan spoke, he raised his palms, and two balls of white-gold and black-gold flames bloomed in his palms. When the Vermilion Bird saw these two balls of flames, it couldn't help but flap its fiery red wings, and the golden-red light in its eyes kept flashing with desire.

"You want to fight me? Who gave you the courage?" A powerful aura, no less than that of the Vermilion Bird, suddenly surged from Yan's body. His fiery true form appeared in the cave, with seven soul rings swirling around him. At this moment, Yan exuded an astonishing power.

“Human.” A dangerous glint flashed in Suzaku’s eyes, but Yan’s current display of strength made her extremely wary, and she was even more worried about the Flame Queen behind Yan, so she didn’t dare to make a move at all.

Yan continued calmly, "If you fight me here, let alone whether you can defeat or even kill me, your child will certainly die. This cave is so small that the aftershocks of the battle could destroy all other creatures besides you and me. Is that what you want to see?"

"I..." Zhuque's gaze faltered slightly as she turned to look at the canopy of the paulownia tree.

“Alright, you win. You’re right, nothing can compare to my child’s life. I agree to the conditions Her Majesty the Empress previously proposed to me.” As Zhuque spoke, she made another move, and a dazzling red light suddenly spread out. When the red light dissipated, several more things appeared inside the cave.

The first thing that catches the eye is the largest, irregularly shaped piece of ore, which resembles the surrounding rock face and is as clear as a ruby.

This piece of extremely yang ore is adorned with many golden starlight, twinkling as if absorbing the fire element in the air.

Beside the Yang-refined ore was a piece of wood, about a foot long and three inches in diameter. It was entirely golden-red, with a faint, flickering glow spreading outwards; this was naturally the heartwood of a paulownia tree.

After cutting off this piece, the light from the phoenix tree beneath the Vermilion Bird's feet noticeably dimmed. Above these two items, three fiery red crystals the size of longan eyes caught Yan's attention most; these were the Vermilion Bird's essence blood.

Beside these three teardrop-shaped crystals are nine long, golden-red feathers, identical to those on the Vermilion Bird's tail.

At this moment, Zhuque's expression had softened considerably. She gently apologized to Yan, saying, "These things were mentioned to me by Her Majesty the Empress before, but I was too arrogant at the time and refused to accept them. I shed the nine tail feathers myself, so consider it an apology for my previous rudeness."

"Don't worry, your child will be born successfully." Yan nodded to Zhuque and made a promise. He came here for Zhuque's child, the little phoenix, so of course he would do his best. Anyway, the little phoenix would eventually follow him, so he could just raise it as his pet.

"Let me introduce my child to you." A look of sorrow appeared in Suzaku's eyes.

"When I gave birth to my child, there was a solar eclipse, and the yin energy invaded, causing my child to be congenitally injured. I have been trying for three thousand years, but I still cannot hatch it... Recently, I have felt its vitality rapidly declining..." Zhuque's voice choked with emotion at this point.

"You only need to use the Ding Si Netherworld Spirit Fire to absorb the Yin-cold fire power in my child's egg, and I will have a way to hatch her and replenish her life force. This is my last chance. Please, you must help me..." Two drops of red tears flowed from the Vermilion Bird's eyes, turning into two balls of flame in the air and quietly dissipating.

This was a rare display of genuine emotion from the mythical beast; it was clear she truly needed help.

"Let's begin now." After Yan finished speaking, Zhuque didn't say anything more. She turned around, soared up the dense paulownia tree, and carefully dragged a golden-red egg, slowly floating down to Yan's side.

The phoenix egg in front of Yan wasn't very big; it was oval-shaped, with a long diameter of only about one meter. He could sense a faint life force, but it didn't seem very strong.

Yan could also sense that the phoenix egg contained another opposing fire-attribute energy. It was because of their existence that the phoenix egg could not hatch. This was probably the eclipse evil energy that even the Vermilion Bird found troublesome.

Chapter 396 The Phoenix's Birth

"This Yin energy has been nurtured for three thousand years and is extremely troublesome. Although your strength is not inferior to that of a tenth-order divine beast, your cultivation is still somewhat lacking. There is no need to rush; you can take it slowly."

Yan walked step by step to the phoenix egg. The Vermilion Bird reluctantly handed over its child, and did not forget to give Yan a few more instructions.

After hearing her words, Yan didn't say much. He simply raised his left hand and slowly pressed it onto the strange golden-red phoenix egg.

A pure black flame appeared, and the deep, dark Ding Si Netherworld Spirit Fire gradually rose, spreading from the arm to the palm.

Just as Yan's palm touched the Vermilion Bird egg, he immediately felt a surge of blood pulsating from beneath his hand, and the golden-red egg trembled slightly.

Suzaku stood nervously on the opposite side, her long tail feathers circling around, enveloping Yan and the Suzaku egg. The surrounding temperature slowly rose as she mobilized the surrounding fire-attribute energy to help Yan save time and energy.

As the Ding Si Netherworld Spirit Fire gathered in his palm, the Vermilion Bird Egg began to tremble slightly. At first, it was almost imperceptible, but soon the trembling became more obvious, and wisps of blackish-gray aura gradually appeared on the surface of the phoenix egg.

A chill crept into Yan's body through his palm, but it was easily suppressed by the flames within him. The icy chill combined with the Ding Si Netherworld Spirit Fire within him, gradually transforming into his own power.

Silky black and gray lines kept appearing on the phoenix egg, and the chill entering his body began to become more and more obvious.

Besides the extremely yin fire, the energy that invaded the body also contained another extremely hidden yin and cold evil energy, which was the most troublesome force.

Fortunately, Yan was strong enough that the mere Yin and evil energy had no chance of surviving in his body. Even if it escaped the refinement of the Ding Si Netherworld Spirit Fire, it still could not run rampant in Yan's body and was easily surrounded and destroyed by the other powerful flames in his body.

As Yan continued to draw out Yin energy, Zhuque also made some movements. A wisp of golden ripple slowly spread from Zhuque's head, and her fiery red feathers gradually turned into the gold of the Bingwu Yuanyang Sacred Fire. Her huge wings slowly unfolded, and golden phoenix feathers quietly fell off one by one.

All the extremely yang ore on the cave walls lit up, and the golden feathers floated up and swirled around Yan and the Vermilion Bird egg.