Amid the raging inferno, the earth turned to scorched wasteland. The flowing yellow sand melted the instant it touched the flames.
Within a hundred-zhang radius of Liu Yan's location, the desert had transformed into a belt of molten magma, scorching and terrifying.
Behind Liu Yan stood the colossal phantom of a fire phoenix. Its majestic phoenix eyes gazed downward like a deity that had crossed the infinite ages, its gaze brimming with disdain and mockery. Within the phantom's embrace, Liu Yan made no effort to channel any power to resist, allowing the flames capable of incinerating all things to burn her without restraint. Her small face was twisted in agony.
Two streams of divine sense交流ed across the void.
One was as weak as an ant, the other as vast as heaven and earth—the contrast was stark beyond measure.
No one knew what the two exchanged, but the powerful divine sense belonging to the fire phoenix's Origin force suddenly turned violent. Accompanied by a piercing cry, the flames burned even more ferociously.
Yang Kai's eyelids twitched violently. He nearly couldn't hold himself back from intervening.
Although Liu Yan possessed a spirit puppet's body, different from ordinary beings, under the searing of the Phoenix True Fire, no one knew how long she could endure. If she collapsed first, she would inevitably be burned to nothingness.
But just before Yang Kai made his move, something stirred in his awareness, and he glanced at Liu Yan—then forcibly pulled himself back.
He noticed that though Liu Yan's expression was one of unbearable pain, between her brows lay a profound serenity. Two utterly contradictory emotions appearing on the same face looked bizarre beyond description.
Suddenly, a cry rang out. It was not as loud or clear as the phoenix's shriek, yet it was crisp and pleasing to the ear. Immediately after, a strange bird entirely crimson in color, with an extraordinarily long tail, shot forth from Liu Yan's body.
Liu Yan's true form!
Yang Kai watched with a grave expression. Though the sky full of yellow sand blocked his line of sight, within his divine sense, every detail was perfectly clear.
It had been a very, very long time since Liu Yan had revealed her true form. Yang Kai still remembered that the first time he had met Liu Yan, she had appeared before him in exactly this shape. Back then, he had thought she was some kind of fire spirit, only to learn later that she was merely the artifact spirit of a refining furnace.
Unless driven to the absolute brink, Liu Yan would never reveal her true form.
The strange bird appeared and immediately soared upward, riding clouds and wind, arriving at the fire phoenix's head in an instant, circling it ceaselessly.
The fire phoenix shrieked without end, every plume of fire spreading wide. Vivid and lifelike, a torrential wave of heat surged outward in all directions. Liu Yan's true form was like a small boat tossed in a violent storm, wave after wave crashing down upon her, threatening to swallow her at any moment.
The fluctuations of divine sense交流 never ceased from the very beginning. Liu Yan kept trying, kept striving.
Yang Kai had no idea what Liu Yan did during this time—he only saw her circling the fire phoenix ceaselessly, strange ripples of soul force emanating outward.
Gradually, the violent fire phoenix phantom calmed. Its spread fire-feathers folded back, though that disdainful gaze remained as contemptuous as ever, as if the entire world in its eyes was nothing worth mentioning.
Seeing this, Liu Yan drifted slightly closer to the fire phoenix, seemingly attempting to make it accept her.
The process was slow, but no major upheaval occurred.
After a long effort, Liu Yan finally landed atop the fire phoenix's head and gently preened the feathers there.
At the same time, the fire phoenix slowly closed its majestic phoenix eyes.
Did that count as success? Yang Kai's brow furrowed slightly, unsure of what the situation truly was.
But logically speaking, Liu Yan refining the fire phoenix's Origin should carry an extremely high chance of success—higher than anyone else's—because Liu Yan herself was a fire-type artifact spirit, sharing a common origin with the Phoenix True Fire.
The overwhelming pressure gradually receded. The fire phoenix's colossal phantom shrank back into Liu Yan's body, and the scorching power suddenly lost its source, dissipating entirely. All that remained was a ground of scarlet magma and half-solidified sand.
Liu Yan's true form returned to her body along with the fire phantom.
Yang Kai extended his divine sense to probe her condition. Upon seeing her current state, his heart lurched violently.
Because Liu Yan now looked as though she had been burned for countless years. Her entire body was charred black—her original silhouette was impossible to make out from the outside. All of her once-lustrous hair had vanished completely.
All that remained was a humanoid shape resembling a lump of charcoal.
Even a spirit puppet's body had been burned like this. Any ordinary martial artist would have long since turned to flying ash.
Yang Kai's heart was bleeding. He struggled to suppress the urge to rush forward and help, while remaining ready to pluck a leaf from the Tree of Eternity at any moment.
From within the charred humanoid shape came Liu Yan's faint soul fluctuations.
Threads of crimson energy suddenly emanated from within her body. The crimson energy pulsed like dancing flames, dazzling to behold—carrying the terrifying aura of incineration, yet also an inconceivable vitality.
The Phoenix True Fire!
Legend held that phoenixes never died and were never destroyed. Every death was merely a cycle of nirvana, and what enabled them to forge such legend was precisely this miraculous Phoenix True Fire. Thus, within the Phoenix True Fire resided both boundless destructive intent and exuberant life force.
Destruction was for the enemy. Life force was for oneself.