Chapter 31: Guess I spoke too soon
Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also give your opinions on something I should change or add.
Note: Finally got my PC back!!!
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As Feng was looking around and trying to find the trial guardian, wind rolled as something shot out from the fire. When Feng saw the creature that just came out of the fire, his expression turned bad.
"I'm so fucked." Feng mumbled to himself as he looked at the fire bird flying above him.
[Phoenix (Realm Lord)] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 25
HP 10,000,000
The Phoenix opened its mouth as soon as it noticed Feng, screeching as it spewed out a mouthful of flames at him. Feng immediately switched to the Aura of Wind and dashed out of the flame breath's range, as he pondered on how to deal with the Phoenix.
Phoenixes were among the top of Primordial Beasts, being able to triumph over all other Primordial Beasts in a neutral environment while in higher tiers.
There were three reasons for why Phoenixes were some of the most powerful Primordial Beasts, and beings in general, which were their ability to revive, their mastery over the fire element, and their resistance to physical attacks; their mastery over fire being the biggest out of them.
Even in lower tiers, Phoenixes' mastery over fire elemental mana was higher than most Tier 3 creatures. When a Phoenix reached Tier 3, they'd even begin to be able to control the Law of Fire, with those carrying the purest Phoenix blood even gaining Initial Mastery over it. After reaching Tier 4, even regular Phoenixes would gain Initial Mastery over the Law of Fire, with those with purer blood gaining Intermediate Mastery, while those with the purest gaining Advanced Mastery over it.
At Tier 5, most Phoenixes would gain Intermediate Mastery over the Law of Fire, with some of the more powerful ones having Advanced Mastery, and some with the purest bloodline reaching Full Mastery over it.
Though, at Tier 6, any random Phoenix would have Full Mastery over the Law of Fire, it actually being a requirement for a Phoenix to progress to Tier 6 as well as the reason why there were so few Tier 6 Phoenixes through out the Universal God's Domain, while the most powerful Tier 6 Phoenixes with the purest bloodline even gaining a Half-step Mastery over the Rule of Fire in some rare cases.
It was because of their mastery over the fire element that Phoenixes were mostly invincible among the same tier in higher tiers, but another reason for them being incredibly difficult to truly kill was their ability to repeatedly revive.
Depending on their mastery over their fire element and the environment they were in, Phoenixes could revive hundreds or even thousands of times; and if they have Initial Mastery over the Law of Fire, they could revive infinitely. At that point, unless a person similarly has Mastery over a Law that's not fire, and at least of equal mastery to the Phoenix, they'd be completely unable to truly kill a Phoenix forever. The Phoenix would simply keep reviving until its opponent either gives up or runs out of Stamina.
This was an issue Feng once faced in his previous life while fighting a Tier 6 Phoenix.
Despite him at the time wielding the Tier 6 Legendary Abyssal Blade along with a Fragmented Divine Weapon, having Advanced Mastery over the Law of Destruction as well as having Initial Mastery over another Advanced Law and a few other Laws, along with his other items and trump cards, he hadn't been able to kill it; well he was able to kill it many times, but it kept reviving.
That fight between Feng and the Tier 6 Phoenix lasted for over an entire day, until they eventually called for a ceasefire after Feng killed the Phoenix over a thousand times and seeing that neither was able to defeat the other.
Of course, that Phoenix only had Full Mastery over the Law of Fire; otherwise Feng would have ran as soon as he saw it.
The fight and its result is the reason Feng knew a lot about Phoenixes, as well as how much of a pain in the ass they are to fight and kill; especially in the higher tiers.
However, both the Phoenixes' mastery over fire and their infinite revival abilities were currently irrelevant, as the Phoenix Feng was facing right now was only Tier 0. Though, that didn't mean that fighting it was easy at all. In fact, Feng would prefer to fight a Tier 5 Phoenix as a Tier 5 player than the current situation.
Thundering Flash!
Feng slashed the Abyssal Blade in the Phoenix's direction as he avoided its attacks. The Phoenix flapped its fiery wings and avoided the green streaks of thunder. Just as the Phoenix thought it had dodged the attack and was about to launch one of its own, the thunder streaks suddenly curved, threatening to pierce through the Phoenix once again. Although surprised by the sudden change, the Phoenix reacted immediately and nimbly dodged two of the thunder streaks; with only the last one landing on it.
-25,689
As the damage appeared above the Phoenix's head, Feng appeared behind the Phoenix and executed Chop. Three black lights flew out of the Abyssal Blade as Feng brandished it three times in a single breath, with the three attacks combining and landing on the same spot of the Phoenix's back.
But when the attack landed, the Phoenix only received a miniscule damage of -299.
'It's even higher than I thought.' Feng frowned when he saw the small damage his Chop did to the Phoenix.
What made Phoenixes tough to deal with in the lower tiers was their extremely high physical attack resistance. Unless a person's tier was much higher than the Phoenix's and they could kill it using absolute strength, the only option was to use magical attacks in order to deal a large amount of damage to a Phoenix.
Any Tier 0 Phoenix would have at least a 90% resistance against physical attacks, and that number would go higher with the purity of their bloodline. By Feng's estimation, the Phoenix in front of him had a 99% resistance to physical attacks; which was much higher than what he had expected.
With their physical attack resistance, mastery over fire, their ability to revive multiple times as well as being able to fly, Phoenixes were practically impossible to kill for players while in the lower tiers.
However, out of those four powerful traits the Phoenixes possessed, none were a problem for the current Feng.
If physical attacks don't do enough damage, he could simply use his skills to kill it. Their mastery over fire was practically irrelevant to Feng while they were Tier 0. Even if the Phoenix could revive many times, he could simply kill it over and over again until it truly dies. As for flying, Feng could do that to; albeit temporarily.
What made it incredibly difficult for Feng to kill the Phoenix in front of him was its immunity towards all fire-type attacks.
Out of Feng's four most powerful magical damage dealing skills, Flame Burst, Firestorm, Dragon Breath and Flame God's Fury, all four were fire-type.
Out of his four other magical damage dealing skills, Thundering Flash, Thunder Flame Explosion, Dark Violent Dance and Mind Swords, with Mind Swords being a skill from his Dark-Gold helmet that summons three magical light swords for one attack each, one and a half were fire-type.
This trait of the Phoenix completely crippled Feng's damage dealing abilities.
Even if all three streaks from Thundering Flash landed on the Phoenix, which was proven difficult with its fast Movement Speed, they will only take away a little over 1% from its total HP. But by the time Thundering Flash's cooldown ended, the Phoenix would have regenerated 3% of its HP.
Although he could use Thundering Flash in tandem with Thunder Flame Explosion, which could still deal some amount of damage to the Phoenix as it wasn't completely flame oriented and had a cooldown of twenty seconds at its current level, and Mind Swords, which could take away a little over 1% of the Phoenix's HP similarly to Thundering Flash and had a cooldown of one minute, as well as switching to the Aura of Fire, which would more than double his damage, he still might not be able to keep up with its passive recovery.
If he used physical attacks to try and drain a bit of its HP, he might only be able to make a profit of around 10,000 HP every minute. That meant he'd need around sixteen hours to kill it. Naturally, he'd run out of Stamina before that.
Though, if he used his doppelganger, his damage would increase, but he'd still need around four to five hours in order to whittle down the Phoenix. At that point, Feng would have exhausted most of his Stamina in order to kill it... once.
The Phoenix, however, could revive multiple times. Judging from the environment they were currently in, with Feng's experience, he guessed that the Phoenix would be able to revive five times at the very least, but the number might even be ten. Naturally, Feng would still run out of Stamina before he could truly kill it.
Moreover, that was all under the condition that Feng and his doppelganger could actually land all of their attacks accurately. If he was fighting a land monster, Feng would still be confident he could do it, but as the Phoenix could fly, and Feng could only remain in the air temporarily using Wind Rider, it wasn't possible for him to deal enough damage to outpace the Phoenix's recovery; while he would also have to switch to the Aura of Fire every time he attacked in order for his damage to be sufficient, which was impossible since there was a one minute cooldown to switching Auras on the Seven Luminaries Ring.
Feng rapidly thought of countermeasures as he dodged the Phoenix's attacks, trying to minimize his Stamina loss as much as possible and not bothering to attack back at all, knowing that he wouldn't be able to do enough damage. The Phoenix seemed to know this too, as it constantly left plenty of openings, seemingly tempting Feng to attack it while it let loose a complete barrage.
As far as Feng knew, there were five ways to truly kill a Phoenix forever.
The first was to kill it until it was no longer able to revive. This was usually the most used method.
The second was to change the environment to something that didn't suit the Phoenix. As a low tier Phoenix's ability to revive depended largely on the amount of fire mana there was in the surroundings, removing it would greatly weaken its ability to revive; sometimes losing it entirely if the change was drastic enough.
The third way, and the one most didn't know about, was to do damage triple of the Phoenix's total HP. If one was able to do three times the damage of the Phoenix's HP, the Phoenix would truly die without being able to revive, regardless of their mastery over the fire element. However, doing that was usually impossible unless someone was at least two tiers higher than the Phoenix. With how rare Phoenixes are and the fact their HPs were usually much higher than monsters of the same tier, it wasn't at all unusual for people to not know of this method. Even Feng had only discovered it by accident.
The fourth and the hardest one was to directly break the Phoenix's soul. Ways to attack a soul in God's Domain were incredibly rare, but most of them become useless in the higher tiers. Moreover, the Phoenix was a Primordial Beast, even if one had methods to break the soul of a monster on the same tier as a Phoenix, it was unlikely to work.
The fifth and final method was to have a higher mastery over the Law of Fire than the Phoenix. If one had a higher mastery than the Phoenix, then the person could directly prevent a Phoenix from reviving. However, having a higher Mastery over the Law of Fire than a Phoenix of the same tier was practically impossible.
Of the five methods, none worked for Feng.
If he was able to kill the Phoenix until it could no longer revive, he currently wouldn't be in a predicament where he had to search for alternatives.
As for changing the environment, with all of his Magic Scrolls sealed inside his bags, that was impossible, too. In fact, he was currently even having trouble surviving in this fiery hell. If not for him being able to coat himself in the Ice-Blue Devil Flame to remedy some of the environment's effects, he would have already started taking damage from simply running around all this fire.
The third method was naturally impossible. Even if the Phoenix wasn't immune to fire and Feng used Flame Burst, his strongest skill, doing thirty million damage to the Phoenix in a single hit was not something the current him could achieve.
Although Feng had his ability that allowed him to interfere with souls, even if he currently wasn't suffering from a backlash after gazing at the soul the Unicorn's soul string was connected to, let alone breaking the Phoenix's soul with his current immortal soul and concentration, It'd be a miracle if he could tickle it. Using the power of his real soul might yield a different result, but Feng was unsure if it would work and whether or not it would expose him to danger.
Moreover, he didn't want to reveal his ability in front of the people from the War God's Temple. Doing so would be too huge of a risk. Although there was a possibility he might be able to fool the silver and golden thrones and get away with using his ability, Feng had no doubt that guy was currently watching him as well. As the chances of him being able to trick the War God's Temple's Temple Lord were low, Feng didn't want to take any risks.
Finally, the fifth method was obviously a no-brainer. In his previous life, Feng didn't even have Initial Mastery over the Law of Fire. So what did the current Tier 0 Feng have to do with it, or any other Laws?
'Seems like I have no other choice.' Feng sighed internally as he opened the system interface. Although the current him was unable to truly kill the Phoenix, it would be a different story if he bought some other equipment. Only, Feng hadn't wanted to buy anything while inside the trial, knowing that he would receive discounts after finishing and gaining War God's Temple Reputation Points.
Of course, Feng was still planning to minimize his losses by buying only Epic equipment. He even knew just the item that would help him clear the 12th trial.
Suddenly, a deep blue, one-handed sword appeared in Feng's hand, and he quickly switched out the Purgatory's Shadow for the dark blue sword.
[Depth's Blade] (One-Handed Sword, Epic Rank)
Level 30 - Level 80
Equipment Requirement: Strength 750, Agility 700
Attributes will be adjusted according to user's level. (Level 26)
Attack Power +674.
Strength +65, Agility +55, Endurance +40.
Attack Speed +10.
When Attacking:
60% chance to cause 200% damage.
30% chance to cause 300% damage.
40% chance to trigger Tidal Wave, knocking enemies back by five yards and placing them in a Fainted state for 4 seconds.
Damage dealt to fire-type monsters increased by 200%.
When equipped:
Strength increased by 25%
Agility increased by 20%
Attack Speed increased by 10%
Ignore Levels +15
All Sword Skills +1 Level
Additional Passive Skill: Pressure
Increases the weight of wielder's attacks by 150%.
Additional Active Skill 1: Elongated Water Blade
Extends a whip made of water from the Depth's Blade, increasing range of attacks by 30 yards and dealing 115% damage.
Duration: 2 minutes
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Additional Active Skill 2: Depth's Binding
Summons eight water tentacles to bind and immobilize up to eight enemies, with each tentacle dealing 20% of the wielder's damage per second.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 30 minutes
A sword found at the bottom of the Sea of Death. The Weapon's origins are unknown, but it seemed to have naturally formed from the Sea of Death's materials under the extreme pressure of the sea's depths.
After buying and equipping the Depth's Blade, Feng searched for Epic ornaments, soon buying an ornament in the shape of a blood red flame.
[Dragon's Flame Blood] (Ornament, Epic Rank)
Level 20 - Level 90
Equipment Requirement: Strength 500, Agility 700, Endurance 450
Attributes will be adjusted according to user's level. (Level 26)
Strength +60, Agility +60, Endurance +60, Vitality +60
When equipped:
Luck +12
Fire Resistance +20
Strength increased by 10%
Agility increased by 15%
Endurance increased by 10%
Ignore Levels +20
All item level requirements reduced by 5 Levels.
Additional Passive Skill: Flaming Claws
Gives 5% extra flame damage to all attacks.
Additional Active Skill: Flame Born
Become immune to all fire damage for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
After replacing a Level 15 Dark-Gold Ornament he previously got from Faust with the Dragon's Flame Blood, he felt that the scorching environment was no longer as unbearable as before. Moreover, with the Depth's Blade, Feng now had full confidence to kill the Phoenix.
Feng suddenly stopped dodging the Phoenix's never ending barrage and started flying at it after activating Wind Rider and switching to the Aura of Fire. The Phoenix reacted quickly by adjusting its attacks' trajectories at the flying Feng while it spewed a flame breath that encompassed the sky between Feng and the Phoenix.
Responding by using Dragon Breath to spew his own flame breath, Feng destroyed the Phoenix's attacks and blocked its flame breath, causing a giant explosion in the air between Feng and the Phoenix, blocking both of their visions of the other. Meanwhile, the Depth's Blade in Feng's hand lit up slightly as it started extending.
The Phoenix looked at the smoke in the air as it prepared an attack for when the human came at it, knowing that the human's previous attempts signaled that the human was ready to try and kill it, and that it was only a matter of time before the human resumes its attack.
While the Phoenix was preparing its attack, a blue light suddenly pierced through the smoke. Before the Phoenix could react, the blue light reached it and landed on its shoulder. The Phoenix felt a cold pain from its shoulder as a damage of -98,977 appeared above its head. The blue light that just attacked it seemed to retract, before it pierced through the smoke again, horizontally this time. The Phoenix was once again unable to react as the blue light struck its leg, causing it to receive another damage of -97,618.
It was only at this moment that the Phoenix reacted, flapping its flaming wings and distancing itself further from the smoke cloud.
"Damn, this thing is hard to control." Feng commented as he looked at the water whip extending from the Depth's Blade. The first strike was supposed to slap the Phoenix across the face, while the second was aimed at its torso, but as it was Feng's first time using a whip, he had been a bit inaccurate, causing his attacks to miss their marks.
Though, as a Half-step Beyond Domain realm and Beyond Transcendental realm expert, Feng could treat any weapon as an extension of his body; so it would only take some getting used to before Feng could easily wield the water whip.
Clearing away the remaining smoke in the air using Earth Splitter, Feng flew after the Phoenix at high speeds, quickly getting close to it. The Phoenix finally saw the source of the blue light that previously struck it, which came from the sword in the human's hand. Enraged, the Phoenix started flapping its wings in Feng's direction quickly, causing thin, flaming feathers to shoot out at Feng.
With every flap, hundreds of flaming feathers were shot from the Phoenix's wings, and within the blink of an eye, the Phoenix had flapped its wings more than ten times, shooting thousands of feathers at Feng; making it seem like it was raining fire.
Feng watched as the rain of fire flew at him, and only smirked. Bending the water whip in his hand slightly, Feng started madly swinging the water whip in front of the thousands of flaming feathers, causing a galaxy of blue stars to appear and block the curtain fire.
Swo- Whip's Orbit!
Small explosions rang in the air as the flaming feathers were shot down by the blue stars. The few that managed to squeeze through were either dodged or blocked by Feng using the Abyssal Blade.
Unaffected by the Phoenix's attempts to stop him, Feng kept whipping down all of its attacks while flying closer to it. Within ten seconds, Feng had caught up to the Phoenix, which suddenly stopped using projectiles and scratched at Feng with its talons.
Abyssal Bind!
Phantom Kill!
Nine pitch black chains suddenly appeared, binding the Phoenix mid strike, while another Feng appeared beside the original, which slashed at the Phoenix with Abyssal Blade while using Thundering Flash, before falling.
Damages of -50,071, -67,596 and -91,255 appeared after the doppelganger's Thundering Flash struck the Phoenix. Feng followed up with his own Thundering Flash, causing damages of -116,250, -157,747 and -212,959 to the Phoenix.
After which, Feng executed Whip's Orbit on the Phoenix, causing around -300,000 damage to it per hit, and Feng was able to land around five hits every second.
But two seconds after Feng used Abyssal Bind on the Phoenix, the flames on the chained bird suddenly expanded, melting the nine pitch black chains binding it. As the Phoenix attempted to create some distance after freeing itself, Feng appeared in front of its face, the power of thunder and flame gathered on the Abyssal Blade as he slashed it.
The Thunder Flame Explosion did over 70,000 damage to the Phoenix while placing it in a Fainted state for four seconds. Feng took the opportunity to keep whipping away at the Phoenix and doing huge amounts of damage to it.
By the time the Phoenix got out of the Fainted state, it had less than one million of its HP left, and as it attempted to get away from Feng, that amount was quickly wiped away as well.
Feng remained suspended in mid air as he watched the Phoenix's flamy body fall into the fire below him. A moment later, the fire squirmed as it gathered, and a bird made completely of fire shot out. The Phoenix glared at Feng, but didn't attack him rashly. Instead it quietly observed him, seemingly thinking on how to best fight him.
Naturally, Feng wasn't planning to give it any time. After all, not only would it not benefit him at all if the Phoenix had time to think and come up with countermeasures, but Elongated Water Blade also had a limited duration of only two minutes. Thus, Feng immediately flew at the Phoenix, intending to kill it as soon as possible.
Noticing Feng's intention, the Phoenix flew in the opposite direction of him while sending attacks in his direction, hoping to slow the human down if even a little bit. Feng easily maneuvered between the Phoenix's various fire-type attacks, his speed barely dropping. However, by the time Feng caught up with the Phoenix and sent a whip at it, he only had two seconds of Wind Rider left.
When the whip was about to strike the Phoenix, the bird suddenly dived down, avoiding his attack. Feng was at first confused on why the Phoenix would suddenly go down to the ground, but then felt relieved, as he wouldn't have been able to keep up with the Phoenix if it kept flying.
Twelve phantom Abyssal Blades appeared around Feng as he used Nine Dragon Slash, with eleven of the phantom blades flying down right behind the Phoenix while the twelfth flew below Feng as he stepped onto it after Wind Rider's duration ended.
The Phoenix kept flying downwards, and even after it was only ten yards from the ground, it did not slow down. The Phoenix submerged itself into the flames below it when it was about to collide with the ground, disappearing from Feng's view.
Feng slowed down his descent as he wondered what just happened, when the flames in the nearby area suddenly started moving, rushing towards Feng from all directions.
"Is this your plan?" Feng looked towards a certain location in the fiery sea below him as the flames surrounded and attempted to drown him.
Flame Born!
Becoming immune to fire damage after activating one of his new skills, Feng dived into the flames after the Phoenix. As the Phoenix hid inside the flames and wondered what it should do now that the human became immune to fire for some reason, a whip made out of water pierced through the flames in front of it and struck the Phoenix's beak, dealing around 100,000 damage to it.
The Phoenix immediately moved and avoided the whip's return, however, three swords of light suddenly appeared and stabbed through one of its wings, slowing it down for a moment and allowing for a barrage of whips to strike its other wing one after another.
Figuring that it would be unable to continue flying and fall if the whips continue to strike its wings, the Phoenix folded its wings against its body and turned into a streak of fire, its flying speed skyrocketing, as it flew up through the air. Feng shot out of the fire on a phantom Abyssal Blade while the other eleven phantom Abyssal Blades flew after the Phoenix.
However, even after the Phoenix returned to its bird form, neither Feng nor the other phantom Abyssal Blades could catch up to it. It merely continued flying away and expending the distance between them.
This was the reason Feng had wanted to strike down the Phoenix's wings or make sure it couldn't fly. As soon as Wind Rider's duration ran out, Feng was no longer able to catch up to the Phoenix. It could simply keep flying away from him, as it wasn't actually obliged to kill Feng, only to prevent him from clearing the trial under any means necessary; even if that mean simply running away forever.
Though, Feng wasn't really concerned. After all, the trial grounds weren't infinite. Its size was around half of a map in the outside world, so it's not like the Phoenix had anywhere to run. Feng only needed to wait for the cooldowns of his skills to end, find the Phoenix, kill it, than rinse repeat until the 12th trial is over.
Moreover, the Phoenix had a limited amount of Stamina as well, so not only would it not continue running away forever, at some point, after it realizes it couldn't completely get away from Feng, it would try to come up with ways to fight and kill him; knowing it would simply die if it exhausted all of its Stamina while running away.
In actuality, Feng preferred it this way, as he now had an opportunity to regain some of his Stamina. Feng gave the Phoenix the impression of him being the hunter and it the prey on purpose, as it would be problematic if he and the Phoenix fought without stopping, since even with the Depth's Blade and Dragon's Flame Blood, it would still be difficult to whittle down the Phoenix's HP; not to mention draining and time consuming.
So now, the Phoenix runs from Feng and tires itself out, while Feng slowly paces behind it while recovering and waiting for the cooldowns of his skills to end.
An hour later, Feng whipped away the last of the Phoenix's HP for the fifth time.
"Four more." Feng counted to himself as he tried to stabilize his breathing while watching the Phoenix's body collapse. After killing the Phoenix a few times and observing the fire elemental mana in the surroundings, Feng had determined that the Phoenix was capable of reviving a total of eight times, meaning Feng had to kill it nine times.
However, it had become considerably taxing on his Stamina. The Phoenix seemed to have realized it couldn't get away from Feng during its forth life, so it immediately decided to fight him to the death. And after it revived for its fifth life, it immediately attacked him and didn't stop until it died, unlike its previous strategy.
This didn't bode well for Feng, as he had to constantly avoid the Phoenix's attacks and keep wasting his Stamina and Concentration while waiting for his cooldowns to end.
Feng immediately sat down to rest as much as possible until the Phoenix came back. Ten seconds... Twenty seconds... However, even after half a minutes had passed, nothing happened. Not even wind rolled. Feng looked around carefully, but couldn't find the Phoenix. Moreover, he couldn't even sense its aura.
Whenever the Phoenix revived in the past, he'd always be able to sense its presence. Even if it was only faint and he didn't know exactly where the Phoenix was, he could still feel whether or not it was alive and its general direction. But now, he felt nothing...
"Did I miscalculate and it can't revive anymore? No. I would have gotten a system notification if that was the case." Feng checked his system log just to be sure, and indeed, there was nothing.
Entering deep thought, Feng wondered if the Phoenix had chosen not to revive, but immediately dismissed it; as that would mean it choosing to truly die, which would have ended the trial.
'Did it choose not to materialize.' Feng wondered and felt it would be pretty funny if it did that.
When a Phoenix revives, it doesn't automatically take the form of a fire bird. Instead, it first becomes a core the size of a marble, before it materializes with the fire around it to take its normal shape. When it does that, the core would integrate with the fire and become a part of the Phoenix's body, and when a Phoenix dies, its body turns to flames while its core reforms from the fire around it.
However, the core of a low tiered Phoenix can only take a certain amount of damage before it can no longer reform, which was how Phoenixes truly die; as well as why doing damage triple the Phoenixes HP in one hit truly kills it. The physical body receives so much damage that the core directly breaks and can no longer reform.
Though, Phoenixes didn't necessarily have to leave their core state. Only, not only would they be vulnerable as a result, but their perception of the world around them would also be very limited. Thus, Phoenixes only used this tactic in cases where they were trying to hide from something, like right now.
And Feng had to admit that it really was quite tricky, as he couldn't feel the Phoenix's presence at all, while all of the fire in the surroundings completely blocked his vision of the ground. If a person didn't know that Phoenixes were capable of staying in their core form, the person would have no idea what to do, remaining stuck inside the trial; and even if a person did know about it, they'd still be unable to find the hidden Phoenix.
But in front of Feng, such a trick was useless.
A blue glow appeared in Feng's eyes, and his entire vision changed. There was no more fire in the surroundings that blocked his vision. Although he still hasn't fully recovered from the backlash he previously received, Feng could still use his ability by now. Feng looked around, his gaze stopping at a fireball some forty yards away from him. The fireball was currently only the size of a marble, but a powerful aura radiated from it. Moreover, there was a fiery soul string extending from the Phoenix's soul to somewhere off into the distance.
Feng didn't bother following along the soul string this time, knowing that it would be useless and pointless; as unlike the Unicorn's case, Feng knew where he could find Phoenixes in the Greater God's Domain, so there was no need to try to trace the soul string.
As Feng observed the fireball, his expression suddenly changed, and he immediately stood up. Originally, Feng had thought that the Phoenix hiding would greatly benefit him, as not only could he regain some Stamina, but he could also wait for the cooldowns of his skills to end. Now, however, Feng realized that the Phoenix was much smarter and more cunning than he initially thought.
Whenever a Phoenix revives, the fire mana around it gets consumed in the process, but that mana can recover over time. If the Phoenix doesn't materialize in its bird form, and Feng can't kill it, the surroundings fire mana would recover from the Phoenix's previous revivals, and the Phoenix would once again be able to revive eight times. Moreover, without the Phoenix constantly consuming even more fire mana with its attacks, the rate at which the fire mana recovered was around the same as Feng's Stamina and Concentration.
Realizing that the fight would drag on for a long time if he allowed the fire elemental mana to recover to the point where the Phoenix could revive again, Feng unsheathed the Abyssal Blade and the Depth's Blade, before walking in the Phoenix's core's general direction, while pretending to be looking around and trying to find it.
Although the Phoenix's perception of the world while in its core form was limited, it would still be able to sense Feng if he approached it. Not to mention, the Phoenix was a trial monster that could sense Feng's existence at all times. So Feng decided to not reveal that he knew where it currently was and slowly get to it.
After all, although this little trick that the Phoenix was attempting is a problem, it was also an opportunity. While in its current form, the Phoenix was very vulnerable, as not only was its core fragile, but its Defense was also zero. If Feng could get a good strike on the core before the Phoenix can materialize, he could easily wipe away one of its lives.
Feng kept getting closer to the Phoenix's core, but it showed no reaction. Even when he was standing next to it, the Phoenix didn't do anything; simply remaining hidden in the fire. Feng was unsure whether the Phoenix was confident that he wouldn't be able to find it, or if it was still unsure whether or not Feng knew where it was hiding. After all, Feng's acting skills were top notch, if he did say so himself, and it wouldn't be a surprise if the Phoenix has been fooled.
Frankly, Feng didn't care. He merely tightened his grip on the Abyssal Blade as he prepared to attack and shatter the core in one go.
Apart from being fragile and having zero Defense, there was another thing that made the Phoenix's core vulnerable in comparison to its bird form...
Feng smirked as the Abyssal Blade in his hand suddenly lit up like a miniature sun.
...and that was that it wasn't immune to fire.
Flame Burst!
With Feng's incredibly fast Attack Speed, the Abyssal Blade quickly descended and reached the Phoenix's core in a split second. With how fast and unexpected the attack was, the Phoenix couldn't react in time to materialize its bird form, resulting in its core instantly shattering when the glowing Abyssal Blade struck it.
Feng watched as the shattered core turned into flames, before merging with the fire around it and disappearing. Despite trying to track it, Feng was still unable to determine where the core had reformed even half a minute later. Helpless, Feng could only use his ability again in order to find it; quickly locating the small fireball around fifty yards away from him this time.
Feng pretended to look around for a bit, before seemingly choosing a random direction to walk in, which just so happened to be where the Phoenix's core is. As he slowly approached it, Feng kept pretending to be observing his surroundings, while also zigzagging so that he doesn't walk directly towards the Phoenix and make it suspicious.
Unfortunately, however, the Phoenix wasn't planning on taking any chances this time, as its bird form materialized when Feng got within ten yards of it.
"Tch, whatever. I'll just kill you normally, then." Feng clicked his tongue when he saw the Phoenix leave its core form. He had initially hoped that he would be able to take another of the Phoenix's lives easily, but it turns out the Phoenix was too cautious.
The Phoenix glared at Feng before manipulating the fire around them to surround and attempt to burn him. Feng merely dashed out of the fire's range, when he suddenly sensed danger.
Glancing at the sky, Feng saw the Phoenix flying high above with a giant fire ball forming in front of it. A moment later, the giant fireball formed to its full size, and the Phoenix shot it down at Feng. The Phoenix looked down at Feng smugly.
It already knew that the human didn't possess any skills powerful enough to fight back against its attack, and as the range of the fireball was too large for the human to escape, it would either have to waste one of its life saving skills, which would allow the Phoenix to follow up with other powerful skills without the human being able to block them, or risk getting heavily injured.
After thinking for a while, this was the strategy the Phoenix came up with to defeat Feng. It chose to simply bombard him with powerful skills repeatedly until he was no longer able to dodge or block them.
"Do you really think I'm helpless against your attacks?" Feng had originally been planning to use Flame Born to deal with the giant fireball, but upon seeing the smugness in the Phoenix's eyes, he decided to teach the ignorant bird a lesson.
Jumping towards the giant fireball, Feng slashed with the Abyssal blade which still had Flame Burst's effect on it. The fireball only had power at the Advanced Tier 2 standard, so, in front of Flame Burst, it was immediately parted in half. Although Feng couldn't use his fire based skills to attack the Phoenix, there was no problem with him using them to block its attacks.
The Phoenix stared in disbelief after one of its strongest skills got easily destroyed and rendered useless. It could already see its well thought out plan on which it had spent much effort to come up with shatter and become nothing more than a fleeting thought. A moment later, it could see nothing at all after two light swords pierced through its eyes, with a third one through its beak.
As the light swords disappeared, the Phoenix's eyes and the wound on its beak quickly reformed using the rest of its body's fire. The Phoenix glared at Feng after regaining sight, sending flame attacks at him and controlling the surrounding fire to try and drown him.
Feng didn't bother to fight back anymore and merely kept dodging the Phoenix's attacks while waiting for the cooldowns of his skills to end.
A little over five minutes later, Feng activated Wind Rider and switched to the Aura of Fire as he flew at the Phoenix. The Phoenix was familiar with what this sudden action of Feng's meant, as it had experienced it the first five times it died. Knowing what's about to come, the Phoenix turned around and started flying away without hesitation, turning into a streak of fire as its speed greatly increased.
By the time it returned to its bird form, the Phoenix was already over two hundred yards from its previous position. Just as the Phoenix thought it would have a moment of safety, a water whip struck one of its wings. Feng, who had used Seraphic Speed in order to quickly catch up to the Phoenix, was already within thirty yards of it and striking at the Phoenix with the Elongated Water Blade.
Thousands of flaming feathers flew at Feng as the Phoenix attempted to create some distance between them, but as if to re-enact his first kill, Feng whipped down all of its attacks, with even greater proficiency then before, and quickly closed in on the Phoenix.
Within twenty seconds, Feng arrived before the Phoenix, using Abyssal Bind to immobilize it and summoning his doppelganger to fire a volley of thunder streaks at the Phoenix along with him.
After that, a galaxy of blue stars assaulted the Phoenix, draining away at its HP. When the Phoenix broke out of the Abyssal Bind a few seconds later, Feng appeared behind it, intending to use Thunder Flame Explosion to send the Phoenix into a Fainted state and finish it off.
Suddenly, the flames on the Phoenix's body gathered into a single point, its light resembling a sun and nearly blinding Feng.
'It actually dares?!' Feng's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the sun that was giving him a sense of fatal danger. Feng was very familiar with this move of the Phoenixes that nearly took his life many times while he was fighting that Tier 6 Phoenix in his previous life.
Self-Destruction!
A move that made Phoenixes very dangerous to fight, especially when they were desperate. When a Phoenix self-destructs, the fire in their bodies and the surroundings gathers and condenses until it can no longer hold itself together, resulting in a powerful explosion that could normally turn anything of the same tier as the Phoenix to ash. With this ability, Phoenixes could practically turn themselves into kamikazes in order to kill their target, before reviving.
Of course, such a powerful ability did not come without a price. Whenever a Phoenix self-destructs, it would receive a certain amount of damage to its core, which would weaken the Phoenix's strength considerably, while the damage received depends on the strength of the resulting explosion and the strength of the Phoenix's own core.
Although the core could eventually recover itself, it could take a while if the damage was big, which would weaken the Phoenix over that period of time. Because of this cost, Phoenixes usually don't self-destruct unless they have no other choice.
However, Feng wasn't surprised by the Phoenix self-destructing. Not at all, actually. In fact, he had even been expecting the Phoenix to eventually try and use this method to kill him. Feng has been preparing himself for whenever that eventually happens and coming up with countermeasures during this time that he's been hunting the Phoenix.
What he hadn't expected, however, was how the Phoenix had self-destructed. If the Phoenix self-destructed normally, the resulting explosion would have most likely been at the Tier 1 standard, at most it would have reached the Peak Tier 1 standard. Although powerful, that much wasn't a big problem for Feng, as he had ways to deal with it.
However, the way this Phoenix self-destructed was different. It had used a portion of its soul to self-destruct. Even if this doesn't completely break the Phoenix's soul, it would heavily damage it, and the Phoenix would lose plenty of its combat ability if that happened. Moreover, the damage would be irreversible at the Phoenix's current tier.
A moment later, though, Feng realized that the Phoenix was a trial monster, so it naturally wouldn't care what happens to it. Its only goal was to make sure Feng doesn't pass the trial; no matter the consequences.
Feng frowned slightly, and his gaze abruptly turned serious. Due to the Phoenix's unexpected actions, Feng was in a bit of a predicament. Feng estimated that the explosion's strength would be at the Peak of Peak Tier 2 standard. If it was a simple attack, Feng could deal with it using Flame Burst, but the explosion won't be a single attack; it'll be more like getting continuously struck by Tier 2 skills for multiple seconds.
Normally, Feng would use Absolute Defense or Fantasy World to defend against the explosion, but it's been less than a minute since he switched to the Aura of Fire, so Feng couldn't use an invincibility skill to save himself. He could only do it manually.
Heavenly Dragon's Power!
Flame Born!
Flame Burst!
Golden scales appeared across Feng's body as the Abyssal Blade in his hand lit up like a miniature sun. Meanwhile, the Depth's Blade stayed in its whip state.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
An explosion resulting from the Phoenix's self-destruction shook the sky. A mushroom cloud appeared as the fire wave expended in all directions.
Sword's Orbit!
Whip's Orbit!
Feng brandished his two blades and executed the two techniques at the same time, causing a galaxy of red and blue stars to appear around him, colliding with the explosion. The water whip and Flame Burst covered Abyssal Blade blocked the explosion and most of the fire wave, while whatever passed was neutralized by Flame Born.
However, Feng's Stamina and Concentration were draining like pouring water. As he had to block an explosion using nothing but his weapons, it wouldn't be enough if Feng used the techniques at the same level as he usually does. Even if they were at the Bronze Technique standard, that wouldn't be sufficient to block it in its entirety. Thus, Feng had to use the techniques at the Advanced Bronze standard. Feng himself wasn't sure if he would be able to last at this point until the explosion passes over.
To make matters worse, Wind Rider's duration ended mid way, causing Feng to plummet to the ground. Thankfully, he had activated Gravity Liberation before hitting the ground and landed safely.
---
Inside the Eternal Throne, the powerhouses were watching the battle between Feng and the Phoenix with widened eyes.
"What an amazing little guy. He was able to fight toe to toe with the Phoenix for such a long time. He even killed it six times, while forcing it to self-destruct."
"It's a shame. Who would have thought the Phoenix would use such a method to kill that little guy?"
"Indeed. There's no way he survives such an attack while being so close to it without any preparations."
As the people sitting on the thrones talked, they couldn't help but feel that the Phoenix was to cruel, using an attack of such strength with no prior warning. Even a Tier 2 being would have been instantly pulverised by such an explosion, let alone Feng who was only a Tier 0 Sword Apprentice.
Even the Temple Lord felt it was a pity. He could tell that if the Phoenix had used a regular self-destruction, Feng would have most likely survived and would have been able to pass the Twelve Trials. At that point, not only would the Temple Lord not have to worry about the Abyss in this God's Domain, but if Feng managed to reach Tier 6, the Temple Lord would gain a powerful ally in the Greater God's Domain.
The explosion in the 12th trial lasted for around ten seconds, after which a cloud of smoke hindered their vision. Ucarus waved his hand, and the projection on the water screen passed through the smoke, revealing the sight inside.
"Impossible!" One of the people on the silver thrones blurted out loud when the image of Feng still standing was shown.
Although he looked a bit ragged and like he was about to collapse, let alone dead, Feng wasn't even injured. His HP bar was completely full! Feng had managed to successfully defended himself from the explosion without taking any damage from it; though, now he was basically out of Stamina.
---
Inside the 12th trial, a cloud of black smoke spanned through the area, while the fire in the surroundings had been extinguished from the explosion's shockwave.
Feng was panting heavily inside the cloud of smoke as he propped himself up with his swords. Even he himself hadn't expected how much of his Stamina it would consume to defend from the explosion, but at least he survived it.
Whoosh!
After trying to stabilize his breathing for a couple of seconds, Feng suddenly heard the sound of wind breaking. Looking towards the sound's origin, Feng saw the Phoenix whose soul survived flying towards him at high speeds. Now though, the Phoenix was clearly weaker than before, and even its size was smaller. Feng immediately stood straight as he prepared himself to face the Phoenix with whatever Stamina he had left.
But when the Phoenix got within ten yards of Feng, the flames on the Phoenix's body gathered into a single point, its light resembling a sun.
Even the eyes of the people watching this in the Eternal Throne widened. Without even attempting to fight Feng head-on, the Phoenix immediately chose to self-destruct again, seemingly really intending to die along with Feng.
The Phoenix wasn't giving Feng a chance at all!
'Self-destructing two times in a row while using a portion of your soul?' Feng was similarly surprised by the Phoenix's actions, but the next moment later, he merely smirked 'Impressive. I almost admire your courage... but your too late'
Fantasy World!
BOOOOM!
The giant explosion collided against the barrier of light formed by Fantasy World, not even causing a ripple. Although the Phoenix had more fire mana this time around than in the previous explosion, its soul had already been damaged, causing the explosion's power to be even less than the first one.
In his previous life, Fantasy World had held up against a Tier 4 skill when it was only Level 1. Now that it was at Tier 1 Level 1, something at the Tier 2 standard naturally wouldn't affect it at all.
As he waited for the explosion to pass over, Feng sat down and started resting. After around ten seconds, the explosion ended, leaving behind more smoke that combined with the previous cloud of smoke.
Wind rolled once again, as the smoke cloud parted, revealing a bird the size of a pigeon made completely out of flames. The Phoenix stared in disbelief and despair at the uninjured Feng. It had thought that, even if the human survived its first explosion, the second one would either kill it or cripple it. Yet, the reality was that the human was perfectly fine, while it itself barely had any combat power left after self-destructing twice.
Feng stood up as he observed the small Phoenix. Not only was the Phoenix's size smaller, its aura was also much weaker, while its total HP had dropped from ten million to one million; and with the Aura of Illusion, the Phoenix's maximum HP dropped down to four hundred thousand. The Phoenix immediately snapped out of it and began to franticly flap its wing in an attempt to fly away when it saw Feng stand up, but compared to its previous fast flying speed, the sight now before Feng was just pathetic.
"Listen, little birdie. I'm tired, you're tired, so lets just stop wasting each other's time and end this already." Feng said to the escaping Phoenix as twelve phantom Abyssal blades appeared around him.
He currently barely had enough energy to even walk, let alone run after the Phoenix, so he stepped on top of one of the phantom Abyssal Blades while sending the other eleven after the Phoenix.
The Phoenix's current speed was nowhere near as fast as before, thus the eleven phantom Abyssal Blades, with Feng a bit behind them, quickly caught up to it.
Despite losing most of its combat ability, the Phoenix's physical attack resistance remained strong, as each of the phantom Abyssal Blades only did damages in the hundreds; but they did slow it down ever so slightly.
Depth's Binding!
Mind Swords!
Suddenly, eight tentacles made out of water came out of the ground and attempted to grab the Phoenix, but the little bird quickly moved and avoided them. As the Phoenix changed its direction in order to avoid the water tentacles, three swords made out of light flew at it. The Phoenix tried to forcibly stop its movements and change directions again, but it only managed to avoid one light sword, with the second slashing across its body and the third one stabbing into one of the Phoenix's wings.
The two swords took away nearly half of the Phoenix's HP, but the slight pause caused by the swords allowed two of the water tentacles to catch up the Phoenix and tangle around its wings, stopping it from continuing its flight. Moreover, each of the water tentacles did 20% of Feng's total damage every second, taking away another bit of the Phoenix's HP.
Before the Phoenix could struggle out of the two tentacles' grips, the other six water tentacles reached it and wrapped around its body. Within three seconds, all of the Phoenix's HP was devoured by the water tentacles, and its fiery body turned into flames that fell to the ground.
System: Phoenix defeated. Twelfth trial completed. Rewarding 100,000,000 EXP, 40 Free Mastery Points, and 100 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 5,000 points.
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Tier 0 Twelve Trials. Rewarding 300,000,000 EXP, 50 Free Mastery Points, 20 Legacy Skill Points, 100 Humanity Reputation Points and the "Trial Clearer" title.
Feng didn't bother looking through the trial rewards and merely landed on the ground to rest his mind while waiting for Ucarus to send him out of the Twelve Trials, as he was the one who sent him here in the first place.
---
"He did it! He actually cleared it!"
"I can't believe I'm witnessing someone clearing the Twelve Trials after so many years!"
The people on the silver thrones were all excited after seeing Feng clear the 12th trial, and even the golden thrones showed some hints of excitement. Meanwhile, on the purple throne, the War God's Temple's Temple Lord's indifferent expression finally changed, as a faint smile appeared on his face.
'There's actually someone who can clear the Twelve Trials in this small world? It's quite a surprise, but a welcome one. If he can reach Tier 6, perhaps the human race could-' The Temple Lord's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he sensed something, and his expression immediately changed.
"Ucarus, pull him out of the Twelve Trials NOW!" The Temple Lord commanded Ucarus, who seemed to be fiddling with the Magic Array for the Twelve Trials' golden doors which have reappeared.
"M-my Lord, I've been trying, but something seems to have gone wrong. I can't open the trials' gates." Ucarus fearfully explained as he sensed the Temple Lord's growing aura.
"You can't open them?"
"Did the Twelve Trials break?"
The golden thrones questioned Ucarus in confusion. Judging from the Temple Lord's sudden words, the people in the Eternal Throne guessed that something had gone wrong.
Appearing in front of the golden doors, the Temple Lord attempted to control the Magic Array for the Twelve Trials, but soon found that there was something interfering with his controls.
'What?' The Temple Lord immediately grew confused. It would have been fine if only Ucarus had been unable to control the Magic Array, but with his standards, the Temple Lord shouldn't be having any difficulties 'Has someone sabotaged this?' A possibility appeared in the Temple Lord's mind. That would be the only explanation on why the Twelve Trials suddenly stopped functioning correctly, and why he was unable to make them work.
There was a traitor.
The Temple Lord clenched his fist, causing mana and Divine Might to gather on it. Standing beside the Temple Lord and sensing the power within that fist, Ucarus felt that, despite him being a Tier 5 powerhouse and the current Temple Lord only a phantom, the Temple Lord would still be able to kill him with only a finger.
'Is this the power of a God?' Ucarus wondered to himself.
A moment later, the Temple Lord punched at the golden doors, intending to either forcibly open them or just break them down. However, when the Temple Lord's fist struck the golden doors, the doors barely shook. Meanwhile, the resulting shockwave sent Ucarus flying and smashing against the Eternal Throne's walls, while the rest of the people sitting on the thrones had trouble maintaining their phantoms.
Seeing that the Twelve Trials' doors weren't even budging from his phantom's full force attack, the Temple Lord narrowed his eyes and looked at the projection on the water screen, feeling his killing intent rising.
"That bastard actually dares to meddle inside my own territory?" The Temple Lord nearly laughed from anger, having a guess on who the culprit of what was happening was. If someone here had simply betrayed him for some reason, there wouldn't be much of a problem, but if the traitor was assisting someone else, than that would be a problem.
---
Inside the Twelve Trials, Feng had finally managed to recover enough stand and move without any problems.
"Pfff, is that it? These are the Twelve Trials? I hardly even broke a sweat. Not gonna lie, I had kind of expected something more." Feng felt bored while waiting for Ucarus to take him out of the trial, which was for some reason taking longer than it was supposed to, so he decided to kill some time by bragging and pretending like the embarrassing scene of him panting like a beaten dog didn't happen "I suppose it couldn't really be helped. I'm just too good at this game."
As soon as he finished speaking, however, all the fire in the surroundings was extinguished as the sky suddenly darkened while radiating an oppressive evil aura.
"Guess I spoke too soon." Feng mumbled to himself as he sensed the evil aura coming from the sky that gave him a feeling of danger and... familiarity.
System: Warning! Warning!
System: You have been noticed by a certain Evil God. Emergency Trial triggered.
Suddenly, a horrendous creature carrying a thick evil aura around it descended from the sky, causing cracks to spread on the ground after landing around fifty yards away from Feng. The creature's over one hundred meter tall body was covered in pitch black scales along with disgusting green lines and sarcomas.
Three pairs of arms extended from the creature's body, with one pair having demon like hands with extremely sharp nails, another pair having claws, and the third pair having pincers. Meanwhile, it only had one pair of crow like legs supporting its giant body.
From the creature's back, draconic like wings extended, allowing it flight. While a stinger scorpion-like tail, a scaly lizard-like tail and a hairy monkey-like tail came out of the creature's backside.
On the creature's horrifying face, the only features were three pairs of thin, blood red eyes and a grotesque mouth that stretched across most of its face. Multiple jaws with needle like teeth filled the creature's mouth, as well as a long, pointy tongue that came out to lick the creature's lips as it stared excitedly at Feng, while its tentacle hair swayed and curled.
"An Atrocity?" Feng was greatly surprised when he saw the creature that suddenly fell out of the sky, not needing to use Observing Eyes in order to know its identity.
Feng suddenly realized why the aura he felt earlier gave him a sense of familiarity. In his previous life, he had faced many of these types of creatures called Atrocities after making enemies with the Primordial Evil God which created them. Naturally, he had become familiar with the auras of Atrocities and that Primordial God after fighting them many times.
Never would have Feng expected to get noticed by that Evil God and come across one of these things before even leaving his God's Domain and pissing off the Evil God again, let alone before he even reached Tier 1.
Feng used Observing Eyes on the Atrocity, wanting to find out more of its information.
[Atrocity] (High Chieftain)
Level 25
HP 50,000,000
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Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone