“Ninebless, I have received a really important mission, so the pillars are on hold until I complete it. Rest assured, as long as I complete it, the reward will cause my forging prowess to rise by leaps and bounds!” Hearing Heifeng Jiansui’s conciliatory words, Ninebless simply sneered.

Without paying attention to the displeased spirit, Heifeng Jiansui saw that along with the forging technique and formation technique, there was an Eight Trigram sword technique as well. After reading through the manual, Heifeng Jiansui realized what Elder Shenhai wanted him to forge.

“In reality, this is actually a sword skeleton that joins eight different swords as ‘bones’ and the main sword as the ‘spine’, unifying them to form a sum greater than the whole, the Consummated Heaven sword!”

“The main sword acts as the ‘World’, vast but incomplete. The eight swords are the Eight Trigrams- Heaven, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Thunder, Mountain and Lake, forming the factors that all life to exist and the world to be completed.” Marveling at the technique that would allow a set of Quasi-Earth Rank weapon to equal a true Rarth Rank weapon, Heifeng Jiansui also tried to comprehend the mystery of the World inherent in it.

“Eight Trigrams, huh? Isn’t that a divination technique? Our scripture library is chockfull with those books, take a look if you care.” Ninebless said this offhandedly, but Heifeng Jiansui’s eager expression went unnoticed by her.

“Your Sect Scripture Library has a section that deals with divinations including Eight Trigrams? I thought your sect specialized in phoenix techniques like ice and fire mysteries.”

“It was more of the Matriarch’s interest, I suppose. She suddenly began gathering these types of manuals. Wuji Births Taiji, Yin-Yang Births Five Elements, Eight Trigrams Births 64 Hexagrams, Heavenly Stems-Earthly Branches, Three Wonders and Six Detachments of the Nine Stars… I have tried to read through some of the books, but they are too complicated. The only thing I understood that wishing to predict the heaven’s will shall bring forth heavenly tribulation… I am sure that’s how the sect ended up destroyed.” Hearing the vitriol-filled rant from Ninebless, Heifeng Jiansui almost forgot about something that Ninebless had mistakenly revealed…

…How could a spirit that had materialised due to the sect’s destruction know the Sect’s Matriarch enough to hate her? It was possible that this was due to blaming the sect’s destruction on her, but if not…

+++

In any case, Heifeng Jiansui decided that reading the Sect Scripture Library was of higher importance than forging.

With Ninelotus accompanying him, he began reading through the entirety of the library, all the while checking through for hidden spaces and secrets. As expected, most of the books were unrelated to Divination, but Heifeng Jiansui had a nice haul anyway.

Phoenix cultivation arts, something that were hard to find even in the Ten Thousand Sword Sect’s archives, were everywhere! Heifeng Jiansui concentrated on memorizing them for the time being, after which he would read through the arts at his leisure inside his mental sanctuary.

Heifeng Jiansui realized that he was mistaken on some information he never expected to be corrected about: the types of Phoenixes. While he had he had assumed there to be only three types: Fire Phoenix, Ice Phoenix and Black Phoenix, there were three more: Gale Phoenix, Lightning Phoenix and White Phoenix.

All phoenixes held the power to manipulate fire and were able to control wind to some extent, so the existence of a Gale Phoenix was natural.

The Lightning Phoenix was a mutation formed where a phoenix cultivated in particularly powerful lightning arts and allowed it to seep into his bloodline. Even though the first such mutation was quite powerful, but he didn’t pass on his bloodline. After various experiments, it was noticed that infusing a cultivator with various lightning beast bloodlines and dominating them and fusing them with the phoenix bloodline would create a shallow bloodline to pass on. A clan was created after these experiments were perfected, allowing an actual heritage and ancestral arts to be passed down to the descendants.

The White Phoenix carried light-elemental bloodlines and were new to this era. It seemed that their primogenitor was a Divine Beast formed during the Chaosworld’s rebirth. Their descendents were more than the Black Phoenix Empire, primarily due to not having a rule where inheritors of the bloodline would battle to death before coming of age.

“So, the phoenix bloodlines are separated into Fire, Water, Darkness, Wind, Thunder and Light elements. Thus, phoenixes are not born from the Wood, Earth and Metal elements… How strange, they are half of the five elements after all. Since the sacred numeral of the Phoenix Clan is 9, I wonder what the creation of these three elemental phoenixes will mean…” Heifeng Jiansui’s mind delved into countless speculations.

All the Phoenix Clans were allied together and tied to the Five Sacred Beast Sect in minor ways as well. All the Phoenix Clans controlled a Great World by themselves while jointly ruling the Fire Supreme World. Of course, other Flame Sacred Beast bloodlines, like the Vermilion Bird, Golden Crow and the Fire Bird were permitted residence in the Fire Supreme World, but the power controlling the World were the Phoenix Races!

Unexpectedly, dragons, the beasts most associated with fire, did not occupy an inch of the Supreme World. The entirety of the race captured the Wind Supreme World for themselves.

“Despite what the book says, the majority of the Black Phoenix bloodline is located in the Fire Supreme World. After I become the Crown Prince, I will have to visit that place and meet the descendants of the Black Phoenix bloodline…” Heifeng Jiansui thought this with an anticipatory smile.

“Hey, how long are you going to stare off into space like that? We haven’t even made it the Matriarch’s room.” Ninebless couldn’t help but scowl at Heifeng Jiansui’s dazed expression.

Hearing the bell-like voice of the spirit, Heifeng Jiansui awakened from his daze. “Let me just look through all these books. After that, we will go look at the Matriarch’s collection.”

Heifeng Jiansui hurriedly scrambled towards the manuals while Ninebless looked on with an infuriarated expression.

+++

“…You actually read through all those manuals. While it took a relatively short amount of time due to that battle spirit reading technique of yours, most of what you’ve memorized is repetitive information. After such a futile endeavor, you are still going to memorize more books with a smile?”, Ninebless said this with a cold voice.

“The information I did obtain was worth it. For example, one of the few Black Phoenix arts I found, ‘Inverted Phoenix Devouring Art’… Your sect created an entire technique to capture and seize the bloodline of a Black Phoenix cultivator… Too ruthless. I will have to watch my back when you gain a fleshly body, a shameless woman like you might even make a move on a 2 year old kid.” Heifeng Jiansui made a mock shudder as the face of the spirit paled in embarrassment.

“Hiding behind a bone concealing art, pretending to be two year old… I wonder what your true age is.” Ninebless was clear that Heifeng Jiansui couldn’t be 2 year old. She thought that Heifeng Jiansui’s bone age being hidden was the side effect of a peerless mortal technique, an art that slowed the aging of his root bones, a rare art which would preserve his talent even as he aged!

Heifeng Jiansui didn’t care about Ninebless’ misconception. In reality, he had gained many harvests from the sect library. Now, as followed the spirit to the Matriarch’s private room, he thought about the divination arts.

“The divination arts focus on understanding Heaven and Earth to comprehend their wills. Thus, divination majorly focuses on the Dao of the World. To create my cultivation art, I might have to depend on the Matriarch’s collection…” Heifeng Jiansui thought about this as he followed Ninebless to the Matriarch’s residence.

The essences of the formations sealing the place were already swallowed by Ninebless. Thus, the duo encountered no obstructions on their path.

When he saw the jade pillars and the golden door, Heifeng Jiansui determined that the Matriarch was an extravagant woman. Heifeng Jiansui watched Ninebless flick her fingers in a single seal, making the door part like a saint parting the seas.

“This is actually my first time opening this door. Since I am a spirit, I usually end up ghosting through this door…” Saying this, the spirit opened up the door for Heifeng Jiansui.

The moment the door opened, Heifeng Jiansui saw a exquisitely decorated room, but his attention was captured by the aura of a small world. Without paying attention to Ninebless’ words, he immediately walked up to a safe and opened it up.

Inside were many shining treasures, but the most precious among them was an unassumingly simple seed.

“What is a World Seed doing in this sect’s possession?” Heifeng Jiansui was struck by this question as he watched the treasure that emitted an insuppressible attraction to him.