The energies of Light and Darkness and Yin-Yang seemed to gather around the Black Phoenix’s figure signifying that he would have to breakthrough soon. But before that, Heifeng Jiansui still had the duty of giving pointers to his disciples.

As the Black Phoenix, Heifeng Jiansui descended to the earth. Flying to perch upon a golden branch of the Five Colored Tree, Heifeng Jiansui glanced at his twin disciples.

“Fu Li, that Cherry Blossom Starset was masterful. While it only seems like a beautiful scene of countless Dao coming together as one, the pursuit of beauty grants it the aura of the Heavens. You used the Dao you comprehended from the Heavens, the fateful gifts of Heaven to you and desired to honor their beauty to form a sealing technique that even the Heavens acknowledged, granting it a hint of the Will of the Heavens! That Starset had a hint of the principle of ‘Square Heavens’ and could even incite tribulation lightning upon the ones who opposed it!” Hearing Heifeng Jiansui’s words, Fu Li was filled with enlightenment. Despite being the creator of the technique, she hadn’t understood the entirety of its profundities either.

“Fu Li and Fu Ying. Both of you are named after cherry and plum blossoms, are like Yin and Yang and cultivate Earth and Wood among the Five Phases. Your Sword Dao originates from my Quintessence Sword Dao and ends with the Clear Jade Sword Dao. I simply saved you in the beginning of the past era, but I never expected you to have such potential…” At Heifeng Jiansui’s praise, the two preened up.

“However, potential that isn’t transformed to strength is useless. As Sword Cultivators, our biggest strength is the ability to have battle power surpassing our insights into the Grand Dao, yet you two couldn’t even transform the entirety of your insights into battle power! While it is excusable considering you two being sheltered and your breakthrough being recent, it is certainly nothing to be proud of!” At their master’s righteous scolding, their flower-like faces wilted.

“As cultivators specializing in the Wood and Earth Dao, you have a clear weakness to Fire. Moreover, you have never battled an Immortal King level cultivator. Now, I will call upon the might of an Immortal King level Black Phoenix with my little comprehension of the Heavenly Fate lineage. With that, you two can attain understanding of Immortal King level battles!” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui finally allowed the will of the Black Phoenix to return and begin the breakthrough of the Third Dao of Dark-Light!

The world seemed to flicker between darkness and light for a moment, before limitless energy gathered into Heifeng Jiansui’s body and entered his bloodline. The power of Dark-Light was like Yin and Yang, similar to Ice-Fire and Wind-Thunder. But a Black Phoenix was a beast of Darkness and Fire, and this breakthrough would be a complete transformation from the outer body to the innate origin!

The black fire passively emitted by the Black Phoenix alternated between lightening and darkening. From outside to inside, the Black Phoenix true body was being destroyed and recreated. It was a process of tremendous pain, but Heifeng Jiansui was exceptional and impervious to it. As for the Black Phoenix, it was only a will that had awakened by fate and so it did not care about pain.

Finally, the transformation completed and Heifeng Jiansui achieved the third level of Black Phoenix Nine Dao, Dark-Light. The next step was to consolidate the Three Dao into One Principle, to fuse the Three Great Dao of Ice-Fire, Wind-Thunder and Dark-Light into the Principle of Yin-Yang that far surpassed them!

This would generally require a ridiculously high amount of energy, but within an Immortal King’s Immortal Dominion, this was a resource that was only abundant. All the energy surrounding Heifeng Jiansui seemed to madly enter his body, flowing through and nourishing his body and finally entering his heart. However, there was a strange force within it that expelled nearly 99% of the energy while only gathering the purest of the myriad energies!

Heifeng Jiansui’s heart was nurtured by a Chaoseed which ended up being used to cast the Sword Body for Nineprime. Forgetting about how his heart had already gained a picky taste in terms of purity of qi, within the core there was the sharp Quintessence Sword Qi that could not tolerate all but the purest Nine-Prime Origin Qi!

“Ancestral Will, at this rate of energy gathering, I won’t be able to breakthrough for a thousand years!” Heifeng Jiansui urged the will of the Black Phoenix to increase the energy gathering speed.

“Caw! Caww!!” As expected, the Black Phoenix will was only happy to obey. The amount of energy being gathered rose quickly, until the point that the energy gathered in a breath was enough for an Immortal King level attack! Normally reaching this level of energy circulation in a mortal body would have left Heifeng Jiansui with his guts splattered in a energy particle explosion, but since the Black Phoenix will was controlling him it was impossible for such a tragedy to occur!

“Ancestral Will, I know that I you can only appear for 9 days and nights. My two students have recently entered the Immortal King Realm and are without battle experience, kindly…” Understanding Heifeng Jiansui’s request, the Black Phoenix will flew up from its roost on the Five Color Tree that was the Immortal Dominion’s core and swooped towards the twins!

+++

The pair of Fu Ying and Fu Li battled together, attacking and defending against the furious claws blasting black fire. Every claw had a black flame that was refined from the purest of the Nine Origin elements. Facing this one claw that could tear apart all laws and shatter all Dao, all of the twin’s profound sword techniques and cultivation arts were insufficient.

“Cherry Blossom Starset!” With a single seal, thousands of cherry blossoms flew and hundreds of Dao fused to form a seal behind the Black Phoenix. Like the Heaven falling, it ruthlessly struck down the Black Phoenix.

“Plum Blossom Sword Rain!” At this command by Fu Ying, countless plum blossoms gathered to form a sharp sword of peerless Wood Supreme Dao. Under her command, the sharp sword rose to cleave the Black Phoenix.

The two layered attack was only enough to fling away the Black Phoenix. The errant scratches and torn feathers recovered quickly, and the Black Phoenix flew to claw them once more. Even if their attack prowess was mighty enough to cleave through the beast, it would still have recovered in a blink. It was a phoenix after all.

Heifeng Jiansui calmly spectated the battle. Nine days had passed and it was the final hour before the Ancestral Will would fade away. As expected, the Three Dao were opened and the Yin-Yang Principle was completed.

While he had simply tested their laws, the Black Phoenix had refined their combat prowess. The twins’ battle efficiency was quite far away from a Sword Immortal’s level, yet they could enter it soon. Their insights had been fully transformed into sword technique.

After a few more exchanges, the Immortal King aura emitting from the Black Phoenix gradually lowered until it completely disappeared, the will of the Black Phoenix returning back to whence it came. Heifeng Jiansui stopped using the three Black Phoenix techniques and returned to his human form.

“The stars aligned and your will was summoned here, if fate allows we shall meet again…” Whispering this, Heifeng thought about the true Black Phoenix Ancestor. A lofty Chaos Sovereign, if their meeting occurred, it would be far into the future…

“You two. How did it feel to battle a Black Phoenix with Immortal King level battle prowess?” Heifeng Jiansui asked his two disciples.

“Exhilarating. Even though our insights into the Dao were far surpassing it, we were always beaten by it.”

“In the end, we could only maintain a tense stand-off…” The twins answer was expected.

“That is only to be expected. You two only cultivated until you reached this realm. Even in spars, your only partners would be each other and Shui Yan, right? Currently, you cannot even call yourselves Sword Immortals…” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui sighed. “That Black Phoenix was only a sentient will, like an animal that has no intelligence. It only clawed, pecked, flew and attacked with the elements. Still you ended up beaten black and blue. No Immortal King you would face would be on this level. The Black Phoenix can only be compared to a zombie refined by a Perennial King or so.”

“Both of you are really quite young and talented. You now know the Sword Immortal path and the vast journey to it awaits. Sword Immortal… As my disciples, I expect you to achieve my level and perhaps even surpass me.” With these words of well wishes, Heifeng Jiansui ended the spar.

Walking up to Langyu who faithfully held Nineprime for nine days and nights, he took back his sword. Pressing the hilt upon his chest, the sword disappeared within his body.

Facing Langyu who watched the sight with fascination, he asked her, “Had any insights while watching?”

“Immortal Kings are quite powerful. Watching the spar and comparing my current strength to it, I couldn’t glean anything. It is simply…” Langyu said this, and Heifeng Jiansui understood. Praising her for her will for standing for nine days watching the battle, he granted her a pill for her hunger.

He knew his disciples more than the day they met, but there was still a degree of separation. They were quite talented, but it was a pipe dream for them to reach a fourth of his level, forgetting about matching him.

At the level of a half-step Perennial Lord, he slaughtered 5 Immortal Kings. All of them far surpassed the twins, and they had a perfect Five-Phase formation over it. And still… they all fell to his sword.