# Chapter 1357: "Nirvana"
Feng Xian'er's slender arms wrapped around Yun Che's waist, carrying him as she floated through the air, bypassing all the eyes of her clansmen, flying toward the Phoenix Trial Ground.
Almost all of Yun Che's weight pressed down on Feng Xian'er. A mountain breeze blew past—not a strong wind, yet it caused Yun Che to suffer an unbearable suffocation. Feng Xian'er immediately noticed and quickly slowed down their already very slow flight speed even further.
*How could I have become... so weak...* Yun Che thought bitterly in his heart.
*But, this must only be temporary.*
The surviving Phoenix clan only had about two hundred people. The strongest in cultivation were Feng Zu'er and Feng Xian'er. She brought Yun Che secretly to the Phoenix God's Domain without being detected by anyone.
Feng Xian'er helped Yun Che land before a tall mountain wall. Ahead was the sealing array that Yun Che remembered.
"Benefactor brother, we've arrived."
Feng Xian'er extended her finger and touched the sealing array. A spark of crimson flame flashed, and the sealing array disappeared, revealing before them a vast crimson-black space with no end in sight.
Supporting Yun Che, Feng Xian'er led him forward. As they stepped inside, the world around them instantly transformed. All light vanished completely, replaced by darkness.
Feng Xian'er knelt down and prayed devoutly toward the front: "Feng Xian'er, descendant of the Phoenix, seeks an audience with Lord Phoenix God."
The moment she finished speaking, two narrow crimson beams of light suddenly appeared in the pitch-black world. Then these two narrow crimson lights slowly opened, transforming into a pair of Phoenix eyes embedded in this world.
Back then, when Yun Che first arrived here, the Phoenix eyes he faced were a dazzling and sacred gold.
But now, they were crimson... and clearly dimmed.
"Yun Che, it's been a long time."
This was the voice of the Phoenix Soul Spirit, still majestic and piercing to the heart. But compared to what Yun Che remembered, there was a noticeable difference... it seemed somewhat weak and aged. These were not things Yun Che cared about. He stared directly at the Phoenix's crimson eyes: "Yes, it's been a long time."
"Xian'er, you may withdraw first."
"Yes." Feng Xian'er acknowledged. She released a gentle Profound Force, condensing it into a ball of lingering airflow that softly supported Yun Che's body before she left nervously.
"Yun Che," the Phoenix Soul Spirit's tone changed somewhat after Feng Xian'er left. "Before the Phoenix Soul Spirit in the Burial God Fire Prison of the Flame God Realm dissipated, it conveyed all its soul memories to me, including much information about you."
"Knowing that you obtained a further inheritance of the Phoenix's power and cultivated the complete 'Phoenix Ode Scripture,' I am most gratified... I never expected that in just over a year, your fate would suffer such a tragic reversal." The Phoenix Soul Spirit sighed. "Perhaps this is heaven's jealousy."
As fragments of the same Phoenix's residual soul, the spirits could share memories with each other. Yun Che had long known this and was not surprised at all. He steadied his faint and barely existent aura and asked, "Phoenix Soul Spirit, Clan Chief Feng said it was you who sent me back here. What exactly happened? Why... did I not die? And appear here? I clearly..."
In his memory, his body and soul had perished, with no chance of survival.
"No," the Phoenix Soul Spirit answered slowly. "Your memory and understanding are not wrong. You did indeed die... although I don't know how you died."
"...?" Yun Che was stunned.
"The you right now is the you who was reborn after death."
"Reborn... after death?" The Phoenix Soul Spirit's words left Yun Che even more bewildered.
Undoubtedly, anyone hearing these words would be bewildered. Death is death. So-called resurrection after death has always existed only in fantasy, a miracle that was never possible. Even the gods and demons destroyed in the ancient god era had no power to revive, let alone the mortals of today.
But if there ever truly existed resurrection after death in this world, perhaps it had only appeared on Yun Che.
"Could it be... the Lunhui Jing again?" he muttered in a daze.
On the day of his wedding with Xia Qingyue at the Xiao Sect in Liuyun City, he was poisoned to death by Xiao Yulong, only to be reborn in the Cangyun Continent due to the Lunhui Jing. Later, he jumped off Jueyun Cliff in the Cangyun Continent and perished, only to return to his current life again because of the Lunhui Jing.
"No," the Phoenix Soul Spirit gave him a negative answer. "Although I do not know why the Lunhui Jing triggered its Reincarnation Force on you, each time the Lunhui Jing's Reincarnation Force is triggered, it falls silent for twenty years."
"...?" The Lunhui Jing's power falls silent for twenty years each time it is triggered. Mo Li had clearly told him the same thing.
The Phoenix Soul Spirit had read Yun Che's memories, so it naturally knew of the Lunhui Jing on him. "And it has only been thirteen years since it last took you through reincarnation. Moreover, the Lunhui Jing's power is 'crossing reincarnation,' not resurrection."
"Then what is it?" Yun Che was even more confused.
"Do you still remember back then, after you completed the inheritance of the Phoenix's divine power, before I sent you away, I said I would give you a special gift?"
"I... remember." Yun Che nodded. This matter, he indeed remembered very clearly, because it carried a heavy sense of mystery. Although Yun Che never knew what that "special gift" was, he never forgot it.
...
...
"Your time in this trial ground is nearing its end. It's time for me to send you out. But before that, perhaps I should give you a special gift."
Back then, after the Phoenix Soul Spirit's voice fell, a beam of golden flame shot down from the Phoenix's divine eyes and landed on his forehead. He clearly remembered that at that moment, the crimson Phoenix mark on his forehead turned into a dazzling gold under that light, like a cluster of blazing golden flames.
"This is a special power I can only use once in my lifetime, but I think I will never have the day to use it. And you, bearing the power of the Evil God, your future is destined to be extraordinary. Bestowing this power upon you will be most fitting. As for what kind of power this is, when you use it, you will naturally know."
...
...
And this special and mysterious "gift"—not only did the Phoenix Soul Spirit not clarify, but Mo Li also clearly knew what it was, yet she never told him. When he obtained the Dragon God's inheritance, the residual soul of the Primordial Azure Dragon also mentioned it. In the Jinwu Thunder Flame Valley of the Illusory Demon Realm, the Jinwu Soul Spirit also emphasized this point and, in a spirit of "comparison," likewise gave him a great gift.
The Phoenix Soul Spirit, Mo Li, the Primordial Azure Dragon, the Jinwu Soul Spirit... they all knew what this "gift" was, yet they unanimously refused to tell him, and all said similar words: "If you ever need to use it, you will naturally know."
And Mo Li had once said a rather meaningful sentence: "You'd better pray that you never have to use it."
"Phoenix... Nirvana!"
In the dark space, the Phoenix's crimson eyes flickered slightly, giving Yun Che the answer.
These four words made Yun Che's eyes move sharply, and he blurted out: "Phoenix Nirvana!?"
These were four words that Yun Che was not unfamiliar with, or rather, no one would be unfamiliar with them.
Whether in the lower realms or the divine realms, there were many ancient legends about the ancient gods or divine beasts. Some might be true, some fictional, with most belonging to the latter. After all, the era of the true gods had long ended, leaving behind extremely few true records. Especially in the lower realms, such tales were mostly fabrications.
And in the myths about the Phoenix, it was said that it could be reborn from fire after death, and this miracle was called Phoenix Nirvana.
This was a mythical legend Yun Che had heard as a child in this life.
Later, on the day Mo Li left, he was ambushed by the Heavenly Poison Star God Yu Luo. Under the power of Heavenly Poison, he was surely doomed to die, but miraculously survived... The one who saved him was Feng Xue'er's Nirvana Flame.
It was also then that he, who had possessed the Phoenix's divine power for many years, learned that among the Phoenix's divine flames, there was also a flame called the "Nirvana Flame," which could only be burned once in a lifetime.
But at that time, his understanding of the "Nirvana Flame" was that it was a flame with extremely strong purifying power. Feng Xue'er's profound force had not yet reached the divine path, yet she could use this one-time Nirvana Flame to purify the Heavenly Poison divine power within him. One could imagine how powerful its purifying ability was.
He had never thought...
"Could it be... that the legend of the Phoenix's nirvana rebirth is true?" Yun Che's face was full of disbelief, feeling as if he had fallen into an unreal mythological illusion.
But, the fact that he was still alive... alive after being shattered to pieces—clearly proved that all this was real.
"In the ancient era, the Evil God had great kindness toward the Phoenix clan. And you bear the only Evil God inheritance in the world. Back then, you were too weak. I feared that you might die, causing the Evil God's power to have no successor, so I bestowed upon you the only wisp of Nirvana Divine Flame I had. So that if you ever encountered disaster, you could be reborn from fire."
Yun Che: "..."
"The reason I did not tell you was that I worried that once you knew, your subconscious might lack a bit of reverence for death." The Phoenix Soul Spirit sighed. "When I learned of your achievements in the divine realm, I prayed that you would never have the moment to burn the Nirvana Flame. But I never expected that this day would still come, and so soon."
"The root of the Nirvana Divine Flame on you is here, thus allowing you to be reborn in this place under the burning Nirvana Fire."
"..." Yun Che remained silent for a long time. He needed enough time to understand and accept this utterly unreal series of events.
The Nirvana Fire that could allow the Phoenix to be reborn from fire—that mythical legend once thought to be fabricated—was actually true!
Thirteen years ago, when he, at sixteen, obtained the Phoenix's divine power here, because he bore the Evil God's power, he received the Phoenix Soul Spirit's most precious Nirvana Fire.
That meant, from that moment on, he possessed a second life.
He had been shattered to pieces in the Star God Realm. At that time, he was indeed dead, but at the moment of death, he ignited the Nirvana Fire he had never known existed, thus being reborn here.
And back then, the one who saved him from Yu Luo's Heavenly Poison divine power was not only Feng Xue'er's Nirvana Flame but also her second life!
"However..." the Phoenix Soul Spirit's voice sank at this point. Although the truth was extremely cruel to Yun Che, it was something it had to state clearly and Yun Che had to accept: "I am only a residual soul fragment of the Phoenix, not a true Phoenix. The 'Nirvana Fire' I bestowed upon you is far from comparable to that of the True Phoenix God, and does not even deserve to be called 'Nirvana Fire.'"
"True Nirvana Divine Flame allows the Phoenix to be reborn from fire while its divine power becomes even greater than before. But the Nirvana Fire you burned after death—it did indeed allow you to be reborn after death, but what it rebirthed was only your life."
"..." Yun Che used all his strength to raise his head extremely slowly: "What... do you mean?"
"You should have noticed it too." The Phoenix Soul Spirit said bluntly. "Your current body is no longer a divine body tempered by divine blood and divine power, but merely the weakest of mortal bodies."
"Nor can you use any profound force. Your spiritual sense, your soul—all have returned to ordinariness, even... weaker than ordinary."
Facing Yun Che's gradually constricting pupils, the Phoenix Soul Spirit's cruel words did not stop: "In other words, what was rebirthed under your Nirvana Fire is only your life. But your divine power, divine body, divine soul, divine consciousness... all have died."