Chapter 2074: The True Phoenix Child of the Zhu Que Star Region

Zhu Que Star Region · Phoenix Heaven's Nest.

This is the center of the Zhu Que Star Region. In recent years, with the birth of the True Phoenix Child, it has quietly become the center of the four nearby star regions as well — the ancestral land of the Phoenix race.

On the site where the Zhu Que Sacred Ground once stood, a bird's nest has been built from logs of ninth-tier Heaven-Phoenix Trees, layer upon layer of forbidding restrictions, and streaks of inextinguishable flame burning within — truly a marvel of craft surpassing nature. It is the supreme inheritance of an immortal race; to this day, no living being outside the Phoenix has ever deciphered the construction techniques of the Phoenix Nest.

Here, pure-blooded Phoenixes make their home — the weakest among them already at the level of a Void-Tempering Fourth-Step Dao Child, destined in time to become a Seven-Calamity Supreme. Their bloodlines naturally contain the extreme of some branch of flame law, and they are born to become Supremes — enough to make anyone green with envy.

A Void-Tempering Fourth-Step Dao Child, even among the Endless Starry Sky Hegemon Human Race, counts as an adult cultivator in the broadest sense, holding full rights to govern and participate in the affairs of the entire race.

The Phoenix race's one and only weakness is that their numbers are far too few.

Pure-blooded Phoenixes are born as Void-Tempering Fourth-Step Dao Children, destined to become Supremes; there are no weaker pure-blooded Phoenixes — the weakest is already this.

It really is enough to make one jealous and envious.

The only small consolation is that these pure-blooded Phoenixes number only in the dozens — compared to the Endless Starry Sky Hegemon Human Race, their numbers are not even a billionth of a billionth.

If dragged into a war of attrition and stalemate, the Phoenix race would quickly be worn down, hard to replenish, and face the crisis of racial extinction.

However, this does not mean the Phoenix race still has such a weakness today.

In history, the sages of the Phoenix race, to solve this problem, greatly developed vassal races — even going so far as to have pure-blooded Phoenixes, in their supreme dignity, marry into the hundred fowl and birds of the world, giving rise to a great host of immortal birds bearing Phoenix bloodlines — quasi-immortal-bird races. These races are naturally suppressed when facing pure-blooded Phoenixes, and can usually only bring out fifty or sixty percent of their full strength.

Layered on top with cultural hegemony, military hegemony, and immortal-path technological hegemony, the Phoenix race successfully wrote its own authority into the inherited memories of every bird race under heaven, becoming by birthright the sovereign of all bird-kind, thereby gaining a vast host of loyal vassal armies and subject races. The weakness of fearing a war of attrition against the other Endless Starry Sky Hegemon races was thus made good.

This is the immortal race that has inherited from the Endless Starry Sky Hegemon of today, and has been passed down to the present.

In virtually every aspect there is no shortcoming whatsoever; trying to defeat it by cleverness is almost impossible.

On this day, at the highest summit of the Phoenix Heaven's Nest — the most honored place, where countless inextinguishable Heaven Flames burned — a woman of matchless beauty opened her eyes, a faint unease stirring in her heart.

The unease flashed and vanished, like an illusion.

Yet no high-ranking cultivator would think so — least of all a True Immortal Maiden standing at the very pinnacle of the Endless Starry Sky.

"Racial fortune… a warning?"

The True Phoenix Child mur-

-mured to herself.

She carefully felt the emotions of this moment, sensed the fortune of fate, paying special attention to the Phoenix Heaven's Dao and the Phoenix race's fortune, and only afterward to the demon race's fortune and the demon race's Heaven's Dao.

The former was more reliable; the latter was sometimes reliable.

The two sometimes conflicted — there were even occasions when the demon race's fortune fell while the Phoenix race's fortune rose swiftly — so one could not generalize.

"The demon race's fortune has suffered a loss, and our own race's fortune has suffered a loss as well."

"Something must have happened recently — something of tremendous consequence."

The True Phoenix Child said calmly.

Many things were not hard to guess.

Nowadays, only a True Immortal Maiden could affect the racial fortune — something involving a True Immortal Maiden must have happened, and it was something unfavorable to the demon race and the Phoenix race alike.

The True Phoenix Child sank into thought, but found no answer.

The Endless Starry Sky was far too vast, the unknowns far too many. She was only a young True Immortal Maiden, with too many helplessnesses, facing too many unknowns.

"Lii!"

From afar, accompanied by a terrifying scorching aura, a Phoenix Supreme of boundless might descended from the distance — the dreadful authority of law seeming as if it would burn heaven and earth to ash, leaving only dregs behind.

This was an Eight-Calamity Supreme!

Just like the Human Race's Supreme Elder Great Sun Sword Immortal Maiden, the True Phoenix Child now also faced the threat of Eight-Calamity Supremes. Many Eight-Calamity Supremes hungered to devour a Phoenix True Immortal Maiden to advance their bloodlines, and so she dared not act freely.

However, this Phoenix was different.

This Phoenix was her mother.

The strongest being of the Phoenix race, an Eight-Calamity Supreme, one of the mightiest beings of the five great star regions including Zhu Que — the Phoenix race's Heaven-Burning Supreme!

"Phoenix-child, what has happened?"

The Heaven-Burning Supreme descended here, smoothing her flame-like feathers, and asked in a gentle voice.

True Immortal Maidens possessed a transcendent essence; their divine souls were often sharper, and even while still weak, they could frequently sense and see more.

"Mother, the racial fortune has given a warning…"

The True Phoenix Child gave a general account of what had befallen her.

Elders had lived through far longer years, generally knew more, were seasoned in experience, and their judgments were often more accurate — not to be taken lightly.

"Three possibilities."

The Heaven-Burning Supreme's voice was pleasant and melodious.

"First, divine courts such as the Gonggong Divine Court and the Qingluan race, which possess Eight-Calamity Supremes, have turned hostile toward us — unwilling in their hearts, perhaps entertaining the thought of staking everything on one desperate throw."

Divine-path forces like the Gonggong Divine Court had been sworn blood-ally brothers with many immortal races during the final collapse of the Myriad Law Immortal Dynasty, forging deep friendship and fighting shoulder to shoulder for a long time. It was precisely by joining hands that they had conquered these five Zhu Que regions — a bond that could not be called anything but solid.

Yet as time wore on, and with them long stationed in neighboring star regions, conflict became unavoidable; the friendship of the past had long since vanished.

The Qingluan race, meanwhile, was a powerful clan that had risen over the past several million years. Resentful of the Phoenix race's innate position as sovereign of all fowl, in recent years it seemed bent on altering its racial inherited memory to offset its natural disadvantage when facing the Phoenix race, striving toward becoming a true immortal race.

Other forces each had their own ideas as well — it was not as though they were born loyal to the Phoenix.

"Second, an anomaly has been born among the demon race, one with the potential to become a True Immortal Maiden."

The demon race — this was an enormously broad collective term; nearly every race could be called part of the demon race. The human race, in its days of weakness long ago, had been a member of the demon race — the scope was simply too vast.

Within such a scope, anomalies were indeed born exceedingly rarely, but beneath a base number approaching infinity, a True Immortal Maiden might well appear.

"Third, naturally, it is those damned humans."

The Heaven-Burning Supreme said calmly: "The afterglow of the Myriad Law Immortal Dynasty has not yet fully faded. Nowadays the human race's Heaven's Dao and the human race's fortune are nearly on par with the fortune of Heaven's Dao itself — it would be no surprise if something unexpected befell them."

"Mother speaks truly."

The True Phoenix Child sighed in admiration.

The elders truly saw farther, and more comprehensively.

"Then should we accelerate the annexation of the other star regions?"

True Phoenix Son asked.

The powerful beings of the various star domains had all pledged loyalty to her, but this was only in form; taxes were paid up, yet the true foundations had not been handed over, and enormous dangers still remained.

"No,"

"The more dangerous it is, the more we must instead meet it with composure."

Burning Heaven Supreme said steadily: "Today, the Phoenix clan's supreme position comes from tradition. If we act too aggressively and provoke a siege by the surrounding powerful forces, there will be the risk of death and the clan's annihilation. Even if in the end you can escape, the period of growth will be greatly extended, and you will fall behind the other True Immortal Children."

"Everything must be waited for patiently. Wait."

"Wait until you ascend to Supreme. Then you can sweep clean the entire starry sky, bringing all these numerous star domains under your rule. Whether it be the star domains and great thousand worlds already known today, or the scattered great thousand worlds separated by immense distances, such as the Meteor Realm and others — among these distantly separated great thousand worlds there must surely be remnants of the human race's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong."

"Once you ascend to Supreme, you can lead the many powerful beings of the five great star domains, and with the grand momentum of Taishan, sweep across the world!"