Chapter 369 — Time Passes, the Secret Art Prepares to Activate

It could not only bestow a phoenix bloodline upon a specific human, but also refine and purify the racial strength of pet beasts with phoenix bloodline. It was, so to speak, the foundation of the Phoenix Shrine; even a shrine maiden here would find it very difficult to obtain a single one.

"Surely you are not thinking of becoming a mixed-blood beast tamer yourself," Fengjue Jixiang said, looking at the sickly Shijin.

Mixed-blood beast tamers—any who survived—were stronger than ordinary beast tamers in physique, lifespan, cultivation speed, and every other respect. Looking at Shi Tan's half-dead appearance, it was not impossible that he had ideas about a mixed bloodline.

"How could I?" Shi Yan said. "Miss Jieyi has already told me the conditions for becoming a mixed-blood."

"The reason I want it is that a friend of mine has a pet beast with phoenix bloodline. I heard the phoenix fruit is a precious resource for enhancing phoenix-clan bloodline, so I thought I would get one and give it to her."

That explanation, to everyone's ears, was obviously a good deal more normal.

"Her?" Yet Fengjue Jieyi soon spotted the blind spot.

A woman?

I stake "love" on this, and you are thinking of another woman?

She had never had much emotional foundation with "Lu Bai" to begin with—it was simply admiration for the strong—but at this moment Fengjue Jieyi could not help the corner of her mouth twitching and her fist clenching, seized by the urge to give Shi Shuo a thorough beating.

Decided.

After beating Shijin, she would date him for a day, then dump him immediately and become the woman he could never have.

"Very well," Fengjue Jixiang nodded at this point and said. "Fine. If you can defeat Jieyi, then I will give you a phoenix fruit."

"Many thanks." Shi Shuo was instantly elated.

A phoenix fruit...

He wondered whether Lin, Chi Tong, and Can Baobao could use it to research a replica.

If they succeeded, he would give it to Lu Yan; if the research failed, then so be it.

"Then let us hold the match right now," Fengjue Jieyi said. "The rules: doubles. Can you accept that?"

"Doubles?"

"Yes," Fengjue Jieyi said.

Although she had contracted several pet beasts, two among them were the strongest and worked together most seamlessly. At the same time, her beast-taming gift currently maxed out at fully activating the power of two pet beasts at once, so doubles was the rule most advantageous to her.

Since she meant to beat Shijin, naturally she would choose the rule most favorable to herself.

"Fine." Shi Heng nodded.

"Is that really all right?" Zheng Hai looked at Cen Yu. Doubles... he seemed not to know anything about "Lu Bai's" other pet beasts besides the ice-element one.

Senior Ke looked at Cen Yu too, judging that Shijin probably intended to let Mu Huiyin's spirit fight...

In that "bird spirit"—or one might say "sparrow spirit"—form.

That form, though it had lost all trace of a sword spirit's characteristics, actually still possessed certain phoenix-clan traits. Was that going to be all right...?

But Fengjue Jixiang knew too that it was unrealistic.

…

Because Shi Jin was about to duel Feng Jue Jieyi, the Phoenix Shrine immediately began preparing the arena.

The site was set at the shrine's Divine Vision Domain—a battleground translated as a field of combat under the gaze of the gods, signifying absolute fairness and impartiality.

Feng Jue Jieyi was arguably the most outstanding among the shrine maidens of the Phoenix Shrine in both seniority and strength, the senior to every maiden there, and the only one whom the legendary Feng Jue had taken as a disciple.

That she was to fight an outsider in the Divine Vision Domain drew every shrine maiden to watch. This too was tradition: battles in the Divine Vision Domain required the maidens to bear witness, to watch as representatives of the gods.

"Ah... wonderful," Zheng Hai sighed within the Divine Vision Domain, gazing at the eight Phoenix shrine maidens around him. This Phoenix Shrine was a far cry better than his own Binhai Dojo.

If only the disciples at his dojo could be swapped from scrawny, ragged fisherman boys to water-dance actresses in brilliant swimsuits, hair coiled into buns and crowned with all manner of beautiful ornaments—if the dojo could transform from an aquarium into a water-performance hall—then perhaps the funding for breeding and training beast companions would be more ample...

"Senior Jieyi is about to fight..."

"I know who her opponent is—that Donghuang beast tamer who cleared the Champion's Road."

"They say Qianchuan Baishen, Master Shendai, and even the overlord of the Guanhong Mountains couldn't last a single move against him..."

"Enough whispering. The Shrine Master is present—straighten your appearance and your posture."

The maidens murmured among themselves in hushed voices, a uniform gathering of mixed-blood beast tamers bearing the phoenix bloodline, their strength ranging from apprentice level in their teens to professional and master level in their twenties.

Set off by their red-and-white shrine robes, their youthful, radiant features were rendered all the more striking—red hair, white hair, crimson eyes, orange eyes—the many varied traits of their mixed blood shining brilliantly.

At this moment, curiosity burned in every heart—not only about the Donghuang beast tamer Lu Bai, so much talked of lately, but also about the outcome of his match against Senior Jieyi.

"Let us begin."

In the Divine Vision Domain, Feng Jue Jieyi, clad in her shrine robes, regarded Shi Jin calmly and drew a deep breath. Truthfully, the pressure Shi Jin exerted on her was considerable.

If she were sent to attempt the Champion's Road, her results would not necessarily surpass Shi Jin's—she might even fall at the ninth gate, defeated by Master Shendai, that foremost man beneath the legend.

Still, she wanted to fight. She was gambling—gambling that Shi Jin was strong only in singles, and that in doubles his strength would gradually decline. Such tamers were common: specialists devoted to raising a single beast companion, or even keeping only one, were very ordinary indeed.

Take the present Legendary Valkyrie of the Seven Isles—she too had contracted but a single beast companion, and who could say she was weak? One woman and one beast could unleash power that crushed even top-tier totems, unmatched across the Seven Isles.

"Very well," Shi Jin nodded.

In the Divine Vision Domain, the Shrine Master Feng Jue Jixiang, along with the Donghuang visitors from Qixia Sect, Zheng Hai and the others, watched the duel below just as the shrine maidens did.

It should be fine...

Seeing Shi Jin's composure, and recalling his earlier record, Senior Ke and Zheng Hai nodded. Definitely fine!

Soon enough.

After a single exchanged glance, Feng Jue Jieyi summoned her beast companions outright!!

"The rules are mine to set. By tradition, I send out my beast first." Her sleeves fluttered; before her appeared a black summoning array, and above the array a dazzling red light, a surging heat, and a giant tree slowly took shape.

It was a colossal tree, twenty meters tall, that shrouded the field the moment it appeared—brown branches, green leaves, and blossoms red as flame. The fire kindled by those flowers scorched half the sky crimson, a beauty beyond words. Amid the flames a giant red bird emerged, alighting upon the tree, its whole body ablaze, phoenix feathers like fire, its shining, majestic gaze fixed upon Shi Jin.

"Leaves like the flying phoenix's plumes, blossoms like the vermilion phoenix's crest. My beast companions are the Phoenix Fire Tree and the Undying Fire Phoenix. Your turn."

Having summoned two powerful monarchs, Feng Jue Jieyi looked calmly toward Cen Yu.

"Truly beautiful."

Zheng Hai gazed at the fire-red field and the Undying Fire Phoenix perched upon the Phoenix Fire Tree, his pupils lit by the flames.