Legend of the Great Sage

kipped a beat.
Originally, he thought the Featherfolk King was trying to ascend, but he soon realised the walls of the world had not been dispersed, while the colour of the tribulation lightning was intrinsically different too.
However, in terms of scale alone, it probably matched the heavenly tribulation of ascension perfectly.
The pressure it gave off was basically overwhelming, even making him feel rather stifled in the distance.

He was still perplexed.
Just what was going on? The Featherfolk King clearly was not ascending, so why had it locked onto him? It was on such a grand scale as well, so was it… 

“Your majesty, what exactly is happening?” Bai Jie asked in surprise.

The Featherfolk King’s face reddened and paled.
He spat out a single word with difficulty, “Nirvāṇa!”

The phoenix underwent nirvāṇa rebirth, rebirthing in flames.
Reducing to ashes had always been a prelude.

Going from life to death, it involved great horrors.
Nirvāṇa was akin to being snuffed out, to silence, which was even more terrifying than regular death.
In the final moment, Li Fengyuan chose nirvāṇa, reducing all to silence, before springing up with new flames within.
This was the so-called “rebirth”.

Bai Jie obviously had not seen anything like this before.

“Nirvāṇa!” The Cloud Shadow Crane King was amazed at first, before letting out a great laughter, “I said you would be punished by the heavens.
You really do reap what you sow.
Payback is never nice!”

Actually, just how many of them present had guessed that the phoenix’s nirvāṇa rebirth had become a legend in the nine provinces a long time ago?

The primitive phoenix’s nirvāṇa rebirth was not actually an innate ability, but a capability that phoenixes were born with.

Li Qingshan’s phoenix bloodline was incomplete and it was mixed with many other bloodlines.
It was not pure enough, which was why it became an innate ability, constantly repeating and stacking on top of each other.
He had to sacrifice all other abilities to push the strength of the phoenix’s greatest ability to the limit.

Yet at this moment, as the only true phoenix in the world, he was demonstrating true nirvāṇa rebirth.

I’ve succeeded!?

The new consciousness within the flames was filled with surprise and joy.
This was the first rebirth he had undergone in his life, essentially verifying everything he knew from the phoenix’s legacy.
However, he immediately discovered his current situation to be rather strange.
He had not become a new phoenix.
Instead, he had fused with the Featherfolk King, like conjoined twins.
Neither of them could separate from the other.

This was both the result of the Featherfolk King’s efforts to devour him, as well as the special influence from the phoenix’s nirvāṇa rebirth.
However, this definitely was not a stable condition.
One of them would definitely completely devour the other.

As soon as Li Fengyuan’s consciousness awakened from silence, he immediately faced the full-strengthened suppression from the Featherfolk King.
He dared not to use any spiritual qi.
The two of them were basically a single entity.
His power was their power.
They could only clash through their soul sense.

Even with that being the case, the Featherfolk King possessed an absolute advantage.
There was absolutely no chance of failure for him when it came to both experience and strength.
Once he succeeded, he would obtain the bloodline of a phoenix and his lifespan would no longer be an issue.

The sky suddenly lit up.

Boom!

A bolt of tribulation lightning slammed against the Featherfolk King like a dragon.
He plunged several hundred meters before stabilising himself.

What might! The Cloud Shadow Crane King was secretly astounded.

“Your majesty!” The featherfolk cried out and rushed over, wanting to block it for him.

However, the bolt of lightning was like the first droplet of rain before a thunderstorm.
Lightning began to pour down furiously.

“Back away!” The Featherfolk King only managed to say that before being swallowed by the lightning.

The featherfolk were affected too.
The lightning flickered and leapt around on their bodies like chains.

They had all undergone the third heavenly tribulation already, so they did not fear strikes from the tribulation lightning at all, let alone just being affected by it, which was why they had the courage to linger around at such a close distance.
However, the might of the heavenly tribulation was beyond their imagination.
It actually numbed their bodies and was almost unendurable.

Meanwhile, their auras made the tribulation clouds swell even more.

“Well go!”

Seeing how the situation was off, she returned to Clouded city first with a streak of lightning behind her.
The lightning was obstructed by the half-transparent barrier of light.
Even the tribulation lightning only just stirred up a few ripples, demonstrating just how powerful the formation around Clouded city was.

However, her face suddenly changed drastically, “Oh no! Move the city quickly!”

The tribulation clouds had already spread over.
Shadows enveloped the white palaces and the featherfolk in the city all woke up.
They had just noticed this and had not realised what was happening yet.

Arcs of lightning rebounded and leapt around on the white barrier of light, producing ripples and growing denser and denser.

The featherfolk cultivators all realised what was happening too.
Their faces changed.

“It’ll be troublesome if it gets sucked into the heavenly tribulation!”

“But only his majesty can move Clouded city.”

“Let’s push the city away!”

They made their decision in just a few words and all flew down, pushing the city against all the lightning.

Clouded city slowly moved, leaving the vicinity of the tribulation clouds.
Bai Jie eased up.
Fortunately, they could even more a mountain if they worked together with their strength, or they really would be in trouble if Clouded city was sucked into the heavenly tribulation.

Bang!

The pure-white palaces swayed and Clouded city suddenly halted, unable to be moved any further.

“Something seems to be blocking it!”

“Damn it! It’s that old crane!”

On the other side of Clouded city, the Cloud Shadow Crane King raised his hand and stopped the city with a single arm.
His robes fluttered in the wind as vicious light flickered through his eyes.
As one of the mighty Ten Daemon Kings, how could he just let others harass him as he pleased? Since they showed him no respect, he would show them no respect and see what would happen!

“Use your full strength!” Bai Jie called out and the featherfolk pushed together.

The Cloud Shadow Crane King felt a tremendous force.
He suddenly spread his arms and turned back into his original form, a huge, red-crowned crane.
Its wings were like clouds that blotted out the sky as it planted a foot on Clouded city.
With a flap of its wings, the wind and clouds surged.