Chapter 26: Heavenly Phoenix King.

There was a muffled chatter as Haru opened his eyes. He looked around to see Li Jun talking to the dragon. Just as he thought about getting up Li Jun looked over. "You had better cultivate to regain your strength." He looked at Haru with pity.

Haru sat down and crossed his legs to cultivate. He felt the Qi in the surrounding area. It was moving slowly towards him before absorbing it. It felt like it was moving slow at first but that was when he noticed the density. The reason it was moving slowly is that the place they were had an abundance of Qi so dense that it didn't have to move towards him.

He sat for what felt like three hours before he felt comfortable enough to stand. He opened his eyes to find what looked like a thin layer of film surrounding him. He tapped it with his finger. A crack formed and spread across until it shattered into dust.

"What was that?" He thought aloud. The dragon looked over to see Haru was now standing. "Oh, The barrier? I didn't want to distract you with our talk so I put up a sound barrier around you." He explained. Haru looked around with his head throbbing. "What happened to me?" He asked.

Li Jun once again looked at Haru with pity. "Your body rejected the power of Lao's bloodline. But the good news is that your body still returned to origin. Your body is a lot stronger than it was before but you won't be able to use the power of the dragon emperor." Haru looked down at the floor. Damn it. I guess I'm not lucky enough to excel in everything.

"Wait a minute. How didn't I notice before?" The dragon's voice boomed around the area again. He began to laugh. "Li Jun we missed it completely. Tell me do you smell anything strange?" Li Jun began to sniff the air like a dog. "No. How can this be possible? Are you sure?" Li Jun shouted back to the dragon.

Haru was stood moving his head between the two of them as they exchanged words. He couldn't keep up with the conversation. "Can somebody tell me what is going on? My head still hurts." Li Jun looked at Haru with excitement. "When you ate the phoenix fruit I think they might have been contaminated with phoenix blood. During the process of trying to awaken a dragon bloodline inside you the phoenix blood awakened instead and rejected the dragon blood."

Haru looked up for a second and thought about it. "Phoenix?" A tiny ball of fire no bigger than the size of a fist flew past his head. He ducked down to avoid it. "Lao! Did you just see that!" Li Jun screamed in excitement. Haru stood up as the flame floated in front of him. He looked at the ball of fire before he saw a tiny little head within the flames with a beak poking out toward him. The flames slowly faded revealing a small white-feathered bird hovering a few inches away from his head.

"A newborn phoenix king!?" Lao shouted out! "This hasn't happened for millions of years!" He was puzzled. Li Jun looked over. "If I remember correctly the Phoenix fruit tree that these were collected from was one where a phoenix king was slain whilst trying to protect her newborn child. He did I overlook the possibility of this happening? It must have fused with his soul when his foundation was first established." He began muttering himself as he paced up and down.

"This truly is a blessing. You should now be able to withstand every type of flame. Since the original species that created fire is bound to your soul." Lao explained to Haru. "Go on try to touch it." Haru looked toward the little phoenix flying in front of him. He slowly reached out his hand. The heat felt cool. He moved his hand closer until the tips of the flames were hitting his skin. There was nothing. Not even the slightest bit of pain. The phoenix looked at him for a moment before closing its eyes and rubbing its head against his hand. It was just as Lao said, the flames didn't burn him at all.

Haru looked at the little bird in front of him. "Should I give you a name?" He tried to think of names. He couldn't come up with anything. What if I named it fire? Or what about flame? No, they are stupid. "How about Yan?" The phoenix looked into Haru's eyes. Haru felt a power-consuming him. His body started to shake and it felt like he could fly. He looked back at the phoenix that seemed to be the source of this power. It started to become translucent as a golden light emerged from its body. It seemed to be drawing every light source in the hole area towards it. A dark cloud formed in the sky above as the sound of lighting echoed out. A golden flash of lightning erupted from the cloud striking the phoenix three times. All was silent as the cloud faded away. The phoenix was still floating in the air in front of Haru. He looked back at it. Something was wrong. It began to fall slowly from the air. Haru placed his hands out catching the phoenix.

As it made contact with his hand it turned into tiny golden dust particles. Haru was left with a handful of dust. "What just happened?" He was confused. Did it just die? Li Jun and Lao were both staring at the pile of dust in Haru's hand. "Wait for it." Lao began to talk when suddenly the dust started to burn and erupted into a fiery inferno rising high into the clouds. It suddenly stopped in the air as wings began to form out of the fire. The fire began expanding at a rapid rate before exploding. The light was so bright it almost blinded the three spectators below. Haru looked away from the blinding light and covered his face with his hand.

It was too painful to look at. A few seconds went by before Li Jun began to laugh. "Not a Phoenix king! A Heavenly Phoenix king!" Haru felt something hard hit the side of his face. He moved his hand and then opened his eyes. The phoenix was in front of him again and gently pecked against his cheek.

The phoenix was definitely still alive but it had grown a lot. It was now around one meter in hight and it's fire burned brighter than ever. "Well, they do say a phoenix rises from its own ashes," Lao said to Li Jun who was stood with his mouth hanging wide open at the scene in front of him. He couldn't believe it. He had just witnessed the birth of a heavenly phoenix whose existence is on par with a divine dragon.

In all of his life, he had never seen anything so spectacular and rare. Usually, a phoenix will create its own dimension to give birth only people who break into the dimension by force have actually seen the birth of a phoenix. But a heavenly phoenix king? Their existence was only a rumor even in the upper realms until now.

Haru didn't understand the gravity of the spectacle that had happened before him. The Phoenix tilted it's head forward and began to breathe heavily. "Quick Haru! Cultivate. You have to cultivate to stabilise the foundation of the phoenix!" Lao shouted out in a hurry.

Haru wasted no time to sit down and cultivate the abundant Qi once again. After returning to origin his cultivation level had fallen to the core refining stage. Three stages behind his previous cultivation. The Qi flowed around his body slowly. The phoenix began to calm down. It's breathing returned to normal. Haru cultivated for what felt like ever until he felt a static shock in his body and the sound of electricity striking something. He had broken through the core refining stage in less than two hours. He was now at the spirit core stage. He would have to build a new spirit core that had previously taken him three months during his year trapped inside the cave pool.

He opened his eyes surprise at what had just happened. "Why did I break through so fast!?" He didn't expect it to be so fast. Lao looked at Li Jun. "Didn't you tell him if he cultivated inside his soul ocean he would be able to harness the purest form of Qi?" Li Jun shook his head "You said you wanted him to be ready before meeting him. You can't blame this on me."

"True I did say that. Anyway, I think someone is calling you." Haru was forced back out to the real world. He looked around for a few moments. It was already morning? "Haru I have some news!" Zen called from downstairs.