Swoosh! Boom!

"Gahhh!"

Min Hong bellowed in pain as the axe descended and cleaved him in two halves, the white part on one side and the green side on the other…

Then the axe dispersed into flames and surged into the green part until the left part of Min Hong's consciousness was demonic purple in color…

After surging into it, Min Hong finally stumbled his way onto the ninth stage leaving his purple colored demon soul behind, but the flames Min Hong encountered in this stage was golden in color;

It was the Empyrean Flames! Min Hong was sure this wasn't going to hurt until he heard the voice once again;

"Rebirth Trials – Soul Purging!"

Then Min Hong saw the golden flames surged into his current consciousness until it was glistening with a golden sheen…

It did hurt, but just a little bit over what he had expected, and the moment the flames completely surged into his body, Min Hong finally stepped onto the altar, but there were no flames here as opposed to the previous levels of this place, there was only the altar with a single tongue of invisible flames which Min Hong could sense to be the reason why he was here…

"Rebirth Trials – Soul Merger!"

The voice once again spoke, and just as Min Hong had anticipated, the purple demon soul behind him zoomed towards him like it was being controlled by a third part, and slammed straight into him, but being two parts with opposing nature, they did not merge…

Instead, all the flames Min Hong had passed in previous levels began to overlap over each other; from the yellow flames which flowed into the red flames which then entered the blue flames, and so on…

Then by the time these merging flames got to Min Hong's position, they had become somehow multicolored, and just like a welder welding to pieces of metal into one, this new flames merged both parts of opposing consciousness into one…

If one were to look at Min Hong's soul now, they would notice that the left side of his soul was somewhat devilified; demon purple with pitch black eyeballs that had a blood red reptilian slit in the middle…

But the right side of his soul on the other hand was golden with snow white eyes and a greenish button in the middle, and then Min Hong achieved duality of his evil and good side, as he began to feel somewhat more complete than he had ever been, his thinking had clarity rather than its previously jumbled state when his bloodline aura was leaking previously…

But what made everything worth it to Min Hong was the fact that, he could completely switch between either side without having the traits of the opposing side interfering which whichever side he chose to switch to…

For example, he could switch to his devilified part of his soul and all his thoughts, deeds and intention would be birthed from a devilish mind, and powered through the devilish part of his soul; it was more like embracing ones fear, rather than casting them away or running from them, and this trials had given Min Hong an avenue to do just that…

Currently in a good mood, Min Hong thought about all the things he had done recently and could only facepalm himself out of frustration…

He had been thinking about building enough power to be able to achieve his goals, but someone who doesn't even understand their capabilities completely can never understand how to perfectly build on what they have…

Min Hong shook his head at the fact that, he didn't even know much about himself and yet he had already made plans on how his future would be; what if his plans were actually life threatening to a part of himself he understood nothing about?

Thus, Min Hong understood that he had only three things in his agenda the moment he leaves this place;

The first was to go resolve the emotional chaos that were around him, the second being to get every information possible out of Old Man Li and Little Wu about himself and things they might know about himself that he had yet to understand; that way, he would be able to devise a more perfect plan for his future, and the third being the fact that he his cultivation and training…

Thus, the half evil, half good Min Hong walked up to the platform, and muttered;

"Clairvoyance!"

Then instantly, his right snow white eyeball was activated, and Min Hong saw the tongue of flame, and reached out with his hand to carry it, but the moment he did that, the tongue of flame came out of the other side of his arm like a pot of larva poured into a nylon sheet burning a hole into Min Hong's palm…

Min Hong was then wondering how he was going to go through with this, thus he simply laid on the altar with the tongue of flame burning through his chest area, as Min Hong's entire conscious burst into flames…

"Aarrrgghhh!"

Min Hong nearly screamed his lungs out from the intense pain he felt from being scorched to ashes…

As Min Hong continued to burn, he gazed at the flames n his chest area and muttered to himself in a trance;

"In order to rise / from its own ashes / A phoenix / First / Must / Burn…"

"Here in this suffering, all previous beliefs are called into question..."

"They are consumed in the fire sparked and fueled by our own illusion..."

"The pain becomes the ashes we are now entombed in…"

"It is only when we find ourselves at this most imprisoned of junctures that we emerge again, the phoenix of our very life which is ever so much more encompassing than the last one."

Min Hong began to subconsciously chant several mantra-like incantations as his body completely turned to ashes, but his intent still echoed out;

"I've died a thousand deaths, each time reinventing myself brighter, stronger, and purer than before…"

"From the midst of destruction, I became the creator of myself..."

"From the midst of darkness, I became my own source of light..."

"And when all that was left is left of me is ashes, I would once again clothe myself in flames..."

"Rising from the dust of my past to rekindle the spark of my future. I am a Phoenix, my own salvation; rebirthed, renewed, resurrected…"

"I am the embodiment of Rebirth!"

Boom!

The moment Min Hong's finished, a whirlpool with insane suction force spun to lie at the center of this tongue of flame, as it began to guzzle all the ashes around it, including the multicolored flames which had just welded Min Hong's separate souls together…

Then the tongue of flame began to morph into a tiny humanoid form at first, which then gradually began to expand in size with everything it devoured…

This new soul was invisible, invincible, and indestructible…

Then after about half a day, a new invisible soul [Min Hong] was born, from the very flames and ashes of his own death, reborn to never die the same way again…

Min Hong gave a grin and understood the divine ability he had obtained from comprehending this flame law; Rebirth!

One of the most powerful techniques that has ever been created…

"Rebirth Trials – Passed!"

The voice once again spoke as the dimension shattered like mirror, and Min Hong's eyes snapped open within the sarcophagus blasting the cover into smithereens, with an explosion that not only drew the attention of Little Ming who was guarding the mountain entrance, but even the Sect Leader and Fifth who were currently tending to all their disciples who were currently in pain due to the unexpected and unprecedented surge in their bloodlines…

The Sect Leader gazed in the direction of where the explosion was coming from and he vanished on the spot, as the space around his previous spot rippled…

The space in front of Little Ming rippled on one side, but ruptured on the other as she stood up and all the scales on her body began to light up…

She was ready to fire first and ask questions later, but when she saw the robes of the two experts who came out of these spatial phenomenon, she held the flames in her mouth which was now five times more powerful than it was before she came here, but she kept the flames in her mouth not firing but not sheathing it either…

Her master had given her a single instruction; 'He was not to be disturbed', and irrespective of the explosion, she wasn't going to allow anything to enter this mountain…

"Let us pass, we need to see what is happening in there…" Fifth was the first to speak, but Little Ming simply replied;

"Master is cultivating and he is not to be disturbed!"

"What if the explosion is a sign that something had gone wrong..."

"Remember, this is a breakthrough into the Spirit Realm from the Mortal Realm, and it is not like breaking through from the Qi Sea stage into the Dan Formation stage…"

The Sect Leader tried to reason and truly he was just trying to check if Min Hong was safe, but Little Ming knew he was…

Though she couldn't sense Min Hong himself because for some reason his soul seemed not to exist anymore, but the connection between their souls still existed, and since it had not been severed, it was an assurance to her that her master was still alive, so she simply replied;

"He is fine…"

The Sect Leader and Fifth had no choice to back down because they understood fully well that any further action at this point would be perceived as a threat against her master by Little Ming, thus they opted to wait…

Meanwhile, Min Hong who had just returned from comprehending an Essence Level Flame Law, sat cross-legged within the sarcophagus and began to contemplate many things, with one of them being his safety…