Spirit Vessel

The lake was a boundless expanse of blue water. The surroundings were covered with vegetation and foliage. Some trees have been around for several tens of thousand years. Their barks looked like dragon scales. Each leaf contained spirituality.

Once Feiyun got to the lakeside, he felt a massive aura as if there was a god capable of devouring the world at the bottom.

The mud along the river was frozen with snowflakes. There were some traces of blood seeping out.

'There's something off about this place, I need to leave as fast as possible.' Feiyun had high awareness and sensed something dangerous.

He took out a leather bag made from rhino skin and walked towards the lake. His footsteps touched the ice and issued some cracking noises.

"Whoosh!" Suddenly, a wave dozens of meters high suddenly rushed for the shore with an oppressive momentum.

"What is this?" Feiyun hurriedly used his Swift Samsara to escape. However, the wave increased in speed and didn't slow down despite being onshore.

It turned into a massive, shiny palm seal.

"Boom! Boom!" The trees and rocks touched by this water seal instantly turned into powder.

"Kun Peng Talisman!" Feiyun attached this talisman to his thigh and increased his speed by threefold.

He then sent out a fire talisman behind him.

"Boom!" It exploded and sent out a fiery star.

In another area, this could incinerate ten thousand miles of land. However, due to the meteoric stones, it didn't have the same destructiveness.

Nonetheless, it was still powerful enough to refine the ground. Unfortunately, just not enough to stop the palm seal.

The latter continued moving towards Feiyun's head.

"Turtle, where's your shell?"

A white ray flew out of Feiyun's chest and turned into a shell on his back. His body was covered by a white glow.

"Die!" Feiyun turned his weapon essence into a spear.

His thrust caused the space nearby to tremble, able to pierce through the water palm.

"Boom!" Nonetheless, its power pressed down on him like nine stars. This was above his station and he would have been torn to pieces without the turtle shell.

'Too strong! I can't stop this!' The water touched his skin and a destructive force entered his body, aiming for his brains. The cold energy there could freeze the soul.

Feiyun felt his flesh beginning to freeze.

'Nirvana Pill!' He used all of his remaining strength to eat this pill before being turned into an ice sculpture.

The palm pushed the sculpture all the way into the ground. A radius of several thousand meters has been completely frozen. The layer of ice was a meter thick. The palm seal then returned to the lake and became water again.

***

More than thirty meters underground beneath the ice layer.

Feiyun's blood was frozen by this point but his mind was still fine due to the phoenix soul in there.

However, his body was essentially dead. Without a successful rebirth, he would die once his soul scatters.

"There's something monstrous in that lake, just one cold energy nearly destroyed me." He thought.

He focused on connecting with the laws of life and death in order to obtain rebirth.

He didn't expect to experience the second rebirth so quickly. He made zero preparations for this. Just one error and it could be over.

Nirvana was extremely dangerous. Most didn't want to experience the rebirth process since they could die from it.

Thus, the majority would linger in this realm. They would immediately try for Heaven's Emergence after four rebirths in order to be safe.

There have been plenty of supreme geniuses in history. Some were comparable to saints when they were young. Unfortunately, this process of rebirth has taken down plenty of them.

Thus, all cultivators assumed the best state with ample preparation before trying.

Unfortunately, Feiyun finished the first process recently and hasn't consolidated his cultivation fully. He didn't prepare enough either.

Though he understood this process and its laws, he still wasn't confident.

His soul was finally being affected and his thoughts slowed down, on the verge of stagnating.

'I can't die yet! I still need to ask Shui Yueting why she killed me! Who is my mother! Hongyan died because of me… Dongfang Jingyue, it's not that I hate you, I'm just afraid that you might be Shui Yueting… Long Luofu is pregnant with my child… How can I die before I see the kid?! I can't!'

'I won't die! The world owes me an answer and I still owe certain people!' An azure vessel suddenly rode the chaotic waves and gales in his ocean of energy within the dantian.

Feiyun's unwillingness and unyielding desire caused his dantian to be chaotic.

The white ashes of saints on the deck were blown off due to the turbulence and fell onto the ocean.

Each speck of dust was immensely heavy. They started affecting his dantian before spreading to the rest of his body.

The twelve phoenix bones lit up and became ablaze. They melted the ice around him and expelled the internal coldness.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Ice continued to shatter before melting completely.

He looked like a fireball by this point as he flew up into the air, disappearing into the horizon.

He flew for more than a thousand miles before the fire dispersed.

He took a deep breath and felt power brimming within. He unleashed a palm strike towards a peak ahead. His hand had phoenix feathers by this point and turned into a divine claw with fingers half a meter long.

"Phoenix Incineration!" The peak trembled with one cliff collapsing. Countless boulders rolled down.

Remember, this was Crimson Leaf. The higher one's cultivation, the stronger the suppression. It was impressive for him to break part of a cliff with just one strike.

"Second-level Nirvana." He looked at his claw and was ecstatic.

He closed his eyes and saw 3,600,000 stars with resplendent light. They felt limitless.

These were the ash specks of the saints. They were now swimming within his flesh and bones.

Their sacred energy was gone by this point. Nonetheless, their dao laws remained, seemingly helping Feiyun create his own grand dao.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Three explosions detonated in his body.

Three more bones on his back became ablaze and turned into phoenix bones. He had a total of fifteen now.

"Sigh, brat, I finally found you. You ran too fast." A turtle arrived from the horizon. Since the sun was heading west, a long shadow was cast from its tiny body.

"Didn't you say your shell is the number one defense, I almost died because of you." Feiyun said.

"That's because you're too weak and couldn't handle one strand of cold energy. The creature in that lake is frightening, able to have its own domain in this star. You can't mess with it right now." The turtle stood up straight with both hands behind its back, denying all responsibilities.

Feiyun agreed. This star belonged to the Crimson Territory Lord. The fact that this creature could own a place here was indicative of its mighty power and status.

"Shit, the sun is almost down!" Feiyun wasted several hours underground. He only had two hours left.

He would be eliminated if he didn't make it back by nightfall.

"Phoenix Wings!" Two lumps protruded on his back with fiery particles. They erupted and turned into crimson wings - more than eight meters long. Each shiny feather had flames coursing through them.

One flap issued unbearable heat waves. He then started flying towards the lake again.