Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 32: Chapter 32 — Two Weeks Later

Chapter 32 — Two Weeks Later

Two weeks had passed since Jacob’s death.

Victor spent most of that time recovering inside the secluded cavern behind the waterfall. The first few days had been little more than a blur of pain and exhaustion. His body had been pushed far beyond its limits, and even the smallest movement had required effort. His dislocated shoulder eventually returned to its proper place, his wounds slowly closed, and the strength he had lost began to return little by little.

Cultivation had been anything but easy.

Victor’s Core had fallen all the way to the beginning of Rank Five after using the Black Phoenix Form. Rebuilding what he had lost had taken nearly everything he had. But he refused to slow down. Day after day, he cultivated until his mind became numb and his body could no longer continue. Then he rested, recovered, and did it again.

He cultivated like a man on a mission.

There was no longer any halfhearted effort.

By the end of the second week, his Rank Five Core had finally filled once again, reaching the peak of the rank. Victor could feel the barrier separating him from Rank Six. It wasn’t far anymore. With enough time, he would break through again.

But Victor had changed in other ways as well.

The experiences of the past had skewed the way he looked at the world. The innocence he had carried when he first arrived in this strange place was slowly disappearing. He no longer looked at everything with the same curiosity or blind optimism. Too many things had happened too quickly. Too many people had tried to kill him. Too many times, his life had depended on whether he was strong enough to survive the next few seconds.

Because of that, Victor had become much harder on himself.

If something could make him stronger and didn’t kill him, he would attempt it.

If something hurt, he endured it.

If something was difficult, he repeated it until he could do it.

There was no room for complacency anymore.

During these two weeks, Victor also spent a considerable amount of time inside the library.

The Knowledge Trial had progressed significantly.

Seventy-three percent.

He was getting close.

Every time he entered the library, the Library Spirit had more information to give him, and Victor had begun using every spare moment he had to absorb as much knowledge as possible. He learned more about the cultivation system, monster classifications, alchemy materials, and the strange world he had been thrown into.

He also learned more about the Black Phoenix Form.

The Library Spirit had explained that the form he had used was never meant to be activated during the Body Tempering Realm. The Black Phoenix Flame required an enormous amount of energy to function, and Victor’s Core had been forced to supply it directly.

That had damaged his meridians.

It had nearly destroyed his Core.

And it had almost killed him.

According to the Library Spirit, there had been others in the history of the clan who had attempted to activate the form before reaching the Spirit Gathering Realm.

Most of them died.

The ones who lived never recovered.

Victor had been lucky.

Very lucky.

The knowledge didn’t make him afraid of the Black Phoenix Flame.

It made him cautious.

He now understood that the power wasn’t something he could simply call upon whenever he wanted. If he used it recklessly again, there might not be a second miracle waiting for him.

Outside of cultivation and study, Victor spent his remaining time learning the cavern.

He had explored the area surrounding the waterfall carefully over the past two weeks. The secluded space behind the waterfall had remained untouched. He hadn’t seen a single creature approach it, and that made it the safest place he had found since arriving at the bottom of the cavern.

But the cavern extended far beyond his little shelter.

A passage outside the waterfall followed the river deeper into the underground world. Victor had spent days traveling along its banks, gradually mapping out the surrounding area and learning where he could safely move.

Eventually, the river opened into an enormous chasm.

Victor had never seen anything like it.

The underground river stretched through the center of the enormous chamber, dividing it into two completely different worlds.

On one side was what Victor had come to call the Lava Territory.

Black volcanic rock covered the ground, and cracks throughout the terrain glowed with a deep orange light. Heat rolled across the cavern in waves, making the air shimmer. Massive formations of molten stone rose from the ground like ancient mountains.

And among them lived the Lava Rock Monkeys.

From a distance, they almost looked like ordinary monkeys from Earth.

Almost.

Their bodies were formed from dark volcanic stone, with glowing cracks running across their limbs and torsos like veins of molten rock. Strange markings and natural-looking etchings covered their bodies, almost as if someone had carved symbols into their stone flesh. Their eyes glowed from within their rocky faces as they moved between the formations.

There were too many to count.

Victor had never approached closely enough to find out.

Even from a distance, he could feel the energy radiating from the clan.

The weakest ones he had sensed were already around Rank Nine or Rank Ten.

Victor had no interest in testing the strength of the stronger ones.

The opposite side of the river was completely different.

A forest stretched into the darkness.

It was unlike any forest Victor had ever seen.

Massive trees rose hundreds of feet toward the cavern ceiling, their enormous trunks twisting around one another like ancient pillars. Thick roots spread across the ground, disappearing beneath layers of moss and strange vegetation. Glowing flowers grew between the roots, while vines hung from the branches like curtains.

There were herbs everywhere.

Common herbs.

Tier One herbs.

Materials Victor recognized from the library.

Materials he knew would be valuable to alchemists.

But the forest was not a place where someone could simply walk in and start gathering them.

Victor had already learned that lesson.

Almost every useful plant seemed to have something protecting it. Sometimes it was a beast. Other times, the vegetation itself was the danger.

Victor hadn’t explored deeply enough to understand the full extent of the forest, but what little he had seen was enough.

The Lava Territory was dangerous.

The forest was unpredictable.

And that was precisely why Victor had been watching it.

For the past several days, he had been interested in something specific.

A small flower.

Victor ran along the riverbank toward the forest, his footsteps barely making a sound against the stone. His speed had improved considerably since arriving at the cavern, but he still wasn’t fast enough to move through the forest safely.

He slowed as he approached the edge of the trees.

Victor stopped and looked around carefully.

His eyes scanned the vegetation.

Nothing.

He scratched his arm absently as he continued searching.

Then he saw it.

A small flower stood near the edge of the forest.

At first glance, it looked almost like a tulip.

Almost.

Two thin stalks extended from beneath its petals like tiny legs, allowing the flower to move across the ground. Its petals swayed gently even though there was no wind, and its entire body seemed strangely alert.

Victor’s eyes narrowed.

There you are.

The Fast Break Flower.

Victor had been trying to catch it for several days.

According to the information he had gathered from the library, the flower was an important rare tier 1 ingredient in an alchemical pill capable of dramatically increasing a person’s movement speed for a short period of time.

The effect lasted only around twenty seconds.

But during those twenty seconds, the increase in speed could approach the level of a Spirit Gathering Realm rank 1.

For Victor, that was extremely valuable.

Unfortunately, actually obtaining the flower was another matter entirely.

It was incredibly fast.

Every time Victor had gotten close, the flower had sensed him and disappeared into the forest before he could catch it.

But Victor had noticed something.

The flower followed a pattern.

Every day, it returned to the same area.

And today, Victor had decided to stop chasing it.

He was going to let it come to him.

Victor moved quietly toward the brush beside the riverbank and lowered himself beneath the vegetation. He positioned his body carefully, making sure none of the branches moved enough to give away his presence.

Then he waited.

The flower continued wandering near the edge of the forest.

Victor didn’t move.

His breathing slowed until it was almost imperceptible.

The flower eventually reached the spot Victor had been watching.

It paused.

Its strange little legs shifted beneath its petals.

Victor remained perfectly still.

The flower took another step.

Then another.

It was getting closer.

Victor’s fingers slowly tightened around the ground beneath him.

He had failed to catch it every other time.

Today would be different.

He waited until the flower moved into exactly the position he had been waiting for.

Then Victor’s eyes sharpened.

Now.