Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Upon leaving the area, Pearl headed north toward the next artifact. By now, he had a general idea of where he had to go to see the next artifact. They stood out well enough that he just needed to get the general direction right.

Pearl walked for two days with no one there to challenge him, and then he finally came across his first opponent since leaving the previous artifact.

At Immortal Transcendent fifth realm, the woman standing before him could hardly be called a worthy opponent under normal circumstances, but the situation was different enough to give Pearl pause.

With a head full of crimson locks and deep red eyes that seemed to pierce directly into his soul, Pearl was sure that the woman standing before him was a Vermilion Bird-the first one he had seen since

coming to the Fighting Island.

The woman looked a little more mature than Scarlet, and not as pretty. But there were some obvious similarities in their features that Pearl didn’t even have to think twice about what she was.

The woman looked him over once, seemingly coming to the understanding of what he was. “I’m Feng Jinhao. Who am I fighting?”

“Pearl.”

Pearl could’ve introduced himself with his actual name, but

mentioning the name Qing here would’ve caused more trouble than necessary. What need was there for names when they were just here to fight?

Pearl pulled out his spear, ready to fight as a sense of apprehension filled him. The one thing he knew about Vermilion Birds was that among the Heavenly Beasts, they were the ones that had the highest degree of bloodline because of their lower population.

That gave them a higher degree of strength.

And more than that, Pearl had no idea how phoenixes fought in the first place.

Pearl had never seen Scarlet in action.

The phoenix dashed forward in her human form, her conjured phoenix flames burning in her palm. She stopped a distance away from Pearl and delivered a palm strike that sent the phoenix flames flying toward him.

Pearl stabbed his spear, the revolving energy striking back against the flames. He destroyed the flames, but from the destruction came another palm strike.

Pearl pulled his spear back, striking again.

The woman delivered a dozen different palm strikes, each one brimming with power. Pearl barely managed to destroy them all, and that was with strikes that used all of his power.

This was going to be a difficult battle to win.

“Three… maybe four?’ Pearl thought as he considered the phoenix’s battle power. Whatever stage it was, her total strength was stronger than Pearl’s, even if he mixed his Qi, physical strength, and Spear Qi.

The heat from the phoenix flames wasn’t weak either. The woman had attuned her flames to carry only heat and no healing power, so Pearl was sensing their full strength.

The two stood back for a few seconds, staring at each other. Pearl looked at her with a cautious expression, wondering if he should reveal his teleportation powers right away or wait a while longer.

The woman, meanwhile, seemed surprised that Pearl hadn’t been defeated in a single attack. Considering their gap in cultivation base, that should have been the result.

She grew curious.

She swung her arm to the side, phoenix flames burning out of her flesh, coalescing to the side as they formed a dozen different burning arrows, each one pointed toward Pearl.

“Can you handle these too?” she asked and sent them flying toward him.

Pearl knew better than to try to defend against these. He took one step to the side and arrived a dozen meters away, safe from the attacks.

The many flying arrows created a giant flaring explosion far behind him, but Pearl didn’t look at it. The woman had already turned toward him, growing ever more cautious, another attack ready to come at

him.

Pearl sighed. There was no way he was going to be able to continue this fight without teleporting. His spear was covered in revolving energy, and he disappeared.

Arriving behind the woman, he managed to catch her off guard as his spear found flesh on the back of her shoulder plates. The spiraling energy tore through her flesh and bones in a surprising amount as it drilled through her body.

The woman reacted at the last moment before his spear met any vital organ, and flame surged from all around her.

Pearl pulled his spear back at the last moment and dashed backward, still feeling the heat that erupted from around the woman’s body. He looked toward her to see her entire body covered in phoenix flames that slowly subsided but not entirely.

Her back still burned with fire as she quickly turned around, giving Pearl a glaring look. Without any words, the flames turned into more arrows and flew toward Pearl.

Pearl stepped away from the arrows, dodging again. Even as he did,

more arrows were already coming toward him.

He teleported again, arriving behind the woman, only to feel a heat so

high that he wondered if the air itself was on fire. He quickly teleported away and looked at the woman, finally seeing the air

distort around her from the heat.

He frowned slightly, realizing that it wasn’t something she was doing with her flames at all. It was definitely a technique.

And even more than that, Pearl saw the remaining flames on her back slowly subside, the wounds he had inflicted on her no longer there. ‘Damn phoenix flames, Pearl thought upon seeing the incredibly fast healing ability that could only belong to the Vermilion Birds.

“I never imagined I would meet a beast as strange as you,” the phoenix

said. “It’s rare to see someone with as much talent in weapons as you. And the way you fight is more akin to a dragon than any other beast. But that look of yours is definitely that of a White Tiger. Strange… so

strange.”

“Thank you for the compliment,” Pearl said.

“Don’t be. This will be your greatest compliment instead,” the woman said and transformed into her true self as the Vermilion Bird.