Chapter 88

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Chapter 88

This was Xie Fuzhi’s first life as a bird. As a phoenix, its natural bloodline heritage told it that they were immortal birds and would never truly die. Even if they died and their soul was destroyed, they would be reborn from the ashes.

However, the death of the soul and the death of the body are still different. If the body perishes alone, it can still hold memories. But if the soul vanishes, then the phoenix that rises from the ashes would just be reincarnated. It might still remember the name Xie Fuzhi, but it would no longer be called the phoenix named Fuzhi.

Xie Fuzhi was a phoenix born from an egg, which means he was a young bird that had not been reincarnated.

He was born a phoenix, with no parents, no siblings, no friends, and no other kindred.

Fortunately, the demon race is different from the human race; many things do not require elders’ teachings. The knowledge of becoming stronger is instinctively known and engraved in their souls.

When Xie Fuzhi was born, he had already spent twenty thousand years inside the egg. The phoenix egg did not hatch immediately; it stayed in the fire, absorbing enough heat from the strange flames to finally hatch.

Two thousand years of long time allowed Xie Fuzhi, as soon as he was born, to possess the cultivation of the Soul Changing Stage.

At that time, the concentration of Spirit Qi in the spiritual world was much higher than it is now. The number of Transcendency Stage cultivators was ten times that of Yun Chuyou’s time, and the top senior elders of the leading sects were not in a united state anymore, but were merely a step away from ascension, in the Mahayana Stage.

However high it was, it didn’t mean that Soul Changing Stage cultivators were everywhere, and the ordinary cultivators of Soul Changing Stage could not compare to Xie Fuzhi, a powerful ancient demon born with strength.

They do not need to spend a lot of time practicing; powerful high-damage spells are something they are born knowing. As long as they have enough spiritual power in their bodies, they can use them.

However, knowing this does not mean Xie Fuzhi should not practice hard. During the time he was just born, many demon beasts around him had suffered greatly.

Once the Phoenix True Fire is unleashed, it burns a vast area. Fortunately, even if the land is scorched, he does not worry about having nowhere to live; the Phoenix True Fire is born with the phoenix, and the phoenix lives on the phoenix tree, which is a type of indestructible wood that does not fear fire.

The phoenix must die before this sycamore tree will wither.

The sycamore tree has no feet and cannot pull its roots to walk freely. However, when the phoenix grows a bit, it can place the sycamore tree easily in its Purple Mansion, and then it can fly far away. Whenever it wants to stop, it can take the sycamore tree out of the Purple Mansion and plant it in the land.

During the time just after his birth, Xie Fuzhi was very innocent. He spent the first twenty thousand years in an eggshell, and if he took human form, he would look just like a small child of a few years old.

He had two little pigtails on his head and wore a red apron, just like a three-and-a-half-year-old child.

It is not easy for a small child to walk outside; they can easily be tricked by others. So, Xie Fuzhi used a shape-shifting spell to turn himself into a boy who looked about seventeen or eighteen years old.

After all, his mindset is still young; it wouldn’t be good to become too old. Those phoenixes like beauty, and seventeen or eighteen is the most attractive age. He certainly doesn’t want to look like an old, ugly man.

The founder of the Qingxu Sect, who is a disciple that separated from the Tianyuan Sect, met Xie Fuzhi at this time.

This leader is not an ambitious person. If he really had ambitions, he should have stayed in the big, prosperous Tianyuan Sect and developed his power there.

In fact, it was to avoid being caught up in the sect’s conflicts that he chose to leave the sect and seek his own path.

Of course, these matters belong to the Tianyuan Sect and are not closely related to Xie Fuzhi. The key point is that this sect leader is indeed a very interesting person with a pure and innocent heart.

He was Xie Fuzhi’s first and only human friend when he was young.

To the ancient great demons, he looked down equally on all existing demon races, as well as humans and demon races, and even more so on the ghost race.

However, he is still a demon, and no matter how much he looks down on others, the demon race is still somewhat better than the human race to him.

People treat other beings as different races, and other races do not think highly of humans either. Many demon cultivators teach their children, "Those human race cultivators are very bad, they are deceitful and cruel, and their methods of killing demons are extremely brutal. They not only want to refine your demonic pill but also want to skin you and break your bones to make magic tools."

So, in such circumstances, Xie Fuzhi’s friendship with the other party seems particularly sincere and precious.

To welcome his phoenix friend, the leader of Qingxu Sect planted a large forest of phoenix trees in the sect. Xie Fuzhi does not come often because he also needs to practice.

For cultivators, it is very common to retreat for a few months, years, or even decades during their training. The higher their level, the longer they may need to retreat.

For those at the Transcendency Stage, who have a lifespan of thousands of years, some even retreat for a thousand years at a time to break through their realm’s bottleneck.

Xie Fuzhi was in a state of meditation, but when he foresaw that his friend would die in battle, he forced himself to awaken and hurried to the Qingxu Sect.

When Yun Chuyou followed Xie Fuzhi to the Qingxu Sect, he was barely alive.

As a phoenix, Xie Fuzhi had many ways to save others. He gave his friend a magical medicine, and the friend’s condition improved a lot, with color slowly returning to his cheeks.

They made it in time, and the person was saved. Looking at this scene, Yun Chuyou should have felt grateful, but she still had an uneasy feeling.

Sure enough, the leader of the Qingxu Sect refused the magical pills Xie Fuzhi offered, "Fuzhi, thank you for coming to see me, but these things are no longer useful to me. You should keep them for yourself."

Xie Fuzhi didn’t understand, "Why not? You can still be saved!"

Even if someone has lost their breath, as long as not too much time has passed, he could still bring them back.

However, bringing someone back only meant saving their life. The following treatment would depend on the specific situation.

The other person shook his head, "Fuzhi, you know I don’t care so much about living or not, but I do care about living well. My soul is already shattered; the magical medicine can only save a body. Even if I come back, I won’t be able to practice like before, and I have already made my decision. If you are willing, please help protect this Qingxu Sect."

Before Xie Fuzhi arrived, he had already decided to face death calmly, and when he died, he wanted to use his broken body to do something for his disciples.

He was very happy to see Xie Fuzhi’s arrival; before dying, he wanted to meet his friend again, and he was grateful that Xie Fuzhi eased some of his pain.

In this battle, there were many young disciples from the Qingxu Sect who also fell, but they still fought hard.

When he met Xie Fuzhi, his body and spirit were already part of the great formation of the Qingxu Sect, as the core that protected the weaker disciples of the sect.

When Yun Chuyou arrived, she saw that there were no disciples from the Qingxu Sect; in reality, it was because the sect’s great formation was activated, and within that special formation, the invading demon beasts could not see the disciples.

The broken body that stayed here to meet Xie Fuzhi was not the complete form of the Qingxu Sect’s leader but rather an external avatar, a damaged version that only contained a trace of residual spirit.

He said the elixir would not work because this was just a residual spirit, and no matter how much they tried to save it, they could not complete a tiny broken piece.

After speaking these words, he faded away before Xie Fuzhi and Yun Chuyou.

Witnessing the death of such an extraordinary person, especially knowing that it was a sacrifice for the sect, made Yun Chuyou’s heart tremble.

However, at this moment, her main concern was still her master. She felt sad for a stranger she had only met once, let alone for Xie Fuzhi, who had been with her for many years.

But to Yun Chuyou’s surprise, Xie Fuzhi was not very sad; there was not even a hint of sorrow on his face. Instead, he looked completely confused. Demons are very straightforward; they admire strength and do not care for the young of other races except for their own.

For example, the Fox tribe from Blue Mountain loves their own little ones but would never show any kindness to the young of the Rabbit or Wolf tribes.

Moreover, as the young grow a bit older, they must quickly adapt to the law of survival of the fittest, where the weak receive no mercy.

Xie Fuzhi is a phoenix; he is the only young one, with no elders above him and no younger ones below him.

The leader of the Qingxu Sect is very powerful. Even if he must sacrifice for a young one, it should be for one with great talent. Xie Fuzhi could not understand the other’s choice and stood at the mountain top, looking lost and empty.

Although he didn’t understand, the phoenix agreed to take care of his friend’s Qingxu Sect. So, he kept his promise and stayed on as a senior elder of the Qingxu Sect.

The original leader of the Qingxu Sect was a very good person, but his disciples did not share the same views.

Luckily, Xie Fuzhi was strong enough; not long after he was born, he nearly reached the Transcendency Stage.

In this great war, the human race cultivators suffered severe losses. It was not only the leader of the Qingxu Sect who fell, but several Mahayana Stage cultivators as well. There were not many human race cultivators who could defeat Xie Fuzhi. Regardless of what these disciples thought, they could not openly make things difficult for Xie Fuzhi.

Because of this, he found peace on the mountain. In a flash, Xie Fuzhi stayed at the Qingxu Sect for many years.

Yun Chuyou tried, but she discovered that Xie Fuzhi could not see her, and she could not get far from Xie Fuzhi.

Fortunately, in the "illusion," time passed quickly, often jumping from one scene to another.

It was at this moment that Yun Chuyou realized that the girl on the battlefield was not her true self. Although they were very similar, they were just similar, not the same person.

Because of the time gap, when Xie Fuzhi brought her back, the leader of the Qingxu Sect had already been dead for thousands of years. This scene was separated by thousands of years in time.

Until the Spirit Qi gradually weakened, and due to the lack of resources, the cultivators’ fights became increasingly fierce.

Human life is truly too short. So many leaders and talented people of the Qingxu Sect have died, and the remaining disciples do not have good enough talents. Although the second leader wished to carry on the legacy, he was too weak and had good intentions but no power.

The third, fourth, and fifth leaders continued to be less capable. One of them was self-serving, and the succession of masters was no longer based on merit, but rather on the leader’s bloodline.

Xie Fuzhi watched as the Qingxu Sect became more chaotic in this situation, until the second war came.

This time, the Qingxu Sect, because the leader’s strength was not as strong as before, naturally lost the ability to protect the sect as they once did.

Moreover, even if they could protect, they did not want to sacrifice for those disciple cultivators.

Many years ago, Xie Fuzhi could not understand his friend’s sacrifice, but after many years in the world, facing the selfish new leader, he felt his friend was much better.

Only such a pure fool could be his friend. And the ambitious fool in front of him not only was unwilling to sacrifice for his disciples but, when facing danger, would push others out without hesitation to save himself.

However, this leader should never have thought of harming Xie Fuzhi.

He didn’t want to die himself but tried to force Xie Fuzhi to save the world. Xie Fuzhi replied confidently, "The phoenix won’t die, you just have to sacrifice a little…"

Yun Chuyou got angry hearing this, "Don’t listen to this foolishness!"

If a person is willing to sacrifice for a greater cause, that is great, but it doesn’t mean others can take advantage of him and force him to sacrifice.

Xie Fuzhi was certainly not that kind of phoenix, so he had to break his promise to his friend.

The Qingxu Sect has changed; this time it has truly become empty, and all those who plotted against him were consumed by the flames.

Those disciples who did not participate were driven away by Xie Fuzhi and were all sent to the Tianyuan Sect.

After the flames went out, snow covered the whole mountain, and Xie Fuzhi entered seclusion until a young demon accidentally entered the unguarded Qingxu Sect.

Xie Fuzhi felt that the original Qingxu Sect was destroyed, so he decided to rebuild a Qingxu Sect. This young demon would be Xie Fuzhi’s first disciple, and his eldest disciple—Meng He.

Xie Fuzhi was not a very good master, as he never truly engaged with the world; his kindness to his disciples was silent support by providing them resources.

As for emotional care, there was none; the bad impression left by the previous leader of Qingxu Sect had not faded. The little phoenix stepped out, determined to learn from that tough old man in Tianyuan and be a serious and strict master.

Perhaps because of his special nature, he took a young demon as his disciple, then another disciple who was neither human nor ghost, and later picked up a third disciple.

The process of accepting Zhong Wei was different from what Yun Chuyou thought and also different from what was written in the book; Zhong Wei did not initially join the Qingxu Sect, but entered another sect, where she was bullied a lot, and only fell somewhere before Xie Fuzhi rescued her.

But at that time, Zhong Wei’s mind had become so twisted and distorted that her master did not care for her, and both of her senior brothers were totally unreliable. The entire Qingxu Sect was a gloomy place filled with darkness.

The events that followed were also predictable; it was Xie Fuzhi’s first time teaching apprentices, and he failed with all three of them.

These three apprentices were not like the villains in the books, who were merely devoted to the main characters.

What was written in the book was just nonsense; Meng He, as the evil lord, was attracted to the main character Song Mingzhu’s fate because he coveted her special fortune.

Yu Jiu, without a doubt, was born to cause trouble; he stirred up chaos, and that great battle was all planned by him.

As for Zhong Wei, she equally hated everyone, and after ruthlessly settling scores with her enemies, she directly wiped out several sects.

The main characters could not find their rightful place, and the world shattered as a result. Then time began to flow backward, and everything returned to the start.

Yun Chuyou looked at Xie Fuzhi’s bewildered eyes and realized something: the world had reset, but Xie Fuzhi did not.

Perhaps it was because of the time-space rules he carried; Xie Fuzhi remembered everything.

At that moment, Xie Fuzhi did not realize the reason for the world’s breaking and reopening; for the first time, he thought he was just having a long and strange dream.

The second time, Xie Fuzhi learned from his past lessons and tried hard to teach his students, but it was useless; they still faced a very bad ending.

Xie Fuzhi himself, however, felt pain when facing the bad ending because he had formed emotional bonds.

This time, time still flowed backward.

The third time and the fourth time, Xie Fuzhi’s expression gradually changed from confusion to fear.

In the repeated process, those unimportant backgrounds did not play; only some images that were enough to stimulate a person kept repeating.

Again and again, again and again, so many times that Xie Fuzhi had lost count of how many times it had happened.

He realized that if he did not do anything, this world seemed like a pre-written script where all the characters acted according to the script without any change.

Later, he also discovered that the world’s restart was connected to the male and female protagonists, as well as to his students.

So he rushed to the place where the main characters were and in the beginning, he killed them in their cradle—everything started over again.

After countless repetitions, the confused phoenix broke apart, and now that he was damaged, how could he teach his apprentice well?

He finally understood the strong emotions of humans, but they were not beautiful; there was love and peace, but also endless resentment and hatred.

The phoenix was said to be made of the purest flames, but the flames became tainted with black and gradually turned completely dark.

In the following times, Xie Fuzhi became more and more extreme, finally leading to a scene Yun Chuyou did not want to see. The phoenix became the final hand of darkness, and this time it burned not only those who wished him harm, but also the Six Realms.

The spiritual world, the Demon Realm, and even the Ghost Realm—all was consumed in flames, and the culprit was Xie Fuzhi, the only phoenix in the world.

He was not supposed to be a bird appearing in the spiritual world; the heavenly path had its own script, and any unexpected element had to be destroyed.

Actually, at the very beginning, only Xie Fuzhi was targeted by the heavenly script; he should have disappeared with the restart of the world, but he did not, and he remembered everything, becoming more and more insane.

The repetition, like fate, completely ruined Xie Fuzhi, this phoenix, inside and out.

He used Phoenix True Fire to burn the whole world over and over again, again and again, because Xie Fuzhi discovered that the world’s restart also needed energy. His rebirth time gradually shifted with the world’s destruction.

The more he destroys this world, the longer the time will be delayed.

As long as he burns enough times, Xie Fuzhi can find true freedom.

At that moment, Yun Chuyou finally understood what Xie Fuzhi meant when he said she was different, because like Xie Fuzhi, she was also an accident, one of the only two surprises outside the script in this world.