Chapter 5
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Chapter 5: Agony Beyond Endurance
The process overflowed with torment. The excruciating pain of his flesh melting surpassed any normal endurance, dwarfing even the torture of Thousand Cuts!
While Thousand Cuts merely damaged flesh, Fang Lie’s entire body – muscles, bones, even marrow – now burned into golden energy by the Nirvana fire.
Being seven feet tall, Fang Lie’s body took nearly half an hour to fully dissolve. Now he understood why the founder stressed this technique required unyielding willpower. Only someone as stubborn as Fang Lie could endure – weaker minds would’ve died screaming or gone mad.
He had to maintain razor-sharp focus, channeling golden energy from his dissolving flesh into his primordial spirit through divine sense. Though the forty-nine divine scripts aided him, they only functioned when conscious. Losing awareness meant certain death.
After inhuman suffering, his physical form vanished completely. What remained was a golden primordial spirit dozens of times stronger than before, nearly rivaling Purple Palace realm experts who trained for centuries. Yet this marked only the first – and simplest – step of the Divine Phoenix Nirvana Scripture.
The Nirvana fire now attacked his primordial spirit. The forty-nine scripts’ golden light converged around nine glowing points within – his three souls and six spirits.
This second stage mirrored the first. The fire refined his primordial spirit into energy absorbed by his souls. Under the scripts’ guidance, his spirit shrank while soul-lights intensified.
Burning his spirit proved more agonizing than flesh-searing. Even iron-willed Fang Lie would’ve screamed endlessly had he still possessed vocal cords. This torment lasted another half-hour until only nine soul-lights remained.
Stage three began. The fire now consumed his souls, their energy drawn into a faint spark within his brightest soul-light – the Heavenly Soul’s true spirit, core of human existence.
Souls carry memories and personality, perishable traits. True spirits endure, enabling reincarnation. Even mighty cultivators rarely destroy true spirits – yet Fang Lie now enhanced his through the burning souls’ energy, an unprecedented feat that would shock immortal sages.
As his souls burned away, fifty golden characters emerged on his true spirit – forty-nine scripture verses and one recording his physical essence. The agony eclipsed all prior suffering, memories dissolving like scraped bone marrow.
When only his inscribed true spirit remained, the characters fused into a divine symbol: "Great Change Forty-Nine, Fifty Returns to One." Completion approached 90%.
A golden blood droplet materialized – primal essence of the Divine Phoenix from creation’s dawn. Fang Lie’s true spirit plunged into it. The final step required absorbing this to gain Nirvana Rebirth.
Countless Mo Sect disciples had failed here. Success demanded Heavenly Dao’s recognition through great vow and willpower – mysteries far beyond a Qi Sea novice’s understanding. Worse, the phoenix essence crushed his fading true spirit. Within minutes, he’d vanish utterly.
Memories surfaced – younger siblings awaiting news, his father’s wrongful death, personal humiliations, Yuan Hua’s sneering face. Fang Lie’s spark flared defiance.
"UNFAIR!" His silent cry echoed. "Why must justice suffer while villains thrive? If this is Heavenly Dao, why teach righteousness? The world’s wrong, not my father!"
"HEAVEN! Grant me power to restore virtue!"
An unfathomable force answered. The phoenix essence blazed, merging with his true spirit. As it shrank to mustard-seed size, the true spirit seed formed – Scripture’s foundation complete.
The Mo Sect Ancestor’s Token appeared – plain black wood with cloud patterns and a central "Benevolence" character. From it hopped a Giant Rooster who eyed the seed and crowed: "About time someone finished! This old bird’s finally free!"
It jabbed a wing at the seed. "Enough lazing! Wake up, boy!"
