Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Devil Training

The Lin Zhao the South Sea higher-ups lost was now holding an egg under the stares of powerful beasts—weak, pitiful, and helpless.

The Golden Spirit Hawk, now a middle-aged man in human form, raised a hand to calm the others.

With Phoenix Clan blood in him, he could feel the closeness between someone bearing Phoenix Fortune and a Phoenix descendant. So he wasn’t surprised Qing Luan entrusted her offspring to Lin Zhao.

“The Phoenix Fortune on you truly is the best nourishment for Senior Qing Luan’s descendant,” he said, voice heavy. “I’ll take you to Spirit Sparrow Pond.”

Lin Zhao lifted the egg. The moment she did, it warmed against her hands.

She nearly dropped it in fright.

“Granny…”

Granny examined it and chuckled, strangely pleased. “It probably thinks you’re its mother. Also, when you cultivate, you’ll need to spare spiritual energy to incubate it. Once a Qing Luan hatches, it’s at Golden Core. It’s attached to you now—later it’ll be combat power too.”

Lin Zhao patted the egg, which was about the length of two palms, wearing a pained expression. “Little thing, you’d better grow well.”

Despite the complaint, she felt a deep instinctive closeness to it.

That was Phoenix Fortune.

Following the Golden Spirit Hawk into the deepest center of the forest, Lin Zhao saw a vast lake.

She understood why they called it Spirit Sparrow Pond. To her it was a lake. To huge birds like the Golden Spirit Hawk, it was a pond.

“The spiritual energy in this water is incredibly pure,” Granny murmured after sensing it. “And with your Phoenix Fortune and Phoenix Pulse Art, you can fully convert it.”

Granny sounded genuinely impressed. “Your luck is something else, girl.”

Lin Zhao slipped into the pond with the egg in her arms and began circulating the Phoenix Pulse Art, releasing her Phoenix Fortune.

The three parts of Phoenix Fortune—muddled after Chen Luo Luo occupied them for years—gradually purified. They merged cleanly with the part Lin Zhao already possessed.

As strand after strand of pure spiritual energy flooded her meridians, Lin Zhao felt unprecedented ease.

When her cultivation pressed toward the third layer of Enlightenment, she forcibly suppressed it.

She opened her eyes and exhaled, wiping sweat from her brow.

“At least you’re smart,” Granny said. “If you break through to the third layer now, your body won’t keep up with your spiritual power. You’ll lose the qualification to train Indestructible Golden Body.”

Lin Zhao frowned. “Then how do I strengthen my body?”

Granny’s answer was cheerful. “Getting hit.”

Lin Zhao drew a slow breath. “You’ll hit me?”

Granny laughed. “How could I bear to hit you?”

The next day.

Boom.

Lin Zhao was punched into a mountain by the Crimson Spirit Ape. A human-shaped crater formed in the stone. She lay there, stunned, unable to climb out for a long time.

Who knew if the ape was taking revenge for the earlier theft and backtalk. It hit viciously.

Even though it suppressed its power to early Enlightenment, comparing durability with a strength-type Spirit Beast in the same realm was simply stupid.

Eventually, Lin Zhao crawled out, eyes blank, staring at the sky as if life had lost meaning.

Granny’s voice was brisk. “Alright. Go to Spirit Sparrow Pond and absorb spiritual energy to recover.”

Lin Zhao trudged to the pond like a puppet, dove in, and still remembered to cradle the egg against her chest as she cultivated.

Once her body and spiritual energy were saturated again, she went out to return the guardian items she’d stolen from the third- and fourth-rank Spirit Beasts.

That, of course, involved being chased until she screamed herself hoarse.

But somewhere in that brutal rhythm—steal, run, dodge, survive—Heavenly Phoenix Step’s first stage, Wen Wu, moved close to mastery.

After seven days, Lin Zhao reached the peak of the third layer of Enlightenment, on the verge of breaking into the fourth.

Once she entered the fourth, she’d be in mid-stage Enlightenment.

Then she could train Indestructible Golden Body.

Lin Zhao had been waiting for this day for a long time.

She sat at Spirit Sparrow Pond with the egg in her arms and let the purified spiritual energy pour into her. When the spiritual energy pressed against that layered barrier, her eyes sharpened. Seals formed smoothly beneath her fingers.

Her Dao heart steadied.

The barrier broke.

Lin Zhao stepped into the fourth layer of Enlightenment.

On the shore, the Crimson Spirit Ape watched her with complicated eyes. Even with thick skin, remembering how Lin Zhao had gone from helpless prey to a thorny, relentless nightmare, it felt a strange sting.

What kind of human child was this?

Her body now felt tougher than it had been when the ape itself was a late-stage Enlightenment Spirit Beast.

Granny floated beside Lin Zhao and nodded. “Not bad. With Spirit Sparrow Pond nourishing you and all the beating you endured, your physical strength has reached the standard of peak late-stage Enlightenment.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Training Indestructible Golden Body is still a little forced, but it will do.”

Lin Zhao’s gaze flared.

A streak of white light shot from Granny’s hand into Lin Zhao’s forehead.

Inside Lin Zhao’s Sea of Consciousness, a youth in monk robes appeared. His pupils were green, his thin lips pressed tight. Behind him shone 10,000 zhang of Buddhist light.

At the same time, another voice echoed in Lin Zhao’s mind.

“Indestructible Golden Body was created by Peacock Wisdom King, a Buddhist cultivator and Heavenly Phoenix descendant. It has three aspects. The first aspect is the Greedless Aspect. To cultivate it, your Dao heart must be firm, spirit and flesh must be one, and together you must seek Buddhist Fate Golden Light to mold the aspect into a body.”

Lin Zhao listened, confused. She watched the Peacock Wisdom King demonstrate Indestructible Golden Body again and again inside her Sea of Consciousness until deep night.

Then she opened her eyes and exhaled.

“So that’s how it is.”

She clenched her fist and circulated spiritual energy through her whole body. Her soul and spiritual energy began to weave together, slipping into an arcane state.

Granny watched, relief flickering across her face.

“She actually comprehended how to open Buddhist Fate Golden Light on her own.”

It wasn’t only comprehension.

It was karma.

During the years Granny followed Lin Zhao, she couldn’t count how many people Lin Zhao had saved—directly or indirectly.

All karma shapes all people.

Little girl, your road is still long.

Lin Zhao, already pulled into another inner space, naturally couldn’t hear Granny’s sigh.

She stared at scenes within her Sea of Consciousness that she’d never stepped into before.

Scene after scene. Page after page.

Memories of her risking her life against the Demon Clan. Of saving people. Of being praised—and of being betrayed.

The junior brother she’d once dragged out of death’s jaws, joining Yun Ding’s immortal venerable to force her to death for Chen Luo Luo.

A voice questioned her from on high, cold and exact.

“Lin Zhao, you hate them. As one of the living beings, how can you love all living beings? How can you obtain golden light to temper your body?”