Chapter 5

Of course, the process was filled with pain. The excruciating pain of the flesh gradually melting was something no ordinary person could endure, far surpassing the torment of being cut into a thousand pieces!

This was because being cut into a thousand pieces only damaged the muscles, but now, Fang Lie's entire body, including his bones and even his bone marrow, had to be burned into a special golden energy by the Nirvana Divine Fire.

Fang Lie, a man standing seven feet tall, was not easy to burn bit by bit, and the entire process lasted nearly half an hour!

By now, Fang Lie finally understood why the ancestor had repeatedly emphasized that only those with great willpower could cultivate this technique!

Only a man as resolute as Fang Lie could endure such pain. If it were someone with slightly weaker willpower, they would have died from the pain long ago!

During this process, one had to maintain extreme concentration, using divine consciousness to absorb all the golden energy transformed from the flesh into the primordial spirit. Although the forty-nine divine characters would help, they could only function when one was conscious.

If one fainted, the entire process would be interrupted, and death was certain!

After enduring inhuman pain, Fang Lie's physical body completely disappeared, leaving only a powerful golden primordial spirit, which was at least dozens of times stronger than his original primordial spirit. It was almost on par with the realm of a Purple Mansion cultivator, a realm that usually required hundreds of years of cultivation!

However, this was just the first step of the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra*, and in fact, it was the simplest step.

Next, Fang Lie's primordial spirit continued to drift forward, and the Nirvana Divine Fire continued to burn, but this time, the target was his primordial spirit!

At this moment, the golden light formed by the forty-nine divine characters gathered around nine light points within Fang Lie's primordial spirit. These nine light points were Fang Lie's three souls and six魄 (souls)!

The second step was similar to the first. The Nirvana Divine Fire refined the primordial spirit into another special kind of energy, which could be absorbed by the souls.

Under the power of the divine characters, as the Nirvana Divine Fire burned, Fang Lie's primordial spirit gradually shrank, but the nine light points representing his souls gradually strengthened, indicating a significant increase in his soul power.

Of course, the pain of burning the primordial spirit was even more intense than that of burning the flesh. Even a man as tough as Fang Lie would have screamed in agony if he still had a mouth!

The burning of the primordial spirit was even slower, and it took another half an hour for this torment to end.

Thus, Fang Lie was now left with only nine light points, meaning he had become a soul state.

But this was not the end. There was still the third step to go.

Fang Lie's three souls and six魄 (souls) continued to move forward, and the Nirvana Divine Fire began to burn them.

This time, the energy produced by the burning of the souls was absorbed into a faint light spot within the largest light point.

This largest light point was Fang Lie's Heavenly Soul, the most powerful of the three souls (Heaven, Earth, and Human).

The light spot within the Heavenly Soul was Fang Lie's innate true spirit.

In fact, the innate true spirit was the fundamental essence of a person, while the souls were merely attached to the true spirit. The souls recorded a person's memories, personality, and other attributes, which were acquired later in life and could be destroyed.

After a person died, their souls would scatter, leading to the loss of memory, but the true spirit, which remained pure, could reincarnate!

Even in high-level cultivator battles, the most they could do was scatter their opponent's souls; it was extremely difficult to destroy the true spirit.

However, once the true spirit was destroyed by special means, it meant that the person was completely dead, disappearing from the world forever, with no chance of reincarnation.

This shows how important the true spirit is to a person.

Such an important true spirit was a mysterious entity. Even cultivators had no way to enhance it. They might strengthen their primordial spirit or even their souls through cultivation and spirit medicines, but they could do nothing to enhance the mysterious true spirit. At most, they could leave a mark on it so that it could remember past events after reincarnation, thus continuing their path of cultivation.

Now, under the influence of the divine characters, Fang Lie was using the special energy produced by the burning of his souls to strengthen his own true spirit. This was an inconceivable feat. If it were known, it would shock countless immortals and great beings!

The *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* truly lived up to its reputation as a great divine technique. As Fang Lie's souls scattered, his innate true spirit shone brightly. Most astonishingly, the originally blank true spirit now bore ancient and powerful golden characters, which became increasingly clear and vivid as the energy from the burning souls was infused, as if they were coming to life.

If one looked closely, they would see that there were fifty characters in total, forty-nine of which were the scriptures of the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra*, and the remaining one was a special divine character recording all the information about Fang Lie's body.

Of course, the pain of burning the souls was even more terrifying than that of burning the primordial spirit, and even Fang Lie's memories were gradually fading, as if someone were scraping his brain with a knife!

When all the souls were burned, the divine characters were written on Fang Lie's true spirit, and they eventually merged into a strange divine symbol, "Great Derivation of Forty-Nine, Fifty Returns to One"!

At this point, the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* was nearly complete. In front of Fang Lie's true spirit, a drop of golden blood appeared, accompanied by a grand and vast aura.

Fang Lie's true spirit, like a moth drawn to a flame, shot directly into the drop of blood.

According to the information Fang Lie had, this drop of blood was the innate essence blood of the divine phoenix, which had existed since the beginning of the universe. The final step of the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* was to have the innate true spirit absorb this drop of essence blood, thereby obtaining the divine phoenix's ability to be reborn from the ashes!

However, this step was not easy. In fact, it was the most difficult. Among those who had cultivated the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* over the generations, over a hundred had reached this step, but unfortunately, all of them had failed.

The *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* recorded that to complete this step, one must have great willpower, make a grand vow, and gain the approval of the Heavenly Dao.

But what was the Heavenly Dao? How could one contact it? Fang Lie, a mere beginner at the Qi Sea realm, had no idea!

Things related to the Heavenly Dao were only accessible to the most advanced cultivators. Fang Lie could not understand how the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* required such a high standard right from the start!

The true spirit within the divine phoenix's essence blood was not permanent. In fact, the power of the divine beast's essence blood was constantly draining Fang Lie's true spirit. At most, in the time it took to drink a cup of tea, his true spirit would be completely suppressed by the divine beast's aura, meaning Fang Lie would permanently disappear, with no chance of reincarnation!

Clearly, the hundreds of Mo Sect disciples who had reached this step in the past had all died due to the cursed approval of the Heavenly Dao!

As time passed, Fang Lie's true spirit gradually weakened. He tried several methods, but none of them worked. Whether he stretched his divine consciousness to try to contact the Heavenly Dao or shouted grand vows in his heart, nothing had any effect.

Finally, Fang Lie's true spirit became dim and weak, as if a gentle breath could scatter it.

Despite his extreme weakness, Fang Lie refused to accept his fate. Thinking of his younger siblings waiting for news at home, his father's unjust death, his own wrongful humiliation, and the hateful faces of Yuan Hua and other villains, Fang Lie was unwilling to vanish from the world!

"I refuse to accept this! Why should those who strive for justice suffer humiliation and hardship, while the despicable villains enjoy glory and success? Why should the weak be bullied and humiliated, while the strong trample on the weak and laugh with arrogance? If the heavens consider this the Heavenly Dao, then why did my father teach me righteousness and integrity? I will not believe that my father was wrong; the only thing wrong is this cursed world!"

"Heavens! Heavenly Dao! If you still recognize the righteous path and the persistence of my father and me, please grant me the power to enforce justice, to restore righteousness to the world and virtue to the people!"

As Fang Lie shouted with his last resolve, a mysterious and powerful force suddenly descended!

In the next moment, the divine phoenix's essence blood shone brightly, and in the radiant light, it miraculously merged with Fang Lie's true spirit. As the essence blood was absorbed, Fang Lie's true spirit gradually stabilized but shrank significantly.

In the end, after absorbing all the divine phoenix's essence blood, it became a tiny light point, like a mustard seed, which was the true spirit seed formed after completing the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra*!

The formation of the true spirit seed meant that the initial cultivation of the *Divine Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* was complete!

At the moment the tiny, mustard-seed-like true spirit seed was fully formed, a pitch-black token suddenly appeared.

This token was simple and elegant, made of black wood, covered in cloud patterns, and inscribed with a large seal character "Ren" (benevolence), which was the Mo Sect's Ancestor Token!

After the token appeared, a large black rooster emerged from it, standing on the token. It looked curiously at the true spirit seed in front of it and said excitedly, "Good, good, good! After so many years, someone has finally completed this broken divine technique! This old bird is finally free~"

After saying this, the black rooster, calling itself the old bird, shouted at the true spirit seed, "Kid, how long do you plan to pretend to be dead? Get up now!"