This ear-piercing cry stunned Lin Jin’s senses for a moment.
All of Maple City had also heard this earsplitting shriek.
“What’s that sound?” Outside the cave, Bai Zhenkong wore a frightened expression, and his forehead was covered in sweat. And yet, no one could answer his question.
Everyone looked just as lost.
However, they were sure that this was no regular beast because Ye Yuzhou could clearly sense his pet beast’s fear.
This had never happened before.
“Just what is Appraiser Lin doing down there?” The mentors of the Friar Association seemed startled.
Following the bird’s cry was a brief moment of silence. Then, a refreshing breeze abruptly swept past their faces.
However, what came after that was a wave of heat that was multiple times hotter than the heatwave they experienced earlier.
It was as if the entire Maple City was being roasted over a fire.
“Quick, look over there!” Someone with keen observation pointed to an abnormality in the distant sky.
The crowd looked over, visibly baffled.
From a distance, a massive shadow was gradually making its way over like an ominous raincloud. The shadow moved swiftly and soon, it was so close that everyone was able to make
It was no cloud. It was a flock of birds so large that it was practically countless.
So many birds had gathered that it blotted out the sun.
They heard all sorts of chirps and tweets. A rough estimation told them there were about a hundred thousand birds of all breeds imaginable. Included in the mix were common birds that could be found everywhere and also rare creatures. There were even huge birds that had wingspans of up to ten feet. It was a breathtaking sight.
No one, including the older generations, had ever seen such a display before.
Instead of flying past the city, these birds started circling above Maple City in a dense formation, chirping as they did so.
Down in the fire cave, a firebird with a long, flowing tail flew up from the flames, leaving a silk-like blaze in its wake. From the looks of it, it was a phoenix.
Even Lin Jin was excited.
Success!
The ashes of the dead phoenix had been condensed by his spells and then refined with exotic fire. The outcome was a successful rebirth when it finally achieved Nirvana in the flames.
After being reborn, a phoenix’s strength would increase considerably so even without evolving, this phoenix was considered top-class among Rank 5 beasts.
The most excited among them was definitely Zhao Jingyan.
She couldn’t stop her hands from trembling and no words could describe how exhilarated she felt. Just as Curator had told her, her phoenix would be reborn after bathing in flames.
It really came true.
Curator was a God.
“Miss Zhao, please merge the phoenix inside you with the Beastmaster Scroll. The phoenix’s fire is too strong, this cave might not be able to handle it.” Lin Jin wasn’t joking. The phoenix’s flames had begun to melt the walls of this cave because, strictly speaking, phoenix fire was also a type of exotic flame.
This phoenix fire now had green blaze mixed in it, so although the phoenix didn’t evolve, its firepower had grown multiple times stronger than it once was.
The same went for its combat power.
Zhao Jingyan nodded. She was finally convinced that she would heed Lin Jin’s instructions. To her, both Curator and Lin Jin were peerless experts.
Right after Zhao Jingyan put her phoenix away, Lin Jin made a grabbing gesture, like he was seizing something from the flames.
It was the fire amulet he had embedded in the phoenix egg.
The Vulcan Edict was scribbled on it and the amulet itself seemed like a piece of glowing ember. To their surprise, Lin Jin was able to grab it with his bare hands, and that was because he had gained a lot from this incident too.
This fire amulet was created by Lin Jin, imbued with his psyche. Since he also possessed experience from handling dragon fire, the flaming amulet was unable to burn him.
These flames were a part of him after all.
“Condense!” A flaming amulet was impossible to carry around so he had to change its form. Lin Jin extended his other hand to grab something from the flames.
It was a tiny chip.
A fragment of the cracked phoenix egg.
As the shell was condensed from phoenix ashes, when Lin Jin crushed it in his grasp, the fragment shattered into ashes too. Lin Jin chanted the condensation formula and forcefully combined the ashes with this fire amulet.
The flames began to disappear but instead of being extinguished, it was sealed inside the amulet. By now, Lin Jin’s forehead was covered in sweat. He wasn’t an expert who had undergone a century of cultivation like Insect Taoist, whose supply of mana was near limitless. Lin Jin’s foundation in that aspect was rather weak and that fact was revealed as he was using the immortal binding rope. Insect Taoist was able to control it effortlessly but it was a taxing process for Lin Jin.
He was giving his all to condense this fire amulet. For the sake of speeding up the condensation with his own blood, he had to break the skin on his palms in the process.
Fortunately, he succeeded.
Instead of looking down at his palms, Lin Jin closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He couldn’t help it as he felt so light-headed. Without this break, he might have blacked out on the spot. Oblivious to this, Zhao Jingyan merely thought that he was either deep in thought or was deliberately behaving this way so that she would keep her distance. Shang’er on the other hand noticed something off with Lin Jin’s behavior immediately. She darted over from the tunnel to prop him up.
“Master Lin!” Shang’er looked worried. Although she too feared the flames, she couldn’t care for that right now. Thankfully, by releasing her dense monster energy, she was able to stand up against the heat.
A little while later, Lin Jin regained his senses.
Opening his eyes to see Shang’er, Lin Jin smiled, “Thanks!”
But even with his eyes open, Shang’er refused to allow Lin Jin to stand on his own. While she remained silent, it was clear in her expression how worried she was.
Lin Jin opened up his palms and in his hand was an exotic fire amulet that appeared to be made of gold and wood. Despite its average appearance, it was actually a powerful magic tool.
This was a real magic tool that Lin Jin crafted himself.
From now on, with this fire amulet, all fire-based spells like Dragonfire would see a substantial improvement. Lin Jin had recycled the phoenix’s ashes with everything he had on hand.
It was at this point that Zhao Jingyan noticed how Lin Jin almost fainted over. She immediately felt embarrassed, and she wanted to go over to support him too, but seeing how Shang’er was already there, it felt awkward to approach him so she asked about his condition instead.
“I’m alright!”
Lin Jin looked down at Xiao Huo, who was still inside the flames. However, this glance made Lin Jin gasp.
The initially violent green blaze had almost eighty percent of its might sucked away by the phoenix Nirvana process. Only one-fifth of the green blaze remained now.
“I knew it!” The suspicion Lin Jin held in the beginning was now confirmed. The museum had mentioned that a tremendous amount of fire spirit energy would be swallowed up for a phoenix’s rebirth.
A normal earth-fire spirit stream wouldn’t have been enough and the same went for intermediate ones. Only a premium fire spirit stream could support the process.
Even if they had an exotic fire source, they needed one that was on the scale of a premium earth-fire spirit stream.
