Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 52: Chapter 52 — Evolution

Chapter 52 — Evolution

Victor remained seated beside the Spirit Pond, his legs crossed as he continued drawing the dense Spiritual Energy surrounding the water into his body. The clearing remained quiet around him, protected by the strange wall of bamboo-like plants and flowering vines that surrounded the pond. For roughly twenty minutes, Victor remained completely focused on cultivation, guiding the energy through his meridians while the Black Phoenix Flame refined it and sent it toward his Spiritual Core.

As the minutes passed, however, Victor gradually began noticing something unusual.

The Spiritual Energy wasn’t simply increasing his cultivation. He could feel it moving through his entire body, spreading through his flesh, his muscles, and his meridians. Something about the energy surrounding the Spirit Pond was gradually changing his constitution, nourishing his body in a way ordinary cultivation hadn’t before. The effects were real, and Victor could clearly feel them happening, but there was one problem.

They were slow.

Way too slow.

Victor slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the pond. The crystal-clear water stretched silently before him, its surface reflecting the surrounding forest while an incredible amount of Spiritual Energy remained hidden beneath it. He had been sitting beside the pond and absorbing the energy naturally leaking into the surrounding area, but the thought suddenly occurred to him that there might be a much more effective way of doing things.

What would happen if he got closer?

Or better yet...

What would happen if he went into it?

The thought appeared randomly, but once it entered his mind, Victor couldn’t stop thinking about it. If simply sitting beside the Spirit Pond was capable of slowly nourishing his Core and changing his body, then entering the water should logically increase those effects. The idea began as nothing more than a passing thought, but within moments, it had become something Victor intended to test.

He stood up.

Victor walked toward the edge of the Spirit Pond, his eyes remaining fixed on the clear blue water. For a moment, he simply stood there. He didn’t spend much time questioning whether it was dangerous or considering every possible consequence. After everything he had experienced in this world, Victor had learned that sometimes the only way to discover what something did was to actually try it.

So he jumped in.

The moment his body entered the water, Victor realized that he had made a mistake.

Pain exploded through him.

His concentration immediately shattered as a jagged sensation surged through every part of his body. Victor’s eyes widened beneath the surface as Spiritual Energy flooded into him with a force he hadn’t expected. The pain was unlike anything he had felt before. It didn’t come from a single wound or injury. Instead, it seemed to exist everywhere at once, spreading through his meridians and racing through every part of his body.

Victor screamed.

The longer he remained inside the water, the worse it became.

His body instinctively wanted to escape, but something else was already happening inside him. The Black Phoenix Flame had reacted to the enormous concentration of Spiritual Energy surrounding him, and the moment it did, the flame became unbelievably greedy.

Energy began rushing into Victor’s body.

The sensation was almost like a vacuum pulling everything toward a single point. The Spiritual Energy contained within the Spirit Pond was drawn toward him at an incredible rate, entering his body before being pulled deep into his Dantian. The Black Phoenix Flame absorbed it greedily, refining the energy before cycling it through Victor’s body again and again. Each cycle sent more refined energy through his meridians and toward his Spiritual Core.

His Spiritual Core was healing.

The long fracture that had remained across its surface began closing. The damaged edges slowly pulled themselves together as enormous amounts of refined Spiritual Energy entered the Core. At first, the process was gradual, but the more energy the Black Phoenix Flame refined and pushed toward it, the faster the fracture began disappearing.

His Core was connected to something far deeper than an ordinary part of his body. The damage it had suffered had affected him on a fundamental level, and now, as that damage was repaired, Victor experienced every part of the process.

Then the Core itself began changing.

Victor’s Spiritual Core had previously been roughly the size of a golf ball, but as the endless supply of refined energy continued flowing into it, its size gradually increased. New layers formed around its exterior, strengthening its structure as the Core.

By the time the transformation began slowing, Its exterior had become smoother and more vibrant, possessing a glossy appearance that reflected the enormous changes taking place within him.

The fracture was completely gone.

But the transformation still wasn’t finished.

The changes occurring within his body were so fundamental that Victor wouldn’t understand their full significance for a very long time.

By the time three to four hours had passed, Victor’s body had been completely changed. Spiritual Core had completely recovered from the damage that had once slowed his cultivation.

For several moments, everything finally began calming down.

Then Victor’s bloodline reacted.

The Black Phoenix Flame had slowed its insane absorption of energy, but something deeper within Victor had awakened. His previous awakening had only involved a small percentage of the Black Phoenix bloodline.

But Victor’s bloodline was more than an inheritance.

It was part of him.

It existed physically within his body.

Most human cultivators focused primarily on the Spirit and the Soul. The Spirit was connected to the Spiritual Core, while the Soul was connected to the mind and consciousness. Physical cultivation was usually left to beasts.

The Black Phoenix bloodline began absorbing the energy of the Spirit Pond greedily. Victor didn’t consciously control the process. His bloodline simply reacted on instinct, drawing the Spiritual Energy toward him at an incredible rate as his physical body continued absorbing the benefits.

His path was becoming different.

Victor was still human.

But physically, he was slowly developing traces of something else.

Something connected to the Black Phoenix.

The Spirit Pond’s energy continued disappearing at an insane rate.

Then, after several moments, the Black Phoenix Flame moved again.

Its greedy absorption finally slowed, and instead of continuing to pull more and more energy into Victor’s body, the flame began transferring some of the refined energy toward his newly healed Spiritual Core.

Victor’s Core absorbed it.

His cultivation began rising.

The energy gathered within him, filling the Core as more refined Spiritual Energy continued entering it. The pressure gradually increased until Victor’s body trembled beneath the surface of the water.

Then the barrier broke.

Victor finally entered Rank Seven.

The breakthrough sent another wave of energy through his body, but almost immediately, the Black Phoenix Flame began slowing down. More energy remained within the Spirit Pond, and his bloodline clearly wanted to absorb it, but something instinctive within the Black Phoenix Flame recognized that Victor’s Core could not safely handle unlimited amounts of energy.

The absorption slowed.

The flow of energy toward his Core became controlled.

Victor’s cultivation gradually stabilized as the overwhelming changes inside his body finally began coming to an end.

Then everything stopped.

The Spirit Pond became still once again.

Victor remained beneath the surface, his body exhausted after hours of unimaginable pain. Deep within him, the Black Phoenix Flame flickered quietly.

His bloodline had awakened further.

And his Spiritual Core, once fractured was whole again.

Victor had finally reached Rank Seven.