Chapter 367 — The Phoenix Shrine

Yet to this day, apart from ordinary reproduction, Donghuang had no stable method of producing mixed-blood beast tamers.

And the Phoenix Fruit developed by the mistress of this Phoenix Shrine could actually mass-produce, stably, beast tamers bearing the Phoenix bloodline?

Even if the bloodline were weak, being a mixed-blood still conferred certain advantages over ordinary beast tamers!

[I'll have Ginseng Baby and Lin look into this another day. If they can research even bizarre things like the Soulheart Fruit and the Reincarnation Fruit, there's no reason they couldn't develop a mixed-blood fruit...]

[When that time comes, perhaps on the strength of this research, I could even get into the Twelve Bureaus and have a look around.]

Shi Zhao murmured to himself.

"What, have you taken quite an interest in the Phoenix Fruit?" Feng Jue Jieyi asked.

"I am indeed very interested. I wonder if becoming a mixed-blood might improve my health a little..." Shi Jin gave a dry cough, putting on the look of a man short of breath.

"I'm afraid not," Feng Jue Jieyi said. "The Phoenix Fruit is effective only on women, and not on every woman at that. Apart from the hard requirement of virginity, only about one in a million possesses the requisite compatibility."

Shi Jin: "Cough, cough, cough."

He badly wanted to say: [Give me the cultivation method for the fruit, and I'll take it back and help you research and optimise it!]

Cold with fury, trembling with rage—when would male beast tamers finally stand up?

Men could possess the Phoenix bloodline too, plainly enough!

If Shi Jin wished it, he could right now have Crimson Eye use full-level possession to remake him into a mixed-blood.

It was only that Shi Jin feared something untoward might happen to him—red bird feathers all over his body, say, bringing misfortune upon his later years—so he had not yet entertained the notion.

In any case, hand the fruit to Crimson Eye, Ginseng Baby, and Lin to study... who knew, it might really be optimised!

"That is a great pity indeed," Shi Li said.

"But who knows—perhaps in the future the Phoenix Shrine will develop a method to make men into mixed-bloods of the Phoenix Clan." Feng Jue Jieyi smiled faintly. "If by then you are still so inclined, you may come find me."

"Very well," Shi Yan said with a smile.

"Oh, yes." Feng Jue Jieyi looked toward Cen Yu. "This time, besides showing you around the Phoenix Shrine, I would also like to have a beast-taming battle with you—that should count as answering the task those higher-ups set."

"A fight?" Shi Li said. "What you're describing—I doubt it's a simple fight."

"No, it isn't. There are stakes."

"If I win, you go out with me."

Shi Jin: ???

Shi Shuo's hand snapped to the boat's railing. "Then I'm sorry to say—since becoming a beast tamer, I've never lost a single battle. I won't lose."

"And what if I win?" said Shi Tang.

Feng Juejieyi smiled faintly. "If you don't mind, then should you win, I suppose I could go out with you as well."

Shi Li: "I'm rather more interested in the Phoenix Fruit, actually. If I win, could you give me one?"

Feng Juejieyi: ?

So you really did have your eye on the Phoenix Fruit all along?

She fell briefly silent. "The right to dispose of the Phoenix Fruit belongs to my teacher alone. If she agrees, then it shouldn't be a problem."

Shi Li: "But speaking of which—from what I understand, the shrines of the Seven Isles are meant to be dwellings for the worship and propitiation of legendary and mythological creatures, or of the guardian deities of the Isles... This Phoenix Shrine your teacher founded—what exactly does it enshrine and worship?"

"Naturally, the founder of this Phoenix Secret Realm, its master," Feng Juejieyi said. "My teacher has said that this realm changed her fate. Without it, she would already be a dead woman. And so, she is willing to enshrine and worship the realm's master as her guardian deity."

A dozen or so years ago—no, even now—parts of the countryside in the Seven Nations remain deeply feudal.

The founder of the Phoenix Shrine, the legend of the Seven Isles, Feng Jue Jixiang, was born in just such a feudal backwater, a place that had not yet shaken off the mindset of the totem age.

There, it was believed that only by offering a "life sacrifice" to the gods at regular intervals could peace be bought.

At the time, Feng Jue Jixiang and her beast companion were precisely the ones slated to be burned alive—the objects of that sacrifice.

Because she did not wish to die, Feng Jue Jixiang chose to flee.

In those days she was merely an apprentice beast tamer, and the world beyond was perilous beyond measure, savage beasts everywhere. She had already steeled herself to the possibility that she might die in some beast's jaws during her flight.

But in truth, she—still an apprentice tamer—stumbled by accident into the Phoenix Secret Realm while fleeing, and at the same time awakened her bloodline.

By that stroke of fortune, she and her beast companion changed their fates. In only ten years, she became a legend whose name shook the Seven Isles.

Afterward, in order to guard and explore the Phoenix Secret Realm, she founded the Phoenix Shrine.

She herself changed her surname as well, taking her present one: Feng Jue.

Feng Juejieyi knew all this, knew her teacher's story, and so she too sincerely guarded the Phoenix Secret Realm. Though she called her "teacher," Feng Jue Jixiang was in truth not much older than the shrine maidens of the Phoenix Shrine—not much older than Feng Juejieyi herself. She was only in her thirties now, comparable to the legendary Xiao Shuang of the Eastern Huang.

"Unfortunately, because of the severe gaps in the history of the Seven Isles, the origins of that realm can no longer be traced," Feng Juejieyi said with a shake of her head.

Being unable to learn the history of the Phoenix Secret Realm had always been a knot in the heart of the legend Feng Jue.

Shi Zhuo was slightly taken aback.

So what you enshrine and worship, after all, is the Undying Nether Phoenix.

If the Undying Nether Phoenix knew it had unexpectedly gained a whole flock of believers, who could say what it would think...

"I hope that through our worship, one day the master of the Phoenix Secret Realm will appear before us," Feng Juejieyi said. "Through the power of faith."

"That day will come..." Shi Qi murmured.

If the prophecy of the Foreseeing Owl was accurate enough, then one day... Scarlet Eye would likely shatter the Undying Nether Phoenix's seal.

Only... that the Seven Isles should harbor believers of the Undying Nether Phoenix—that was a dangerous sign. Fortunately, there were not many of them.

The power of faith—such a force truly exists.

The first creature to gather the power of faith can no longer be identified, but many totems are capable of creating skills that strengthen themselves through faith. This is also why some totems found nations, fight over territory, and contend for subjects.

Becoming a god through the power of faith is likewise a legend spread far and wide.

Though many powerful totems disdain it—Yun'an, for instance, proved its way purely through force—it cannot be denied that this too is a path to power. The fox god of the Heavenly Fox Nation around the Eastern Huang, for example, is a totem that chiefly gathers the power of faith.

Even the legendary emperors of the Eastern Huang's successive dynasties studied the power of faith.

Some transcendent beings were even born of the power of faith—the Oceanic Sprite, for instance, is a composite of the power of faith and the power of the sea.

So this, too, counts as the third advanced ability totems can study after reaching totem tier—after refining their species and creating skills.

If the Undying Nether Phoenix could also gather the power of faith to grow stronger... then wouldn't this Phoenix Shrine be helping it break its seal, indirectly?