Chapter 3951: Vermillion Bird’s Attacks

The Fire God laughed out loud.

"You can stop your attempts at making him rebel against me. He is intelligent, but he is fully bonded to me through this flute," Ashmaker said. "He cannot defy my words. I could ask him to battle the current Matriarch and he would happily do so."

The fiery bird turned toward Ashmaker.

"Don’t you dare make me do that," the bird said.

"Of course not. I’m not stupid enough to go looking for trouble with the Heavenly Beasts," the Fire God said before turning toward the crowd. "They are here to witness your skills, by the way. Go ahead and show it to them."

The phoenix looked around and nodded.

"Very well."

Feng Gingmai’s fiery body suddenly took flight, flying into an arc in the sky, and stayed there for a few seconds. Down below, Ashmaker spoke to Alex once again.

"It appears you are familiar with the Vermilion Birds. That should make this easier," the man said. "You are aware that the Vermilion Birds have their own bloodline skills, do you not?"

He pointed to the sky and the flying bird suddenly came down, its entire body leaving behind wisps of flames.

"Vermilion Bird’s Fire Form," Ashmaker said out loud for all to hear. "In this form, the bird is completely incorporeal and cannot be harmed at all."

As the bird arrived below, it suddenly returned to its wisp-less self, with a talon stretched out in front of it, coming for the Fire God.

The talon burned red hot and Alex almost saw a visible red mark appear from the air itself heating up. The attack crashed onto the Fire God, sending out a wave of powerful flame and heat that nearly knocked Alex down.

Thankfully, his robe defended him from the flames.

"Vermilion Bird’s Scorching Talon," Ashmaker said.

The phoenix landed beside him and opened its wings wide. Suddenly, the entire surroundings turned into a fiery blaze, with the heat slowly radiating out into the audience, all the way to the very top. There was an area around the bird that could simply not be approached without a fear of being burned to cinders.

"Vermilion Bird’s Burning Domain," the Fire God said. "And last but not least, Vermilion Bird’s Burning Spirit."

As soon as the man said those words, a wave of fire spread out from the Vermilion Bird, hitting everyone along the way. Whoever it hit, they were suddenly struck with a mental attack that gave them a feeling of their mind itself burning from the flames.

It was a weak attack, meant to do nothing more than illustrate what the bird was capable of. And that in itself was more than enough for everyone to see what the bird was capable of.

"My phoenix is the spirit of the Celestial that had died and was brought back to become something I could use," Ashmaker said. "It’s not something made from a Primordial, but who here can claim something made from a Celestial isn’t strong enough in the first place? Especially in the right hands."

The audience nodded in acknowledgement. Ashmaker’s showing had gotten him quite a bit of praise and cheers, especially from those that hadn’t seen him use the flute before. Having an artifact that bonded one to the fire spirit of a dead celestial phoenix was incredible.

And from what they saw, the spirit had enough intelligence to be a fighter all on its own. That made it even better.

Ashmaker turned toward Alex. "So, what do you think?"

Alex watched the phoenix with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face as he thought through what he had just seen.

’It’s quite strong,’ he thought. ’Easily stronger than Ray if he were to be brought out.’

Inside of his Soul Space, Ray was stronger than most people in the audience, but outside, he couldn’t even compete against Divine Domain realm cultivators. As such, Alex had to take a different approach.

"It’s not bad," he said. "Quite incredible, actually. Though, I do have one question."

The Fire God raised an eyebrow. "Ask away."

"Can your phoenix grow stronger?"

Ashmaker narrowed his eyes. "Depending on if I get stronger, I can allow Gingmai to use more of his power by refining him even more."

"Depending on if you get stronger," Alex said. "And forgive me for asking this, but how often do you break through these days? Have you broken through in the last decade?"

Ashmaker remained silent.

"Last century? Last millennium? Last—"

"Get to the point," Ashmaker said in a not-so-calm voice.

Alex smiled. "That is my point. Your phoenix cannot grow stronger without you growing stronger."

"So what?" Ashmaker asked. "What difference does that make?"

"It makes all the difference," Alex said. "You see, unlike yours, my phoenix can get stronger without me."

Alex turned toward the audience. "Come to me, Scarlet."

Scarlet was already halfway down the stage when people turned to look toward her. She wore a bright red robe, but that was only visible for a split second before she transformed back into her massive phoenix form and took to the skies.

Phoenix flames burned from her body, a small attempt at hiding the black feathers upon her. However, that did not work out as well as they expected. People could see the black feathers and many commented on it as well.

Even Ashmaker let out a snort. "Your bird is impure. It is not a true Heavenly Beast."

Alex smiled. "Is that so?"

He turned his gaze to the sky and called out loud.

"Scarlet. Show them whether you are a phoenix or not."

"Right away," Scarlet said and quickly looked down from the sky, pointing her wing feathers out before her, directly at Alex.

Suddenly, powerful energy gathered before her as bright light like that of the sun formed in a tiny point. The power it radiated was strong enough to scare a new Divinity.

Feng Gingmai watched Scarlet from next to Ashmaker and gasped as he recognized the attack right away.

Fiery Shard of the Primordial Sun.