Tang Zhan was in love with the feeling, and he could give away anything to forever have this addictive feeling.
He took a grip on himself and decided to find where this warmth was coming from. So he closed his eyes, during the time he was basking in this feeling his senses had heightened and he could almost instantly locate the direction of the warmth.
"from above?" Tang Zhan looked up at the clouds where the mountain had pierced hesitatingly, he didn't want to go because of exhaustion but at the same time he could feel his cells getting refreshed and consolidated.
From an unknown source within his body , energy burst out through out his body, wiping off the feeling of exhaustion and replacing it with determination.
This determination made Tang Zhan take his first step unshakably, with his head high and his shoulders broad, he began running up the tiring mountain.
Jumping, sidestepping, weaving, rolling, and avoiding obstacles, Tang Zhan passed the clouds, steps after another he ran upward.
His pace was akin to that of an antelope, galloping his way up. After a long awaited amount of time he finally got to the peak but stopped.
Right before his eyes was a cleanly chopped off smooth piece of land floating above the flat mountain top.
"what the!" He instinctively stepped back out of fear of the floating land falling on him. He lost his footing and slid down a bit before regaining himself.
As he stood still, looking at the floating land in awe and bewilderment, he could also tell that the feeling he felt before was definitely on that piece of land, but how was he going to get there.
Sudden light immediately brightened the already bright sky more, as flames covered the floating piece of land that looked like two clawed hands.
"argh!" Tang Zhan instinctively shielded his eyes from the overly bright flames, but from the flames he felt the same feeling.
All the pent up exhaustion from his body were washed away, as the warmth seeping in his body from the flames calmed his nerves.
His cells that were hyperactive and distributing energy immediately stopped, and the dangerously hot flame became cold water to him, freezing him up on the spot.
'child come up~' A sweet ethereal voice called out in his head, the sweetness of the voice at first made him forget he heard a voice, but because of his strong will, he regained control of his lost body.
"who said that? show yourself!"
With his inverted sight, Tang Zhan could see that from within the flames a energy seeped out, creating even more branches, and these branches entwine with each other.
The energy became thicker and stretched down to the flat mountain top, then it became a flaming stairs for Tang Zhan to climb up
' don't be scared child~, come up~.'. The voice said again, this time Tang Zhan couldn't escape the hypnotic prowess from the voice.
He started climbing the stairs, but what surprised him was the fact that although he felt hypnotized, he knew the hypnosis didn't work, but still he climbed the stair willingly, which means deep within him he wanted to listen to the voice.
Within a shirt span of one minute, he got to the top, and his eyes widened in shock and confusion.
'how can the cut off peak of a mountain be far bigger than what it was cut from?'
The flat mountain top he stood on before he climbed the stairs was maximum as wide as the space in a prison room, but what was before his eyes was at the very least as wide as three large stadiums.
He looked around and saw that the space was mostly filled with all that glitters, and right in the middle of it all was a creature, so big it took up two third of the whole area.
It looked like a giant bird and it looked like it was made of flame but Tang Zhan could see the feathers on its wings comprised of different beautiful colours.
The bird was also surrounded by three smaller versions of the bird, although they were small they were actually taller than Tang Zhan by at least a foot.
' A phoenix with it's children ' He immediately recognized it and didn't need his system to inform him, because he had met it once, but this one was obviously bigger than the one he was looking for.
"why did you call me up here?" Tang Zhan questioned the phoenix without any delay, he knew that after meeting the phoenix there was no way out again, even if he jumped down the mountain, if the phoenix wanted he wouldn't be able to escape through death, so he just accepted reality and questioned the phoenix.
"is that the tone you use to greet your mother~, after so many years has passed~" the phoenix said in an annoyed voice.
Tang Zhan wished he was drinking something so he could spit it out, "mother? you, my mother? that's totally impossible, why would I even have a bird for a mother!"
Tang Zhan said forgetting the fear he had for the creature before him. An emotion came over him, he was feeling sad but confusingly he knew it wasn't his emotion.
The three phoenixes also felt sadness, and they knew it was coming from their mother, so they decided to remove the trash that was making their mother sad.
As the three phoenixes lunged at Tang Zhan, he could see his whole life flash before his eyes.
[Quest;
survive at least two seconds from the phoenixes before death.
Reward: instant level up, revive from the dead]
Even his system knew of the danger behind this phoenixes and it was being overly serious, and was trying to tell him he would only at most be able to survive two seconds with the phoenixes.
Just as the flames from the three almost touched him a wide blanket of flaming feathers swooshed in and carried the three away.
"come on~, is that how you treat your senior brother~" The mother phoenix said as she tickled her children.
Tang Zhan who was drenched in cold sweat, wanted to say another word but decided he against it and instead picked his next words meticulously.
"please ma'am, tell me you are joking with all your claims, please!"
"I'm not~, you are my first child and you are at least more than ten thousand years old~"
"ha... hahaha... hahahahaha...!" Tang Zhan began to laugh hysterically, like he had lost it.
"ten, ten thousand years old, ten thousand years old, me! I just can't believe this, why should I even believe this, I have a mother and father back in earth, I also have a sister that resembles me,..."
The phoenix and her three children watched Tang Zhan as he muttered to himself, while rocking himself on his feet, obviously having a panic attack. All the fear he kept within him since the time he met the phoenix and the sudden revelation, he couldn't stop himself from having a panic attack.
The phoenix smiled lovingly and longingly, then she breathed at Tang Zhan, immediately he stopped, he wasn't having panic attack again.
"thank you mum- sorry I mean thank you! thank you!" Tang Zhan shied his face away from the phoenix, who just snickered at his childish antics.
The phoenix wanted to say something but suddenly snapped her head in the other direction, her smile instantly wiping off her face.
"son~, I'm sorry but I have to go now~, I'm not scared of what is coming I can leave in an instant~, but I need you to leave now~" The phoenix and her children along with the floating land became blurry.
Tang Zhan lost control of his legs and knelt down, only for him to slip through to the other side. The phoenix blew a gust of wind at him, and he found out he was gliding downward slowly.
"I see that you have awoken ours and your father's bloodline~, keep it up and when you get stronger come back home to the peak realm~, we'll all be waiting for you and your father's return~, goodbye for now son~"
'ours and my father's bloodline' Tang Zhan looked at the phoenix one more time before she disappeared, and that was when he saw it, pure white eyes that only one person in the world could have, himself.
'why did she have like my eyes? what does ours and my father's bloodline mean'
Tang Zhan was thinking about all this when a stronger gust of wind, made him tumble downward faster, but after a while the former wind made him glide back again.
That was when he saw another phoenix where he just left, the phoenix looked and acted proud as it flew, and looked around like it was searching for something.
The phoenix flame was a darker shade of red, and it was actually the one he was looking for before.
'my mother is even beautiful than him, no no no, what am I thinking,' Tang Zhan shook his head and hoped the phoenix wouldn't see him.
'how am I even able to differentiate between phoenix genders, argh! I am messed up'
' I'm sure I felt that bi**ch energy signature here, how come she isn't here' The phoenix looked around and spotted Tang Zhan, but he proudly overlooked the speck of dust.
As soon as he landed safely, he began running back in the direction he came from.
"I better log off, it's starting to get too dangerous"
...