Rumble... Rumble...
Under the pouring rain and the flashes of lightning in the sky, a man in his thirties hung onto a tree root that jutted out from the side of the cliff. He swallowed as he looked down, where there was only darkness covering the bottom of the ravine. "For god's sake! Fate has never been kind to me and always gives me too many trials! The cultivators have pursued me up to this point, and now I'm running out of energy to climb back up."
Crack... Crack...
"Crap!" The man cursed as the tree roots began to break, and he made his best effort to reach another root on his left side, which was slightly further away.
Before the man could grab the root, the root he was holding was finally snapped in half, which caused him to fall into the dark abyss. "Shit! Am I going to die today?"
To the man's surprise, a black wind vortex appeared out of nowhere and supported his body, bringing him slowly to land at the bottom of the ravine. When he reached the bottom of the ravine, he could clearly see the surrounding area. He then looked up, but darkness covered his vision.
"What the hell is going on with this place? I can't see down from up there, and vice versa, yet this area isn't dark at all." The man checked the surrounding area and found a cave. "Sigh! I'll rest in that cave first to recover my energy, and I'll fly back up after it's full again."
The man walked into the cave without thinking twice, but as soon as he entered, a large rock suddenly fell and sealed the cave door.
The man tried to push the huge rock to no avail, so he ignored it and looked into the inside of the cave again. "Other people might be afraid in this kind of situation, but I'm different from them, and I've been to too many terrifying places before. Since there's no way out, I'll check the end of this cave, and I might find some treasure inside."
A few minutes later, the man arrived at the end of the cave, where he found only a mostly destroyed statue. He attempted to examine the statue, paying attention to the two large wings on either side.
"Hmm? Somehow, I feel like I've seen these kinds of wings before, but I can't recall the details." A sharp edge of the statue grazed the man's finger, causing his blood to spill onto it. "Forget it! I should rest now, and I will leave this place as soon as possible."
The man turned to go to the side of the cave, but the statue suddenly glowed black, and a giant black bird spirit emerged from it. He turned to face the statue again, gazing at the bird. "A dark phoenix?"
{A million years have passed since I last met a human, but a weakling awakened me from my deep slumber with his nasty blood.}
The man furrowed his forehead. "Hey! Dead bird! I may be a weakling, but I'm not a coward! You will never be able to wake up without my nasty blood, so you shouldn't insult me. Otherwise, I will destroy your statue, and you will die for good."
{Arrogant weakling!}
"Humph!" The man snorted in response to the giant black bird's release of its killing intent and retaliated with his own. "You are mistaken if you think I am afraid of you! I have met many living beings who are much more terrifying than you! You are a mere dead bird without a physical body, and you have been sleeping for a million years. Therefore, you don't need to intimidate me with your pointless killing intent."
The giant black bird fiercely glared at the man. {All right, I give up; you are not a weakling like I thought.}
The man immediately withdrew his killing intent. "How did your soul get trapped here? You are a dark phoenix, so you should be able to be reborn, right?"
{If that bitch hadn't sealed my soul into this damn statue, I could have been reborn long ago.} The young man stared at the dark phoenix with a curious gaze, but it didn't seem to want to talk about it. {Why did you come to this ravine? What are you looking for here?}
"Did you think I wanted to come to this gloomy ravine?" The man then sat down and leaned against the remains of the statue. "You are a phoenix, and you will continue to be reborn after you die, so you shouldn't be afraid of death, right? Unlike you, I am afraid of death. I am aware that my talent is not as outstanding as the geniuses, and I will reach my limit one day, which means my lifespan will also end. Therefore, I continue to search for ways to exceed my limits, and I always go to dangerous places to find the way. Unfortunately, my efforts have never borne fruit, and I have almost reached my limit now."
The dark phoenix looked at him for quite some time. {What if I can give you an opportunity to surpass your limits? Do you dare to risk everything and take the opportunity?"
The man looked at the dark phoenix and asked, "Can you really give me an opportunity to surpass my limits?"
{I can give you many opportunities, but my method is not easy and risky. You can surpass your limits if you use it, and you have the chance to become the strongest.}
The man immediately stood up and stared at the dark phoenix. "Please explain."
{First thing first, you have to merge your soul with mine, or else you won't be able to use my method.} The man raised his eyebrows. {Second, only death can help you surpass your limits, just like the Phoenix. Every time we die and are reborn, we will become stronger than before, but we have to repeat our cultivation from scratch.}
The man frowned because he didn't want to die, but the dark phoenix actually said that he had to die to be able to surpass his limit. "Are you kidding me? Since I'm a human and not a Phoenix like you, I cannot possibly undergo a rebirth like you."
{What a fool! Naturally, I understand that you are unable to undergo the rebirth process like me, and you still need to undergo the reincarnation process multiple times. However, my soul can preserve your soul, preventing it from regressing, and I can assist you in retaining all your memories from all your lifetimes. In addition, you will inherit my abilities, and you will become stronger than any cultivator.}
The dark phoenix's offer tempted the man, but he felt that the offer was too good to be true. "What is your real purpose? Why do you want to merge your soul with mine?"
{Just like you, I also want to exceed my limits, but I can't do it myself. Unlike humans, a beast like me takes a long time to grow up, and I can do it faster if I merge my soul with yours.}
The man understands the life cycle of a beast, but he feels that the dark phoenix has ulterior motives. "Since you put it that way, there's a possibility that you can separate your soul from mine, right?"
{Despite merging my soul with yours, I have the ability to separate our souls whenever I desire. After that, I will go through my rebirth process and become a new individual, distinct from you.}
'This bird wants to take advantage of me, huh?' The man muttered in his heart. "Will I lose your abilities if our souls separate?"
{We will not go through reincarnation once, but we will go through it several times. That way, my abilities will be embedded in your soul forever, and they will not disappear even if our souls part. Instead, we will have a deep bond after we go through the rebirth process many times, and we will be partners for life.}
"Partners for life?"
The dark phoenix didn't want to answer that. {Do you dare to take the risk?}
The man thought about the offer for a while. "All right, I agree to your offer. I don't care about the future risks, and I am determined to surpass my limit, so I will do whatever it takes. Anyway, how should I address you? My name is Zhuo Fengyun."
{You can call me Feng.} The dark phoenix then warned him. {A human reincarnation is different from a phoenix rebirth, so you can't commit suicide because it will affect your karma, and you will have problems in the process if your bad karma is too much.}
Zhuo Fengyun grinned. "I already have a solution for that, so we can start the process now."
The dark phoenix flapped one of its wings instead. In an instant, the wall behind it opened, and Zhuo Fengyun could see two items there. {Take them and drip your blood on them.}
Zhuo Fengyun immediately took the two items, which were a black ring and a black pagoda. "Are these two items yours? Why didn't the person who sealed your soul here take them?"
{I don't want to talk about that bitch for now, and you will understand everything later.}
Zhuo Fengyun dripped his blood onto the two items, and both of them glowed black. The black pagoda disappeared into his body, and the black ring circled his ring finger. "Let's do it, Feng."
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