"Teacher."
Lin Xia looked at his own hands, his voice carrying uncontrollable excitement mixed with a trace of disbelief and daze.
"I feel… I feel that my body now… is at least comparable to a Soul Ancestor! No—perhaps even Soul King–level defense and strength! This is absolutely not an illusion! It's a genuine, tangible improvement!"
Lin Xia attempted to mobilize his Soul Power. The fluctuations of a Level 20 Soul Grandmaster were clearly perceptible, yet that Soul Power seemed somewhat "weak" when compared to this powerful physical body.
As if Soul Power were merely one of the energy sources driving this "divine weapon," rather than the core of its strength.
"S-Soul King–level physical body?!"
Lou Gao felt as though his worldview was being smashed and reforged again and again.
He forged divine weapons for a living and understood better than anyone how difficult it was to strengthen the physical body.
In Soul Master cultivation, physical strength usually increased passively along with one's Soul Power Level. But someone like Lin Xia whose Soul Power was only at Level 20, yet whose body had leapt across several tiers to reach Soul King standards, was simply unheard of!
This refinement by the Sun Essence was downright heaven-defying!
"T-this… this Sun Essence… it's far too domineering!"
Lou Gao circled Lin Xia twice, looking at him as if he were a peerless divine weapon, his eyes filled with both amazement and lingering fear.
"Ancient records say it contains world-scorching power and can temper divine weapons, but they never mentioned that it could be used to refine living beings… let alone refine them into this! Your life force, brat… is outrageously tough!"
"Larvi! Larvitar!"
Seeing Lin Xia display his strength, Larvitar hopped over excitedly and forcefully slapped its now darkened, heavy magma armor etched with flowing runes with its small claws, producing a dull metallic impact, as if saying:
"Look, I've grown stronger too! My armor is super hard now!"
Lin Xia smiled and rubbed Larvitar's head. It comfortably squinted its crimson eyes.
Watching Larvitar's Fire Fang and recalling Lin Xia's seemingly innate Fire Punch, the shock on Lou Gao's face gradually gave way to deeper contemplation.
He stroked the stubble on his chin, his gaze shifting repeatedly between the phoenix mark on Lin Xia's arm and the one on Larvitar, before finally settling on the depths of the mineral vein where the ancient formation had once appeared.
"No… Lin Xia!"
Lou Gao's voice dropped, carrying an unprecedented gravity.
"No matter how domineering the Sun Essence is, it's still a dead object—an energy mineral. It can provide power, but… how could it possibly allow such an utterly unreasonable reconstruction and strengthening of your physical body…"
He paused, a trace of reverence flashing through his eyes as he pointed at the phoenix mark on Lin Xia's arm.
"All of this… I fear… is related to Him! That flaming giant bird! It was His power guiding the Sun Essence, using methods beyond our understanding, to transform you and even… grant you these 'talents'!"
Lin Xia's heart shook violently. Lou Gao's words struck like a thunderclap, instantly clarifying his previously vague suspicions.
Lin Xia stared at the lifelike phoenix mark on his arm, which radiated faint warmth and majesty. Feeling the flame power flowing within him, born of the same source as the Sun Essence yet far deeper and purer, a bold thought capable of overturning all common sense of the Douluo Continent sprouted wildly in his mind.
"Teacher."
Lin Xia's voice carried a barely perceptible tremor, yet his eyes shone brilliantly. He looked straight at Lou Gao, then, after carefully organizing his words, spoke directly.
"You're right. The Sun Essence was merely fuel. What truly shaped all of this… was the power of that flaming giant bird. And Teacher… I suspect… that it wasn't some powerful Soul Beast at all…"
Lin Xia took a deep breath, as if mustering all his strength to utter that earth-shattering word.
"I suspect… it was a god! This place… is very likely a god's inheritance ground!"
"G-God?!"
Lou Gao was struck as if by lightning. His burly body swayed violently, nearly losing its balance.
The weight of that word was simply too great!
On the Douluo Continent, gods were long relegated to legend—ultimate existences pursued by Soul Masters their entire lives, yet forever out of reach.
And now, that word was being spoken so firmly by his young disciple?
"L-Lin Xia! Do… do you even realize what you're saying?"
Lou Gao's voice wavered, filled with disbelief and immense trepidation.
"A god? Th-that's impossible! Those are beings of legend! How can you be so sure?"
"Teacher!"
Lin Xia's tone was decisive, his thoughts extraordinarily clear.
"Think about what you just described! Think about that flaming giant bird!"
"Absolute suppression at the level of life itself! Just a single gaze from its projection was enough to make you, a Soul Sage, lose all will to resist and feel your soul scatter! That is absolutely not something a Soul Beast can achieve!"
"Reconstructing the physical body! Reversing life and death! Instantly reshaping Larvitar and me from carbonized, blasted-apart skeletons into even stronger flesh-and-blood bodies, and granting us marks and talents!"
"This already involves a realm that Soul Masters cannot reach! Is this an ability that a Soul Beast or even a human Title Douluo could possibly possess?"
"It could effortlessly mobilize, purify, and take away the energy of all the ten-thousand-year Soul Beast corpses! It may even be that… it is the true ruler of this volcanic region and this Sun Essence mineral vein!"
"That cry which triggered the Soul Beast riot was very likely a manifestation of a fragment of its slumbering will!"
"And this mark!"
Lin Xia raised his arm. The crimson-gold phoenix seemed as if it might spread its wings and soar at any moment.
"The essence of the power contained within it far surpasses that of the Sun Essence. It carries an aura that is… ancient, sacred, and primordial!"
"Which of these traits does not match the descriptions of 'deities' recorded in ancient texts? Which aspect of the power it displayed is something the mortal world could ever hope to reach?"
Lin Xia's gaze burned with intensity, sharp as if piercing through layers of fog.
"Teacher, do you remember the fragment of Records and Studies of Ancient Exotic Beasts that you gave me? There was an extremely vague passage in it, dismissed as absurd legend."
"'In the far south lies a land of flames, where a divine bird dwells. Its form resembles a phoenix. It governs the source of all flames and presides over the land of nirvana…' Though the description was unclear, when combined with the flaming giant bird you witnessed, this volcanic region, and our nirvana-like rebirth experience… Teacher, I am almost certain that flaming giant bird was the legendary—Phoenix God!"
"The Phoenix God…"
Lou Gao murmured the sacred and weighty name. Lin Xia's orderly, tightly reasoned analysis struck his entrenched worldview like repeated hammer blows, shattering it piece by piece.
Indeed—aside from a god, what other existence could accomplish all of this?
Resurrection from death, reversal of natural laws, the granting of marks, the bestowal of innate talents, this was simply beyond the scope of any mortal power!
As a Soul Sage, Lou Gao had personally experienced that absolute suppression at the level of life itself, a sensation he would never forget.
"So… this mark… this power…"
The way Lou Gao looked at the phoenix mark on Lin Xia's arm changed completely, filled with reverence, shock, and a complex mix of irrepressible yearning and fear.
"This is very likely the mark of the Phoenix God's Trial! It is He who has chosen Larvitar and me!"
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