Myth Beyond Heaven

Chapter 3038: Phoenix (2)

Scree—!

Nantian Fengyu’s aura did not just spike; it transcended. It exploded past the limits of a Divine Phoenix, past the realm of True Gods, and skyrocketed into a domain that should have been impossible for her—a realm that surpassed that of a Primordial God.

It was a power born not of cultivation, but of absolute sacrifice, of a love that had cycled through lifetimes, ignited by the memory of a past death to fuel a final, glorious stand.

The change was so sudden, so profound, that it actually gave the two primordials pause.

Yin, who had been watching with amused detachment, now leaned forward, a strange, intrigued smile playing on his lips.

“Interesting,” he murmured, his dark eyes reflecting the glorious Phoenix. “Very interesting. To think a mere Phoenix could tap into the source of life itself through sacrifice… How amusing.”

Nian Shi’s face, however, darkened into a thunderous scowl. He felt the power radiating from her, a power that shouldn’t exist, a power that directly countered his domain of time and decay. He recognized the flavor of it—the stubborn, enduring will of the Creator’s favorite children.

“That bitch of a Phoenix!” he cursed, his voice laced with genuine anger and frustration. “She actually made arrangements like this! A soul mark that transcends reincarnation, awakening through absolute sacrifice to protect her chosen one! How utterly… sentimental… and inconvenient!”

The glorious Divine Phoenix, Nantian Fengyu in her ultimate form, hovered protectively over Yun Lintian, her burning eyes fixed on her enemies.

The land bloomed around her, a vibrant, defiant oasis in the dead gray wasteland, each new leaf and blade of grass a testament to her impossible power.

Yin watched the scene, his initial intrigue blossoming into open amusement. He let out a soft, chilling chuckle and turned his gaze to the fuming Nian Shi. With a mocking, elegant flourish, he made a sweeping “after you” gesture.

“Please,” Yin said, his voice dripping with sarcastic generosity. “Don’t let me interrupt. This… spectacle is far too entertaining. I’m quite content to stand and watch. She’s your problem to solve, Timekeeper. Show me how you handle a… stubborn bird.”

Nian Shi’s face twisted with fury. Being condescended to by Yin was bad enough. Being forced to deal with an upstart Phoenix who had somehow surpassed her limits was an outright insult. And if he wanted to defeat Yin, he must get Yun Lintian’s body.

Nian Shi had no choice here. Yun Lintian was within reach, and this flaming obstacle had to be removed.

He didn’t hesitate. The Blade of Eternity reappeared in his hand, humming with the condensed power of extinct timelines. He shot forward, not with a complex technique, but with a simple, devastating thrust aimed at the Phoenix’s heart. It was a move that had ended civilizations.

Nantian Fengyu met his charge not with evasion, but with terrifying, direct force.

Screech!

Her Phoenix cry was a physical wave of sound and fire. She didn’t dodge the blade. One of her massive, flame-wreathed wings swept forward like a shield of solid sunfire.

BOOM!

The collision was cataclysmic. The Blade of Eternity, which should have sheared through any defense, met its match. Sparks of temporal energy and divine fire exploded outward.

To Nian Shi’s utter disbelief, he felt an immense, overwhelming force slam into him. His arm numbed from the impact. He wasn’t just blocked; he was pushed back.

His feet skidded through the newly grown grass, tearing furrows in the revitalized earth. He was forced back several meters, his silver robes singed by the proximity of her flames.

Absurd! The thought screamed in Nian Shi’s mind. This was simply absurd! A Divine Phoenix, a being he considered a higher form of livestock, was physically overpowering him, the God of Time! It defied all calculation, all logic, all laws of power!

His fury ignited into incandescent rage. “You dare?!” he roared, his voice losing its cold composure. “Time, wither!”

He exerted his power further, no longer holding back. A gray wave of accelerated entropy erupted from him, aimed directly at the Phoenix. It was the same power that had vaporized the seven towers and turned the land to dust. It was the power to age a universe to death in a heartbeat.

The wave hit Nantian Fengyu’s fiery form.

And did nothing.

The vibrant flames around her didn’t dim. The lush grass at her feet didn’t wither. The wave of decay simply… broke against her, dissipating like mist against a blazing sun.

Scree—!

Nantian Fengyu let out another cry, this one sounding almost like a challenge. Her eyes blazed with an ancient, knowing light. She wasn’t just resisting time; she was defying it.

This was beyond unreasonable. This was impossible!

Nian Shi’s eyes widened in genuine shock.

“How?!” he snarled, his confidence cracking. “Nothing defies time! All things end! All things decay!”

But Nantian Fengyu was the embodiment of rebirth, of the cycle that existed outside of linear time. Her power was not about avoiding the end, but about beginning again immediately after. Her sacrifice had tapped into the primordial truth of the Phoenix: that death was not an end, but a prerequisite for a new beginning.

She was burning her very soul, her past, present, and future, to create a single, eternal “now” where time held no sway. She had become a fixed point of life, immutable and everlasting for as long as her sacrifice lasted.

Nian Shi’s mind, a fortress of cold logic and eons of calculation, finally shattered. The humiliation was too profound. He, the master of time, the architect of epochs, was being stalemated—no, pushed back—by a glorified bird burning itself out on sentiment! Yin’s mocking gaze burned into his back, amplifying the fury into a white-hot inferno of rage.

Reason abandoned him. Strategy evaporated. There was only the primal need to destroy, to reassert his absolute dominance.

“ENOUGH!” his roar wasn’t a word, but a distortion in reality itself. He stopped targeting Nantian Fengyu directly. Instead, he raised the Blade of Eternity high, and his power erupted outward in a indiscriminate, all-consuming storm.

He wasn’t aiming at her. He was aiming at everything.

The storm of temporal annihilation exploded from him—a sphere of gray decay that expanded at the speed of thought, devouring all life, all time, all existence in its path. It was the end of everything made manifest.

Its path was horrifyingly clear. It would wash over the mighty Tree of Life, which had already begun to wither. It would consume the severely wounded forms of Long Xi, Long Qinxuan, and Long Niu where they lay broken and unmoving.

It would erase the small, still form of Gui Xuan, the Black Turtle God. It would claim Yue Zhihe, Yue Chuntao, Mumu, Ireya, and every other injured defender who had fallen in the battle.

They were helpless, their fates unknown, and now they were about to be utterly unmade by the God of Time’s tantrum…