Not only did the heavens favor Tian Yunzi, but within the Bottle World, Grand Elder’s brother, the Void Wanderer, strode upon azure clouds. In his domain, he held aloft a jade slip of violet and cyan, its radiance spilling forth for leagues uncounted.

Even from afar, the violet-cyan luminescence was plainly visible.

The Void Wanderer was not alone. A figure of unfathomable cultivation, he had, within the year, shattered his origin Bottle World and traversed dozens more. Behind him, a middle-aged woman of rustic charm and her four disciples trailed. “If my senses do not betray me, this should be the fabled Bottle World of the Immortal Emperor Qinglin! Legend tells it was forged with great power, seized from the foreign Rune Clan. Qinglin slew thirty-nine Rune Soul Ancestors to claim their sacred relic, crafting this world within a bottle. Its purpose remains shrouded, yet records from the Cultivation Alliance hint it served as a vessel to gather all Celestial Qi under Heaven. Whispers even suggest it can shatter the sealing array that binds the Four Great Star Domains!” the Void Wanderer intoned, gazing upon the violet-cyan jade slip.

The matronly woman nodded, but before she could speak, the world around them convulsed. Winds howled, the skies turned tumultuous, and the very earth trembled with a deafening roar.

Simultaneously, a piercing cry ripped through the fabric of reality, a sound that seemed to tear the heavens asunder and resonate without restraint! The cry of the Vermillion Bird echoed throughout the world! The woman’s face paled at the sound, as did the rosy-cheeked maiden behind her, rumored to be the Kunxu Saintess.

The Void Wanderer’s eyes narrowed. “The cry of the Vermillion Bird? Awakening! Could it be the whelp said to bear the mark of the Vermillion Bird?”

Dread laced the matron’s voice as she hastily replied, “I saw him before, yes, bearing the mark, but it was thoroughly sealed! Awakening so soon is impossible!”

“The Vermillion Bird’s awakening is a cataclysm within the Four Saint Sect… Four Saint Sect…” The Void Wanderer’s eyes flashed with malice. He could not allow one of the Four Saints to awaken within their ranks. He would never forget the brutal, bloody conflict with the Four Saint Sect over the Kunxu Star Domain. Only through the Cultivation Alliance’s acquisition of the Rain Immortal Realm’s inheritances and the aid of the then Kunxu Saintess were they able to prevail. Otherwise, the Alliance Star Domain would be called the Four Saint Star Domain! Despite their might, the Cultivation Alliance had failed to eradicate the Four Saint Sect, and the thought of the Four Saints filled the Void Wanderer with a cold fury.

“If this one awakens and escapes the Immortal Emperor’s abode, the Immortal Spirit Heaven, the Four Saint Sect will come, claiming him and bestowing upon him their ancestral powers, protecting him above all others! We cannot allow it! If he survives his awakening, he must be destroyed, here and now!” The Vermillion Bird’s cry continued its assault upon the Bottle World, reverberating throughout all ninety-nine realms.

In a desolate realm of black sands, a man clad in ebony sat in meditation. An endless torrent of demonic energy surged from the sands, funneling into his body through his seven apertures.

He had been there for an age, it seemed, absorbing the malevolent energies.

The demonic power swirling about him was immense, but when the cry of the Vermillion Bird tore through the world, the torrents of darkness reversed, collapsing and recoiling.

The black-clad man’s eyes snapped open, glowing with an eerie light as he stared at the sky.

As the Vermillion Bird’s cry echoed, his brow furrowed, and a draconic mark flickered into existence, a black dragon. “He awakens? If he survives, he shall be worthy of a fight!” The man muttered, and the mark was swallowed by the darkness, concealed from all but those of similar blood.

Within the Bottle World, Situ Nan also absorbed the dark energies. The black sands of his realm had been reduced to dust, and laughter boomed across the heavens. A vast vortex of demonic energy swirled around him.

At the heart of the maelstrom, Situ Nan’s long hair danced wildly as he absorbed the power. The sands crumbled around him, releasing more and more energy into his body.

“Magnificent! Such power, a boon to me! But I cannot take too much. When I have enough, I must seek out Wang Lin. I wonder how he fares!” Situ Nan thought.

The Vermillion Bird’s cry shattered the vortex around him.

Situ Nan looked up, annoyed, but a grin soon spread across his face.

“That bird’s song carries Wang Lin’s aura! The little whelp lives! For a moment, I was worried.”

There was yet another within the Bottle World! A bald man, he walked through the black sands, a fiendish smile on his face. With a mere step, he tore through the boundary between realms, arriving in another, yet it was still a realm of black sands! “The Great Solitary Smoke Illustration must be within these realms! Ancient Demon Taji… Though I, Bailuo, am not yet whole, I have regained eight-tenths of my former power. You shall not have the chance you once did!”

Bailuo’s right eye narrowed, revealing seven points of demonic light burning within his pupil.
A shard of the Ancient God adorned his brow, the mark of the Ancient Demon smoldered in his left eye, but in his right resided the Ancient Fiend. Seven demonic stars spun wildly within the pupil of his right eye. As Bello poised to stride into the next realm, a cry of the Vermillion Bird, a sound of earth-shattering power, echoed across the heavens. Waves of fiendish energy erupted around Bello, halting him between worlds. His gaze lifted.

“The Vermillion Bird, one of the Four Sacred Guardians of the Sealed Realm…” Bello murmured, his demonic stars fading. With a single step, he vanished without a trace.

Within the Bottle Realm, the Vermillion Bird’s cry stirred a tempest of emotions and anxieties. But beyond its fragile confines, a disturbance rippled through the immortal domain. Within a misty grotto clinging to a celestial bridge, a figure shrouded in demonic fog felt an ancient power stir. His eyes blazed with an unholy light as tendrils of pure demonic energy erupted from his form, engulfing the surroundings.

Beneath the bridge, within a dark river, grotesque shadows writhed, cowering before the emanating darkness.

Before the fog-wreathed figure lay a white jade bottle, shuddering violently. The Vermillion Bird’s cry reverberated within, growing to a deafening crescendo, threatening to shatter its prison. “Accursed! How did a Vermillion Bird from the Sealed Realm enter?” the figure snarled. He raised his right hand, summoning countless streams of demonic energy that coalesced into a monstrous shadow. With a gesture, he unleashed the shadow upon the bottle, where it vanished within.

Deep within the Bottle Realm, where Wang Lin stood, a sea of fire erupted, surging towards the ethereal Vermillion Bird manifesting before his brow.

The bird, ten fathoms in height, burned with crimson light. Its wings spread wide, eclipsing the sky. Its tail trailed plumes of swirling flame, adding to its divine aura. But most striking were its eyes, cold and resolute, mirroring Wang Lin’s own. The fiery sea coalesced, drawn into the Vermillion Bird in a single, ravenous breath, blurring the line between exhalation and consumption.

From afar, the seething flames converged, gathering from all directions. The Vermillion Bird cried out again, this time its tone touched with elation.

In that instant, a wave of power spread across Wang Lin’s domain, drawing in every flicker, every ember, for millions of leagues.

The sheer volume of fire was immense. A heat wave of unimaginable intensity roared forth, capable of incinerating all life. Wang Lin’s cracked skin, ravaged by past trials, crumbled under the onslaught, revealing raw flesh that immediately began to fissure.

It was as if the world’s entire conflagration were being poured into his body. The searing heat reached unbearable levels. Previously, such an assault would have reduced him to ash, but now, with the Vermillion Bird’s awakening, he endured.

His eyes shone with a newfound power. The energy within his body surged, absorbing the heat and steadily raising his internal temperature to an impossible degree. Such heat would obliterate even the most resilient bodies. This was the trial of Vermillion Bird ascension. Countless aspirants of the Vermillion Bird lineage had failed over the ages, their physical forms consumed in the instant of awakening.
Within the ancient halls of the Four Sacred Sects, a proverb, etched in time, whispered the secrets of their sacred awakenings: “The Xuanwu stirs first, the White Tiger rages fiercest, the Azure Dragon reigns supreme, and the Vermilion Bird tests the most.”

In the Xuanwu Sanctuary, aspirants to the mantle of the Black Tortoise were plentiful, their trials fraught with the least peril. But those blessed by the White Tiger were possessed of a savage spirit, awakening as engines of destruction, capable of feats of slaughter that would astound even the immortals. The Azure Dragon Sanctuary, the mightiest of the four, nurtured the rarest of awakenings. Those few chosen were almost certain to succeed, ascending to become the revered Azure Dragon Emperors. It was only the untimely vanishing of the Azure Dragon Emperor and the Vermilion Bird Emperor’s struggle against the third Celestial Decay, which crippled her power, that swayed the tides of war against the Union of Cultivators in the long-ago Kui Xing Domain.

The Vermilion Bird Sanctuary, however, presented the most arduous path to awakening. Even the mighty Azure Dragon lineage could not compare. Though aspirants were not unheard of, few could withstand the trials, let alone rise to become Vermilion Bird Emperors. Only those blessed with the legendary Vermilion Bird Physique, accumulating vast reserves of flame through tireless cultivation, could ignite the mark from within. Only then could they endure the unimaginable heat of the awakening without being consumed. For those lacking this innate gift, relying on external forces to trigger the awakening, history offered no tales of success.

Now, Wang Lin faced such an external awakening. As the sea of fire coalesced, the unbearable heat intensified, threatening to reduce him, were he not an Ancient God, to nothing but ash and forgotten memories. Yet, while no external awakening had ever borne fruit in the Vermilion Bird lineage, never before had an Ancient God received the mark of the Vermilion Bird and sought to endure its fiery rebirth with a body of divine make.

At this moment, Wang Lin, through sheer grit and the fortitude of his five-star royal Ancient God flesh, persevered amidst the unbearable inferno. His skin cracked and shattered, only to reform anew, his Ancient God form slowly acclimating to the incandescent heat.

The fire sea surged, engulfing countless miles of the land, converging upon the Vermilion Bird and Wang Lin, forming a colossal sphere of fire. In that instant, the Vermilion Bird cried out once more, its crimson form a blur as it broke free from Wang Lin’s brow. It coiled around his body, transforming into a vibrant, lifelike tattoo that covered his upper torso.

Wang Lin, his body a tapestry of cracks and the scarlet Vermilion Bird emblazoned upon him, possessed a breathtaking and awe-inspiring beauty. His luminous gaze, like starlight, pierced the veil of heat. Though destined to be unseen by mortal eyes, the fiery sphere swallowed Wang Lin whole, growing ever more immense.

An apocalyptic power emanated from the orb, and as the surrounding fire sea continued to fuel its growth, it swelled to an unimaginable size. From above, at a great height, one could discern the endless fire sea, contracting rapidly toward the sphere.

As the fire sea receded, it revealed the stark, mirror-like earth beneath. The sphere grew colossal, almost scraping the heavens, visible from leagues away. Within moments, the fire sea vanished entirely, its essence consumed by the immense orb. Now, in Wang Lin’s domain, only the fiery sphere remained, the boundless flames of the Qinglin Sky-Burning Celestial Art, conjured by the Nether Sea, now contained within.

Above, billowing black smoke cascaded down from the heavens, swirling around the fiery sphere. As it encircled the inferno, an immense darkness, suffused with potent demonic energy, roared down from the boundless expanse above.

The demonic energy condensed into a monstrous visage with a single horn jutting from its brow. This colossal form, its outline blurred, radiated a chilling aura of bloodlust and slaughter. With a primal cry, it charged towards the fiery sphere.

But upon nearing the sphere, it recoiled from the intense heat, halting its advance. It fixed its gaze upon the sphere, its murderous intent intensifying.

Within the vast fiery orb, Wang Lin remained still, his eyes closed. The Vermilion Bird tattoo on his body pulsed with crimson light, devouring the flames that surged ceaselessly from the sphere’s depths.

Wang Lin’s body expanded, strengthened with each moment. The searing heat permeated his very essence, transforming his primordial power into a conduit of terrifying heat.

Then, in a swift and sudden motion, Wang Lin’s eyes snapped open. In that instant, his skin shattered, countless fragments scattering outwards, revealing the crimson flesh beneath. An unimaginable tempest erupted from him as his eyes opened. The Vermilion Bird mark detached from his body, whirling around him with impossible speed.
The crimson sphere engulfing Wang Lin contracted with impossible swiftness, a ravenous tide of fire flooding his very being. Simultaneously, the fiendish shadow lurking outside shuddered, its demonic aura exploding outwards, swallowing the heavens as it followed the shrinking inferno into Wang Lin’s form! Within moments, the vast fireball, echoing with thunderous roars, imploded upon itself, finally vanishing with a resounding boom into Wang Lin’s core!

In that instant, across the desolate wastes and indeed the entire realm that held Wang Lin captive, not a single ember remained. His silhouette, having absorbed the last vestige of the flame, once more materialized, etched against the ravaged sky. His skin glowed a fiery red, and around him swirled the spectral forms of the Vermillion Bird. His eyes, ablaze with inner fire, marked him at that moment a scion of the Vermillion Bird Emperor himself!

As the flames dissipated, the fiendish shadow shrieked, launching itself forward, its approach heralded by an overwhelming tide of demonic miasma, a suffocating darkness intent on tearing Wang Lin asunder. But the moment it neared, a searing inferno ignited within Wang Lin’s eyes. From his body, a cataclysmic sea of fire erupted, a force of destruction that threatened to unravel the very fabric of existence!

Wang Lin had consumed far too much fire. This unleashed conflagration was but the spent dregs, the unused power that threatened to consume him from within. It was a purge, a necessary expulsion! Unlike the simple fires that incinerate, this fiery tempest held within it the power to unmake, infused with both the strength of incinerating skies and the sacred flames of the Vermillion Bird lineage!

It expanded in a colossal ring, a tidal wave of incineration that blotted out the sun and engulfed the earth. The demonic specter, sent forth from within the mists, collided headlong with this fiery onslaught. A piercing shriek ripped from its throat, its eyes widening with terror as it scrambled backwards.

But it was too late. The fire sea, like a raging beast, devoured the specter. Its demonic essence rapidly dissipated amidst the inferno, leaving only a sliver of its being to claw its way towards the heavens, desperately seeking escape. But it had underestimated the sheer destructive power of this fire sea. The searing heat, now imbued with the sacred fire of the awakened Vermillion Bird, transcended even the flames of celestial incineration! As it spread, it consumed not just Wang Lin’s realm, but every world trapped within the bottle!

The fire howled as it ripped through the land. Wherever it touched, the very void shattered and collapsed with a deafening roar! This was not a single breach, but a wholesale annihilation as the fire sea expanded, scraping away reality itself, leaving nothing but utter devastation in its wake!

With each crumbling world, the secrets within the bottle were revealed. In one realm, a storm of black sand raged, only to be instantly engulfed by the onrushing flames, which spread anew, triggering further destruction. And then that world, too, was shattered into nothingness!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The echoing detonations reverberated endlessly as world after world within the bottle succumbed to the flames. With each collapse, the fire surged into the next realm, promising the same destruction. High above, the remnants of the demonic specter fled, escaping one world only to be caught in the next. After the destruction of thirteen realms, the fire sea overtook it, obliterating it utterly with a final, agonizing scream.

But the annihilation was far from over. This was just the beginning! Fueled by the endless supply of worlds, the fires ignited into a roaring inferno, an unstoppable conflagration that threatened to consume all within the bottle. Another realm collapsed, unleashing the furious roars of Si Tu Nan and Yi Nan. “Which thrice-cursed knave dares interrupt my cultivation!” the former bellowed, only to cry out in terror and flee the encroaching inferno. “***! What kind of fire is THIS?!”

Even as Si Tu Nan’s words echoed, his realm shattered, revealing the next. Ling Tianhou gaped in disbelief as the heavens seemed to be ripped apart by giant hands, and an endless sea of fire descended. The heat was unbearable, raising the hairs on his neck. He fled without hesitation, seeking to escape the fiery doom!

The fire sea, driven by its unstoppable momentum, cut through all barriers, shattering all boundaries. It surged from Wang Lin’s realm, blasting upwards, tearing through realm after realm, the sounds of their destruction shaking the very foundations of existence!

Yao Yunzi appeared amidst the collapsing heavens, his eyes wide with shock and awe. As the fire swept toward him, he sidestepped, allowing the fiery torrent to rush past.

That moment, it wasn’t just Ling Tianhou, Yao Yunzi, and Si Tu Nan who felt the annihilating force of the fire sea, but every being trapped within the ninety-nine realms of the bottle.

As each realm collapsed, more people were thrust into the path of the destruction: Big Head, the Three Dust Daoists, the Gourd Elder, the Black-Clad Man, even Xu Kongzi himself! But the destruction didn’t cease. The fire sea continued its relentless advance, gathering strength with each passing realm, until it became a force that no being could control. It became a terrifying inferno, fueled by the annihilation of worlds, barreling toward the final realm at the bottle’s end!

To destroy this last realm was to break free of the jade bottle itself!