CHAPTER 701: THE DIVINE BLESSING POND

’Zhu Yanling, the phoenix queen of the phoenix race in the Ancient Blue Gate World,’ Aldrian thought. Now he was finally seeing a phoenix in this life, but what truly stunned him was something else.

’She is actually a Celestial Golden Phoenix? A phoenix that is supposed to reside in the ninth heaven.’

This was truly a surprise that Aldrian had not expected. If he remembered correctly, there was one phoenix race that shared a close connection with Feng Xuanyan as their ancestor, and that was the Celestial Golden Phoenix. From his memories, Feng Xuanyan’s descendant with the purest closeness of bloodline to her was this Celestial Golden Phoenix race.

Because Feng Xuanyan carried some of his golden energy, that "golden features" was passed down to one of her descendants, and thus the Celestial Golden Phoenix was born. The golden here referred to their golden tail feathers.

Although they did not inherit his golden energy, they were still a special phoenix among the other phoenixes that became Feng Xuanyan’s descendants.

As time passed, the purity of the bloodline also began to decrease. Because of that, the less pure bloodline of the Celestial Golden Phoenix created another kind of phoenix, but still bore the name Golden Phoenix, but without the title Celestial.

They became a different race from the Celestial Golden Phoenix, with a weaker bloodline, yet they still held a close connection to Feng Xuanyan because of their golden features.

This was something he finally remembered some time ago, when his visions and his memories revealed this part. That was also why he realized Aurelia had unconsciously called him your majesty the first time they met, after sensing his golden energy.

Although she might be just a clone, her root remained the same. The Golden Phoenix had a close connection to the Celestial Golden Phoenix, who in turn had a close connection to Feng Xuanyan, one of his main followers.

He thought that Aurelia might have been cloned from someone who knew him in the past, which made sense if she unconsciously addressed him as your majesty.

’Aurelia is the clone of a Golden Phoenix, and Zhu Yanling is the Celestial Golden Phoenix. What a coincidence—or not,’

Aldrian thought amusingly. This woman basically had an even higher status than Aurelia, but then a question rose in his mind.

’How could she have mutated into this kind of phoenix? Who were her parents?’

"Well, Your Excellency, this is the Phoenix Queen," Shen Longwei introduced her after Aldrian seemed to fall into silence for a moment upon seeing her. He wondered if Aldrian was mesmerized by her beauty.

Zhu Yanling, upon seeing Aldrian, instantly sensed her connection to him. She finally confirmed that this was indeed the same man who had fought the immortal that day. His face and the connection she felt now did not lie to her.

Her heart trembled, yet Aldrian’s blue eyes, which seemed to be observing her deeply, made her nervous and unsettled. It felt as if his eyes could see everything about her, leaving nothing hidden.

As if realizing that he had already been rude for observing her in silence for too long, Aldrian smiled, stood up, and cupped his hands.

"My apologies if I have made you uncomfortable, Queen Zhu. I was simply stunned when I realized what kind of phoenix you are, which truly shocked me inside," he said.

Hearing Aldrian’s words, Zhu Yanling and Shen Longwei were astonished—especially Zhu Yanling. She had lived her life without knowing what kind of phoenix she had become. The abilities that appeared within her mind were already vastly different from her parents’ kind. All of them were overwhelming powers her parents never possessed.

Her heartbeat quickened when she heard Aldrian claim he knew what kind of phoenix she was. She longed to know what identity she bore through her mutation.

She bowed slightly as she spoke to Aldrian.

"Your Excellency, I apologize for asking so directly, but what kind of phoenix am I? Since childhood, I have only known that I am not a normal phoenix, not the kind found anywhere, even in other parts of this heaven. I could never discern what kind I am. All this time, I have wanted to know so I could better understand myself."

Aldrian only smiled at her.

"Of course I will tell Queen Zhu about it. Even if I do not tell you, you will eventually understand on your own, as your cultivation grows stronger and your innate memories begin to appear," he said.

"But if you wish to know now, that is also fine. However, before that, I have a question I hope you can answer."

The queen nodded. "Please ask, Your Excellency."

"Very well then. As far as I know, mutation is something triggered by certain circumstances. From what I have learned, Queen Zhu was already mutated when you were born, which means the mutation must have occurred while you were still in the egg phase," Aldrian said."So here is my question: does Queen Zhu know of any situation that might have caused this mutation during your egg phase? Did your father or mother ever speak to you about it?"

Queen Zhu nodded in understanding.

"Yes, as Your Excellency said, my mutation had already happened while I was still in my egg phase. And the circumstance that caused it... well, this concerns the secret of both our phoenix race and the dragon race..." As she spoke, she glanced at Shen Longwei, but he only nodded.

"Just tell His Excellency the secret. I don’t think it will harm us," he said.

Zhu Yanling nodded and turned back to Aldrian. "My parents told me long ago that while I was still in the egg phase, I absorbed energy near the Divine Blessing Pond."

Aldrian’s expression turned puzzled. "Divine Blessing Pond?"

Zhu Yanling nodded again. "Yes. It is the most sacred place of the phoenix race and one of the secrets our race and the dragon race have guarded since ancient times. Its origin can be traced back to a time even before the Barisan Continent was called the Untouchable Continent."

"Your Excellency, you yourself are from the Barisan Continent, so you must know a thing or two about certain people there, people whose ancestors came from beyond the continent in ancient times."

Aldrian nodded at her words.

"Then, does Your Excellency know why their ancestors came to the Barisan Continent in the first place? The reason I ask is because the Divine Blessing Pond has a connection with this event," she said.

"From what I know, they came to the Barisan Continent to follow the beings they believed to be divine beings who descended from the heavens. On that day, all of them saw two powerful figures, a dragon and a phoenix, descend from the heavens and fly toward the Barisan Continent," he answered.

This was something Aldrian had only recently learned during his journey outside. His conversations with Emperor Rozwald and Sect Master Han had explained this event from the past, which made him finally understand why there were outside powers within the Barisan Continent.

At that time, those people must have witnessed Long Shentian and Feng Xuanyan escape toward the Barisan Continent and decided to follow them.

As for the Three Great Sects, Aldrian knew their movements were aligned with the plans of the Heavenly Demon. The placement of the Heavenly Demon Scripture along with two other scriptures within the Barisan Continent was an arrangement, had been arranged by the ancestors of those sects at that time. They must have known of the plan in some way, which made it possible for them to carry it out.

As for the others, they must have followed Long Shentian and Feng Xuanyan because of their divine presence.

"Yes, that is correct. From our records, at that time the divine beings whom we instantly recognized as a dragon and a phoenix suddenly descended into the Ancient Blue Gate World. We did not know what had happened, but the two beings seemed injured as they moved," Zhu Yanling continued.

"Why do we know this? Because the Divine Blessing Pond is, in fact, the blood of that divine being, or more specifically, the phoenix. The phoenix’s blood fell into a place near the phoenix territory, close to the dragon kingdom, and from that time onward, that place became our most sacred ground."

Hearing this, Aldrian raised his eyebrows, but he continued listening to Zhu Yanling’s explanation.

"The only ones who know of this are our phoenix race and the dragons, who also discovered that place at the time. There was almost a war between our races because of the divine blood, but after negotiations, it was decided that since the place was nearer to the phoenix territory and held greater sacredness to us, it would become ours to manage. However, the dragons were also permitted to visit with approval."

"So the Divine Blessing Pond is actually the blood that fell from the divine phoenix who suddenly descended from the heavens," Zhu Yanling said.

Aldrian sighed. At last, he understood why he had sensed a familiar substance, which was Feng Xuanyan’s blood, on the Beast Continent when he had swept his domain sense.

To think that the Divine Blessing Pond was the blood of Feng Xuanyan...it was the same as the puddle of golden blood in the core region of the Everlasting Silent Forest, the one he had already absorbed.

But then another fact came to his mind. The fact that when she was in her egg phase, she had already been able to absorb the energy near Feng Xuanyan’s blood meant that she was truly lucky, or perhaps even a chosen one.

She could essentially absorb the residual energy from Feng Xuanyan’s blood!