Chapter 18 – The Spoils of the Sovereign
As the grey ash of the Corrupted Ten-Headed Phoenix settled, a massive, Blood-Red Soul Ring began to condense. It pulsed with a terrifying rhythm, the air around it distorting from the "Ultimate Fire" it contained.
"Lakan, look!" Shui Bing'er pointed at the remains.
Floating above the ashes was a pair of skeletal, crystalline wings. They were crimson and gold, with ten distinct trailing feathers that looked like flickering candle flames.
"An External Soul Bone," Ling Yue whispered, her voice full of awe. "The Ten-Headed Phoenix Wings. Lakan, this is a treasure that would make even the High Priest (Qian Daoliu) envious."
Lakan didn't grab them immediately. He used the Baybayin Ritual, drawing a circle around the red ring. "This beast was corrupted, but its origin is divine. I won't just absorb its energy; I'll give it a new purpose."
He began the Soul Spirit Conversion. Instead of the ring merging into his martial soul as a dead power, the Ibong Adarna let out a high-pitched melody. The red ring shattered into a million fireflies, and a small, purified miniature version of the Ten-Headed Phoenix materialized. It bowed its heads to Lakan before diving into his Spiritual Sea.
As the 100,000-year Ten-Headed Phoenix converted into a Soul Spirit, the energy didn't just fill Lakan; it remodeled him. Because it was a "Living Ring" and he possessed the Chaos Rainbow Vortex, he didn't suffer the usual rebound.
Inside the Phoenix Valley, Lakan sat in a cross-legged position. The Ten-Headed Phoenix Soul Spirit hovered behind him, its ten heads bowing in unison.
The energy was a tidal wave. Lakan hit Rank 40 in seconds, but he felt the "ceiling" of the bottleneck.
"The barrier is there," Lakan analyzed through the pain. "But this Soul Spirit... it's not a static ring. It's a living engine!"
The Soul Spirit let out a divine screech. A second Red Ring manifested, overlapping the first one. The bottleneck shattered. The energy poured into his Iridescent Bone Forging, turning his skeleton into a conduit of pure white heat.
*BOOM!!!*
Rank 41... Rank 42.
Lakan's eyes snapped open. He didn't just feel stronger; he felt heavy with the authority of the Phoenix. He looked at his back. The External Soul Bone (Ten-Headed Wings) had fully fused, the ten trailing feathers burning with a flame that never went out.The Stats of the Noble Soul
Current Rank: Level 42 (Spirit Ancestor)
Soul Ring Configuration: 1st Soul Ring 1,760 Years (Adarna's Wail - Purple/Mutated)
2nd Soul Ring, 5,000 Years (Sol's Judgment - Purple)
3rd Soul Ring 100,000 Years (Nirvana's Wrath - Red)
4th Soul Ring 100,000 Years (Solar Flare/Ten-Headed Burst - Red)
Lakan, now feeling the immense weight of the 100,000-year energy, didn't leave. He began walking deeper into the valley. Every time he passed a skeleton, he stopped, performed a small Atang (offering), and used his soul power to bury the remains into the sacred earth.
"These are the ancestors," Lakan's internal monologue resonated with the valley. "They died in a war they didn't choose. To take their power without giving them peace is the path of a bandit, not a Sovereign."
His respect triggered a resonance. From a cluster of frost-covered bones, a gentle, blue light emerged. It was the Ultimate Ice Phoenix. It drifted toward Shui Bing'er, sensing her purity. It left behind a Right Arm Soul Bone—an 80,000-year-old treasure.
"For you, Snowflake," Lakan smiled, though he was pale from the burial rituals.
Lakan produced nine specialized jade vials. Guided by the Araw and Buan (his Twin Kampilans), he began to extract a single drop of "Primal Bloodline Essence" from the different altars of the valley:
The Radiant Phoenix (Holiness)
The Immortal Phoenix (Nirvana)
The Crystal Phoenix (Sealing)
...and the most crucial, the Golden and Silver Blue Devil Birds (Time and Space).
"With these," Lakan thought, feeling the vials hum in his storage tool, "I won't just be a Fire Soul Master. I will be the Creation Phoenix. I will be the Simulation that the Dragon God feared."