Paragon of Sin

KREE!

A resounding cry, filled with majesty, pride, and arrogance echoed above the Sky Layer. The ambient astral essence quivered and surged, rolling about forming dense clouds that gathered and swirled around a particular entity.

This entity was an avian bird with white feathers, resplendent golden eyes, a tail of shimming gold, and a beak that radiated rays of golden light. Its entire body was wreathed in white flames that released dense and unfathomable lifeforce. But within this white flame, a black, dark, gloomy aura bloomed.

It felt like death.

No, it was death.

Bai Lin! This exceptional creature soared within the skies as she gushed forth with endless white flame! She was undergoing her rebirth, a transformative process specific to those of the phoenix lineage! 

Regardless of where, in the legends of this world, other worlds, dimensions, realities, planes of existences, their legend remained the same and true.

They thrived in flames, turned into ash, and were reborn from flames. They were existences that have brought about good fortune, wellness, and prosperity, but their rage were fierce and burning. 

In this world, it was said that they were born from suns, and their rebirth was akin to a supernova eruption! 

Bai Lin felt her blood boiling endlessly, its temperature rising ceaselessly, as if it was being burned by the sun itself! As if she was turning into a sun! Furthermore, her entire body was emitting blindly burning light that scorched the lower clouds and sent rays after rays of intense sunlight below.

Kree!

She felt it. The power residing in her blood, the power that originated from the Golden Phoenix Fruit. This fruit was absolutely miraculous, rare, and a product of thousands of years of nurturing. It ignited her bloodline potential and changed her state of existence form a normal crane to a fire crane!

While she hadn't become a true phoenix, she unlocked a few abilities and unlocked a potential path back to her ancestors. She could feel the raging wisps of flames that seeped into her ordinary bloodline, extracting and promoting her physique.

She soared!

She soared higher and higher. Her wings that spanned fifty meters caused torrential gusts and vicious currents, becoming stronger and stronger with each flap! Her speed was slowly rising as she tried to pierce through the second Sky Layer that led to the eighth layer!

She felt a call.

It was ephemeral yet clear as the rays of the sun. It invoked her innermost desire to breach the skies and enter the outside world! Her body burned and burned, racing towards the layer without hesitation!

Bam!

The Sky Layer was an odd existence. It was like solidified gas that had a semi-permeable layer that allowed the essence and light emitted from the sun to penetrate, benefiting the life below. But it also served as a natural cage for the living existences of this world. 

It halted her dauntless and hasty advance. A crushing sound of flesh meeting sand resounded as a dent in the Sky Layer emerged, but it lasted shortly before Bai Lin was rebounded ferociously backwards. 

Her body was sent spiraling downwards as she tried to regain her balance in the sky, but the momentum was too strong. She continued her descent until a booming crash into the bottom Sky Layer. 

Laying flat on her back, a cry filled with pain and unwillingness echoed from her throat. It reached the clouds and her golden eyes blazed intensely with unyielding vigor. She slowly picked herself up, her wings acting as lifts. Her body trembled slightly, indicative of the immense pain her body felt, but through her eyes, there was no sign of defeat.

The stubbornness originated from her beating heart and burning blood! It was incessantly flaring, surging with her emotions of the sky. 

Her eyes saw only the sun, no obstacle or layer of restraint. 

Kree!

Boosh!

She blasted off, her wings swung downwards as she shot upwards like a spear, her golden beak was the sharp tip! Behind her was a trail of golden light and white flames. Her beak met the Sky Layer and penetrated an inch! Yet, as her wings tried to gain momentum, she couldn't push any further!

Woosh!

She descended downwards like a flaming comet! Her attempt was a failure, yet her flames never faltered. Her body crashed into the lower Sky Layer, causing several of her bones to fracture and her feathers to flutter away from the impact. 

Shockingly, she didn't utter a single sound of pain and merely lifted her body. The quivering of her feathers and the faint drippings of golden and crimson blood was apparent. Her gaze never left the sky that housed the sun. 

Kree!

She let loose a roaring cry! From her tone and her gaze, it was as if she was telling the sun: "Wait for me!" This desire to see it, undisguised by the layers of this planet, remained unshattered and true.

But this desire stemmed from a greater want. This was the desire to experience an awakening, and she knew that while she had prepared her body and mind for three months to handle the boiling force, she couldn't experience a true nirvanic transformation!

Because her blood was not hot enough, her heart was not flame like the phoenixes of old, and her soul lacked a quintessential quality. If she underwent her transformation here, the effects will be incomplete! In the future, her awakenings would be impeded!

This was like the accumulation of a cultivator. She was bestowed her strength, and to rise beyond this limit, she had to consolidate, enrich, and develop her own cultivation base! If she didn't, her limit would be that bestowed strength.

A heart-tearing feeling emerged in her heart, but her mind remained clear. If she did not see the sun today, she would never be a true phoenix! This was the whispers of her ancestors!

She didn't let up. With a creaking sound that originated from her bones, she shot upwards like a missile, lancing towards the Sky Layer without hesitation! 

Within her thoughts, an image of a figure emerged in her heart. He had silver eyes, black hair, chiseled looks, a strong set of shoulders, and a gentle smile. 

-----

Thirteen Years Ago.

Kree…

The fresh sound of a newborn crane echoed out, seeking its mother and father. It chirped and cried as it adjusted into the new world. Before she could gather her bearings, receive the love of her parents, or enjoy this new world, a group of individuals stormed in and brought her away. 

As she looked back, she found two unhatched eggs and one broken shell. Did she originate from there? This thought was her most prominent because it was her first one in life.

She was brought away, infused with all sorts of strange liquids and fed berries and seeds. They didn't taste 'right' but they were enough to survive. She was hungry, so she ate.

These strange foods caused her body to grow, and she was slightly uncomfortable. Before she knew it, time passed, and she was larger than the people who fed her. She towered them, but they were unafraid. 

Later, they tied her up and gagged her. She felt scared, as these people didn't respond to her action. They forced her to fly, even when she couldn't. They continued until she could, and when she did, they mounted her and forced her to fly according to their will.

They made her their slave. Her terror remained, no, intensified. She didn't know what she wanted in life, but this was not it. To be forced to do the bidding of others, to not be able to fly when she wanted to soar, to not be able to eat when she wanted to eat. They fed her enough to survive, but nothing else.

She remembered the whips that lashed forth when she was disobedient. When she grumbled, when she was too scared to act. The pain and burning of her skin as it tore at her! 

Then, he came.

He arrived with a slight frown and an impassive glance. It was somewhat cold, frightening even, and she couldn't help but feel fear when he approached. When he reached out his hand, she winced. Was this man like the others? Would he whip her, gag her, tie her up, bind her to the ground? 

But his touch wasn't accompanied by pain. In fact, he didn't touch her. Instead, he pulled his hand back and said words she didn't expect. While she didn't truly understand those words before, she understood his intent.

"Can I touch you?" 

Permission. He was asking this foreign and elusive thing from her, and she couldn't understand.

However, her confusion and shock wasn't accompanied by the whips of discontent, but a gentle smile.

"Are you hungry?" Those three words were words she definitely knew. But she didn't answer. She shied away from him, backing away.

One of the skinny men who 'tended and taught' her grumbled and lifted his arm. Her eyes widened and she knew it was coming! She closed her eyes and trembled, but it didn't come!

Pow!

A bone-crushing sound resounded before a wail of agony and pain pierced into her ears. When she opened her eyes in curiosity, she found the skinny man holding his arm that had been twisted in an unnatural direction, blood spurted from his arm endlessly and he cried in pain without end. It was exceptionally loud.

To her, however, that sound was heavenly hymns to the ears. A feeling of excitement surged through her bones, blood, and feathers!

When the young man with silver eyes arrived before her, he ignored the screams and said, "Can I become your partner? We'll travel the skies, fight all sorts of enemies, and overcome every obstacle...together. What do you say?" This time, the young man sent a wave of surging energies that calmly entered her body. She clearly understood his intent!

She was but a nameless crane, but this young man offered her another path. So without hesitation, she agreed!

She was no longer gagged, placed with all sorts restraints, or forced to stay grounded. She could eat when she wanted, fly when she wished, and fight! She learned to battle, to kill, and she saw a grander world beyond her stable pen and those men!

-----

Her name was Bai Lin!

It was given to her by him, and she was unwilling to fall behind. As her intelligence grew, so did her awareness. Wei Wuyin's rise kept occurring, his strength and enemies growing stronger, and even now, her weakness made it so she couldn't penetrate the Sky Layer!

Her heart was frustrated beyond imagination! Could she still be his partner if she couldn't join him in the sky? If she couldn't keep up?!

Kree!

She was unwilling!

Her body smashed again and again against the Sky Layer, and her white flames continued to burn, quietly healing her broken bones, her bruised and pounded flesh, and those featherless areas grew anew!

The powers of her nirvanic flames were constantly working, but it proved fruitless as her strength never rose!

Would she have to undergo her awakening in this Sky Layer? No! She had to make it to the sun! 

Swoosh!

Just as she was about to lift up her beaten and broken yet repairing body once more, a figure flashed before her. Her eyes moved and were met with those resplendent silver eyes. They peered into her golden gaze and she froze.

The figure lifted his head upwards, a faint smile on his face. "I don't know why you want to go beyond the Sky Layer, but if you want to travel the skies, you can't just leave me, right?" 

"..." Bai Lin's heart trembled intensely!

This figure was exactly Wei Wuyin! "Let's go together, okay?" Those words were gentle, but the warmth was endless.

kree…

Bai Lin softly cried out. Then, her eyes became firm. She lifted her beak, and her wings opened! Wei Wuyin nodded, he flashed atop her back and held onto her long, graceful neck. 

"Let's do this," Wei Wuyin smilingly said.