To capture the live-fire nature of the Phoenix Divine Beast and seize its treasures, they wanted to capture the creature alive. Because they held a grudge against Xue Yingtong, they were willing to collude with the master of the Tiangang Sect before the great battle began.
Even before it started, some of the people Xue Yingtong had rescued in the past stood by her side, denouncing the Tiangang Sect master and the others for conspiring together. They condemned these people as despicable and shameless for fabricating a crime against their savior simply to seize her Phoenix Divine Beast and treasures under the guise of justice. They declared that they would stand on the same front as Xue Yingtong and die together with the Phoenix Fairy if necessary.
Seeing how fiercely loyal they were, Xue Yingtong told them that she appreciated their intentions and urged them to leave. Her cultivation had already reached the Void Integration Stage, and she was merely waiting for the right opportunity to ascend to the Upper Realm. If these people had come to kill her, she had no need to hold back; whether she killed or was killed, she would be the one to decide the outcome.
Although there were many people present, none possessed a cultivation level higher than hers. Killing them would be as easy as turning over her hand, and not a single one of the old monsters at the Void Integration Stage had shown up. Since she was the person with the highest cultivation here, she told them all to leave, as she could handle this alone.
"Such arrogance!" the Tiangang Sect master sneered. "Your cultivation is at the Void Integration Stage, isn't it? And the rest of you are at best at the Void Integration Stage as well."
Everyone present was shaken. Could she really be at the Void Integration Stage, and even higher than their own level? How could they possibly fight someone like that? To top it all off, she also had the Phoenix Divine Beast. The Tiangang Sect master and the others began to lose their nerve.
"We have so many people, what are we afraid of?" the Tiangang Sect master shouted. "Can't we just wear her down to death here? Her cultivation might be at the latter stage, but can we really not deal with her? Xue Xintong has plenty of pills and isn't afraid of attrition. We can do this!"
They had spent a whole year searching for her previously, and his disciple was about to emerge from seclusion. The Phoenix Divine Beast had to belong to his disciple.
"Stop talking nonsense and come on!" Xue Yingtong said. "I've been waiting for a long time. I haven't had a real fight since my cultivation improved."
Led by the Tiangang Sect master, everyone unleashed their ultimate techniques against Xue Yingtong. The Phoenix Divine Beast unleashed the True Fire of the Phoenix Divine Beast, and flames devoured a radius of ten miles. Those with low cultivation were instantly turned to ash by the divine beast's fire. While those with higher cultivation could resist it, none of them expected that before Xue Yingtong even made a move, more than half of their forces would already be dead or wounded. Just a single Phoenix Divine Beast was this formidable!
Xue Yingtong also unleashed the Phoenix True Fire, combining it with her own cultivation techniques to strike back. Wielding the Phoenix True Fire, every blow she dealt roared with blazing thunder in an intensely fierce battle.
She drove the people who had claimed they wanted to help her ten miles away, shielding the combat from the eyes of outsiders. In the end, through the joint efforts of one human and three beasts, all those who had attempted to plunder the treasures and the Phoenix Baby were slain—including the master of the Tiangang Sect. The other elders of the Tiangang Sect had chosen not to come and deal with her because Xue Xintong was the master's disciple, not theirs. Having heard from junior disciples that Xue Xintong might just be a fake genius, they refused to muddy these waters. Consequently, she only killed the Tiangang Sect master.
The area was still being scorched by the true fire of the Phoenix Divine Beast, and any outsider who stepped inside would die instantly. Having consumed a vast amount of energy, Xue Yingtong sat right within the raging flames to recover her cultivation. As soon as her spiritual power was replenished, her cultivation began to break through.
This breakthrough meant ascending. The Ascension Tribulation Lightning consisted of a full eighty-one lightning strikes. Because she had performed countless good deeds that changed the world for the better throughout both the Mortal Realm and the Cultivation Realm, and because she had now eliminated those wicked individuals who had gathered here to cause harm—leaving no such villains behind to prey upon other cultivators in the realm—her passage through the tribulation lightning was exceptionally smooth.
Once she finished weathering the tribulation lightning, she assumed she could now leave this world and ascend to the Immortal Realm. Yet she did not; she merely endured the lightning tribulation without showing the slightest sign of ascension.
By this time, Xue Xintong had already emerged from the Secret Realm. Hearing that her master had gone to bring back the true Phoenix Divine Beast to give to her, she had rushed over impatiently. Upon arriving, she recognized that the raging flames were the true fire of the phoenix. If this Phoenix Divine Beast belonged to her, it would prove that she was the true master of the phoenix. Yet she had no idea what was happening here. When she tried to use her Divine Sense to investigate, she found it completely impossible; when cultivators of high level engaged in combat, cultivators of lower level could not use their Divine Sense to probe without being severely backlashed, as such probing was treated as an attack.
Presently, she saw someone finishing their tribulation lightning inside. After waiting for a very long time without any sign of ascension, a disheartened Xue Yingtong recalled the True Fire of the Phoenix Divine Beast. She also wanted to understand why she could not ascend to the Immortal Realm.
The moment the True Fire of the Phoenix Divine Beast was withdrawn, figures flew over. The rescued cultivators saw that it was the Phoenix Fairy standing there, seemingly lost in thought. Seeing that she was unharmed, everyone was immensely relieved. "The Phoenix Fairy is safe! That's wonderful, wonderful!" Everyone rejoiced—except for one person.
"Where is my master?" Xue Xintong stepped forward to demand angrily. "What have you done to my master?"
Noticing that the newcomer was Xue Xintong, Xue Yingtong walked right up to her. "Elder sister, long time no see," she said. "Do you still remember me?"
Not recognizing her, Xue Xintong snapped, "Who on earth are you? Why are you calling me sister?"
"Do you still not remember the me whom you abandoned in the Jiayin Forest, nearly leaving me to die at the hands of those damned people?" Xue Yingtong asked.
Xue Xintong had all but forgotten about that incident. "Which idiot Xue Yingtong are you supposed to be?"
"So you do remember me after all. I thought elder sister had forgotten me long ago."
The Phoenix Divine Beast also spoke up: "The Phoenix Tail Feather on your body belongs to my mother. Hand it over! You've used my mother's Phoenix Tail Feather to swindle and bluff for long enough; it's time to wake the world up. You were never the one with the aptitude for the Phoenix Divine Beast—that belongs to my master, Xue Yingtong!"
With a swift flash, the phoenix snatched its mother's Phoenix Tail Feather back from Xue Xintong. "From now on, you will never again be able to trigger the phoenix accompaniment vision, because you no longer have the Phoenix Tail Feather."
Refusing to believe it, Xue Xintong cried out, "Impossible! You aren't that idiot Xue Yingtong! That idiot is dead—she's dead!"
"Believe it or not, your master has already been dealt with by me for trying to snatch my Phoenix Divine Beast for you," Xue Yingtong replied. "As for your hatred of me—well, I'm sure the members of your sect will come looking to settle accounts with you as well. Because of your deceit, their sect lost a number of disciples along with their master, since the Tiangang Sect master brought those disciples here entirely for your sake. You'd better live a long life to atone for them, because this debt will be pinned squarely on you."
As soon as Xue Yingtong finished speaking, a rainbow materialized across the sky. The rainbow bridge of Xue Xintong's—or rather, Xue Yingtong's—ascension appeared. Her body slowly drifted upward toward the rainbow bridge. Once she stepped onto the rainbow bridge, she gradually vanished from the Cultivation Realm.
Everyone in the Cultivation Realm witnessed the Phoenix Fairy ascending to the Immortal Realm. Afterward, Xue Xintong was captured by the people of the Tiangang Sect and re-tested for aptitude. Just as Xue Yingtong had predicted, she was by no means any sort of genius maiden. As word spread throughout the Cultivation Realm, people recounted how the Phoenix Fairy had declared before her ascension that Xue Xintong had tried to have her killed. Ultimately, the Phoenix Fairy had escaped death and survived the ordeal, exposing how the woman had merely obtained the tail feather of the Phoenix Divine Beast to fake a genius aptitude and deceive the sect master with her swindling.