63 Chapter 63
The staring contest ended with the Phoenix looking away.
"Greetings, human. I must say that I did not expect someone who does not contain the Phoenix bloodline to enter the proving ground." The Phoenix's voice was ethereal and gave a sense of divinity. Ordinary people who heard that kind of voice would probably kneel, but Itachi stood stoically as he continued staring into those golden eyes with his Sharingan.
As if intimidated, the Phoenix said, "You can stop looking at me with those eyes. After all, I am not here to harm you."
These words from the Phoenix caused Itachi to deactivate his Sharingan. And the Phoenix seeing Itachi's eyes returning to normal, looked relieved as he began to explain how his lineage tests work.
"There are three stages before you can complete the proving ground. The first stage is Purgatory Flame Demon, the second stage: is Phoenix Arrows, and the third stage: Is heart Flame Corruption. You can leave the proving grounds at any time and instantly. Also, don't forget that you can die if you try to push too hard. Anyway, I wish you success."
After he finished his explanation, the pair of golden eyes disappeared, and Itachi was pulled hard to another place.
"What is this Phoenix up to?" Itachi thought.
The Phoenix had lured him to the testing ground, so why say he wasn't expecting someone who doesn't have the Phoenix bloodline? That made no sense, and just when he was about to ask what the Phoenix wanted, it disappeared without giving him any explanation.
Itachi felt that he would only get an answer from the Phoenix when he finished this testing ground.
The place he was currently in was precisely the first stage, Purgatory Flame Demon.
"The temperature here is very high." Itachi thought.
In front of Itachi was a massive wall of fire, he tried to get closer, but the temperature was too much even for someone like him. It was practically impossible for him to walk this way regularly. Even if he had a specific resistance to flames, he still couldn't handle walking all this way.
Itachi also noticed that the Phoenix seemed to have increased the temperature of the flames due to its high cultivation. He only needed to spend a few minutes thinking before an idea came to his mind.
The Phoenix had not told him any words about the way he should cross the wall of fire. In this case, he would use an ability he received from Minato's soul.
Taking out the sword he received from his mother, he marked it again with his Hiraishin seal, then threw it at the wall.
The sword went through the wall of fire cleanly and stuck in the wall on the other side, and in just an instant, Itachi was teleported to the sword, thus passing the wall of fire without any burn on his body.
Jasmine, who had already seen Itachi using this technique, was not very surprised. Her thoughts were if Itachi could teleport to any distance? Because if that were possible, then that would probably be one of the most powerful abilities in this world.
Seeing how Itachi had gone through the first stage, the Phoenix was silent. In all his life, he had never seen anyone pass their test like this. All the people who gave the first stage had several burns all over their bodies.
"You have passed the first stage. Now you will be taken to the second, Phoenix Arrows." The Phoenix's voice sounded again, but its voice said a little strange as if the way Itachi had gone through the first test had shocked it so severely that it still hadn't been able to recover.
At the end of the Phoenix's voice, Itachi felt himself being pulled to a different location, and instantly his instincts alerted him to dozens of arrows flying toward him. Each arrow seemed to contain the power of a cultivator of the Profound Tyrannical Realm.
Without time to rest or think, he began to dodge the arrows. At first, he managed to avoid the arrows smoothly, but the arrows became faster and more dangerous as time passed. His clothes had dozens of burn marks, showing that some arrows had hit him.
But even though he was hit a few times, he didn't utter a word of pain. Whenever an arrow came in contact with his body, he felt more motivated to keep training. It got to the point where Itachi was riddled with burning and blood all over his body.
He knew that if he continued to receive these attacks, he would most likely be unable to continue, especially when he felt the arrows being shot in his direction with the force of a Sovereign Realm Profound cultivator.
Soon the number of arrows being shot in his direction was decreasing, but the force they were coming with increased more and more, and soon the last arrow was shot, and that arrow seemed to contain the power of a cultivator who shouldn't belong on this planet.
The last arrow came at such a fantastic speed that Itachi couldn't even see the trajectory, and only with his instincts did he manages to dodge it at the last moment, but not without having his face burned from the flames that covered the previous arrow.
When the last arrow was deflected, the Phoenix's voice sounded, and its tone seemed to be an enormous surprise as if it did not expect Itachi to have the strength to deflect its last attack.
"You have passed through the second stage of the testing ground, so we will soon go to the third stage..."
Itachi's injuries instantly healed at the end of the Phoenix's voice, and he felt himself being pulled to another place before he could prepare himself. But this place felt incredibly familiar to him, but at the same time, he thought that this place was a bit strange.
He was in the Uchiha complex.
Jasmine, who was inside Itachi's Universe, did not recognize this place; she seemed very interested. When Itachi entered the testing ground, she communicated with the Phoenix unbeknownst to him, so she knew that this last test was about testing a person's character.
She didn't know Itachi's past, so she was interested to know who this mysterious young man was who always seemed to keep calm regardless of the situation but also appeared to have a lot of hidden feelings.
"Hm? Who is that little boy?" Jasmine thought as she looked at the scene outside Itachi's Universe.
