Meeting with the 'Fairies'

Itachi finally rested after he was sure that the Dragon couldn't catch up with him. Once he was in a secluded place, he took out the Fire Seed from the Pearl. Although, his wounded eyes hadn't healed completely yet. Right now, only increasing his profound strength coulld help with that. So…

Itachi closed his eyes and silently sat for a long time. When he opened his eyes and placed the bead on his palm. As he looked at the round bead shine with a bizarre red light in his hand he braced his heart and slammed it directly in his mouth, swallowing it into his stomach, igniting him from the inside.

"This…. This is?"

The unforeseen ignition of flames didn't surprise him but it did surprise Jasmine who had been silently observing him all along.

His body did not feel a single degree of its burning luminescence, but instead felt an indescribable kind of coziness. Even his clothes were perfectly intact inside the flames, as if these horrifying flames were merely imaginary rays of bright light.

Inside the Sky Poison Pearl, she silently watched the flames that encompassed his entire body until she finally opened her mouth to speak in a low mumble: "The color of his Profound Veins have changed. Looks like that was indeed one of the five seeds that the Heretic God had left behind. It was actually discovered by him just like that. His luck ought to be said to be extremely good…. or was it something else?"

Jasmine recalled Itachi's strange words, however, she couldn't find anything wrong with them since Sky Poison Pearl did seem to have the ability to detect treasures that combined with Itachi's connection with the seeds as Heretic God's inheritor, it really did seem more like destiny than anything else.

Itachi's profound energy started to rapidly rise in his Profound Veins…

In the blink of an eye, his profound strength at the tenth level of the Elementary Profound Realm, broke through to the First level of the Nascent Profound Realm!

But it wasn't completely over just yet; the profound energy in the Profound Veins were still rapidly increasing….

The quality of the profound energy inside the Profound Veins made another jump in level; from the strength of the First level of the Nascent Profound into the:

….…..Nascent Profound Realm level two!

…...…Nascent Profound Realm level three!

….….…. Nascent Profound Realm level six!

Still it did not stop, the profound strength that had already achieved the sixth level of the Nascent Profound Realm still continued to increase at a rapid pace.

….....Nascent Profound Realm level seven!

….....Nascent Profound Realm level eight!

….....Nascent Profound Realm level nine!

….....Nascent Profound Realm level ten!

At this time, the scarlet flames that had been igniting for quite a while now, had finally died out.

"Tenth level of the Nascent Profound Realm! Congratulations!" Jasmine flatly stated.

Itachi lifted both his hands and then erected a finger. As he moved his thoughts, a very small flame ignited above the fingertip. The temperature of this flame was blazing hot, yet it didn't even burn or injure his skin in the slightest. As he looked at the cluster of fire that stayed ablaze because of his profound energy, he silently laughed.

"If it weren't for our intertwined lives, even this princess would also want to kill you and take your power."

Itachi chuckled as he said with a light voice: " You wouldn't be so easily saying that if you knew the destiny that accompanied this strength."

Itachi's tone of voice still contained the same ice-cold indifference as before, and completely lacked any emotion. But when it entered Jasmine's ears, it still made her feel as if it there was a sort of determination and a sense of loss that she had never seen before. Because she didn't feel any trace of disdain, contempt, or the occasional bored yet stiff tone in Itachi's words, but instead sensed a faint bit of….confusion.

Jasmine couldn't keep her curiosity any longer, she had already waited for Itachi to recover. Suddenly, a petite figure appeared in simple white robes with her still growing bossom and a somewhat childish yet heavenly radiant visage. Her black pearl like eyes stared straight at Itachi as she walked in front of him and asked in a grave tone of voice: "In the Flame Dragon's Cave, what's with the Black Flames that came from you? They were definitely not conjured using any of the transformed fire elements."

Itachi who had been calmly sitting cross-legged opened his eyes, his eyes stared at her face for a second before he noticed the grave tone in her voice.

Those Black Flames and that split second of killing intent had even shocked Jasmine. It was a kind of murderous aura that could almost solidify, and was not a bit inferior to her own murderous aura…Moreover, those flames also almost seemed devilish in nature...

Itachi closed his eyes for a while, and spoke with melancholy: " If I told you, you definitely wouldn't believe me, but we are… truly alike. You and I. You will know sooner or later, there's a lot of time. Right now, I can only tell you that those black flames are knows as the flames of Amaterasu and it has nothing to do with devils, if that's what you are worried about which I believe is the prime reason for you to ask this question. It's kind of an innate ability of my eyes. Anyways, Let's leave for now. We will talk about it some other time."

"Amaterasu, a strange name, just like Itachi….."Jasmine snorted at his deflection but didn't pursue it further, somewhat relaxed with Itachi's assurance of him being unrelated with devils.

" Now, this princess can also begin to teach you a few profound skills that you may possibly be able to learn…. although it is still hateful that you didn't accept me as your teacher. But, helping you is equivalent to helping myself right now." Jasmine continued.

The current Itachi seemed to have been reborn anew, for even the sense of extreme weakness caused by the fatigue from blood loss due to the overuse of his eyes seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

"Very well." Itachi nodded. To suddenly jump from the tenth rank of the Elementary Profound Realm to the tenth rank of the Nascent Profound Realm, he indeed required some time to adjust and stabilize the spike in profound power.

"With your current profound power, there is only one Profound Skill this princess can teach you."

"What is it?" Itachi already knew which skill she was going to teach.

"Star God's Broken Shadow!" Jasmine slowly said out the name: "This is a Profound Movement Skill, and its primary stage can be activated with the least amount of profound energy…..….…"

Itachi heard the same explanation that he had already been aware of…..

Itachi immediately nodded, "I'll learn it"

Star God's Broken Shadow… This was the very first Profound Skill Yun Che had learned in this world before. Now, it was Itachi's turn.

…..........

Two weeks later

Somewhere near New Moon City..

At this moment, as the bushes parted, an ash-gray wolf as tall as a man appeared with ferocious eyes and slowly moved about.

It was a True Profound Beast of the fourth rank. In this forest far from the city outskirts it was considered a menace and Elementary Profound Beasts did not dare to enter its territory.

Suddenly, a man appeared in its line of sight; it was a youth dressed in black. He continued to walk towards this direction with a calm look on his face.

Suddenly, the wolf jumped upon the youth yet the image of the youth disappeared. Then, a fist filled with profound energy struck from the right side of the gray wolf and ruthlessly smashed the top of its head. It died with a blood-curdling screech as blood oozing out of its orifices.

Itachi continued towards his destination without stopping.

Jasmine could not help but state: "To unexpectedly complete the first stage of the Star God's Broken Shadow within the span of just two weeks."

She had originally thought that it would take Itachi at least three months to somewhat master the first stage, but never would have thought that he would completely perfect the first two stages within just two weeks, and was even able to freely utilize it.

If Jasmine knew Itachi had copied her technique with the Sharingan the first time she performed it in just two hours then using Yun Che's memories to master it upto the fourth level within the first day itself, she would have coughed up blood and died on the spot. Unfortunately, she only woke last day after teaching him, hence, didn't see much…

Itachi had also tried out the first gate's power once before coming to New Moon City to meet with Chu Yueli.

New Moon City...

At this time, from one of the New Moon City gates, a youth dressed in black attire slowly walked up.

The distance between the Forest and New Moon City was a total of fifty kilometers, and Itachi had been walking for over a week. It wasn't because he did not want to arrive sooner, but his meeting with Chu Yueli still had around a week left. On the day that he set off from the Forest , even without Jasmine asking him to find a heavy object that was more than two hundred kilograms…. He had already found one. But Itachi was even more brutal on himself; he spent all of his remaining yellow profound coins and directly bought a chunk of pig iron that weighed nine hundred and thirty kilograms .

If it was for a profound practitioner at the True Profound Realm, this weight wasn't considered to be much; however for a profound practitioner still at the peak of Nascent Profound Realm, this was definitely not a weight that could be easily ignored.

Just like that, Itachi walked the entire fifty kilometers. Itachi's frightening willpower astonished Jasmine yet again.

Itachi's profound energy in his profound veins was erupting to have another breakthrough….However, Itachi forcefully suppressed his profound power's breakthrough.

"To another trial, huh?" As Itachi strolled onward, the corner of his mouth formed a smile.

Itachi walked toward the direction of the Black Moon Merchant Guild.

"The Black Moon Merchant Guild."Itachi quietly muttered to himself.

Before entering, Itachi went into a corner with no one around. He then transformed himself into an aged looking man.

"What are you doing?" Jasmine curiously asked.

Itachi did not answer.Then he took out a cloak that appeared to be slightly worn out, switched out the black clothing he was wearing before, and took out a bamboo hat that covered a half of his face after being worn.

Once Itachi entered and reached the counter, the receptionist only glanced at him and asked: "Buying or selling?"

Itachi went straight to the point; raising his right hand to place three scarlet-colored pills on top of the counter, he coldly said: "Twenty Fire Spirit Pills, make an offer!"

"Make an offer!" Itachi coldly said again.

The clerk finally snapped out of it and quickly brought out a black wooden box and placed the twenty Fire Spirit Pills into it to prevent the medicinal energy from dispersing. His expression was now a bit more respectful as he faced Itachi...

" I will give you a hundred purple profound coins each; therefore, how about twenty hundred purple profound coins total...."

Itachi said: "Deal!"

"This is your Profound Currency Card, please accept it. If you require anything else, you are always welcomed at our Black Moon Merchant Guild."

Towards the top left of the enormous shelf full of goods, he saw a dark red dress. He pointed at the dress and asked with oblique eyes: "How much?"

The Clerk swallowed as he said: "Hundred Purple profound coins."

After Itachi left the Black Moon Merchant Guild, he walked a considerable distance before finding an uninhabited area and changing back from his disguise.

After that, he simply took a room at an inn to sleep for the night.

…..Next day, in the morning

Itachi woke up; getting ready since he had no intention of staying here for too long. The day he had promised to meet with Chu Yueli was today.

Itachi packed everything of importance inside the Sky Poison Pearl. He had already collected all the necessities needed for him in his next trip.

Jasmine had decided to sleep and recover unless it was an emergency.

Leaving the inn, Itachi broke the crystal given to him by Chu Yueli. He already bought a black cloak and scarf to hide his face. Once the crystal was broken, he walked into a deserted alley while waiting for her to arrive.

The crystal when broken could transmit his general location to the one who gave it to him, it was basically a simple tracking crystal.

Itachi didn't need to wait for long since just a minute after he reached the alley he felt the presence of two strong cultivators approaching his position.

Itachi frowned at first, sensing the second one who's presence felt extremely familiar to him. But he wasn't worried since he was sure one of them was Chu Yueli while the other one was also someone familiar, if not to him, then to Yun Che.

Suddenly, Jasmine's alarmed voice rang out in his mind: "What's going on? Two Sky Profound Realm cultivators are rapidly approaching this position. What did you do?"

Itachi assured her in his mind: "Don't worry. I called them over; it's part of a deal. You will see soon."

Just as Itachi finished speaking, a gust of cold wind blew past Itachi's body. The scene in front of him blurred for a moment as white clothes fluttered, and two snowy-veiled women appeared in front of him like an illusion. Two pairs of beautiful eyes emotionlessly stared at him. Itachi's gaze had been attracted to one of them the moment she appeared, because everything around him, even the sky and the earth, lost its color in comparison…..and deep inside his heart and mind he heard a voice lamenting as if in deep grief…..Little Fairy

Itachi calmed himself before getting lost in Yun Che's memories again while he focused his attention on Chu Yueli since she was the one he made the initial contact with: " Greetings, Fairy Chu and Senior Fairy. Thank you for coming."

"Are you really the one who granted disciple Qingyue that 'boon'? But weren't you supposed to be a cripple?" Chu Yuechan inquired in her ice-cold tone while glancing at her sister. Her smooth, lustruos lips slightly parted as her veiled heavenly face showed a light frown beneath the veil.

The woman's voice was very soft, but an ice-cold feeling permeated through the softness. The cold directly tried to pierce his bone marrow and an irresistible oppression was entrapped within the cold.

Itachi did not evade her gaze . Rather, he stared directly at her eyes without any fear.

Chu Yueli clearly was shocked beyond words. She shifted her gaze, and looked at him with incomparable astonishment: "Are you really that Xiao Che who married Qingyue at Floating Cloud City?….But that's impossible!! You were just a cripple a just a month ago…..even if you somehow repaired your profound veins it should be impossible for you to reach the peak of Nascent Profound Realm in such a short amount of time."

Itachi's gaze seemed to give nothing away as he replied with his same emotionless voice: "Indeed, I am the same Xiao Che. As I told you before, my master was a divine doctor; before he left he gave me some pills to advance myself the day I was able to repair my profound veins; I just used them so that I can somewhat catch up to the youth of my generation. The Master who taught me how to give Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins could surely have such measly pills for his only disciple."

Hearing the confirmation from Itachi himself, Chu Yueli's eyes were in a state of turmoil, and her expression was filled with shock.

The time taken for Itachi to train from nothing to the tenth level of the Nascent Profound Realm, was merely a single month!!!

Even as one of the "Frozen Cloud's Seven Fairies", this was a truth that she was unable to completely believe and accept.

Both the fairies mind became tumultuous listening to Itachi's words about a pill that could increase his cultivation to the peak of Nascent Profound Realm in just a month along with his other heaven-defying abilities. Even Chu Yuechan couldn't keep herself calm any longer.

Itachi seeing that neither of them seemed to be saying anything he decided to ask about Chu Yuechan: "Who might senior be? I know Fairy Chu but…"

Finally after a long pause, Chu Yueli took over as her somewhat less cold but the same emotionless voice said: "This is my elder sister and the First Fairy of the Frozen Cloud Asgard. Once I relayed the information to My lady. She dispatched her , along with me, to verify the validity of the matter and proceed accordingly. Moreover, she has agreed to the conditions. The first condition has already been fulfilled. Xiao Lingxi will stay at the Frozen Cloud Asgard for at least the next three years. As for the second, tell us from when will you be needing the protection?"

Chu Yuechan didn't say anything as she simply waited for her sister to finish.

Itachi had already decided his next course of actions. According to Yun Che's memories, there were still 7 months remaining for the banquet at this city since Yun Che took around 8 months to get to New Moon City in the original timeline. So, he had to come back here before then.

Itachi waited for a moment before he said in an unhurried manner: "I would like to ask for the protection period to begin from today, if possible."

Chu Yueli narrowed her eyes as she glanced at her elder sister. With her nod, she affirmed to Itachi: "Very well. The sooner it is, the better it will be for us."

"Very well, let's leave then. Our first destination will be the ten thousand beast mountain range." Itachi said as the three of them quietly left the city towards their destination.

…............

Outside of New Moon City, A figure of a person was walking toward the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range. The figure had a bamboo hat while a cloak hid the rest of his body. The cloak was black except the red and white symbol on the back resembling a fan. This was a special cloak that he had asked to be made before he went to the inn last night.

The figure was obviously Itachi as he wore his cloak with the Uchiha clan crest on it. During his time as an akatsuki member, Itachi had long gotten used to wearing a cloak and now he felt quite comfortable when he wears one.

" You are heading to this mountain range to test your strength?" Jasmine asked

"Yes. I need more experience using the Heretic God Arts as well as the Star God's Broken Shadow. This will also help consolidate my realm" Itachi said nodding towards Jasmine's answer.

"I see, well, I don't need to worry. You have after all, the protection of two peak Sky Profound cultivators." Jasmine said as she nodded.

Both the Chu sisters were following him from the skies using their ability to fly.

As Itachi journeyed through to the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range he battled many profound beasts ranging from Nascent Profound to even low level Spirit Profound realm beasts.

'There hasn't been any signs of any stronger beasts here' Itachi said as he looked towards the corpses of a pack of profound wolves.

"Time for me to get to the Phoenix Trial and get myself the Phoenix Bloodline." said Itachi to himself as he walked towards the phoenix clan's location.

Before going on his next adventure, Itachi spent most of the money he had obtained to get a very comfortable bed for Jasmine and a heavy sword for himself.

When asked by Jasmine why he chose a heavy sword, he answered: "The Evil God's secret arts increase my strength a lot. In the future when my cultivation is higher and I am able to keep the gates open for a longer time, I will have an incredible amount of strength for my cultivation level. It would be a waste if I didn't exploit this to the maximum and used a heavy sword, the perfect weapon to complement abnormal strength."

Jasmine was a little disappointed to learn that it was not for the same reason as her elder brother – to protect others. At the same time, she was impressed once again by Itachi's logical thinking process.

"Alright then, I will teach you a profound art to further increase your strength and also a profound technique of heavy swords." She was obviously talking about the Great Way of the Buddha and the Heavenly Wolf Hell God's Tome.

With his abnormal comprehension talent, Itachi had managed to master the first level of Heavenly Wolf Hell God's Tome in just this one week since they ventured into the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range. With the Star God's Broken Shadow, he could now form four illusions of himself, while with the Heavenly Wolf Hell God's Tome he was able to use the Heavenly Wolf Slash.

Moreover, since he already had the the formula of Great Way of the Buddha from Jasmine, he could finally start working on it as well.

Jasmine had already been sleeping for the last week.

In that one week, he also continued his training regimen of depleting all his energy with Falling Moon Sinking Star and then rapidly recovering it, which resulted in his consolidation of peak stage of Nascent Profound Realm.

'According to the previous timeline Yun Che flew to the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range on Cang Yue's bird so it will take some time before he could reach the location of the phoenix clan.'

After walking for another two days straight, they were getting closer to the center of the forest. Just few hours later they finally arrived at the village.

Itachi was looking around the village as he was walking to Feng Baichuan's home and just like what he remembered from the memories he noticed that everyone was at level 10 Elementary Profound Realm and had a red mark of the Phoenix on their foreheads.

Feng Baichuan said as he came forward: "So, why have you come here outsider? Aren't you afraid of those profound beasts"

Itachi merely glanced at him: "No, it's because I am more than strong enough to take them on. Why are you all at level ten Elementary Profound Realm and what is that mark on all of your foreheads?"

Feng Baichuan then told Itachi the history of the Phoenix Clan which he was already aware of...

Itachi nodded and said: "Then, let me take the trial? If I pass, I will lift the curse and take care of the mercenary problem."

"Really?! You will really take on the Phoenix Trial for us and finally liberate us from terrible curse that has plagued for so long?!?!"

"I am only doing it for myself; to get the phoenix bloodline." Itachi said lightly.

Feng Baichuan finally relented: "I see, very well then. Alright, follow me. I will let you in the trial. But be warned that everyone before this who has gone into the trial has failed to return. I hope you will succeed."

Before leaving for the trial grounds, he asked the clan head to lend a secluded place to the Two Fairies to which Feng Baichuan readily agreed.

Once he had found the spot which simply consisted of a hut with two stone beds inside. Itachi finally called for them using the profound calling stone.

Once they arrived at the location, they were immediately shocked to hear about the trial grounds of a phoenix but they didn't stop him.

Chu Yuechan with her enchantingly holy body, in plain bluish-white robes that extenuated her extremely mature figure, stood in front of Itachi silently listening with her usual cold expression as Itachi explained about his purpose of suddenly stopping at this village. However, inwardly, neither her heart nor her mind, could stay as calm as her expression. The more she learned about this youth, the more shocked she became. She was sure her sister was probably feeling much shocked than her. Hence….

Chu Yueli finally asked the question that Chu Yuechan wanted to ask: "How will we protect you if we don't go to this trial with you? You could possibly die in this trial right?"

Itachi merely shook his head to Chu Yueli's question: "I would have taken you two as well. It would even have been beneficial to your cultivation, yet, your sect arts cultivate in the ice profound energy while this is the trial of the fire phoenix. Morever, the phoenix is a kind being by nature, as long as I give up voluntarily it would let me leave in peace. However, there is no benefit for any of you to come to the trial, it will just increase the difficulty of my trial."

Befoe Chu Yueli could retort with anything, Chu Yuechan finally spoke up: "Very well, then. We will wait for you to come back to fulfill our deal, here."

Itachi looked at Chu Yuechan : "Thank you, Fairy Chu."

Chu Yueli tried to say: "B-but sist-ter…."

Chu Yuechan said sternly: "It's fine, Yueli."

With that, Itachi bade them both farewell and was led to the formation and let in the trial grounds. During this time, he had gone through all of the two sets of memories of the original Yun Che and assimilated all of it. This was in preparation for the Phoenix to read his memories. Thankfully, none of the memories affected his emotional state.

Back with the Fairies...

Chu Yueli glanced at her sister, as she asked with a confused voice: " Sister, why did you agree that easily? If he dies in the trial, he won't be able to fulfill the deal."

Chu Yuechan simply sat down at one of the stone beds as her radiantly milky arms showed just for a second as she removed her veil revealing her heavenly beauty to the world: " Didn't you notice? Him finding this trial was no coincidence, he had been deliberately heading this way from the beginning. I don't believe him to be an idiot especially after witnessing his strange abilities. Moreover, what he said about the phoenix trial is true. There is a trial ground in Divine Phoenix Empire as well, it has a somewhat same requisite although exclusive to it's own members only. Now, we just need to wait here and see!"

With that she closed her eyes, entering into a meditative state as a light hazy mist exuded around making her figure hazy.

Chu Yueli also had no choice but to follow her sister and meditate for the time being.

….......….

Elsewhere, the moment Itachi stepped inside the entrance, the scene before him suddenly distorted. When he opened his eyes, he only saw a pitch black darkness.

As Itachi pondered his surroundings, two golden eyes suddenly appeared in the pitch black darkness before him.