Void Cultivation

Seeing the red fish follow him, Grey did not whether to smile or to frown. The behavior of the red fish was very bizarre. And he didn't want to kill it just yet.

So he swam upwards and when he launched out of the river, a magic ship that flew from his sleeves suddenly grew in size and enlarged to over twenty five meters.

Grey landed calmly on the deck of his magic ship, but he did not see the red fish on the surface of the river as he had expected. Instead, he saw a fiery bright red bird that wanted to land on his shoulder.

But when Grey saw that, he immediately grew alert. But the flaming bird did not seem fazed by this, it repeatedly tried to land on Grey's shoulder.

But when Grey didn't, it looked at him in annoyance. Seeing the annoyance on the flaming bird, Grey suddenly remembered the red fish that had followed him and put on a proud expression.

"Red fish?!" Grey called out. The flaming bird looked at Grey before trying to land on his shoulder and this time, he didn't try to Dodge.

When the flaming bird landed on his shoulder, a sleazy look appeared in it's eyes. It looked outwards with a proud expression.

"I don't know whether to call you strange or bizarre, because you can change your form while in the water and on land." Grey decided to make some experiments to find out and found that whenever the red bird entered water, it turned into a sort of flaming red fish.

But when it came out of the water, it turned into a flaming bird instead. Grey then concluded that this was the anatomy of this particular bizarre existence.

The word 'bizarre' was already in it's name, 'bizarre existence' because it's existences were weird and did not follow simple logic.

But this particular creature reminded him of stories he had heard from when he was on earth. About a bird that was always on fire. It entire existence was built on flames and it could shape shift into different creatures because fire did not have a particular shape.

But when the red bird landed on his shoulder, he did not feel the pain of fire burning his skin. At most he felt slightly warm and the mysterious cloak seemed to be capable of catching on fire anytime soon, but that was it.

He couldn't exactly figure out the reason why the flames couldn't hurt him. But then, Grey suddenly remembered the occurrence that had happened to him only a few weeks ago.

He had looked at a Divine existence and had suffered from it by having his spirit sea catch on white flames. Although the flames were subdued and suppressed by the purple crystal, they were still vibrant and capable of wrecking havoc on his spirit sea the moment the protection from the purple crystal went off.

Seeing the comfortable look on the flaming bird's face, Grey quickly entered a meditative state while standing. But he did not stay in there for long, after a few seconds, he came out with profoundness in his eyes.

'Strange! The divine flames are not as intent as they were a while ago. They were almost calm! I bet if I released the seal the purple crystal had over it, the divine flames won't ravage my spirit sea immediately. Is it because of the red bird?' Grey said in thought.

Grey felt that his train of thought was plausible. The fabled creature he had know from earth from called the heavenly Phoenix! A bird that was said to be able to control fire and was fire itself.

It entire existence was always on fire and it's surroundings were burned to crisps on its sudden arrival.

According to legends, there could be only one Phoenix in heaven and one earth. But after God descended, the heavens were also tainted and thrown into chaos.

From this world's history, which he had read some time ago, out of the nine heavens that once ruled the world, six fell and were corrupted by God. Know only three remained.

According to history, the last sighting of a pure Phoenix was nine thousand years ago! Although other creatures similar to Phoenixes were seen, they might could not be compared to one of the divine, whose entire existence was based on fire.

Grey looked at the flaming bird on his shoulder that had a sleazy look on his face. He got a feeling that it could understand him. With it's high intelligence, he felt that was possible.

"If this is really a Phoenix, I don't know whether I'm extremely lucky, or extremely unfortunate. Phoenixes were known for their destruction. Any and all creatures suffered from it's passive flames that could scorch the earth to ash."

"But if I think about it, what is such a legendary figure doing in a pocket dimension such as this, and swimming in cold waters? I thought Phoenixes preferred warmer climates? Is this one an irregularity?" As soon as those words fell out of his mouth, the red bird screeched and breathe out flames unto the water that made the chillingly cold waters turn warm in an instant.

The red bird looked at Grey with a somewhat angry look. Its eyes blazing with bright iridescent flames. It then cucked its head to the side as if ignoring Grey, but Grey could see from the side of his eyes that the little phoenix was secretly observing him.

It's flames so magnificent and majestic that it could melt all and anything in it's path. Yet, it stlld on Grey's shoulder without him being harmed in the slightest.

"Hm, I guess it's flames don't affect me because of the divine flames already residing in my spirit sea, could that be the reason it's attracted to me somehow?" Grey thought out loud.

The Phoenix looked at him as if in agreement. It then screeched again and blew flames out of its mouth. Many sea creatures in the water shivered even though the water was no longer cold.

The Phoenix took flight and did a circle around the magic ship before settling itself on top of his shoulder. With a proud expression on its face.

"Since it's arrival is more beneficial to me, I guess it can stay with me. I also like it's charisma!" Grey's grey eyes that were hidden by the mysterious cloak lit up.