Chapter 282: Immortalia, the Undying Phoenix (Patreon)

Immortalia

For the 149,843,632nd time, Immortalia turned in her rewards from the C rank Universal tournament for as much pure refined nascent energy as she could get, receiving quite a bit less than she was used to.

For the last 3.1 trillion years, ever since her soul had awoken from its 42 trillion year slumber, she’d been finding and taking over the bodies of talented F rank cultivators, raising them to C rank, and then entering into the silly tournament for youths, all in the hopes she could build up enough energy to rebuild her true body, and this time her shell was a human, a member of the Sangha known most widely as Reverend Samsara.

The latest in a long line of Sangha cultivators to gain fame from following the samsara path she herself had originated, her body’s original soul had been one of the uncountable weak F rank cultivators in the universe, his life destroyed by the uncaring machinations of those far more powerful than him, and, like all the souls she’d taken over before him, he’d jumped at the chance to receive her tutelage, completely oblivious to how forming a student teacher relationship with a divine soul fragment was the easiest way to allow the soul fragment to slowly alter and then eventually consume his soul.

The only survivor of the purge of the monster gods, Immortalia always had to be careful. She couldn’t assume the identity of anyone who’d ever met a B rank, let alone an A rank or a god, as the body’s soul signature would be different after her soul started the process of taking it over, and she couldn’t perform too well in the tournament, as it would draw attention, so she was still a long way off from being able to form a true phoenix body which she could use to rise back to her true power.

But Primordius’s Soul Lord grandson had just given her a spark of inspiration she hadn’t considered. It had been 45 trillion years since the fall of the Radiant Behemoth at the machinations of the Undead and the subsequent purge of his followers by Primordius, the Lady of Laws, and the other cultivator gods of that time working together. And that nasty sin god who’d eaten her daughter and son-in-law along with three other monster gods she knew of had since risen to take the Radiant Behemoth’s place in the power structure of the universe.

Now known as the Divine Child for some reason, she was pretty sure the man had somehow gained the Radiant Behemoth’s administrator rights to the System—the grand creation of the Radiant Behemoth, Primordius, and the Lady of Laws to provide structure to the ways they would compete with each other, along with raising up minions to help fight against the other universes—and it was almost certain he was the one responsible for the new addition of monster tutorials for those who died during the final stages of the integration of new planets.

Such a fundamental change to the System would require the unanimous consent of all three administrators, and that gluttonous sin god was the one who’d most benefit from the rise of more monsters, though it was unlikely even Primordius and the Lady of Laws fully understood how.

Whatever the case, given the power of Primordius’s grandson, it seemed the bodies which could be created from the monster tutorial could provide foundations of a far higher tier than she’d thought.

If she wasn’t blind, that so called Heavenly Spark Soul King somehow even had a sublime soul variant race, and, if that was possible, she could probably gain an even better race than her original. Along with her Laws which had become more varied over the years as she lived many lives, and her knowledge of herself which had grown by an immeasurable amount since she’d been a B rank, if she were reborn in the same way, she would be able to retake her divinity with a much more solid foundation, possibly even paving the way for her to rise to be an elder god herself and get her revenge.

Standing up from the Holy Bodhi Tree she’d been resting under, Immortalia moved from the peaceful garden of the Sangha’s leader, an A rank human known for his love of tranquility and silence, and headed to the force’s records room.

A relatively young major force of the universe, the Sangha was known as the universe’s most peaceful force, most of its members noncombatants, and for its advocacy of asceticism, a lack of wants and indulgence central to the group’s core principals. But, even by looking only a few layers deep, these outward trappings were obviously a farce.

Asceticism was only practiced by those following the Sangha’s path of tranquility, but the sangha also had much more vile paths, such as the path of slaughter and the path of passion.

In reality, what the Sangha specialized in most were the emotional Laws, not, as many outsiders believed, anything to do with merit or sin, and this was because it was in truth the force directly under one of the two human elder gods to rise after Primordius, Elandra, the Goddess of Emotions.

Much weaker than Primordius, the Lady of Laws, and the evil devourer, Elandra was still the fourth or fifth most powerful being in the universe and, given the nature of her personality, it was almost impossible she’d ever even acknowledge those who served under her, let alone take any interest. As a result, the Sangha had some of the most complete libraries of paths to power and some of the best resources of any force in the universe while also having some of the lowest restrictions on members.

This made it Immortalia’s favorite force to join when she had the chance, and also the best place to learn things like where to find possible worlds about to undergo apocalypse style integrations.

Immortalia didn’t have the benefit of a System boon to allow a cultivator to enter a monster tutorial automatically, so she would have to find a planet where mana levels were already rising, figure out exactly when the apocalypse style integration would begin, and then take over a new identity and kill it, using the special technique she’d developed over the years to hide the qualitative difference in her soul from the System while in the monster tutorial.

First, however, she would have to get rid of her current identity. So, like many times before, she headed to one of the demiplane battlefields between universes, specifically one where their universe competed against the demons, and waited for the next invasion force to try and force its way through, something which only took about a week.

Then, instead of fighting, she found an innocuous location in the rocky landscape and created a complex yet low-powered runic array which she powered with the element of fire, something her Reverend Samsara identity shouldn’t have been able to do. A portal to the artifact she’d parked there after getting rid of her previous body then opened, allowing her into the residence artifact Steel Swamp Sorin had made for her back in the day, and she used her death Laws to sever all her bonds, including her bond with the System, before running through the portal and causing it to close up, hiding the artifact residence from the System once again.

“Where to this time, My Lady?”

Upon her entrance, the hologram of a large beast appeared, roughly four meters tall, with large antlers, gorilla-like arms and hands, and a widened wolf-like face, the AI Steel Swamp Sorin had built into the artifact, and Immortalia couldn’t help but smile at seeing him.

Designed to look like the Swamp Beast race to match its creator, this particular AI had served her for five trillion years before her body was destroyed, protected her damaged soul as it slowly healed, and been her only constant companion throughout her many lives since.

“We’re going to some unintegrated planets, Sorin.” Immortalia walked her body through the short tunnel the entrance portal connected to and into the heart of the residence artifact, an area of bent space surrounding a beautiful lake, upon which rested a large floating mansion, and a large parasol tree forest. “I’m going to see if I can actually form a new body of my own instead of taking over others all the time.”

“Congratulations, My Lady.” The AI, which she’d renamed in honor of its fallen creator, bowed its head slightly, and Immortalia yet again wished she hadn’t asked the original Sorin to make the thing stupid and unemotional back when he’d given her the option.

Without any more words, she then sent the artifact the first set of coordinates, and then she moved to the mansion and began the process of readying her soul to change bodies.

Her Reverend Samsara identity, as identities went, was a particularly powerful one, the base talents of the body she’d taken over high enough to allow her to express an important part of her power to almost the full extent a C rank could, but it wouldn’t serve any purpose in the future, so the primal energy it accumulated would just go to Sorin, who could store it until she needed it later, along with all the other primal energy her other lives had accumulated over the years.

In just a few months at most, she’d have a new identity, one she would immediately lose, and then, after a little work, her soul would be reborn in a body that actually matched it.

The Prime Material, after the longest time, would have a true phoenix once again.