Chapter 2: Grips of Tai Xuan

The Campione, God Slayer, is a king, for they slay the gods of heaven and seize their supreme divine power.

The Campione, God Slayer, is a tyrant, for they wield the authority stolen through godslaying to dominate earthly mortals.

The Campione, God Slayer, is a Demon Lord, for none among the world's mortals can possess strength to oppose them!

Valkyrie Phoenix departed from her landing site.

She sensed approaching figures, none of them ordinary.

Her departure wasn't from fear, but... Phoenix wished to familiarize herself with her power first. Even ordinary people with nuclear weapons wouldn't fire them, rendering them useless.

The desert stretched endlessly. Phoenix couldn't tell where she was; everything looked identical to before. Yet she knew with certainty that she had put considerable distance between herself and her previous location.

She approached a massive cactus, her delicate bare feet sinking into the sand as she calmly opened the Valkyrie interface.

There she was - the newly unlocked Valkyrie Phoenix, still at S rank...

Phoenix had been in the game for over a year now. With occasional 648 yuan purchases and monthly passes, her progression had been steady... though not quite enough to reach SSS rank by the time of her transmigration.

But she was close.

The young girl checked her inventory - twelve Valkyrie Fragments remained to upgrade Phoenix to SSS rank.

Each Valkyrie Fragment cost... 100 Crystals.

After some thought, the young girl still opened the shop... She spent 1200 crystals to purchase 12 fragments of Valkyrie Phoenix, then directly upgraded to SSS rank.

Looking at her remaining crystals, there were now just over seven thousand left.

Heartache...

But this was worth it...

The gap between SS rank Valkyries and SSS rank Valkyries was insurmountable.

Then the young girl - now Phoenix - took out the mirror from her inventory that was essential for every transmigration.

With decisive action and no hesitation, she removed her clothes... or rather, her qipao.

Using the mirror to examine the Stigmata patterns on her back, Phoenix saw she was equipped with the old set: [Higokumaru (Upper)], [Tanju (Middle)], and [Higokumaru (Lower)].

This was the highest flame damage set, requiring a certain number of consecutive attacks to maintain its output capability. Therefore, it needed some warm-up time. Although the damage was high, other aspects weren't particularly ideal, lacking the defensive and auxiliary capabilities of the Musician set.

However, the young girl had grown accustomed to it and saw no reason to switch.

After confirming the Stigmata on her back, she watched as Phoenix redressed without the slightest reluctance.

But this couldn't be true. Even with her small chest, Immortal Phoenix's allure was undeniable. She was still a celestial maiden... perfectly embodying the young girl's ideal of a fairy or heavenly princess.

As a native of Shenzhou, how could she not be interested in a Shenzhou celestial maiden?

How could that be...

Having grown up listening to tales of the Cowherd and Weaving Maid, the young girl had always envied the story's protagonists. Why could ordinary boys like them win the hand of a celestial maiden?

Especially that Cowherd - he'd spied on the celestial maiden bathing and even stolen her clothes! Yet in the end, she still married him.

If they can do it, so can I!

From that moment on, the young girl vowed to marry a celestial maiden herself when she grew up.

Though adulthood brought the harsh bite of reality.

In the myths of Shenzhou, goddesses rarely had large chests. Just the right size was perfect, and even smaller ones were acceptable—after all, no one ever spoke of goddesses with exceptionally ample bosoms.

Thus, the young girl found herself utterly captivated by everything about Phoenix.

But now, she was Phoenix. There was plenty of time; no need to rush.

-

After donning her clothes, she began sensing the dual forces within Phoenix's body.

One was the Honkai energy common to Valkyries. The other... was the immortal fire known as "Li Fire."

In the game, Phoenix's Li Fire appeared as ordinary flames. But having experienced it firsthand now, she realized the Li Fire within her... was incredibly powerful.

This was practically... the legendary Southern Li Fire. Yes, it must be the legendary Southern Li Fire.

The Southern Li Fire was an ancient flame from primeval times. Since antiquity, no other fire had surpassed it.

According to legend, it was the life essence fire of the Vermilion Bird—the guardian beast of the southernmost reaches of the earth. This flame represented the Vermilion Bird's greatest power.

Logically speaking, Phoenix should be the Jingwei bird. So why did Phoenix possess the Vermilion Bird's Southern Li Fire?

That remained unclear.

However, considering Phoenix's ultimate game move transforming into a flaming bird, it seemed more akin to the Vermilion Bird than Jingwei.

After all, Jingwei... only brought to mind the story of filling the sea and being the daughter of the Yan Emperor.

However, Phoenix's story seemed to defy mythological explanation from the beginning.

Jingwei was merely the daughter of the Yan Emperor, while Phoenix of the Honkai World was a super warrior from the previous civilization, a close friend to both Nuwa and Fuxi.

She was Xuanyuan's...

Phoenix discovered that the flame within her was incredibly powerful, possessing a unique characteristic - it could burn anything!

In its most extreme state, this flame could even consume void and time itself.

Spiritual bodies, inorganic matter, water...

All burned with effortless ease.

Apart from her fire manipulation, Phoenix's greatest strengths lay in physical power and martial arts.

Though she couldn't truly split the heavens with a single punch, shattering the earth came effortlessly to her.

Do you think Phoenix's current strength is already formidable?

No, you remain ignorant of an Immortal's true might.

This is merely her most basic ability.

Only now did the young girl realize... Phoenix the Immortal was truly magnificent.

Excluding the divine keys stored in her account inventory, Phoenix now carried two divine keys upon her person.

The first weapon is the gauntlets wielded by Immortal Phoenix... the Dominion Key and Grips of Tai Xuan.

These are divine keys forged from the Herrscher Core of the Tenth Herrscher—the Herrscher of Dominion—specifically designed to counter Honkai. They are black-gold gauntlets imbued with the most potent "domination" power.

However, due to the Tenth Herrscher Core's unique distributed property of infinite division, this divine key was mass-produced into nearly a thousand identical units.

Each Dominion Key possesses identical capabilities while remaining interconnected as a single entity.