The old monsters collectively sucked in a cold breath.
This so-called Second Awakening was an incomparably rare opportunity to gain the Legacy of one of the Sky Gods.
At birth, one would have a particular grade of Spiritual Foundation attached to you. This grade would decide your life in many aspects and often weighed heavier than the grades of your other talents. It acted as a bottleneck of sorts for how much potential you could glean from your abilities.
In ten thousand out of ten thousand cases, it was impossible to change your Spiritual Foundation. The herbs that Ryu found to improve his father's foundation didn't directly raise the grade of Titus' Spiritual Foundation, instead, it increased the strength of the cultivation he built atop of it, deepening their roots and allowing Titus to build higher.
However, in very rare instances that only occurred once every several epochs, one would successfully undergo a Second Awakening, causing a qualitative change in their Spiritual Foundation. After this, this person would come to be known as a Sky God Descendent, gaining access to a door holding the understandings of their Sky God.
According to ancient texts, there were two facets to this Second Awakening. The first was to have been lucky enough to be chosen by a Sky God. The second was to successfully complete the trial set out by this Sky God.
As for what these trials would be, there were numerous possibilities, most of which were lost in time. However, they all shared the characteristic of being mind numbingly difficult. Even the number one expert of the Shrine Plane, Ryu's father, wouldn't dare take on these trials lightly.
This said, there were a few trials that had survived the test of time. The Lightning Sky God required one to bathe in the highest form of tribulation lightning, White Lightning. The Wind Sky God required her successor to breathe in the Heavenly North, South, West and East Winds located at the end of existence. In fact, the Fire Sky God's trial was thought to have survived as well. According to ancient texts, one was meant to immerse themselves in the Core Flames of an Immortal Plane.
What was truly troubling about these trials, aside from their high fatality rate, was the fact that one wouldn't know if they were chosen until after completing it! Many had been forced to cast aside their lives on a simple gamble…
"I know what you're all thinking. The Fire Sky God's trial is well documented. There are even records of the last legend to successfully undergo a Second Awakening. However, this is where things become interesting… In this tale, although they also referred to this Sky God as Sky God Gracchus, instead of being known as the Fire Sky God, he's known as the Phoenix Sky God!"
When Vorena reached this point, Merula unconsciously trembled. The Phoenix Sky God was an absolute existence, transcending the elemental Sky Gods and reaching a plane beyond. Sky Gods who took on the namesakes of Ancient Beasts were the true rulers of their time! Whether it be the Dragon Sky God, the Qilin Sky God, or the numerous others, they could only be matched by the Sky Gods of quintessence that embodied heavenly laws.
The reason the Phoenix Sky God was so special was because he or she was both! Not only did the Phoenix Sky God embody an Ancient Beast, he or she also embodied the three pillars of existence, Life, Death and Reincarnation.
Whether it was the Ice or Fire Phoenix Clan, they knew very little about this entity, but worshipped them regardless.
"How can this be… Any mention of the Phoenix Sky God has long since been taken into our families. How did Little Ryu find this? And why is this tale so cruel?..." Merula muttered to herself.
These old monsters didn't need much prompting. They understood very well how cruel a trial that required you to take your own life was.
Since you had no idea whether you were chosen or not beforehand, how many people had sent themselves to death in vain? Although the other trials were difficult, at least there was a sliver of a chance for survival! The Phoenix Sky God's trial had no such backdoor…
"This was what Little Ryu had to speculate about." Vorena explained. "The words Phoenix Sky God were never explicitly stated."
"Then…"
"How did Little Ryu know? When he explained, this old woman couldn't help but hold her grandson in awe. It was truly too shameful." Despite her self-deprecating words, Vorena's smile was so wide you'd think she had just received a compliment.
"The first folk lore was written in the Sky God Era, but the second was written in the Shrine Era, several trillion years apart and the ancient characters were several dialects apart.
"In the first folk lore, Gracchus was spelt with the ancient characters for pitiful and weak. However, in the second folk lore, Sky God Gracchus was written with the characters for life, death and reincarnation!
"Little Ryu speculated that this was an embedded clue, so he began to cross reference words that were similar between the two folk tales. Over time, he came to find that these weren't just two connected stories across eras, but exactly nine of them.
"Nine tales. All about the same man. Written across three different Eras. The Sky God Era, the Shrine Era and the Blossoming Era.
"What all nine of these ancient texts had in common was that they didn't just detail two Phoenix Clans, they detailed three of them! The Ice Phoenix Clan, the Fire Phoenix Clan, and the Dark Phoenix Clan. Little Ryu believes that he's found the Death Shrine!"