zChapter 1362
Chapter 1362: [10Year] All birds pay homage to the phoenix
Han Yunxi’s poison needles flew towards Han Xiang’s back. She sensed them but couldn’t dodge in time, much less shake them off. Han Yunxi’s poison needles might be nothing against the clan heads, but they were still useful against Han Xiang! She could kill Han Xiang with true qi too, but the poison arts were faster and crueler!
Han Xiang stopped, only to see her sword-wielding hand slowly turn wrinkled. Terrified, she dropped her longsword only to find her hands, arms, and even the skin on her face wrinkling. Han Yunxi swept behind the two children, embraced them, and covered Rui’er’s eyes. An instant later, Han Xiang’s feet gradually began to melt away like a candle.
“Ahhhhh!” Han Xiang shrieked as she looked at her feet. By now they had dissolved into a mangled pulp of flesh and blood! Seeing this only made her scream louder.
“Ahhhh…ahhhHHH….AAHHHHHHH!”
Han Yunxi ignored her and picked up Yan’er as she pulled Rui’er to continue fleeing. The sounds of fighting behind them were vicious. She could feel the true qi and martial arts energy crashing against each other as well as smell the strong scent of blood. She wept as she forced herself forward without turning back. She was very clear that as long as she turned around, it would be impossible to harden her heart and protect the two children anymore. Using lightness techniques, she kept racing forward.
Meanwhile, Han Xiang’s entire lower body had been reduced to meat paste. She was rooted in place, unable to move as she wailed in terror as if she’d gone mad.
Nobody paid her any attention.
Han Yunxi’s poison only melted away her lower body. Her upper body was untouched beyond aging prematurely. Still, as she screamed and screamed, she suddenly stopped. An expression of fear remained frozen on her face as she moved no more. Perhaps she’d died from pain, or fright, or poison. In any case, it was a miserable death!
The ice was still cracking and melting as Long Feiye, Gu Qishao, and Qi Lianjue continued to kill each other. Han Yunxi and the children continued to escape.
Abruptly!
Gu Qishao was knocked back severely by Qi Lianjue’s true qi until he crashed heavily in front of Han Yunxi’s trio. He was covered in wounds, his body injured all over as fresh blood gushed from his mouth.
“Godfather!” Rui’er sobbed.
Han Yunxi suddenly stopped and looked back subconsciously. She only saw closeby Long Feiye getting stabbed in the shoulder by Qi Lianjue.
Han Yunxi released her hand. Without a second thought, she let Rui’er go and turned to fly towards Long Feiye. At this moment, Yan’er suddenly started muttering to herself. Nobody could hear what she was saying, but she gradually turned around with a dull expression and slowly unclenched her fists. As she mumbled and muttered, her eyes widened at the bloody scene and she stilled.
But in the next instant, she suddenly cried out in tears, “Daddy….mommy!”
In a flash, an incomparably dense power erupted from her body. Almost simultaneously, a huge shadow of a phoenix spread its wings to cover the entire sky.
“Phoenix power!”
Before Rui’er finished speaking, the massive blast sent him and everything else flying, including Han Yunxi, Long Feiye, and the rest in the distance. The remnants of ice on the Ice Sea all flew into the air while the columns of water intensified until they formed a massive whirlpool of ice and water. This giant whirlpool rushed upwards even as it swept everything into its depths. It extended all the way to the sea bottom. All of the water, ice, and people were swept away without mercy.
The huge phoenix shadow was above the vortex, appearing intermittently. There were very few birds around Ice Sea, but at this moment countless numbers of them appeared from all directions. There were ordinary birds and many rarer and strange species from Mysterious Continent. All of them surrounded the huge liquid twister and chirped.
All birds paying homage to the phoenix!
The miraculous event at Yan’er’s birth had reappeared again! Sadly, no one could see it. Everyone’s life or death was still dependent inside the huge whirlpool! Long Feiye, Han Yunxi, Qi Lianjue, Gu Qishao, Rui’er, and Yan’er were all sucked into the center of the vortex. There were two unknown forces trying to pull them up or suck them down. As they were in the middle, the conflicting forces threatened to tear them into two before long.
Qi Lianjue was having difficulty protecting himself, so he gave up on dealing with Long Feiye and the others. He made every effort to stabilize himself and prepared to sink. The power in the center of the vortex was terrifying, so they could only choose to escape in one direction or the other. Han Yunxi and Long Feiye were below Qi Lianjue. Long Feiye was almost out of energy while Han Yunxi kept drawing strength to hold on to both of them. She gradually sensed a force tugging at her but no one else, as if trying to suck her below! Perhaps it was safer down under, but she didn’t want to fall! Long Feiye and Gu Qishao were here, as were Rui’er and Yan’er. How could she leave them?
Long Feiye and Han Yunxi saw Qi Lianjue about to sink down and didn’t know how to act. Above Qi Lianjue was Gu Qishao, who suddenly struck out with a thorny vine to wrap around the man’s waist! Meanwhile, Rui’er held Gu Qishao in one hand and Yan’er in the other. In this moment, Yan’er was at the very top of the group. Like Han Yunxi, she was being pulled away from a foreign force but in the opposite direction—above.
QI Lianjue was entangled by Gu Qishao, so he immediately pulled at the vine to try and destroy it. But the vine simply separated into another length to extend towards Long Feiye. None of them could navigate much while caught in the vortex, so even the powerful Qi Lianjue was having trouble moving at the moment. If not for the vine’s self-growing powers, Long Feiye and Gu Qishao would have no way to trap Qi Lianjue like this!
Long Feiye and Gu Qishao both restrained the man before Long Feiye shouted, “Little Qi, go up!”
Gu Qishao was still full of energy and immediately relaxed at these words. At the same time, Long Feitye and Han Yunxi also released all of their strength. Once this happened, Gu Qishao, Rui’er, and Yan’er followed the flow of their energy to fly upwards while Han Yunxi and Long Feiye sank down. In a flash, the pull in opposite directions was enough to tear Qi Lianjue in pieces in a snow-like blur.
Gu Qishao held onto Rui’er, who held Yan’er, as they flew higher and higher. Gradually, Gu Qishao sensed something amiss. Some force was pulling Yan’er higher and higher nonstop.
“Rui’er, hold onto Yan’er and find a way to get out of here!” he said loudly.
They couldn’t go any higher, so they had to figure out how to get out of the vortex. There should be less traction farther away from the center so they could manage it. Rui’er was about to speak when a strange scene appeared around them. As if a mirage, a cityscape appeared as their surroundings.
“It’s Jinyang City of Mysterious Continent!” Gu Qishao exclaimed.
“Godfather…what…how can this be?” Rui’er was scared.
Gu Qishao was lost as well. He couldn’t explain what was going on. Was this an illusion? Yan’er’s eyes were closed as if she’d fallen asleep, looking quiet and pure. Rui’er quickly discovered his sister’s abnormality and tightly gripped her hand, wanting to draw her into his arms. But he couldn’t do it. He even felt a separate force tugging Yan’er away from him.
He began to cry. “Godfather, I can’t hold onto Yan’er. I’m almost at my limit! What now?”
“Hold on!” Gu Qishao actually didn’t have much strength of his own left. He could only ensure he didn’t lose Rui’er. Taking a deep breath, he spat out a thorny vine seed and planted it in his blood. Immediately, a vine grew out of his arm to wrap around Rui’er and then extend to encase Yan’er.
“Rui’er, godfather will hold on. You find a way to take us out of here!” Gu Qishao was even having trouble talking now.
But Rui’er hadn’t even moved when the force pulling on Yan’er intensified. It was a few times stronger than even the center of the vortex. In a flash, the vine was cut to shreds. Rui’er subconsciously tightend his grip on Yan’er’s hand, but he physically couldn’t hold on. Yan’er’s little fingers slowly left his grip no matter how he clenched.
Rui’er began to sob.
“Yan’er, wake up! Look at big brother, wake up!”
“Yan’er, stop sleeping! Father and mother are both waiting! Won’t you wake?”
“Yan’er, big brother swears…swears never to find you annoying again! Wake up, say something! Big brother likes listening to you talk! Speak! What’s wrong with you?”
“Yan’er, Little Shadow’s here, hurry and wake up! Big brother Shadow is here….”
Even though Rui’er howled and cried as he shouted, Yan’er still remained unconscious. Her fingers completely slipped out of Rui’ers grip as she flew into the surrounding illusion. As soon as she entered the cityscape, the scenes of Mysterious Continent vanished as if shattered.
“Yan’er!” Rui’er cried to the point of near collapse.
“Yan’er!” Gu Qishao hollered as he gripped Rui’er like death, afraid of losing him too. Very soon, the power of the vortex abruptly weakened. Gu Qishao and Rui’er were sent flying until they crashed onto the ground in the distance.
At the same time, the strength of the vortex continued to spin beneath the Ice Sea as it increased in intensity. Long Feiye and Han Yunxi had fell into an indescribably deep ice cavern and were currently lying by the edge of a pool of water. A strange scene appeared in the pool as well, that of a modern city with high-rise buildings and traffic. It was a completely foreign scene to Long Feiye, but Han Yunxi knew it well.
Why did this appear? Why was she still fighting against a force that even now was trying to drag her into the pool? Her Phoenix power awakened the ice crystal while Yan’er’s Phoenix power might have destroyed the Ice Sea…and opened a space-time tunnel? Was the true secret of the Ice Sea, its greatest mystery, not the ice crystal but a dimensional portal?
Long Feiye gripped Han Yunxi’s hand tightly. He could clearly feel the force trying to drag Han Yunxi away, but he was almost out of strength.
“What is that place? Do you know?” Long Feiye’s weak voice carried a clear trace of fear.