Walk along the grass to the tall fortress ahead. There was no tree in the open space, and the two Tanzanies continued walking and chatting. Bong continued to watch the two men walking a few yards in front of him.
Bong entered the Phoenix Chamber without any weapons, so he knew that when fighting an unforeseen enemy, the other participants would have the upper hand. He marked the directions of where the others went for Lixin, and he hoped in his heart that Lixin could catch up with him. At least with Lixin by his side, he would feel safer no matter how dangerous the situation was.
Although Bong may not have any weapons to defend himself at this moment, he has eyes on the hostage Lixin wants walking in front of him. From his previous conversation with Lixin, he knew that no matter which one of the four men get the pure phoenix egg, as long as he captured their target hostage, the pure phoenix egg belonged to them, so he continued to follow Hajime and U-ri.
When Hajime and U-ri reached the middle of the meadow, the wind blew past them. The two Tanzanies stopped to embrace the wind to relief the hot weather.
U-ri smiled and said, "No wonder you stopped." He chuckled. "This breeze feels good."
Hajime chuckled, "I know it is. Do you feel it? The cool wind is perfect for this weather."
U-ri looked back and saw that Bong was following them, but Bong kept his distance. "Why is he following us?" U-ri turned around and asked Hajime. "He won't do anything weird, right?"
Hajime smiled and said, "We are not Abrafo, so I guess he won't do anything strange."
U-ri said, "Yes, but no matter what, we want to be safe and not regret it."
Hajime looked back and saw that Bong was not far behind them. "I know, let's keep going," Hajime said. "We have to be extra careful."
U-ri joked, "I thought he was going to follow Abrafo."
Hajime chuckled, and the two continued walking towards the fortress. "U-ri, do you think anyone lives there?" Hajime asked. "I mean it looks like an old castle standing in front of us."
U-ri said, "This could be an abandoned place like the palace in Magior City."
Hajime sighed, "Do you think there are still people like Lady Huan who guard the fortress?"
U-ri said, "I don't know. Let's get there first, but it's best if no one is guarding it."
Bong didn't know what they were talking about, but it didn't matter to him, because no matter what they said, his purpose of following them was ultimately to obtain a pure phoenix egg. Just when he thought he was going to slow down and put some distance between himself and the Tanzanies to avoid making himself suspicious, he tripped over a rock and stumbled forward. He looked down at his feet to see if the shoes were torn, when a huge shadow blocked his shadow. Then he noticed that the shadow got bigger. He turned around and saw a big red phoenix flying towards him.
"Run!" Bong ran towards Hajime and U-ri. "Run!"
The two Tanzanies looked back and saw a large red phoenix chasing Bong towards them. Hajime ran forward, grabbed a handful of wildflowers, and threw them towards the Phoenix. The wildflowers soon turned into spearheads and flew straight towards the Phoenix. The phoenix dodged the spearheads and rose into the sky, but quickly rushed towards Hajime and Bong. The phoenix lets out a loud scream and shoots fire from its mouth towards Bong and Hajime.
Hajime threw the white dragon scale in front of him. The white dragon's scales quickly expanded, blocking the flames, but the power of the Phoenix's flames pushed Hajime and Bong backward towards U-ri, burning everything in its path. The Red Phoenix stood a few feet away from Hajime and Bong, roaring loudly at the two men.
When the roar of the phoenix resounded throughout the forest, everyone who was walking towards the Phoenix Chamber suddenly stopped.
"That must be the voice of the Phoenix."
"In other words, someone discovered the location of the Phoenix Nest."
Shi said, "My lord, we have to go in quickly."
Lixin said, "Open a single path, do not try to win over the dead."
The roar of the phoenix that sounded, made everyone excited and forgot Lixin's original plan. They participants rushed to the entrance and started fighting with the dead.
Shi frowned angrily, "So stupid."
Lixin said, "Jin, lead the way."
Jin nodded and kicked one of the dead men to the ground, while Heng jumped forward and chopped off the head of the other dead man. Feng rushed to the left, Lixin jumped to the left, Shi chased and cut down the dead who followed them.
Gang and Shik soon catch up to Shi but are blocked by a group of dead men, which creates a gap between Lixin's team and him. "Lixin," Gang shouted.
Gang knew that if Lixin and his party turned around to help, he would have a chance to enter the Phoenix Chamber with Lixin and his party, but Lixin's party left him and Shik behind and continued to rush towards the mountain pass.
Shi looked back and found many dead people rushing towards Gang and Shik. "My lord, His Highness is right behind us," Shi said.
Lixin continued to run forward and said, "We have paved the way for them. We are not here to protect him. We have our own adjectives."
Lixin and his party quickly ran into the mountain pass.
When the five people entered the entrance the mountains pass, the dead man was no longer chasing them. The dead men tried to enter through the passage but was blocked by some kind of visible magical wall. Lixin looked at Gang and Shik who were fighting against the dead with other participants. "He is not my responsibility," Lixin said, walking forward on the single narrow mountain pass.
"When he decided to enter the competition, he knew the risks. If he was smart, he should have stayed in the palace like Prince Taió."
Jin said, "We don't need to guess why Prince Gang decided to participate in this competition. From a war point of view, there is still a big gap between Prince Gang and Prince Bong. From the welfare of the kingdom point of view, there is still a big gap between Prince Gang and Prince Taió."
One hundred meters from the entrance, the five people stopped, and a large mirror blocked their way. The men looked around. There were two high mountains standing side by side on both sides of the narrow mountain pass. There was no other way to go.
Feng looked at the two tall mountains standing several meters apart. "So, where are Prince Bong and the others?" he asked.
Heng said, "Did they walk through this mirror, or did they fly over with Hajime's eagles?"
Jin said, "I haven't seen Hajime's eagles since we entered Scattered Forest, so they must either walk through the mirror or climb the mountain wall."
"Then which way should we go? Go through this mirror or climb up the mountain wall?" Heng asked.
Shi said, "Even with the right equipment, climbing these mountain walls would be very challenging, so I don't believe that Sir Yul and his team could not climb over the mountain walls in such a short time."
Lixin listened to the suggestions of his subordinates, studied the narrow mountain pass, and tried summoning the paper dragon, but no matter how many times he summoned it, the paper dragon refused to come to life.
Lixin said, "Look around for some clues. If Bong was here with Yul and his team, he would leave us some clues and tell us where they went."
The five men began walking around the small area looking for clues.
Feng said, "What if Prince Bong is not here and we went the wrong way?"
Lixin looked at his reflection in the mirror and said, "Bong must have been here. If not, he wouldn't have marked his location for us. Keep looking."
Heng picked up a sword next to a boulder. "Look what I found," he said, raising the sword up. "Could this be Prince Bong's weapon?"
Jin said, "The weapon used by Prince Bong is a spear, not a sword."
Feng said, "What if he doesn't want us to know, so he disguises himself and holds a sword? Do you remember when he disguised himself as a soldier and followed Lord Lixin to fight against the Nok Tribe?"
Jin said, "His Highness was twelve years old at the time, but he was quickly caught by Lord Lixin because he refused to get along with other soldiers."
Feng sighed, "If it weren't for Prince Bong, Lord Lixin would have died during the peace treaty."
Heng asked, "What happened during that time?"
Shi said, "His Highness, jump in front of Lord Lixin, and the assassin stabbed his knife into His Highness's back." Shi looked at the ground and found that smaller rocks were piled up to form an arrow, pointing towards the mirror. "My Lord! look!" Shi pointed to the ground. "Prince Bong must have been here. This arrow pointed to the mirror."
Lixin looked at the mark arrow and said, "We're going in. Destroy the mark." He walked into the mirror, followed by Jin, Heng, and Feng. Shi kicked away the piled rocks and quickly followed the others.