Chapter 159 Into The Phoenix Chamber Part 39

Bong dashes through bushes and tree branches while fighting the dead, who occasionally rush from one side to the other. Bong following closely behind Lixin, making sure he didn't lose sight of Lixin's back. Bong continued to kill the dead men that Lixin, Jin, Feng had missed, turning around every so often to make sure Shi and Heng were still behind him. He knew that Shi was following closely behind, and Heng was the last one to make sure they didn't leave anyone behind. 

When Lixin and others broke through the army of the dead in the woods, they came to a crossroads. Looking around now, it seemed to them that there are no dead men were wandering around, so everyone stopped to take a breath, rest, and drink some water. Despite hearing the cries for help and loud screams from other participants who failed to make it through the woods, they remained still, those who are falling behind knowing full well that if they fell behind, there would be no rescue. 

Jin turned to look at Lixin and asked, "My Lord, which way should we take?" 

Lixin started to look towards the woods and saw three participants who were running towards the intersection, but the three participants did not stop and continued walking towards the small dirt road on the left. Shortly after the trio disappeared into the woods, sounds of fighting and roaring were heard. 

Lixin took one last look at the small dirt road on the right, closed the water bag, and said, "We are taking the right trail." 

Since no dead man were seen wandering on the dirt road on the right, Jin and Feng took the lead and walked quickly, followed by Lixin and others. Two hundred yards in front of them stood a hill. As they began to climb the hill, they were met by the early afternoon sun. They knew that an hour was wasted in escaping from the scorpion army, so Jin and Feng walked up the hill as quickly as possible. 

Jin and Feng reached the top of the hill first and saw a large group of dead men approaching the bottom of the hill. They suddenly stopped.

"Dead men below...." Jin looked back at Lixin and the other team members. 

Feng's face darkened and he said, "There are many dead men down there." 

Lixin walked up to the two men and saw at least twenty dead men at the foot of the hill. He glanced around and saw the boulder at the entrance of the Phoenix Chamber. Moving forward, he saw a huge luminous butterfly in the sky in front of him. He knew that he couldn't waste too much time. Since he could see the entrance of Phoenix Chamber and the exit of Scattered Forest, he didn't want to continue taking detour. 

Lixin pulled out his sword and said, "We will not change our route. Everyone has seen the boulder and the butterfly that Hajime mentioned. When we go down the mountain, let's go straight to the boulder. If you get lost during our run, remember to use the boulder as your marker." 

Since there were still so many participants following the four Tanzanies into the wood, they attracted many dead men, making it difficult for Yul and Abrafo to clear the way for others. 

"We can't stay with this large group of people anymore," Shik shouted after Michio. "We need to break away." 

Yul and Abrafo understand what Shik meant, but with so many dead men rushing toward them, they can't get away from the other participants. 

Abrafo looked ahead. They were approaching the tree line. Now it was time for him to use his military training to get them out of the circle of dead men. He swung his sword and chopped off a dead man's head. Abrafo took two steps back as Yul plunged his sword into another dead man's head. 

Michio suddenly remembered that dead men are afraid of fire. He knew Abrafo had obtained the Fire Sword, and when he looked up, another wave of dead men blocked their way. "Abrafo!" Michio shouted. "Burn them!" 

Abrafo swung his sword and sent a line of fire forward, igniting the dead man standing in front of them. 

Michio took out the last ten fire paper talismans from his sleeves and threw them into the air. The fire paper talismans turned into ten small fireballs, spinning forward and burning the dead on both sides. 

The combined attack of Abrafo and Michio opened a path for the other participants. Seeing that there was indeed an obvious opening in the woods, the participants who originally followed the four Tanzanies quickly dispersed to various parts of the woods, leaving the four Tanzanies, Shik and Meng behind, and they rushed towards the entrance of the Phoenix Chamber. 

The four Tanzanies, Shik and Meng continued straight through the woods, using the glowing butterfly as their guides. When they ran for about twenty minutes, Michio suddenly became familiar with this place. This was the area he scouted when he arrived at this beautiful purple fruit forest on his first day. 

"We're close!" Michio shouted. "There are four large, connected ponds ahead. After the last pond, the boulder will be on our left." 

Michio's words of assurance ignited the fighting spirit of others, but their excitement did not last long when they saw two participants running towards them from the left, followed by a large group of dead men chasing them. 

Jin and Feng rushed down the hill in pairs, swinging their swords at the rushing dead men. Next were Lixin and Bong, and the last two people were Shi and Heng. The men began to fight with dead men, and the sound of the fighting attracted more and more dead men. 

Feng shouted, "My Lord, we need to run and avoid fighting them." He swung his sword and to the left cutting off a dead man's arm, but the dead men continued to rush at him. 

Lixin saw through the woods that there weren't that many dead men on the left. He also knew that if they took this road, it would take longer to reach the boulder that was only a few hundred yards away from them, but now they had no other choice. If they continued to charge forward, it was very likely that they would never reach the boulder. At this point, they were unable to run up the hill they had just descended from, as their lack of physical strength was starting to take its toll on them.

"Go through the woods on the left. There are fewer dead men. Let's make our way to the entrance that way," Lixin said. He turned around and found Shi was a few feet away from him. "Shi... let's go." 

The group abandoned their fight with the dead men and started running to the left. Jin and Feng had already passed the ten dead men standing in front of them. Heng and Shi quickly followed Jin and Feng, killed two more dead men, and rushed into the trees. At this time Lixin was the last person. When he rushed over, he saw a large group of dead men approaching them. He killed four of the dead with a swing of his sword while charging through the remaining dead. 

After Bong cuts off the heads of the three dead men who pinned him to the tree, Bong turns around and finds that he is the only one left. 

Just as Bong was about to run towards the three dead men in front of him, Bong saw Lixin's back chasing Shi and Heng. He knew he could catch them, but two dead men rushed from his right and pinned him against a tree again. 

"Lixin! Lixin!" Bong screamed at the top of his lungs, but his shout fell on deaf ears, and Lixin continued to run farther and farther away from him without looking back. 

Bong knew he had to save himself at this moment because no one was coming to save him. He struck the dead man nearest him with his head, throwing him off him. He grabbed the other dead man by his hair and pulled him out of his body. He quickly moved away from the two dead men and chopped off their heads. 

Another dead man jumped at Bong; he raised his sword to block the dead man. The sword hit the dead men in the head and stuck. Another dead man jumped at Bong from behind and bit him on the right shoulder. At this point, Bong had no weapon to protect himself, so he reached back, grabbed the dead man's hair, pulled the dead man off his shoulders, slammed the dead man's head into the other dead man's head. 

Another dead man jumped down from the right side. To avoid the dead man, Bong quickly fell to the ground, but the other dead man rushed towards him, so he quickly rolled to the left. 

Bong glanced again to see if Lixin would rush out of the woods to rescue him, but at this time he found that Lixin and his men had disappeared. He looked back and saw three dead men rushing toward him, followed by more. Knowing that he could not escape being surrounded by so many dead men, he accepted his fate, closed his eyes, and mentally prepared himself for the dead to start tearing him apart.