Chapter 142 Into The Phoenix Chamber Part 22

Bong forcefully swung the spear towards the scorpion's side. Although his blow did not cause much damage to the scorpion, it made the scorpion stumble to the right. He saw that between the hard shell of the scorpion's body, there were gaps the size of a child's hand. 

Bong landed on his feet and ten smaller scorpions rushed towards him. With a spear in hand, Bong kills them quickly, and then he returns to Michio. 

"The skin is too difficult to penetrate, but there are gaps between each exoskeleton," Bong said, swinging his spear to the left and knocking a scorpion to the ground. 

Michio shouted, "I can't leave to fight that mother scorpion with you. I have to protect U-ri." 

The two female participants rushed over from Michio's right. A female participant said, "We will protect him." She turned around and came to the entrance of the tunnel, took out a talisman and threw it at the top of the tunnel. 

Another female participant said, "If you trust us, we will protect him." 

U-ri said, "Michio, if we are to survive, we must kill the mother scorpion." 

More and more scorpions rushed out of the non-dead-end tunnels into the open area. Bong shouted, "I need all of these tunnels to be sealed." 

"I will seal those tunnels," Meng said. He reached into his sleeves and pulled out many white paper talismans. He threw the three paper charms into the three tunnels closest to him. 

"The rest of us help kill the smaller scorpions," Bong said. He looked at Michio. "You and I are killing the mother scorpion." 

Michio nodded. 

Bong said, "Little fellow, follow us closely, we will take you to seal the tunnel in front of us." 

Meng chopped off the head of an oncoming scorpion. As two other participants knocked down three scorpions to protect Meng, he quickly retreated to Bong and Michio. 

The six participants in front of Michio and Bong quickly created a path for Bong, Michio and Meng. The three men charged forward and killed the charging scorpions, while the remaining participants continued to attack and defend against the smaller scorpions. 

"I'm going to the right," Michio shouted, waving his three-section staff toward the mother scorpion. 

Bong rushed forward quickly, with Meng behind him. Meng shouted, "Throw me over!" 

Bong stopped, turned around, grabbed Meng by the back of his collar and threw him against the wall. Meng used his foot skills fiercely, stepped on the wall, threw the talisman towards the top of the entrance that the mother scorpion came out, continued to seal the second tunnel to the left, and then the third tunnel, and continued to move forward. 

While the participants killed all the smaller scorpions in the clearing, Michio and Bong were unable to defeat the mother scorpion. The two of them worked together and cut off three of the six legs of the mother scorpion. At this time, the mother scorpion fought alone with ten uninjured people, and many small scorpions stood behind the entrance of the tunnel blocked by the spell screeching at the mortals. 

The mother scorpion was seriously injured and retreated, trying to escape, but her retreat was blocked by Meng's talisman. 

Michio looked at Bong, who was also injured. "Do you have any idea how to kill this mother scorpion?" 

Bong scoffed and said, "Not really. It knows we want to kill it." He groaned and blood flowed from his left arm. "Since you can't kill it, then focus on cutting off all its legs so that it can't move." 

Jin said, "Tell us what you want us to do." 

"The uninjured one aims for the remaining leg. I'll chop off its tail," Bong said. He looked toward the ground and saw a rope with a grappling hook attached next to one of the dead participants. He picked up the rope. "Distract it." 

Michio took out a fire talisman from his sleeve and threw it on the mother scorpion's head. The mother scorpion quickly knocked the talisman away with its metasoma, at that time, Bong jumped forward and threw the rope towards the metasoma. 

The grappling hook grabbed the soft tissue of the metasoma, and the mother scorpion painfully pulled its metasoma back, which also pulled Bong onto the mother scorpion's back. 

Jin shouted, "Now!" 

Sixteen men rushed up from both sides of the female scorpion, and Bong threw the rope back to the other slightly injured participants. The participants quickly grabbed the rope and pulled it back with all their strength. Bong swung his spear left and right several times, cutting off half of the metasoma. Bong jumped off the mother scorpion's back. 

Bong walked up to Michio and handed the spear soaked in dark blood to Michio. "I guess I don't owe you a new spear," he said. 

Michio picked up the spear and approached the mother scorpion, which was moaning in pain. He sighed and said, "Amitabha." He stabbed the side of the mother scorpion's neck with his spear. After a while, the mother scorpion died. The smaller scorpions then quickly retreated into the tunnels. 

Bong asked, "How many people died?" 

Meng said, "We lost nine people." 

Bong looked at the people and knew that the situation would only become more dangerous from now on. He also noticed that those who survived were younger and less experienced. Therefore, to help Lixin win the championship, he must convince those who are still alive to help Lixin achieve this goal. 

Bong looked at the young participants and said, "I know that everyone participates in this competition to obtain the title of Phoenix General, but as you can see now, we are facing a more serious situation. If we don't work together, we will die here. As you can see, our enemies are much stronger than us and we cannot defeat them on our own, but by working together we can survive."  He looked around at the young participants. From the way the young participants looked at him, he knew in his heart that he had attracted their attention. "I know that no one among us is more suitable for this title than Lord Lixin." He started walking towards Jin, Feng and Heng. "Those who support Lord Lixin, please step this way. We will follow Lord Lixin." He glanced at Michio and U-ri and the other participants who stood beside the two Tanzanines. "If you think you can escape the Phoenix Chamber by yourself, I won't force you to join us." 

U-ri whispered, "Prince Bong does know how to use the situation to benefit Lord Lixin." 

The participants stood around Michio and U-ri walking slowly towards Bong, leaving the two Tanzanies to stand alone by the tunnel Abrafo entered. 

One of the female participants turned to the two Tanzanies and asked, "Dear sir, are you two going to work alone instead of working with us?" 

U-ri smiled and said, "We came in as a group and we haven't discussed it with the group members yet, so we are going to follow our group member into his tunnel." 

Bong pulled Jin aside and said, "Take these people to find Lixin." 

Jin asked, "What about you?" 

Bong said, "I'm going to follow our hostage. If Lixin can find the pure phoenix egg, that would be great. If Yul and his bastard friend find it first, I will trade our hostage for it." 

Jin said, "However, Lord Lixin will not agree. Lord Lixin has already told His Highness the matter." 

Bong said, "Just do as I say." He picked up the sword of the dead participant and walked towards Michio and U-ri. 

U-ri asked confusedly, "I thought you would go with others to find Lord Lixin?" 

Bong smiled and said, "I promised that if the monk lends me his spear. I will help him protect you." 

U-ri looked at Bong with a smile, feeling uneasy. U-ri recalled that when he and Hajime went to the fortress, Bong had no commitment to anyone at that time, but Bong chose to follow him and Hajime. Now, Bong is looking for excuses to follow them. U-ri is a person who has worked for three kings. He has witnessed many back-stabbing experiences inside and outside the palace. Bong's good intentions were so good that of course he immediately knew that Bong's kindness was not free; it comes with a price. He tried to think of what Bong would gain by following them, but he couldn't think of any, so he sighed and picked up his and Yul's backpacks. 

U-ri smiled at Bong and asked, "Does Your Highness want to lead the way or follow behind me?" 

"I'd better follow you," Bong said. "I don't want to see that bastard." 

Michio turned around and said, "If you decide to come with us, you will inevitably meet Abrafo." 

Bong sighed angrily and said, "Well, at least I don't have to be the first one to bump into him." 

Michio chuckled, took out the fire talisman, and walked into the dark tunnel, followed by U-ri and Michio. 

Deep in the cave, a scorpion drags a dead participant down a dark tunnel into an even larger dark tunnel. The scorpion continued to drag the body towards the back of a woman sitting on a large stone platform. The scorpion threw the body to the ground in front of the woman and slowly walked away from the woman. 

The woman in black stood up and turned to look at the body on the ground. She walked slowly to where the deceased was. She smiled and said, "Oh, mortal." She turned to the darkness. "How many?" 

The scorpion squeaked at the woman. 

The woman smiled and said, "Oh... this year, we are going to have a big feast." She giggled. "My children, please come forward and go claim your meal." She laughed and laughed, and her laughter echoed in hundreds of tunnels hidden deep under the ground, and thousands of red eyes began to appear in the dark tunnels.