A blinding white fire burned around Scarlet, one that dwarfed any other color that she could have probably used.
Alex had gotten far, as per her instruction, and somehow he was still feeling the heat. Worse of all, he couldn’t do anything about it.
He had the True Fire Dao, and he could stop the heat from burning him slightly. He could only wonder how hot it actually was.
At some point, he stopped seeing Scarlet at all with all the blinding light. Even his spiritual sense was burning away when it got close to her. The power of an Immortal attack was all too much for a mortal like him.
Everyone on the ground moved as far as they could from her, and even then they could feel the heat and were blinded by the light.
They closed their eyes, but the light was still bright enough to go through their eyelids. They had to put their arms up to properly block the light.
Alex fortunately only had to close his eyes to not be completely blinded by the light.
He heard a single phoenix screech, loud and high, and then… everything returned to darkness.
Alex was the first to recover his eyesight and he opened it. As soon as he did, he saw the blinding white light flying through the sky, illuminating the sky and the water as it flew through the air toward Zhu Shaofan who was burning in the distance.
Alex didn’t see what happened as the bright light was the only thing he could see in the distance. Then a second later, it exploded into a massive plume of fire that rose to the sky.
The entire world lit up as if it was daytime and even the mortals could see everything as clear as day.
A few seconds later, the bright light slowly vanished, and all that remained of light were the stars in the sky that burned bright.
Because of how hot the attack had been, even the clouds had disappeared from the area.
“Fiery Shard of the Primordial Sun,” Alex thought to himself as he watched in stun. That was most definitely an attack fit for its name.
He didn’t even look to check if Zhu Shaofan was alive or not at all. If he had a way to survive that, then he deserved to survive. However, it was impossible for him to be anything but ash at the moment.
Alex looked back at Scarlet whose solid fire armor had disappeared. The flames on her body disappeared as well, turning her back into a normal colorful bird.
It wasn’t just that, however. She seemed weakened somehow after that attack and was hardly able to control herself.
Alex quickly flew up to her and grabbed her as she lost altitude. Scarlet let herself be grabbed and simply took the chance to catch her breath.
Alex dropped her to the ground and let her rest there. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” Scarlet said weakly. “I’m fine. I just didn’t expect the attack to take so much out of me.”
“It was a strong attack,” Alex said. “An immortal attack would definitely be too much for a mortal like you.”
“Well, it shouldn’t be since it’s my attack,” Scarlet said. “It’s just that I am cultivating too fast and my physical body isn’t keeping up with my cultivation base.”
“Huh?” Alex was surprised. “Are you saying your foundation is weak?”
“Pretty much,” Scarlet said. “I mean, you saw me. I cultivated to this realm in just a few years. You should have known that.”
“Well… I assumed that was what a Vermilion bird was able to do,” Alex said. “Here, eat this healing pill. It should help a bit.”
“Thank you.” Scarlet quickly ate the pill and felt a bit better, but the fatigue didn’t disappear so easily.
She looked at Alex and saw him staring at the stars. “What’s wrong? Have you never seen the open sky before?” she asked.
“Huh? No, I wasn’t looking at the sky,” he said. “I was just checking to see if you would have to suffer from Heavenly Judgment now that you used an attack with Immortal Qi… but it looks like you’re fine.”
“Of course,” Scarlet said. “It only comes where you are not playing by the rules. An Immortal in a Mortal world would get struck by the Judgment, but I’m still a mortal. Even if I somehow used an attack with Divine Qi, I would be fine, since it came from a mortal.”
“Oh,” Alex said. “I thought what mattered was the Qi, but it makes sense that it’s the owner of the Qi that the heavens would care about.”
Scarlet nodded. “Your troubles are over, right?” she asked.
“I believe so,” Alex said as he sighed. “I’m tired as well. Let’s rest a bit and we can leave this place. Although… I need to take them with me somehow. I don’t know how I can do that.”
“Well, can you find the way on your own? I need to leave quickly,” Scarlet said. “I can’t be found out. Oh yeah, make sure you don’t tell anyone I was here, okay? Make those people not tell anyone either. Make them swear an oath if they have to.”
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked. “Why are you so worried?”
“My existence can’t be known until I am stronger,” the phoenix said. “Don’t let anyone know I—”
Her words stopped in her mouth as she slowly turned to the side. Alex looked in the direction she was looking at and saw a massive boat, larger than anything he had ever seen in his entire life flying through the air.
It came in his direction but was still too far away for his senses to notice it. However, Scarlet seemed to have noticed it already.
“No!” she said in a somber voice. “No, they’re coming.”
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Scarlet tried flying, but she was way too weak. “They’re coming for me. I need to run away,” she said.
“What? Who’s coming?” Alex asked.
“No time to answer, help me get away,” Scarlet said.
Alex started fearing when he heard her. If Scarlet was afraid then it must have been somebody strong.
“Get into your beast space. You can hide there,” Alex said. Since the two were still bonded, she could easily hide.
“No,” Scarlet said. “They know I’m here. If they don’t see me run away, they will torture you all to get their answer most likely.”
Alex started fearing. “What can you do then?” he asked.
Scarlet’s eyes moved around, trying to think of something, but she couldn’t. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But it seems this is as far as I can go. Run away while you can. They won’t go after you since they are probably here for me.”
Alex feared and turned around to look at his father and the others. “Father, take them and run away from here. Take the others too,” he said.
“Al, what’s going on?” Graham asked.
“More enemies,” Alex said. “Please get away from here.”
The others started moving the moment they heard those words, but Graham didn’t move. “Can you fight them?” he asked.
Alex smiled. “Yes,” he said with an assuring look on his face.
Graham looked at Alex with a complicated look. “You’ve grown so much since we’ve been separated,” he said. “I can’t even tell if you’re lying or not anymore.”
Alex’s smile dropped a little. “Father, please. Save them,” he said.
Graham nodded. “Save yourself,” he said. “There is no disgrace in running away.”
Alex nodded, but in his heart, he knew he most likely wouldn’t. Not while his friend was here with him.
Scarlet looked at him and realize that he was staying. “What are you doing?” she asked. “They are going to kill you.”
“You saved me and my father earlier,” Alex said. “Let me help you now.”
The puppet came to the front and stood before Alex. Alex had enough Qi to use it, so he wasn’t very afraid.
“You will die,” Scarlet said.
“Unless you are a fallen power that I’m helping restore, I don’t think I have to worry about death,” Alex said half-jokingly. “Sorry, not the time to be joking. That was a divined prophecy for me that I heard, which told me how I was going to die.”
He turned around to see Scarlet looking at him with a stunned look on her face.
“What?” Alex asked before realizing. “Oh no… really?”
“Remember how you want to meet my parents and all?” Scarlet asked.
“Yeah,” Alex said. “I’m still hoping your father won’t kill me when he learns you bonded with me. Although, his oath should stop him from doing so.”
“Yeah, about that,” Scarlet said. “I don’t have any parents.”
Alex frowned slightly before remembering Zhu Shaofan’s words. “Wait… is this about your mother being dead?” he asked.
“No, she’s not dead,” Scarlet said. “I never had one here to begin with.”
Alex was confused. “What are you saying?” he asked.
“It wasn’t my mother that died,” Scarlet said. “It was me. I was the one that died.”
Alex’s eyes went wide.
“And the ones that killed me all those years ago, they are the ones that are coming here right now,” Scarlet said.
Alex was stunned for a second by the information he had just heard. “You were killed?”
“By them,” Scarlet said as she stared at the distance where the ship was still flying towards them.
Alex looked towards the boat which had finally entered the range of his sense. And his eyebrows widened as he realized that the ones that were coming were the 10 elders from the Council.
