Huo Shihong ruthlessly stared at those mongrels that were approaching him. He wouldn't forgive any one of them. If he had to die today, he would at least bring some of them to the grave, decreasing their numbers.
His mana surged with force and he used his flames to create a huge explosion around himself, sending dust particles everywhere. It was a cover for his partial retreat.
"Spread your senses quickly and don't let him escape!" Wu Shuhui commanded.
A lot of people locked their senses on Huo Shihong's body. Just now did he realize that he was alone against more than twenty practitioners. A good quantity of them were Mana realm cultivators.
However, this didn't diminish his will to destroy them. Instead, it caused his brain to quickly formulate a plan that he was already putting in action.
With the sudden explosion, Huo Shihong had a bit of time to charge towards a certain direction.
The people surrounding him took some seconds to discover to where he had shifted his position to, but they all swiftly went into action after realizing what he had in mind.
The cultivators that were near the exquisite gate started to block his path, since they thought his plan was to enter the phoenix chamber.
"Get out!" Huo Shihong raised his hands and a burning tornado formed near the practitioners that were trying to block his path.
Unfortunately for them, they were the weaker cultivators around here. Two old and greedy geezers, elders from his Blazing Phoenix Sect.
They panicked after seeing Sect Master Huo madly dashing on their direction and decided to block his flame tornado using their Qi Transformation peak-stage power. In just two seconds they discovered that it was a foolish decision.
The flaming tornado engulfed them, turning their Qi and bodies into powder, however, their struggle gave time for Wu Shuhui to rush will all his speed and stand before the phoenix chamber gate.
"No, you won't!" Wu Shuhui had a smirk plastered over his face. Inside his head, he had already destroyed Huo Shihong last hope.
However, Huo Shihong had already arrive where he wanted to.
In front of all those practitioners, he ducked to pick a crystal from the ground. Huo Shihong felt the remaining power inside the stone he picked and he felt like he found his way out of here.
The practitioners rushed towards him in order to attack him and take him down, but before they could approach, Huo Shihong shouted for everyone to hear.
"Stop if you don't want to die!"
He raised his right hand and showed a red stone that was on his palm. There were some cracks on its surface but it had survived the impact it suffered before. The red Skystone was pulsing with energy that seemed to be really volatile. There still seemed to be a good quantity of mana inside it.
Whatever formation the ancestors of the Blazing Phoenix Sect had developed in order to explore the power within those stones, it was still lacking and incomplete, since there was a lot of energy still stored inside the stone, that theoretically should be spent.
But for Huo Shihong it was not an imperfection, but something that saved his life.
All those practitioners following behind him stopped after having recognized the red Skystone on his hand. They could still feel the high amount of mana it contained. Still, they couldn't understand what Sect Master Huo could do with only that Skystone.
The next action Huo Shihong took was what finally made them understand the danger of the situation.
Huo Shihong squished all the mana withing his body and poured it inside the stone. It started to shine brighter with a red light that would fade and return right after. This process kept repeating many times and each time it repeated the surrounding mana seemed to get denser, making a pressure descends into everyone.
When they felt pressured by that powerful mana, they finally realized that Huo Shihong was planning to explode everything, killing them all on the process.
"Stop! What are you doing? Are you a madman?" Wu Shuhui for the first time, felt apprehension.
He didn't think Huo Shihong would pull such a stunt at this time. He discovered that he underestimated Huo Shihong, while cornered that he would turn into a madman.
"What if I am? There is nothing else I can do. Even if I die here, I'll bring you guys along!"
Huo Shihong didn't want to give time for his enemies to think about a strategy, so he kept putting more and more mana towards the Skystone, and it already seemed to be reaching a critical point.
Everyone was drenching in cold sweat. They were already preparing to use all their energy to survive the incoming blast.
Suddenly a voice came that from far away reached their ears.
"Stop uncle! If you don't want me to hurt your precious little daughter!"
Everyone's attention was dragged to a person standing three kilometers away from them.
Huo Jianhong had a really tired countenance on his face, he appeared to have run a marathon. However, he finally relaxed after realizing that he made it in time.
He was holding a little girl that seemed to be around twelve years old. Her red hair was the proof her pure Royal Phoenix bloodline. She was wildly swinging her legs, giving a hard time for the man who was holding her.
Huo Jianhong was exasperated after dealing with her for all this time. He wanted to get on this place as fast as he could, so he had no time to chastise her. The only thing he could do was to endure all the things she tried to do to escape his grasp. She kept throwing a tantrum since the moment he captured her.
Actually, let's first talk about the trouble he was put trough, while he was trying to capture her. He entered the labyrinth just after she entered, and immediately found her inside. But for some reason, after trying to follow her, fire elementals kept appearing to challenge him, while she wasn't targeted even a single time!
He lost her whereabouts from time to time, because she was so random while picking routes that it made no sense. There were even times that a fire wall would disappear so she could pass through and appear again to block his pathway.
When he finally caught her, he knew that he was already late for the show, and rushed to this place. He was so mad and frustrated, that he found it to be the joy of his life after he was able to use her to threaten her father.
"AAA! Put me down!" Yuyin kept bawling and moving wildly.
"Yuyin!" Huo Shihong felt like the world was turning upside down. Something must have been conspiring against him and his sect. Just as he found his hope, he would have to throw it away.
"Put me down! Ahhh!"
"Put her down!" Huo Shihong was stranded inside this nightmarish situation. He was holding the stone that could save his life, while his enemy was holding his precious daughter.
"Ahaha! Drop the red Skystone and my son will let your daughter go." Huo Shikai proposed the trade with a malicious smirk.
He didn't think that dealing with his own brother would be this hard. Truth be told, Huo Shikai have never really done a sect leader role inside his own sect, the work always ended on Huo Shihong's hands, and because of that his personality was not strong as Huo Shihong's was.
Huo Shikai have felt fear and apprehension over many times in this fight, and it kept remembering him of his uselessness.
Huo Shihong was now dealing with the hardest dilemma on his life, although he already knew the choice, he would end up making. He was only unwilling to believe at all this bullshit that was happening.
"Let her go and I will drop the stone."
"Do you think you are in any condition to bargain with us? Put the stone down." Wu Shuhui helped Huo Shikai on dealing with his brother.
Huo Shihong gritted his teeth, he was certain that it was the most stupid decision he would be taking, since it wasn't guaranteed that they would release his daughter, however he still made this choice, since it was his loved daughter. For her, he would gladly forfeit his life.
Just as he was about to drop the red Skystone that was filled with energy, he saw a superfast phoenix beam hitting Huo Jianhong from behind.
Huo Jianhong felt a scalding hot sensation on his back just before being hit with a phoenix beam. He was lucky to have acted in time and activated a treasure that worked as a life-saving measure. A barrier made of Qi covered his back, but even with this protective barrier he was sent flying while losing his grip over Huo Yuyin.
Huo Lilian rushed and grabbed her little sister before she could hit the ground. She made it sure that Yuyin was unharmed before glancing at her father. There were tear stains already dripping over her beautiful face as she knew what she had to do in order to survive.
Without delay, she pulled Yuyin and fled to a distant place.
Huo Jianhong was not injured after getting hit, but the treasure had been spent. He was already mad with Yuyin, but now he felt his blood boil. He would make sure to pursue her and obtain everything he wanted from Lilian.
He took the Firebrand out, the sword his father allowed him to use. His energy soared through the roof and he chased after Lilian with a fast speed.
Huo Shihong looked at his beloved daughter running away and felt like the heaven took pity on him.. On his eyes, Lilian's choices could never have been any better.
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