When everyone looked again at the Fenghuang and the Wright brothers, they saw the female Fenghuang’s long beak smeared with blood, with red droplets still dripping down. The Wright brothers lay motionless before the Fenghuang, each with a round, bleeding hole in their throat.
Everyone immediately felt a chill run down their spines. The divine Fenghuang was indeed formidable. Looking at the Wright brothers’ wide-open, lifeless eyes, it was clear that even in death, they likely hadn’t understood how the Fenghuang had shattered their throats in an instant.
Inside the celestial palace, silence fell once more. After a few seconds, the male and female Fenghuangs slowly approached the white box. The larger male stretched its neck forward, inserting its beak into the box and then slowly withdrawing it. Everyone saw a glowing, golden orb, shimmering with dazzling light, now held in its mouth.
Everyone quickly turned their eyes to Liu Dashao, who shook his head again, signaling not to move and to keep watching what would happen next.
After retrieving the orb, the two Fenghuangs turned around, proudly lifting their heads high and walking with dignified, unhurried steps toward the palace entrance.
Everyone watched helplessly as the Fenghuangs neared the palace gates. This time, without waiting for James’s command, two special forces soldiers wearing mirrored sunglasses suddenly raised their M16A2 tactical rifles and opened fire at the Fenghuangs with a furious “rat-tat-tat.” Presumably, both were thinking that no matter how powerful the Fenghuangs were, they were still birds and surely wouldn’t be immune to modern weaponry.
However, things took an unexpectedly mysterious turn. The gunfire lasted no more than about ten seconds before abruptly stopping. Then, with two short cries of agony, both soldiers suddenly burst into fierce golden flames. Yet, these flames lasted only another ten seconds—or even just a few—before vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared.
Everyone stared in stunned disbelief at the two piles of gray ash where the soldiers had stood moments earlier. The Fenghuangs continued their dignified pace toward the palace exit, as if the gunfire and golden flames had never happened at all.
Liu Dashao couldn’t help but smile bitterly. It seemed that as long as these Fenghuangs were around, no one could hope to take the treasure.
The Fenghuangs had already exited the celestial palace when suddenly, James seemed to awaken from the shock of seeing his two subordinates reduced to ashes. In frustration, he roared at the remaining people, “Go after them! That orb is the ancient divine treasure known as the ‘Phoenix Heart,’ which contains the secret of eternal life! Chase them! Chase them! Hurry up and take it!”
He shoved his subordinates violently, rushing out of the palace. Jia Zhuangyuan quickly turned to Liu Dashao and asked, “Liu, what do we do now?”
Liu Dashao replied with a bitter smile, “No one should even think about that orb or the Fenghuangs anymore. We’ve already uncovered the mystery—the Ninety-Nine Heavens are the sealed location of the ancient divine treasure known as the ‘Phoenix Heart.'”
“The mystery? Have we really solved the mystery?” someone asked, confused.
Liu Dashao shook his head. The mystery—had they really solved it? Suddenly, he felt a strong dizziness, as if countless scenes they had experienced were flashing through his mind like a movie, gradually connecting together. After the dizziness passed, he held his aching head and suddenly felt like he had vaguely grasped something.
At that moment, seeing everyone staring at him, still holding his head in confusion, Liu Dashao gave another bitter smile and explained, “I have a headache, but I seem to have caught a glimpse of the truth.”
Vandebiao grabbed his hand urgently. “Dashao, what is the truth? Quickly tell us!”
Liu Dashao sighed softly. “I will tell you the truth. But now, all we can do is find a way out and return to the human world as soon as possible. The exposure of the ancient divine treasure, the ‘Phoenix Heart,’ probably heralds no good omen. The guardian Fenghuangs will certainly carry it to some unknown mysterious place. Without the treasure, without its protective value, this strange and mysterious space will surely undergo major changes. We must leave quickly, or we may perish along with this space when it collapses.”
Everyone was stunned by Liu Dashao’s words. Even the experienced old hand Jia Zhuangyuan blinked his small eyes nervously and stammered, “Then… then where should we go now?”
Liu Dashao shook his head, indicating he didn’t know either. Everyone’s mood suddenly fell into extreme panic.
Just then, a series of eerie, dying screams suddenly came from outside the celestial palace. Everyone knew exactly what had happened—James and his men had caught up with the Fenghuangs and were being killed one by one while trying to seize the “Phoenix Heart.”
The strange, terrifying screams made everyone’s hearts pound with fear. Combined with the confusion and panic of not knowing the way home, an overwhelming sense of despair, fear, and anxiety surged from deep within each person.
Suddenly, a strange sound came from inside the grand hall. At first, it was a faint “click-clack,” like some mechanical device activating. Then the sound grew louder and louder until, finally, the entire celestial palace began to tremble with a deafening roar.
Caught completely off guard by this sudden change, everyone was thrown into chaos. Jia Zhuangyuan shouted, “Run! The hall is probably going to collapse—get out now!”
At that moment, everyone was in a state of extreme panic and confusion. Jia’s words were like a shot of adrenaline to dying men, suddenly filling everyone’s minds with a single thought—run!
Vandebiao carried the still-unconscious Cai Qingchong on his back, Jia Zhuangyuan supported Liu Dashao, and everyone rushed frantically toward the palace gate amid the violent tremors of the Infinite Dao Vault.
Just as they reached the main entrance of the celestial palace, something happened that plunged everyone into a state of ultimate despair—the massive palace doors inexplicably slammed shut in an instant! Jia Zhuangyuan, who was in the lead, couldn’t stop in time and slammed headfirst into the door with a loud “thud.”
At that very moment, the tremors in the palace abruptly ceased, as if time itself had frozen. The people who had been running stumbled and fell to the ground in shock.
Time and space seemed to halt suddenly. In the soft purple glow of the hall, everyone sat on the ground, dazed and motionless, their expressions equally blank. No one asked what had happened or what was going on anymore, as if everyone had, in an instant, given up all hope of survival and even the fear of death, slipping into a state of unconsciousness.
The hall was silent, devoid of any sound. Everyone sat there, stunned and silent, each harboring a kind of lethargic resignation to fate.
Suddenly, Liu Dashao felt an inexplicable sensation of falling, as if an invisible force had tugged his body downward and backward for a brief few seconds.
What was going on? Liu Dashao struggled to get his nearly unconscious mind working again. At that moment, he noticed something strange: under the soft purple light of the entire celestial palace, a thin beam of white light had appeared. He looked at the beam in surprise and followed it to its source—the white box that had once contained the “Phoenix Heart.”
Suddenly, Liu Dashao had a feeling that perhaps the white box held some secret that no one had yet realized. He abruptly stood up and walked toward the box, noticing that everyone else was sitting on the ground, indifferent to his actions.
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