Chapter 5: The end is just the beginning

"B-but how is that possible?" Mr. Bai stuttered out, "I thought it died along with Wang Tao during the siege 16 years ago."

"Maybe it's not the same one?" Mrs. Liu suggested in a hopeful tone.

"How many Hellfire Phoenixes are there? It could only be that one," Mr. Bai retorted back.

"If the Hellfire Phoenix didn't die and is still alive, then do you think maybe..." All the colour drained from the teacher's faces as they thought of the worst.

"No, it can't be. We were all there. We saw him get defeated," Mr. Li sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than the others.

"It doesn't matter right now. We can have a meeting to discuss this later, but right now we have to try our best to drive this bird away. We might not be able to kill it, but hopefully we can at least drive it out of the school." Headmaster Shen said, trying to focus more on the current problem.

The Hellfire Phoenix gave another loud screech as it soared through the sky.

Mr. Bai unsheathed his sword and gave a big slice through the air, sending a strong gust of wind towards the fiery bird. The bird dodged it with ease though, making him scowl in annoyance.

"Looks like you'll be useless in this fight," Mr. Zhang said in his usual monotone voice.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Bai shot a glare at him.

"Water is useless against it as the fire will just regenerate and your little breeze is too weak for it as well," Mr. Zhang said plainly.

Mr. Bai stayed quiet and just glared at him knowing that what he said was true.

Mr. Li then punched the ground really hard, making it rumble and shoot upwards right in front of the bird. The bird stopped abruptly and swerved in the opposite direction. Another beam shot out of the ground, quicker than the first one, so the bird flew straight into it.

It didn't look like it got hurt though. It still stayed in the air drifting around, cautious of its surroundings.

The teachers on the other hand were shocked. When they used that method 16 years ago it didn't even come close to doing any harm to the Hellfire Phoenix.

Does this mean it's weaker than before?

The teachers relaxed a bit knowing that they still had a chance against it.

Some of the students started gathering around to watch the battle.

Mr. Li tried to use a similar method for his next attack. He sent sharp pillars out of the ground to try and shoot the Phoenix down. It dodged most of them, but one of the pillars caught it in its wing.

The Hellfire Phoenix let out an extra loud screech, but it continued to soar through the sky.

Mr. Li shot up another few of the spiked pillars. This time however, the bird must have gotten used to them and was able to dodge all of them.

He grunted then punched the ground with both his fists. Two beams similar to the first ones shot up on both sides, cornering it. He then shot up a few spiked pillars towards the bird.

Just before they could hit the bird though, it opened its beak. Everyone was expecting another irritating, high pitched screech. However, that was not the case.

The next thing they knew, fire started bursting out of the Hellfire Phoenix's beak. Instantly burning the pillars to ash.

The Hellfire Phoenix then flew near the trees. Using the flames on its wings to set the trees on fire.

The teachers stared wide-eyed at the chaos. A few of the students screamed as a burning tree fell down right beside them.

"All students must evacuate to the courtyard in front of the Grand Hall!" Headmaster Shen's voice boomed across the area.

All the students started rushing away, except for Wei Jinhai, Mo Dingbang and Qi Chaoxing. Even Jin Fu and Chen Liwei stayed behind to continue watching. They hid behind the remaining trees that weren't on fire, knowing that if the teachers spotted them they would be forced to go back.

Mr. Bai tried to use the water summoning technique to put out the fires on the trees. The fires did go out, but the flames just started to burn again a few minutes later.

He expected this kind of result, yet he still slightly hoped that it would work. Turns out if they wanted to get rid of the fires, they would have to get rid of the Hellfire Phoenix first.

Mr. Zhang decided to do something since everyone else ran out of ideas. He pulled out another blank talisman. He bit his finger and drew a few strokes before sending it towards one of the burning trees. The flames instantly went out. Everyone was waiting for the flames to come back, but when they didn't, everyone whipped their heads and stared at Mr. Zhang in astonishment.

"How did you do that?" Mr. Bai questioned looking utterly confused.

"Since this is wicked sorcery, you cannot use normal methods to beat it, so I used wicked sorcery as well to suppress it. It's fighting fire with fire." Mr. Zhang shrugged.

"What!" Mr. Bai yelled, "That's against the law!"

"It surely is and you will most likely be punished by the Heavenly Officials for it," Headmaster Shen then sighed, "However, I think that might be the most efficient method we have. Wicked sorcery takes up a lot of Spiritual energy, how much longer do you think you will last?"

"I'm not sure. I've never used it before," Mr. Zhang replied plainly.

"Just don't overwork yourself," Headmaster Shen said as Mr. Zhang pulled out another talisman.

He did the same as before and sent the talisman into the flames again. Once again the flames instantly died down and didn't come back to life.

After about the fifth talisman, Mr. Zhang started to feel lightheaded. He sent out one more talisman then collapsed onto the ground.

"Hey! You okay?" Mr. Bai bent down to feel his pulse. After making sure he really was okay, Mr. Bai got back up and asked, "What do we do now? There are still a few more trees on fire and not to mention two whole buildings."

They all knew that none of them had any skills with using talismans, so Mr. Zhang was basically their only hope.

Just then a loud screech came and knocked them out of their thoughts. The Hellfire Phoenix came swooping down and sent a few flames towards another tree. To be more exact, the tree that Wei Jinhai and his friends were hiding behind.

Mo Dingbang and Qi Chaoxing jumped out of the way, but Wei Jinhai just stood there, rooted to the spot, as he stared wide-eyed at the flames headed straight towards him.

"Wei Jinhai!" Mo Dingbang and Qi Chaoxing screamed as they saw him planted to the ground.

He quickly raised his hands in an attempt to block it. He was waiting to feel the burning sensation on his hands, but the only thing he got was a slight tingling feeling on the palm of his hands. He opened his eyes, which he didn't even realise were closed, and looked up.

He was surprised to see that the blazing flames weren't anywhere to be seen, even the tree was left untouched.

He thought one of the teachers did it, so he looked to where all the teachers were standing. To his surprise, they were all staring at him with shocked expressions on their faces.

He then processed what happened and stared at his hands, "I stopped it?" he thought to himself astonished.

He then walked to the nearest tree that was still on fire and moved his hand closer to it.

Nothing happened.

He then swiped his hand in front of the fire, and to his surprise, the flames vanished. Everyone watched in astonishment as he continued to do the same thing to each flaming tree until all of the trees were cleared.

He didn't look like he was losing any spiritual energy, so that means he wasn't using any wicked sorcery.

"How is he doing that?" Mrs. Liu asked while examining his every movement.

"I'm not sure," Headmaster Shen said as he continued to watch in amazement.

After making sure he didn't miss a tree, Wei Jinhai then walked over to where the rest were.

"How did you do that?" Qi Chaoxing asked in amazement.

"I'm not too sure myself," Wei Jinhai rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"It looked like you weren't losing that much spiritual energy, so do you think you could put out the fire on the building as well?" Headmaster Shen asked.

"I can try," Wei Jinhai replied enthusiastically.

He then walked up to the two buildings and took a deep breath. He took out a talisman, since he was going to need to use a lot of spiritual energy for this task. He filled it up with as much spiritual energy as he could then sent it into the flames of the first building.

At first nothing happened so he thought it didnt work, but next moment there was a loud crackling sound and the flames started dying down until they all vanished.

A smile appeared on Wei Jinhai's face as he saw that it was a success. He then did the same again and sent another talisman into the second building's flames. Once again nothing happened, then after a few seconds the flames started dying down until they vanished completely.

The Hellfire Phoenix gave one last screech as it saw the last of the flames die down. Before anyone could try to attack the bird again, it started flying in a circle. It flew faster and faster, sending out a few sparks as well, until it burst into flames and vanished.

At first everyone stayed silent, but then they all erupted into loud cheering. Wei Jinhai hugged Mo Dingbang and Qi Chaoxing as the teachers gave huge sighs of relief.

While everyone was cheering and celebrating, Headmaster Shen just looked around at the mess that was caused and sighed, "This might be the end of this battle, but the end is just the beginning."