Chapter 154 Into The Phoenix Chamber Part 34

When flying towards the golden statue in the center of the lake, Hajime noticed that the golden peacocks around the lake suddenly flew towards them. Suddenly, a short but loud cry sounded from the surrounding small valley. Hearing the golden peacocks make such a sound, Hajime, Yul and Abrafo knew that what they were about to do would piss off the peacocks.

"They are not happy with us," Abrafo shouted.

Yul said, "Let's get this done quickly."

The golden peacocks stopped what they were doing and focused on the three Tanzanies heading towards the golden statue not far away. The golden peacocks from the shore flew angrily towards the three Tanzanies.

The path of the three Tanzanies was blocked by a row of golden peacocks. The three Tanzanies stopped in the middle of the lake and found that the originally calm peacocks were flying angrily towards them, ready to attack them. To their surprise, the golden peacocks just surrounded them and did not attack them. The angry cries of the peacocks echoed around the three Tanzanies, making their ears ring.

Abrafo saw the golden statue begin its descent back to the center of the lake. Abrafo shouted, "It's hiding itself again."

Yul took out the fire talisman and threw it in front of Abrafo; the fire talisman soon shot directly at the golden peacocks blocking Abrafo's path. The golden peacocks were afraid of being burned alive and quickly got out of the way. At this time, Abrafo rushed out and headed straight for the golden statue that had sunk into the lake past it nose. The golden peacocks soon regrouped around Hajime and Yul, and ten peacocks quickly chased Abrafo in an attempt to stop him.

Abrafo jumped down from the blue peacock and grabbed the golden statue's head. Abrafo stepped on the shoulders of the golden statue, grabbed a knife tied to his thigh, and began to remove the red stone from the forehead of the golden statue, but the ten golden peacocks had already begun to attack Abrafo with their wings and beaks slowing down Abrafo's progress. 

Abrafo yelled in an attempt to scare away the golden peacocks, his hands occasionally fighting off the peacocks while trying to remove the stone from the statue's forehead. No matter how much Abrafo shouted, the ten peacocks continued to attack Abrafo, flying past him and hitting him with their wings and beaks.

Abrafo frowned in annoyance, "Urrg... you stupid birds! Get away from me!" He waved to the golden peacocks, protecting his face, while other peacocks waved their wings at Abrafo's head.

Yul yelled, "Abrafo! Did you get it?"

Abrafo groaned loudly, "I try hard, but the statue sinks very quickly, and these annoying birds won't leave me alone!" He finally broke through and flicked the stone off the statue's forehead. "Got it! Oh shit!"

The statue grabbed Abrafo's right foot and threw him across the lake. Abrafo skipped and tumbled from the middle of the lake, flying all the way to the lake shore. Perhaps because of the darkness, or because Abrafo rolled too fast, Yul and Hajime only caught a glimpse of Abrafo as he rolled past them.

At this moment, all the golden peacocks flew away from Yul and Hajime. The twelve-foot-tall golden female statue slowly rose from the lake and headed towards Abrafo.

Abrafo suffered multiple injuries when he was thrown across the lake, and his forehead was bleeding. Abrafo sat up and coughed up a mouthful of blood. He felt severe burns on his right side and lower lip. He spat twice into the lake, blood seeping from his lower lip.

"Shit...," Abrafo frowned and wiped the corners of his mouth.

The golden statue stands a few feet away from Abrafo. She raised her arms high and hammered her hand down towards Abrafo, but she still refused to come close to Abrafo. Abrafo quickly moved left and right to avoid being hit by the golden statue.

Looking at Abrafo from a distance, Hajime and Yul didn't understand why the golden statue wouldn't go close to Abrafo. If the golden statue wanted to, she could have walked another ten steps to the shore and grabbed Abrafo, but she didn't.

Yul looked at Hajime and said, "Somehow, she's afraid of Abrafo."

Hajime said, "Could this be because of the key?"

Abrafo walked quickly towards the shore, wasting no more time to find out what the golden statue was going to do next, but to his surprise, the golden statue did not follow him. Abrafo clutched the red stone, trying to figure out why the statue wouldn't come ashore, and then he finally noticed traces of his own blood still floating in the water a few yards away from him.

"Is it afraid of blood?" Abrafo asked himself. Abrafo moved himself further away, but the statue still refused to come ashore. "Yul! It's afraid of blood!"

Hajime used his power to pull a flat rock from the bottom of the lake into his right hand. He traced the tip of his middle finger with his thumbnail, then held the rock in his hand, and the blue peacock flew him towards the golden statue.

The blue peacock flew over the golden statue's face. At this moment, Hajime faced the golden statue and hit the blood stone in his hand directly on the golden statue's forehead. The golden statue remained still for a while, then slowly returned to the center of the lake, and continued to slowly fall back into the water.

When the blue peacocks landed on the ground, Hajime and Yul jumped off the backs of the two peacocks. Yul stood in front of Abrafo, stretched out his hand and pulled Abrafo up. Abrafo opened his palm, and inside his palm was the shiny red stone. Yul picked up the stone, reached into his inner robe, took out the magic pouch, and put the red stone into the magic bag.

Abrafo turned to Hajime and asked, "How did you know to stop that angry statue?"

Hajime said, "I thought it would be angry because you took away its stone, so I replaced it with a blood stone."

Abrafo asked, "But how do you know it will work?"

Hajime said, "I don't, but that was the best solution I can think of at that moment."

"I'm glad it worked out," Abrafo muttered, spitting blood on the ground.

"Do you have any internal injuries?" Yul asked when he saw Abrafo spat blood on the ground.

Abrafo shook his head and said, "No... I bit my lower lip as I skipped across that lake. My insides were okay, but the same can't be said for my back."

Hajime said, "Let's go back and let U-ri look at your back." Hajime bent down, grabbed ten more feathers from the ground, and put them into the cross bag.

Yul sighed, "It's a pity that we didn't find a pure phoenix egg."

Hajime said, "Maybe the pure phoenix eggs are just a myth. Maybe there are no pure phoenix eggs at all."

Abrafo spat on the ground again as he began to taste blood. He looked at Yul and Hajime and asked, "So, what are we going to do?"

Hajime took off the water bag from his waist and poured all the water on the ground. He walked to the lake and filled the leather water bag. He walked up to Yul and Abrafo. "Perhaps this water can help Lady Lai," Hajime said. "This water has been nourished by those golden peacocks over the years, so it should have a certain effect."

Abrafo said, "And what about the egg..."

"Mm..." Hajime walked to the bank of the lake and found some round rocks, shaped like eggs. He bent down and picked up a round white rock. "I found the pure phoenix egg." He smiled at Yul and Abrafo and then began to walk towards the two men.

Yul and Abrafo rushed towards Hajime. "Have you really found a pure phoenix egg?" Abrafo asked excitedly.

Hajime smiled and said, "I found this round, white, smooth rock. If you look closely, it does look like an egg. If you use your imagination." He opened his hands, and inside them sat a round white smooth rock the size of an apple. "The pure phoenix egg that everyone risked their lives to pursue." He looked at the disappointed faces of Abrafo and Yul jokingly. He chuckled and put the stone into his cross bag.

Yul asked, "Why take it with you?"

Hajime said, "A souvenir for U-ri. Um... he likes to collect strange things."

The three Tanzanies jumped on three blue peacocks and flew towards the waterfall.

Listening to the sound of calm water flowing in the creek can't eliminate the many worries in Michio's mind. He paced back and forth between U-ri and the small creek. "They took too long," Michio said.

U-ri said, "Michio, you're making me dizzy." 

Michio said, "U-ri, you stay here. I want to go back for them."

U-ri stood up and said, "If they need your help, the red signal would have already been sent. Look at the clear dark sky, although the noises coming from their direction are not pleasant to the ears, but I see no help signal."

Michio looked at U-ri calm expression and asked, "Why are you so calm? What if something prevents them from sending out a distress signal?"

U-ri pointed at the two wolves guarding them and said, "Look at those two wolves. If Hajime was in danger, these two wolves would not be standing here. They have already rushed towards Hajime or disappeared." He shook his head and looked up at Michio, only to see three blue peacocks flying towards them. "Look...look...there they are."

Michio saw Hajime, Yul, and Abrafo flying towards them on three blue peacocks. He waved to his three friends. "We're here!" He shouted happily.

The three blue peacocks landed on the ground, and Hajime, Yul, and Abrafo jumped off the blue peacocks' backs. Hajime stretched out his hand, and the three blue peacocks disappeared, and three blue feathers appeared on Hajime's right palm.

U-ri asked, "Did you get our third key?"

Abrafo nodded. 

Yul said, "U-ri first quickly checked Abrafo's wounds."

U-ri asked worriedly, "You are injured. How serious is it?"

Hajime said, "He was thrown across the lake."

Michio asked, "By peacocks?"

Hajime said, "By a golden statue. As soon as Abrafo remove the stone, the golden statue came to life and chased Abrafo."

Michio asked, "How did you defeat it?"

Abrafo said, "Hajime replaced it with a stone."

After checking Abrafo's injured. U-ri said, "Just some scrapes and skin burns. You'll be fine."

Yul said, "Let's get out of here."

Hajime looked at the peaceful valley and said, "Don't tell others what happens here."

Abrafo asked, "Why?"

Hajime said, "Anything that falls into the hands of humans will be destroyed sooner or later, even the rainforest is no exception. They know that cutting down trees will destroy the ozone layer, but people still do it. Look at how peaceful this valley is." He turned to the Tanzanies. "Do we really want to disrupt these birds' peaceful lives?"

Yul said, "We got what we came here for, there's no need to destroy anything else."

Abrafo said, "We know what it feels like to have our homes destroyed, so let's not destroy other people's homes."

Hajime walked to the rock and quickly wiped the glowing butterflies off the rock. He sighed and said, "Let's get out of here."

The five Tanzanies picked up their backpacks and disappeared into the mountain wall and a bright ball of light slowly fell from the dark sky into the lake.