"Pah!" Ye Chuqi rolled to her feet. Her body was tough enough that an ordinary impact barely hurt her, though getting knocked into the water was more than a little undignified.
The Fire Element around her was being drawn into the Phoenix's death throes, sweeping wildly through everything nearby. San San warned her urgently, "This place is about to collapse. Qi Qi, get out of here!"
She wanted to, but the Phoenix's enormous body blocked her only way forward. To leave, she would have to retrace her steps, making all the ground she had covered pointless. Ye Chuqi did not want to do that unless she had no choice.
"The Phoenix is entering Nirvana. We have to leave now."
Amid the raging flames, Ye Chuqi could feel even the water around her boiling. Strangely, the fire had done little to her, but the boiling Water Element seemed ready to cook her alive.
Ye Chuqi hissed as Little White's paw poked her cheek again. Following the direction he pointed, she looked up at the tunnel ceiling. The sword strike she had made earlier had opened a crack there, and the Frostfire Dragon's collision had left an even clearer mark.
Ye Chuqi understood at once. She tucked Little White into her clothes, rode the wind rising from the steaming water and fire around her, and shot straight through the narrow crack.
San San had spotted the crack at the same time Little White pointed it out and confirmed that it was wide enough for Ye Chuqi to pass through. How far it went, though, San San did not know.
Just as Ye Chuqi slipped into the crack, the Phoenix's flames erupted. To a Phoenix, the underground cavern and tunnels were cramped spaces. They could not contain its surging fire and burst apart.