At a time like this, Hu Xiaotian had no room to think about anything else. He turned and ran. Perhaps his only chance of escaping the raging flames was to return to the ice, break through it, and plunge into the lake. But he was already a long way from the water, and even his desperate sprint could not outpace the spreading fire. Flaming arrows kept shooting into the air, reaching their peak before plunging sharply downward, cutting off his retreat before he could escape the Reed Marsh.
Smoke and flames engulfed him, fire blazing everywhere. Hu Xiaotian was frightened out of his wits and inwardly cursed his carelessness. He had survived the two formidable masters, Sumeru Heaven and Li Chang'an, only to capsize in a gutter and be burned alive in the Reed Marsh by Wen Boyuan's lackeys. Was this truly his fate? If he really died here, at the hands of these scoundrels, how could he possibly accept it?
Hu Xiaotian stooped and held his breath. No matter how dire the situation, he could not give up before the very last moment. He looked up, trying to find the Big Dipper that had guided him earlier, only to discover that thick smoke and blazing flames had completely obscured the starry sky overhead. Most frustrating of all, there was still nothing beneath his feet but frozen earth. The ice that had been everywhere earlier was now nowhere to be found.
Hu Xiaotian could only pick a direction and run for his life. After a few steps, flames blocked his path again. Just as he found himself with no road to heaven and no door into the earth, a familiar voice sounded beside him. "You certainly made me search. If not for this fire, I would never have known you