At some point, all those great masters had started speaking this way.
Dumbledore's note contained just that one cryptic sentence, along with a Phoenix feather.
Apparently, you couldn't be a great master without being mysterious.
If Old Ancestor Bodhi had simply told Sun Monkey to come to his room that night, it would certainly have read rather strangely.
But three taps, hands clasped behind his back, and closing the main gate immediately gave the whole thing an air of mystery.
It showed both Patriarch Bodhi's caution in keeping his teachings from other ears and the monkey's innate intelligence. What nobody else understood, he grasped at once.
Although Dumbledore's note contained only one sentence, its meaning was clear enough.
Zhang Xiao sighed, climbed back out of bed, quickly dressed, and picked up the feather.
He called softly:
"Fawkes!"
The feather instantly became a stream of flame that burned its way up his arm.
In the blink of an eye, the flames spread over his entire body. Yet they seemed to give off no heat, merely licking gently at his skin.
The flames suddenly burst, blazing into a dazzling flare. By the time darkness returned behind the bed curtains, Zhang Xiao had vanished.
Zhang Xiao shook his head hard, trying to clear his dazed mind.
This was his first time traveling by Phoenix fire.
Compared with Apparition, it was probably the difference between being stuffed into a pipe and squeezed out, and being stuffed into a cannon and fired.
Caught completely off guard, Zhang Xiao almost felt as though his body had arrived while his soul remained back in that warm dormitory.
"Achoo!"
Zhang Xiao sneezed loudly. It was already mid-December, and his body protested the sudden change in temperature from his bed to the outdoors.
Squinting, he surveyed his surroundings.