But in truth, every sound had been drowned beneath an immense roar. It covered his ears and enveloped his body, so vast that it settled into a backdrop, blotting out even "silence."
In Yong Ji's eyes, the boy was like a tiny seed.
Planted upon the dome of the merfolk palace, at the center of ten thousand acres of water, it rapidly sprouted countless blazing-red vines, spreading in every direction.
Water vanished like snow melting wherever they passed; even the steam seemed to disappear completely-there were no better words for this hair-raising sight. In an immense silence, the water throughout the merfolk palace was suffused with a single color, and a blazing-red flower bloomed from its crown.
It surrounded the entire merfolk palace!
The tiny boy stood at its center, the sea of fire like his wings.
How could you ignite a sea of fire underwater?
Yet that very sight was reflected in Yong Ji's eyes.
Then Pei Ye fixed his gaze on him and plunged straight toward him. The whole sea of fire followed, drawn by that figure, like a red handkerchief lifted by its center.
Jade-eyed and black-robed, with Fire Flow as his ribbons, he held his sword reversed behind him, its blade stained vermilion too.
But he still did not use his sword.
Yong Ji's eyes nearly split at their corners as he drove White Water with all his strength, but the boy crashed through every barrier with fire like wind and thunder. Water burst apart in great slabs of soft jelly, and Pei Ye smashed a fist into Yong Ji's chest.
Just as Mysterious Fire had been a guttering candle within White Water in their last encounter, so now did White Water crumble beneath Mysterious Fire.
Never had Yong Ji felt death so close. Before the