Blue Phoenix

Thinking about what Lan Feng said, Hui Yue nodded his head slightly before he completely allowed himself to be enveloped by the tranquil blue cloud, slowly sinking deep into meditation. His body once more focused on nothing but absorbing the essence of the heavens and the earth.

Cultivation helped assist the tranquil cloud in his dantian cave and allowed it to increase in size, and cultivation was also what Hui Yue felt like he needed the most right now. A way to slowly gain strength while clearing his mind and cleansing his senses.

Outside in the courtyard Sha Yun quickly left and made her way towards Hui Yue’s room, sitting down outside the door and guarding it so that no one could enter or interrupt her master while he was doing important training.

Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long both gave polite nods towards Xu Piao before vanishing into the house, getting ready to cultivate while they had the chance. They both looked forward to improving their strength so that they would never drag down Hui Yue in battle.

Just as Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long entered the house, a tranquil atmosphere floated out from somewhere within; Xu Piao was deeply shocked as he felt it, however not as shocked as Xie Lan was.

Xu Piao had been together with Xie Lan for a very long time and he could instantly tell that something was wrong, causing him to grab her hand only to feel her trembling slightly.

“Let’s go back to the office,” Xu Piao sighed, “you need to explain to me everything you saw today.”

The trip back to the office was done in silence, as both Xie Lan and Xu Piao noticed early on that they were being followed by others. Mercenaries who wanted to sell any information they could possibly get their hands on about the cloaked group.

Seated within the Guild Master’s office, Xie Lan finally felt at ease. A prolonged sigh escaped her lips as she fell into the chair, her hand pinched the top of her nose as she closed her eyes and counted to ten.

“I hear you didn’t have to participate in the fight at all,” Xu Piao asked curiously, as he sat down on the top of his desk looking at Xie Lan with the same curiosity that one would find on a little child waiting for a surprise.

Seeing her master looking like this, Xie Lan could not help but laugh silently before she straightened her back. Her face once more took on the appearance of an official, about to relay the information she had gotten.

“This group is much more dangerous than we first thought,” Xie Lan stated her first assessment. “The woman who dresses like a man was capable of using a plant of some sort to completely neutralize the opposing team’s healer, however, that attack will not work twice. Still it worked this time and allowed her to keep all her information concealed. No one knows anything about her; not her rank, nor her true abilities. Even I am unsure about them.”

“Secondly, the black-haired man,” Xie Lan continued, this time referring to Deng Wu, “He was standing still the entire fight as though he knew that he did not have to do anything as if he knew how it would end before it had started. He never revealed even a sliver of what kind of cultivator he is making it even harder for their opponents, and us, to understand him. The only thing I have seen as a member of the team is that he uses inscriptions. As for which kind of inscriptions, I do not know.”

“The beast is almost exposed.” Switching to Sha Yun, Xie Lan tried to get through the team’s performances as quickly as possible, but with the least amount of mistakes. “She released some of her power, but she did not use any spiritual energy, nor did she use her elemental affinity just raw strength. Her strength and speed were enough to hold her own against a Master ranked cultivator making it easy for everyone to know that she is, at least, Master ranked.”

“Finally, we have the white-haired boy.” Xie Lan paused a bit before she continued, her body filled with goosebumps and her heart started beating erratically as she remembered the scene. “He used the cultivation base of the lower dantian to position himself behind the leader of the opposing team.”

Xie Lan paused again, a slight amount of fear creeping up on her. Was it really okay for her to tell on him? Was this something that he might get mad about and then come after her for?

Although Xie Lan was stronger than Hui Yue by a large margin, something about the young boy scared Xie Lan to a degree she never thought possible. Even now she was worried about talking about him, in case he would get mad and return for vengeance.

“He possesses powers that no one else does,” Xie Lan continued after a fairly long break, “He had a dangerous air about him and he managed to release a killing intent so thick that even the audience at the seats furthest away had difficulties breathing. To have such a killing intent, he is not someone we can afford to offend.”

Xie Lan’s eyes narrowed as she said that, but at the same time she was reminded of the beautiful young man who looked as kind as an innocent child, not to mention the atmosphere of tranquility which was released as the two of them were about to leave.

“Mmhm,” Neither an agreement nor a disagreement could be heard as Xu Piao hummed, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he heard about the fight.

Seeing the expression on her boss’s face, a sigh once more escaped Xie Lan’s beautiful lips. From within her cloak, she located a small memory stone which she handed to him. This was a recording of the entire battle, however, it was only a recording and it could in no way do justice in showing the ice-cold, bone-chilling killing intent which Hui Yue had shown earlier, nor was it possible to hear the sentences which the white-haired boy said to his opponent as he had the knife pressed against his throat.

But even so, even without the feel of the killing intent and without the sound Xu Piao was still incredibly excited as he received the stone, instantly placing it on his forehead as he closed his eyes and was immersed in the scenes which were playing out within his head.

The fight did not take too long, only a few moments, but it was nevertheless these few moments which Xu Piao replayed multiple times, his smile growing each time he repeated the film.

There were certain things which Xie Lan had not managed to see when she recorded the fight, but Xu Piao was used to looking at every single detail and only after rewatching the recording multiple times the smile on his face could not grow any further, as his eyes focused on the head clad in a black cloak.

Just as Hui Yue was releasing the speed skill Velocity Flow, he moved quickly behind his target allowing his cloak to reveal a slight bit of his lower face.

His face alone was not the interesting part, what was interesting and what caught Xu Piao’s attention was the long fangs were growing from Hui Yue’s teeth.

Xu Piao was smirking, as he finally removed the memory stone from his forehead. Giving it back to Xie Lan he dismissed her, but instead of going back to his seated position at the desk he went towards his bookshelves behind the chair.

Taking out one book after another, Xu Piao shook his head in annoyance until he finally found what he was looking for. Looking at the pages, he flipped through the book before he found the paragraph he was searching for.

With one finger placed under the words, he mumbled with a low voice, “Demon beasts are able to transform into human form upon truly understanding the cosmos, which allows them to transcend into divine beasts. To become a divine beast, one is usually a Saint ranked expert.”

Looking up from the book for a moment, a flash of excitement grew on the face of Xu Piao as he felt immense gratitude towards himself for having the foresight to realize just how important these four friends were. Who knew? Perhaps more of them were Saint ranked experts.

Having looked through the book, Xu Piao ripped out the paragraph from its original place and placed it in a pocket of his clothes, smiling happily as he returned to clean up the many books he dumped upon deeming them wrong.

….

Xie Lan was confused as to why her master acted the way he had. She could not understand why he had such an urge to rewatch the match multiple times, but even if he did wish to do so, why on earth would he smile the way he had?

Using deduction, Xie Lan quickly reached the conclusion that Xu Piao had noticed something which she had not, but no matter how much she searched it was utterly impossible for her to see whatever it was that Xu Piao saw.

Grumbling slightly, the woman made her way back to the courtyard which was currently in use as the residence for Hui Yue and his group. Since Xie Lan had become one of the group members she too had been given a room in the house, but she was greatly shocked as she got closer and closer.

The first thing she felt was a gentle breeze, a feeling like a fleeting touch caressing her cheek. The closer she got the more the feeling changed into that of a hug from a loving mother, the tenderness one could only feel towards their own kin.

It was obvious that the aura which Hui Yue exposed at the start had undergone certain degrees of refinement, changing from pure tranquility into memories of long forgotten lives.

This immense change in such a short time was enough to alert Xie Lan and she rushed towards his room only to see Sha Yun was standing guard. Although it would be easy for Xie Lan to remove the snake-woman she decided to leave it be. Hui Yue had long since outshone her expectations time after time and even her master trusted him. Who was she to question whomever her master trusted?

Comforting herself with such thoughts, Xie Lan went to her room where she sat down and got ready to cultivate only to notice that the tranquil atmosphere had heavily increased the amount of essence of the heavens and the earth; it seemed as if the atmosphere created by the young man was actually working like a magnet.

It was not only Xie Lan who noticed this particular trait of Hui Yue’s abilities, no, outside on the streets multiple lights could be seen as one cultivator after another moved into the range of the blue cloud. Allowing for it to swallow them whole, to make them one with the tranquil essence which was emitted from Hui Yue, and the young man enjoyed the sudden boost in his strength.

One student after another sat down, greedily absorbing the abundant essence which was floating towards the sky. All their energy was focused on becoming one with the energy, so focused in fact that none of them noticed how their cultivation base suddenly started rotating at a speed they had not requested.

It was obvious that they had not requested the sudden movement within their cultivation base as they were all deep in meditation, and as Hui Ye sat in the middle of everything a very satisfied smirk was apparent on his face as he felt how he could control anyone of the cultivators who were currently trying to abuse his tranquil cloud to increase their own cultivation base.