Blue Phoenix

Having left the dark cave, Hui Yue and the group started battling their way through the dark tunnels. Shortly after they once more followed the flow of people traveling through the lit parts of the tunnels.

Their journey towards the capital was now done in a completely different manner than before. Before none of them were in a hurry. They met Scarface and the meeting with him caused the group to slow down further, however, he finally understood that Scarface was not the only danger they would encounter on their way.

To be honest, Hui Yue was slightly disappointed in Scarface. The man had shown up and started to kill members of his group, but then suddenly stopped. He left behind nothing but a bad feeling within everyone, a feeling of constant danger because no one knew when he would attack the next time.

At first, Hui Yue was very worried but having thought more about the situation, Hui Yue came to the conclusion that perhaps Scarface truly was not as dangerous as he thought at first. He never saw the man actually attack. The tiger by his side carried out the attacks. Seeing that he used sneak attacks proved that he had no confidence taking on the masses, including the two King ranked experts.

After having thought about this, Hui Yue no longer felt that worried about encountering Scarface. Instead inside of him was a flame of excitement burning; a flame from the anticipation he felt about the fight he knew was likely to break out when they met.

Traveling through the tunnels, they soon reached yet another cave. This cave was nothing like what they expected because the majority of the cave was used for agriculture. Looking in the distance, one could see a large city situated in a valley.

“This place is what feeds the Dragon Core and the Dragon’s Avenue Cave.” Xu Piao said and Hui Yue nodded in return. It made sense. As Xu Piao had said previously, the two final caves, the Dragon Core and the Dragon’s Avenue Cave, both contained two cities consisting of their entire caves leaving no space to farm. Instead they relied on the earlier caves and mainly this Cave of the Divine Feast.

Although Hui Yue was intrigued by the cave he kept moving quickly through the landscape. Only one night was spent in the city relaxing before they once more started moving.

Traveling through the Cave of the Divine Feast took a little more than one week. They spent every day spent traveling and only a few hours each night to rest. Entering another tunnel, they stayed on the lit parts; all of them astonished because the tunnels were much more trafficked than the previous ones. There were carriages bringing harvested vegetables, corn, and meats to the two cities ahead of them.

Seeing all the carriages, although it surprised them, had no influence on Hui Yue or his friends and the trip through the tunnels was uneventful as they reached the Dragon’s Avenue Cave.

This was considered a suburb of the Dragon Core, a place where the second most influential families lived. Looking around many Duke and King ranked experts were visible, and Hui Yue understood that it was incredibly important for him and his friends to not insult anyone. Although he felt capable of dealing with Duke ranked experts he was likely to suffer severe damage while doing so. Within this city the majority of the Dukes present had higher ranked experts at their back, experts ready to avenge them should they be beaten or killed.

Hui Yue’s intent was to travel through the city quickly entering the Dragon Core as soon as possible. Currently the strength of his group was quite low considering how powerful the citizens walking around were, and Hui Yue felt that they were tempting their good luck staying longer than needed.

What he forgot was that the city filled the entire cave; despite it being one big city, the cave was no smaller than the previous Cave of the Divine Feast. Traveling through this Dragon Avenue Cave was indeed more time consuming than what it had taken them to journey through the previous cave.

Traveling through the Dragon Avenue Cave took ten days. This was three days longer than the previous cave. This was due to them spending every night at an inn, not to mention the roads which were crooked making the trip more difficult, and finding the way towards the tunnel was not always easy.

However, now here they were in front of the final tunnel system. The final part of their journey and Hui Yue felt excitement within. They was finally closing in on the final cave.

“This is the true Dragon Avenue,” Xu Piao said with a wry smile on his face as he looked at the tunnels they were about to enter. Paying the fee, everyone stepped inside and breathed in the familiar stale air once again. The air which had at first felt stifling and discomforting suddenly made them feel excited. This was the final time they had to travel through these tunnels. It was time for them to get ready to finally exit these dark tunnels and this strange underground world.

The six travelers joked with each other as they made their way through the tunnels, and four days after they entered the exit was visible. Everyone, even Xu Piao and Xie Lan, had their hearts skip a beat as they paid the entrance fee and stepped into the Dragon Core.

As soon as they stepped inside, everyone was astonished as they saw King ranked experts moving about everywhere within the city. Only a few groups of Dragon Corps soldiers were lower ranked; all ranked in the middle dantian tier as they got ready to leave the Dragon Core.

A few Duke ranked experts were walking the streets, all wearing astonishing clothing and having King ranked experts by their sides.

Looking around, Hui Yue was unable to find traces of anyone familiar, not Scarface, nor anyone else.

“Let’s find the Dragon Corps office first and hand in the mission,” Hui Yue said with a sigh as he looked around. They started moving towards the center of the city thinking that the office had to be there.

With his friends following behind Hui Yue made his way through the city. They slowly saw more lower ranked experts, who were youngsters much like Hui Yue and his friends, clearly the younger generation.

Just as Hui Yue was observing his surroundings various people on the street noticed a large group of lower ranked cultivators; all of them curious as to why they were in this city and whom these newcomers were.

Arriving in the middle of the city, they saw a massive marketplace and not the building they had expected; however, after asking around for a while they figured out where the Dragon Corps’ main office was.

The office was located where yet another tunnel should be. It seemed like the reason it was located there was so the Dragon Corps could determine who entered the tunnels leading to the other three parts of the Dungeons of the Divine.

Along with the entrances to the other tunnels, it also had the Stairs of Hope, leading towards the Center Palace above ground. The location He had claimed to be his own.

Traveling towards the office took nine days as the group rushed as fast as possible, and suddenly they arrived in front of a magnificent castle which was built into the cave wall.

The castle was more than two hundred meters tall and a hundred meters wide. The gates were open, but King ranked experts were standing guard; they ensured that only those who were allowed inside could enter.

Walking towards the entrance, Hui Yue flashed his B ranked emblem. This was something which made the two King ranked experts instantly show a great amount of respect towards the group, as they stood aside allowing the group to enter.

“What can I do for you?” A woman asked who was standing at the front desk waiting for groups to return from their missions. Seeing this group of youngsters who clearly did not look at all like Dragon Corps members made her incredibly curious. When Hui Yue handed over the items he got from Zhou Long, she was deeply shocked.

“Please wait here for a moment,” She said before she rushed up some stairs, leaving the six alone in the lobby.

The six friends standing in the lobby did nothing but wait; none of them knew anything about the message within the scrolls and memory stones. Hui Yue had a premonition that it had information about him, however, he had no way to prove it as he dared not check the information within.

….

“You say that the white-haired young man arrived with this information?” The Dragon Corp’s Lord was sitting behind a desk, looking at the woman who was kneeling in front of him. Her hands were raised above her head with the scrolls and the memory stone in them.

With a flick of his hand the scrolls and the memory stone flew towards him, and as he grabbed them the memory stone was placed to his forehead while the scrolls stayed within his hand as he checked the information within. A blue light shone briefly within the room before the man removed it from his forehead. A smile crept onto his face as he kept muttering “Good. Good.”

“Find Zhou Long for me,” He said to the woman who had not dared move the slightest, “He should have arrived a few days or even weeks ago considering his usual speed.” The Dragon Corps’ Lord continued, and with a nod the woman backed up and left the room never once turning her back towards the master.

As soon as the woman left loud laughter rang throughout the room as the Dragon Corps’ Lord leaned back in his chair.

After a few moments, knocking could be heard on the door and Zhou Long stepped inside, “Commander, you called for me.”

Unlike the woman before, Zhou Long did not kneel, instead, he bowed deeply in front of the commander who was before him. The commander nodded back showing that he too respected the man in front of him.

“The white-haired boy has finally arrived at the Dragon Corps’ main office,” The Lord said his words causing Zhou Long to look up; his gaze filled with happiness. “Commander, I am sure you agree with me that we need a better relationship with him. He is without a doubt an important figure for the Frozen General.”

“I do not disagree,” The Lord said with a smile, “However we need to inform the Frozen General that this young man has arrived at our Dragon Core. And if possible, try and keep him here. Allow him an A rank clearance and let him have some fun in town. Make sure that four King ranked experts follow him and leave his friends be for now. There is no need for us to personally remove them.”

Hearing this, Zhou Long could do nothing but acknowledge it. He bowed deeply once more before he turned around ready to carry out the orders he was given.

As soon as he left the room a large smile grew on his face and a self satisfied chuckle could be heard as he moved forward. It was obvious that they had done something which the Frozen General would approve of. This was something that Zhou Long would be heavily rewarded for.