Blue Phoenix

“All I need to do is to think?” Hui Yue repeated dumbfounded as he realized that he had not thought about his human shape in the slightest. Instead, he was thinking about the wolf’s shape and senses, and as his thoughts about this increased so did the physical changes to his body. Standing in the dantian cave, the half beast half human found himself slightly dumb for not having considered this option before. With a gratified nod towards Lan Feng, he once more closed his eyes and called forth an image in his mind. An image of long white hair, and serene blue eyes. He pictured pale white skin, a tall stature, long legs, arms, and a toned torso. The clearer the image grew in his mind, the quicker Hui Yue transformation. His snout vanished and his fangs shrunk. His fur retracted, and the hair color turned white while the eyes blue.

It took him less than half an hour to return to his own body, and he could not help but frown as he thought about this. It was obvious that he should be able to change between forms far faster than he had, but he needed more practice. This time, his transformation was not voluntary, perhaps it would be easier when he decided to transform.

“Wake up,” A playful voice said as a gentle tap could be felt on the top of his head. This caused him to open his eyes and look at Wan Qiao. “It’s early morning, and I think it is time for us to make a counter attack,” She continued. “We have been holed up within our defenses for so long, all the beasts are unhappy, and we need a real battle. I am sure you know how it is.” She grinned. Hui Yue had to admit that he had previously felt the killing intent known to beasts. He could understand that right now many beasts in the army were awaiting his orders, but they were all filled with a desire to fight. They came here for that very reason and yet they had spent more time defending than fighting.

“Okay,” Hui Yue nodded his head as a smile appeared on his lips, “Take me to see the army.” Together the two, beast and human, walked out of the tent and every place they stopped the beasts also stopped to stare. Their eyes filled with excitement as soon as they saw Hui Yue.

Moving to the machines of war, Hui Yue climbed onto the tower. When he stood on the top, he spread out his arms. A smile appeared on his face as he yelled “Everyone!” A pause followed as everyone quieted down staring at the young man atop the tower. “Today we fight the humans; today we conqueror the land outside the city walls. Tonight we will feast their corpses!”

Hearing his words, every beast quickly changed their shape to their beast form and roaring, cheering, and howling could be heard. The ground trembled, and the skies shook as the beasts were filled with killing intent.

“The fortieth army stays back to look after the weaponry and the camp; the rest set out!”

Although some displeased faces could be seen, no one said anything to go against Hui Yue. As he stood at the top of the platform, golden Wu Wei wings appeared on his back supporting him as he flew down from the tower. He hovered in the air and finally gave a nod to the Saints, which was returned with a nod towards him. The air was heavy, and the tension was so thick that everyone felt sweat appear on their foreheads. Despite this everyone was smiling. They were baring their fangs and feeling excitement which made their blood boil as they waited for the order from Hui Yue.

“Forward!” He called as he sped to the front of the troops, his eyes constantly searching the horizon. He was aware that the opponents had ballistae, and he had no intention of being hit by any of them. Some of the beasts took to the sky, others dug underground, and finally some ran on the bloodsoaked ground moving through the places where they had fought earlier. A massive amount of corpses were still lying on the ground, and the air was filled with a foul stench. A stench which the beasts sensed far more than the humans, but unlike the humans, they liked this smell. This was not a bad smell; it was the smell of rotting flesh something most beasts would enjoy. The humans not so much, but to them, the stench was no different than the scent of a flower or of a living human, albeit much stronger.

Moving through the battlefield, everyone felt their adrenaline pumping. Their senses were sharpened to the limits, and their bodies taut ready to attack at any moment. The groups were all by each other’s sides. The five man groups were certainly going to wreck havoc today. It was now time to show their true strength.

Marching across the battlefield did not take long for the human army to appear. Their entire army scrambled into their positions. Clearly they had been alarmed by the loud noises that Hui Yue made earlier, but he was not particularly bothered by the fact that he alerted them., Instead he was gratified because he would feel like they were in the wrong if they were to truly attack them while they were unprepared.

“Stop!” Hui Yue called out, and every beast stopped. Looking at the many humans flooding to their positions in front of them he said, “Remember what I taught you” With a voice that made the heavens shake and the ground tremble. “Do me proud and let us move on, win this battle!”

Hearing his voice, everyone started to move. The groups split up from the main body of the army colliding straight into the massive body of humans. As soon as the two sides met, the scent of blood was in the air. Limbs were severed, beastly roars of pain could be heard, and the screams of dying humans filled the air.

At the back of the army, Hui Yue was hovering in the air, and right behind him were thirty nine Saints. None of them showed any signs of participating in the war, they all just quietly watched the battle unfold.

Hui Yue had previously given into his beastly instincts to participate in the war, yet the result had been horrible. He managed to deal with the enemies, but in spite of that, he had been out cold for seven days following the battle. “I cannot afford to fight like that,” Hui Yue mumbled as he looked at the many beasts below.

“Seems like this group is far better than I expected,” Hui Yue said casually as he observed a group which he had seen earlier during the training. The group consisted of Lightning Struck Panthers. Although these animals were not used to being in a group, they worked incredibly well together. All of them were on the offense, yet at the same time, none of their backs were open to the enemy. They all managed to constantly have their backs against each other.

Scouring the battlefield, Hui Yue saw a pack of Winged Scorpion Tailed Lions. These were normally pack animals, and they always hunted in groups. Which was obvious due to how well they were fighting. One lion watched everyone’s back while the others grouped up and defeated one target after another; their teamwork was so astonishing that Hui Yue raised an eyebrow in surprise.

One more group took Hui Yue’s attention because they were offensive as well. All of them stood in a group and had their backs together. Like this, they inched further and further into the enemy lines killing any humans who jumped at them.

These three groups were all so far into the enemy territory that they were swamped by humans jumping at them from all directions, but none of the humans succeeded in wounding any of these highly skilled beasts.

Smiling Hui Yue shifted his glance to the front of the battlefield. A looked where the majority of the groups were battling against the humans and even watch them. This scene caused him to smile with satisfaction. Flapping his wings for a moment, he flew closer to the Saints and closer to the edge of the battlefield to get a closer look at how many beasts had fallen.

Looking at the ground, a few beast corpses were spread here and there, but the losses were nothing compared to the mountains of human corpses piling up all over. Blood flowed from the ground, and the stench of death was everywhere. The beasts who had completely transformed used both their teeth and claws to fight. The beasts from underground shot through the earth to attack whoever was standing at the front, and then beasts from above would dive downwards avoiding the ballistae to their best ability. They would grab humans only to toss them away or drop them from high up.

The humans were being pushed backwards slowly but surely; they stood no chance against the massive beast horde, and even the cavalry decided to stay back not entering the battle as they had done previously. The only opponents were these weak humans who only managed to kill a small fraction of Hui Yue’s army. They killed so few that the only thing it amounted to was enraging the beasts who had lost someone from their group. The entire beast army was getting more and more enraged, and the human corpse mountains continually grew. Looking down, multiple beasts had human limbs in their mouths while others shredded them with their paws.

Flashes of white, silvery, and golden light constantly shone on the battlefield alongside red mist energy. Seeing how everyone was busy fighting, Hui Yue was grateful for his army, but he still felt that the Siban Emperor was too cold to sacrifice so many of his servants willingly just for the sake of removing a few beasts. Thinking this, Hui Yue’s eyes went to look at the city wall right behind the battlefield. Experts far stronger than the ones on the ground were patrolling the top, looking down with various expressions. Some showed an expression of worry and grief for the citizens below, others were completely passive and showed no form of remorse. Another group seemed to be filled with excitement as they watched the slaughter below. Seeing this, Hui Yue could not help but feel deeply disgusted. Although beasts were egocentric, they still had enough decency to support each other. Enough decency to avenge their fallen and feel grief for their comrades. Some of the humans on top of the wall were even more savage than the beasts fighting on the ground.

Wresting his eyes away from the common soldiers, Hui Yue glanced further down the wall. He saw a part just above the gates where a small house was visible. Looking at this house, Hui Yue suddenly felt a shiver run through his body and slight fear emerged in his heart as he saw two black cloaked men standing outside the door. The two experts were clearly the same kind of people he had run into previously in Riluo City, and back then they caused him serious problems.

“I was weak then! No one says that I need to be worried about them now,” Hui Yue comforted himself, but deep inside worry was growing stronger and stronger. “It is time we became serious. The quicker we win this war, the better,” Hui Yue ended up telling himself as sweat appeared on his forehead, and he nervously gnawed on his lower lip. Crusaders were never good news.