Blue Phoenix

Hui Yue retreated as soon as he felt that his slash at the Saint’s neck had failed because he knew that he would be smashed by the hammer, had he stayed put. Although Hui Yue was supposed to be far weaker than the expert in front of him, this white-haired young man was truly giving the tall Saint a run for his money. The youngster was capable of injuring him, not once but twice, and he even managed to avoid the attacks of an expert who was supposed to be far stronger than him.

Standing still opposite each other, none of the two focused on the rest of the war. Both knew that they needed to focus solely on one another, if they did not wish to be the one that was taken by surprise. Swinging his hammers, the tall Saint once more rushed forward his eyes showing the emotions swirling within him. It was obvious that Hui Yue had survived this far due to his own negligence, so if he focused, he would be able to deal with the younger, weaker male almost instantly.

Hui Yue had to somewhat agree with the taller man in front of him. Although he was pushed far and had to use his complete strength, including the abilities he had learned from his previous lives, he was still at a glaring disadvantage when it came to power. He sighed heavily as he stored Black Blood within a storage stone and allowed threads of blue energy to exit his body. Seeing this the man in front of him narrowed his eyes. Hui Yue had already used red mist energy, belonging to magical beasts, and even Wu Wei on top of that. Wu Wei which belonged to human cultivators and divine beasts, yet now, out of nowhere, an energy he had never seen before, never even heard of before, was exiting the hands of this young man. The tall Saints got wary and backed away a little more observing the behavior of this blue energy.

The energy did nothing apart from coiling around Hui Yue’s body. “That damned wolf head is best to deal with a massive force, and although it is great in one and one battles, it’s not gonna be enough to defeat this tall idiot,” Hui Yue grumbled to himself as he increased the length of the blue threads around him. A tranquility slowly appeared within the young man allowing him to fully analyze everything happening to him without being scared witless. The blue cloud calmed his mind allowing him to keep a sharp eye on everything at once.

“Well, that’s that.” He said as he urged Velocity Flow at the fastest speed possible for his size. As quick as lightning he charged at the tall Saint fully aware that he would be hit by the hammer one place or another. Although the green pearl agreed to heal him, the pain of such a hit, or having his limb torn off was very real, yet as long as the green pearl could heal him, Hui Yue was willing to suffer any pain.

Jumping forward, he reached the Saint in the blink of an eye. Before the tall Saint could do anything blue threads wrapped around him sucking away the energy he was trying to use.

It took him half a second to understand that he needed to use the majority of his power to instantly burst forth and shatter these blue threads. Then he could hit him squarely in the head with his warhammer.

Bursting the threads went as expected, however, as he was about to use his warhammer, he found that he could not hit the young man’s head. Instead, he was only capable of hitting his left leg. Hitting the leg with the most power he had, the Saint was satisfied as he saw the leg tear away from his body and spin in the air before it landed on the ground. But, once again the Saint was astonished as he saw Hui Yue throw himself towards the leg and the tissue instantly started to fuse once again.

Both Hui Yue and the Saint were contemplating. Hui Yue used his blue cloud to see how long he could pause the Saint while the Saint was swearing and cursing inside about someone with such a heaven defying healing ability. If he did not know better, then he would have assumed that this young man managed to get his hands on some divine treasure, yet the energy was clearly coming from inside the young man’s body. Had this not been war, and had the person in front of him not been the Grand Marshall, then this tall Saint would definitely have spent his time to capture him. His body contained secrets which could allow the Siban Empire to grow stronger. Possibly stronger than the other kingdoms, and eventually let them expand over the whole world. A feverish excitement grew inside the tall Saint. Yes, this man was the Grand Marshall of the beast’s army, but that did not mean he had to kill him. He should capture him instead.

Unfortunately, he was not capable of doing so just yet. Hui Yue had managed to get past anything he threw at him. His body was healing itself as soon as it was crushed and his body seemed to just release energies when he needed them the most.

Hui Yue closed his eyes for a moment as he scoured the thoughts of the red wolf and the blue monk. Multiple abilities appeared in his mind, and one of them was especially useful. It was an attack that the red wolf created when he was younger. Fortunately, it scaled with strength, and right now it was Hui Yue’s best ability. The attack was called Shadow Wolf, and it allowed for Hui Yue’s own shadow to turn into a wolf much like himself. The Shadow wolf moved forward slowly, and everything it touched started to bubble and ooze as if affected by acid, it even corroded the stones beneath its feet.

This Shadow Wolf was an ability which the red wolf came up with after absorbing the souls of people. Absorbing souls increased the strength of the person who absorbed them. The person’s soul would slowly increase in strength making them far stronger against attacks such as illusions, or those which targeted the mind. The man in front of him was, however, not a person who focused his attacks on the soul. Looking at his hammer, it was easy to see that he focused all his cultivation on physical strength; this was bad news for Hui Yue. Although he trained his body more than the average King, it was a far cry from being able to take on a Saint who specialized in physical strength. But the red wolf’s focus had been inner energies, the soul to be precise. The monk was much the same, but he originated in a world considerably different from the one Hui Yue was in now. Their cultivation was different and so was the energy, which was the reason that Hui Yue now controlled an energy from outside this world.

This energy, however, was much like the one of the red wolf. It required one to have a strong soul; the stronger the soul became, the better the abilities worked. The monk and the wolf had done it differently, though. Where the wolf strengthened his soul by absorbing the souls of others, the monk strengthened his by solitude, training, and enlightenment. Without knowing what the other lives in his dantian cave were like, the abilities Hui Yue had learned from the monk and the red wolf leaned towards attacks of the soul. This Shadow Wolf was one of these attacks.

Shadow Wolf was created from the corruption in the souls Hui Yue had absorbed. Every soul contained both good and bad, and while the good was absorbed into Hui Yue’s own soul, the bad was stored in his body. These bad emotions corrupted one’s soul unless it was removed and one of such skills to remove it was the Shadow Wolf which allowed for all the vile, hate, and anger to be released from the depth of his soul. He allowed for all the evil thoughts of the souls to manifest, and as they did, they created a ferocious animal in his shadow. He created something that corrupted everything it touched. It was a creature created from pure malice, and as it looked at the tall Saint, a soundless sneer could be seen on its face. Pouncing at the Saint, the Shadow Wolf showed no fear of the hammer which came to meet it, and unexpectedly, as soon as the hammer touched the wolf its surface started to bubble and ooze. The metal started to melt from corruption while the beast seemed completely unharmed.

Whistling, Hui Yue had to admit that the Shadow Wolf was truly a wolf made from a shadow. The moment the hammer descended upon it, the hammer went right through the Shadow Wolf because the body was created from Hui Yue’s shadow. Physical attacks had no way of harming it. Seeing this, Hui Yue could not help but send a prayer of thanks towards the red wolf and the abilities he created which Hui Yue could now use.

The Saint looked as his hammer with astonishment on his face, and his expression turned grim quite quickly. The man stored the hammer in his storage stone as the Shadow Wolf pounced at him one time after another only to be narrowly dodged by the tall Saint time and time again.

The more the Shadow Wolf moved, the less the ground underneath it oozed and bubbled. It was obvious that the malice within the souls could only fuel the Shadow Wolf for so long, and Hui Yue had no other option than to withdraw Black Blood once more. Looking at the tall Saint in front of him, Hui Yue felt his entire body turned cold. To kill him, Hui Yue needed to try something incredibly dangerous, and he was uncertain if he would be able to keep his life even with the green pearl healing him as much as it could.

“Well, I won’t win otherwise,” He mumbled to himself as his muscles became taut. His eyes sharpened, and his entire being got ready to pounce together with the Shadow Wolf. While Hui Yue forced the tall Saint to dodge the Shadow Wolf, he launched himself in the direction where the Saint moved while dodging.

The tall Saint realized his mistake too late, and although he managed to swing his hammer, the damage it did was far smaller than what it had done every other time. Unfortunately, this time, it hit his much more delicate place. Hit slammed into his face causing the whole side of his face to show both the white bony skull and the muscles attached to the skull along with his flesh. Even his teeth were visible as it all shattered under the hammer of the tall Saint. Half of his face had been thoroughly destroyed, and the Saint could not help but feel smug, satisfied with finally killing Hui Yue. Until he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. The ‘dying’ Hui Yue looked at him with his one good eye. A smile appeared on his face as the gaping wound slowly but surely healed. The tall Saint looked down only to see blood running out of the wound in his chest. Blood welled up into his mouth and with a few gagging sounds, the blood forced its way through his closed lips.

The Saint was clearly unwilling to accept his fate. Although he was many times stronger than Hui Yue, he had still succumbed to the younger man’s strange strength. Turning around, Hui Yue found that none of the two armies were fighting. Everyone was observing the battle between him and the tall Saint. The faces of the enemy were filled with disbelief, and the faces of his brothers in arms were even more astonished. No one expected the young man to win, but here he was, the victor of the battle. Seeing this, the enemy soldiers slowly retreated while Hui Yue gestured for his men to withdraw. The battles for today ended with their overwhelming victory, but Hui Yue was anything but happy.

He had won the fight this day due to the green pearl lending him its powers. Looking at the green pearl it had shrunk to one-tenth the size it had before, clearly incapable of assisting him again, should he meet another Saint. Hui Yue all too well remembered the Saint Wan Qiao fought. Sighing deeply, he decided to return to camp and head straight to the infirmary to visit the One-Horned Jasmine Eagle and see how she was doing. While checking on her, he would also take the time to restore his energy for the fierce battle coming tomorrow. They had to keep pressuring their opponents. They had to fight their best to win the beasts their freedom.