Blue Phoenix

“I am not of mixed blood? Don’t jest your highness” Hui Yue asked as he looked at the third prince. He was greatly shocked by the question and for the first time, he truly looked at the prince in front of him. He had sworn to take his life for his friends, but Hui Yue had to admit that he had been looking down on the prince. He was seen as a genius, but his age when reaching the King rank was only a few years later than Hui Yue’s. The white-haired young man expected him to be a spoiled young heir, but there was more to this man.

“I never said that you were not of mixed blood, but you are definitely not a half beast half human,” The prince said as his face showed curiosity, and his lips curled up into a smile. “If anything your beastly genes are so distant that they can hardly be the reason for your unusual appearance. I like you. Why don’t you come visit me soon, and we can see what the actual reason for your appearance is. Maybe it is even the same reason your two friends look the way they do especially the one who looks as peculiar as you.” The prince went quiet for some time as he looked at Hui Yue causing the younger man to be even more cautious than he had been before. Hui Yue’s eyes were fully focused on the third prince and his heart was beating rapidly. “The three of you are the most interesting people I have seen in a long time.”

“We have to return to the castle now, but it was incredibly interesting to visit and see the Grand Marshall of the beast army. Tell me, did you trick them all, or do they know that you are a human who pretends to be a beast?”

Hui Yue looked at the prince as a smile crept onto his face. He then shook his head. “There are things I cannot tell anyone, not even a prince,” He smiled and paused for some time. “I might visit you at some point if I have time,” He continued as he bowed to the second prince. “Thank you for visiting my humble mansion. I wish your highnesses the best in the future.” With this, the two princes nodded towards the bowing Hui Yue, Deng Wu, and Cai Jie before they left the banquet hall and entered the carriage which was waiting for the highnesses.

Turning back towards the banquet hall, everyone was suddenly scattered talking about everything and nothing to the person closest to them. The previously incredibly quiet room had turned lively once more. Everyone acted like nothing much just happened. The random conversation quickly ended as the new discussion was about the man of the night, the white-haired young man whom they had all thought was a young man of mixed blood, a half human half beast, but now their royal prince said that he was not in fact not. If he was not a half beast then why did he look so different? It seemed that this phenomena was not limited to just Hui Yue, but also his affected the two friends by his side, or so the third prince thought. Both fear and awe were apparent in all the guests as they sneaked peeks at Hui Yue and his friends while discussing in low voices and with curious expressions.

“Seems like this prince will be troublesome,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. “He is without a doubt a threat to all of us,” Hui Yue whispered to Cai Jie and Deng Wu by his side. “I need to take this far more serious than I have been,” He continued. “I guess I should say yes to his invitation.”

Slowly the guests started to leave the mansion in small groups. Everyone was whispering and chatting with one another, and the gossip that Hui Yue was not a half beast was something that had taken everyone by surprise. Although the white-haired man had not agreed, no one dared doubt the greatest talent in the royal family. What no one could understand was what else could cause their strange appearances, and many theories came to the surface. Some believed that they were an entirely different species, neither human nor beast, but someone who came from across the sea, somewhere far away from their continent. Others thought they were of mixed blood far back in their heritage and that they had gained a few genes from these beasts into their bloodline. Others believed that they were cultivating rare cultivation methods. This theory was quite widespread. All three different looking men were incredibly young, yet all of them had an outstanding cultivation base. It was likely that these two things were connected.

As the final person left the mansion, Hui Yue finally found a chair and sat down in it with a heavy sigh, “Gao Yan.” He called out and moments after his friend appeared with a large grin on his face. “I imagine that a lot of people will be coming by tomorrow to the Black Lion,” He started. “Many of them will be asking for information about me since I am a new arrival.” He said while scratching his chin for a moment contemplating what to do. “You should just sell all the information you have, apart from the aim of my group,” He said. “The more that is known about me and my new faction will help the nobles more easily join us. The only thing you cannot mention is our ultimate goal.”

While Hui Yue spoke, Gao Yan was taken aback at the start as he had planned to blacklist any information about Hui Yue. He was supporting this man, so selling information about him was not something he wished to do, but now Hui Yue himself was telling him to do so. Hesitating for a moment, Gao Yan finally nodded his head, but he decided only to sell information which put Hui Yue in a positive light.

“Let us settle in,” Hui Yue said without a second glance at the banquet hall. He and his friends left the room leaving it for the servants to clean and return it to how it had been originally. Walking to the floor where all the rooms were located everyone chose a random door. No one knew how different the rooms were, but no one truly cared either. The room Hui Yue chose was clean and practical. It consisted of three rooms, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a bigger room divided into a sitting room, library, and office. Looking around the room the young man nodded his head with satisfaction. After looking through the room for a bit, he went to the bathroom where he quickly washed. He then went to one of the windows, opened it and sat in the moonlight. It was in the middle of the night now, almost dawn, yet Hui Yue had no intention of wasting the final rays of moonlight, allowing for him to absorb the Yin energy.

It was not only Hui Yue who was spending the final hours of the night to cultivate, Cai Jie, Xu Piao, and Deng Wu were all busy cultivating while Gao Yan was busy creating memory stones with information about Hui Yue. Memory stones he knew he would need the following morning when he went to work.

Ma Kong was busy creating memory stones thanking all the guests for showing up alongside delegating the servants to clean up the mansion. Making sure that the mansion looked like it did before the party The mansion was quiet as everyone was busy doing their own things, and as the sun slowly rose in the sky, the servants finished cleaning. Gao Yan had left the mansion and was heading back to the Black Lion, and Ma Kong was on his way back to the Black Market Auction House where he went to ship out the memory stones. He also had to prepare for the many visitors they would have today questioning their allegiance with Hui Yue and the slew of issues that would entail.

Neither Hui Yue, Xu Piao, Deng Wu, or Cai Jie had left their rooms yet as all of them were training studiously, and the last thing Ma Kong did before leaving was order the servants to cook breakfast and leave it on trays outside their doors. Although he knew that it was quite unlikely for the experts to open the door and eat the food, the young man felt better knowing they had breakfast, even if they chose to ignore it.

The sun rose in the sky, and Hui Yue stopped absorbing the essence of the heavens and the earth after which he opened his door and smelled the delicious breakfast placed just outside. After eating he then left the house and entered the park behind the mansion.

Entering the park, Hui Yue searched within himself and located the red beast core letting the red energy billow forth as he changed his body into that of the red wolf. From the storage stone around his neck, Hui Yue picked out wristbands, a shirt, and trousers which were weighed down with lead. As soon as he wore it, Hui Yue started running through the park. The speed with which he ran was outstanding, so swift in fact that none of the servants in the park could see anything other than a red flash followed by a strong wind.

The majority of his day was spent running in the park before Hui Yue returned to his human form. He then started doing other muscle training programs taught to him by Wan Qiao.

The day after the banquet in the mansion was quiet, and none of them seemed to be disturbed at all by the turmoil which had appeared within the city. The many nobles were all sending servants to the Black Lion to get information about the newly arrived Hui Yue and company. Rumors about this young man were the talk of the town, not only by the nobles but also their servants and the many commoners. These servants who heard all the gossip about the white-haired young man who was seemingly not half a beast caused more and more of them to head to the Black Lion to gain or share information. Money was rolling in for Gao Yan, but the information they obtained was quite similar to what the rumors stated.

The information from Gao Yan said that Hui Yue was indeed the Grand Marshall of the beast army of Shenyuan. It stated that he had rented a mansion in the upper-class district and that he lived together with Gao Yan of the Black Lion, Xu Piao, Deng Wu of the Deng family, Wang Ju Long of the Wang family, and Cai Jie, an unknown adventurer. Although Ma Kong did not reside at the mansion, the Ma family were backing the young man and had even taken it on themselves to host the grand banquet for the young man which introduced him to the city’s nobles.

The information also contained the ranks of Hui Yue and all his friends; however, none of their elemental affinities were included. None of their pasts were included with the exception of Hui Yue’s Grand Marshall position, and nothing about their bloodlines were shared either.

The fact that not even Gao Yan had much information about these young men living in the mansion was something which caused mystery to surround them, and many citizens went to the mansion to see if they could catch a glimpse of the mysterious strangers that had suddenly appeared throwing the capital into chaos. It was obvious that a new era in Muchuan City’s history had just begun.