Blue Phoenix

“Lao greets Mother,” Lao said as he bowed deeply to her. His eyes twinkled like small stars as he glanced at the crimson-faced young woman. Seeing her older brother greet Wang Ju Long, Jo quickly mimicked him. She bowed deeply and greeted her new mother. Jo was even more excited about getting a mother than Lao.

When they were small children and living alone, Lao often told Jo stories about mothers. A mother was a person who would do anything for their children. A mother was someone who would protect their kids. A mother was warm and loving. She would give her life for her children.

These were all stories Lao told Jo in their darkest hours. When they were hungry or cold, when they were lonely or sad; that was the time when Lao would tell Jo about how wonderful it was to have a mother, and both of them had dreamt of the day that their mother found them.

Only, she had never shown up. Instead, Hui Yue appeared and gave them a new life. A life they could live without worrying about hunger, or the cold. Now they would never alone anymore, but even with this, there was a lack of gentleness and love. Although Hui Yue treated them like his other younger brother, he was usually busy if he wasn’t training them and would leave for an extended amount of time. The two children felt like something was missing.

Now, Hui Yue had returned from the adventure he had been on. Having been away for so long, Lao feared that Hui Yue regretted taking them in. But now when he returned he did not, in fact, send them away, he actually gave them a mother.

Being called mom by these two children, Wang Ju Long was at a loss for what to do. She remembered when Hui Yue brought the two children home; she would often observe them when they were training, but never in the world did she expect to become their mother.

“They are like me,” She mumbled to herself in a voice so low that no one could hear while she looked at the eager faces in front of her. “They lost their family. They are all alone in this world. Perhaps we can make a new family for one another.”

Looking at these two children who were looking at her with such innocent eyes, she could not help but feel her heart clench, and she gently wrested her hand from Hui Yue’s and moved towards the two children. She gently embraced both of them letting them feel her warmth.

Lao had been grateful when Hui Yue took them in. He swore that he would live his life for Hui Yue, the person who gave them a chance. He swore to be without emotions. He would be an expert that would impress and be of use to Hui Yue, but now things suddenly changed. The emotions he had bundled up through the many years of looking after Jo, and the constant worry of whether or not he would be allowed to stay with Hui Yue, had finally been let loose while Wang Ju Long hugged the two siblings. Without being able to hold back his tears, Lao finally let go of all his worries in her warm embrace.

Hui Yue and all their friends were greatly surprised when they saw Wang Ju Long hug the kids, but the gesture made Hui Yue’s heart melt. It made him once more fall in love with the woman he saw in front of him.

Although he could watch Wang Ju Long without tiring, he knew that was not the case for everyone else. Therefore, he finally wristed his eyes away from them. “Come with me.” He said to the Saints. “It’s time to split the treasures.”

The experts instantly followed behind Hui Yue who entered a room on the ground floor; the room usually used by Xu Piao, though now he was focused solely on cultivating and thus the room was free.

In the room were five people; the three Saints, the shield of the Taiyang Kingdom, and Hui Yue.

Hui Yue was the first to take out all the storage stones he had filled with treasures. After looking into each stone, he wrote down on paper what the stones contained.

Although Hui Yue did this with most things, there were three things which he did not include in the treasure to share with everyone. One was Huli. It was clear that she had no intention of leaving Hui Yue’s side, and the other Saints had no idea what to do with the small black fox anyways.

The other thing was the Universe Box. There was something special about this item. Not only could it contain an entire universe, but it also had some things that the expert in the grave had not mentioned to him, something he needed to understand later when he had the time to look through its contents. The items within the Box of the Universe were also obviously kept by Hui Yue.

Finally, the music box was something he kept. Hui Yue felt shivers when he thought how the music box had almost caused his doom. He did not want anyone else to possess this item.

“If possible, I want all the herbs,” Hui Yue said with a serious voice. “I will even pass on many of the medicinal pills as long as I get the herbs.”

Hearing this the other four Saints shook their heads. All of them felt that they owed Hui Yue their lives. For him to then give up on the medicinal pills for herbs made them unhappy. Even if he had wanted to take half of the treasures, they would not have complained.

“Let us do it like this,” Xiao Ning said while looking at the many items described on the papers in front of them. “We are all members of prominent families in Muchuan City, and we need items to increase the strength of our families.”

“If you let go of all the armors and weapons, then you can have the herbs, and we will all split the medicinal pills equally between the five of us.”

Hearing this the other three nodded their heads. These herbs were from another world, but none of them knew what they were nor did they have a use for them. To be honest, these herbs were worthless for them.

Weapons and armor, on the other hand, were worth much more. Especially since these were forged in another world, their like had never before been seen in this world. “This will give us a great advantage fighting other experts.” They said satisfied. Although they all wanted pills, for these four experts the armor and weapons were worth more than pills. Strengthening their entire family was more important than strengthening just one person.

Although Hui Yue could use some of the weapons and armor for his two children or his friends, he could also get weapons and armors from Cou Ling. The weapons she made would be good enough to assist his friends and family for quite a while. When they needed better weapons, Hui Yue would convince Cou Ling to once more create weapons from the Nine Heaven’s Blood Devouring Metal.

Nodding his head, Hui Yue started to split the medicinal pills into five piles. The red pills which could increase one’s strength and health during the battle were the most numerous ones. The white pills which contained Yin energy were also rather numerous, and looking at these, all Saints, including Hui Yue, were salivating. Yin energy made their cultivating much quicker.

There were golden pills which they all knew increased the speed of one’s cultivation, and using them it increased their speed by quite a lot.

There were also two pills which Hui Yue had never used. They were the black and purple pills. There were as many purple pills as there were golden pills. Looking at the black pills, he found them increasingly rare.

Although Hui Yue wanted to know what they did, he knew that now was not the time for checking, and instead, stored the many pills into a couple of storage stones which he then shot to the different Saints. All of them grabbed them with faces full of excitement.

Hui Yue did precisely as he promised; he gave them an equal share of the treasures he had obtained, only keeping what he had gained at the top platform for himself.

Having split the treasures, the Saints were all eager to go home, but all of them felt that they still owed Hui Yue a lot. Looking at them fidgeting Hui Yue could not help but laugh out loud. “Hurry back home to your families. They are eager to see you again I am sure.”

Hearing the words all of the Saints felt a warmth in their hearts and they quickly rose, nodding their heads to Hui Yue. “If you ever need support in any way, should that be for an adventure or fighting anyone, then call us and we will have your back. Should we trade our lives for yours, then so be it. We already have been saved thanks to you; our lives are yours!” Xiao Ning said. His voice was filled with unyielding pride, and his words caused the other three Saints to nod their heads repeatedly.

“Well, said! If you need us, call!” They said. “We will trade our lives for yours if needed. For you, we will fight Yanluo himself.”

Hearing this, Hui Yue smiled. He knew that in the future he could rely on these Saints to help him out, and although he did not wish for them to assist him in killing the third prince, he knew that they would be important for his power in Muchuan City to grow.

“You guys, don’t think too much about it now,” Hui Yue laughed. “All of you have to deal with the new power system within the city and the kingdom. Many Saints had to lay down their lives in the grave, and some grew stronger than they had been before.”

“You are all stronger than before so the fame of your families will grow and your Saint rank will also increase.” He reminded them. “For now just focus on your lives and your families. If I ever need some assistance, I will make sure to call on you.” He promised, and with his promise the many experts were grateful but also jubilant. Their families, although containing Saints, had not been the most prominent of families in the kingdom, but now that their strength had increased so would their family’s fame. Xiao Ning’s family would especially grow more powerful.

Seeing his friends out, Hui Yue sighed deeply. He needed to know what had changed in the city while he had been gone, and he also needed to get a good amount of information about who had died during everyone’s visit to the grave. Thinking for some time, he knew that he needed to speak with Gao Yan, but Gao Yan went to the grave together with the others. All this would take time for him to work out, so Hui Yue knew that going to the Black Lion right now was not a good idea.

Instead, he decided to walk upstairs. When he knocked on Cai Jie’s door, he found that the door opened easily. Inside the golden-haired young man who had been asleep opened his eyes and displayed a smile like a wolf eying its prey.

“There are no longer any Crusaders within this city,” He said after which he laughed out loud, unmistakably satisfied with the performance he had shown.

“I need to rest some more,” Cai Jie said apologetically. “The last Crusader was quite hard to deal with. He managed to seriously wound me, so I am trying to get heal.”

Seeing this, Hui Yue moved towards the bed, and as he placed his hand on the wounded, he was shocked. “Your lifeforce is too weak!” He said, unable to hide his shock, but the words caused Cai Jie to smile bitterly. “I know. I had to use some of my lifeforce to heal myself, but I ended up using too much.”

“You know how to use lifeforce?!” Hui Yue exclaimed.