Blue Phoenix

The sun shone beautifully as a gentle wind swept through Muchuan City. The town was abuzz with people chatting amongst themselves; laughter could be heard as one walked down the street at various locations while at others fights broke out. The sounds of hammering could be heard throughout the city as buildings were being restored and rebuilt. Merchants could be heard shouting out prices of their wares and guards were patrolling the streets. There was a rather large amount of guards compared to what it had been like just a few days before.

The subject of all the discussions in the city was the expert who had appeared a few days before and called out every single Saint, before fighting an earth-shattering, destructive battle. After which the supreme expert actually managed to come out victorious. Many buildings in the center of the city had been destroyed, and while the palace and the princess declared that they would pay for all the repairs, all of this was still a major subject for the citizens.

This morning an announcement was made throughout the city that within the year the princess would be crowned as the crown princess and she would become the Queen once the King passed away.

Remembering the heaven-shaking battle, everyone had heard the expert introduce himself as Hui Yue, and having lived in the capital for years many already knew who Hui Yue was. He had shocked them time and time again, but they had never seen him as arrogant as he was now.

Most of the cultivators did not know that Rong Liang, the expert that Hui Yue fought, was a God. They did not even know there was a realm above the Saint rank, and thus they assumed that he was a Saint. A very strong Saint, and now he was mentioned in the same breath as the Frozen General, Wan Qiao, and Li Xiaopeng. Hui Yue was the pride of Taiyang Kingdom.

While the city was bustling with gossip and life, the Hui mansion was quiet. In the garden, Lao and Jo were seated in meditation. Although they were focused solely on their cultivation, tears still streamed from their closed eyes. They were still unable to fully contain their emotions.

Inside the mansion, Rong Xing and Deng Wu were seated in the library. Neither of them spoke, but both looked somewhat lost. Holding each other's hands and seated side by side, they both looked into the distance, and it was obvious they were thinking about the past.

Ye Ling, Zhu Jun, Xiao Ning, and Luo Qing were all present in the mansion as well. They were seated in a smaller library and drinking wine. None of them spoke. All of them were quietly sitting while taking a sip of wine from time to time.

The entire mansion was filled with a quiet, tense atmosphere. No one, not even the servants, spoke with one another. Everyone just went about their daily tasks as quickly and quietly as they could.

Darkness. Darkness was everywhere. Everything was pitch black. It was so dark that one could not even see their hand in front them. It was impossible to navigate through this sea of nothingness that had enveloped Hui Yue and Huli.

A sense of powerlessness washed over Hui Yue. He could do nothing to prevent it, and his entire body felt weak, and his world lost any light. The darkness which enveloped him had started to seep into his body and take over his mind.

"What is this?" Hui Yue asked out loud, but no sound could be heard in the darkness that was enveloping him. Instead, he felt as if the air he breathed in was heavy and as it went down his throat he had no other option than to swallow hard to keep breathing.

The loss of Wang Ju Long enveloped Hui Yue once more. Within the darkness all his mind could think about was the loss of his beloved Ju Long which caused his body to feel heavy, and his breathing to become shallow. Pain tore his heart open as he once more relived those dreadful moments. Thinking about her death, he was almost willing to give up the fight, to simply succumb to the pain and allow for it to swallow him whole. He felt hopeless and was almost ready to join Wang Ju Long in her eternal slumber when the images of Sha Yun, Lao, Jo, and all his friends appeared in his mind.

Just as everything felt hopeless, Hui Yue saw a light shine forth. It was a single ray of light that shone brightly in the middle of this black world. It did not take long before this ray of light was accompanied by another and then another until the entire world of darkness had turned into a world filled with stars shining brightly in the boundless and infinite universe.

Although his world had now become lit with stars, Hui Yue could not forget that behind this light was constant darkness; between these stars, a world of nothingness existed.

It was within this nothingness that Hui Yue and Huli were currently moving. They had previously torn a hole in the fabric of space and entered the vast expanse of space earlier that day.

He had forced himself to leave behind his friends and had moved the entire Divine Beast World into his Universe Box. Now he was feeling slightly alone because Huli was the only one by his side.

"What you experienced was the Abyss." Huli said with a low voice as she stood by Hui Yue's side. "The Abyss is a state of mind. Our minds need time to comprehend the change from one world to another, especially the first time we enter the vast galaxy. The more you travel, the less the Abyss will affect you." Huli explained as she talked about everything that was happening around them so that Hui Yue was not confused about what was going on.

Having understood that the Abyss was not an actual place but a state of mind, Hui Yue felt better, but knowing that he would experience it again, he was slightly hesitant. He was not very keen on experiencing it again as the hopelessness he felt had truly seeped to his very core. He consoled himself by thinking about how it would become better the more he traveled from world to world.

While speaking, Huli had kept her eyes on Hui Yue. The Abyss was known to be one of the most devastating mental states. Many would get caught up in it and lose their mind as they were unable to comprehend the vastness of the universe. Because of this she feared for Hui Yue, but seeing how easily he managed it, she was astonished. Yes it had been uncomfortable, and yes he had felt hopeless, but he had managed to shrug it off fairly easily. Even when hearing about the fact that he had to reexperience it, he only paled slightly. This was considered a very good reaction.

Seeing that Hui Yue was once more dwelling on losing Wang Ju Long, Huli felt her heart ache. She sighed and started explaining to him about the galaxy they were currently standing within. Her hope was that she could make him forget about the pain, forget his sadness, if only for just a moment.

"The brightness of the stars depends on how strong they are." She said as she pointed to various stars. Some were large, others small. Some were closer, and others were far away, but everyone of them had a small halo around them. This halo made them shine with various intensities.

"The stronger the world is, the more lifeforce that world contains. The more lifeforce, the brighter it shines. A world with a lot of lifeforce, a healthy world, will naturally shine much stronger than one which is not as healthy."

"The world we are looking for is a world of death. Even though it is a world of death, the Netherworld is also the number one world on the Heavenly World ranks. It is the biggest world of them all, and every living being that gets reincarnated from any other world will visit it at some point in their lives."

Hui Yue knew that the Netherworld was astonishing, but he was unaware of the fact that it was the most powerful and highest ranked amongst all the worlds.

"Does this mean that Yanluo is the strongest Crowned Sovereign?" Hui Yue asked curiously. He had understood that there was a connection between the strength of the world and the strength of the Crowned Sovereign, especially now after having experienced how his own strength exploded as he merged with the world. If Yanluo was the strongest of all Gods, would he really be willing to meet a small person like Hui Yue? Someone who had just become a God and had no backing outside of the Divine Beast World.

"Yanluo is known to be one of the strongest." Huli nodded her head. "He is ranked at the very top together with Goddess Nuwa, God Fuxi, and the Divine Beast Gods. As to who is the strongest that would undoubtedly be Overlord Pangu. He is the creator of our galaxy, and as for what rank he has reached, no one truly knows. No one even knows what kind of expert he is or where he came from. He is a figure shrouded in mystery. Ten thousand years ago Pangu vanished from the universe and has not been seen since. He vanished as quickly as he had arrived and since then everyone started competing to be the strongest. Still, no one has managed to claim the Overlord title since then; no one has been able to create a whole galaxy like he did. We are all limited to forming worlds and realms."

"Will it be possible for us to even meet Yanluo?" Hui Yue sighed, but deep inside he knew that he was a God. He had gone through and overcome so many trials and challenges before, and this was no different. He wouldn’t let anything stop him from resurrecting Wang Ju Long.

"We will come up with something." Huli agreed with a nod. In her heart, Hui Yue was the most important person to her, and thus she was filled with respect and gratitude towards Wang Ju Long for the sacrifice she made. Huli was a person who would repay any kindness given to her and the ones she had dear, therefore she was also as set on resurrecting Wang Ju Long as Hui Yue was.

"Do you know the way to the Netherworld?" Hui Yue asked with a sigh and Huli, looking around, nodded her head. "The Netherworld is the only world which can be seen from anywhere in the galaxy. It was created as the center of the universe by Pangu. Look for the brightest star in the sky and that is always the Netherworld!" She said looking around. Hui Yue did indeed see a star brighter than any others, and looking at it, it was clear that it was very very far away.

"Within your Universe Box, there should be a space shuttle. A small black ship which will make our travel many times quicker. It is fueled by Ancestral Worldpower from the galaxy itself."

Hearing this, Hui Yue entered the Universe Box. The universe within was simply endless. Even looking at the Divine Beast World, it was clear that there was still a vast amount of space left behind. From what it looked like, he would be able to store more than a hundred worlds the size of the Divine Beast World inside his storage space.

"You want the space shuttle?" The spirit asked, and Hui Yue nodded his head. With a harrumph and a wave of his hand a small miniature boat appeared in the hand of the spirit who handed it over to Hui Yue. "Infuse it with your Ancestral Worldpower and it will change size depending on your choice."

Deciding to say no more, the spirit vanished and returned to some unseen corner within the Universe Box, and Hui Yue returned his mind to his body. The shuttle was now within his hand as he quickly infused it with his ancestral worldpower. Afterwards, the shuttle rapidly grew until it became as large as a normal ship.

Entering the ship, he found that it was rather comfortable inside, and he quickly sat down on a couch next to the window. He felt that he could control the ship with his thoughts alone, and as he did, Huli quickly placed herself next to him. She had not been too clingy after the loss of Wang Ju Long, but now she could no longer hold back. Therefore she hugged him gently and rubbed her head against his shoulder.

Sighing Hui Yue shook his head. His heart was filled with pain and sadness, but he knew he had to stay strong. He had to resurrect his beloved Wang Ju Long, and although every moment felt painful, he knew that he would never give up. With a thought, they started moving towards the brightly shining star. The ship flew at its fastest speed, and although the distance was large, it was something that could be traversed in a few months.

Once a week Hui Yue would visit the Divine Beast World for a short period, but never longer than a day before he returned to the outside world, to the spaceship that was rushing towards the shining star far in the difference.

On the way, they came close to many worlds. Some were completely sheltered from the galaxy, covered by mist or smoke while others were clear as day and one could see the continents and seas within them.

Although Hui Yue was very tempted to visit these many different worlds, he never did. He was focused on getting to the Netherworld as soon as possible. For him, nothing mattered other than resurrecting Wang Ju Long.