Blue Phoenix

Hui Yue was the Crowned Sovereign of the Divine Beast World. He was one with the world, and the world was one with him. He could disappear and reappear anywhere he wished within this world; he could teleport to whichever location he had in mind.

He knew every inch of land as if it were a part of his own body and this was why he could travel anywhere he wished.

After saying goodbye to his family, Hui Yue instantly moved to the Siban capital. The capital was no longer a place full of humans, but looking around Hui Yue was surprised to see that it was not just filled with beasts either. As he arrived at the capital city, he saw humans and beasts moving together. Some were engaged in business while others were just walking down the street.

Hui Yue had suddenly appeared in the middle of a marketplace, yet nobody around him seemed to notice. He quickly became one with the crowd as he moved towards the palace where the emperor lived.

As for who ended up becoming the emperor, Hui Yue did not know, and he did not really care either. What he did care about was where Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng were.

It took him a lot of deliberation, but now he knew that he needed to speak with Li Xiaopeng. He had vanished when Li Meilin was turned into a crusader and lost her life.

It was clear that the enmity between Li Xiaopeng and An He was massive. Hui Yue was in the position where he needed as much support as he could get in the war against An He, and gaining Li Xiaopeng as an ally, who was known as one of the strongest Saints, would be beneficial to him.

Another thing which Hui Yue wanted to ask about was whether or not these experts knew of Xu Piao. He had vanished without a trace, and Hui Yue could not help but worry about his good friend. Was he traveling in the Divine Beast World? Or had he managed to break through and become a God on his own? He did not know, and he could not help but worry.

Why had he not left a message? It was clear that something had happened, but as long as Hui Yue did not know what exactly was going on, he could do nothing.

Striding towards the palace, Hui Yue was happy to see humans and beasts peacefully coexisting. Here beasts were not enslaved, the only ones who entered contracts were beasts and humans who treated each other like family rather than slaves.

He soon reached the palace only to be blocked by a set of guards. Seeing this, he shook his head and took a step. With that one step, he managed to bypass them as simply as one would pass people while walking in the park.

At first, the guards were astonished by Hui Yue's movement technique but moments after their faces showed traces of fear and worry.

Was this an incredibly strong expert who had appeared to execute the emperor? They did not know, but what they did know was that they would not allow him to act as he pleased and one of the guards took out a horn and sounded the alarm.

"What a pain," Hui Yue sighed to himself and allowed for his consciousness to envelop the entire palace. With but a thought every single person within the palace collapsed to the ground. Their bodies no longer responded to their beckoning, and their minds slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

Hui Yue continued to leisurely walk through the palace, this time with no one to interrupt him and he soon reached the throne room.

Hui Yue allowed for a strand of his consciousness to awaken the emperor, and he was surprised when he saw who had been elected as one of the highest ranked beasts within the Divine Beast World.

This expert was Bo Jinyan. An incredibly smart expert whom Hui Yue had met during their conquest of Siban Empire. He was not one of the strongest experts around, but he had an intellect far above his peers. Even other Saints had to give him credit for his fast reactions and ability to adapt to any situation.

Behind him in the shadows were four Saint ranked beasts, of these, Hui Yue recognized one as they had fought side by side in the beast war years before. The other three were beasts which had reached the Saint rank just recently.

Bo Jinyan, waking up, was instantly alert. He looked around, and his expression turned grim until his eyes landed on Hui Yue. It was clear to see his expression turned from grave to relieved.

"Sorry for being rough," Hui Yue apologized. "But your guards were about to make a mess out of things. All that I could do was to put them all to sleep. Though don’t worry none of them will be wounded or suffer any negative effects. They are all just sleeping."

Hui Yue reassured the emperor that his subjects were not wounded, and the atmosphere within the throne room became much more relaxed.

"Milord, I doubt you would appear here without a purpose," the emperor said with a slight smile on his face. "What can I do for you?"

Although he was the emperor, Bo Jinyan was not conceited. He knew his own strength, and although he did not know the full extent of Hui Yue's strength, he had never before heard about someone who was capable of putting an entire palace to sleep with nothing more than their mind. This proved that Hui Yue was now many times stronger than he had been during the war. He was simply too monstrous of a talent. The emperor did not wish to become enemies with such a person. Not to mention that without this person he would not have become the emperor in the first place.

"I need to meet up with Wan Qiao, and I need information on two Saints: Xu Piao and Li Xiaopeng." Hui Yue asked straightforwardly. There was simply no need for formalities nor did he have the time for that.

Hearing this, Bo Jinyan frowned. "Wan Qiao is in Shenyuan, at her own territory. She hasn't really left since we won the war for the Siban Empire. Seeing her detached attitude, one would never have guessed that she was the one who wanted to start this war."

"Li Xiaopeng and this Xu Piao as for them... Sadly, I am unable to help you." The emperor shook his head regretfully. "Li Xiaopeng vanished after the last battle in the capital. He completely disappeared without leaving even a trace behind. He never returned for vengeance or anything else. Xu Piao I never even heard about before, sorry."

Hui Yue nodded his head. He had not expected too much, but asking was still worth a try. At least he now knew where Wan Qiao was. He quickly thanked the emperor for his time. "The palace will awaken as soon as I'm gone," Hui Yue said with a smile and moments after he had vanished into thin air becoming nothing but an afterimage.

As the image turned blurry and disappeared, every expert within the palace slowly started to wake up, and chaos erupted. The guards who had blown the horn to sound the alarm was certain that an assassin had been the cause of everything, but whenever they tried to describe the appearance of this assassin, they could not remember what he looked like.

Soon it was determined that a deity had visited the palace to bless the coexisting relationship between beasts and humans. Only Bo Jinyan knew the truth, and he was not going to tell anyone about their conversation. Neither was he going to go against the common belief that it was a deity as he, in his heart, reached the conclusion that Hui Yue had become a God long ago. Only a God could display the level of power Hui Yue showed off.

As soon as Hui Yue vanished, he reappeared within a dense jungle just outside a major city. Here no humans were present, but beasts in all shapes and sizes moved through the dense forest towards the city.

Some of these beasts had a human shape, some of them had their beast shape, but all of them behaved exceptionally well.

The city was built many thousands of years ago, but even now it was a stronghold within this chaotic region of beasts.

At the top of the towers, there was a flag with a golden eagle fluttering in the wind to signify that Wan Qiao was present within the city. The flag both warned others that they could not come here to cause trouble, but also alerted other experts who wished to challenge Wan Qiao that she was already present and that they could challenge her at any time.

Hui Yue was not here to challenge Wan Qiao, but he needed to chat with her, and seeing the flags swaying in the wind, he smiled.

Moving through the city gates, he was astonished to see that there was, in fact, a few humans who were traveling on the streets; however, all these humans were at the Saint rank, and these humans were constantly stared at with a great mix of emotions from the surrounding beasts. Hui Yue felt excited to know that the always closed off Shenyuan had started to open up for humans to enter, that the humans and beasts were going to coexist as they did back in the day when the Divine Beast Gods were still the Crowned Sovereigns.

Hui Yue felt nostalgic as he once more moved through the streets of Shenyuan, but he was in a hurry to finish his task so that he could return to the Netherworld and increase his strength. He already had a limited amount of time to train, and for him to waste a full day on visiting his family and friends, although it was not really wasted, he still felt guilty.

Feeling like this, Hui Yue headed straight for the biggest mansion in town and entered. There were no guards present, and Hui Yue scanned the area with his consciousness and found that Wan Qiao was seated in her small office on the third floor.

Wan Qiao was completely unaware of Hui Yue's scan; no Saint would ever be able to sense a God’s consciousness, but she felt rather uncomfortable that day. It was as if she was waiting for something to happen without knowing what that something was. It troubled her to no end, and no matter how much she tried to focus on the work she was doing, she was completely incapable of staying on task. Within her was a restlessness which kept growing.

Hui Yue moved towards the office and wondered why everyone he came across were normal mortals. They were beasts in human form who did not cultivate, but which had human blood in their ancestry somewhere to give them the intelligence equal to the intelligence of a normal human.

Although Wan Qiao was strong, was it natural for her to have no guards by her side? Was it natural for her to be all alone? Once again, Hui Yue started to feel as if something were wrong as if things were not as simple as they seemed.

Still, he could not place his hand on it, but he was now alert as he slowly moved forward towards Wan Qiao's side. Although he was supposed to be the only God left in the Divine Beast World, he was not willing to risk anything. He had to stay alert in case something happened. Never again would he be full of himself, never again would he be overconfident in his powers just because he was a God.