Blue Phoenix

As soon as the small ball of energy entered his body, he felt an indescribable feeling of power overwhelm him. His entire body went rigid, and something deep within his soul started resonating with this ball of energy.

With each pulsation, it became smaller, but the ripples of energy entered deep into his core where his consciousness was greedily absorbing everything. One ripple after another was absorbed, and soon there was no more energy left as the small ball of energy had long since been absorbed by Hui Yue.

The soul of Hui Yue had not changed; it had not become translucent or anything of the sort and by looking at his consciousness nothing on the surface seemed to have changed, but Hui Yue could feel a distinct difference.

Just recently he had learned how to use his consciousness to scan the surrounding area to feel other people's movements, hear their words, and get a general feel of their emotions. The range of which he was capable of sensing these things had now increased from a kilometer to ten kilometers from just consuming one soul!

Seeing that Hui Yue's body had turned rigid, Huli was worried. She knew that Hui Yue had consumed souls before, but because of his connection with Lan Feng he had always had a strong soul so consuming the souls of experts that had still not become Gods was in no way a difficult task for him. Consuming souls like that had not even required refinement as they could easily be broken down by his mental energy

As soon as one became a God, one's body and soul transformed. The body and soul were now two different things, and even without a physical body, the soul would be able to continue living for a short while, and being able to remake a body from Ancestral Worldpower or other substances depended on one’s strength. This also meant that if you truly wished to kill a God, you had to shatter their soul. Another option was to enslave their soul or if the soul was incapable of creating a body in due time, allow for it to return to Diyu where it would be reincarnated.

Most Gods had their soul shattered which meant that their soul was sent to the yellow river where He Bo, the Spirit of the River, would guard them. Only the ruler of hell was capable of entering the yellow river to resurrect shattered souls.

Hui Yue's body was no longer rigid. Instead, it had turned back to normal, and a smile spread on his lips. He had benefitted greatly from consuming this soul, but now that the soul had become pure energy, the soul would not enter the circle of reincarnation.

Opening his eyes, Hui Yue saw Huli sitting only an inch away from him. Her eyes were filled with worry as she observed whether or not he would pull through, and when she saw him smiling at her, she heaved a heavy sigh of relief and threw herself into his arms.

"That was scary," she said with a trembling voice. "I can handle getting attacked by bandits. I can deal with people ambushing us after we have been at the auction house, and I can deal with the people who wish to kill you because I can help you fight them," she continued, "but when you consume a soul, it all depends on the strength of your own soul. The stronger the soul you try to consume, the harder it is to fully erase the memories and turn it into pure energy. Even when remnant memories remain, you will have to fight it, and if you lose the soul will take over your body."

"At least you have the Chaos Cauldron to refine the souls with. If you had to refine them with your own soul, you would have to fight the memories and erase them one after another. Although your soul is strong, you just became a God. When you fight Gods who have been at this level for thousands of years or more, who have nurtured their souls for a long time, then you will most definitely lose. The fact you managed to contain the soul within your mind for as long as you did is already an astonishing achievement."

Hui Yue, who refused to never again be overconfident, nodded his head solemnly. "I will be careful in the future," he promised as he thought about just how weak he was. The only reason he was able to kill other Gods was because of the memories he had inherited from his previous lives. Without them, he would not have been able to master a complete dao as quickly as he did, without them he would have died many times over already.

Although this strength was considered Hui Yue's own strength, he also understood that he needed to improve his personal strength. He did not have much time left, and even Lan Feng, who was within Hui Yue, had managed to master more of the dao of flame and the dao of ignition than Hui Yue had managed with the dao of inferno.

"Don't be too discouraged," Huli smiled as she saw Hui Yue's depressed expression, "you cannot compare yourself with the blue phoenix. He is the son of the Vermilion Bird, and his talent is ranked among the best one can have. Not to mention he has an innate talent comprehending all the daos of fire. If he were slower than you, then I would be ashamed on behalf of his father."

Huli's words were incredibly direct and rather harsh, but Hui Yue understood that she meant every word, and he felt slightly better. He smiled at her and cracked his neck as he looked around.

"Seal the room; we need to speak," he finally said. Huli, who had been waiting for him, allowed for the Ancestral Worldpower within her body to flow out from her and lay itself like a layer of armor around the entire room.

"It is amazing that you are capable of using the dao of sound to such a degree," Hui Yue sighed in admiration but his words just caused Huli to smile, what she was truly feeling, no one knew.

"When we were in the restaurant a memory of mine forcefully broke through the barrier that usually keeps them closed off from my consciousness. This was very different from how my previous memories have opened before; never before has one forcefully tore apart the barrier."

Hearing this, Huli's appearance was shocked for a moment and then she smiled a very gentle, loving smile at Hui Yue.

"Tell me about this memory," Huli asked gently, and her voice contained an uncertain but also a strange hope which Hui Yue did not understand. After thinking about it for a moment, he just shook his head and closed his eyes.

After closing his eyes, he allowed his consciousness to enter the small cave where the black figure was waiting for him. Reaching out his arm he touched the memory, and suddenly the black figure with white spots started moving. It merged with Hui Yue, and he felt how his entire body started to greedily absorb the Ancestral Worldpower around him. He was like a whirlwind, sucking in everything around him, not leaving even the smallest bit of energy behind.

The moment Hui Yue touched the memory he found that he could feel more than one dao around him opening up.

Hui Yue had never before touched a memory after becoming a God, and he was unaware of exactly what would happen. Previously the energy would envelop him and slowly appear at the moments when he needed them, but now he could feel the daos surrounding him.

Right now what he could feel was a dao he did not understand; a dao which was so vast that it felt as if his mind was exploding!

His eyes opened wide as he acutely felt one dao surrounding him. This dao was so strong that it was filled with thousands of small daos. They shone like thousands of stars in the night sky, and he could instantly feel that this was a major dao or even a heavenly dao!

Hui Yue could not tell exactly what it was, but he could feel its power. He could feel the many thousands of daos that were shining around him, and he could not help but feel astonished.

To test, Hui Yue retreated from the black figure and instantly the daos he had felt vanished from his senses. He could no longer feel even the slightest breeze of them.

Puzzled, Hui Yue returned to the cave and once more touched the memory, and suddenly the many sparkling daos appeared once more.

Sensing the many daos surrounding him, Hui Yue closed his eyes again and focused solely on the dao. Countless daos had opened up around him, but two were the strongest. They were so dazzling that Hui Yue felt blinded by their strength, and it was clear that these were major daos and most likely complete ones at that.

"I wonder just how strong I was back then," Hui Yue could not help but muse as this was without a doubt the strongest memory he had ever sensed.

'This memory is definitely stronger than any others you have awakened,' Lan Feng's voice appeared next to Hui Yue's consciousness. 'This strength is not something you can use just yet, but if you meditate enough on the daos that this memory knows, then I am sure that one day you will comprehend them. Even if you cannot comprehend these daos that are surrounding you just yet, with time, it will come.'

Hui Yue nodded his head as it made sense. For now, this memory was of little use to him, but as time went on the more he contemplated the different daos, the stronger he would become.

Hui Yue left the area where the many daos were opened up to him and returned his consciousness to the core of his body. Afterwards, he opened his eyes and saw Huli looking at him with great expectations.

Looking at her, he smiled. He never really knew what to do with her, but after leaving the Divine Beast World, they had grown increasingly close. Now Hui Yue and Huli were very close, and he could not imagine the universe without her. Deep within his mind, a minute tremble ran through the memory, and although they did not usually move on their own, this memory reached out and touched Hui Yue's consciousness causing the many daos to appear once more out of nowhere.

Since Hui Yue was not currently focused on comprehending these daos, or on understanding the memory, he was taken by surprise by this sudden attempt to overtake his mind. Because of his current state, he suddenly saw things much clearer than before.

In front of him, the entire vast universe expanded. He saw the galaxy he was currently within, and he saw the many stars that were the countless small worlds, all of which were placed together in the tiny galaxy. But this vision expanded even further. He saw galaxy after galaxy next to one another; he saw the infinite universe where there were worlds countless times bigger than he had ever imagined possible. He saw worlds so small that there could be thousands of them placed within the Divine Beast World, and he saw so many stars everywhere until his eyes landed on a figure that was traveling through this unending universe.

The traveler seemed middle-aged. He was wearing rags as clothes and cosmic dust covered his body. His eyes were closed and his features normal. He was floating through space with his arms behind his back, but just as he felt Hui Yue's glance he turned around and it appeared as if he was looking through the infinite space to gaze straight at Hui Yue. His closed eyes opened and a blazing inferno seemed to shoot out from within.

With a scream and piercing pain in his mind, Hui Yue and the memory got forcefully separated from one another. He tumbled to the floor with his arms cradling his head as he screamed out in pain.

His entire mind burned, and his consciousness felt like it was being set aflame, but with each flame, the essence of the dao was spreading in his mind. The dao of inferno that he had spent so long meditating and thinking about was now opening up to him; he was piecing together aspects he had barely touched before and was realizing how the dao was merged as a whole at a much swifter rate than ever before.

"This is my gift to you. To see a youngster who has started upon the dao of space is truly rare," the middle-aged man mumbled, but no one could hear what he said. Hui Yue had long since lost the ability to observe this elder.