Blue Phoenix

“Who gave you this?” Hui Yue asked the servant who had rushed to give it to the white-haired boy. Deng Tsang Ying’s voice was not something which Gao Yan, or anyone on the Rong faction side, could gain access too, especially not a sentence which was this important.

Looking at the memory stone, Hui Yue thoughtfully waited for an answer as he turned and played with it, seemingly deep in thought causing the servant to not dare open his mouth. Hui Yue sighed, and crushed the stone to pieces before he looked at the servant in front of him, urging him to answer.

“Young Master Deng Wu, sir.” The servant said with a resolute expression. Although the majority of the servants within Hui Yue’s mansion were all living comfortable lives, all of them felt slight dread when it came to interacting with the lord of the mansion.

Hui Yue was strong, which they were aware of by now. He also happened to be incredibly rich and had an erased background. Everything about him reeaked of mystery, and although he was a good friend of Gao Yan, these commoners felt an oppressive aura coming from him. He had a decisiveness which they were unfamiliar with, not to mention that he never spent too long interacting with others, but instead spent all his time training and cultivating.

Nodding his head Hui Yue dismissed the servant before he, with long steps, strode into the dry courtyard where he clapped his hands, gaining attention from everyone present.

The servants all looked at him with respect, some curtseyed while others bowed, yet the two magical beast guests both looked annoyed with the sudden interruption during their leisure-time, still none of them said anything as they saw the stern expression which their host was showing.

“We begin tomorrow,” Hui Yue said, as a grin appeared on his handsome face and a merciless light gleamed through his eyes, causing even the ferocious magical beasts within the room to feel a chill run down their spine. This slight feeling of fear was however quickly subdued by the sheer excitement which shone from their cat-like pupils.

….

The city of Riluo had long since changed from its bustling and positive atmosphere to one which seemed as though it was ruled by martial law. Citizens did not leave their homes, unless they had certain errands to run, and the streets had been filled with patrols from the two different factions.

Whenever these patrols were to stumble upon each other one could assume that skirmishes would appear, causing the sounds of fighting to ring throughout the deserted streets. The scenes of injured and even sometimes dead guards had become an every-day occurrence.

In spite of that, the following morning when Hui Yue and the three beast sisters left the mansion, not even one guard was seen on the deserted streets. An eerie silence had descended upon one of the great cities of the Taiyang Kingdom.

Although the common citizen was unable to tell exactly what was going on, every one of them knew that it was something which would change their city greatly in the future. It was something which they had no means of controlling, and this had caused them to stay inside this fateful day.

Rushing through the empty streets, Hui Yue noticed how every shop within the city was closed and a relieved smile appeared on his face, as he kept leading his small party towards the center square of the city itself. The square was the only place which had enough capacity to hold a large amount of cultivators in one go.

Getting closer and closer to the sSquare, Hui Yue saw how he ran into more and more guards from the two siding factions. Hui Yue had chosen neither faction to side with at this current point, and having done so resulted in both factions seeing him as an enemy, causing the young man to swear slightly.

Hui Yue had long since broken into the middle dantian making martial art attacks something incredibly simple for him, and as he quickly gave up on entering the center square. On his feet he started circulating his Qi through his meridians and quickly created four Qi Fan’s.

He instantly jumped onto one of these while the three behind him followed his lead and did the same with the fans in front of them. Hui Yue nodded in approval and the four fans soared into the sky where they shot forward with an amazing speed, bringing the group towards the center at an astonishing speed.

The closer the four of them got to the square, the more guards they saw and soon the streets were packed with guards. These happened to be from the Rong fFaction, which caused Hui Yue to nod his head slightly.

The closer Hui Yue got to the center the stronger the guards got, causing Hui Yue to raise a brow in surprise. Most tactics he knew of allowed for the weaker soldiers, or cultivators in this case, to become the cannon fodder, while the stronger would stay behind stepping in when the enemy had gotten tired. Yet here it was as though the guards were filled with eagerness to show their battle prowess, and the stronger they were. The closer to the center they flew the more intimidating the auras became.

Seeing Hui Yue and his three followers soar above the heads of these strong cultivators caused great shock in the experts’ hearts. Unlike the outer guards these stronger ones were knowledgeable about high ranked martial art skill, such as Qi Fan as it was the one the young lady of the Rong family used.

Secretly, Hui Yue was stunned when he saw the astonishing amount of cultivators who were gathered up in the streets. If there were already this many high ranked Practitioner cultivators in the smaller streets one could imagine how many experts each side controlled, and how fierce the battle would become in a short amount of time if they were to start fighting.

Hui Yue calmly flew above all these experts until finally the center square was within sight, and he had to suck in a breath of air. Thousands of cultivators were packed together on two sides of the square with a small area of ten metres, which was a no man’s land.

In front of one of these armies was Lord Rong Liang with Bu Huang on one side and Rong Ming and Rong Xing on the other. Behind him was all the leaders and elders of both his own family, and all the allied families which included the Ma family elders and Ma Kong. Gao Yan was standing together with the Ma family as he glared towards the opposing faction.

In front of the Wang and Deng faction was Deng Tsang Ying together with Wang Ju Long’s father while behind them were all their allied families along with Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long themselves.

No one said a word as they faced each other, yet both groups changed their expressions as they saw Hui Yue appearing, bringing with him three experts of some kind.

Looking closely, they quickly recognized Sha Yun due to her long tail which was impossible for her to hide, yet no one present were able to guess the identity of the other two cloaked individuals.

Although Deng Wu, Wang Ju Long, Gao Yan, the Rong twins, and Ma Kong knew that these two were the beast sisters, neither opened their mouth to say anything and instead they all had looks of utter shock on their faces.

The appearance of Hui Yue caused a slight hesitation amongst the elders of the various families, yet they had already reached such a state that they now could no longer step back. Should Hui Yue choose to side with one of the two factions then they could do nothing about it, they could only hope that he would side with them.

“Do you dare to go against the royal decree which made me the City Lord?” Lord Rong Liang’s voice suddenly boomed throughout the entire city, the ground trembled slightly and each word could be heard even in the poor slums.

“The Royal Family only replaced us as a temporary measure, otherwise why are they not here to support you? It is the wish of the Royal Family that we regain our rightful position as a family of the Great Hundred Names!” Deng Tsang Ying roared. Although his voice was loud and filled with the force of Wu Wei, it was still not as powerful as the voice which Lord Rong Liang had used moments before.

There was nothing that Rong Liang could say to the comment which Deng Tsang Ying had said, and he could only grit his teeth as he raised an arm into the air, dense golden energy swirled into his fist as he roared, “Do not let even one of them live!”

Hui Yue and his party had still not shown any signs of participating in the battle, yet as soon as Rong Liang roared out the order, everyone within the square rushed towards each other. Disdain was evident within Hui Yue’s eyes, as he had spent multiple years studying history, yet these esteemed experts were more like Vikings in a killing frenzy than highly intelligent cultivators.

Ignoring the waves of humans which had come to clash, Hui Yue strained his eyes and quickly looked at Deng Wu who was staring at him, a smile on his face as he winked and gently shook his head before he started fighting his way towards Rong Xing.

Wang Ju Long paid Hui Yue no attention at all as she had thrown herself into the fight and was currently fighting against some Master ranked cultivators from the Rong faction, fighting her way towards Rong Xing.

Sighing deeply, Hui Yue lifted his hand, “Keep them alive,” He said as he pointed at the Rong twins, Ma Kong, and Gao Yan. “Kill anyone who has ideas about touching them. I need to deal with a bigger problem.”

Having said that, Hui Yue agilely guided the four fans down to the ground and the three beast sisters moved to guard the people Hui Yue had told them about, while Hui Yue himself intercepted Deng Wu.

Cultivators were fighting everywhere. Some were fighting one on one, while others were groups of up to five people against each other. It was as though Hui Yue had arrived within a great battlefield of an ancient war, but the surroundings were not that of hillsides and fields, instead it was stone walls and wooden stalls.

Blood was spraying everywhere, severed limbs could be seen together with corpses and injured men. Some of the cultivators were using weapons, while others were relying solely on their own spiritual arts or martial art skills.

Hui Yue landed in the middle of an area where two cultivators were battling and with the flick of his hand, the Qi Fan beneath his feet vanished as the Qi travelled towards his hands and took the shape of a short sword.

Within Hui Yue’s other hand, a black dagger suddenly appeared and an ominous aura was felt coming from within.

Hui Yue made a swift twist of his hand and the condensed sword gleamed in the rising morning sun, as he accurately cut off the head of a guard clad in the Deng family’s colours.

Striding towards Deng Wu, Hui Yue sighed as multiple cultivators went his way, yet every single one of them met the same end, a quick beheading or a stab through their hearts. Hui Yue had not even needed to activate any of his elemental affinities so far, everyone who came at him on his way were simple lower dantian ranked cultivators.

Finally reaching Hui Yue, he stopped slightly as he looked at the friend in front of him.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Hui Yue asked seriously, his face was stern and it was obvious that this would be the only chance Deng Wu would have to back out, should he have a change of heart. However, Deng Wu thought the same as before, and instead a sad smile appeared on his face.

“I already spoke with Wang Ju Long about it and we both agree. There is no other way for us. In the end, the survival of our clans takes priority. Our personal feelings will have to come second.” Hui Yue nodded his head, a profound sadness appeared within his eyes, yet it was quickly subdued and instead replaced by a red gleam.

“Do not regret your decision later,” Hui Yue said, his entire being changing from that of a calm and collected young man into a monstrous killer with a baleful aura.