Blue Phoenix

Narrowing his eyes, Hui Yue watched how Deng Wu carelessly brushed the dust off his robe, as he was completely unharmed. The price he had paid to stay unharmed was, however, not something he was thrilled about.

At first, Deng Wu had summoned all the souls he had inscribed into that specific leather inscription, yet now one was utterly destroyed with no means of resurrection, while the other seven were haggard, their speed clearly reduced along with their illusionary bodies which had become much more transparent.

Deng Wu looked at the seven shadows as though they were trash, before he waved his hand and they completely dissipated causing Hui Yue to feel great shock. For now, he had no intention of landing on the ground in range of the shadows, yet now that Deng Wu had removed them, the handsome man should be at a disadvantage, yet he still stood there, smiling slyly as he looked at Hui Yue. Clearly taunting the younger to once more try out his attacks.

Hui Yue snorted as he looked at his friend. This was no longer a mere match for pointers, but likely an exchange which had their lives on the line. There was no way that Hui Yue would play fair.

Standing on the Qi Fan, Hui Yue once more summoned fire orbs which appeared behind the younger boy, yet that was not his only plan. Circulating the yellow earthen flame within, Hui Yue also prepared an array of earthen spears, yet he was supressing the element as he could not afford to warn Deng Wu by showing the mixed shield surrounding him.

Hui Yue was also still supressing the red mist as he only used a tiny fraction, but even so he felt how he wished to kill. The previous attack had almost caused Hui Yue to lose control of the red mist. Seeing that Deng Wu was unharmed, Hui Yue could no longer afford to hold back as his killing intent boiled within, his eyes no longer blue but red and red steam rose from his pale skin.

Seeing this, the sly smile on Deng Wu’s face finally vanished, as a serious expression took over and another four inscription patterns were ignited, producing four times as many shadows as he had done the first time.

Cursing, Hui Yue looked at the twenty-eight shadows below and with but a thought he ordered the ground to transform into earthen spears which was aimed at the shadows, causing half of them to be shattered to pieces. Although they were shadows they were still able to be damaged by the attacks which had fused with spiritual energy, and Hui Yue could not afford to be cheap on his energy. He also had the secret weapon known as Lan Feng.

The last many months, Lan Feng had been thrilled due to the fact that Hui Yue had broken into the realms of the middle dantian, as it allowed for him to finally refine Wu Wei.

Wu Wei was the golden energy, the purest energy within this world, yet Lan Feng refused to explain it yet as Hui Yue had a long way to go before he reached that level. The only thing he knew was that it was combined of Yin and Yang energy, which together was needed to create a balance between the energy. When Yin and Yang had been perfectly balanced, Wu Wei could then be refined.

This was, however, was nothing which Hui Yue needed to focus on just yet, and instead his eyes narrowed as he watched how half of the shadows were killed or seriously injured by the Earthen Spikes, causing them to become transparent. The sneak attack had paid off.

Seeing this, Deng Wu could not help but growl slightly. Creating soul inscriptions such as this one was no easy task, and to see half of them being reduced to such a state that quickly made Deng Wu slightly hesitant to summon more, but a resolute expression appeared on his face as he withdrew yet another batch of inscriptions from which he summoned more shadows.

Instead of waiting for Hui Yue to land on the ground, Deng Wu spread his hands and the shadows started attacking other cultivators at random, corroding them and slowly creating a small company of soldiers only following the orders of their creator.

The shadows did not care whether or not they attacked the guards from the Rong faction or the ones from the Deng and Wang faction, any guard which came into range of the shadows would become corroded and end up as a skeleton soldier, never again would they regain their consciousness.

These unfortunate guards were sent directly to the netherworld, their bones now belonging to souls who had no way to even wish for such luxury.

Looking at the decisiveness with which Deng Wu allowed for his shadows to attack random cultivators which got in their way, showed that he would spared no mercy for neither friend nor foe. He seemed willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of emerging as the winner.

It has to be stated that the cultivators which were close to Hui Yue and Deng Wu were all mercenaries who had been purchased by the two factions in an attempt to bolster their numbers. These mercenaries had no loyalty towards either of the factions as they only cared about their salary.

The corrosion of these mercenary guards took less than five minutes. Still during that time, Hui Yue had not been idling, instead he had created one fire orb after another, merging them together into a large orb.

The Fire Orb was not the only thing Hui Yue had worked on, also he willed the Fire Orb to change into a blazing blanket, which shrouded the sky and by using his affinity with Earth he managed to create molten rock which fell from the sky raining down on the entire ground which was covered by the blazing blanket.

Harrowing screams could be heard as undead and cultivators alike melted as soon as they were struck by the large chunks of magma which were descending from the sky.

Undead after undead succumbed to death which shattered their souls, forever taking away their ability to be reborn. Despite this there was still no fear to be seen on Deng Wu’s face, as he flicked his hand and withdrew another set of inscriptions from his storage stone.

Incantations were mumbled and within few seconds a silvery shield was defending the young man. The sight caused Hui Yue to sneer, as he once more moved further away from Deng Wu.

Just like Deng Wu, Hui Yue was not seriously worried about his survival at the current level of exchanges the two of them had been having. Although Deng Wu was showing of some shocking abilities and specialities it was obvious that, although the undead was a phenomenal force, they were in no way able to threaten Hui Yue as he was currently hanging in the air, far out of reach of any undead. Deng Wu on the other hand was at most inconvenienced by the loss of souls, yet he had prepared well for the battle as he had brought inscriptions of all kinds.

The battle was raging all over Riluo City. Some of the mercenaries had given up on the fights to plunder the corpses, while others were trying to drag back their fallen allies to a secure area, while others still were battling, risking their lives for the cause which they believed in.

The battle at the centre was getting frantic, almost desperate as the six elders and family leaders used all the power they had within their ability, throwing one skill after another at the opposing party.

Wang Ju Long had lead a group from the younger generation to salvage corpses, while Rong Xing was still fighting side by side with the three beast sisters. They all had a perfect view of Hui Yue and Deng Wu’s battle, yet still enough distance to be safe.

There was nothing Sha Yun wanted more than to assist Hui Yue, but she was perfectly well aware that the order she had been given previously was one she could not go against, and she gritted her teeth as she turned around, bloodlust evident in her eyes as her tail swiped through the air as a long deadly whip, severing bodies everywhere it went.

Hui Yue slowly withdrew towards the center of the square where the battle was the most troublesome, and Deng Wu followed on the ground, his eyes set on Hui Yue.

Both young men considered the other one of their best friends, so to see them so vigilant against each other was something which no one had expected. Heavy spiritual energy suddenly undulated from Hui Yue’s fist, as he drew Black Blood and infused the incredible weapon with his spiritual energy to strengthen its speed, attack power, and sharpness.

Finally, as he had reached the right position within the center square a smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face, as he used Velocity Flow allowing for beautiful wings to appear on his ankles, and at the same time creating a clone of himself, holding a copy of Black Blood.

Moving around within the energy ripples which came from the six esteemed experts of Riluo City was difficult, and as soon as Deng Wu had arrived together with his undead, Hui Yue had already jumped from his Qi Fan and was instead moving around, agile as a cheetah while wielding his dagger, slicing the head of one skeleton after another.

Rattling bones followed by the same agonizing scream that Hui Yue had heard all morning, and one soul after another dissipated, turned back into energy from the heavens and the earth. Although Hui Yue felt sorry for these poor souls, he had no intention of showing mercy as he decisively chopped off one head after another.

As Hui Yue and the copy were rushing through Deng Wu’s soldiers, Hui Yue felt how his killing intent was growing larger and larger. The world started to appear red and energy was bursting out from within his dantian cave, red steam billowing out from underneath his skin. His oppressive aura grew larger and larger, in turn causing Hui Yue’s strength to grow at a rapid pace and the undead to slow down noticeably.

Deng Wu gritted his teeth, as he saw how Hui Yue was taking control over his undead and with slight hesitation he pick up yet another inscription which required four incantations to activate.

As soon as it had activated the sky turned black and rain started to fall onto the bloody streets only to be followed by lightning and thunder. Deng Wu’s face was incredibly pale as he had used the majority of his spiritual energy on activating the last inscription which he had.

As the wind picked up, all the bodies, whole and broken alike, started to move as though they were being controlled by someone and without a soul these bodies all started moving towards one specific place, towards Deng Wu and Hui Yue who were currently fighting at the center square.

The bodies were not moving at any particular quick speed, nor were they moving slowly. Each corpse had the same cultivation level as it had had when it had been alive, yet all of them seemed as though they possessed a part of Deng Wu’s will. A will to battle Hui Yue.

Looking at the incredible army which was headed his way, Hui Yue felt danger for the first time of the day, and he instantly flew into the air on his Qi Fan. Soon he figured out that these bodies were able to fight to their best ability and some of them were even Grandmaster ranked.

“Oh Sh*t,” Hui Yue exclaimed, as more and more corpses made their way to him, his brain working in its highest capacity to come up with a way to solve this problem.

‘You do know I am available at any time,” Lan Feng chuckled, as his eyes gleamed with excitement but in spite of that, Hui Yue still shook his head, the bloodlust taking over completely, as he roared out loud and charged towards the closest corpse cultivator.