Dungeons of the Divine (Blue Phoenix Book 2)

by Tinalynge

  Killing was in no way frowned upon. If one were to die, then that would be due to their own lack of ability. That was the first thing which Hui Yue noticed after watching the different ongoing battles.

  While one of the battles was a beautiful display of techniques, the other three were clearly desperate life and death battles filled with blood and gore. The teams were all evenly matched in their cultivation base and actual strength, and this was why they were so fierce. Using stronger and stronger attacks they were being received and answered with similar strength, causing both sides to shed blood and push their limits.

  While these teams were constantly pushing their boundaries, it would only take one small mistake to tilt the battle in their opponent's favor, but their focus was pushed to the limit as the battle went on.

  No judge would end it before one side had either died or forfeited, and these prolonged battles caused a gruesome scene to appear before the audience as the blood rushed down their bodies, leaving behind puddles on the ground. Watching these battles, Hui Yue instantly knew that a majority of the fighters would not survive the next couple of days.

  Having seen the battles for a bit, Hui Yue turned around and moved towards the arena in the middle. He suddenly understood that this tournament was no where as gentle as the ones he had experienced before. Death was a very common occurrence.

  Making it to the arena, four guards pushed out their chest as they cut off the way for Hui Yue, glaring at him with discontent in their eyes.

  “No one allowed to enter.” One of the guards said with a booming voice, filled with spiritual energy. Spit flying every which way as he opened his mouth.

  Looking at the man, Hui Yue was greatly irritated. Without waiting even a second, his hand shot up, stopping right in front of the guard’s eyes , shoving his golden emblem right into the face of the guard who had been spilling his saliva all over the shorter, but clearly stronger man.

  At first, the guard was taken aback by the speed with which Hui Yue had reacted, however his surprise quickly turned to fear as he noticed the golden medallion which was in front of his eyes. His entire being changed from arrogant to underwhelming.

  Bowing down and stuttering, the guard no longer dared to show any arrogance and Hui Yue rolled his eyes in disgust.

  “Milord, I am sorry. Please forgive me! I had eyes but could not see!” The guard was almost kowtowing on the ground, but Hui Yue paid him no heed, and instead stepped by him not even wasting one glance at the young man.

  Had these guards not belonged to the Mercenary Guild, and by extension to Xu Piao, then Hui Yue would have eradicated them long ago. Saliva was still visible on his cloak, and Hui Yue’s ice blue eyes were filled with annoyance as he found a small corner and while surrounded by his friends he replaced the cloak he had been wearing.

  Upon removing his cloak, they all noticed his annoyance and a shiver ran through their spines as they all realized that their good friend was likely to use the tournament as a way to let go of his anger. As to why he had not touched the guard, they all knew that Xie Lan played a major role in that.

  Xie Lan herself was also aware that she had been given quite a bit of face on behalf of the Mercenary Guild and she, herself, had been close to killing the guard as punishment for treating her master’s valued guests horribly.

  In the end they all left the man alive and the guard knew that his neck had been saved by a hair’s breadth, causing him to suddenly change his character and show great hospitality to everyone who approached him.

  Having changed his cloak, Hui Yue looked around the area and his mood greatly improved as he saw that not many people had entered the arena just yet.

  The arena reminded him of the amphitheaters he had seen in his old world, except this stage was

  square instead of circular. All seating was placed above, making it possible to look down on the stage where the groups would have to fight.

  Currently no fighters were on the stage just yet, however the sun was about to rise to the middle of the sky and the audience would soon be allowed entrance to the seating areas.

  Looking around, Hui Yue saw four groups of mercenaries, one had only five members like Hui Yue’s. The others had between six to ten members. Looking at these groups, Hui Yue knew that he could not take it easy.

  The first group, the one with only five members like Hui Yue’s group, were all wearing normal clothing, however their faces were hidden beneath masks not even allowing for their eye colours to be seen.

  The group’s faces were completely hidden beneath their masks, just like Hui Yue’s was hidden beneath his cloak, the cloaked and masked groups staring at each other, the tension within the arena rising.

  Clap, clap, clap, clap. The sound of clapping suddenly rang throughout the arena as one group with seven members stepped forward. All of their eyes were fastened on the black cloaked men, with the majority of the eyes on Hui Yue.

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the newcomers in town,” The leading man said with mockery present in his voice. “When we came back from the tunnels we heard that a mysterious group appeared in town. Who would have known that you actually had the skill to enter this arena right away.”

  The attention of every group within the arena was now focused on Hui Yue and his friends, eagerly waiting to see which way they would react.

  Most of these groups already knew each other, however this new group was unknown to them all and any information they could gain would greatly help. The biggest help would be to see their cultivation base, yet none of them truly believed that it would be revealed now.

  And just as expected, Hui Yue completely ignored the group of seven. Instead he walked right past him, showing no attention to the provocation whatsoever.

  Anger flashed on the face of the leading man and his hand shot toward Hui Yue’s cloak, a menacing expression on his face.

  All the mercenaries within the arena unconsciously moved to the front of their seats as they excitedly looked at Hui Yue, expecting his features to be revealed any moment now by the hand, however that never happened.

  Instead a blood curdling scream was heard, as the hand fell to the ground cleanly cut off at the wrist. Veins were popping in the man’s forehead of the man, his other hand was holding the stump which was his wrist, and constant screams could be heard.

  “Sorry about that,” A joking voice said at the back as a middle aged man moved to the front. With a gesture another person appeared and green light shone in his hands as they attempted to reconnect the hand to the severed wrist.

  Although the wounded man had no idea what happened, this man had seen it. The moment the hand touched Hui Yue’s cloak, a slithering snake tail appeared from behind, severing it with one whip-lash before the tail once more hid itself beneath one of the cloaks.

  It was obvious that at least one of the people in Hui Yue’s group was not human and based on the sudden movement, the group was at least middle dantian experts.

  To enter the arena one needed to have a silver emblem from the Mercenary Guild, however this was not something which one would show others unless needed, as everyone wished to keep information about them as hidden as possible. The more mysterious one was, the more likely one

  was to survive.

  Having severed a hand, no one else tried to stop Hui Yue and his friends as they moved past the group towards a comfortable seating area where they placed themselves, looking at the surroundings.

  After a few more moments other groups entered the arena and eventually nine groups had arrived. Hui Yue watched curiously as each group seated themselves in the audience in a random fashion. So far he had no idea which group he would be fighting against.

  After the final group of mercenaries arrived within the arena an elderly man suddenly walked up on the stage, standing in the middle and saying absolutely nothing as he waited for the mercenary groups to grow quiet and allow him to speak.

  Looking at the man in the middle, Hui Yue felt a certain amount of
worry. Not only did he have a dragon emblem on his clothes, giving the white-haired boy the impression that he might be from the Dragon Corps, the most dangerous feeling came from the aura around the man. He was clearly no weaker than Xu Piao or Xie Lan.

  “Excuse me for interrupting,” The man said, his voice low but somehow it reached every single corner of the arena, quieting the few people who had not gone quiet before.

  “The tournament will be starting soon, I need to request the first group enter the stage. The rest of you, please make your way towards the first row and stay seated until it is your turn to fight.”

  Having said that, the many mercenaries did as they were told. Hui Yue and his group were the first group up to fight as they were the only group which had a golden emblem, however none of the participating members knew this.

  Moving to the ground, a smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he saw that the group they were up against were the ones who had previously tried to stop them.

  The white-haired young man was filled with annoyance and hate from the events that happened throughout the day. First was the overcrowded city, second was the annoying guard, and third was the group of mercenaries which attempted to block him way.

  Finally it was possible for him to let go. Hui Yue could finally start killing.

  What never occurred to the young man was why he suddenly felt such a strong killing intent, even when he did not feel any influence from the red mist within his dantian cave.

  Chapter 31 – Let the Fight Commence

  Laughter rung through the air as the middleaged man from before strode towards the stage closely followed by the rest of his entourage. Throwing a glance filled with pity at the team, Hui Yue saw that the man who had his hand cut off by Sha Yun managed to reattach it.

  Seeing how he reattached it, Hui Yue could instantly tell that the next thing the man would lose was not going to be his hand, but most likely his head. Sha Yun hated when her work was undone.

  Usually, a group battle such as this relied a lot on teamwork, however Hui Yue and his entourage had never truly tried battling the way they were expected to today, instead they usually did their own thing and did their best to not get in each other's way.

  Having made their way to the stage, the gates suddenly opened and the audience was flowed through the entrances, ready to sit at their reserved seats and see the battles they had paid a lot to see.

  The first row was filled with mercenaries and everyone’s eyes were glued at both Hui Yue’s team and the opposing team, both were allowed to walk around as they wished as long as no fighting commenced.

  Standing in a corner, Hui Yue gazed upon the many people who found their places before he finally opened his mouth saying, “We aren’t really used to battles like this,” A sigh escaping his lips as he once more glanced at their opponents.

  “It’s not going to help us if we try to fight the way the others do,” He continued while analyzing their options. “What I suggest is picking one each and just getting rid of that person. If we have problems call out.”

  “As if we will need help,” Deng Wu laughed with a low voice, looking at their opposition with disdain. Even Wang Ju Long nodded her head, agreeing with the loud boy. By her side Little Poppy was waiting patiently for the battle to begin, poison dripping from the wolf-fanged thorns.

  Hearing the plan, Xie Lan’s face twisted in surprise. There was no strategy, no dual attacks between the group members, not even an emergency spell formation. It seemed as though they would spending more time competing with each other than assisting the ones in trouble.

  “Oh yea, Xie Lan,” Hui Yue suddenly seemed to have remembered the older woman, and she prepared to be told to get rid of the leader, however she was shocked when she heard his next words, “Although you’re much stronger than us, scale down your attacks. We don’t want everyone to know that we have a King ranked specialist in our team.”

  Having said that, Hui Yue paid no more attention to Xie Lan and the woman was left alone, stunned by the conflicting personalities from the leader of this group. She truly did not understand these weird people, but somehow a smile appeared on her face as she looked forward to the battle.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” The man in the middle once more spoke and as soon as the first word left his lips, everyone quieted down. Their eyes were glued to the stage and expressions of excitement appeared on their faces, bloodthirst appearing in the arena.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” The man repeated, this time with a smile on his face, “I would like to introduce you to the two groups who will properly start off this tournament. First, on this side, is the Mountain Mercenary Company. We all know them and adore them. They are the first seeded team this year.”

  “Against them are the strangers. The newcomers who have caused our calm city to be shaken to its core! The ones people know nothing about. The Black Cloaked Mercenaries! Who would have imagined that they had the qualifications to become a seeded team!”

  The introductions were both answered with roars and cheers from the audience as they looked down, yelling out the two team names.

  Under the cheering and loud roars, both teams slowly made their way towards the middle of the stage and all sounds stilled, as they noticed that Hui Yue and his team had no intention of removing the cloaks which were covering them.

  This caused a great increase in cheers from the audience as they adored mystery, but the other mercenaries were frowning as they saw this. All of them having expected that the cloaks would be removed, revealing some information about these mysterious strangers.

  Were their cloaks perhaps able to absorb all the energy thrown their way? However even if they could protect the five members of the mystery group, how was it possible for them to use their energies when it was completely suppressed beneath the cloaks? Every mercenary was vexed as none of them knew how to deal with the group which was standing there, looking completely ignorant.

  Standing on the stage, Hui Yue looked at the five mercenaries in front of him which stepped onto the stage and he could not help but feel surprised that not everyone from the previous group had come. After all, it seemed that these fights were for the sake of lowering the population within the town and allowing the audience to clench their thirst for blood, he had not expected it to be an even fight.

  “That old man in the middle,” Hui Yue said while his cloaked hand pointed at the old man from before, the one who seemed to be the boss. “He is mine.”

  “Fine,” Deng Wu answered, his hand pointing at a woman. Her face had nice features but her overall beauty was just about average. “She is mine then.”

  “I’ll take that guy,” Wang Ju Long said as she pointed at a guy at the back, a guy who was clearly the expert with affinity to the wood element.

  “The guy without a hand,” Was the one Sha Yun pointed at and although the guy had a hand right now, he was clutching it with his other hand, fear apparent on his face. As to why he had been chosen as one of the participants, Hui Yue could not guess. After all, he had been defeated thoroughly before, both physically and mentally. Staying here was equal to death.

  Sighing deeply Xie Lan understood what Hui Yue and the others were doing, and although she felt that it was childish she quickly joined in, “The one on the left is mine,” She said with a sigh, refusing to point at the girl who was looking confused.

  It was not only her who was confused. The entire audience was shocked as they heard the voices, and the opposing team was confused as to why they were being pointed at each. Only a few of the mercenaries within the arena guessed the purpose and smiles appeared on their faces. These

  strangers were definitely quite different from anything they had ever seen before.

  “So my dear cloaked friend,” Hui Yue started as he stood next to Xie Lan, “Does your master prefer dead opponents, or that they stay alive?”

  Calling out Xie Lan’s name in the middle of an arena packed with people was a dumb thing to do, the same with Xu Piao’s,
so instead Hui Yue alternated slightly. Hearing the way he had phrased the question, gratitude was seen in Xie Lan’s eyes as she answered, “Although we prefer them alive, sometimes that is not possible. Keep them alive unless you cannot win otherwise.”

  Hui Yue nodded his head. Killing an opponent was not hard. The only thing it required was determination and a swift attack.

  Defeating an opponent while leaving them alive was much harder as one needed to constantly keep their energy tightly controlled, only releasing enough to win, but not enough to seriously hurt.

  Not only that, the opponent clearly did not care for Hui Yue and his team, making them attack with their most ferocious attacks at once.

  Everyone in the arena was watching with baited breath as their hearts were beating erratically. All of them were having an impact on each other, creating an intensely hyped feeling as everyone was excited to see just how these seemingly weak black cloaked cultivators would fight.