by Tinalynge
‘Sorry kid,’ Lan Feng’s voice sounded out, ‘I cannot help you yet, although I have refined enough Wu Wei for one attack you will seriously need it later on.’
‘I can’t just leave my friends here alone!’ Hui Yue exclaimed.
‘They won’t stay here,’ Lan Feng commented, ‘They are most likely seen as very important prisoners and will be moved to Dragon Core for trial. If I were you I’d rush towards Dragon Core and deal with Scarface, then take over his position of waiting for your friends to be delivered.’
‘Don’t you think it will be easy’ Lan Feng continued with a sigh. ‘Scarface is most likely many times stronger than you, and dealing with him will not be easy. Afterwards dealing with the guards who are looking after my friends will be even harder. I am not sure what we can do against them.’
‘Well firstly let us do as they said,’ Lan Feng said, ‘Let us go to the Dragon Corp’s office and flash our B rank emblem. Hopefully they have not set out yet.’
Hui Yue nodded his head as he glared at Xu Piao and Xie Lan then he rushed out from the courtyard, not bothering to listen to any more words from the two older friends. This dialog though it seems like it took a long time really only took a few moments.
Seeing that Hui Yue started to contemplate, Xu Piao and Xie Lan dared not interrupt him and naturally quieted down, saying nothing more. After thinking for a second Hui Yue did nothing apart from rushing away after glaring at them once more.
Rushing to a boat, Hui Yue once more went towards the middle of town. In the very center square there was a large a pagoda with an Azure Dragon making its way up on the outside of the building. Everyone who laid eyes on the building was certain that it belonged to the Dragon Corps.
While heading towards the Dragon Corps, Hui Yue managed to get his anger under control. Although it was still raging inside him his facial expressions were calm and collected, but his eyes were still ice cold, his fists clenched tightly because he could not suppress his anger entirely.
Quickly, the young white-haired boy moved towards the dragon clad building. As he reached the entrance four sets of guards stood watch, not allowing anyone to walk through.
“No entrance for outsiders.” One of the guards said with a voice full of disdain as he looked at the white-haired young man. Like most within the caves they assumed that Hui Yue was an aberration, a spawn of a demon beast and a human. The further into the cave system one got the more likely these kind of people would appear.
The further one went into the caves, the higher the cultivation rank the humans who occupied the caves had. Correspondingly, the tunnels were also inhabited by stronger and stronger magical beasts. In the innermost regions of the tunnels quite a few demon beast existed which could take on human form.
Demon beasts who took human shape were the epitome of demonic power within the tunnels, however, their children were often looked upon as aberrations who belonged to neither human nor beast society. Some of them looked beastly while others looked more human.
Everyone who saw Hui Yue so far was of the impression that he was exactly one of these aberrations, and due to this misconception many looked down on him.
Seeing the reaction of the guards in front of him, the white-haired boy did not get angry at them nor did he truly care why they looked down on him, the only thing within his mind was finding his friends and freeing them as soon as possible.
With a flash of his hand, an emblem appeared in it. On the emblem was a ‘B’ marked, shining brightly on the golden surface.
Seeing the emblem, shock filled the faces of all the guards present and quickly retreating they opening a path for the white-haired young man. They no longer looked at him with disdain, instead, they were filled with veneration. Being able to obtain a B ranked mission made him a B-ranker, something far far above the poor guards. A swish of his hand would instantly get them fired if they were lucky, killed if they were unlucky.
Fortunately for these guards, Hui Yue had no interest in them whatsoever nor did he have any interest in their behavior, the only thing on his mind was saving his friends.
Rushing up the stairs, Hui Yue paid no attention to the now almost cowering guards as he moved into the first room.
The sight which met him was a counter where a person was seated awaiting information or other members of the Dragon Corps to appear.
Seeing the counter, Hui Yue did not think twice before he moved towards it. Once more he flashed the B rank emblem causing a hint of astonishment to appear on the woman at the counter, however, her facial expressions quickly returned to normal.
“What can I do for you sir?” She asked politely, her entire attention focused on hearing what words would be said by the person in front of her.
“Earlier today, or perhaps yesterday, there should have been a group of three youngsters who were and one of them was a half demon beast. I need all three released and handed over to me.”
Hearing the words, the woman behind the counter paled slightly as she looked at some documents and the memory stones in front of her.
“I’m sorry sir,” The woman said as she placed the documents to her side, “Those three criminals have already been sent on to the next cave. We are capable of sending out a message to the next Dragon Corps office and they can hold the criminals there, but I am not certain if your clearance is high enough for me to do anything. I think that the criminals are either B or A ranked. You can get more information at the next Dragon Corp’s office.”
Hearing the words, his anger soared, however, he told himself to endure. Endure so that he could get them back as soon as possible.
“Give me all the information you have on the three criminals and make sure to send a message that they are to wait for me in the next cave.” Hui Yue’s voice was steady as he gave the orders, his hand completely still as he accepted the memory stone containing information about the criminals.
Without waiting any longer within the office, Hui Yue spun around and quickly left, his heart burning with anger. Rushing down the stairs, the guards all did their very best to stay away from the angered man. All of them sensing his foul mood and not wanting to turn into the object he released his anger on.
Rushing down the stairs, the guards needed not to worry, as the young man saw nothing infront of him other than the road leading back to the courtyard at which Xu Piao and Xie Lan were supposed to wait for him.
At present, Hui Yue was not at all in doubt about their allegiance with Zhou Long and his eyes turned darker and darker, his lips curled up in anger and indignation.
The boat he hired sailed at top speed. During the entire trip, Hui Yue fiddled with the memory stone which was resting within his hands. He constantly fought against the urge to place it on his forehead and see what happened, however, he was aware that he did not know how long it would take for him to see it all the way through. It was not something which he should do outside.
Finally the boat arrived at the harbor and as fast as lightning three demon cores clattered in the bottom of the ship as Hui Yue rushed towards the courtyard.
Entering the courtyard, he found that both Xie Lan and Xu Piao were still waiting outside in front of the buildings. Waiting in exactly the same place where he left them earlier.
Without so much as glancing their way, Hui Yue rushed into the house and hurried to his own room where he sat down, legs crossed and eyes closed as he placed the memory stone to his forehead. A gentle light flashed out, but Hui Yue noticed nothing as his mind was filled with images.
The images showed the insides of a restaurant where Sha Yun, Deng Wu, Wang Ju Long, Xie Lan, and Xu Piao were dining. They were all laughing merrily and eating their food, when suddenly a group of Dragon Corps men arrived within the restaurant.
The Dragon Corps requesting something, but unfortunately there were no sound on the recording and what Hui Yue saw was that suddenly the Dragon Corps turned aggressive. As they were about to wound the man behind the counter, Xu Piao stood up for the man and st
opped them in their tracks.
Seeing that Xu Piao jumped in all the others backed him up and within moments a fight had broken out.
The Dragon Corps contained a group of fifteen men against the five of Hui Yue’s friends. While Xu Piao’s side had two King ranked experts he quickly found that the other side had four King ranked experts. The battle was fierce and Xu Piao and Xie Lan were at a disadvantage.
At the same time, his three other friends were struggling against the eleven other cultivators and although they fought back it did not take long before they were surrounded.
Finally, Xu Piao took out his B rank emblem, but, unfortunately, the man in front of him was also B ranked.
A few orders were spoken, however once more, Hui Yue was completely unable to hear what was said. Immediately afterwards his brow furrowed as he saw his friends being tied up.
Xu Piao made a last ditch effort to save them, however, he ended up injured by the King ranked experts and while he wished to give chase, Xie Lan held him back as green energy was seen around her hands.
Seeing Xu Piao injured, the three friends followed without making a scene; this gave Hui Yue the impression so the reason they had followed that easily was due to a threat about hurting Xu Piao further.
Chapter 175 - Sailing on the Thousand Rivers
* * *
Chapter 175: Sailing on the Thousand Rivers
Having seen the situation play itself out through the memory stone caused Hui Yue to have some mixed feelings. Xu Piao and Xie Lan fought against the other King experts, however, neither of them used their strongest attacks nor had they used up all their Wu Wei and spiritual energy.
Hui Yue was uncertain if Xu Piao and Xie Lan participated in the battle fully knowing what was going to happen. But he quickly decided that it did not matter if it was intentional or not.
His plan was to leave the beautiful capital of the Thousand River’s Cave as soon as possible, and he had no qualms about bringing the two King ranked experts with him. Knowing how much Zhou Long valued Hui Yue back in the Demon Dwelling Cave, the white-haired young man was quite certain that the assassins would decrease now that only he was left.
As to why they wanted to get rid of his friends, Hui Yue had no idea; however, his beautiful blue eyes had long since turned deep blue as anger was raging inside. His friends were incredibly important and knowing that they were currently prisoners caused rage to flare like a inferno inside of the young man.
Packing his things quickly, Hui Yue knocked on Xu Piao’s door and soon an “Enter,” could be heard through the door. Following the creaking sounds, the young man stepped inside the room.
“I am going to leave tonight,” He informed them, giving them the choice of following him or staying behind in the capital. Both of the King ranked experts nodded. Xie Lan stayed within the room to heal Xu Piao previously and she had finished just moments before Hui Yue arrived at their door.
Without waiting to see them nod their heads in reply, Hui Yue had already turned around and walked away, not paying any more attention to the two King ranked experts who were supposed to be his friends.
Walking away Hui Yue knew that it was not a good idea to take his anger out on the two of them. Within the room two somber looks were present on the King ranked experts faces.
“I guess he saw through us.” Xu Piao sighed deeply, “But although we planned on letting them get taken we really did change our mind halfway through.” He continued, trying to justify his actions to himself.
“I really did not want to allow for our friends to be taken away. We need to speak with him.” He stopped, his eyes determined as he looked at the door frame which Hui Yue had walked through moments before.
Seeing her boss that frantic about a friendship, Xie Lan could not help but sigh deeply. Although she had taken Wang Ju Long as a disciple, there was only one person who truly mattered to her and that was Xu Piao. To see him so upset about a friendship was something which made her depressed and at a loss for what to do.
“Will he forgive you if you tell him everything?” Xie Lan asked curiously. She had always hated lying so telling the truth was the only thing which she could come up with.
Hearing her words, Xu Piao nodded his head. Telling the truth was not a bad idea. If anything it was a way to clear the air between the two, to forgive and forget. At least this was what Xu Piao hoped.
The Guild Master was not the only one who was worried, Hui Yue was a bit uncomfortable as well. He trusted Xu Piao, and even still he trusted with some stuff. Having seen the recording it was true that their last ditch effort had been quite severe and that he was likely to have continued had he not taken such a serious injury.
After some time, both of the men stopped their train of thought and instead got ready to set out towards the next cave.
Three people gathered at the exit of the courtyard and they looked at each other awkwardly , but after bit Hui Yue heaved a heavy sigh after which a small smile appeared on his face.
“I’m sorry for pushing my problems on you,” He said with a sigh, “I know you have some connection to Zhou Long.” Having said that, the two King ranked experts glanced at each other both of them somewhat relieved that they did not have to start the conversation themselves.
“We were hired by Zhou Long to send information back to him every time we reached a cave. He also told us to look after you and ensure that you come to no harm, but if we managed to get rid of your friends then we would get an even bigger bonus.”
“At first we planned on doing just that, but we have been together for so long.” He sighed as he looked apologetic, “When I saw your friends actually being taken away I finally decided where my allegiance lay.”
As Hui Yue listened he could not help but feel like the man in front of him was honest. However considering their history trusting one another would be hard. Looking at him once more, Hui Yue decided that it did not matter whether or not he was honest. In the end Zhou Long ordered them to protect him so they would follow him either way.
Coming to this conclusion, Hui Yue nodded as he went towards a boat. Unlike last time, the boat he rented was not a boat which was small and sleek, made for travelling within the city, instead, it was a large ship which sailed on the thousand rivers of the Thousand River’s Cave.
The reason he chose to ride a boat rather than walking, was due to the fact that he wanted to cultivate as much as possible while he was within the dense atmosphere of this particular cave.
Renting this boat put Hui Yue quite low on demon cores. But his plan was to travel through the unlit part of the tunnels to hone his skills after having cultivated on the boat; this would make the expense worth it. Although his body was bustling with energy, it was important to balance both the spiritual and the physical aspect of training otherwise the body would not be able to handle the energy which was contained within.
Xu Piao and Xie Lan boarded the boat with him.l According to plan, Hui Yue locked himself in one of the rooms and the entire trip was travelled in meditation. His insides would churn every time he thought about his friends who were currently considered criminals and his heart ached as he worried about how his three friends were getting treated.
Without allowing for himself to think too much about the dangers that his friends faced, he forced himself to focus on his training. Slowly he entered a deep and trancelike meditation.
During meditation Hui Yue could feel the elements surrounding him. Flames were blooming within his mind, the ground was shaking under his feet, the metal was firmly encasing his innermost being.
Feeling all three elemental energies around him, Hui Yue focused his entire being on merging with the elements and fusing them together.
During his month of meditation, Hui Yue managed to completely fuse Earth with Metal, however his attempts at fusing the three elements seemed to be too much of a task right now.
Having fused Earth and Metal allowed Hui Yue to use the Metal to fortify any attack when Earth was
used. It also allowed for him to fortify any Metal attack, but what excited him the most was when he summoned the elemental flame.
The elemental flame which Hui Yue summoned was yellow with a silver core. This yellow flame was inferior to the blue flame which Hui Yue could use by relying on Lan Feng, but unlike the blue flame this yellow flame was not only able to burn enemies.
The yellow flames increased Hui Yue’s control over Earth by a hundred percent, allowing him to control much more earth than before, along with allowing him to make attacks on a scale he was not previously able to sustain.
This was not only Earth, it also included the Metal. Allowing him to control a hundred percent more previously. Although currently he did not have any attacks which relied on the metal element, he still needed the element to refine materials.