Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Without Hui Yue noticing, the wall completely vanished. As it did, yet another unknown phenomena within his dantian cave appeared.

  ‘Oi, you slow a** turtle! How can you not feel that something is happening within your dantian?’ The phoenix roared, dragging Hui Yue’s attention from the papers in front of him to the dantian inside of him. Being within the dantian, he was suddenly shocked by the pulsating energy which was roaming throughout his lower dantian and entered his meridians. The energy circulated through his body enhancing every organ, every muscle, and every bone within.

  With widening eyes, Hui Yue looked at what used to be a closed off cave within his dantian, however now a red gemstone was placed within. The gem was not rough, but instead, it had facets cut into it. It was the most beautiful gem of a deep red color, and it constantly emitted pulses of energy. This energy went through his entire body, merging with the golden rays of Wu Wei to recreate his entire body from the inside.

  Unlike Wu Wei, which disintegrates the cells and rebuilds them while infusing each cell with Wu Wei, this red pulse was burying itself inside the cells and stayed there, fortifying them from within.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue was at a loss, but due to his curiosity, he instantly summoned Black Blood from his storage stone. Without adding any Qi to the dagger, he tried slicing his arm but was incapable of creating even the slightest cut. His skin had no traces of a wound present.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue could not help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. Even if he was now a King ranked expert, he should not have such a formidable defense. His thoughts instantly thought the cause was the pulsating gem within his dantian cave. Could it perhaps have a far stronger defense than even Wu Wei? Hui Yue was shocked.

  Adding Qi to the dagger, and fortifying like he usually did while fighting, he once more tried to slice his arm. Only a red line appeared on his arm, but no blood was seen. The red line quickly vanished leaving his arm with no marks whatsoever.

  Pondering for a moment, Hui Yue looked at the dagger then with a glance at his arm, which was now back to normal, he nodded absent-mindedly while he lifted the dagger high into the air. He aimed it at his leg, and with all his power he stabbed at his leg. His heart was beating rapidly as he knew that he would probably seriously injure himself. However, he needed to know how tough his new defense was. Without second guessing himself, he allowed for the dagger to stab his leg.

  Grimacing, Hui Yue looked at the dagger. A drop of blood was trailing down the edge of the blade. Looking at his leg, he was astonished to see that the stab containing all his power had not even managed to reach the bone, instead it only went a few centimeters into his flesh. Although the wound was painful and somewhat deep under normal conditions, Hui Yue’s face was filled with a smile and excitement bubbled up inside him.

  His body was now so tough that not even a Saint necessarily had a stronger body than him, and even now the pulsating feeling from the gem within his dantian cave had not stopped rushing through his entire body. Hui Yue was surprised to feel the pulsating feeling within him and his smile grew even larger.

  Although the wound on his leg did not disappear, Hui Yue guessed that if he waited for half an hour, or a little longer, then he would no longer be able to even pierce his skin. However as for where this strength came from, Hui Yue had no idea. He was greatly shocked thinking about the strong defense he had gained. Still, if the pulsation continued, he would soon be face to face with the memories of his previous life, and upon touching it, he would be capable of knowing everything about that lifetime.

  Currently, the phenomena he was the closest to merging with was the blue cloud, and he was very curious about what it contained, however, no matter how much he allowed for the blue cloud to surround him, he still had not managed to merge with it. To force the blue cloud to solidify into memories. This was a process which Hui Yue understood requires both luck and enlightenment.

  Sighing deeply, although Hui Yue was incredibly excited about the phenomena, he knew that right now he was the Grand Marshall of the war. It was his job to pick who would participate in the war and who would stay home. He had to decide what kind of training the guards were to go through. He had to determine which tactics to use, and although he wanted to watch the changes in his body, he was not one to forget his responsibilities. After feeling pleasantly surprised, he switched his focus to the papers in front of him.

  He paid full attention to the paperwork that was on his desk, and slowly one after another Hui Yue analyzed the experts, and he split the documents into two piles. One pile was the ones who were to stay in Shenyuan, and the other were the Saints who were going to participate in the war.

  The Saints who were staying home were to keep their guards by their side, while the Saints who were participating in the war would have their guards become soldiers.

  Contemplating for some time, Hui Yue decided that he needed all the guards to become one entity instead of guards from various families. Only those who could become one entity were worthy to be called soldiers.

  Having an army consisting solely of King ranked experts and above made it hard for Hui Yue to determine who would be the commanders of a thousand men, of two thousand men, and of five thousand men. Lastly, he needed to find people to command ten thousand men as well. It was obvious that these positions were to be given to the highest ranked experts, so the majority of these most senior commands would be Emperor ranked experts. The generals would obviously be the Saints.

  Each Saint had around ten thousand men with them. The majority of these were Kings with around one third being Emperors. Hui Yue, incapable of determining who would be best, sat down and wrote a letter to each of the Saints. A letter saying that he had decided who was going to war, and in his message he told the Saints to pick the five most supreme Emperors they had. These Emperors would become commanders of the army’s battalions.

  Thinking like this, he slowly started to bring structure to this new army. First, he wanted the soldiers to form groups of five. Within these five one would be the captain. This group of five would then be apart of a group of thousand which was controlled by a commander called the thousand man commander.

  Two groups of a thousand experts would then be controlled by a two thousand man commander, and eventually two of these two thousand man groups together with a one thousand man group would be controlled by a five thousand man commander. The highest ranking in the army below that of a Saint would be the ten thousand man commander who controlled two five thousand man groups.

  The thousand man commanders, the two thousand man commanders, and the five thousand man commanders all would have two lieutenants each. All commanders and the lieutenants were to be Emperor ranked experts, but as for who would go where the Saints who knew them best would decide.

  Writing these documents, Hui Yue was completely focused on writing and did not pay attention to what was happening with his body. He knew that many changes were occurring, however, how much it was changing, he still did not know. The only thing he experienced so far was the increase in his external strength from the gem within his dantian cave, not to mention the rebirth of all his cells caused by the Wu Wei.

  The entire night was spent writing. Hui Yue was so busy that he did not even have time to cultivate. Despite this, however, while he was busy writing, his body kept absorbing one pulse after another of the red energy emitted from the red gem. This gem was growing smaller and smaller as it pulsated away all its energy. It went from being a fist size to the size of a thumbnail.

  The moon was high in the sky when Hui Yue finally finished writing the messages he would send to the lords the following day. These documents would say which lords would stay and which would participate in the war, alongside requesting information about their Emperor ranked guards.

  Seeing that he could do no more and that the night still had a few hours left of bright moonlight, the young man opened the window and placed himself so the rays of moonlight could be absorbed as he started to cultivat
e.

  This was the first time he cultivated during the night, and a new and tingling sensation appeared within his heart. A sensation of a new energy he had never felt before. Examining it closer, Hui Yue could feel that all the essence of the heavens and the earth that he absorbed was filled with a white mist like membrane around it, the membrane containing pure Yin energies.

  As the energy went traveled through his meridians, this white Yin energy was shifted from the original essence of the heavens and the earth to the upper dantian slowly while the normal energy was being refined into Qi. In the upper dantian it merged with a black mist-like energy, similar to the white energy. The two entwined together, and the color of the energy turned pure golden. The golden mist then slowly entered the golden orb that was in the middle of his upper dantian. The orb shone even brighter now than before. The rays of golden light it emitted increased in intensity Even so, Hui Yue felt that although he had refined a large portion of energy, he still could feel that he was only at the early stage of the King rank.

  Chapter 243 - Building an Army

  * * *

  Chapter 243: Building an Army

  Noticing how much of a change just a short while within the moonlight made for him and his energy caused Hui Yue to spent the rest of the night within the declining moonlight. He cultivated until the morning arrived and the sun rays broke through the sky. Feeling satisfied, Hui Yue stood up and stretched his body. Usually, he would cultivate while sitting on a bed, but tonight he had been seated on the cold stone floor, making him slightly more sore than usual.

  His blue eyes were filled with a calm which was not present previously. He knew that although he missed his friends in the capital, he had to fully focus on the things happening around him and not allowed himself to dwell the things he was missing, and leading a war was one of these things. Upon finishing the war, Hui Yue would return to his friends. Until then though he would do nothing but focus solely on winning this war for the beasts.

  Grabbing the letters, all of them were sealed with Qi. This was done so that they were not opened before they reached the lords for whom they were intended. As he grabbed the letters, he instantly left the room. He went searching for a guard on whom he could impose and ask to deliver all the letters for him. He, himself, had something he needed to take care of.

  “Hey, you there!” Hui Yue yelled out as he saw a guard in the distance. Running into a guard this quickly was pure luck, and the young man had a smile adorning his face. “I need you to take these letters and deliver them to the lords whose names are written on the top. You are by no means allowed to open these letters, they very important,” He continued, and although the guard wished to say no, he knew that doing so would bring him trouble. Taking the sixty-four letters, the guard heaved a heavy sigh as he asked himself why his luck was so terrible. Although he was unhappy with his task, he quickly turned around and went straight to the first lord whose name was mentioned, Wan Qiao.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue went to the guard’s training grounds which was as empty as before. It was empty because the majority of the guards had moved outside the city gates. Sitting down, the young man decided to see if he could convince the blue cloud to solidify into a body in his dantian. Seated on the hard, rocky ground, Hui Yue entered his consciousness. As he appeared in the lower dantian, he instantly noticed the gem had shrunk even smaller than the size of a thumbnail. It was now as small as a grain of rice, but even so, it still emitted a pulse of energy, albeit the pulse was much weaker now than before.

  Hui Yue was elated to know that the gem was constantly active because this meant that the memories would solidify quicker than most of the other phenomena. This was very unlike the green pearl which would take a long time for Hui Yue to merge with. However, although, the red gem was continually pulsating it was still far behind the blue cloud if one were to consider how long they had been used. Hui Yue moved his attention from the small grain-like gem to the massive blue cloud which was waiting patiently in its cave. With nothing but a thought, this blue cloud billowed forth and took over the entire meridian system. It flowed out and shrouded the young man in a large blue cloud.

  “Ahh, how comfortable!” Hui Yue exclaimed with an excited voice as he felt warmth surround and nourish him. This also caused an increase in the density of the essence of the heavens and the earth in the surrounding area.

  Seated still Hui Yue refined thread after thread of Qi, and doing so he also created one portion of black mist after another. This energy was divided from the essence of the heavens, and the earth and it quickly headed to the upper dantian where it floated around the golden orb. Watching it, Hui Yue knew what he was refining was Yang energy, and the energy he was obtaining was vastly superior to the energy that he had absorbed at night. Refining Yin energy, although it felt like it made a big difference, truly was just a drop of water in a raging sea. It was nowhere enough to refine all the Yang energies within Hui Yue’s body.

  ‘Stop cultivating,’ Lan Feng said with a grumpy voice, instantly bringing Hui Yue’s activities to a stop. The young man was greatly confused, but he dared not go against the phoenix. Although the beast was not incredibly strong, he was still aware of many things.

  ‘If you keep refining Yang energy your Wu Wei will become unbalanced. As soon as you have unbalanced energies it will be much harder to balance them again. That is why Xu Piao and Xie Lan never spent all their time cultivating, unlike you youngsters back in the Dungeons of the Divine. What you need is enlightenment and Yin energy. You can get Yin energy many ways. I already explained training in the cold and at midnight, through using medicinal pills and herbs. Another way is to take the virginity of a woman. A way I, personally, think is the best, but there is sadly a lack of beautiful birds around here. If it was Sha Yun on the other hand…’ The bird’s voice trailed off as he embarrassingly cleared his throat. ‘As I said, there are a lot of ways to gain Yin energy, so if you truly want to train hard, the only thing you are allowed to train is your external strength. Train your body and absorb all the Yin energy you possibly can.’

  Hui Yue could not help but sigh the moment he heard the phoenix mentioning Sha Yun, but he was somewhat used to the bird’s strange personality. Instead of thinking about it, he started running around the training ground. At first, he was moving slowly to allow for his muscles to warm up; then he picked up the pace until he ran so swiftly that one could really focus on him. His speed was astonishing, and this was his speed without relying on any of the three types of energy Qi, Spiritual Energy, or Wu Wei.

  Running with weights on his body, Hui Yue felt himself getting closer and closer to his limits. His teeth were gnashed hard together, and his eyes were determined as he kept saying ‘one more step, just one more step.’ to himself. Something which seemed to push him further and further. His speed which had previously been a steady fast pace was dropping but no matter how much it dropped his wobbly legs kept moving. He never once stopping until a rush of strength surged through his entire body. It felt as though a refreshing energy appeared from somewhere deep within. As soon as this thread of energy emerged, Hui Yue stopped running. His hands rested on his thighs as he was gasping for air.

  Although he had just gained extra energy, this energy was from breaking his own limit, and if he was to continue what he had been doing and spend the hard earned energy, then it was likely to have a detrimental effect rather than a positive one.

  Having finished the run, Hui Yue did not stop training. After training his legs, he moved on to the rest of his body as soon as he had managed to catch his breath. The young man started other exercises which trained every muscle from his fingers to his feet.

  Every time Hui Yue trained a specific kind of muscle, he would continue until this foreign energy appeared proving that he had broken through yet another limit for that specific muscle. This limit training was taught to him by Wan Qiao, and it was something which had already given him immense strength alongside a much greater defense. Building his
body had helped him immensely on his path of cultivation.

  Finishing the training, Hui Yue took a towel and wiped away the sweat which was running from his forehead, before he noticed that his training session had gathered quite an audience. The ones observing him were a mixture of the Lords of the Forest alongside high ranked Emperors. Looking at all these experts, at first Hui Yue was surprised, but after observing them, he instantly noticed that all the lords in front of him were the ones he had selected to participate in the war. The Emperors were the experts they had chosen as having the most potential to become commanders of the lower ranked soldiers.

  Seeing the sight in front of him, Hui Yue could not help but smile. He stood in front of the most exalted experts within Shenyuan, all of them were waiting for him; someone who had just broken into the King rank. Here he was sweating profusely after having trained for the majority of the day. He had been so absorbed in his training that he had not noticed the many experts appearing around him.

  “Excuse me,” He said with a clear voice. “I’m sorry to have kept you all waiting,” He continued. He did not seem truly sorry, but the pleasantry still caught favor with many of the experts. Some of them had waited hours for Hui Yue to finish training. Truth be told, although all these experts knew about limit training, there were only a selected few who had the perseverance to truly train to their limits, and to see someone who could overcome one limit after another caused everyone present to have a new impression of this young man.