Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Seeing Hui Yue enter, Wan Qiao’s face sprouted a genuine, warm smile. A smile which showed just how happy she was to see this younger man. The last many days Hui Yue had paid her no visits, nor did he seemed as though he had anything to speak with her about. The Queen of Shenyuan was worried why she was not being updated on what was happening.

  As a Lord of the Forest, Wan Qiao knew exactly what was going on with the training and she, just as all the other lords, were taken aback by the training Hui Yue was giving the army. Although they understood why, they never expected Hui Yue, instead of marching straight towards Siban, would actually spend the time to prepare the entire army for war.

  Hui Yue smiled as he saw the genuine happiness on Wan Qiao’s face and he moved to the table where he pulled out a chair and sat down. Some might have considered his behavior rude or brash, however Wan Qiao saw it differently. She too sat down at the table, the two lords and the one human boy were now all seated together.

  “They are ready,” Hui Yue said with a smile. “I cannot train the army any better than what I have; they are performing exceptionally well now. I will believe that the number of casualties we will have will be a record low.” He continued, and his words caused great joy to flash in Wan Qiao’s eyes.

  “I am not planning on going through the tactics with the lords,” Hui Yue continued, “So what I am trying to say is that we need to prepare for war now.”

  The smile on Wan Qiao’s face turned sinister and even Pan Long was turning bloodthirsty, Their sharp teeth were revealed in their smiles, and Hui Yue could not help but sigh slightly. He had managed to change the Kings and Emperors into soldiers, however he had done nothing to the Lords of the Forests. All of them were still bloodthirsty cultivators who preferred normal duels against the other party, fighting one on one until someone won. This was how the Saints would be fighting and because of this, Hui Yue had not bothered with trying to train them as soldiers.

  Having said what he had to say, Hui Yue waited for a while expecting Wan Qiao to say something, but she said nothing. Her face was just one big smile, and her eyes were glued to Hui Yue. The young man understood instantly that although this whole war was Wan Qiao’s idea, the entire responsibility had been pushed onto his shoulders. It was up to him to prepare for war. He had to sort all the logistics out as well as the army. Reaching this conclusion Hui Yue could not help but sigh as he shook his head. Even in ancient China no one would expect one individual to deal with every single aspect of a war, but after considering it, Hui Yue frowned as he realized that although he had brought knowledge with him from his old life, this was indeed not ancient China. This was a whole new realm. It might have a lot of similarities but there were many differences as well such as cultivation, and the humans and the beasts were completely different.

  Thinking about the logistics of getting provisions for the entire army, Hui Yue could not help but feel yet another headache coming his way.

  “I will need help,” He finally said before standing up. Although Hui Yue expected to see Wan Qiao and Pan Long annoyed with his request, both of them shone with happiness instead. It seemed as though they waited for Hui Yue to allow them to join.

  “Don’t hold back, don’t hold back,” The two lords said eagerly at the same time. Their smiles had grown larger and their eyes shined with excitement. Seeing how both of them were incredibly excited, Hui Yue felt as though he would be killing this excitement when he spoke next, but even so he open his mouth and spoke.

  “I need provisions for the army. I need to get the money to pay the army, and I need to get someone who can direct me on the best way to get into the Siban Empire; a guide would be preferred.”

  Hearing everything Hui Yue said, their smiles did not diminish in the least. Both of them were greatly amused by these tasks, and as soon as Hui Yue stopped speaking, they raised their hands.

  “I want to deal with the guide!”

  “I want to deal with the money!”

  The two spoke at the same time. Their hands raised into the air, and both of them looked at each other, laughing out loud. Even Hui Yue was astonished to see their behavior, but soon afterwards he too started laughing at the two experts.

  “Alright, alright,” He said while still chuckling, “You can deal with those things. Let me describe better what it is I want.”

  “About the money, I need to pay every soldier for their participation in the army, and at the same time, I need gold to use as an incentive. The more people they get rid of, the more gold they will get.” Hui Yue said with a serious face, “I am unable to raise that much gold,” He continued honestly, “Which means that we need to collect gold from the Lords of the Forests. Go from one lord to another and see what they will contribute. See if you can raise at least two million gold coins.”

  Hui Yue knew about gold coins. He used the same coins back in the Taiyang Kingdom, and he felt as though two million gold coins was a massive amount. Paying fifty silver coins did not sound like a lot; however, despite this being only one army with every soldier just getting fifty silver this was still an astronomical amount. Also they would get more than just fifty silver. They would also be paid extra for each kill as long as they could prove that they had killed someone. It was due to this that Hui Yue requested two million gold coins. A lot of gold would be needed to pay all the soldiers.

  “Two million gold?” Wan Qiao frowned, and for a moment, Hui Yue feared that he had set the price way too high.

  “I can pay the two million on my own,” Wan Qiao said with a doubtful expression on her face, “We beast lords have lived for a great many years already. For us to accumulate wealth is easy so each lord should pay at least a million gold. Anyway, Pan Long you go out and milk them dry!” A sinister smile appeared on Wan Qiao’s face. “Milk them dry so that we can pay the army more. The more we pay them, the more likely we will have an army which will go berserk for the sake of money.”

  Hui Yue secretly agreed with Wan Qiao, but his face was still filled with disbelief upon hearing that he would have so much funds to control. Soon a smile spread across his face, and he now knew that it would not be difficult to pay for the provisions. It would not be a problem to lure their experts into going berserk, killing their enemies swiftly and ruthlessly so that they could gain money. The real reason Hui Yue wanted it was for the sake of quickly finishing their opponents. They needed to win this war swiftly, and they needed to win it with as few casualties as possible.

  “Okay, what I need you to do is to find me maps. Multiple maps, showing every single way through the forest towards the Siban Empire. I will not travel through the forest, itself; we need to travel through the roads as our group is in no way small. I will need a guide alongside the maps, a guide to help me plan the direction.”

  Wan Qiao swallowed all the words that Hui Yue said, and her facial expression turned serious, but within her eyes excitement was still shining. Her job was not in any way easy, but she was finally able to help Hui Yue with the war. The war which she had been so incredibly excited about.

  Seeing the two lords as eager as they were, Hui Yue chuckled as he slowly pushed the chair back and stood up. He nodded to the two lords once more.

  “I am going to leave you to sort these things out for me,” Hui Yue said with a smile on his face, “I need to return to my room as I too need to prepare for the war as well.” The young man said and after a short while, he finally turned his back and left the room. With steady steps, neither rushed nor slow, the young man moved back to his room where he once more sat down in the moonlight and started shifting the Yin energy from the essence of the heavens and the earth.

  While Hui Yue was busy cultivating his inner energies, Wan Qiao and Pan Long both still had great smiles on their faces as they left the room. Wan Qiao went to the library looking for maps while Pan Long went towards the rooms where many of the lords were living right now in the castle.

  Night slowly descended on the castle where everyone was busy doing their o
wn thing. Although everyone was different things, there was one thing in common. This caused the castle to never truly sleep. That thing was war. War was coming, and the beasts were busy preparing. No human knew exactly how ready these beasts were for the impending war, no human that is apart from Hui Yue.

  Chapter 256 - Supporting the Army

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  Chapter 256: Supporting the Army

  The following day, Hui Yue gave the experts a day off as he moved around the castle delegating some of the tasks that he had to deal with. Especially the ones who were staying behind in Shenyuan, they were pushed to their limits. While all the Saints were rushing from one end of Shenyuan to the other, all of them were doing their best to gather gold, provisions, and maps. Watching them, Hui Yue was greatly appreciative that all the guards already had armor and weapons. Had he needed the Saints to find armor and weapons for the entire army then he could only imagine how messy it would have been.

  While the Saints were rushing from their home cities back to the capital, Hui Yue allowed the army to relax a little. This meant that all of them had to train on their own, and to Hui Yue’s surprise, he found that no one fought one on one battles anymore it was all group battles now

  The groups seemed to enjoy this new way of battling, and their eyes were shining with excitement. Their faces had uncontrolled grins spreading across them. The groups were now used to fighting together. They were familiar with the different attacks of their teammates not to mention the trust they had built up. They knew that someone had their backs which allowed for them to move forward and attack. Seeing how well all the groups worked together, Hui Yue felt pride in his heart.

  Walking through the military camp, everywhere Hui Yue came across people training either on their own or together in the groups. They were experimenting with new attacks or cultivating their inner energies.

  Hui Yue too was busy refining Yin energy so that he could create more Wu Wei, however the speed, although boosted by the blue cloud, was still so slow that Hui Yue acknowledged that he would need at least a year before reaching the ninth star of the King rank. This was something which made him sigh deeply but thinking about it, he had already been assisted greatly by the monk that he could not ask for more.

  Although Hui Yue was feeling stressed, he also knew that he needed to focus on the quality of the essence of the heavens and the earth he refined. It was important for him to, keep the quality of his internal energies high, so high that it would not make his cultivation base unbalanced.

  Sighing, Hui Yue turned around and headed back towards the city gate. In the air, he had just seen a blur flying past, something so swift that one would only recognize it if they knew what to look for. Hui Yue, though, was perfectly well aware what the blur meant. He knew that he would soon be summoned as another Saint had returned to the capital.

  The Lords of the Forests returned to their homes for both gold and provisions. Everyone was expected to make a trip home, but strangely enough, acquiring provisions seemed to be the biggest problem. In a world where no ordinary beasts remained, one needed to catch less intelligent magical beasts in the forests and turn them into a food supply. Some beasts were living on farms where they had cleared the forest to have agriculture; they farmed rice alongside corn and other crops.

  Seeing that a lord had returned, Hui Yue needed to meet up with this Saint to receive the items he had brought with him. Hurrying back to the castle as quickly as he could, Hui Yue found himself in the castle within half an hour. As he arrived, he saw one of the Lords of the Forests waiting for him. This was one of the experts who was not going to fight in the war directly, but his eyes were still serious as he nodded respectfully to Hui Yue. He handed the young man two high-grade storage stones.

  Within the first storage stone were heaps of gold. So much in fact that Hui Yue knew it was more than the million gold each of the experts were supposed to provide. Looking at the other stone, he saw food piled up. Bags of rice and corn were present alongside barrels filled with dried and smoked meats. There was food enough to feed a whole ten thousand men for more than a month. Hui Yue felt great gratitude towards this Saint, and he bowed deeply after having examined the two stones.

  “Thank you very much for your contribution,” He said while still bowing and the face of the Saint lit up. He was clearly satisfied with the reaction given from Hui Yue, a reaction which showed that he genuinely appreciated the money and the food he had been granted. The Saint nodded once more, not for any specific reason, just because he was indeed satisfied.

  “I will go looking for Wan Qiao, I have a few maps for her as well,” The expert said, and as soon as the words had left his mouth, the Saint turned into a blur once more as he vanished from the courtyard. Looking at the storage stones, Hui Yue smiled as he knew he was getting closer and closer to the day of departure.

  “Wait, wait,” A voice called out to Hui Yue.When he heard the voice, he instantly halted. He turned around as Pan Long appeared. The older man looked as happy as Hui Yue felt, and in his hand was a small leather bag.

  “Look at this,” He said with a great smile on his face as he stopped next to Hui Yue and handed the bag to the younger male. “These are the stones I’ve collected so far. I also saw that old lord Han gave you two storage stones before this. It seems as though we have almost collected all the provisions and gold we need. Are you ready to start planning which path to take to Siban?” Lord Pan was filled with excitement and looking at him; Hui Yue was reminded of a child waiting for Christmas. His eyes were glistening with excitement, and his face sprouting a smile as his hands were busy passing on the bag to Hui Yue, who quickly accepted them.

  “Well I better get going,” Pan Long said with an apologetic expression on his face as he nodded to Hui Yue and rushed away from the courtyard. Hui Yue was still just standing there, his mind blank, with a confused expression on his face. Not long after a chuckle escaped his lips as Hui Yue could not help but laugh at the rushing Pan Long. The expert was a Lord of the Forest, but he seemed so random from time to time. This was something which caused Hui Yue to feel as though the Lords of the Forests really weren’t as different from him as he had first thought.

  Returning to his room, Hui Yue opened the bag and raised an eyebrow. Hui Yue was looking at the many storage stones within. Some of them contained the exact minimum amount of gold and food while others were packed full. They were filled to the brim with both gold and food. They had far more than what was expected from the experts. Looking at all this gold and food, Hui Yue knew that he already had enough food and enough gold to start the war.

  Because he now possessed enough money and gold, he left his room and went to see Wan Qiao. The closer he got the more people he saw waiting in the corridor, and the young man frowned as he wondered what was happening. Pushing his way through the servants, he finally arrived at the door which led to her private chambers, but just as he was about to open it he noticed that the door was actually coming closer and closer to him.

  Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, but even so, Hui Yue had no time to move away as the door exploded outwards. It hit him with a destructive force that sent him flying backwards into the wall behind him. The door shattered as it was forced into the young man.

  Behind the door, an expert came flying. He was not flying due to a martial skill, nor an inborn ability, he had obviously been kicked and was sent flying that way. Seeing this, not only the now wounded Hui Yue, but everyone present was completely silent as the expert sent flying slowly rose to his feet and wiped a strand of blood away from the corner of his lip.

  “Stop being so grumpy old woman!” The man said with anger shining in his eyes. “We cannot afford for you to join the army. We need you here at home to protect Shenyuan. Give me your position and I’ll make sure that we are fine.”

  “No way!” An angry voice roared from inside the room and moments after the woman stepped through the broken doorway. A flash of surprise appeared in her eyes as she sa
w the wounded Hui Yue with blood flowing from one wound after another, and the many servants standing clustered within the hallway looking at her with shock in her eyes.

  Seeing this, Wan Qiao stopped for a moment, and a frown appeared on her face as she turned to the many servants, “What are you doing here?!” She scolded harshly, and the many servants suddenly rushed off suddenly realizing that they needed to be somewhere.

  “You brute,” Hui Yue said with a laugh which seemed to wash away the heavy atmosphere, and after a few moments, the white-haired young man got to his feet and looked at himself. Looking down, he frowned slightly as he saw how his robe was destroyed in multiple places. The door had managed to penetrate not only the robe but also through his skin, impaling him on a shattered door.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue patiently stood still as he removed one part of the wooden door after another, and everyone present was shocked as they saw each and every one of the wounds closing up on their own. It was as if Hui Yue was being healed, however no green hue was apparent on his skin, and no signs of actively using healing was seen. Also, every lord had previously understood exactly which affinities Hui Yue possessed. Knowing about the strength of their Grand Marshall was something which they felt was important, but both the expert who had been tossed through the door and Wan Qiao were surprised to see his body heal itself.