Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  The expression on Yanluo's face turned to shock as he looked at Hui Yue. Though it showed but for an instant on his face, it was caught by a few discerning elders in the room. Everyone who noticed this was shocked to their core as they had never before seen Yanluo lose control of his expression the way he just had.

  Clearing his throat, Yanluo knew that he had made a mistake, but he was truly shocked to the core just now. He was the God of Hell, and here was a person who had managed to find the memories of his previous lives something which should be impossible unless a certain event had happened...

  Chapter 556 - Blue Cloud

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  Chapter 556: Blue Cloud

  Behind the arriving group of Celestial Sword Sect members, other groups entered the banquet hall, and every time guests entered they were welcomed directly by Yanluo.

  No one challenged anyone as everyone was waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive, and even when they did, the guests were not going to challenge the Celestial Sword Sect in the beginning anyways. It would be the same as throwing away their face.

  Hui Yue looked at Yanluo who was seated on his throne overlooking the banquet, and as long as he was seated here, Hui Yue would not be able to talk with him privately.

  However, just as a few of the elders noticed shock appear on Yanluo’s face when he looked at Hui Yue, likewise Hui Yue himself also noticed that deep within the God of Hell was shocked to his core. Since this was the case, there had to be something which made him curious and given enough time he would come to talk with him of his own accord. Therefore, Hui Yue would be able to ask his questions.

  The final group of experts arrived, and the banquet hall was bursting with people. Although it was full, there was still enough room to move around comfortably without butting shoulders with one and another.

  There were tables filled with food which were constantly being replenished by the demon servants. Music was heard from a beautiful woman who was playing the zither, and the atmosphere in the hall was relaxing and pleasant.

  Although Hui Yue was observing the entire room, he said nothing as he stood next to Pei Ze. His eyes glanced over the room stopping on a few experts that he felt a dangerous aura from, but otherwise he was casually exchanging greetings with the experts that met his eye.

  Many though still looked at him with disregard and disdain. The elders who had noticed the shock on Yanluo's face warned their students not to challenge Hui Yue, but even so, many looked down on him.

  Seeing their arrogance, Hui Yue's face was as calm as a still lake. He simply could not be bothered to think about these insignificant Gods, but suddenly his eyes landed on the expert of the Nightcrawler Sect. When he saw this number one expert of the younger generation, a shiver ran down his spine.

  This expert had also been told not to challenge Hui Yue, but where the others thought it was so they didn’t insult the Celestial Sword Sect, it seemed that this young man understood that it was because Hui Yue was very dangerous.

  Someone as skilled as Hui Yue was a great addition to the younger generation for this young man. He had been the greatest talent for the past many years, and although individuals such as Pei Feng and Pei Ze were talented, they were a whole level below him.

  The gap between them had constantly increased as the young man was able to get all the resources from the Nightcrawler Sect because of his position as successor, while the resources from the Celestial Sword Sect's heir was split between Pei Ze and Pei Feng.

  While elder for the Nightcrawler Sect told his young heir not to challenge Hui Yue, out of fear of losing, this had just fueled the young man's urge to fight. But despite his urge to fight, he understood that he had been given an order by his elder, and this was not something he wanted to challenge right now.

  In the hall around half the elders had previously noticed the shocked expression on Yanluo's face. Deep in their hearts they were filled with trepidation towards this bastard. Who was this person who could survive the sect’s law and at the same time also shock the God of Hell!?

  While some elders were uncomfortable about this, others were blissfully ignorant and looked at the young white-haired man with disdain.

  So what if he was a member of the Celestial Sword Sect. So what if he was a young genius. He was nothing more than a bastard who had snuck his way into a major sect. He had not been raised with the teachings of the sect, and thus he was an easy target. For once, many elders dreamed of being able to return their usual defeats at the hands of the Celestial Sword Sect right back to them.

  Now that everyone had gathered together and a lot of the food had been consumed it was time for the main event. Yanluo wanted to talk with all the youngsters of the major sects participating in the trial, and this speech was the reason Yanluo invited everyone here..

  "Welcome all my guests!" Yanluo's voice boomed through the banquet hall, and everyone turned as silent as mice. No one dared to say a word.

  "As you all know, one of my fellow judges has passed away. He was out exploring the galaxy, and suddenly an unfortunate event befell him. His soul is now floating in the Yellow River, and we need another expert who can take over his responsibilities as a Judge of Hell."

  "When I heard of this unfortunate event, I was of course rather shocked. It is increasingly rare for a Judge of Hell to die in these calm times, but, sadly, it did happen, so I need to find a suitable replacement."

  "At first I figured, why not just invite the entire galaxy and let the strongest become the Judge of Hell, but then I realized that strength is not what one needs for the job. One needs a set of skills which includes compassion and the ability to keep your underlings on their toes and working productively. There is a lot of work involved with being a Judge of Hell, and strength is not what determines whether or not you can do such a job well."

  Yanluo paused for a moment as he looked down upon the many guests. "Oh well, you will understand when the trials begins," he said with a wave of his hand.

  "I would like a member of the younger generation to become the Judge of Hell, but many experts have appeared from out of nowhere, and these experts are not all as simple as they seem."

  "During these trials, I will ensure that no one dies, but the pain and suffering they will experience will be enough to make the weak willed go insane."

  "But today is a joyous occasion. Do not think too much about the trials, instead, you should enjoy yourself tonight. Eat some more food, have some drinks, and spar with one another if you feel like it." Waving his hand, Yanluo showed that he had finished talking and the room exploded with sound as everyone discussed the subject he had raised.

  Pei Feng's face was rather upset, but Pei Ze's face was excited. To know that no one would die during the trial filled everyone with mixed emotions. Some were excited while others were unhappy, but mostly the elders nodded their heads approvingly. To have invited the younger generation of the top sects, they expected no less. If the death rate had been high, they would never have allowed their children to participate in the trials. Although there was a chance of a few people going insane, it was much better than losing half of their younger generation.

  The explosive voices stopped after a bit of time, and silence descended on the room once more. Everyone had discussed Yanluo's words, and now it was time to see which sect was really the strongest!

  Some were eager and almost jumping onto the stage before they had the time to challenge someone as everyone wanted to be the first to fight. While others stayed back observing these eager souls.

  Hui Yue was one of the people who was just watching. A wry smile hung on his lips.

  They almost fought one another to fight on the stage, but it was clear that their target was not each other. Using his soulforce to scan, Hui Yue found that they were all equally matched, and no one wanted a desperate battle; everyone wanted to have a fast battle to display their superiority.

  After tussling back and forth for a second, a young man finally made it to the top of the sta
ge looking immensely pleased with himself. Glancing around the audience with arrogance a smile playing on his lips his eyes turned savage as they landed on Hui Yue.

  "I am sure that I am not the only member of the younger generation who is quite curious about the strength of this so-called new member of the Celestial Sword Sect! Pei Yue, I challenge you!"

  As he spoke, his arm shot towards Hui Yue, and his words caused laughter from more than half the room while a few, especially elders, were looking at him with pity.

  Hearing that his name was called out, he did not rush. Instead, he looked around him casually before he shrugged his shoulders and jumped on stage.

  The expert in front of him was not worth taking this seriously. Although he was a genius of the younger generation, he was nothing more than normal genius. To someone like Hui Yue, he was not even worthy of attention, and thus Hui Yue just casually looked at him, wondering which way would be the easiest to finish this fight.

  Huli was not by his side, and these duels were not life threatening so there was no way that he could use his dao of space. Convincing the black figure to lend its power to him for something like this was impossible, but even so, Hui Yue did not fret. The dao of space was not his only skill. He smiled as he decided to suck his enemy dry of Ancestral Worldpower.

  "Start! And remember that you are of the younger generation don’t go too far Although fists and kicks know no pain, try to be as gentle as possible. Crippling your enemy is not allowed, and no one will die while I am watching," Yanluo said casually, and everyone nodded their heads.

  While the opponent yelled out loudly and roared as he rushed towards Hui Yue, Hui Yue just looked at him with apathy. Moments after a blue cloud erupted from his body and enveloped the advancing expert.

  The moment the blue cloud emerged gasps could be heard in the banquet hall. This blue energy was very difficult to discern what it was, but it blurred everything on stage. It made it impossible to see what was happening.

  The advancing expert was surrounded by this energy and was no longer able to advance. The outline of his figure was visible, and those who had the best eyes were able to see him shaking uncontrollably before he finally collapsed to the ground.

  Hui Yue was still standing completely nonchalant. His arms were behind his back, and he looked at the figure with curiosity as he slowly withdrew the blue cloud.

  The moment he withdrew the cloud one could see that the expert that had been enveloped was now laying on the ground. He was not unconscious, but he had no power left in his body. It was clear that all his Ancestral Worldpower had been sucked out of him. All the energy that is except the energy that his body was made of, and considering the difference in strength between Hui Yue and this weakened expert, had Hui Yue wanted to he could have absorbed every last strand of energy leaving him without a body. Fortunately, this was a spar and not a life and death battle, and thus he was allowed to return with his body intact.

  Chapter 557 - She Can Be Saved

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  Chapter 557: She Can Be Saved

  Everyone was staring at the stage dumbfounded. What was this blue cloud and how did it manage to consume this expert’s energy.

  It did not feel like a dao attack nor an Ancestral Worldpower skill either. No matter how they looked at it, they did not understand this odd skill. No one else besides Yanluo knew what kind of power this young man had used.

  Not staying behind, Hui Yue stepped off the stage and moved back to his original spot next to Pei Ze with a wry smile on his lips.

  The friends of the fallen youngster all rushed up to the stage to carry him down. He had no energy left in his body and would need at least a few days to restore his Ancestral Worldpower back to how it was before; he would not even feel the slightest drawback from their fight.

  Hui Yue had chosen the blue cloud for a few reasons. First, it was the fastest way to defeat his opponent. Secondly, it was very mysterious. No one would be able to tell what exactly happened as the energy belonged to the blue monk, someone who had been dead for eons already, and lastly, he had wanted to absorb his energy. He wanted to raise his own strength while fighting these experts that challenged him.

  The ones who previously had thought that Hui Yue was an easy target now looked at him with terror in their eyes and the ones who had already been told not to challenge him felt grateful to their elders for stopping them. Only a few very strong cultivators looked at Hui Yue with an urge to fight blazing in their eyes.

  Although many experts were more than willing to fight Hui Yue, none of them challenged him. They understood that since he could absorb energy as effortlessly as he had, then he would definitely have other high-level skills. The only real question they were thinking about was how many heaven-defying skills was he able to use?

  As the second person appeared on the stage his face was filled with uncertainty as to who he should challenge and with a long glance towards Hui Yue he finally chose someone from a minor sect.

  A couple of matches took place in rapid succession, and Hui Yue was astonished as he saw what the formation that Yanluo created was capable of. No matter which wounds one sustained they would be healed by the formation after the fight ended. That was everyone apart from Hui Yue's target as he was not actually wounded, but just had his Ancestral Worldpower pool completely drained.

  As the night progressed, Yanluo finally left his throne and started to mingle with the elders of the various sects. Although Hui Yue was eager to chat with him, he was not silly enough to interrupt when he was speaking with others, and because of this, he could do nothing but wait patiently for Yanluo to come speak with him. After seeing the shock on Yanluo's face, Hui Yue was confident that the God of Hell also wished to speak with him.

  "I challenge Pei Yue!" A voice suddenly cut through the banquet hall, and Hui Yue, who had been thinking about Yanluo and not the sparring matches taking place was rather surprised. Looking at the top of the stage was another young genius, but although he was a bit stronger than the previous opponent, he was not someone that met his eyes.

  Sighing, Hui Yue headed to the stage, and his steps were neither rushed nor slow.

  "Although you managed to shock us all previously I doubt you can pull the same trick too many times, something that overpowered is likely to be able to only be used once! I bet you used it just to scare us!" The expert said, and many of the younger generation nodded their heads. What this young man said made perfect sense.

  "I am much stronger than your previous opponent; prepare to lose!!" The man exclaimed as he jumped towards Hui Yue who was still as calm as always.

  "Done yet?" He asked casually, but his casual question enraged the expert in front of him all the more, and as a result, he forced all the Ancestral Worldpower he had into his first attack. This attack was clearly an Ancestral Worldpower skill and not an actual dao causing Hui Yue to just shake his head. He sighed as the blue cloud erupted from his body surging out like a celestial cloud from the heavens as it surrounded the advancing expert, covering him completely.

  What had happened previously repeated itself. The figure within the cloud shook uncontrollably as all his energy was sucked out of his body before he collapsed to the ground. Afterwards, the blue cloud released him and retreated into Hui Yue's body.

  By now the banquet hall was completely silent. No matter how the elders or the younger members observed this blue energy, none of them were able to gain any insights into its nature. Since they did not know what it was, no one could determine how many times Hui Yue could use it, what else this cloud could do, and what the limits of its power were. So far it had easily made two geniuses succumb to its overwhelming power. As for how many more times it could do so before it ran out if it even did... No one knew this answer. The lack of knowledge about Hui Yue’s skills made people uncomfortable.

  While Hui Yue's opponents were being drained of energy, Hui Yue's body was bursting with energy; his skin was almost radiating from the excess energy he had absorbed,
and his body and soul were working hard on trying to refine it.

  Some of the more skilled elders saw this change in him and narrowed their eyes as they tried to find connections between this blue cloud and the dao of devouring, but no matter how they looked it did not feel like an attack relying on this dao. Also, it wasn't any Ancestral Worldpower skill they had ever seen. If anything it seemed like some esoteric force they had never seen, but one should know that getting force power was incredibly rare, so rare that not even many elders possessed this ability.

  Hui Yue went down from the stage and as he did the friends of the fallen comrade jumped onto the stage to pick up the weakened expert and carried him of the stage where he was placed on the ground before the elders of this sect turned to leave.