Blue Phoenix

As soon as Hui Yue made his way back to the courtyard he instantly sat down to cultivate and reflect on just how broken his body had been.

Now that he settled down, Hui Yue remembered how his internal organs had been severely damaged, the only reason why he had not died from that first blow was because he had earlier fortified each organ with Qi.

Knowing that this had saved him, Hui Yue understood that it was important for him to continuously fortify his body. The green pearl within him was a grumpy selfish thing which Hui Yue could not rely on, hence he needed to protect his life at all costs. Something such as fortifying the body was a simple task, however it would slow down his cultivation.

After considering this for some time he noticed that Lan Feng had stayed silent, leaving the decision up to Hui Yue. The white-haired boy finally decided to spend the extra time fortifying his body. What good was a high cultivation base if he died from being tossed around?

The Qi which Hui Yue previously had poured into his blood, organs, and flesh all seeped out, and turned into essence of the heavens and the earth. For Hui Yue to begin fortifying once more it would require a lot of time, but it was worth it if it could save his life.

Without opening his eyes, Hui Yue started cultivating. He left the refinement of the essence into Qi and Qi into spiritual essence to his cultivation technique clones which resided within his two dantians. He then slowly withdrew one strand of Qi after another, leading them through the Chong Mai meridian and into his body where they were being fed to the organs, the blood, the muscles, and the bones creating a much sturdier body than previously.

Last time, when Hui Yue was younger, he had focused on one organ at a time, feeding it Qi until it could no longer accept any more, however now, Hui Yue understood that it was more important to evenly fortify his entire body.

Seated in the courtyard under a large tree, Hui Yue was completely focused on the fortification of his body.

It was not only Hui Yue who had directly entered meditation, Wang Ju Long did the same, rushing to meditate so that she could replenish her spiritual energy for the battle the following day.

Deng Wu was seated in his room writing various inscriptions down, some were fireballs while others were tsunamis. All these relied on small drops of spiritual essence that he gained from Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long with their affinities.

He also created small flowers much akin to the poison field of poppies Wang Ju Long had used before. Even Earthen Spears were created from the spiritual essence from Hui Yue.

This was the power of inscriptions. As long as one had the right materials and resources, one could create anything. The attacks were roughly half the strength of those created by a cultivator with affinity for the used element, however, the variety made up for the lack of strength.

To be an inscriber one relied heavily on preparation before battles. Although he had a few abilities to use during battle, all of them were weaker than his inscriptions and could not save his life for long.

Hui Yue had all his memory stones contained on a belt which he had bought for a hefty price, and he felt as though he was carrying a large amount of storage stones, however this was nothing compared to Deng Wu.

Deng Wu had earrings which were made from polished blue storage stones. He had rings made from storage stones. A necklace made from storage stones. Even his robe and his belts and gloves were adorned with polished stones, all containing more than one memory stone within. To say that Deng Wu had a mountain of storage stones, one would not be lying.

Although Deng Wu had this many storage stones, he was completely certain which items were in which stone and whether or not the stone were stored within another stone.

Hui Yue had long since given up trying to understand how much power Deng Wu possessed, instead he always provided the spiritual energy drops whenever he was asked to.

Deng Wu was a necromancer, but being a necromancer was not the only strength he had. It was a lot like Wang Ju Long having split her cultivation between healing and attacking.

Finishing off the final few inscriptions, Deng Wu stored them within their respective storage stones. After which he picked up another three stones and withdrew beast cores and magical crystals which he then organized by size.

Metal affinity experts were capable of increasing the damage done by their inscriptions by refining the energy within, and using that energy to increase the damage done by the inscribed attack.

The cores and gems also had other usages, but for Deng Wu increasing his inscriptions was the most important purpose, as it could help him save both his life and the lives of his friends.

While Deng Wu was preparing for the battle, Sha Yun was seated in meditation next to Hui Yue. Her lower body had entirely turned into stone while the human part stayed normal. Her brows were furrowed and sweat was dripping down her face as she worked hard to be able to press through to a higher level of merging with Earth.

Xie Lan looked at the group she had ended up in and felt somewhat odd to see everyone instantly submerging themselves in cultivation as soon as they entered the courtyard.

There was no cheering, no celebration. It was as though they had not won the semi-finals of the mercenaries tournament, something every other group would be truly joyful about.

Xie Lan was not only surprised by the behavior, she was also shocked to see how efficiently Wang Ju Long had healed Hui Yue. The longer she spent with the group, the more astonished she was by their strength.

The man whom Hui Yue had been up against at the end was famous within the mercenary world. His close quarters combat abilities were impossible to survive, yet here Hui Yue was, a young man with a somewhat frail looking build and he had survived the most intimidating of all his combos.

To see Hui Yue survive the toss and at the same time win the match, he truly had a tough body something which his exterior did not portray. But a tough body was not enough. It was easy to see that he was severely injured, yet all those injuries vanished within moments after Wang Ju Long released her spiritual energy mixed with the wooden element.

Xu Piao knew where these four came from, however, he did not tell Xie Lan about it, and she could not help but wonder if all four were far stronger than the average Master ranked cultivator? If they were, then Hui Yue had good reason to be trusting of his strength.

Xie Lan gave one last glance at the cultivating youngsters behind her before she slowly exited the courtyard and moved towards Xu Piao’s office to inform him about the events which transpired today, including handing over a storage stone in which she recorded her memories of the entire battle.

….

Hui Yue was seated in meditation for quite some time before he suddenly felt a slight change in his surroundings. He opened his eyes in shock, only to see that right in front of him only a few centimeters from his face was the host for the Mercenary Tournament.

Hui Yue’s eyes widened as he fell backwards, a sudden feeling of danger and helplessness flooded all his senses as a blue flame appeared within his hand. Hui Yue by instinct called forth some of Lan Feng’s affinity, creating a flame much more dangerous than any other.

Upon seeing the blue flame, surprise was visible within the eyes of the smiling host, however he showed no signs of moving.

“Sorry that I surprised you kid,” The man finally opened his mouth and spoke, laughter was hidden within his voice and Hui Yue narrowed his eyes, not dismissing the blue flame in his hand.

“Hey, I don’t plan on doing anything bad,” The man continued, his face was all smiles even his eyes were squinted together in a friendly expression. “Besides , if I wanted you dead, then you’d have been dead already.”

Knowing that the man was correct, Hui Yue slowly extinguished the blue flame within his hand and gestured for them to move somewhere else so that they would not interrupt Sha Yun’s concentration.

Moving to the side, Hui Yue was curious as to why the host appeared his eyes pausing briefly on the mark from the Dragon Corps which rested on his chest.

The host smiled knowingly as he saw his gaze, but said nothing about it before they were seated.

“I am Zhou Long, the captain of all the Dragon Corps within this Demon Dwelling Cave.” He introduced himself, causing Hui Yue to nod in return, “Hui Yue,” he said.

“Have you ever wondered why this place is called Demon Dwelling Cave?” He asked curiously, a faint smile visible on his lips. Hui Yue furrowed his brows while thinking about the name, but in the end shook his head. The name implied that a strong demon beast was hiding within the cave, but it was not something he had spent time considering before.

“Good, very good,” Zhou Long said with a smile on his face, “A Long time ago, a demon beast was found within this cave and for a long time we dared not build any strongholds as the demon beast could instantly annihilate everything we had created. Unfortunately, we had far too many citizens and within a few years we had to inhabit every cave within the underground.”

Zhou Long gave Hui Yue a long sideways glance before he continued, “All this you obviously know,” he said, “It is standard information for everyone within the caves after all.” Hui Yue smiled silently, neither confirming nor denying it.

“Well either way, it has been hundreds upon hundreds of years since we decided to live within this cave, but the demon beast has never shown himself before now.” A long sigh was heard as Zhou Long looked into the sky, “The beast has been resting for a thousand years now and it is the weakest while it’s awakening.”

“I am looking for strong mercenaries and my own Dragon Corps to participate in slaying the beast. Everyone who participates, and survives will be given some astonishing credits within the Dragon Corps. You can even get a letter of recommendation to use at the Dragon Corp’s Headquarters in case you are interested in joining us.”

Hui Yue sent a fierce glare at the man, wondering how much he knew, however, the fierce glare was answered with nothing but a calm smile and confident eyes.

The man stood up from where he was seated and started walking away, before he suddenly stopped and turned back to Hui Yue, “If you manage to survive the final tomorrow, come find me and I’ll give you some more information.”

Having said that, Zhou Long left the courtyard as quietly as he had arrived leaving a baffled Hui Yue behind.

Hui Yue narrowed his eyes as he kept looking at the courtyard gates from where Zhou Long vanished. It was almost too good a situation to end up in. Xu Piao knew that Hui Yue was currently investigating knowledge about the Dragon Corps, and here was a captain of the entire Dragon Corps within Demon Dwelling Cave. Ready to hire Hui Yue and his friends for an important task which would give him all the credits he would need to enter not just the next tunnel, but all tunnels on the way to the middle cave.

Narrowing his eyes, Hui Yue felt that something was not exactly right, but at the same time this was an offer which very rarely appeared. In the end it was only a question about how much they could prepare for in advance.