Blue Phoenix

By rushing Hui Yue managed to return to the capital in time. He dashed to the palace in the middle of the city, the palace where Wan Qiao was waiting for him. Knowing that she was waiting for him, he rushed as fast as he possibly could remembering the greeting he had received the first time the two of them had met in the palace. His head was tingling just thinking about the pain from her slaps.

Wan Qiao had just finished removing a delegation sent from Siban Empire, a group which contained a Saint, and she had a lot of paperwork to deal with afterwards. She had lost quite a few guards, and their families were in need of the sad news. That together with a sum of money so they could manage for future now that the ones bringing in their livelihood were gone.

While some received bad news, others who excelled in the battle were promoted or gifted rewards for their outstanding results. It was Wan Qiao’s job to ensure that these many beasts were properly rewarded but at the same time help those who never again would see their families.

A fortunate thing about being within this kingdom of beasts was that there were only beasts. In the end, should they be incapable of managing in the cities, they had the choice of returning to the forest and letting go of their beastly instincts. They could then go back to how they originally were.

Hui Yue was excited as he returned to the capital, hoping, seriously hoping, that Wan Qiao was in a great mood. He could not help but wonder what kind of training he would undergo now.

Although Hui Yue gladly followed the training given to him by Lan Feng’s nanny, he could not help but wonder why he constantly had a feeling as if someone was pulling his soul; as if he had missed something completely obvious.

Shaking his head, Hui Yue laughed at himself. Although something seemed off, he could not help but feel that eventually he would understand what was happening. Either way, constantly worrying about this feeling did nothing good for him. He could not afford to pay all his attention to something he did not understand. He needed to become much stronger, so strong that he would be capable of returning to the Taiyang Kingdom; strong enough to see his friends whom he missed greatly.

As soon as Hui Yue arrived at the palace, he was stopped by a pair of guards. These two guards were anything but happy to once more see Hui Yue return safely. Although they wished to hold him back and ensure that he could not enter the palace both were aware that he was a personal guest of Wan Qiao. Shutting him out was so dangerous that they were likely to be punished by their master, and her punishment was anything from whiplashes to her personally cutting them to pieces. Although they were strong beasts, Wan Qiao was much stronger that any beast within Shenyuan; everyone feared her rage.

As the two guards glared at Hui Yue, they could do nothing else but open up a path for the white-haired young man with unsightly faces. Every guard he met on his trip back to Wan Qiao’s chambers glared at him, yet none of them dared do anything else apart from glaring. All of them respected Wan Qiao far too much.

Hui Yue paid no attention whatsoever to these guards. His only focus was on meeting up with Wan Qiao so that he could prove that he made it back in time. Afterwards, he wished to return to training. Having rushed back, Hui Yue felt a pain in his heart every time he thought about his friends who were waiting for him. All of them having waited for more than a year already. The young man could not help but wonder whether or not they would keep waiting for him.

Gritting his teeth, he saw Wang Ju Long’s figure in front of him, however, unlike usual she would turn her back on him and walk away. Something which caused his heart to shake in pain. Her departing figure left him with restless and scared that this would turn into reality that he was almost panicked in his rush back to Wan Qiao’s quarters.

Reaching his destination, Hui Yue knocked hard on the door, “Enter.” A voice sounded from within, and Hui Yue did just that entering the rooms to present himself.

Hui Yue expected Wan Qiao to be alone within the chambers, but he soon found that Li Meilin was with her. The two women were speaking together in low voices. As soon as Hui Yue stepped inside both ceased their conversation and looked at him. Surprise was evident in Li Meilin’s eyes; it was clear that she did not expect the young man to return in time. While surprise was evident in Li Meilin’s eyes, satisfaction shone in Wan Qiao’s eyes.

“Welcome back my little beast,” She said laughingly as she looked at Hui Yue. When she left him, he had just gained an immense amount of strength through a trance she had never seen before; however, looking at him now, he was indeed a strong young man. His cultivation base no longer seemed as though it was uneven or unbalanced; instead, it was clearly balanced now. The young man showed a certain degree of arrogance and self-confidence which he had not shown previously. Seeing him like this, Wan Qiao could easily imagine how he could become the perfect pillar of support.

“I need to speak with you later about those mysterious phenomena,” Wan Qiao said, not going into details as she wished for no one else to know about exactly what was hidden within Hui Yue’s body. Especially not a woman who was sent here on behalf of another empire.

Hui Yue understood her intentions and bowing slightly towards the two women in front of him, he left the chambers and headed towards the room which he was given earlier.

Having rushed back to the capital, Hui Yue traveled day and night, fighting beasts constantly until he finally returned. During the trip back, Hui Yue spent the time to become more familiar with his new strength, but what he did not have time to do was cultivate.

Usually, when traveling he would spend the nights cultivating, but this time out of fear of the punishment he would receive if he were late he understood that he did not have the luxury to cultivate.

Now that he was back, it was about time for him to cultivate once more.

Reaching his room, he saw that nothing had been touched during the time he had been away. This made him feel relieved as he had feared the guards underhanded revenge, but it seemed that he had truly misunderstood the guards. Although they hated him, they would not stoop to such a level.

Closing the door behind him, Hui Yue sat down on the bed and started breathing steadily. A smile unconsciously appeared on his face as a comfortable calmness spread across his body. His consciousness entered down into his lower dantian where the two beasts were waiting, the wolf and the bird.

Sighing deeply, Hui Yue started to roam through every meridian, both his dantians and the veins, to see what major changes had occurred in his body. He was aware that he had absorbed energies far stronger than those belonging to the middle dantian; however, no matter how much he searched, he was completely unable to find even the slightest trace of this incredibly strong power. This power he remembered from the Laws and from the world in which he resided. The power called Ancestral Worldpower.

Seeing that he could find no signs of this immense power, Hui Yue could do nothing but sigh as he returned to the lower dantian and sat down to cultivate. As he cultivated, he fell into a deep trance, and while he was within this trance, the blue cloud within one of the dantian caves started to act.

The cloud left the cave and started to surround the unconscious young man. A white mist floated out through the body leaving every vein and every pore which condensed into a large white mist around him. This mist slowly changed from a white cloud to a huge blue starry sky. A sky where every star was sparkling with an astonishing golden gleam. Soon one star after another touched Hui Yue on his forehead where it slowly vanished. Hui Yue was so absorbed in his cultivation that he noticed nothing. The only thing he experienced was an increase in the speed with which he was cultivating, but it was not enough that he felt a need to examine it.

Having cultivated for a couple of hours, every single star was absorbed into his forehead, and Hui Yue opened his eyes. His brows furrowed slightly as he wondered what exactly it was he just experienced.

Seeing that nothing was different from usual, he shrugged it off and came to the conclusion that he would know later if it was important. Standing up, he made his way back to Wan Qiao’s chambers where he once more knocked. Same as last time her voice called him to enter.

This time, there was no one apart from Wan Qiao within the room. She smiled gently as Hui Yue arrived, yet the smile was in no way something which caused him to be calm. He had long since learned that whenever Wan Qiao was smiling, something dangerous was going to happen. Either she had found someone incredibly powerful for Hui Yue to fight against, or perhaps she had come up with another way to torment Hui Yue.

Although she wanted to mold him into a pillar of support, deep within, every time she looked at this young man she was reminded about Lan Feng, this caused her to feel like annoying him limitlessly. Fortunately, she had long since learned how to merge her wish of tormenting him with her wish of teaching him. She felt immense pleasure while creating a training schedule from hell for him. What she did not expect was that the young man had not questioned the schedule, but instead followed it to the letter. Although she disliked the blue phoenix, she felt proud and motherly affection towards the young man. Soon she gave up her wish for vengeance against the bird, and instead wished to polish this skilled young man.

“Come inside and sit down,” Wan Qiao said with a happy voice the moment she saw Hui Yue. She gestured to the chair where Li Meilin was sitting previously. Following her request Hui Yue sat down, a gentle smile on his face. He too knew that Wan Qiao was serious about training him, but even so he still longed to see his friends and family.

Looking at him, Wan Qiao could instantly see that he was thinking about something else, and with a sigh, she sat down in front of him.

“Why are you so eager to return anyway?” She asked curiously. Hui Yue had previously told her everything about his adventures and she knew that it was his friends, but what she did not know was why they mattered so much to him.

“You even got betrayed by some of your friends before!” She pointed out with an expression showing complete and utter confusion. Seeing this expression on her face, Hui Yue could not help but smile slightly.

“They are my friends,” He said with a shrug. “Although there is a chance that they will betray me. I would rather be betrayed than become someone who does not trust his friends, and accuse them wrongly. Should I be betrayed by my friends then I will deal with it, but how can I ever succeed if I push everyone away from me in the beginning?”

Hearing the young man’s feelings about his friends, Wan Qiao sighed without speaking anymore about the subject, and she decided to change the topic.