Blue Phoenix

As Hui Yue rushed through the city gates, the young man was greatly surprised to see that there weren’t any guards present. The tent camp was once more completely empty, but the closer he got to the arena the easier it was to hear voices chatting together making it evident that he was heading towards the location of all the guards.

Reaching the arena, the guards were all standing in formation. The first line was the ten thousand guards belonging to Wan Qiao by their side were the ones belonging to Pan Long and so on. The common soldiers were standing in a neat row with one thousand in each line with their commander in front. Everyone was chatting, yet as soon as Hui Yue was spotted quietness descended upon the group of cultivators. No one said a word, but everyone looked at him with curiosity in their eyes. The rumors of his spars from the previous day had long since reached every corner of the army, and everyone was curious if this young man truly possessed god-like abilities that could force an unwounded opponent into submission.

“It’s easy to tell what they are thinking,” Hui Yue said to himself in a low voice as he once more swept his eyes across the many soldiers before he stopped in front of the commanders. Nodding in their direction, Hui Yue once more stepped onto the large arena.

The arena was raised approximately one meter into the air, and this one meter allowed Hui Yue to get a better look at the army in front of him.

“Today our training will begin,” Hui Yue said with a serious voice. “Gather in your groups of five!” Hui Yue continued, and movement started to appear in the fine lines of guards. After what seemed like ten minutes, the movement stopped.

“Now you are to fight against each other. Fight in groups of five. Everyone apart from your group is your enemy. The commanders will roam the battleground, and if you are heavily wounded, you will leave to get healed. If anyone continues fighting with an injury, I will personally ensure that they never make it to the actual war.”

“When you have left, your group will continue fighting with one person less. This is not a fair duel. Sometimes your group will fight against five against ten, other times it will be the group which is ten against five. On a battleground, no such thing as fairness exists. Survival is what counts, and you need to learn how to fight to stay alive.”

Hui Yue was quiet as he looked at the many guards, his words caused some of them to pale with nervousness while others had wide grins spreading across their faces showing the excitement they felt.

“Lord,” Suddenly one of the commanders spoke up, and Hui Yue instantly paid his full attention to the Emperor. Although Hui Yue had a higher rank, he fully respected these Emperors who had managed to reach such a high rank without relying on things such as past lives and strange abilities.

“Speak,” He said with a nod. The commander cleared his throat, his eyes flicking from one side to the other.

“Where will we fight?” He asked as he scratched himself on the back of his head causing the smile on Hui Yue’s face to grew larger.

“You are to start the battle right now where you stand,” He said, and a murmur instantly rose to the sky. Everyone was shocked. They were currently standing incredibly close to one another, how could they fight in such conditions? This was simply impossible for these guards who were used to sparring at the arena and having space to move around.

“This is not a sparring match,” Hui Yue reminded them as he knew exactly what each and every one of these guards was thinking. “When you are fighting in this war you will have no space to maneuver around unless you, yourself, create that space by slaughtering your enemies. This is one of the most important reasons that we are starting with this exercise,” Hui Yue explained. The more he spoke, the more sense it made to the listening experts.

“I need you to understand that this is now war; I need you to fully embrace the fighting method and environment we will be fighting in. I want all of you to become an army, an army which Shenyuan and its lords can be proud of.” Hui Yue finished and as he did a fire burned in the eyes of every single one of the highly skilled experts. Their hearts were beating faster than before, and they all told themselves that they would prove that they would show the army of Shenyuan to the world, that they were capable of acting like soldiers.

“Well in that case,” Hui Yue said with a smile on his face, “There is no reason to waste anymore time. You all understand what I expect from you, make me proud and fight to your hearts content. Remember that when you get injured you are to leave the battlefield.”

Having said this, Hui Yue hit a bell he brought with him, and as soon as the sound was heard clattering sounds came from the ground in front of him. Some of the experts took beast shape, others produced weapons, and yet others fought with their bare hands in human form. No matter what they did everyone wanted to persevere, everyone wished to be the last man standing. The person who could prove to this mysterious Grand Marshall that they at least were worth his time to train.

The sounds of fighting instantly filled the air. A few screams were heard here and there, and soon a small line of wounded experts were leaving the battleground. Some had severe wounds which the healers treated promptly while others had minor injuries. There were external and internal wounds. There were broken arms and legs alongside punctured lungs and broken ribs.

But although there was a steady stream of people leaving the battleground, Hui Yue’s smile increased. In front of him was four hundred thousand experts and the battles were raging back and forth. Some groups used tactics and prioritized survival while others just aimed to defeat as many as possible, even going as far as to making it a competition within their group to see who could defeat the most people.

“It seems as if they have overcome the biggest hurdle,” Hui Yue mumbled as he saw how battles were flowing back and forth. Everyone was getting used to fighting in close proximity with one another. Some of the groups were doing great together. They were able to depend on one another to watch their backs while others were completely dysfunctional together. Those groups did not last long.

Looking at the healers, a long line of wounded could be seen. Hui Yue narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember every single face of the first many experts that were taken out of the training. Although it was likely that they could have lost because multiple experts teamed up against them in the beginning, it was more likely that these experts lost because they had failed to work with their group effectively.

Seeing how many lost right at the start, Hui Yue had mixed emotions. Although he felt that it was to be expected, that many would fail this exercise, he still had hoped that considering they were all kings and emperors they should be evenly matched. Observing the battlefield once again, Hui Yue had to admit that around ten groups of five caught his eye. They stood out due to different reasons; however, the white-haired young man had no doubt that the final spot would belong to one of these groups.

One group was defensive, their backs facing each other. As they stood their ground, neither of them attacked others, but as soon as one person attacked them, the entire group would work together to fight their foe. Wiping out their enemy quickly before they once more took up their previous position. Looking at them like this, Hui Yue only had praise for them. He had, after all, told them that survival was the most important thing, and watching this group they easily understood what he meant.

There was another group that used the completely opposite tactic, yet although they were highly offensive, they also relied on one another. It was like watching the waves of the ocean, each filled with strength and determination but at the same time a part of the whole. The five of this offensive group were moving around gracefully, trusting their partners to have their backs while at the same time disposing of as many experts as possible.

Another group was more conventional in their approach. Their group of five constantly attacked groups which were already entangled against another group, or they would all focus on the same few people using raw power to dominate their opponents.

Looking at the many experts on the grounds below, Hui Yue could not help but smile. As time went by, fewer and fewer experts were left below as more and more were either waiting to be treated or had already been treated by the healers.

Hui Yue sighed as the sun reached the highest position in the sky. Many hours had already gone past since they started fighting but now that more than half the army was eliminated, the fighting became increasingly desperate.

Another three or four hours passed while the stream of injured became smaller and smaller and as the day was finally coming to a close, Hui Yue was grateful to see that at least ten thousand had managed to fight through the entire day without giving up.

Clapping his hands Hui Yue stood up, and seeing that the battles did not stop, he raised his voice which boomed throughout the area, “That is it for today.” He said and as everyone heard the voice they instantly stopped fighting. Looking at these remaining ten thousand guards all had smirks on their faces. Proud expressions could be seen on all of them, and their pride caused Hui Yue to smile back at them.

“Tomorrow we will do the same thing,” Hui Yue continued explaining, his words causing everyone to raise an eyebrow. Fighting again, the ones who were eliminated early felt excited as they would be able to redeem themselves while the experts who had done well swore to do even better the following day. Nevertheless, everyone seemed more cooperative than at the beginning of the day, and all of them glanced at one another to trying to see whether or not their partners were as excited about the following day’s training as they, themselves, were.

Seeing this, Hui Yue had a surprised smile on his face as he left the training grounds. He did not expect that these prideful experts would be so quick to accept this form of training, yet everyone seemed eager. Something which made everything much easier for Hui Yue.

As the young man left the arena, multiple experts rushed to the stage. What shocked Hui Yue was that these experts were no longer sparring one on one, instead they were fighting five against five. Seeing this, Hui Yue stayed behind. As one hour took another, one group after another practiced their teamwork. They merged their attacks and improved their teamwork to give them an advantage the following day.

Seeing that the steady stream of experts on the stage did not stop, Hui Yue smiled as he finally turned around and walked back to the castle. It was time for him to start cultivating. To refine more Yin energy and merge his Yin and Yang energies to create more Wu Wei. Everything was going according to plan so far, and Hui Yue was very satisfied with how things were progressing.