Blue Phoenix

Leaving the office in which Xu Piao had been working, Hui Yue, Cai Jie, and the twins returned to the entrance hall where the stairs were located. Stairs from which Hui Yue heard soft steps, and when he looked up a smile played on his lips. This was not Wang Ju Long. In front of him was a tall adult. His hair was azure blue, and his eyes were dark blue matching his hair. His skin was white with a slight blue hue. If anything, he was as odd as Hui Yue and Cai Jie.

The blue young man stopped in his tracks when he saw Hui Yue. His eyes widened as he stared at the white-haired young man. Looking at Deng Wu for the first time in over a year, Hui Yue could not help but frown. Deng Wu was usually the foolish and playful person of their group, yet the man standing in front of him did not seem playful; instead, he seemed incredibly serious. Looking into his deep blue eyes, Hui Yue finally found something he recognized as deep within was a gleam of playfulness that characterized Deng Wu.

The young man, who, just like the Rong twins, no longer had the youthful expression of a child but instead the appearance of a responsible grown up caused Hui Yue to look at him with curiosity. It seemed that during the time they had been away from one another, Hui Yue was not the only one who had changed. Scolding himself, Hui Yue knew that he should not be surprised by something like this, as close to two years had passed since he had last seen them escaping the dungeons. A year had been spent traveling through the tunnels and almost a full year was spent training with Wan Qiao, teaching the armies how to fight, and then finally going to war. Although his friends were likely to not have gone through something as extreme as him, life still went on. And with life, complications always appeared. Complications which one had to solve to keep living.

“It’s been quite some time,” Deng Wu got himself together much faster than any of the others had, and a gentle smile appeared on his lips as he descended the stairs quicker than before. He went up to Hui Yue, and he hugged the other man. “It is good to see you unharmed. Why on earth would you become the Grand Marshall for the beast army?”

Hui Yue was completely taken aback by the question, and he stared at Deng Wu with a blank expression for a few seconds before he shook his head with a smile on his lips. “How on earth do you know about that?” He inquired and Deng Wu just shrugged as he looked around, “Gao Yan knows all,” He said, “After we entered the capital that man spent all his time on setting up the best information network in the entire world, and he did very well. He has sources in every major city and in some smaller ones. When people fled the Imperial Capital, they brought with them tales of the beast horde and their white-haired demon lord who was as beautiful as the midnight moon, but as deadly as white burial lilies.” Hearing what Deng Wu said made him lost for words. Although he had participated in the war, he did not expect that everyone knew about him, and only now did he understand why they had been avoided like they had during their trip to the capital.

“I told you that it was you they were staring at,” Cai Jie said with a grin on his face, clearly satisfied with finally finding proof that he was correct. Hearing the golden young man speak, Hui Yue snorted, but he did nothing to argue. Now was not the time to argue.

“This is troublesome,” He said while scratching his chin. “I have been invited to the City Lord’s mansion tonight, and I said yes to the invitation. Perhaps he is planning on killing us,” He said quietly. Being the Grand Marshall of the beast horde was not something he wished for everyone to know about.

Hearing the words Hui Yue said the Rong twins and Deng Wu both started laughing. “Don’t worry. If he or the royal family wished you dead then you would already be dead, they would just have sent a Saint to deal with you.” They said to one another and Hui Yue grumbled a little as he heard this; however, it did indeed make sense.

“Well, I would like to see them try,” Both Cai Jie and Hui Yue said at the same time while they showed sinister smiles and their eyes were both filled with killing intent. Hui Yue had gained his killing intent from the red wolf. This killing intent had been savage and wild at the start, but after the war, Hui Yue felt changes in his killing intent. Before it had just billowed forth and filled everything with a deep cold making his targets freeze and sweat at the same time. Back then, he had been incapable of fully controlling it, but after he had battled many experts during the war, he gained control over it. It was as though the killing intent fully belonged to him now.

Cai Jie also had a killing intent as strong as Hui Yue’s. As for where or how he managed to gain this killing intent, Hui Yue had no idea, but he knew that he would think more than once if he were to fight the expert who was standing behind him. Cai Jie had many secrets up his sleeves.

Seeing the expressions on the two different looking young men, even the composed Deng Wu felt a shiver run down his spine. It was obvious that they had experienced war. Death had followed them closely, and they had killed countless around them. It was obvious they were used to being only a hair away from death grasping them and delivering them to the Netherworld.

“If I am not mistaken, both of you are Kings right?” Deng Wu frowned as he spoke, “How can it be possible for you to defeat Saints?” Both Hui Yue and Cai Jie smirked, “We have our ways.” They said but didn’t go into details. Hui Yue was confident that if a Saint came to kill him, even if Hui Yue could not defeat him, he could definitely rely on Velocity Flow to escape. Velocity Flow had evolved together with him and had gotten even stronger after Hui Yue focused on external training. If it were a mediocre Saint, then he would have no way to keep up with the swift Hui Yue. As for Cai Jie’s secrets, Hui Yue did not know but thinking back to the dead Crusaders he felt a small bit of discomfort as he still had no idea how they were killed.

Deng Wu saw the moment of discomfort in Hui Yue’s eyes, and he nodded as he accepted their reasons. Although they had not seen each other for a long time, Deng Wu was still as good at understanding Hui Yue as he had ever been, and he did not wish to pressure the white-haired man when he had finally returned.

Just as Hui Yue was about to open his mouth and ask where Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long were at he heard the door forced open and a massive snake-woman appeared in front of him. Her skin was still as yellow as it had been before, and her eyes shone silver from the beast contract shared between the two of them. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears and as soon as she saw Hui Yue she threw herself into his embrace crying uncontrollably. Seeing her, a gentle expression appeared on Hui Yue’s face. He gently patted her head combing her hair with his hand.

“I’m back,” He said gently, but nothing seemed to be heard as Sha Yun was hanging on to Hui Yue for sheer life. It seemed that she feared that he would vanish again at any moment. Deng Wu wanted to help remove her, but Hui Yue just shook his head. He had forced her to leave him back in the Dungeons of the Divine. The least he could do was allow her to cry on his shoulder. He could imagine how worried she had been during the long time he had been gone.

It took Sha Yun around half an hour of crying before she could manage to get herself under control. Smiling at her, Hui Yue cleared her eyes gently with his hand and smiled at her. “Don’t worry,” He said smilingly, “I won’t go anywhere now. I’ll stay here together with you and the others.”

Hearing this a sad smile appeared on Sha Yun’s face, and Hui Yue took her by the hand as he apologetically smiled to all the others who had waited for the crying to end. But no one seemed annoyed, not even Cai Jie. All of them understood exactly why Sha Yun was as elated as she was when she was crying on Hui Yue’s shoulder.

“We just need to find Gao Yan and Wang Ju Long,” Hui Yue said. The moment he mentioned her name, he felt a warmth inside, but at the same time, Sha Yin tightened her grip around his hand when her name was mentioned as though she refused to let go. As if she refused to let him go see her.

“Gao Yan is out working. He will not be back before tonight,” Rong Ming said from the side, “Wang Ju Long, on the other hand, is most likely at the infirmary learning new healing skills about. She has been training harder than anyone since she returned, and she currently specializes in poison and healing, not even mentioning her skills with a staff that are astonishing. Even we have trouble defeating her even though she is just a Duke.”

Knowing that everyone would return in the evening, Hui Yue regretted accepting the City Lord’s invitation for dinner, but he did not feel like standing up someone that important. Knowing that he had such an important meeting later, Deng Wu took both Hui Yue and Cai Jie upstairs where their rooms were located. Picking two rooms at the end of the hall Deng Wu gave them to his two new guests. As they entered, they found the suites much better than anything they had stayed at during their trip to the capital.

“Thank you,” Hui Yue said to Deng Wu before the two young men each entered their room. Each room had a bathtub, a luxury they missed quite a bit on the road to the capital. Soaking in the warm water for a long period of time, both men managed to get rid of all the dirt from their trip. As soon as they were done, they put their finest garments on and tied up their hair. Just as Hui Yue finished he heard knocking on his door and as he opened it he found Cai Jie waiting for him outside. Hui Yue was wearing a white robe with blue embroidery of the Vermilion Bird. Cai Jie was wearing a red robe with golden embroideries on it and the two looked the other over before giving an approving nod.

Leaving the upper floors, they saw Deng Wu, the Rong Twins, Sha Yun, and Xu Piao downstairs waiting for them. “Take your time at the dinner appointment; we’ll make sure that both Gao Yan and Wang Ju Long are here when you return.” They promised. Sha Yun was pouting because Hui Yue had said that she could not follow him to the dinner. It was just a meal after all.

With nods to his friends, Hui Yue and Cai Jie left the house and started walking the direction that they had been told by their friends. The sun was setting and dusk was now arriving. It was the perfect time for the dinner meeting, but Hui Yue could not help feeling a bit worried about what the City Lord truly wanted from them. Walking into the night a bad feeling descended upon Hui Yue.