Blue Phoenix

Together Hui Yue and Gao Yan moved away from the room in the Black Lion and together headed towards the Jade Water Pavilion, an entertainment house within Muchuan City.

Although Hui Yue knew about the place he had never been there as his focus had been on training at home or exploring. Yet here he was on the way to the Jade Water Pavilion together with Gao Yan, eager to hear what his friend had to say about the third prince. Any gossip was of interest to Hui Yue, even if it was bad news.

Both Gao Yan and Hui Yue were cultivators, and they could, therefore, move swiftly through the city. It took them only a few moments to traverse across the city’s rooftops before they arrived at the Jade Water Pavilion.

Standing in front of the pavilion, Hui Yue opened the door and went in. He was secretly very curious about the place, and he looked around the dim lit room with interest.

Many experts and a few mortals were seated in the large hall. Women were seated by their sides continually pouring wine into their cups as they flirted with them. They were convincing the customers to buy more and more wine until their pockets were emptied and they no longer held any interest to the hosts.

Seeing Hui Yue and Gao Yan entering the store, a beautiful woman instantly walked towards them, her hips swaying from side to side. She was so alluring that even Hui Yue raised an eyebrow.

Although Hui Yue approved of this woman’s appearance, he had no interest in her now that he had finally succeeded in wooing Wang Ju Long. In his eyes, no other woman was as beautiful as her, and her personal aura was the most attractive thing in the world.

Seeing that her allure had no effect, the smile on the woman’s face became a little strained, but she still moved towards them.

“Master Gao I see you brought a friend today. Should I prepare the usual room?” She asked, her voice soft and enchanting and her movements seductive as she moved her entire focus onto Gao Yan.

Nodding his head, Gao Yan started following the woman, and Hui Yue, who was unaware of how things were done in the Jade Water Pavilion quickly followed them.

They walked through the main hall filled with customers into a more quiet area where doors led to private rooms. Walking past the private rooms they left the building and entered another building where there were three separate rooms. This was clearly the VIP rooms, and Hui Yue was astonished to hear that Gao Yan had access to them. He imagined that it was the rooms for royalty or high ranked experts.

“This is my usual room when talking with more important clients.” Gao Yan explained as they entered the room and the door closed behind them. Inside four beautiful maidens were waiting for them; the floor was filled with cushions and pillows to make it comfortable, and a small table was placed in the middle; a table filled with fruits, delicacies, and fine wines.

“Excuse us girls; we need to have a private conversation.” Gao Yan said with a smile on his face, and the girls all laughed and teased him as they stood up and left the chamber.

“There is no one listening in on the conversation held between people here in the VIP rooms of the Jade Water Pavilion. All the other rooms are bugged, though.” Gao Yan said casually as he poured wine into the two crystal glasses that were placed on the table, handing one of them over to Hui Yue.

“These rooms are only for extremely important people who have good connections within either Muchuan City, or the Taiyang Kingdom. I can get one of these rooms because the Jade Water Pavilion and my Black Lion are great business partners. All the information that the Jade Water Pavilion gets is sold to me, just like how the Jade Water Pavilion buys our information to keep up to date on everything going on within Muchuan City.”

“Anyhow I am certain that you are not interested in hearing about my partnerships but instead in the information about the third prince.” He snickered, and true enough, Hui Yue’s eyes lit up in curiosity. He moved forward slightly as he looked at his friend opposite him.

“The one who lost the most support during the raid of the grave was the third prince. Although he did not lose all the Saints supporting him, he lost about half of them, and a few of the Saints who have returned have started to ignore him. Which, I guess means that they might have changed their allegiances.”

“The third prince is quite desperate,” Gao Yan continued. “He knows that he is no longer the first in line to the throne, so he is starting to find other allies. His newest attempt is to convince his sister to support him. He believes that if he has his sister support then she will speak to their father about it. If that were to happen then Shui Ye would be as good as king as that is how much their father values his daughter’s opinion.”

“Unfortunately his sister was not willing to do so. She never said no directly, but she never agreed either. Though… Something interesting did happened. The princess has started to gather followers of her own, and somehow it is not as difficult as one would think. The princess is very liked, and many of the experts supporting the King have switched to back the princess. Some of the experts of the princes have switched too.”

“The three princes are aware of what is happening, but none of them seem to believe that she truly will take part since she is a woman.”

Gao Yan kept talking for quite some time, and Hui Yue was smiling happily when he heard what the friend said. “I spoke with the princess before going to the grave,” Hui Yue said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I asked her why she did not want to be the new Queen of the Taiyang Kingdom, and she seemed to realized that she could actually stand as an equal with the princes. I should visit her again; she is doing me a great favor if she is capable of removing some of the support from the third prince,” He grinned.

Gao Yan was surprised to hear this. He had never heard about it before, and he had quite a few people stationed at the castle, but since their conversation had been short, and no one had been around them then it was obvious that no one knew.

“Well, I told you all I had to say,” Gao Yan laughed. “I don’t have information about the other factions just yet since I only paid extra attention to the third prince for the sake of our dear Ju Long and Wu. I know how much they want to get their revenge.” A sigh escaped both Gao Yan and Hui Yue. Both of them knew that Hui Yue had considered getting rid of the prince within the grave, but there had been no chance to do so. Getting rid of him in the outside world was therefore Hui Yue’s only option.

“Well let us drink and eat some food.” Gao Yan said merrily with a big smile on his face. “We are at the Jade Water Pavilion after all. Let us spend some time enjoying ourselves.”

“Let’s,” Hui Yue agreed with a laugh as he lifted the crystal glass and toasted to Gao Yan.

One hour took another as Gao Yan and Hui Yue spoke about old times back at the academy. They spoke about what had happened while Hui Yue had been in the dungeons and in Shenyuan. Gao Yan had been busy during those years building the Black Lion’s massive network. At first, it was nothing more than a small inn but soon it had become the bustling center of all information within the Taiyang Kingdom, and Gao Yan had changed from being a simple citizen to an important figure within the power struggles of nobles. No one dared slight him for fear that he would no longer work with them, and at the same time, no one dared fire their maids and menservants whom they believed were bringing information to the Black Lion.

The conversation between the two friends flowed smoothly; both enjoyed themselves immensely. It was rare for Gao Yan and Hui Yue to spend time alone together, yet Gao Yan had never forgotten what Hui Yue had done for him.

Back at the academy Gao Yan had been severely injured and even made into a cripple. Had it not been for Hui Yue paying a heavy price to invite a Wood healer to heal his dantian, and then handed him a new cultivation technique, then he would have never reached the heights he was at now. Although this was something they never spoke about, and Hui Yue seemed as though he had fully forgotten it, Gao Yan had the gesture etched in his mind. He was willing to do anything for Hui Yue.

The two friends ended up spending a great many hours at the Jade Water Pavilion before they finally broke up as the day was coming to a close.

“Come visit me in a week,” Gao Yan said smilingly. “In a week I will have gathered information about all the Saints who died in the grave, which factions they belonged to, and how the current standing of power within Muchuan City is. Oh, and I will find some information about Sha Yun and her group too.” He said with a smile as they split up outside the Jade Water Pavilion.

Looking into the starry sky, Hui Yue felt content. He had Wang Ju Long by his side; he had a mansion he could call home with two adorable and very talented children. He had money to feed the ones he cared about, and all his friends were safe.

‘Don’t become complacent!’ Lan Feng suddenly said from within the lower dantian. ‘Remember our revenge? Remember Wang Ju Long’s revenge? We have a lot of hardships in front of us. It is okay for you to take it easy for a short while, but you need to constantly train! You are like a sword. An unused sword will become dull. To make a sword useable, you need to constantly nurture it. You need to continually sharpen it, and let it soak in blood. It needs to be tempered by battles. This is what you need as well.’

Lan Feng’s words made a lot of sense to Hui Yue, and he nodded his head. ‘You are right. I should not become complacent; I need to get revenge for my friends. They believe in me, and I have to prove myself worthy!’ He said as he headed back to the mansion. Every step he took moved him four hundred meters forward. The speed with which he traveled was tremendous, and he quickly reached the mansion.

‘I would love to hear how Wang Ju Long and the children’s day went,’ Hui Yue mused to himself as he nodded to the guards who bowed deeply in respect as he passed by.

“They must have had a good day. I gave them enough money to have a great day. I wonder what they ended up buying,” He continued to think about their trip, and he instantly went towards the library where he expected to see the children studying.

Unfortunately, as he entered the library, he found that there was no one within. Frowning he released his spiritual energy and started scanning the mansion, the gardens, and even the attic but no matter how much he looked all he could find were maids, guards, Xu Piao, a chef, and the children’s teacher. Even Cai Jie was gone.

Sitting down with the many books in the library, Hui Yue summoned one scroll after another from the Universe Box and started reading them through. Some were formulas and others skills. Ever so slowly, Hui Yue managed to read through a whole mountain of scrolls, every single one of them fully memorized by Hui Yue.