Blue Phoenix

The unsaid threat hung in the air, yet everyone wore expressions of relief. A slight frown appeared on his face, as he did not notice any signs of worry about his final words. It seemed as though the Dragon Corps were very fearsome indeed.

The frown disappeared almost as soon as it arrived, but his friends managed to notice it and made a mental note to remember the name Dragon Corps. The following day when they needed to look for information; that was definitely one of the things they would investigate.

Although not much had been said at the banquet, Hui Yue had already gotten two important pieces of information: one was the unknown tunnels where experts apparently lived on the other side while the second piece of information was the Dragon Corps.

Thinking about the information given, Hui Yue came up with various theories, but one thing was certain. This cave that they were in was combined with at least one other cave where cultivators lived and controlled the surroundings.

The Dragon Corps was something which Hui Yue felt must have had something to do with the Azure Dragon since these dungeons were located beneath the Azure Dragon’s kingdom. However were they remnants left behind from the time where the Azure Dragon himself walked the earth, or had they taken the name due to other reasons?

Curiosity flooded Hui Yue and he could no longer wait to go and see these tunnels on his own, but he knew that before moving further into the dungeons, he needed to find Sun and return her to the other laws.

Suddenly, from within his mind, a small ray of sunshine opened up the discussion about laws, and Hui Yue felt as though he finally understood something.

Hanging on to that thought for dear life, Hui Yue managed to get through the rest of the banquet with pleasantries and nice conversation for a couple of hours before standing up and apologizing for retiring early. He was exhausted from his travel and no one at the table dared to say anything in return. Only polite nods and friendly smiles were given as he rushed back to the courtyard.

Following behind, his friends had long since noticed that something was different from usual, and the three of them looked out for anything that might be slightly out of the ordinary, as Hui Yue’s only thought was to return to the courtyard.

Fortunately, the trip was over with no troubles and Hui Yue arrived safely at the courtyard where he instantly sat down in a meditational position, closed his eyes and submerged himself in the brilliant enlightenment he had experienced during the banquet.

Looking at Hui Yue, sighs were heard, but they quickly changed to giggles as the three friends looked at each other. Hui Yue was definitely the one who had gathered them all together. They had been together with him for years at the academy, they had fought through the battle of Riluo City, they had managed to overcome the trauma of killing many people, and also banishment from their home.

During the months long travel, they had gotten to know a side of Hui Yue they did not notice before, and one of these things was his hunger for breakthroughs. As soon as he gained enlightenment, he would stop everything for the sake of meditating. It did not matter if he was in the middle of a stream or rushing through the fields.

Usually, the white-haired man would only be meditating on his enlightenment for up to an hour, yet this time seemed different. As Hui Yue sat down to meditate, Sha Yun, Deng Wu, and Wang Ju Long all gathered around him, guarding him should these hosts suddenly change opinion on how to treat the young master.

One hour took another and the dusk turned to dawn; the sun rose in the sky and the morning had broken, bringing with it noises from a bustling city.

Looking at Hui Yue, who had stayed in the same position for hours on end, Deng Wu finally stood up and stretched his sore body.

“It seems as if he will stay like that for quite some time,” He commented while stretching some more. “I suggest that we split up. One of us stays here and makes sure that no one disrupts Yue, while the others go to the city for information.”

Hearing Deng Wu’s suggestion, both Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun nodded their heads. Deng Wu thought for a bit before picking up Wang Ju Long.

Sha Yun was happy to stay back and she quickly settled down next to Hui Yue. Ensuring that she did not in any way interrupt him with his meditation, yet there were not many breadths of hair between the two.

Wang Ju Long’s face turned slightly sour, but quickly recovered its usual expression as she donned a black cloak, hiding her features. Deng Wu decided to wear something similar, and the two cloaked people vanished through the mansion gates.

As soon as the two left the courtyard, followers had appeared; their abilities were far too weak to stalk Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long, however, and as soon as they had gone through the gates, the two cloaks faded into the crowd of people.

Rushing through town Deng Wu aimed for the marketplaces, but he was quickly shocked to find that everything within this city was different from what they had expected.

There was no such thing as a marketplace; instead, there was a corn distribution center. Going there, Deng Wu found that money did not exist within this city and everyone shared what they had.

All harvests were given to the City Lord’s mansion, who then shared it between every family within the city. Not to mention crafting jobs, everyone did everything for free.

There was such a thing as a noble family, yet noble families were seen as similar to the City Lord, a family which shared all their harvests with the citizens.

Everyone did their own job at their own time, but none of them got paid even the smallest coin for doing so; instead, they did it to be entitled for the weekly food distribution.

Looking at it this way, a smile appeared on Deng Wu’s face. Although there was no money in this city and everyone was eligible for food, a lot of them would not get enough if they were sick or orphans, so Deng Wu instantly changed his plan, no longer aiming for merchants but instead the poor areas in the city.

The poor areas were the ones that they had seen first when they entered the city days before, and as soon as the people saw Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long in their cloaked appearances, everyone would vanish into their farmhouses.

Deng Wu decided to stop in the middle of the street. Looking behind him for a few moments, a deep sigh could be heard from beneath the cloak and he quickly removed it, allowing for his features to reappear.

Although Deng Wu had walked through the day before, no one had noticed him as all the attention had been on Hui Yue. Deng Wu was nothing but a retainer, which now ensured that no one had remembered his face.

Although the adults were worried about his sudden appearance, especially since it was the face of a man they had never seen before, most of the children had less hesitation and rushed towards him as he knelt down on the ground and greeted them.

From within his storage ring a couple of strips of dried meat were suddenly produced, and the eyes of the children grew with excitement. Not only because of the meat, but also due to the way it had appeared out of nowhere.

Chewing on one of the meat strips himself, Deng Wu shared them with the kids and laughed as they took them with grateful expressions.

Within the houses, women started to appear in the doorways. “Excuse me.” One of the younger woman finally had the courage to speak to Deng Wu and stood with her arms crossed over her chest, a half worried expression on her face.

“Can we help you with anything?” She asked again, her voice trembling slightly as she kept looking at Deng Wu, worried what he might do.

“As a matter of fact,” Deng Wu spoke slowly and clearly, allowing all to hear what he was saying, “I am looking for someone to answer some questions for me. I’ll trade meat for information, but whatever I ask about must stay a secret.”

Hearing the voice, more women came over and Deng Wu was invited into a house where he was offered to speak with the women.

Outside the door was Wang Ju Long, ensuring that no one who went in was someone unallowed to do so.

The sun was setting behind the city before Deng Wu once more emerged from within the house, a satisfied expression on his face. With a nod to Wang Ju Long, Deng Wu once more covered himself with the black cloak before he started to move back to the courtyard, curious as to whether or not Hui Yue had woken up yet, as he had gotten quite a large amount of information.

….

Hui Yue had been frantic. During the banquet he had a flash of enlightenment, yet for each moment he stayed with the hosts, the more he struggled to hang on to the information which was so clear in the beginning, and in the end he had to leave the meal early under the excuse of having to return home to rest.

Going back, Hui Yue could think of nothing but the words swirling within his mind. The words ‘Natural Laws,’ ‘Gods,’ and ‘Way of Cultivating.’ Hui Yue was grateful that he did not have to worry about his surroundings, as he knew that he was protected. The most important thing was for him to focus on his enlightenment while his friends would deal with anything else.

Seeing the courtyard come into his line of sight, a sigh of relief escaped Hui Yue as he instantly sat down, closed his eyes and allowed for his mental projection to enter the dantian cave, where it entered the deepest kind of meditation that Hui Yue currently possessed.

Being submerged within himself, Hui Yue once more thought about the three words which had appeared from a golden beam of enlightenment.

This world was based on natural laws. Each law was a certain property which could not be changed.

The sun would rise in the sky during day only to be replaced by the moon at night. The wind would blow, and time would keep flowing no matter what happened to the continent and kingdoms.

But the natural laws were not limited to the sun and the moon or the seasons and the weather. Everything was touched by these natural laws and every law was predetermined, created by the Gods. For a person to escape these laws, one had to become a God. One had to become a creator.

The law of time made this hard, the law of death was always looming, but the law of cultivation was open for any human who wished to pursue their luck.

Seated still, Hui Yue frowned as he understood some things, yet others were still far too profound for him to grasp.

This world was filled with laws, and these laws had been created by the Gods when they created the world. They were as old as the world and they would live and die with the world. Although Sun had been taken away, her law was still true, and this meant that as long as the world was standing, she too would survive.

It was obvious that saving her was purely a test given to him by Lan Feng in the hope of helping him improve his cultivation base.