Blue Phoenix

Seated in the tree, Hui Yue did not move at all. For the first couple of hours, Lan Feng was in control of their body. This was because Hui Yue was fully focused on controlling the soul copy.

Now he was back in control of the body, but he could not do anything. The sun had not set yet, and the princess was still within the garden. The guards were still all over the palace grounds, and Hui Yue needed the cover of darkness to slip from the princess' mansion to the third prince's mansion.

He also needed to figure out how to break into the mansion and find the third prince, but he understood that everything had to be taken one step at a time. He could not just barge into the third prince’s palace; he had to wait for the opportune moment. This would also make it easier for the blame to shift even more to someone else, as it would have been quite a while since he had left the palace. It would make people more unlikely to link the assassination to Hui Yue.

The sun slowly sets in the distance and darkness slowly descended upon Muchuan city. As daylight faded, the princess suddenly appeared beneath Hui Yue. She was moving to her mansion, and soon soft light from light stones shone out through the windows of her mansion.

Soft voices and laughter rang out from the mansion and soon the outside had turned pitch black. It was so black that Hui Yue could finally move without being noticed. Hui Yue gently climbed down from the tree and started moving further and further into the palace grounds.

Many guards were guarding the palace grounds, but none of them noticed Hui Yue, who had put on his black cloak which hid his aura, slowly inched closer and closer to the mansion belonging to the third prince.

The palace grounds were massive. The individual prince's and the princess' mansions were isolated from the rest of the palace grounds. They had their own guards and their own protection, but as Hui Yue inched closer and closer to the third prince's grounds, he found fewer and fewer experts and guards patrolling the premises. It was as though the third prince was against having anyone moving on his territory and although this made Hui Yue's mission easier it also made him more alert. Why was there a lack of guards, what on earth could the third prince be hiding?

It was no hard task to enter the garden in the back of the prince’s mansion; no one blocked him, no one noticed him. This mansion was filled with life much like the princess' mansion. There were many rooms that were lit up, and laughter and voices drifted out from within the rooms. Everyone was clearly having a good time.

Although there were a lack of guards, it seemed as though the mansion was filled with people; shadows could be seen everywhere through the windows laughing and moving about.

Hui Yue was hiding in the garden hesitating to move closer as he wondered what he should do. At first, he had expected the lack of guards to be a benefit for him, a way for him to fight the third prince without interruptions; however, moments after he found that the mansion was actually filled with people. Entering the mansion was now not an option, so he decided to wait outside until the prince emerged. Then he would ambush and kill him. If he showed up with another person, then Hui Yue would improvise accordingly.

Standing outside, Hui Yue was submerged in his thoughts. The fact that he was wearing the black robe should make it impossible for anyone below the Saint rank to notice him. Suddenly he heard a branch snap behind him.

Turning around, right in front of him was the third prince. A smile played on his lips, and a cold light flashed through his eyes. "To think you came visiting me this late at night!" Shiu Ye called out as he slowly took one step forward after another inching closer and closer to the cloaked man in front of him.

"I did say you could come visit me at any time, and to be honest, I’ve been waiting for you to come for a long, long time." The third prince continued as he came to a halt. "You are a person who values friendship highly, and after your friend's loss, it was obvious that you would take revenge. I don't exactly mind, after all, every action we do, every choice we make, comes with its consequences."

"Had I known that this would be the outcome, then I would definitely not have made it, but it’s too late for regrets now."

"Sadly, you and I are not fated to become friends, but at least we can get to know each other much better now. You will be the first person to understand my true strength. I have never had to go all out before, but I feel that fighting you, I will definitely need to." Shiu Ye continued to speak as he looked at Hui Yue.

Suddenly his hand clenched and as it did Hui Yue felt danger coming from behind. Relying on Velocity Flow, Hui Yue dodged to the side. As he once more came to a stand still, he found that a large body had appeared behind the third prince.

This body was clearly created from more than one corpse. It was an amalgamation of others’ eyes, bones, arms, legs, and other body parts all sewn together. Its white, dead eyes stared into the distance.

"Let me tell you my greatest secret." The third price seemed almost excited as he looked at Hui Yue, "I am a controller. I control the bodies of the deceased alongside soul shadows of ferocious criminals. I believe I am the best necromancer within the Taiyang Kingdom!" He bragged, but Hui Yue understand that Shiu Ye probably had the power to back up his arrogance. The massive body formed from multiple body parts was clearly a Saint ranked expert, and Hui Yue understood that he would need to use all his strength in this fight. He might even require Lan Feng's help.

"This body of mine is known as my little guardian. He has been created from various dead Saints, and I managed to upgrade him quite a lot after I entered the Grave of the Unknown. Especially in the innermost tomb. There I found quite a few experts who were perfect specimens to upgrade my little guardian."

"Now that I am an expert who controls bodies I can be considered a puppeteer. I have to warn you; I am quite powerful, and although the world believes that I am a mere King ranked expert the truth is quite different," He laughed out loud, his words causing Hui Yue's hairs to stand on end.

Hui Yue had battled many Saints up until now. However, the Saints he had fought had all been early stage Saints, and none of them had specialized in any specific path. Even if this person was an Emperor, he was likely to be even more difficult than many of the Saints he had fought before. Especially because of this Little Guardian.

"Since we are destined to fight, let me explain to you what a puppeteer is," The third prince laughed uncontrollably. "A puppeteer can control a body or a wooden puppet which then is used to battle instead of engaging in the fight myself.

I pour my Qi into the puppet, and I can control the puppet as if it were myself. The stronger the corpse is or, the better material the wooden puppet is built from, the stronger the puppeteer becomes."

"Well I guess that even if I explain in detail, you will probably never comprehend my greatness," He sighed as he lifted his head, and the Little Guardian behind him started moving forward. He moved rapidly as Wu Wei fortified his entire body. Wu Wei made his arms strong as Black Iron, and his body was filled with power as it pounced towards Hui Yue.

Velocity Flow was pushed to its limits, and by relying on his agility, Hui Yue managed to easily avoid the strong but slow Little Guardian.

Summoning his sword, Icy Tempest appeared in his hand. Hui Yue unsheathed it. With a flicker, he released a massive, destructive wave as he used the Direhound's Immortal Strike.

Although the attack was aimed at the third prince, the prince moved his hands, and his Little Guardian appeared in front of him. Wu Wei leaving its body and formed a large protective barrier in front of him and the third prince.

The swift reaction surprised Hui Yue, but he still smiled grimly as he saw the sword shockwave collide with the protective barrier.

There was a qualitative difference between the two attacks. The barrier was just raw Wu Wei released from the body to protect the third prince, while his attack was a Wu Wei art. The martial art was definitely far stronger than a crude barrier, and both the Little Guardian and the third prince were forced backwards as a loud boom resounded. Even though the boom sounded out no one in the royal palace seemed to notice. Looking at the mansion, the laughter and chatter came through the windows. The soft light and the shadows stayed as they were before.

"Don't worry about others interfering," The third prince said while laughing as he coughed up a bit of blood. "I am also a master of formations. As long as I live the illusions within my mansion will be active, and no one will hear us no matter how much noise we make," he said beaming with self confidence.

"I have wanted to fight you for a very long time. It’s hard to explain just how excited I am. Your Wu Wei is this strong, so much so that I was injured in your last attack. I look forward to seeing what more you can do!" He called out, his eyes shining with madness. A great smile was present on his face as his voice boomed through the quiet night.

"You are the Grand Marshall of the Shenyuan Army; I can't wait to see your actual strength. You are so famous, but you are nothing but a mere Emperor! I am much more suited to be famed!" His roar was so loud that Hui Yue was completely shocked to find that no one could hear them.

"Little Guardian, let's go!" Shiu Ye finally yelled out again while his hands were constantly tightening, loosening, and moving from side to side. With each small movement of his hand the doll would move, constantly chasing behind Hui Yue. Each time Hui Yue attacked with the sword, the large-bodied doll would block the attacks. The Wu Wei within enough to block the sword while from time to time the Direhound's Immortal Strike would slash outwards causing a wound to appear on Little Guardian’s body. Unfortunately, he was a dead body. No matter how bad the wounds were, the body would just regenerate from the Wu Wei Shiu Ye poured into the body, and even a lethal stab to the heart would do nothing to stop this monstrosity.

'We need to completely disintegrate his body,' Lan Feng said savagely, and Hui Yue nodded his head as he found the yellow flame in his middle dantian. The yellow flame suddenly expanded and filled his entire body as Earth Tremor activated. Earth Tremor, Hand of the Earth suddenly shot out from nowhere, and this hand grabbed onto the Little Guardian. The hand clenched with the strength of the earth, and the entire Little Guardian was smashed, the body had been crushed.

Looking at Shiu Ye, Hui Yue had expected to see some distress on his face, but the manic smile had not grown smaller. If anything it had gotten bigger as he lifted his hands and one soul shadow after another appeared in front of him.