Blue Phoenix

Looking at the Fanged Hog, Hui Yue sighed deeply. This beast was huge, yet its value was not worth anything near the amount of trouble that he had to go through to slay it. The beast core was ugly and muddled, clearly the lowest grade possible, and its meat held no special qualities when eaten.

Still, a beast like this had plenty of meat which could help the village. Its skin was tougher than a normal beast hide and could easily be used to make shoes. Its bones were hard and would be great for crafting tools while the hair could be used for sturdy brooms.

Chuckling slightly, Hui Yue now understood how much of a change he had experienced as he headed towards the village elder’s home to inform him about the big hog which he had slain, and which he would gift him.

Last year, Hui Yue would have been at a loss for how he was supposed to deal with a beast such as the Fanged Hog. Even if he had practiced the high ranked martial art skills that he possessed now, he was still certain that he would not have been able to slay the big beast.

This year had changed much in the mind of this reincarnated young man. His endurance and determination had been put to the test as he had trained harder than ever before, and he had gained so much by doing so.

This year had gifted Hui Yue with amazing friends with whom he tried to be as honest as possible. These friends were the only ones who knew that deep within Hui Yue’s body resided an extreme expert which had once turned Riluo City upside down.

This year had also taught Hui Yue that he was currently walking down the right path. That cultivation was what he wished to do with his life, and he had felt how he, deep within, had a burning desire to cultivate to the highest peak, to reach for perfection.

This desire was not a desire for worldly power, nor was it as a measure of survival. No, his cultivation was more than that. It was a journey through self-discovery and taxing trials. Only the very best and most dedicated could say that they stood on the peak. Only the four divine beasts had ever entered the Divine Domain.

Yet looking back at this year, only one face appeared in Hui Yue’s mind causing his previously happy mood to turn slightly sour. Li Shing. This young man was the first person who Hui Yue had killed, and although the matter had not been pursued by anyone it still had left a major impression on the small boy.

Although it had been hard, Hui Yue’s eyes turned ice-cold as they remembered the looks of Gao Yan and Wang Ju Long after the battle with him, and a sneer appeared on his lips. Killing Li Shing was doing the world a favour. Who knew how many men he would later have gone on to kill, purely based on his philosophy of the stronger always wins.

Having walked through the village while reminiscing about what had transpired the previous year, Hui Yue finally arrived at the village elder’s house where he knocked on the door.

“Anyone home?” he asked, only to find that the door opened slowly and revealed an entourage of seven back cloaked men.

Hui Yue froze. Not moving a muscle, he felt how Lan Feng completely concealed himself within his dantian. Having gained the extra few stars of Disciple rank had not done much for Lan Feng’s disguise, yet the drops of spiritual power which he had gained from the Divine Flower now allowed for Lan Feng to completely conceal himself.

As soon as the door opened, the seven experts all slowly turned around, facing towards Hui Yue, yet the young boy was unable to feel whether or not these experts were examining him. Their cloaks were covering their entire bodies, and the inscriptions which Hui Yue remembered all too well were currently only seen as embroideries on the black cloaks.

Within the room was also two guards from the City Lord’s mansion and the village elder. All of which now stared at the young boy who seemed to have walked in on them.

“Excuse me,” Hui Yue said apologetically while giving a slight bow to the ones present and tried to close the door in front of him.

“WAIT!” one of the guards shouted out, causing the white-haired boy to release a big sigh of despair. Clearly things were not supposed to go his way today.

Straightening up, Hui Yue looked quizzically at the guard who had yelled wait just moments before. “Does your lordship need anything from me?” He asked with a honeyed voice and big eyes like those of a deer. The perfect expression of a naïve and incredibly harmless child.

Looking at this child the guards had a hard time understanding how he could be the famous Hui Yue, a disciple of ‘Li Fen’.

These guards lived in the barracks at the City Lord’s mansion, and they were aware that the black cloaked men had been searching for something during the last half of the year, yet no one knew what they were looking for.

These black cloaked men had shown no interest in anything, nor anyone so far and no one had heard them speak even once, yet last night Lord Rong Liang had ordered these guards to bring them to the small village where his children were currently visiting with, of course, no explanation.

When they arrived here, no one had been present in the village itself, but slowly the villagers started to emerge from a field on the northern side. Together with these villagers was the village elder, and he instantly invited the men to his home as soon as they arrived.

These seven black cloaked men followed without asking questions. In fact, they had shown absolutely no signs of a reaction to anything that had happened, yet as soon as Hui Yue had opened the door all seven had moved their head in unison.

Hui Yue was standing still, eyeing the seven black cloaked men. With no warning the inscriptions on the seven cloaks lit up with a silvery light and an eerie silence enveloped Hui Yue as a silence which he had experienced before descended.

The silence which had enveloped Hui Yue brought along with it a black sphere that completely blinded his senses. Hui Yue could see nothing, nor could he hear or smell anything within this sphere still the feeling of being constantly scrutinized remained.

Had this been before Hui Yue got the Divine Flower, then Lan Feng would not have been capable of hiding himself as skilfully as he did now and thanks to this nothing was visible to the seven crusaders.

As soon as the feeling of being scrutinized appeared, Lan Feng gaped as he saw how the cave-ins containing the red mist and the blue cloud sealed themselves, allowing for nothing to enter it or be seen.

Hui Yue had no idea of how long the scanning went on; neither could he determine whether or not they managed to uncover the secrets which were hidden within his body. Ever so slowly, light started to appear from the distance, then it rapidly advanced and brought along with it the senses which Hui Yue previously had lost.

Looking around, Hui Yue saw that the cloaked men had vanished and along with them the City Lord’s guards were nowhere to be seen. He was currently laying down on a bed within the cottage belonging to the village elder, and Hui Yue looked around with a confused expression on his face.

In front of him all his friends were seated, worried expressions on their faces as they rushed towards the boy who had just opened his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Rong Xing asked, worry shining within her eyes as she grabbed Hui Yue’s hand and measured his pulse.

Not only was Rong Xing worried. Hui Yue saw worry in all of their faces, even Deng Wu who had been contacted by little dragon. A small hand signal showed Hui Yue that Deng Wu wished to speak with him in private afterwards.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Hui Yue said with a slight smile on his face. It was good to be cared about like this, but his body did feel as though he had been given a beating. Sitting up straight, he asked his friends “what happened?” he asked because his memory was quite fuzzy.

“The village elder told us you collapsed.” Ma Kong quietly looked over at Hui Yue as if to convince himself that the younger child was actually fine. “Did you have any injuries from when you caught that Fanged Hog earlier?” he asked as he could not think of any other explanation for why he would have collapsed.

Hearing this question, Hui Yue went quiet for some time. It was obvious that the village elder had not mentioned the guests which were just visiting, and Hui Yue had no interest in telling them either. It was obvious that the only thing it would accomplish was to make them all worry.

“That must be it,” Hui Yue said with a sigh as he allowed his body to fall down onto the pillow once more and closed his eyes. An annoying headache was starting to form, and he was deeply worried about what the cloaked men had discovered that would cause them to run away this quickly.

Looking at Deng Wu, Hui Yue understood that the other boy knew something about these men, or more accurately, little dragon knew something about these men, which could be of great use to Hui Yue. Still he had to come up with a way to speak with Deng Wu alone rather than with everyone present, and he slowly rose up once more standing on unsteady legs as he made his way towards the door, pretending to head back to his tent to rest.

At first everyone present all offered to help him move, but Hui Yue insisted that he could move on his own. That was until he reached Deng Wu where he almost fell over his own legs and accidentally kicked Deng Wu over the thigh while falling down.

“Oh no!” Hui Yue exclaimed, the naïve boy act automatically appearing on his face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you. Maybe I really am unable to walk on my own.”

“Right.” Deng Wu said through gritted teeth as he pitied himself. His leg was hurting quite badly considering the kick came from a small boy, but regardless Deng Wu knew that this was the only option Hui Yue had for the two of them to be alone for a while.

“I am really sorry about this,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. He truly was sorry for this, but he had no other option to get the information he needed fast. Walking out, a thought suddenly hit Hui Yue, and he turned around looking at the four friends who still waited inside, all looking worried at him.

“I’m going to rest for another few days. During this time get as many Fanged Hogs as possible. We will need the beast cores.”

Hearing this, they all furrowed their brows. All of them agreed that Hui Yue needed to rest for some time, yet they could not see why Hui Yue would need the cores. Still, none of them questioned his words, instead the shrugged their shoulders and Rong Ming suddenly smiled.

“Let us have a tournament to see who can catch the most hogs!” He said, and before waiting for an answer, had already rushed out the door and overtaken Hui Yue, making his way to the outskirts where Hui Yue had been hunting that morning.

Gao Yan was quickly roused by the suggestion of Rong Ming and he quickly followed his best friend, rushing past Hui Yue and gave him a slap on the shoulder which caused the young boy to topple over, in turn causing Deng Wu to snicker. What comes around, goes around.

Staying back in the village elder’s house was Ma Kong and Rong Xing, both of them having doubt within their eyes.

“He was not wounded was he?” Ma Kong asked with a quiet voice as he looked at the door from where the others had escaped.

“No,” Rong Xing answered with a melodious voice. “Deng Wu seemed to know what it was about though.” She commented afterwards, her face showing a mix of expressions.

“He will tell us one day when he is ready to do so,” Ma Kong said with a sigh as he slowly started moving towards the outsides, intending to join the two others in the intense fanged hog hunt.

Standing behind in the house a hurt expression was evident on Rong Xing’s face as she mumbled. “Is Deng Wu really more trustworthy than I am?”