Blue Phoenix

"Let’s start off by finding Huli," Hui Yue mumbled to himself as he arrived on the planet not too far from Muchuan City. Finding a specific person who could be anywhere on the entire planet was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, but Hui Yue was no ordinary person. He was the crowned sovereign of this world, and he knew Huli's aura.

Merging with the world, he was able to feel the auras of the people he knew, and he could quickly pinpoint their location.

Invisible ripples of energy spread up from the ground, but no one apart from Hui Yue noticed them. As the ripples spread, a smile appeared on Hui Yue's lips.

"There she is!" He grinned to himself when he noticed where she had gone. He feared that she would travel the world, and it would be difficult to find her, but she had gone straight to the Hui mansion within Muchuan City.

Her aura was together with Sha Yun, Lao, and Jo, and all three of them were located in the garden. He guessed that she was giving them pointers for their cultivation.

Although Hui Yue now knew where Huli was at, he did not instantly rush to her side. Instead, he waved his hand causing a small bottle to appear.

Sitting down on the ground and placing the bottle in front of him, Hui Yue looked at it gently.

"Ju Long, I really miss you. It has not been that long since I last saw your beautiful smile following me around, felt your soft hand in mine, and enjoyed the unconditional love that you gave me."

"Although it has not been long since I last saw you, a lot of things have changed for me. I have found a third woman, and I can't help but wonder if you will scold me for it when I see you again," he said with a small, sad smile on his lips.

"Truthfully, I doubt that you’ll scold me. You never went against my wishes before and always accepted the choices I made, but even so, I wanted to get your blessing."

"I know you can say nothing, and I doubt you can even understand me right now, but I refuse to let you stay like this for much longer. I will resurrect you, and you will be with everyone again."

Sighing, Hui Yue was silent for some time and produced a bottle of wine which he slowly drank while talking to Wang Ju Long's soul shadow about what had happened since she had passed away.

His heart hurt as he looked at this bottle, but he kept telling himself he would bring her back to life. The more he spoke, the less pain he felt and instead he was filled with a strange anticipation. He would gain nothing from being sad all the time; he had to fight and resurrect her!

The sun almost set in the sky before Hui Yue gently placed the soul shadow within his Universe Box again. He stood up and felt almost like a new person. He was still sad and felt incredibly guilty over the fact that Wang Ju Long had died due to his own inability, but he no longer allowed this emotion to weigh him down. He was going to become stronger and become the new Judge of Hell! He would become strong enough to resurrect his beloved Ju Long! And afterwards, he would get revenge on the City Lord of Skydragon Fortress.

Brushing the dirt off of his robes, Hui Yue took to the skies and flew towards Muchuan City at a fast pace, so quickly that no one saw him flying, and within a quarter of an hour, he arrived at the Hui mansion.

Huli, Sha Yun, Lao, and Jo were no longer in the gardens now but inside of the mansion where they were eating a scrumptious dinner. It was clear that they were celebrating Huli's arrival from this morning alongside spending time together.

Seeing Sha Yun and Huli speaking to each other in a civilized way, Hui Yue felt warm inside. He wished that they would forever be able to stay together and become good friends.

He walked through the mansion and arrived at the dinner hall quite quickly as he felt rather happy.

"Why are you here?" Huli suddenly asked as she saw Hui Yue walk through the door, "did something go wrong with the meeting?" Her eyes shone with worry, and it was not just her, but everyone turned serious as they looked at Hui Yue.

Shrugging his shoulders, he moved to the table and sat down amongst his friends.

"It was a little troublesome," he admitted. "The City Lord invited quite a few experts to this banquet, but his aim was to kill us all. As far as I understand he is planning on becoming the new Judge of Hell and wished to get rid of anyone without a strong background."

"He used a spacelock formation, and because I could not break through it, I had no other choice than to hide within the Universe Box. I did, however, convince the City Lord that I was using the dao of space to escape. I highly doubt he believes that I have a treasure like the Universe Box, therefore, he should not be keeping an eye on the banquet hall to await my return."

Although the situation was far from perfect, Hui Yue had done the best he could, and now they had to wait for enough time to pass.

"It is just shy of five years before the trials begin," Huli mused. "Until then I think we should stay here in the Divine Beast World and cultivate."

"I have completely comprehended the dao of inferno and the dao of devouring," Hui Yue said with a nod of his head. "However, I am very far away from comprehending a major dao. People like you and the City Lord have already comprehended a major dao, and so I am quite far behind."

"While I was flying through the space of the Universe Box, I gained a basic understanding of the dao of space. Although I wish to comprehend and see how far I can get in this dao, I won’t be able to make much progress in five years," he sighed. "But even so it should still enhance my combat ability to gain a basic understanding of this dao. I will spend some of my time here and some of it traveling the vast universe in this box's space."

"When it is time, we will leave this world and return to start the trials. We will try to keep a low profile, and by that time we'll bring with us the beast Gods and Cai Jie if he finishes his transformation by then."

"I want to see who dares to bully us when we have nine beast Gods together, you, me and Cai Jie." Hui Yue chuckled, and Huli nodded her head. It was indeed true that with so many people they would have an advantage. At least bandits would think twice before attacking them.

"Speaking about Cai Jie, he should be finishing his transformation soon," Hui Yue mused while looking into the distance where the Formation of Life was placed.

"Well, either way, we will spend the next four and a half years within this Divine Beast World and improve our strength! We need to be as strong as absolutely possible when we head for the trials. I don't know if it is a tournament or something specific has been planned, but I need to be prepared for anything."

"Also I doubt that I can rely on the strength of my friends to obtain a top rank in the trials because then the major schools and sects would show up, but what we saw was mainly individual experts." Hui Yue said thinking out loud.

"Hence I need to improve my strength as much as I can. I can try and comprehend the dao of space, but even so, I won't be able to fully comprehend it. The dao of space is known to be one of the hardest daos to gain insights into, and although it is one of the strongest, the time needed to comprehend it is equally terrifying."

"Huli," Hui Yue called out suddenly, "when you were fighting with your dao of wind you merged your attacks with some sort of light. What was that exactly?"

Huli, thinking back, nodded her head. "That's true," she said as she stood up from the chair and went towards Hui Yue. Circling him, she looked at him with searching eyes.

"What I did was use swordlight to enhance the strength and sharpness of my wind blades."

"Swordlight is many times more powerful than a normal sword strike itself. It is the essence of a sword, the soul of a sword, and it can only be used by the most supreme of experts who have already comprehended the dao of the sword."

"Although you haven't focused on the dao of the sword, you should be able to comprehend it in a short amount of time. If you are fast you might be able to comprehend it within eight to ten years, if you are slow, it could take you five hundred years."

"Although you are going to try and comprehend the dao of space, I would suggest you wait and focus on the dao of space after the trials. Although it will increase your strength, it will do so at a very slow pace considering you will need a lot of time to comprehend it. I would suggest that instead, you focus on a more normal dao such as the dao of the sword. The dao of the sword is a minor dao and fairly common, but when mastered it is able to merge with pretty much any other dao. This ability to easily merge with other daos will let your strength soar by leaps and bounds."

"Most daos can only be fused with the others that are within the same major dao. For example, let's say your dao of inferno and the dao of devouring, those two cannot be merged with one another, however, the dao of inferno could be merged with the dao of flame, or the dao of ignition that Lan Feng is comprehending. This is just like your dao of devouring can be merged with your dao of space when you manage to fully comprehend it."

"So, to sum up," Huli said with a small smile on her face as she saw that Hui Yue looked rather confused. "There is thousands of daos in the universe. Although you have only embarked upon the dao of devouring, the dao of inferno, and the dao of space, there are still countless daos which you have touched but haven't focused on yet."

"One of these daos is the dao of the sword. You have spent all your years relying on a sword, and it is only natural for you to start to understand its dao."

"The dao of the sword is a part of the major dao of metal. Although it is a dao of metal, it can, strangely enough, be used with any other dao. Although I called it merging before, it is not a real merger, it is more like you stack the two daos on top of each other. Although they are stacked, it is not the same as one plus one, but much more profound."

"Although the dao of space is strong, you won't be able to comprehend enough of it within the next five years to make it useful for you. In fact, you might as well wait until you merge with the memories of your previous life. If you merge with the memory, you will gain a lot!"

Hearing Huli explain to him, Hui Yue was torn at first. He truly wished to comprehend the dao of space, but now was not about his personal preferences, it was instead much more important to raise his strength so that he could resurrect Wang Ju Long.