Blue Phoenix

”Let’s go over here!” Sha Yun said, her voice cheerful as she pulled on Hui Yue’s arm dragging him along with her.

The entire group was awake by now and as it was still midday, all of them decided to go look at the different marketplaces because Hui Yue only had a chance to see them so far.

Moving around outside, their group caught lots of attention due to the fact that there was a white-haired young man and a snake-woman with a long tail who was around two meters tall.

Being dragged behind Sha Yun, the young man said nothing but instead laughed a little and gestured for Wang Ju Long and Deng Wu to follow as well.. With smiles on their faces they all rushed after the running snake-woman.

The place where Sha Yun dragged Hui Yue was towards a marketplace owned by blacksmiths; it was one of the largest marketplaces in town.

The marketplace did not only have armors, weapons, and tools it also had a section that specialized in jewelry and cosmetic items. This was something which instantly caught the eye of Sha Yun and the snake-woman paid no heed to anything else as she dragged her friend, or more precisely her wallet, with her towards the beautiful sparkly items.

Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long followed the two into the marketplace, and instead of following Hui Yue towards the jewelry section, they stayed in the armor, weapons, and tool area. Deng Wu also possessed many beast cores, so there was no worry about the two being unable to purchase the items they wanted.

No one minded much that the group broke up and a satisfied smile appeared on Sha Yun’s lips as she saw how she succeeded in isolating the two of them, a happy and childish smile.

“What did you see?” Hui Yue asked curiously as he looked at the jewelry around them jewelry created by jewelcrafters, a subsection of the blacksmith craft.

Looking around, Sha Yun picked up a beautiful hairpin which was made from the purest gold, shaped into a flower with the most beautiful red and yellow gemstones.

Looking at the hairpin, the young man felt his heart clench slightly as his experience with hairpins was quite bad, however, he had to admit that the hairpin was beautiful and that it was a perfect fit for Sha Yun.

Taking the pin, he turned towards the stall owner who was looking at the two of them skepticism evident on his face.

“Excuse me, sir,” Hui Yue began, “This hairpin, we’d like to purchase it.”

The old man glared at Sha Yun and Hui Yue and after being quiet for some time, then he finally open his mouth, “The price is a hundred demon cores.” He said with a grin on his face. The price was exorbitant, it was without doubt a much higher than what he would have normally asked for, because Sha Yun was a magical beast and Hui Yue did not look like your average person causing the man to assume that he was a half demon beast. A being which, although not frowned upon, was someone who was often made fun of in the society.

Hui Yue narrowed his eyes for a short while. How could he not know what was being thought by the seller and a gleam of annoyance crossed his eyes.

Hui Yue did not mind that someone mistook him for a half demon beast. If anything it made it much easier for him to come around looking the way he did, however, what he disliked was the amount of arrogance and contempt which was shown to him and, especially that which was shown to Sha Yun; but despite this the snake-woman looked at him with pleading eyes and with a sigh he withdraw a hundred demon cores.

Demon cores was really not something he lacked, but Hui Yue felt great pain every time he spent them. Demon cores were good for increasing the strength of his attacks and they were something which could help him survive, but here they were regarded as money, letting each and every one of his hard earned demon cores go was something which was hurting his heart.

Seeing all the demon cores piled on his counter, the shopkeeper was deeply shocked. He was rejoicing because of the profit he just made, but at the same time a feeling of dread replaced his happiness.

The reason he mentioned such an extravagant price was because he knew it would be hard for anyone to pay, much less a mere half demon beast; however, now that he had paid the hundred demon cores it was obvious that the young white-haired boy was not ordinary, by any means. The fact that he paid in cores instead of coins meant that he was hunting demon beasts, and the fact that he could throw such a large sum of cores away for the sake of a hairpin showed that he was a strong cultivator who hunted demon beasts very efficiently, someone who was best left unoffended.

Grabbing the hairpin, Hui Yue completely ignored the shocked stall owner, instead, a big smile was evident on his face as he with gentle hands tied up the snake-woman’s hair and placed the beautiful hairpin within.

The hairpin matched Sha Yun’s glowing yellow and red scales, her beautiful and warm colors were shining even more radiantly than usual, and with a smile Hui Yue took her hand and started leading her back towards their other two friends they had separated from earlier.

Finding Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long did not take long and smiling they walked towards the two black-haired youths who were busy looking at armory and weaponry, both thinking about quality much more than which vanity items would suit them.

The group met up once more and as Sha Yun had expected, compliments were given for her new hairpin making the beautiful snake-woman blush and feel happy, her scales turning slightly red.

“Let’s get some of those delicacies that Xu Piao mentioned before,” Hui Yue said laughingly as he patted Sha Yun’s back, causing the snake-woman to blush even further.

The attraction of food caused everyone to suddenly pause for a moment, saliva almost dropping from their mouths. To eat delicious food was something they truly wanted to do, and the group of four moved towards the marketplace filled with different kinds of delicacies.

Walking into the marketplace, a voice suddenly sounded out from behind them, a voice which none of them recognized.

“Hey you there! The one with the snake beast, stop!”

Hearing the way the voice regarded Sha Yun, flames of fury sprung into being within Hui Yue and the white-haired boy turned around to face whomever it was that was calling for him.

Seeing the owner of the voice, Hui Yue snorted in contempt. The man was a Master ranked cultivator and his age seemed to be similar to their age, however, his face was twisted in arrogance, and his eyes were looking at Sha Yun lasciviously.

Seeing the way the man looked at Sha Yun there was no way that he would tolerate it and stood in front of her, blocking the insolent man’s line of sight. This caused the young man to become pissed.

“I want that beast. Sell her contract to me.” He said with a calm demanding voice, a voice that left no room for discussion. Hearing his words Hui Yue’s eyes narrowed slightly as he gestured for his friends to keep moving and ignore the man. Bringing up the back of the group the young white-haired man deemed the young man not even worthy of an answer.

“I spoke to you, you half-breed.” The man continued, his mocking tone obvious to all and he seemed to find the situation comical and entertaining..

Stopping, Hui Yue turned around. His eyes full of anger and he was struggling to keep the billowing killing intent down.

“Do you not know who I am?” The young man continued, his voice sounding into the area, loud and filled with self satisfaction. Hearing himself talk was clearly something he enjoyed.

Everyone in the marketplace noticed the commotion occurring and even people outside the marketplace could feel the tension, many people entering curious to see what was happening.

“I heard you,” Hui Yue spat out a word at a time his voice dripping with anger as he turned around, his eyes locking onto the loud man behind him.

Although the loud man was slightly taken aback by the coldness within his blue eyes, his haughty air quickly returned and anger flared into being.

“How dare you look at me like that?!” The young man yelled out and with a clap of his hands multiple guards appeared from his surroundings They stood behind the young man, watching the white-haired boy in front of them with a menacing expression on their faces; a few of them even started clenching their fists causing cracking sounds to be released.

All the guards felt an unexplainable danger emanating from the young man. They were all Master ranked, but the moment they saw Hui Yue they felt they could not compare to him..

“Stop glaring at me like that,” The young man said dismissively, “You are nothing but a mixed breed human. I admit that you are handsome, but that means nothing. I am the young master of the Demonic Dance family. You are nothing compared to me, so sell me that magical beast right now!”

Hearing the words from this young master made Hui Yue want to tear him apart and to vent all the anger billowing up inside of him.

Instead he activated Velocity Flow and as if he had teleported, the young white-haired man was suddenly right behind the insolent man, back to back as he spoke casually, “I don’t care if you are from a dance-group or the City Lord, himself, if you touch my group of friends I will personally ensure that you won’t see tomorrow’s sunrise.”

His voice was neither loud nor was it rushed, instead, it was just loud enough for the shocked young master and his followers to hear.

As soon as the words had been said, Hui Yue once more activated Velocity Flow and returned to his previous location. The move had been so sudden that many of the guards wondered if they had imagined it. It had only been a few seconds but during that time Hui Yue had thoroughly scared the young master.

“Attack!” He yelled, his eyes wide with horror as he thought how the white-haired boy had moved. To so fast meant he was definitely strong, yet looking at him he was clearly just Master ranked. This caused the young master to feel confident that his large group of guards, even facing this dangerous man, would beaten him thoroughly and upon being beaten he would gladly hand over the snake-woman for the sake of living.

Unfortunately, this was not how it transpired. As soon as the guards arrived, Hui Yue once more activated Velocity Flow and with beautiful simple movements he bypassed all the guards quicker than they could react and once more stood next to the young man who wanted Sha Yun.

Without any mercy, he lifted his leg up high and spun around before he kicked the man in the gut, performing a flawless roundhouse kick sending the young man flying straight back, his body slamming into one of the food stalls at the marketplace.

The entire marketplace went silent, as they watched the young master of the Demon Dancing family fall from just one kick. A man who managed to bypass over ten guards easily.