Blue Phoenix

Gnashing his teeth, Scarface looked at the young man who was heading closer each second. Although he looked somewhat unguarded right now, the assassin was sure that he was not as he seemed. No one would be unguarded in a house they had just entered.

Just as Scarface expected, Hui Yue was, indeed, alert as he made his way through the new home they were given by the Dragon Corps; he had long since noticed that something was amiss.

As he walked through the hallway, his spiritual energy was scanning the surroundings. Right as he noticed the aura of another person, that person rushed towards him. The assailant’s eyes were cold and determined, and a scar adorned his face as spiritual energy shrouded his hands.

Seeing him Hui Yue’s eyes immediately grew cold as ice and he activated Velocity Flow, allowing for him to match the assassins speed. Spiritual energy flowed from his body and feed the flames that appeared over each of his palms. These flames contained the might of his elemental flames and spiritual energy constantly fueled them, making them grow in size at an astonishing speed.

One hand contained a red flame, the other contained a yellow flame which gave off a silvery hue. Hui Yue spent no time whatsoever waiting for the other man to attack. He instantly retreated, and as he did the two flames in his hands constantly grew in size from the spiritual energy he fed them.

Right as he retreated a hand came chopping down at his previous location. It was clearly intending to knock him out, maybe even kill him, had the attack connected.

Seeing this, a shiver ran down Hui Yue’s spine as he narrowed his eyes. From deep within he drew out Lan Feng’s elemental affinity, and the red flame, which Hui Yue fed the phoenix’s elemental affinity, slowly turned blue. At first, it was a slight purple, but it soon turned into a beautiful, clear blue; a blue very similar to the eyes of the young man.

Seeing the blue flames alongside the yellow, silvery flame, Scarface instantly understood that he was at a disadvantage. With a whistle, the small kitten transformed into a massive tiger. It growled at Hui Yue and caused the young man to feel like he needed assistance in dealing with the two of them.

To call for assistance, all he needed was to make noise and his friends would instantly arrive. But as Hui Yue was about to slam one of his Fire Orbs into the ground, the massive tiger pounced at him. Leaving him no time make any noise, he retreated further down the corridor.

Seeing that the young man was still conscious, Scarface’s mood worsened considerably. Killing him would end his mission; a mission which was important to him.

Scarface had long since acknowledged that he could not advance into the ranks of the upper dantian. This was one of the reasons that he sought to fight against kings, and the fact that he had survived and defeated them granted him a special rank.

After finally obtaining a B rank clearance, he was now on an A ranked mission. His mission was to kill these friends and supporters of this young man in front of him. After this, Scarface would finally be able to advance into a world where everyone was users of the upper dantian.

For an assassin, Scarface had bad self-esteem. Mainly because his knowledge that he could never break into the upper dantian. But he felt that to make it into the A ranked group would be enough for him.

Unfortunately, it seemed that it would not be an easy task to complete. Looking at the alert Hui Yue, with the two incredibly intense flames in his hands, Scarface knew that he had lost today’s battle.

Had the person before him been anyone other than Hui Yue, then he would have wished to continue the battle to kill at least one of his opponents. However, this guy was not killable. With a furious look in his eyes, he turned around and as quick as lightning flashed out of the house the way he arrived. The now small kitten following behind him.

Having left the house, Scarface knew it would be impossible to ambush them within the house once again. They would, without a doubt, be prepared for it now, and thinking this made him clench his hands and grit his teeth in anger.

….

“You said that Scarface was in the house just now?” Deng Wu asked surprised as he heard what Hui Yue just said. As the white-haired young man nodded his head everyone turned quiet.

“He ran away after two attacks,” He explained. “I think that although Scarface is dangerous, the tiger by his side seems to be even more dangerous. If you run into him, and you are not Xie Lan or Xu Piao, then run away as soon as possible.”

Hui Yue was serious this time. His eyes were determined as he looked around at his friends and all of them nodded their heads one after another.

“I am going out tomorrow,” Hui Yue said suddenly. “I am going to use the A ranked emblem to look around. Perhaps, I can find the exit to this place, or even those Laws so that we can figure out what our next step is.”

….

As night arrived, everyone stayed within the same room, so that if Scarface were to return then he would be unable to ambush them separately.

At the same time, the group refused to eat any food which had been prepared by the Dragon Corps, instead, they all enjoyed the dried food they gathered on their journey. Although the food was far from as scrumptious as the meals prepared, however, it was free of possible poisons and the group dared not take any chances.

As the evening closed in on them, they were all cheerful as they drunk wine together. The wine they brought with them from aboveground.

Everyone within the room was filled with restlessness. Hui Yue said that he would go and look around, and hopefully manage to find the exit or the Laws but either way the group could not hold back their excitement. They all wished to leave the underground world as soon as possible.

The following morning, Hui Yue ordered the group of five to sit still and cultivate within the house.

“I need you all to be as strong as absolutely possible,” He explained. “If I run into the Laws and see that they are not treated well then we need to find some way to free them. In that case, the stronger we are, the better chance of success we have.”

‘Don’t worry,’ Lan Feng said within Hui Yue’s mind. ‘As long as none of the people present are Saint ranked, then I’ll be able to deal with them.’

‘You’ll deal with them personally?’ Hui Yue asked curiously. Lan Feng had previously just allowed Hui Yue to deal with the Wu Wei, however, it seemed like the bird had changed his mind this time.

‘Last time you wasted far too much of my precious Wu Wei,’ Lan Feng answered, his voice was slightly indignant as he shook his head feeling truly depressed.

‘Well, it does not matter. I am the Saint of the two of us,’ He continued, no longer wallowing in self-pity. ‘I need to be the one taking care of them.’

Hearing that Hui Yue nodded slightly. For him, it was safer to leave it all in Lan Feng’s capable, feathered hands, however, he could not help but feel that things would not go as smooth as the bird implied.

Walking around the office, the first thing Hui Yue noticed was that the residential area was massive. At first, he tried to reach the end only to see that he was moving further and further away from the cave wall, and he quickly turned back.

The exit had to be within the cave wall, not only the exit but also the Laws. He assumed that they would be kept within the area that was the most protected.

Arriving back at the office, Hui Yue quickly entered the main building. The only thing he needed to do was show his A ranked emblem to get anything he needed. As soon as the emblem was seen, everyone around showed great respect and friendliness towards the white-haired young man.

Making his way towards the various rooms, Hui Yue could not decide which ones to look through, so instead he followed the stream of people which he saw when entering the building. Following them, he soon came to a massive hall which was full of people within.

Not only was it packed, but it also had three tunnels. Above each of these tunnels were the sign of the Vermillion Bird, the Black Turtle, and the White Tiger.

Looking closely, Hui Yue saw that there was yet another tunnel; however, unlike the three large ones where people would enter slowly vanishing into the dark surroundings, people emerged from this tunnel and walked towards Hui Yue.

There was a major difference in the eyes of the people who entered one of the three tunnels than those who came out of the fourth tunnel.

Those who entered the tunnels were filled with excitement and hope, hope for a new future in another tunnel-system, their faces were flushed with happiness and they all seemed eager to be on their way.

Those who came from the tunnel and entered the Dragon Corps headquarters all had ashen faces, and their bodies were clearly drained of all their energy. Their eyes and mouths did not show happy expressions on them. It was clear that they all had suffered greatly throughout their travels to the Dragon Corps located in the Azure Dragon’s part of the Dungeons of the Divine.

Having walked one way, all that Hui Yue saw were these tunnels, however, turning around he came to a corridor filled with doors. At first, Hui Yue noticed that the doors were locked, but he knew that his A ranked emblem would get him through the doors. He quickly found a guard, after which he had the guard to open a random door for him.

Standing next to the door, Hui Yue felt as if something was calling out to him from within. As his eyes got used to the dim light he noticed that the room had stairs leading down further underground.

Walking further and further down one hour took another and eventually Hui Yue felt as though he had walked for an eternity, yet he had still not reached the end. He could feel how the air was stale and humid. It seemed as though not many had walked down these stairs, certainly not recently. Finally, as he made his way all the way down the stairs and in front of him was a door. Walking through the door he entered a dark chamber with stale air and a massive azure gemstone.

The chamber was round and the only thing visible within was the massive azure gemstone. The entire chamber was seemingly built to hold the gemstone in place, and nothing else apart from the gemstone was visible. The size of the stone so large that Hui Yue could see nothing but the stone itself. Looking around the room, he noticed that the door he was standing in was the only entrance into this chamber as far as he could see.

Looking at the gemstone in front of him, Hui Yue’s heart started to beat rapidly. It was a big, circular, and somewhat flat gemstone that was curving outward from the wall. The massive gemstone seemed to go on for as far as his eyes could see. Rushing towards the lower part of the stone near the floor, he quickly guessed that the gemstone was about three hundred kilometers wide and tall.

Backing up, he noticed that the gemstone in front of him was not a gem at all, as he had first guessed, instead, it was an enormous catlike eye. He found that he was standing at the far end of the massive eye, the gemlike eye curving outward from the wall, itself.

Astonished to see an eye this big, Hui Yue backed up even further; backing up so much that he ended up against the opposite wall. As he looked at the eye, he noticed a small pathway next to the eye, not too far away from him. Deciding to see where it led he walked towards it. Following the pathway he noticed that the wall to one side was made from stone like the others, instead, it was made from azure blue scales, one scale following the other. As Hui Yue was walking down the pathway his hand touched the azure scales on the wall causing his heart to tremble and his breath to become erratic.

Had he found the corpse of the Azure Dragon?