Blue Phoenix

“I see.” Hui Yue answered as he took the memory stone into his hand and gently wiped the surface with his thumb. The Frozen General was someone who truly terrified Hui Yue. Zhong Fai had shown up in the Dungeons of the Divine and behaved as if he was his friend, but the reason that Xie Lan had died was unquestionably Zhong Fai’s fault. Hui Yue found that Zhong Fai was a man with overwhelming strength, yet the only thing Hui Yue knew about him was his appearance. The time he spent in the dungeons with Hui Yue and his friends was short, and sadly, they had gained little information about Zhong Fai apart from his name. He knew that although this man was seemingly easygoing, he was a very powerful, influential person.

“Thank you for going through all this trouble,” Hui Yue said gratefully as he sat down in another chair keeping the memory stone within his hand. Looking at Cai Jie it was easy to see that he was still completely focused on the information he had gained about the Crusaders, and Hui Yue smirked as he looked at the focused young man.

“I will get going then.” Gao Yan said excusing himself, “I am still looking for information about An He. This matter has proven to be far more difficult than I expected.” Once again a frown appeared on his face, but it quickly vanished. “Can you give me any information about him?” Gao Yan asked, and Hui Yue pondered for some time. What exactly did he know about An He? “He is at least as strong as the Frozen General. Where Zhong Fai has the Frozen Brigade, An He has the Crusaders.” Hearing this the eyes of Gao Yan widened and mouth opened, “I assumed he had something to do with the Crusaders but to be their leader and that no one knows about this? That is astonishing.” He whispered. As soon as he heard about this, Gao Yan was clearly caught by a train of thoughts, and he started mumbling to himself as he bit his lips. Gao Yan stayed deep in thought for a few minutes before a smile spread across his face, as he once more looked to Hui Yue, “I will do all I can to get information about An He.” He said smilingly as he nodded to the two cultivators and excused himself. After which he rushed back to the Black Lion confident he would be capable of getting information from the Tang twins about An He.

While Gao Yan returned to gather information, Hui Yue started going through the memory stones. Silvery-blue light shone and he felt information press into his mind. One rumor after another about the Frozen General appeared. One said that he was a monster from the time when the world was frozen, a fiend who had survived since the frozen era by living from eating people. Another rumor said that every night the Frozen General would sweep down on the cities and kidnap bad boys and girls. He would bring them home and turn them into his frozen soldiers. Another rumor said that the Frozen General was secretly the leader of the world. That he controlled every royal family without anyone knowing. Another person had stated that the Frozen General would hunt down all the skilled youngsters and kidnap them for his own army. Thinking over the countless rumors, Hui Yue could not help but feel that the last was the most reasonable. Though despite having met Zhong Fai, he had no idea why he acted the way he did. A shiver ran down Hui Yue’s spine as he thought about the last rumor. Hopefully, he was not considered a young talent in Zhong Fai’s eyes.

It was not only Zhong Fai who the rumors were about; the Frozen Brigade was also well known. They were an army filled with ferocious beasts and humans who had been turned into monsters. When experts went missing, they would appear in the Frozen Brigade. If an expert were to die, then they could be resurrected and become a Frozen Officer. Hearing all of these rumors Hui Yue could only snort in contempt. He had seen what was truly underneath the crusader’s capes, and he was no longer shocked that Zhong Fai too was using necromancy. He knew that he needed more of an understanding of what it truly meant to be a necromancer. He made a mental note to find Deng Wu when he finished absorbing the information within the memory stones.

Reaching out, he picked up one of the memory stones containing information about the Crusaders. As soon as he placed it on his forehead, more information surged through his mind. This time, it was a long list of nobles and royal families who had Crusader’s living in their households. It included how many crusaders each had, and what schedules they kept.

These Crusaders usually did not do anything but guard about the premises they were sent to. But once a week they would leave and head to the royal castle. There they would be inside for a few hours before they returned to the houses which they belonged. The servants in the castle were aware that the Crusaders met up but as for what they did no one knew. The servants were not allowed entry, and no noble or royal were a part of these meetings either. The action the Crusaders took once a week was something that no one questioned. Though Hui Yue could not help but wonder what they did at that time.

Placing the stone on the table, Hui Yue picked up another memory stone and within a few seconds, more information about the Crusaders appeared in his mind. According to history Crusaders were seen as far back as anyone could remember. At least all the way back to the Dark Age. The Crusaders had different tasks throughout the years. At first, they were in charge of keeping the peace within the major cities. They ensured the safety of the citizens, but slowly, as the cities became more and more secure and the Dark Age became a thing of legends, the Crusaders changed from peacekeepers to guardians of prominent family taking up posts at their residences. Despite the Crusaders change of status they never lost the respect the citizens showed them. Throughout the years the citizens viewed the Crusaders as a sign of the stability of the kingdom. Their belief was that as along as they were around nothing would be able to shake the kingdom. However, it was only in the capitals of the former three kingdoms that the Crusaders now lived. Hui Yue could not help but wonder what happened to the Crusaders within the Siban Empire as the ones he fought against definitely were not the ones who had been living in the city. They had obviously been sent specifically for the war.

As to Crusaders’ background, every commoner expected that they belonged to the royal families throughout the world. That they acted due to the royal family’s bidding.

Removing the memory stone, Hui Yue was deep in thought. It was clear that An He used his Crusaders when he was taking over the world. He then kept them around to keep order, but now, four thousand years later, it seemed that this exalted being did not care about the world anymore. Hui Yue had a fear that perhaps An He had already left this world. He was strong, very strong, and perhaps he had already reached the God rank. If he had it is likely he had already left this world behind, leaving it be so he could experience the different worlds that only deities could travel to.

“Well, I can’t do anything about that.” Hui Yue sighed as he looked out the window, “No matter where An He is, I will not give up before I find him. Even if it means that I have to look for an eternity.” He swore and slowly rose to his feet. Looking at the very focused Cai Jie, Hui Yue chuckled as he shook his head. It was obvious that he was thoroughly look through the information that was gathered about the Crusaders, but Hui Yue was much more curious about the skills of his necromancy wondering how such astonishing results were achieved. Because of this, he had not sat down to fully scour his mind for information gained from the memory stones.

Knocking on the door, he heard the familiar voice of Deng Wu call out, “Come in!” And Hui Yue entered closing the door gently behind him. He walked in and sat in front of the dragon-man. “I need some help from you,” Hui Yue said straight out as he looked at his long time friend. The two of them had gone to hell and back together, and this caused Deng Wu to become who he was now. Now he shared his body with Little Dragon, but regardless of how Lan Feng had forced the merger of the two, Deng Wu still followed him faithfully. Hui Yue and Deng Wu were martial brothers and trust had been built between the two during their adventures together. They would both trust the other with their lives, and they knew that this affection was shared. They were like family to one another, especially now when Deng Wu had lost everyone else. He had turned to his one friend whom he believed could help him gain revenge.

“I am not certain how much you know about the Crusaders,” He started, and Deng Wu shrugged. He knew nothing more than the average man, that Crusaders did not talk, that they never showed their skin, and that they were strong but impossible to understand. “We fought against them in the war, and I saw what’s truly underneath their cloaks,” He continued. “The Crusaders are dead,” Hearing this Deng Wu seemed perplexed. “They are dead,” Hui Yue stated again. “They are not your normal soul shadows, instead of just a soul they have their body as well. Their bodies are at different stages of decomposition. Some are corpses with flesh; some are rotting while others are only bones, but no matter what their bodies are still being held together somehow. The only thing I can say with certainty is that their personal will is completely gone.”

“They know how to act. They know what is expected of them and how to fight,” He continued. “Although they have no personal will they are still capable of behaving. How does one accomplish this as a necromancer?” Hui Yue asked Deng Wu with his eyes glued to the young man in front of him. He saw confusion on Deng Wu’s face. After grumbling for some time, Deng Wu was obviously contemplating this matter. “Necromancers usually deal with the soul of a person or beast. We can store these souls in inscriptions and use their life force to fight. Dealing with a body is far more complex. We cannot make them into inscriptions because they are too big and real. I would guess that I can control one or two bodies by inserting my own Qi into them, but we are talking about a massive amount of people with all those Crusaders. To be able to control all these Crusaders someone would need an enormous amount of inner energy,” Deng Wu said. “But even if I can control two bodies, I would need to focus on them to make them act. Controlling two bodies is difficult to begin with, but normally would be outright stupid during a battle. To be able to control their inner energy I would need to focus on that one body, and while doing that it would leave my body vulnerable. With my attention focused between the two the second body would become what it is, a corpse. To be able to control so many bodies, and make them all move at once, you either need an army of necromancers or a mind you have split into thousands of fragments. I cannot imagine how that is possible!” Deng Wu was astonished. Although he felt it should be impossible, but he knew that his younger friend would not lie about something so important. He could not help but feel a shiver run down his spine. The technique to control so many corpses at once was something he would love to get his hands on.