Blue Phoenix

Although the army belonging to the human’s was advancing and defeating more Blood Demons than the other side, Hui Yue quickly understood one point.

This entire war was pointless. The winner would not be decided amongst the people who were fighting each other with claws, teeth, horns, and daos; it would be determined by the two Overlords that were fighting in the skies high above them.

The Overlords were truly cultivators far above everyone else. They were people that were capable of exterminating the entire army easily if they wished, the only reason they had not done so yet, was because they deemed it to be far below their dignity to raise a hand to common immortals.

Even the half-step Overlords were incapable of dealing with Overlords. Even if they gathered together, all three on the human side and the three of the demon side, they would still not be able to pose a threat towards an Overlord ranked cultivator.

The reason they were considered half-step Overlords was because they had come into contact with the Great Dao and thus could control a small amount of Archaic Energy.

The Overlords had not just gotten into contact with the Great Dao; they had merged with the Great Dao! Their bodies had been completely renewed, strengthened, and reborn with the Great Dao, Archaic Energy, and the essence of the galaxy.

When the Overlord’s fight was finished, then the war would simply be over.

Hui Yue was fully aware of this, and his eyes ended up on the fight that was taking place in the upper layers of the heavens. Yama was holding out; he was using countless attacks which contained an energy that Hui Yue could not even comprehend, while at the same time the Blood Demon Overlord was on the defense.

Hui Yue frowned. Although it looked as if Yama had the upper hand since he was attacking, it was clear that the Blood Demon Overlord was capable of avoiding all his attacks. He seemed to also have plenty of energy to spare.

“This is not looking good,” Hui Yue mumbled, and his eyes roamed across the fights all over the battlefield. The half-step Overlords were all busy fighting one another, but the one fighting the masked Blood Demon that Hui Yue had encountered in the beasts’ dream was pushing back his opponent. While it seemed that the Alchemist God and Yanluo held the upper hands in the other fights, actually they were a long way from finishing their fights and much could change in but a few moments.

Hui Yue’s eyes roamed further into the chaotic battle, and they landed on his friends. All of them were fighting with a friend at their side against the Blood Demons.

Xiao Ning, Ye Ling, Zhu Jun, and Luo Qiang were fighting against a group of Blood Demons. Xiao Ning was trying to block as many of the attacks as he possibly could while Luo Qiang, Zhu Jun, and Ye Ling were fighting back. Their teamwork was exquisite, their attacks paired well, and they executed one demon after another.

Unfortunately, the Blood Demons kept arriving like a never-ending wave, and although Xiao Ning was consuming pills as if they were candy, he was still red in the face and veins could be seen bulging on his arms as he was breathing heavily.

Blood was streaming from one wound after another, and his eyes were bloodshot.

“We need to retreat!” Xiao Ning exclaimed. “We need to catch a breather and then return to fight. We cannot continue wantonly killing like this! We will be out of energy and end up being overrun!”

The other three nodded their heads and grit their teeth. They understood how close they were dancing towards death with every attack they used and received, and they could imagine that Xiao Ning who took the brunt of most attacks was consuming his energy rapidly.

Xiao Ning was moving all the time; he held a massive shield on one arm and a one-handed sword in the other. He superimposed the major dao of earth and the major dao of light around him for both offense and defense.

Seeing that they were retreating, Hui Yue nodded his head and returned his senses to what was going on around him. No Blood Demons were attacking Hui Yue, Lan Feng, or Wang Ju Long as they moved deeper and deeper into the Blood Demon army. Their aura was simply too ferocious and their display of might too brilliant.

As they continued forward, the fight between Xiao Ning, his three friends, and the Blood Demons continued.

They spent all their energy retreating, but the Blood Demons were doing their very best to make it impossible for them to fall back. Although they knew that they were throwing away their lives, the demons did not hesitate to advance and rush towards the four humans. It was as if they considered themselves martyrs, dying for the sake of making them tired, worn out, and unable to defend themselves sooner or later.

The longer it took, the more mistakes the group made. Xiao Ning was incapable of blocking all the attacks that came their way, and his clothes were soaked in his blood. Although he had a refined body and it could withstand many attacks, he had reached his limits.

Ye Ling, Zhu Jun, and Luo Qiang were much better off, but even they started to get more and more wounds on their bodies.

“Watch out!” Luo Qiang yelled, and his body moved before he could stop to think what was happening.

A Blood Demon who had comprehended three major daos had appeared in front of them, and he had launched a sneak attack at Xiao Ning. Luo Qiang threw himself at this attack, successfully blocking it, but he paid the ultimate price as his head was almost sliced cleanly off.

“No!” The voices of Ye Ling, Xiao Ning, and Zhu Jun reverberated through the air. They were filled with grief and agony. Although they were all friends of Hui Yue, these four had gained a friendship that was no less than what blood-related brothers shared. Therefore, when they saw Luo Qiang this wounded, they all felt as if their hearts had been ripped out of their chests, and was being clenched in the hands of the Blood Demons.

“Idiots,” the wounded Luo Qiang tried to smile as blood flooded out his mouth. “I… I am proud… to have called you… my brothers…”

His eyes dimmed, but Luo Qiang seemed calm, “Do not… ask Yue to res… resurrect me… I will… going first…”

Seeing that Luo Qiang’s eyes went completely dim, Xiao Ning’s hands trembled. Both he and his two remaining brothers took a handful of pills and stuffed them into their mouths. They felt how the pills transformed into much needed energy.

“My brothers, we will not retreat! We will fight gloriously together with Qiang’s soul!” Xiao Ning called out as he thrust out his shield, smashing it into the head of an incoming Blood Demon and turned it into brain paste, broken bones, and blood. He then charged at the blood demon who had killed Luo Qiang and fought a desperate battle.

“For Qiang!” Ye Ling and Zhu Jun yelled out, their eyes bloodshot and their hands trembling. They no longer cared about life or death. They joined Xiao Ning, and together the three of them managed to execute the three major dao expert that they were up against.

After this, they did not retreat. All they wanted was to kill as many demons as they could before they too succumbed to the vast numbers of Blood Demons surging in front of them. They felt that they had renewed energy and they erupted with emotions, Ancestral Worldpower, and the daos as they slaughtered their way through the Blood Demons like frenzied beasts.

Hui Yue had already turned his attention away from Xiao Ning and the others, so it was not possible for him to notice the heroic sacrifice of Luo Qiang. Instead, his eyes narrowed as he saw how the Blood Demons made a point to get out of their way, and suddenly he felt anxiousness, anger, nervousness, and excitement bubble up in Lan Feng’s soul.

In front of them were a group of five demons. Four of them had not comprehended a heavenly dao, and thus they were easy to deal with, however, in the middle was a young man.

This young man was a stranger to Hui Yue. However the moment Lan Feng laid eyes on him, he could hardly contain himself. It was clear that he knew exactly who this man was.

“An He.” His voice was low and threatening, his eyes glistening with anger, and his body swelled as he took the shape of a massive blue phoenix.

“Oh, if it isn’t the stupid parrot. I did hear that you made your way out of the pin I placed you in, but to think you would actually make it all the way here… That was indeed a miscalculation on my part,” An He said with a sly smirk on his face and in a mocking tone as if everything was under his control.

When Hui Yue looked at the four men behind An He, he frowned. These four blood demons had to be his generals, but amongst them was a person he recognized.

“Xu Piao?” Hui Yue’s voice was filled with incredulity and surprise. He had considered Xu Piao a good friend and they had spent a lot of time together; he would never have expected that he too ended up as one of An He’s generals.

“Oh right, you know Little Piao,” An He laughed. “If it were not for you and that useless Zhong Fai, Little Piao would never have come to my side, but you see, his love for Xie Lan is undeniable. When I promised him that he could resurrect her if he came with me, he did not hesitate for a moment. What a friendship you guys shared!”

Hui Yue nodded his head. When Xie Lan had been killed by Zhong Fai in the Dungeons of the Divine, it was clear that he would use his entire life for the sake of resurrecting her.

If An He had promised him a shortcut to do so, then it was obvious that he would take this shortcut, but it still shocked Hui Yue greatly, and he became enraged.

“You are a Blood Demon! A human who turned into a Blood Demon even… Now it is not even possible for you to go to Diyu and claim a soul back!” he exclaimed, and although his words resulted in a pained expression on Xu Paio’s face, he did not show any signs of changing his mind.

“Brat, you just don’t understand it, do you?” An He laughed. “We are currently at war with Diyu. When we win, it is clear that I can dance into wherever I want to and take whichever soul I wish to take. Restoring her to life then will be easy.”

Hui Yue said nothing. He was thoroughly disgusted with An He and the fact that he had used the weakness of someone he once considered a friend as the source of his betrayal. However, when he looked at Xu Piao, he saw nothing in his eyes apart from killing intent.

“Is this the path you wish to take?” Hui Yue asked him, but Xu Piao did not even deem him worthy of an answer.

Seeing this, Wang Ju Long’s eyes turned black. Her hand reached out and the four generals behind An He all felt how their lifeforce was being drained rapidly. Her actions surprised everyone present, including An He who had been grinning moments before.

He suddenly started moving in a rush and used his own heavenly daos to cut off the dao of death. He managed to save his generals’ lives, but they had all aged visibly.

With an angry glare, An He turned back to Hui Yue, Lan Feng, and Wang Ju Long his eyes blazing and his face pale.

“What was that about, attacking out of nowhere?!” he almost yelled but his anger and fluster just made Hui Yue, Lan Feng, and Wang Ju Long laugh.

“This is war,” Lan Feng said back with a satisfied expression on his face.