Blue Phoenix

Chapter 79: Old Beardy Makes His Move

The bearded assassin used the ten days of rest to completely understand Hui Yue’s movements, and he even bribed one of the maids to give him a daily account of everything Hui Yue was up to.

Due to this, the bearded assassin was aware that Hui Yue had met Rong Liang, yet he had no knowledge of what information, if any, he had gained from the City Lord.

Old beardy did not mind if his background was revealed, in fact, he would be thrilled if that was so, as he enjoyed the hunt more than the end. Currently, Hui Yue was the prey and the young boy had already entertained him multiple times with his seemingly limitless potential.

First, was when they met, and Hui Yue had managed to react as swiftly as he did, not to mention the fact that he had managed to escape with such crippling injuries, and, second, was the following day when he showed up with no sign of injury.

At first, old beardy had assumed that his injuries were healed by a wood affinity cultivator, but after looking through all records, it was easy to see that Hui Yue had not called for any healers, nor were his friends capable of healing him.

The bigger question was, how did a lower dantian cultivator manage to heal himself?

Secondly, old beardy was astonished by the bold move by the young man when he invited his very own assassin into his home to probe for information and learn something about his opponent. But, sadly, now nine days after the housewarming party, old beardy was thoroughly disappointed.

In the passing week of truce, Hui Yue had done nothing apart from training within his rear garden. His friends had been there to visit him occasionally, yet nothing apart from hiring some guards to look after the mansion had been done during those meetings.

This caused old beardy to become disappointed in the young white-haired man. Did he really underestimate him, a Master ranked cultivator, so much that he believed mere guards would be able to stop him?

Old beardy grumbled in dissatisfaction as he started planning his next move. It was obvious that the young man had no intention of leaving the safety of his domain, forcing the assassin to break in.

There were several ways in which he could do this, yet all of them needed to be considered thoroughly. First, was the option to kill all the guards, to ensure that there would be no interruptions later on, but as old beardy spent his time observing the house, he noticed that all the guards were moving in groups of four, unlike the normal two and two formation other places often employ.

Having guards moving in groups of four made it virtually impossible for him to deal with them on his own, thus killing the guards was out of the question.

The next option was to disguise himself and enter the mansion, yet his security was top notch so that was yet another plan to be scrapped. Frustration started to build up, as old beardy quickly realised the annoying guards were proving to be much more troublesome an obstacle than he had previously assumed.

Still, these guards were standing in between him and his prey, and he finally decided to just sneak in at night before assassinating the young man, finishing off the job which had gone from intriguing to annoying.

Hui Yue, on the other hand, had spent the last week in calm cultivation and engaged in pleasant conversation with his friends as though it was any other day.

One day, Deng Wu had arrived with a new storage stone for him containing some items which Hui Yue requested and although none of them were problematic, Deng Wu could not help but wonder what Hui Yue needed them for.

Gao Yan arrived one day to notify Hui Yue of one of the maids’ betrayal, of how she was selling information on Hui Yue, and that he was going to fire her, until Hui Yue shook his head and told him to let her continue, as he needed her connection to old beardy. This caused great confusion for Gao Yan, as he could not understand why Hui Yue would accept someone who was spying on him, but Hui Yue was her employer. If he was interested in being spied upon, then Gao Yan was not in a position to complain.

It was late at night, when Hui Yue finally noticed that things were different. The wind blowing through the courtyard brought the sound of subtle bells chiming in the distance.

His previously closed eyes suddenly opened and his blue eyes shone with a red mist, as they looked alert at the garden in front of him.

Hui Yue’s hands were facing each other, as Hui Yue activated Velocity Flow. The chiming bells could be heard a little closer this time, and Hui Yue looked towards the sound only to one second later fall onto the ground and roll away.

An Earth spear appeared where his head had been moments before and a wry smile appeared on his youthful face as Hui Yue rolled away; he activated the Qi Fan and flew into the air a safe distance from the earthen attacks.

Having avoided the sneak attack this time, Hui Yue did not wait long before he ignited the Fire Spark within his hands, and he fed it three drops of spiritual energy, allowing it to grow to an immense size, much bigger than any he had ever created before.

The red energy was roiling within him, travelling through all the meridians and finally exiting the palms together with the spiritual energy. As soon as the red mist was within the fire orb, it almost exploded into the air, and an oppressive aura was instantly spread throughout the entire garden, pressuring old beardy, causing his heartbeat to become erratic and his movements to become slow.

A moment of hesitation, which was caused by the oppressing aura, was enough for Hui Yue to throw the Fire Orb at old beardy. An explosion sounded out as fire blazed within the garden.

Old beardy had to move away from his hiding place, while mumbling a lot of incantations as wooden spears appeared all around him protecting him from the fire which was growing larger and larger, igniting the old trees and small bushes.

Swearing out loud, old beardy was about to make his escape, when he noticed the sound of bells chiming and his focus was shattered for a few moments as he looked back at the place which was once a rear garden, only to see a raging inferno.

Ever so slowly, old beardy noticed that something was wrong. This fire attack was definitely not one that a practitioner of the lower ranks was capable of creating, and yet this boy created it, as though it was the simplest thing in the world.

Not only was it odd that the young child had managed to produce such savage flames, he also seemed to control their explosion and the direction they would spread to.

Suddenly, old beardy felt as though something was wrapping around his body, yet he quickly dismissed it as being the smoke. He was constantly observing Hui Yue and knew that the boy had done nothing in the time in which he had retreated from the booming fire.

Hui Yue was standing on top of it all, towering like a demon. His white hair was dyed red from the flames and his eyes were no longer ice blue but blood red, and his face distorted into twisted and menacing laughter as his hands were holding transparent silk threads.

Seeing him pull these threads, old beardy’s eyes widened in disbelief, as he finally understood that the Fire Spark was never meant to hit him, instead it was a fire started for the sake of putting pressure on the assassin, making him pay less attention to where he moved.

The harder he pulled, the more desperate old beardy became, as he felt how these incredibly strong but also thin threads were wrapped around his body; they tightly wrapped around him and hung him in mid-air, completely neutralizing his earthen attacks.

“You cannot do this!” Old beardy bellowed, as he was feeling helpless hanging in the air, completely at Hui Yue’s mercy.

“Quiet down.” Hui Yue ordered, his voice cold and his facial expression frozen. The red from the flames merged with the red mist and Hui Yue’s eyes were like those of a demon.

In the distance, Hui Yue and old beardy heard the sound of people rustling and rushing towards the rear garden, where they were waiting, clearly intending to stop the fire, yet for some reason, the fire did not touch the building nor any of the other gardens. It was neatly contained within the rear garden, where Hui Yue and old beardy were currently fighting.

Looking at the arriving guards, Hui Yue snorted slightly before Qi gathered within his right hand. Within seconds, a sword had been created with the Qi, and Hui Yue looked at old beardy with a naïve smile on his face, as he said, “Don’t take it personal, I just don’t want to die just yet.”

Deng Wu was amongst the ones who had rushed to Hui Yue’s mansion as soon as the fire had been spotted, and he was also in the vanguard, with the guards, as they entered the rear garden, calling loudly for Hui Yue.

Moments after, Hui Yue appeared in front of Deng Wu, his body covered in blood and his face distorted with a menacing grin. In his hands was a severed head, and Deng Wu’s eyes grew wide as he saw the bearded face. Although this man had died by Hui Yue’s hand, it was obvious that he was stronger than even Deng Wu. A shiver ran down the friend’s spine as he realised that Hui Yue really lived up to the name Silver Demon.

“You tidied up your affairs?” Deng Wu asked quietly, as he saw Hui Yue descend from the air and land in front of him, the baleful aura quickly diminishing along with the red in Hui Yue’s eyes and instead everything was replaced by a tranquillity.

All the guards who had arrived were shocked to notice how the fire died by itself, and Hui Yue carelessly tossed the severed head into the dying flames, watching old beardy burn up.

“It’s done.” Hui Yue said with a smile, as he turned around and walked into the mansion itself, heading for his bathroom to clean himself.

The event started quite the commotion in Riluo City, because the fire seemed to have started all by itself and ended by itself as well.

Following the death of old beardy, Hui Yue no longer had to struggle against daily assassinations, and he quickly returned to the tranquil life of refurbishing his garden and improving his cultivation.

“Yun! Where are you, Sha Yun!” Hui Yue exclaimed with excitement, as he was jumping up from his seated position within the stone garden and he rushed into the mansion, where he looked through the rooms before the snake-woman finally appeared in front of him.

“What are you yelling for?” She asked curiously, as she looked at the excited boy, but her confusion quickly turned into amazement as she saw how Hui Yue was jumping around with two small flames within his palms.

“You did it?” She asked astonished, “You actually broke through?”

Hearing this, Hui Yue nodded his head eagerly, as he managed to play with the flames within his palms. Excitement was written all over his face, and Hui Yue was about to go and brag in front of his friends, when Lan Feng’s dry voice sounded out from within.

‘This is all good, but now you need to train much stronger spiritual attack skills than before. Do you think it is time for celebration? No! It is time for training, you complacent fool. Who knows when the next bunch of assassins will be coming for you.” Lan Feng scolded harshly, but even though Hui Yue heard the harsh words, he also felt the joy and excitement that was the phoenix’s true feelings.

‘I can finally start refining Wu Wei.’ Lan Feng said, longing evident in his voice.