Blue Phoenix

Within the edge of the forest stood two figures clad in black. Neither moved as both kept a keen eye on the five men who were slowly making their way back to the city holding the storage stones that contained the many corpses.

Each step was slow as a downtrodden expression was apparent on all five faces and a grim atmosphere surrounded them.

Hui Yue’s eyes were filled with killing intent as he looked at these five men. They had been behind the matter with Sun, trying to sell her for the sake of keeping their own harvest to themselves, and although Hui Yue somewhat understood their sentiment he refused to accept the choice they had made.

“Why didn’t you kill them?” Deng Wu’s voice cut straight through the eerie silence left behind within the forest as the bloody battle had ended. The black haired man was easily capable of distinguishing the killing intent within his good friend’s eyes.

“Killing them would have solved nothing,” Hui Yue sighed, as he slowly turned around when they vanished into the distance. “If I had killed them then a new City Lord would take over, and who knows if he would want to challenge me, the King of the Forest,” Hui Yue explained, his voice tired and his body aching from the fight against the soldiers.

Although it seemed incredibly one-sided, it had truly been a challenging task for Hui Yue to move around that huge chunk of earth and even one moment of indecisiveness would have completely ruin the attack he was launching.

“Scaring them is far better than killing them. This way no new brave men will arrive after our departure. They should be safe for at least a few years to come.” Complaining slightly, Hui Yue walked on wobbly legs back the way they had come from earlier, their speed slowed drastically, as the white-haired young boy invested his entire cultivation base for the sake of terrifying the City Lord and his elders.

The return to the cabin took more than ten times as long as the trip out, and as soon as they made it to the clearing, Hui Yue sat down in meditation and started to meditate. He slowly replenish his dried up Qi and his spiritual energy sea.

Within Hui Yue’s body a small yellow flame was present, the Earth element, which was currently even smaller than the green, Wood flame and the blue Water flame.

As soon as spiritual energy returned into his spiritual energy sea the yellow flame would suck up every little drop and with each drop the flame would grow in size.

Having been seated in the same position for hours, Hui Yue was still not even close to satiating the devouring flame which seemed to grow tremendously. Trembling, Hui Yue watched in silence as the flame grew to more than double the size of any of the other flames. Excitement grew from within as he realized how he could now control much more earth at once. His affinity with Earth increased dramatically and he was now approaching Sha Yun’s level of oneness with Earth and a feeling of satisfaction rose up within him.

Seeing that the flame had finally stopped absorbing spiritual energy, Hui Yue could now start to restore his spiritual energy sea.

A few hours passed by as Hui Yue was seated outside the cabin cultivating and the day turned into night. Cheerful sounds could be heard from within the house as the seasons were thrilled to see their mother returned to them. The scent of delicious food was drifting out through the open door together with clear golden rays of sunshine as though night did not exist within the cabin.

It was to this scene which Hui Yue awoke after having finally replenished his entire spiritual energy. Seeing how the energy left ripples throughout his spiritual energy sea, Hui Yue was smiling satisfied, as he felt that he was inches from a breakthrough in his cultivation.

They had only been within the first cave of these vast dungeons and Hui Yue felt as though he had already gained an immense boost in his strength.

Not only had he gained a higher cultivation base, the quality of his spiritual energy was greatly improved by understanding some of the laws.

This understanding allowed for Hui Yue to increase the strength of his spiritual energy, which in turn made him capable of taking on even Duke ranked experts. However, it also helped him truly understand that there were no humans who followed the same paths. Each person made choices throughout their lives and these choices affected their path. It was this exact phenomenon which causes every human to be different.

Above Hui Yue, a strange phenomenon was apparent as a starry sky was hung below a stone ceiling. With a deep sigh, Hui Yue slowly stood up.

Having gazed at the stars, Hui Yue wristed his eyes away and made his way into the cabin itself where a feast was seen. Everyone was smiling gently as the white-haired boy entered the house and a party commenced.

Enjoying the great food and the company, Hui Yue could not help but worry about Sha Yun who was all on her own inside the tunnel. Without anyone noticing Hui Yue made a doggy bag of food, especially picking lots of sweets for his snake-like friend for when they would unite once more.

….

The entire night had been spent eating and chatting and even the usually indifferent Sun allowed for smiles to appear on her face, as she saw how the seasons danced around on the table.

Thanking their host, Hui Yue finally decided that it was time for him and the others to reunite with Sha Yun and the overgrown poppy.

Setting out, the entourage had fewer people than it had the previous week when they arrived, however, a newfound feeling of happiness was evident. Now that it was just their normal party, Hui Yue went into detail about the appearance of the City Lord and his elders. This caused Wang Ju Long to smile slightly as she imagined the expressions of the said men.

Wang Ju Long was much more open than she had been while Sun was in their group and it was obvious that she was happy about finally returning to her flower. The overgrown poppy was something which Wang Ju Long deemed incredibly cute and although Hui Yue and Deng Wu had a hard time sharing her emotions whenever they looked at the large flower with deadly thorns and poisonous gas, they were both happy to see her expressions softening the way they did whenever she mentioned Little Poppy.

The trip towards the tunnel gate took no time at all, as Hui Yue rushed as much as possible, however, he slowed down as soon as the gate was in view and with slow and steady steps they closed in on the guards.

It was the same guards as those who had been here when they arrived with Sun previously. Seeing the black cloaked men, the faces of the guards almost turned yellow as fear was evident within their eyes. Rumors about the black cloaked men who killed guards had become a hot topic in Cave’s End City and these two especially felt likely to become targets, as they had interacted with the cloaked men previously.

Now that they were in front of these guards, Hui Yue nodded with satisfaction as he saw the expression of fear on the faces of the two guards, however, a sudden idea flashed through his mind.

Just before he entered the gateway he stood still for a few moments before turning towards the forest once more. Hui Yue raised his right hand and made it into a fist before he bumped the left side of his chest, just above the heart, and bowed deeply towards the forest.

“Farewell, Oh King of the Forest,” He said with a solemn voice, a voice which he once again changed to sound like neither his own nor the King of the Forest’s. Instead it was slightly squeaky. Having said that he lingered for a few moments before he decisively turned around and nodded to the two guards, entering into the tunnels once more.

As soon as Hui Yue and his friends entered the tunnels the two guards looked at each other for a moment before they once more rushed towards Cave’s End City to report the incident.

“I am telling you that there were only three this time!” One of the guards was really excited as he narrated what had happened. “I am sure that they only appeared to follow the King of the Forest home. He was not with them and they even saluted him before they left.”

A sigh escaped the City Lord as he was seated within his hall, still rather shaken and every time he thought about what happened with his guards uncontrollable fear crept up on him, making his entire body shiver once more.

“Make a decree that no one shall enter the forest.” He said with a trembling voice, “although we never had any use for those forests they were still considered our land, however considering the barbaric actions of this so called king we have no other option than to follow his rule.”

Seating himself back in his chair, a look of helplessness flashed on his face and even the elders shook their heads in regret. But in spite of feeling unhappy, neither of them complained as they too remembered the previous encounter with the so called king. He was simply too gruesome for them to insult.

….

While Cave’s End City was busy wallowing in their pity for having lost the forests, Hui Yue and his friends finally met up with Sha Yun and little poppy who had been waiting just inside the tunnels for as long as they had been gone.

Seeing Sha Yun’s overly excited face the moment Hui Yue stepped through the gate caused him to feel even more guilty for leaving her behind. Steadying his determination, Hui Yue roamed through his memory stones until he found the bag filled with sweets. He quickly gave them to his snake-like friend, enjoying the way her smile increased tenfold by seeing those sweet treats.

Smiling happily, Hui Yue gave his tall friend a big hug, completely catching Sha Yun off guard causing her cheeks flushing pink from embarrassment and her hands to jerk up in surprise, almost dropping the sweets she was gifted.

‘Well done, now just a little bit closer and you will have snake babies,’ Lan Feng’s voice appeared from within the dantian cave and Hui Yue sighed deeply. He knew that the phoenix would never stop blabbering about those snake babies unless Hui Yue actually did go and create some of his own.

Hui Yue awkwardly let go of the snake woman, however his face was all smiles as the entire group was collected once more. However his smile instantly froze and his eyes widened, threatening to pop out of his head, as he looked at little poppy, the oversized poppy flower.

Before they had split up the flower was already fairly big, however now it measured around two metres tall and the vines were all as thick as an arm. On those vines were thorns as large as wolf fangs and sharp as a razorblades.

It was obvious that Sha Yun had not just spend the time within the tunnels waiting, instead she spent it feeding the flower. Allowing for it to digest and absorb so many beast cores that it had grown into a plant with a cultivation base of the Master rank.

The flower no longer had any weaknesses and its intelligence had similarly improved. While this flower might not be able to speak the human tongue, it was definitely able to understand everything that was said and it showed great affection as soon as it saw Wang Ju Long.

Looking at the weird flower almost writhing with excitement while Wang Ju Long petted its petals. Hui Yue laughed lightly as he knew that their trip would be fun as long as they stayed together.