Dungeons of the Divine (Blue Phoenix Book 2) (19 page)

The reason Hui Yue managed to defeat the giant man so quickly was exactly because of his size. Hui Yue was small and nimble. From the tender age of five he had practiced Velocity Flow and it was a martial art which increased his speed by immense amounts. After having evolved the copy into a true clone with an equal amount of damage as him, Hui Yue could truly use his strength and his speed to beat a much larger and slower opponent.

The man was lying down still alive on the ground. Hui Yue did nothing else but hit him with the back of Black Blood and as soon as the giant collapsed, Hui Yue sheathed his dagger placing it within his memory stone once more.

The opposing team was filled with rage and hate, their eyes promising Hui Yue a world of pain as they carried  their friend off the stage, but none of them dared to make a move to attack.

Hui Yue looked at them with annoyance, however, he became slightly alert as his next opponent stepped up.

This man was much smaller than his previous opponent, but he was still taller than Hui Yue. He was so slim that it seemed as if a small breeze would blow him away, but despite this Hui Yue felt as though there was something about the man he could not put his finger on.

Narrowing his eyes, Hui Yue observed the man in front of him, yet no matter what he saw everything seemed incredibly weak and not dangerous in the slightest. Looking at him, Hui Yue was more and more certain that he was hiding his strength much like he was, but this man was doing so without a cloak causing the white-haired boy to be extra careful. To mask one’s cultivation base one had to be very strong.

Looking at both men, the host could feel the sharp rise in tension and a smile appeared on his face. Although he enjoyed watching the sheer power of someone overpowering another, he still preferred watching fights where two equal opponents were clashing against each other.

Although the man opposing Hui Yue was not as strong as the latter, it was obvious that Hui Yue could not easily defeat him as he had done before. This meant that Hui Yue would have to reveal some of his true strength.

“Let the fight begin!” The host said with a big smile on his face as he quickly retreated, allowing for Hui Yue and his opponent to start the battle.

Hui Yue decided to test out this new person by releasing Black Blood from its sheath and activating Velocity Flow, rushed towards his target, only to feel how the dagger was deflected by a hand as hard as steel.

Furrowing his brows, Hui Yue instantly retreated and less than a second after retreating, Hui Yue noticed a steel hand slicing through his afterimage, cutting it in half.

Surprise was evident within the eyes of his opponent. He had clearly not expected Hui Yue to be so quick, but he was not the only one surprised. Hui Yue was shocked because his attack was deflected, and he finally started to get completely serious observing every move done by the long slim opponent.

The size of the man was the exact opposite of his previous opponent and this man specialized in speed, his ability in this aspect was even faster than Hui Yue. Even though he was faster than Hui Yue, the white-haired boy did not despair, as he knew that speed was not the only thing he specialized in.

The man knew his speciality was speed and without waiting for Hui Yue to attack, he instantly dashed towards him wielding his hand like a weapon, a metal coloured hue shone from it making Hui Yue understand that it was currently merged with the Metal element.

Knowing that, Hui Yue finally released some of his spiritual energy and with but a thought an earthen shield appeared around Hui Yue.

Seeing the shield, the rushing man sneered and with a heavy slam of his palm, the shield collapsed right in front of Hui Yue. A smile of excitement appeared on his lips as he saw how he was able to deal with Hui Yue only to see that the young man was no longer behind the shield.

Shock filled his eyes. The shield was round and the only way to leave was to either dig into the stage or to fly into the sky above.

Flying was something everyone wished to achieve, but none had unless e they were gods or creators of very rare art which taught them flight.

Glancing at the stage nothing had disturbed it leading the man to think that Hui Yue had not escaped into the ground and with astonished eyes he look into the air where Hui Yue was floating on a Qi Fan.

The entire arena was dead silent. Hui Yue was still only releasing the strength of his lower dantian, yet here he was floating in the air on a small fan created from pearly white lustrous Qi.

To see him flying was shocking enough on its own, but to rely on Qi, something which most cultivators would never use once they advanced to the middle dantian as they prefered spiritual energy, was truly something which most could not understand.

Could it be that this young man had no spiritual arts? Or was he simply flying around for the sake of showing off? The audience could not tell, but a few started booing as they wished for the fight to continue while others were cheering, awestruck by the sight of seeing someone actually floating.

The masked men did neither, but the leader’s eyes narrowed, his attention never once leaving Hui Yue during the fight.

Hui Yue slowly returned back to the stage, and as soon as his feet landed on the ground a metal hand arrived where Hui Yue’s chest was just moments before. The white-haired boy did not have enough time to avoid it completely, and it grazed his chest ripping a long tear in the black cloak and his clothes underneath , leaving behind a small cut on his pale skin.

Hui Yue did not underestimated his opponent, but he finally understood what that dangerous feeling from before was about. Not only was speed his specialty, he also was skilled when it came to attacking. As mentioned earlier, the opponent had a long thin body, his limbs were longer than the average person’s. The extra length of the limbs made Hui Yue more alert as he needed to be reminded of the long range the opponent had for his attacks.

Jumping backwards, Hui Yue glanced at the wound and mixed feelings welled up within. Although the wound was not deep it still bled and his black cloak was now torn , allowing his cultivation base to start seeping out.

Knowing that would have to unmask himself eventually to gain the attention of the Dragon Corps and be allowed into the next tunnel, a deep sigh escaped his lips as he kept jumping backwards, away from his opponent and while doing so he put the black cloak into his storage stone.

The whole audience leaned forward, all of them excited to see which kind of person this cloaked man was, even the masked group leaned forward slightly, and all were astonished to see a white haired boy with the blue eyes and fair skin.

He looked like an angel which descended to their world from the heavens above. Shock filled everyone as all within the underground world had black, or at the very least brown hair. To see someone this different shock was evident within everyone’s eyes.

Hui Yue saw how even his opponent was stunned by his different features, and without waiting a second Hui Yue activated Transforming Weapons, Staff Style, and with the Qi staff in his hand he swept it beneath the tall man hitting him on the back of his knees. This  brief moment of inattention allowed  Hui Yue to literally sweep his opponent off his feet, making him fall to the ground.

As soon as he fell on the floor, Hui Yue merged with the earth causing the stage  the stage and him to become one and very gently, Hui Yue moved stage itself, moving  the opponent from the stage to the ground below.

Seeing this the judge was flabbergasted, completely unsure of who to judge this. The rules said that when a contestant left the stage he was disqualified, but here the stage, itself, was moving.

“Winner is the no longer cloaked member from the Cloaked Mercenaries!” The judge finally called out with a sigh but no one paid him any attention.

As soon as Hui Yue caused Earth to move on his behalf, everyone started talking as much of the audience was mercenaries or citizens, all of them using the middle dantian themselves, and they were perfectly aware of what it meant to be merged with an element. To make an element move without incantations or enchantments.

As soon as Wang Ju Long heard the judge say next person, she rushed to the stage where she was about to heal Hui Yue’s wound, only to see the white-haired boy shake his head and smile at her gently, patting her head affectionately.

“They injured me let them have that advantage,” Hui Yue said with a gentle voice, a voice which sounded low, but it still rung through the entire arena and every person was able to hear exactly what  he said. magnanimity

While some thought this was his pride and ethics of fighting, others thought it was cocky and overestimating his own strength. After all, now that the cloak was gone it was obvious to everyone that he was nothing more than a Master ranked specialist.

The only ones who saw this differently were the masked group of cultivators who didn’t look at Hui Yue but rather Wang Ju Long. Their eyes filled with killing intent. Unfortunately another killing intent suddenly subdued theirs, dissipating it as though it were a small puppy next to a full grown wolf.

The leader wristed his eyes from Wang Ju Long and saw that Hui Yue was glaring at them, killing intent roiling and burning, focused completely on him and his group, ready to rip them to shreds. Although fear flared up from the deepest core of his soul, excitement exploded forth, making him smile beneath his mask and nod in apology to Hui Yue.

Seeing the nod, and how they no longer looked at Wang Ju Long, Hui Yue released some of the tranquil cloud, quickly suppressing the killing intent and locking it up in his dantian cave.

With a quick look at his chest, Hui Yue urged some of his Qi into his meridians and cir circulated it through his body allowing for his Qi to stop the bleeding and to work at closing the wound. Looking at the injury the green pearl showed no interest in assisting Hui Yue with healing it, so with a deep sigh, the young man once more looked at the opponent in front of him.

“Next, please” He said, his voice polite and friendly, however, the words sounded mocking to everyone who heard it and anger billowing in their eyes their hearts bleeding with hate.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Another voice sounded from the back of the group in front of him, “You are nothing but a Master ranked cultivator and you think you can be this cocky in front of us?” He asked as he stepped forward.

Hui Yue looked at the man. He was neither big nor small, not fat or thin. He was older than anyone else Hui Yue had seen today, but he was still only middle aged.

Looking at the way the others treated him, it was obvious that this person was the leader of the group and a smile finally appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he looked at the Grandmaster who appeared  before him.

The man standing in front of Hui Yue was neither tall nor was he short. He was not fat, nor was he thin. He was not old, nor was he young. He was the most average man Hui Yue had ever seen, yet even though he was so mediocre he was still the leader of the mercenary group and a cultivator of the Grandmaster rank.

Those two facts alone were enough to make Hui Yue focus on the man, but no matter how much Hui Yue looked he only got more confused, as nothing about the man seemed to be as dangerous as the man before.

Standing on top of the stage, Hui Yue looked at the opponent feeling as if something was wrong, yet unaware of how to make his first move thus Hui Yue stood still not willing to make the first move.

The man moved quicker than Hui Yue expected, and not only quicker, but his attack was aimed straight towards Hui Yue’s waist rather than  at one of his weak points. The attack completely threw Hui Yue off and before he noticed, he saw the entire arena flying past his eyes as he was thrown hard against the ground.

Being thrown like this was something Hui Yue had never experienced before, and due to this, his reaction was somewhat slower than it should have been.

What happened was that his opponent linked his arms around the waist of the weaker boy and slammed him down hard onto the stage in an attempt to break the younger boys neck.

Noticing this was the aim, Hui Yue merged with Earth and changed the entire stage from rock hard ground into soft sand, allowing for less injuries to occur when he landed.

Although Hui Yue did this, he still felt immense pain in his shoulder, instantly aware that it was dislocated.

Having thrown Hui Yue to the ground, the middle-aged man instantly took his chance to unleash a flurry of attacks. All of them were punches and kicks which landed on Hui Yue’s body, causing the young boy to spit out blood from internal injuries.

All it had taken was one moment of confusion and now Hui Yue was already heavily wounded. Each wound contributed to a fierce struggle within his dantian cave, as the red mist roiled even stronger than before, wishing to emerge.

“One. Two. Three. Four.” The host started counting as soon as Hui Yue was lying on the ground, however, he did not reach further  than four before Hui Yue once more stood up. With a careful hand he wiped away the blood which was seeping out from the corner of his mouth.

Standing up, Hui Yue could only blame himself and could not help but laugh mockingly at how bad he looked. His whole plan about revealing himself was to astonish the Dragon Corps, but here he was getting beaten up by some mediocre mercenary.

Getting seriously annoyed, Hui Yue lifted his arm and around it flames started appearing. The many small flames all connected turning into one large flame. The heat that radiated from the flame was so hot that the man and host both felt as if they were being scorched, even though they were not in contact with the flame itself.

Hui Yue’s flames had varying degrees of strength where the blue one was his absolute strongest flame. To create the blue flame, Hui Yue needed help from Lan Feng and it was a flame which would burn anything. Even dragon’s flames were nothing next to the blue flame of the phoenix.

The flame used right now was no where near that serious. Instead it was a red flame, a flame as ordinary as could be, but even the most ordinary flame of Hui Yue’s was bad news for others.

Seeing the flame the man cursed slightly, calling forth a silvery light from within his body. Cladding himself with a spiritual guard that protected him and emitted a light hue.

Making incantations with his hands more silvery light appeared, but unlike Hui Yue this silvery light was not used to support the element with which he had an affinity, instead, it gushed out and formed a massive hand over Hui Yue, a hand created from spiritual energy alone!

Hui Yue gaped as he saw spiritual arts which did not rely on elemental energy. He had seen it implemented once before back when he was a five year old child. Lord Rong Liang used an illusion to subdue the magical beasts the first time he came to the village where Hui Yue grew up.

To see someone else specializing in non elemental spiritual arts, Hui Yue was greatly surprised and his interest was piqued, as he fed his flame with more and more spiritual energy. Making it so pure that the red flame turned orange and almost yellow soared into the heavens above.

Looking at the large silvery coloured palm, Hui Yue used both his hands to condense the flame, not allowing it to continue its intimidating behavior. Instead he willed all the fire into a large fire orb, an orb which constantly grew in size. The fierce heat was enough to set Hui Yue’s clothes aflame from afar. The stage floor was scorched and the heat radiating out made it hard for the audience to even breathe without feeling strangulated.

The fire orb was released by Hui Yue as the large palm descended towards him The two forces met with a large boom and an explosion of powers. The explosion was so large that all of the audience was  pressed back into their seats and even Hui Yue and the middle-aged opponent staggered backwards, blood spraying from both of their mouths.

Wiping the blood away once more, Hui Yue glared at the man as they both approached each other ready to come to blows again.

The situation was vastly different from their first exchange as Hui Yue now knew his  opponent was a master when it came to holds and throws, but Hui Yue had practiced for years with his daggers and with but a thought Black Blood and a Qi dagger appeared in his hands as he rushed forward.

A hand shot towards Hui Yue, but he managed to narrowly dodge it. Had he not dodged, then he would have been held in the same firm grip as before, however being prepared greatly helped and instead he managed to twist his body in time to escape.

Having activated Velocity Flow, his speed was a lot faster than it was before and with a twist of his body, Hui Yue managed to slip behind the middle-aged man who was charging forward, placing a dagger at his throat.

Both Hui Yue and the man were getting close to the limits of their abilities. Hui Yue because he was severely injured, and the man because he had poured all his spiritual energy into the palm attack from before, causing him to sigh with regret as the cold black iron was pointed at his throat.

Seeing Hui Yue holding his dagger at the opponent’s throat, everyone felt as if they were seeing a repeat of a previous battle, and they were correct because Hui Yue used his final spiritual energy to once more merge with Earth and slowly set down his opponent, placing him off the stage.

Moving him was done gently and neither of the two men struggled as it was done. Both were perfectly aware who the winner was.

Being placed on the ground, the middle aged man saluted Hui Yue after which he bowed. “Thank you for not killing any of my men,” He said with gratitude visible on his face.

Hui Yue nodded to him before he cursed the green pearl within him. His body was in a serious condition due to internal bleeding, not to mention the dislocated shoulder which he had forcefully put back into place.

“This mysterious group who constantly amazes us seem to be going to the final tomorrow,” The host declared astonished by the result, “They won three to zero in the semifinals and the final will be held tomorrow at high noon. Make sure to show up!”

Having heard his words, Hui Yue nodded to the host before he moved down from the stage. As soon as his foot touched the ground, Wang Ju Long appeared green energy swirling around her hands as she slowly started healing Hui Yui’s many wounds.

Her face was covered in sweat as she pushed her cultivation base to its limit. At first it was incredibly hard for her to heal him, as the internal injuries were far more serious than she had expected, but after mixing her spiritual energy together with her elemental affinity in his body she noticed that it got easier to heal hims. An energy burst out from within the dantian cave, and both Wang Ju Long and Hui Yue looked equally shocked when that energy from the green pearl feasted on Wang Ju Long’s spiritual energy to heal the entire body of the white-haired boy.

Wang Ju Long had no idea what this phenomenon was, however, Hui Yue felt like sighing deeply as the green pearl finally activated to absorb the spiritual energy which Wang Ju Long poured into him to heal his wounds. It was as if the green healing pearl was a greedy and selfish pearl, something which did not have much to do with healing at all.

Now that the healing pearl started rotating it quickly went to heal every wound in Hui Yue’s body and within moments he was as undamaged as he had been before starting the three battles.

The pearl which had no intention of working previously suddenly started waking up the moment her foreign spiritual energy entered his body. The moment the pearl started acting greed suddenly surfaced within Hui Yue’s mind. A greed and desire to steal the energy and without Hui Yue doing anything the green pearl lashed onto the energy, forcefully drawing some of it from Wang Ju Long’s spiritual energy sea. Fortunately enough it had not drained her entire cultivation base, just the current spiritual energy pool.

As soon as the green pearl consumed what seemed to be around two thirds of her energy it finally stopped rotating. Every wound within Hui Yue’s body was healed, but the price cost Wang Ju Long’s spiritual energy.

Everything occurred within mere minutes and it was done in the middle of the arena, causing everyone present watching this unfold to feel greatly shocked which was evident on their faces. Even the masked cultivators were  shocked beneath their masks.

Healing was something everyone revered and almost every mercenary group had a wood affinity to assist healing some wounds which they gained while in the tunnels, however no matter how strong a healer was, there was a limit as to how much they could heal and how quickly.

Everyone noticed  Hui Yue  was completely healed within mere minutes, and the cloaked healer looked as though she had not wasted a large portion of her energy.

There were a few misconceptions to these theories, however, Hui Yue was not one who wished to correct their assumptions. Instead he gathered his group and slowly moved back towards the courtyard which they had borrowed from Xu Piao.

The misconception was that even though Wang Ju Long looked as though she was fine, she was completely wasted, all her energy was drained by the green pearl.

Secondly, although the pearl had eaten a lot of spiritual energy, it was also the pearl which had healed him within moments clearly as a thank you for the spiritual energy which was filled with the wooden element.

Although Hui Yue dropped his cloak behind him were four cloaked people who all followed him faithfully as they marched back to train.

The following day was the most important day for them since they had joined the Demon Dwelling Cave. It was time to prove that they were indeed the strongest mercenary group in town.