Dungeons of the Divine (Blue Phoenix Book 2) (9 page)

As blood filled the tunnels, fewer and fewer beasts made their way towards the stone chamber which Hui Yue had claimed as their own. Even the original owner seemed to have decided to flee rather than trying its luck with attacking the youngsters.

As soon as the influx of magical beasts stopped, Hui Yue gave the order to his friends that all the blood from earlier be removed, not allowing for any evidence to be left behind. He had no idea how long it would take the Dragon Corps to arrive, but when they did, everything had to look a ordinary as usual.

The first few days went by in peace. The meat was getting smoked while Hui Yue spent some time on analysing the phenomena of the caves from within his dantian Qi cave.

The red mist had grown by a noticeable amount and it was roiling as if it was filled with anger, locked up within the cave in which it usually resided.

Next to it was the blue cloud which also seemed to have grown in size, yet unlike the constantly turbulent and frenzied red mist, the blue cloud of tranquillity was calm and composed, staying still within its designated cave.

The green pearl was slowly rotating, and with each swirl Qi from within the Qi cave slowly flowed into the pearl, which was then refined into whatever kind of energy the green pearl was made of.

Observing the pearl, Hui Yue furrowed his brow and started various experiments. Some of them were where he intentionally injured himself by cutting, others were injuries inflicted by his friends, when he asked, and finally some of the tests were while he was sparring and got wounded in battle.

No matter which experiments Hui Yue underwent he found that the pearl would sometimes start healing him and yet other times completely ignore the wounds. It seemed as if it was completely random as to whether or not the green pearl activated.

Trying his very best to understand the pearl, Hui Yue was frustrated beyond words as soon as he realised that the result of the pearl was different from time to time. That even if the same wound was inflicted it might or might not be healed. This uncertainty drove Hui Yue crazy.

Eventually he had no other option than to give up his endeavour. Grumbling he closed his eyes and sat down in a meditative position, after which he submerged himself in cultivating more spiritual energy. He did all this while waiting for the rest of the meat to smoke.

One day after another quickly went by within the stone chamber. Hui Yue and his friends used the time to stabilize their cultivation bases and since the chamber was rather large, they also used it for sparring.

Each day two of them would go out to hunt food, which consisted of different magical beasts, while the other two would stay back and guard their new home.

The first thing Hui Yue requested Deng Wu to create was an inscription. that would inform Hui Yue whenever the gateway leading into Cave’s End opened, so that they were aware of the movements of the Dragon Corps. A few times per day, Hui Yue and Sha Yun would also merge with the earth, scanning the surroundings, to see whether or not they were lucky enough to notice the Dragon Corps.

So far nothing had been found and after a week of multiple sparring matches, hunting down magical beasts, and merging with the earth, Hui Yue finally felt that his cultivation base had steadied itself enough, become much more stable than it had been before. A satisfied smile appeared on Hui Yue’s mouth as he finally opened his eyes which were shining in pleasure.

Although he had not increased his rank, he could feel how his strength had grown tremendously from being stabilized. His cultivation base was no longer something to be trifled with and this excitement caused waves to crash upon the shore of his spiritual energy sea. The five flames in the middle of the sea were all growing in size, this sight alone filled Hui Yue with happiness.

Opening his eyes, Hui Yue withdrew a storage stone from within another storage stone and emptied the contents onto the floor in front of him. A mountain of magical beast bones appeared in front of him, swiftly the now empty storage stone once more got deposited into the stone embedded in his belt. Hui Yue drew out yet another stone from which he withdrew jade bottles and parchment.

Sitting down with crossed legs, Hui Yue took a few deep breaths before he picked up a bone from a magical beast and thoroughly observed it.

It was the hind leg of one of the wolves they had slain earlier when they first entered the tunnels and although it was not of one of the strongest wolves, it was still a bone of remarkable size.

Closing his eyes, Hui Yue’s mental projection traveled to the spiritual energy sea where it summoned the silver coloured flame before he allowed for it to fill his entire body. Its energy flowed through his meridians and entered his veins.

Metal was the one element which Hui Yue still had not taken the time to truly understand and increase his affinity with. However now that they were stuck within the boring tunnels, he figured that it would be the perfect time to try it out. He could not help but feel excitement as he was seated with the wolf’s hind leg bone in his hands.

At first he removed all the marrow from the bone and placed it in a bowl after which he produced a silver flame. The silver flame was contained between his two palms, but unlike the fire flame he usually created, this one had no heat radiating from it, instead a chilling air seemed to radiate outward from Hui Yue.

This flame created a few tongues of silver fire which dug into the bowl in his lap where it swallowed up the marrow and brought it into the middle of the flame.

At first Hui Yue expected the flame would do all the work on its own, however he quickly noticed that the flame instead started to subtract energy from the marrow. It then feed itself the energy from within the bone marrow, rather than encasing it, making none of it remain for Hui Yue to refine it for later uses.

Sending his will into the flame, Hui Yue noticed that although the flame was under his control it kept struggling against his will as if the flame hungered for the energy hidden in the marrow.

Gritting his teeth, Hui Yue refused to give in. Instead he focused his intent and threw yet another portion of will into the flame, this time much more demanding than the one before. By constantly keeping his attention on the flame, Hui Yue finally subdued the flame However he knew that he could in no way relax his grip on the flame, or it would end up devouring the energy which he wanted to refine.

The bone marrow no longer had the same structure as it did previously, instead it was now a red and thick liquid which constantly seemed to diminish in size, but darken in colour.

Its previously meaty look was now turned into a glistening drop of shining red energy and after ensuring that it could no longer be refined anymore only then did Hui Yue place his first refined energy within a jade bottle.

The jade bottle was quickly closed before Hui Yue heaved a heavy sigh of relief. Looking at the small drop of energy he had refined, Hui Yue quickly understood that more than half of the energy within the bone marrow had been consumed. It was used up by feeding the metal flame before he had managed to take control of the flame.

Energy was like fuel to the fire, and it provided the elemental flame with increased strength and tenacity. However, it had no lasting effects on the flame and the energy was therefore wasted.

Even though Hui Yue wasted some of the energy he was more than pleased with the final result considering that this was his very first attempt. The fact that he had refined even one drop of energy thrilled him.

Looking at the bone in front of him, Hui Yue contemplated the benefits of starting to refine the bones, or if he should finish all refining the bone marrow. After having thought about it for some time, Hui Yue picked up another bone and scraped out the bone marrow, getting ready to once more refine. His hope was to gain at least double the amount of energy he had gotten during his previous attempt.

Hui Yue decided not to start refining the bones until he finished all the marrow, as he knew that bones were even harder to refine. This was because they contained much more energy. The reason he kept refining the marrow was because bones were not refined the same way and he would rather repeat an action then switch between two different methods of refinement.

Hour after hour went by and as the day came to an end, Hui Yue had already gone through half of the bone marrow he had managed to store after the fight.

As the evening turned into night, Hui Yue was still refining bone marrow and he showed no intention of stopping anytime soon. As always, when the young man got his attention drawn to something, it was impossible for him to stop  before he had finished his goal.

Hui Yue had long since perfected the method used to refine bone marrow. His mind was now saying the incantation needed to keep the metal flame under control by reflex, yet he still showed no signs of quitting.

The world within the tunnels was one long night. No sun was shining nor were there any other sources of light, only the light stones which Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long had brought with them Although the darkness was constant, it truly made no difference and all of them did nothing but pay attention to Hui Yue and his obsession with refining.

At first he filled up one jade bottle with pure bone marrow energy, but soon one bottle turned into to five. Then the five bottles turned into ten, and now twenty-three bottles were seated next to him.

The energy from the bone marrow was perfect to use for writing inscriptions and there was definitely enough here to allow for Hui Yue to practice inscriptions for a very long time.

After all the hours Hui Yue spent refining it should long since have been morning, but the underground world was the same as usual Hui Yue felt nothing other than excitement, as he looked at the twenty-seven jade bottles by his side, all filled to the brim with bone marrow energy.

This energy was the essence of the beast. Just like there was essence of the heavens and the earth, each living thing had an essence of their own and this essence could only be found in the very core of their being. For most living creatures this was the bone marrow of their bodies.

Hui Yue, who had now perfected one kind of refinement, spent some time to contemplate his next moves. Although he was incredibly excited about starting to make inscriptions, he also knew that a mountain of broken bones were placed next to him and these bones contained another form for energy and essence. Something which he also could use for his inscriptions.

With a sigh, and a longing glance at the bone marrow jade bottles, Hui Yue quickly stored them all within a storage stone. He then turned his entire attention towards the pile of broken bones and his expression once again turned serious as he once more picked up bones of a magical beast.

Refining bone marrow from the numerous amounts of bones resulted in Hui Yue perfecting his refinement of some materials, along with his affinity for the Metal element growing by a noticeable amount.

Unfortunately for Hui Yue there were as many different methods of refining materials as there were stars in the sky. Each raw material had its own quarks when being refined and Hui Yue needed to perfect them all, so without further ado he sat down and stared at the shattered bones, now devoid of all marrow.

Taking a bone in his hand, Hui Yue once more entered his consciousness and arrived at the spiritual energy sea where he summoned the silver flame.

His previous refinement had relied on the cool metal flame to liquidize the bone marrow and then reduce the liquid within the flame until it had excreted and burned all the unneeded particles, leaving behind only the purest essence of the wolf.

Refining bones was quite different from this, however it started the same way. Hui Yue summoned the Metal flame above his hand before he looked at the bone in front of him. Magical beast bones were very durable and tough, and what Hui Yue aimed to refine was this durability.

With the bone in the opposite hand, Hui Yue summoned a few drops of spiritual energy which he then used to enhance his strength. He then proceeded to grind the bone between his fingers, and allowed the bone-dust to enter the Metal flame.

As soon as the dust entered the flame, it grew in size. However, Hui Yue expected this and a great portion of his will was projected into the flame, suppressing the growth of the flame. He was suppressing and sealing the ground bone dust in small jade boxes, not allowing for the flame to consume the energy.

Instead, the grounded bone gathered within the metal flame, where it was refined to the size of a speck of dust.

This speck of dust slowly floated towards the other small specksof dust that had been left behind by the ground bone and eventually they gathered together, making an incredibly fine sand which Hui Yue kept within a small jade case. This dust, when added to materials, would help increasing their toughness and durability by an immense amount.

Satisfaction filled Hui Yue’s body as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, a relieved smile playing on his lips and with unyielding eyes, Hui Yue grabbed another bone.

“Yue!” Deng Wu suddenly called from the back of the chamber where he had been cultivating. His voice was filled with excitement and his eyes shining with happiness.

“The gate has been opened!” The black-haired youth said with frantic happiness. He had not enjoyed the many days within the humid and dark tunnels, constantly hunting down magical beasts and seeing no beautiful women around him.

Hearing the message from Deng Wu, a grin spread on Hui Yue’s face. At the same time The Metal flame within his hand, having broken free of the suppressing will,  erupted into the air as it consumed the energy which was gathered within the bone dust, charring it into nothingness instantly.

The yell from Deng Wu reverberated throughout the entire stone chamber and excitement was heard from various locations. Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun had both been training in their respective parts of the stone chamber and both came rushing to Deng Wu. Excitement and relief was evident within their eyes.

The only one who had enjoyed the time within the cave was Hui Yue. The others had waited impatiently, every day hoping that the Dragon Corps would appear and now more than a week had gone by before the message finally arrived. Finally, it was time to move.

Sweeping his hand above the many beast bones, Hui Yue quickly stored them all within his memory stone. He dismissed the metal flame which had been in his hands for hours on end.

“Well then,” Hui Yue said while his teeth shone in the light of the light stone, an excited expression appearing on all their faces as they sat next to each other and started discussing various plans.

“We should ambush them.” Deng Wu stated, “I will allow for a few of my soul shadows to devour them!”

“No, that is a horrible idea,” Sha Yun argued, “We should use Earth to trap them in an earthen prison and kill them one by one!”

“We should let little poppy eat them,” Wang Ju Long argued instead, as she petted the flower by her side affectionately.

Wang Ju Long was the kind of person who found it hard to attach herself to others, however over the past week, the poppy flower had followed her anywhere she went. It would even stay by her side patiently during the night, keeping a vigilant watch of the surroundings.

Having spent every moment of last week together with the plant caused Wang Ju Long to soften up. Now a smile would appear on her face more often, as she affectionately petted the flower by her side. Even her behaviour towards her friends had changed slightly.

Seeing how Wang Ju Long was laughing more openly, Hui Yue felt happiness inside, however he spent no time lingering on that emotion before he looked at the others. Mischievousness was pouring from his eyes as he opened his mouth and said, “I don’t think we need plans like that.”

Hearing what Hui Yue said, the three others looked at him with expectations, leaning in to hear his explanation, none of them wishing to miss out on a single word.

….

Having discussed the plan, the four friends moved towards the part of the tunnel which lead to the entrance. As  Hui Yue arrived,  he could not help but wonder whether or not they should wait right beside the gate to Cave’s End, or if they should wait a bit further away, ensuring that the ones guarding the gate did not hear what was going on.

Eventually Hui Yue decided to wait further back. The four friends were set and waiting patiently for the Dragon Corps to come their way.

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Hui Yue, being as serious about his cultivation as always, instantly took the chance to sit down and refine more bone powder from the cracked wolf bones.

Looking at the hard working young boy, the other three heaved a heavy sigh of despair before they too started to look into their cultivation or tools.

Wang Ju Long spent her time fiddling with little poppy. She also picked up various types of seeds and used her spiritual energy to catalyze them, only to then feed them to her oversized poppy flower.

Deng Wu quickly looked through his many parchment rolls containing beast shadows. After a while though, he started to make attack inscriptions, only to sigh deeply as he noticed how bored he was.

After the first couple of days, all the magical beasts had learned not to trifle with Hui Yue and the friends. This in turn ensured that the only battle that Deng Wu saw was the battle against his friends when they were sparring.

“When will they arrive here?” Deng Wu asked, while his eyes were absentmindedly observing every nook and cranny of the tunnels they were waiting within.

“I don’t know,” Hui Yue answered through gritted teeth, as he was struggling with keeping the silver flame under control, not allowing it to grow in size by absorbing beast essence.

“How many are there?” Deng Wu continued, not noticing the exasperated look on Hui Yue’s face.

“I do not know,” Hui Yue gritted once more, building up yet another portion of his will which he sent into the flame, gaining a slight upper hand against the flame itself.

Grumbling slightly, Deng Wu looked around once more impatience obvious in his eyes.

“If it is a lot of men do you think we’ll still be able to defeat them with our current plan?” He continued to ask questions about the Dragon Corps which Hui Yue had no way of answering.

Eventually it got too much and after failing to refine four bone fragments right after each other, Hui Yue quickly swept the bones into the storage stone. He glared at Deng Wu, which caused the older boy to flinch slightly, his mouth no longer spewing words out at the speed of a hurricane.

“The reason we are using this plan, like I explained, is because we do not know how many they are,” Hui Yue sighed, as he slowly rose to his feet while patting the dust of his clothes.

Standing next to Deng Wu, Hui Yue looked down the tunnel where the Dragon Corps would arrive whenever they departed Cave’s End.

The biggest problem was that the Dragon Corps had just arrived. Hui Yue nor any of the others knew how long they usually stayed within the city, eating good food and having fine wines, till they left.

While the Dragon Corps was enjoying the hospitality of Cave’s End City, Hui Yue and the others were standing within the pitch-black tunnel, not even daring to lit up their light stones, as they were patiently waiting for the corps to arrive so that they could rescue Sun and bring her back to her family.

The reason Hui Yue decided to fight the Dragon Corps within the tunnel was due to the eerie silence and the many magical beasts.

Killing them within Cave’s End, an area with no dangerous magical beasts and only low ranked cultivators, would instantly make the rest of the corps alert causing the rest of their trip to be filled with uncertainty and danger.

Killing them within the tunnels they could mask the deaths with the blood of the wolves and hopefully leave no traces, which could allow for a water affinity cultivator to be on their trail.

The first day went by painstakingly slow. Now that Hui Yue and the others were no longer within the stone chamber they split into teams of two. Two would cultivate at a time, while the other two would deal with the wayward magical beasts and observe the tunnel in front of them waiting for the Dragon Corps to appear.

Hui Yue had chosen the plan of an ambush, and nobody was allowed to use the light stone, as that would obviously give away their location.

Life within the black tunnel was even worse than life within the stone chamber. Since they did not use light stones, every day felt the same and it was impossible for them to truly understand how long they had been waiting.

Hui Yue had given up on refining more bone dust, as he was constantly busy with meditating and guarding their location. Instead he would continue when they managed to get out of these damnable tunnels. Even the white-haired boy was growing increasingly tired of them.

The only good thing which Hui Yue had noticed was that his ability to hear had improved tremendously after living within the pitch-black tunnel. He no longer needed to enhance them by the use of Qi, they were already at the peak of their abilities.

Thinking about the few benefits he had gotten, Hui Yue felt comforted and he almost drowned within his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Wang Ju Long gestured towards the tunnel in front of them and upon listening closely, Hui Yue noticed that noises were indeed coming their way.

A grin spread on his face as his hands touched Deng Wu and Sha Yun’s shoulder, waking them from their meditation.

Looking at each other, Hui Yue and the friend’s faces lit up with sinister smiles, as it was finally time for them to fight the Dragon Corps.

None of them made a sound as they stood together, side by side, awaiting the arrival of Sun and her captors. Adrenalin was rushing through their veins at the same time as Qi and spiritual energy was released. It was finally time for them to solve the problem and bring Sun home to where she belonged.