Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Right after everyone had left, Hui Yue was standing in the doorway. Wang Ju Long was by his side as she leaned against him. Hui Yue could not help but sigh. "Don't worry," Wang Ju Long said calmly. "We will save Yun no matter what. Let us trust that Gao Yan will reach the Emperor rank soon."

  Nodding his head, Hui Yue wrapped his arms around the woman, dragging her into his embrace. "I will make sure your family will get their revenge soon." He promised the woman held in his arms.

  Chapter 399 - To the Palace

  * * *

  Chapter 399: To the Palace

  Standing in the doorway for some time with the woman he loved in his arms and his head resting on the top of her hair, Hui Yue felt true bliss in his heart. Though, at the same time, he also felt the utmost guilt about what had happened with Sha Yun. Letting go of Wang Ju Long while sending a smile her way, he finally let her free and started moving towards his own room. He still needed to wait for the princess to summon him.

  He had previously sent a letter to her, stating that he wished to meet her. However, it was one thing to wish to meet someone from the royal family, and quite another to be granted an audience. When one wished to meet the royal family one would have to wait for them to set the time and place.

  Although Hui Yue was aware that the princess would send an invitation to him fairly soon, he also understood that he needed to wait. Despite his impatience, he spent the time learning more and more Wu Wei martial arts.

  By now he had perfected the Direhound's Immortal Strike, the Vigorous Emerald Dragon's Roar, and the Wingless Butterfly's Retreat. The latter a Wu Wei art which formed a butterfly from Wu Wei. This butterfly could fly at a speed that even Hui Yue was unable to reach even pushing Velocity Flow to its limits. The butterfly would then suddenly shed it wings which would spiral around like two fans. They would cut anything they came into contact with. This attack was incredibly beautiful and deadly as the two wings circled around each other chopping heads, limbs, plants, beasts, and anything else within their range.

  Their attacks would continue as the wings constantly became smaller and smaller as they used up the Wu Wei that fuelled them. Eventually, would they come to a standstill as the last of their energy had been used up.

  Hui Yue choose this attack as it was capable of attacking without the need of him to focus on it. Therefore, he could use other abilities while his opponents.

  It took Hui Yue a week to perfect this ability, and at that time he finally received the invitation he had been waiting for. A smile appeared on his face as a guard from the royal palace appeared in front of his mansion with an invitation to meet with the princess in a few days.

  Smiling, he accepted the invitation and then went back to his room. The two days passed in a blur as he did nothing but focus on improving his control of the soul copy and metal body.

  As the sun rose on the third day, Hui Yue had a large smile on his face as he said goodbye to Wang Ju Long and happily left the mansion. Outside the gate was a carriage driven by guards from the royal palace. They had been sent by the princess to ensure that the young guest arrived on time, and he quickly accepted the gesture of goodwill.

  Although it would have been quicker for him to go to the royal palace on his own, he did not say anything and sat in the carriage which slowly made its way through the busy, bustling streets filled with commoners, merchants, adventurers, and mercenaries.

  Looking out the window, Hui Yue saw small children running behind the carriage, playing with one another. He saw maids walking on the side of the road glancing at the carriage full of curiosity, and even merchants would call out for the "young master" who rode in the carriage to purchase their goods.

  The guards at the side of the carriage showed no signs of stopping, no matter how many people looked at the carriage or called out to them. The carriage slowly inched closer and closer to the royal palace. The closer they came to their destination the smoother the traffic was. There were no longer merchants calling out or children running behind them. There were still a few maids looking curiously, but mainly the thing Hui Yue saw on the roads were guards patrolling in groups of four.

  The royal palace soon appeared in front of Hui Yue, and he could not hide the smile on his face as the carriage he was seated in went under the massive wall surrounding the palace. Guards could be seen everywhere as they stood aside so that they could easily pass through the gate. The carriage he was seated within was the princess' personal carriage and the guards controlling it were all her personal guards.

  Traveling through the palace ground, the guards led him towards the palace of the princess. While they drove around, Hui Yue observed everything he could to understand how he was going to move after he finished his conversation with the princess.

  He hoped that the princess did not insist on driving him home as that would limit his movements noticeably. 'Oh well, we cannot guess what will happen afterward, so all we can do is prepare ourselves and improvise.' Hui Yue sighed to Lan Feng, and the phoenix just grinned in reply. Today they would not be able to plan too much ahead. They had to take it as it came, but they still had to ensure that they were successful. They only had one chance for victory.

  The carriage came to a halt, and a guard opened the door. Leaving the carriage, Hui Yue looked at the massive mansion in front of him. It had a small lake to the side and white birds were standing in the shallow water. Lotuses could be seen in a small garden behind the mansion with two guards standing watch.

  "Come along," The guard said to Hui Yue as he got out of the carriage. He was not overly respectful, nor was he insulting. He clearly did not care too much about Hui Yue only fulfilling his orders given to him by his superior.

  "Master Hui!" A soft voice called out from the garden, and a breathtakingly beautiful woman appeared by Hui Yue’s side. Her black eyes glistened in the sunshine as a soft, gentle smile played on her lips.

  "I am so happy that you had the time to meet with me today. Cao Min thank you for bringing him here; you can return now," She said to the guard who bowed deeply before turning around and leaving.

  "Master Hui, come with me to my garden. I would love for you to see the scenery there," The princess said with her enchanting voice as she gently took Hui Yue by the hand leading him to the garden where she had come from.

  Following a small stone trail, they walked through the beautiful garden with many different kinds of flowers. A soft and gentle aroma filled the air and enveloping Hui Yue and the princess.

  "When I met you for the first time you said that women could become queens and control kingdoms." She said casually as she sat down on a chair with a small tea table next to her filled with sweets and tea. After which she gestured for Hui Yue to do the same.

  "At first I never thought it was possible for a woman to become the leader of a kingdom, however, the more I thought about it, the more I started asking myself, “why not?”

  "A woman is just as good as a man when it comes to controlling a kingdom, but, sadly, I am far behind the others brothers in terms of people who support me. I mentioned to my father that I wished to become the heir, but he just laughed at me. Although the king dotes on me, he does not believe that a woman is anything more than someone to marry off."

  Pausing for a moment, the princess sipped her tea while peeking at Hui Yue who was leaning back in his chair with a smirk on his face.

  "You have been busy recently," She suddenly commented. "You managed to get the support of quite a few Saints within Muchuan City. You have also managed to get the Black Lion and Master Gao to support you as well as the Black Market Auction House and the most skilled spiritual blacksmith in the city."

  "Thought, I am sure that is just the surface of the support you have, but I am greatly shocked to see you have such allies in such a short time. Currently, you have not thrown your weight on anyone's side, but everyone assumes that you are supporting my third brother." She continued, constantly observing Hui Yue to see if he reacted in anyway to what she wa
s saying. Hui Yue’s face was unchanged from before as if he didn’t hear what she had said, smirking the whole time.

  "Although most think you will most definitely support my third brother, my intuition tells me that he is someone you would never supporting in your heart. As you are not willing to support him, why don't you become my very first ally?" She asked as she leaned forward towards Hui Yue with a bewitching smile on her face.

  "If you become my ally I will give you many benefits. I know how to reward those who support me when we win the war. If I have the support of the Grand Marshall of the Shenyuan Beast Army, I am certain that others will also come to my side. Then I will no longer be any weaker than the princes."

  Pausing for a moment, she pursed her lips in a mesmerizing way and leaned back in her chair. The whole while her eyes constantly observed every single expression of Hui Yue’s. Lifting the teacup to his lips, he took a sip. Hui Yue said nothing as he contemplated how to respond. Though, he was quite shocked that the woman had sensed his true intentions towards the third prince.

  Hui Yue was uncertain of what to say. He was afraid that if he showed his displeasure with the third prince, the princess would be capable of guessing that his timely death would be related to Hui Yue, but at the same time, he knew that he should not lie to the princess.

  Smiling, Hui Yue placed the teacup on the saucer, and the smile on his face grew increasingly dazzling. "I could consider your offer… " He finally said, "But before I give you my support, I would need to speak with my friends. Making a decision without speaking with them first, would make them quite unhappy," He smiled trying to bide his time, and the princess, clearly aware of what he was doing, nodded her head.

  "I, excitedly, await your decision and am sure you will realize it is worth it," She finished, and Hui Yue guessing that she had said what she wanted to say, nodded his head. “I will definitely consider it,” he promised her, “but, alas, it is a major decision, and I cannot make it on my own. I truly value our friendship, and I should be returning with good news soon.” Hearing his words, a smile appeared on the princess’ lips.

  "Please borrow my carriage to return home," She said while waving her hand, and Hui Yue bowed deeply as he stood up and slowly walked towards the end of the garden. As soon as he turned away from the place where the princess was seated, and entered a part of the garden where thick trees made it difficult to see him, Hui Yue slowly slid into the shadows. He jumped up to the tops of the trees and ensured that he was hidden from sight.

  In front of him a metallic figure suddenly appeared, and closing his eyes, he created a soul copy which went into the metallic figure. Afterwards, another Hui Yue appeared next to him. This person jumped down to the ground and with a glance at his surroundings he disappeared towards the carriage waiting for him outside. No one said anything, and the copy of Hui Yue slowly entered the carriage. With all of Hui Yue's focus on this body of his, he experienced how it slowly left the royal palace. He was driven through town and finally arrived at his mansion. Leaving the carriage, the copy of Hui Yue entered his room, closed the door, and sat down on his bed.

  The moment it landed on the bed, the figure no longer looked like Hui Yue, but rather it took on its former metallic appearance.

  Chapter 400 - The Third Prince's Secret

  * * *

  Chapter 400 - The Third Prince's Secret

  Seated in the tree, Hui Yue did not move at all. For the first couple of hours, Lan Feng was in control of their body. This was because Hui Yue was fully focused on controlling the soul copy.

  Now he was back in control of the body, but he could not do anything. The sun had not set yet, and the princess was still within the garden. The guards were still all over the palace grounds, and Hui Yue needed the cover of darkness to slip from the princess' mansion to the third prince's mansion.

  He also needed to figure out how to break into the mansion and find the third prince, but he understood that everything had to be taken one step at a time. He could not just barge into the third prince’s palace; he had to wait for the opportune moment. This would also make it easier for the blame to shift even more to someone else, as it would have been quite a while since he had left the palace. It would make people more unlikely to link the assassination to Hui Yue.

  The sun slowly sets in the distance and darkness slowly descended upon Muchuan city. As daylight faded, the princess suddenly appeared beneath Hui Yue. She was moving to her mansion, and soon soft light from light stones shone out through the windows of her mansion.

  Soft voices and laughter rang out from the mansion and soon the outside had turned pitch black. It was so black that Hui Yue could finally move without being noticed. Hui Yue gently climbed down from the tree and started moving further and further into the palace grounds.

  Many guards were guarding the palace grounds, but none of them noticed Hui Yue, who had put on his black cloak which hid his aura, slowly inched closer and closer to the mansion belonging to the third prince.

  The palace grounds were massive. The individual prince's and the princess' mansions were isolated from the rest of the palace grounds. They had their own guards and their own protection, but as Hui Yue inched closer and closer to the third prince's grounds, he found fewer and fewer experts and guards patrolling the premises. It was as though the third prince was against having anyone moving on his territory and although this made Hui Yue's mission easier it also made him more alert. Why was there a lack of guards, what on earth could the third prince be hiding?

  It was no hard task to enter the garden in the back of the prince’s mansion; no one blocked him, no one noticed him. This mansion was filled with life much like the princess' mansion. There were many rooms that were lit up, and laughter and voices drifted out from within the rooms. Everyone was clearly having a good time.

  Although there were a lack of guards, it seemed as though the mansion was filled with people; shadows could be seen everywhere through the windows laughing and moving about.

  Hui Yue was hiding in the garden hesitating to move closer as he wondered what he should do. At first, he had expected the lack of guards to be a benefit for him, a way for him to fight the third prince without interruptions; however, moments after he found that the mansion was actually filled with people. Entering the mansion was now not an option, so he decided to wait outside until the prince emerged. Then he would ambush and kill him. If he showed up with another person, then Hui Yue would improvise accordingly.

  Standing outside, Hui Yue was submerged in his thoughts. The fact that he was wearing the black robe should make it impossible for anyone below the Saint rank to notice him. Suddenly he heard a branch snap behind him.

  Turning around, right in front of him was the third prince. A smile played on his lips, and a cold light flashed through his eyes. "To think you came visiting me this late at night!" Shiu Ye called out as he slowly took one step forward after another inching closer and closer to the cloaked man in front of him.

  "I did say you could come visit me at any time, and to be honest, I’ve been waiting for you to come for a long, long time." The third prince continued as he came to a halt. "You are a person who values friendship highly, and after your friend's loss, it was obvious that you would take revenge. I don't exactly mind, after all, every action we do, every choice we make, comes with its consequences."

  "Had I known that this would be the outcome, then I would definitely not have made it, but it’s too late for regrets now."

  "Sadly, you and I are not fated to become friends, but at least we can get to know each other much better now. You will be the first person to understand my true strength. I have never had to go all out before, but I feel that fighting you, I will definitely need to." Shiu Ye continued to speak as he looked at Hui Yue.

  Suddenly his hand clenched and as it did Hui Yue felt danger coming from behind. Relying on Velocity Flow, Hui Yue dodged to the side. As he once more came to a stand still, he found that a large body had appeared behin
d the third prince.

  This body was clearly created from more than one corpse. It was an amalgamation of others’ eyes, bones, arms, legs, and other body parts all sewn together. Its white, dead eyes stared into the distance.

  "Let me tell you my greatest secret." The third price seemed almost excited as he looked at Hui Yue, "I am a controller. I control the bodies of the deceased alongside soul shadows of ferocious criminals. I believe I am the best necromancer within the Taiyang Kingdom!" He bragged, but Hui Yue understand that Shiu Ye probably had the power to back up his arrogance. The massive body formed from multiple body parts was clearly a Saint ranked expert, and Hui Yue understood that he would need to use all his strength in this fight. He might even require Lan Feng's help.

  "This body of mine is known as my little guardian. He has been created from various dead Saints, and I managed to upgrade him quite a lot after I entered the Grave of the Unknown. Especially in the innermost tomb. There I found quite a few experts who were perfect specimens to upgrade my little guardian."