Drums of War

by Tinalynge

  Day in and day out Hui Yue had been busy building a bridge between the two worlds. This was not a natural remembering or reminiscing about the past. It was him returning to whom he had been back then, and to make a bridge like this evidently had significant benefits for the young man.

  Although Hui Yue knew that the time from the ninth star Duke to the first star King rank was only one star, this one star required an incredible amount of hard work and countless days cultivating.

  Standing up from the chair on which he had been seated for days, Hui Yue yawned deeply as he stretched his arms and tried to call his sore body to action. Seeing that he had still not been picked up, Hui Yue stood still within the room indecisive for some time. At one point he wished to go to the training ground and try out his new strength with the battles that were constantly ongoing.

  Hui Yue, having reached the ninth star was now a late stage Duke. Now when Hui Yue transforms he should be a late stage King, something which filled him with excitement. Previously, he had been an early stage King, and even then he had been capable of beating any King he fought against. Was it then possible that Hui Yue, transformed, was capable of defeating an Emperor?

  As soon as the thought appeared in Hui Yue’s mind, the young man laughed at himself with a mocking voice. What was an Emperor ranked expert? They were so close to the peak that only Saints and deities were above them. Although King ranked experts were strong, and it was rare for an early-stage King to defeat Kings of a higher rank, but it was far more probable than for a late stage king to defeat an Emperor. The difference was like day and night, as vast as the heavens and the earth. It was simply impossible for a King to defeat an Emperor.

  Still, although Hui Yue was incapable of dealing with Emperors, his strength as a King was unrivaled, and Hui Yue, even in human form, was capable of defeating the majority of the King ranked beasts. Their mist energy was strong and able to rival Wu Wei; however, Hui Yue had mist energy of a King ranked expert, even if he was in his human body. For him, the beastly part of him was now as big as his human side.

  Walking to the window Hui Yue looked out and saw that the training grounds were filled with people, every arena was occupied as guards from various places were fighting one another. Hui Yue shook his head a few times before he decided to leave the room because he too needed to train a little.

  Previously Hui Yue had never truly trained his body before; however, since he entered the capital and met Wan Qiao, his focus had been on his physical training, and now that he no longer trained physically due to the many foreign guards around, Hui Yue could not help but become restless. His body was filled with energy which needed to be used, however, using it had not been possible since he had not been confident about his strength compared to these guards.

  Now things were different, and Hui Yue left the room with decisive steps as he moved towards the training grounds. Today he was wearing a black set of training clothes, a short robe, and pants with small leather shoes on his feet.

  Arriving at the training grounds, Hui Yue was astonished as he looked around. It looked like a sea of humans. All of them struggling to get anywhere, elbows were used to push their way through. Some of the beasts, the ones with wings, transformed into beasts and were flying in the sky. This made not only the ground but also the heavens above filled with beasts struggling to see the battles in the arenas, to participate in battles, or to just get out of the sea of human-beasts.

  That was until Hui Yue appeared. The young man was not wearing the clothes of any of the guards, and his black clothes stood out like a sore thumb, but the young man didn’t show any attention towards the many cultivators. The cultivators around were all seemingly wary about this young man.

  Looking around, Hui Yue went towards an arena where he noticed a king ranked expert had just been defeated, and as he made his way over there, the others slowly withdrew. They allowed for the white-haired young man to move as he pleased.

  Hui Yue did nothing to mask his cultivation, and this caused great confusion amongst the other guards. His aura was that of a Duke ranked human, but his scent was clearly that of a magical beast. Not just one magical beast, but there were the auras of two of them.

  Trying to guess what this young man truly was they all came to the conclusion that he was an expert hiding his strength, or just liked to confuse others about what he truly was. Seeing how they all paid attention to him a wry smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he moved towards the arena where he would always fight against the castle guards.

  Within the arena was a tall man who was clearly a late stage King. A King, who knew how to battle against others. A large scar was present on his face. His eyes were narrowed, and his red pupils were anything but happy as they looked at Hui Yue.

  “Kid, this is no place for you to play around,” He said with a harsh voice. “If you go into this arena, I will battle you with all my strength and looking at how frail you are pretty boy, you are likely to die within moments.”

  Hearing the words, annoyance appeared on Hui Yue’s face. He knew that he used to have an effeminate face and that he now was quite androgynous. This was not something which truly annoyed Hui Yue, but hearing how this man used it as an argument to say that he could not battle, Hui Yue looked at him with serious eyes. While walking neither fast nor slow he make his way to the arena where he jumped up and landed on the stone surface.

  “Thank you for your warning,” Hui Yue said slowly his every word heard by everyone who was looking forward to the battle in front of them. “Although you warned me, I cannot help but want to see just how skilled you are at fighting.”

  Chapter 31 – Battle of the Guards

  “Thank you for your warning,” Hui Yue said slowly, his every word heard by everyone who was watching the battle. “Although you warned me, I cannot help but want to see just how skilled you are at fighting.”

  Hearing the white-haired young man speak with such arrogance the expression on the tall cultivator’s face turned dark, and his eyes started to light with anger. Seeing this Hui Yue allowed for an eyebrow to be raised in surprise. The tall man had been incredibly rude towards him; however, when he was treated in the same way, his anger flared up. Hui Yue hated people who were willing to give harsh words, willing to bully others, but they were incapable of handling others doing the same.

  Hui Yue sighed as he stood on the stone arena. His expression was as careless as before, and he did not transform into his beast-shape; instead, he stood there and carelessly summoned forth a flame in his hand. This flame was yellow in color, yet inside the flame were small specks of silver. These specks looked like small drops and looking at this strange phenomena; one was incapable of truly determining which kind of energy it had been created from.

  Seeing the flame, the opponent narrowed his eyes for a long time, but since neither he nor Hui Yue started to move against each other, the guard had a long time to observe the man and the flame in front of him.

  Although the person was in human form, a form that looked exactly like a human, the guard finally understood that this person was most likely not as simple as he had first expected.

  For a beast to take complete human form one needed to be a Saint, but looking at this human in front of them, although his aura and the energies which swirled around him were a mess, no one believed that he was a Saint. A Saint would never stoop to fight against a King unless this King had gone out of his way to insult the higher ranked expert. Seeing that no one on the training grounds had ever seen Hui Yue before, it was impossible for them to have insulted him.

  Seeing that the other man did not charge straight towards him, Hui Yue understood that this man, although angered, did not allow for his anger to make him forget how to fight, and a sly smile appeared on his face. This battle could become challenging.

  “Which lord do you serve?” Hui Yue asked casually as he started juggling the yellow flame within his palm. It was natural for the two guards to tell whom they worked for as all the guards w
ished to prove that their master had the strongest followers; however, this tall opponent never expected that he would ask such a question because Hui Yue was not wearing a guard’s uniform.

  Still, he instantly opened his mouth and answered the question with pride, “I am from Sunfury Ridge. I work directly under Lord Liu. Who is your superior?” He returned the question to the young man in front of him mainly because he was curious. Although he was curious, if Hui Yue had not asked first then this tall man would not have asked either, but now that Hui Yue did ask the young man decided to return the question.

  “I work for no one, but I guess you could count me as part of Wan Qiao’s faction,” Hui Yue said casually speaking neither fast nor slow, but his facial expression had been pondering, pondering exactly to whom and how he belonged.

  As Hui Yue answered the eyebrow of his opponent rose in surprise. The words he said proved that this young man was different from the guards, and he was likely one they could not afford to insult. Still, he arrived at the training grounds for the sake of fighting, and as such the guard would not be rude and lose on purpose. Even if the cultivator in front of him was a highly valued person, losing on purpose was seen as an insult, and the guard got ready to give it his all. The guard looked curiously at the young man in front of him. Even if this was a man he needed to keep a good relation with, he had to fight with all his might, not only for the sake of showing respect to his opponent, but also to not lose face for his master, Lord Liu.

  As the man heard the answer, he took a stance Hui Yue had never seen before. One leg was placed in front of the other, and his fingers were bent as though they were talons, and his face suddenly sprouted a beak. Seeing this Hui, Yue sighed deeply. The majority of the beasts he had been fighting against recently turned out to be bird type beasts, and he was quite eager to fight other kinds of beasts.

  Still he initiated this battle backing out now was not Hui Yue’s style so instead, a smirk appeared on his face. Silvery liquid from his left hand dripped onto the flame on his hand causing it to grow, and eventually, it split into six Fire Orbs. One large flame in the middle and a pentagram of flames circulating around it. This flame was one of Hui Yue’s strongest attacks, and it was a full spiritual energy attack something which should not be capable of damaging a beast of the King rank.

  Although this was true, Hui Yue still felt like trying, and he quickly launched one fireball after another towards his opponent. The speed at which Hui Yue tossed the Fire Orbs was swift. So swift that the naked eye could not follow the orbs; however, his opponent was indeed a late stage King as the majority of the orbs missed, but one did manage to hit the man. Although it caused no damage that one would write home about, it still managed to do a little damage something which caused Hui Yue to become somewhat proud.

  Seeing that the Fire Orb did not cause any real damage, Hui Yue twirled his hand, and a dagger appeared. This was a small black dagger with a simple inscription marked upon it. This dagger had followed Hui Yue for a long time, and the strength of it was not to be looked down upon.

  Stomping hard on the ground, a dust cloud flew into the air as Hui Yue activated Velocity Flow. He then used the force from his stomp to increase the speed even further as he rushed towards the opponent in front of him.

  His movement was unexpected, and his speed was so swift that many of the experts observing the battle were incapable of following the young man’s movement. Though the opponent in front of him was clearly able to see Hui Yue with no difficulty, and every time Hui Yue launched an attack the opponent was capable of avoiding it. Every time he could not avoid it he would counter attack. Hui Yue used then use his speed to dodge.

  The fight was so swift that many viewers saw nothing but blurred movements. Their arms and legs were in constant movement dodging and raining down attacks from one side to the other.

  Hui Yue was in his human form, and he was a Duke currently. Due to the physical training, Wan Qiao had him going through, Hui Yue’s physical strength was far above the average Duke ranked expert, and even on par with some King ranked experts.

  Whether or not Hui Yue could fight against a realm higher depended on if these experts spent time on improving their physical strength, and looking at the man in front of Hui Yue, he had clearly had not spent any time building up his physical strength. It seemed that instead he focused solely focused on inner energies something which Hui Yue had done before he entered Shenyuan.

  This was the reason Hui Yue was capable of keeping up with the man when it came to physical strength, and therefore, neither he nor the man in front of him had an advantage over the other as both of them exchanged blows. Finally after an incredible long exchange of pointers, Hui Yue used Velocity Flow to back away. He back as far away as the arena allowed him to and he saw that the guard in front of him did the same.

  Both stood in their own parts of the arena, and both were panting after the incredibly swift exchange of blows. Hui Yue’s eyes were dark as he understood that the man in front of him was someone whom Hui Yue could not compete against while being human. Slowly red mist-like energy pushed its way out from Hui Yue’s body, and he started to undergo a transformation; a transformation none of the guards present expected.

  Usually your human shape would have something to do with the race of your beast form. Like how these birds all had beaks or crooked noses. Their eyes were as sharp as the birds they were, their every demeanor showing something about the beast they were within.

  Hui Yue was a very good-looking young man, his hair was white, his eyes blue. Many would have expected him to be a white wolf, a white tiger, or another white animal. But now that he was undergoing his transformation right in front of all of them many gasps of surprise could be heard as the red fur and the taller frame appeared in front of them.

  The only ones who were not surprised where the guards belonging to Wan Qiao. All of them had long since seen his transformation, and although they disliked Hui Yue, they were currently all grinning with smiles filling their faces and happiness was the mood they all shared.

  This place was somewhere people were fighting to gain face for their leaders, or to gain a bit of fame for themselves. Seeing that Hui Yue had changed shape to a red beast, everyone knew that he was getting serious, and when he was serious he was indeed a dangerous opponent. All of Wan Qiao’s guards felt that Hui Yue was destined to win this battle, and he was highly likely to gain face for Wan Qiao. No matter whom it was, anyone who gained face for Wan Qiao would be liked by them right now.

  “Be careful,” Hui Yue growled. His voice sounding hoarse and dangerous, and as soon as he spoke his powerful hind legs threw him into the air causing him to arriving only centimeters away from the opponent.

  Seeing this sudden change in speed and strength, the other man paled slightly. He had been in his human-beast shape all along. It was not possible to increase his strength further unless he became a full beast. He was likely to have the advantage if he made the battle into an aerial one. Although going into his full beast form was something which happened incredibly rarely, this man did not mind, and he instantly grew wings instead of arms, talons instead of feet.

  Seeing the change, Hui Yue frowned. He guessed what the bird was planning on doing, and he instantly swiped an arm towards the man. He swiped so hard that ripples of energies created a shockwave which disrupted the other man’s ascent to the sky.

  Seeing that he succeeded, Hui Yue smiled slightly and with a loud howl did he once more rush forward. Velocity Flow activated, and the wolf’s speed made him even swifter than he had been before. Arriving at the back of the bird, Hui Yue lifted his hand and copied an attack he saw Wan Qiao use before. He slapped the bird hard on the face with a flat paw.

  As soon as the paw connected with the face, Hui Yue felt how the force from the slap sent the other man flying. The man tumbled across the stage before he fell to the ground.

  Much like how Hui Yue had still been awake after the slap from Wan Qiao, this man was st
ill aware after the slap from Hui Yue, but as he stood up his legs were wobbly, and a streak of blood trickled down from the corner of his beak. His eyes were dark and filled with fury and roaring to the skies the beast charged towards Hui Yue. His talons and beak ready to scrape out his eyes, to hurt him in the most painful way possible.

  Chapter 32 – The Victor

  The hate and anger within the tall man’s eyes was smoldering his features showed that he completely ignored the pain he was in as the embarrassment of being slapped and the loss of face filled his entire mind. The previous cold and calm demeanor changing into a furious rage.

  Although rage and fury allowed one to increase their powers significantly, when one was in this state they usually did not care about harming their meridians from pushing too much energy through them. This was the downside as the ones enraged usually forgot everything about tactics and seeing plans through. The beast who was struck by rage was likely to become very simple in both offense and defense. This was something which made Hui Yue smile. Anger was good, but it had to be controlled, or the anger would take over and cause a disadvantage rather than a gain.