Drums of War

by Tinalynge

  Hearing this, Hui Yue was greatly shocked. That this phoenix was actually willing to give up his own strength for Hui Yue sake caused him to be greatly moved.

  ‘But just because you have my Yin energy, it is not enough for you to reach the Saint rank,’ Lan Feng warned, ‘The Yin energy will at most be sufficient to raise you to the peak of the King rank, and even then it might now be that much. What you should do is slowly refine Yin energies at the same time as you refine yang energies. Eventually, you will be able to break through into the ranks of a God.’

  Hui Yue nodded his head solemnly as he understood what Lan Feng was saying. ‘Which way is the easiest to refine Yin energy?’ Hui Yue asked curiously, and the phoenix instantly shook its feathers in a pleased way. He always loved it when he could prove that he was indeed a beast who had lived for a very long time already.

  ‘The easiest way is to sit outside in the moonlight and refine the essence of the heavens and the earth. Now that your upper dantian has been opened, you will be able to subtract Yin and Yang energy from the essence. Another way to get Yin energy is to rely on medicinal pills. There are some which contain Yin energy. That is the most used way as it is far swifter than refining it yourself. You can also find an incredibly cold area; the colder the area, the stronger the yin energy will be.’

  ‘Hmm, I see.’ Hui Yue mumbled. He would have loved to have some medicinal pills, but, sadly, he had none with him, nor did he have any way to obtain some currently. As far as he understood, the beasts rarely bothered with pills. They considered it cheating, which was also one of the reasons that the beasts usually were stronger than humans of the same rank.

  Sighing deeply, Hui Yue stretched his back as he accepted that once more he needed to work hard. Having just broken through, Hui Yue knew it was time for him to examine his body thoroughly. Spreading out his hand a small ball of golden energy appeared within, less than a second after having called forth the energy.

  Unlike spiritual energy and Qi, Wu Wei did not travel through his meridians. It would instantly vanish within the upper dantian and reappear wherever it had been summoned to. It could be the ball in his hand, or could be a palm above his head, or perhaps the golden Wu Wei wings which were currently resting in his lower dantian.

  No matter what Hui Yue tried, the Wu Wei was so swift that the young man’s eyes were filled with admiration and happiness rose in his heart. He was finally a King ranked expert. He had finally stepped into the world of strong cultivators!

  Just as he was about to train a bit further he heard knocking on the door, and he instantly stopped what he was doing. He steadied his breathing before he opened the door. Outside was the smiling face of Wan Qiao, and in her arms was sheet after sheet of paper, all of which had information on both the front and the back.

  “Here you go,” She said proudly as she stuffed all the papers into Hui Yue’s arms, “It took me forever to do this, but now I’m done, so you better prepare to read a lot. If you skip as much as one paper, then I will not be happy!” She said before she turned around and lazily waved at him, “Time to get some sleep,” She mumbled as she rushed back to her chambers.

  Standing in the doorway, Hui Yue felt a headache coming. Within his arms was document after document filled with information, but now that they had been stuffed into his arms it was obvious that they no longer laid in the order they were supposed to be. The young man had to fix this before he could start reading the documents and learn about the Saints. Then he could decide who would join him during the war and who would stay behind.

  Chapter 44 – List of the Lords

  “I guess it is time to start working then,” Hui Yue mumbled to himself as he took all the papers to the desk. He had only used this desk once before when he wrote the message to his friends, but here he was. The table was filled with documents which he ever so slowly started to get organized. Hui Yue was elated when he saw that Wan Qiao had been kind enough to write the page numbers on the many pages, since otherwise he had no idea if he could have actually sorted them out.

  Having finally found heads and tails of the many sheets, he slowly started reading. Each document truly contained all the information Hui Yue could wish for. This included the age of the beast, the species, their main attacks, whether or not they were a strong or mediocre beast, and whether or not the beast wished to join the war.

  Hui Yue currently felt a calm he had never felt before. He had been far more stressed than he expected about reaching the King rank, but now that he had achieved his goal a strange calm enveloped him, and with a gentle smile on his face he dug into the list of lords.

  The upper dantian was located in the forehead, behind the two eyes, and while Hui Yue was busy reading the light energy was floating through his entire body reconstructing every single cell, adding extra resilience to his body, and boosting his strength tremendously. As his body was remade, energy also appeared within the lower dantian. As it appeared one cave wall which was blocking a cave within his dantian shook and slowly started to crumble under the rays of golden energy.

  Without Hui Yue noticing, the wall completely vanished. As it did, yet another unknown phenomena within his dantian cave appeared.

  ‘Oi, you slow a** turtle! How can you not feel that something is happening within your dantian?’ The phoenix roared, dragging Hui Yue’s attention from the papers in front of him to the dantian inside of him. Being within the dantian, he was suddenly shocked by the pulsating energy which was roaming throughout his lower dantian and entered his meridians. The energy circulated through his body enhancing every organ, every muscle, and every bone within.

  With widening eyes, Hui Yue looked at what used to be a closed off cave within his dantian, however now a red gemstone was placed within. The gem was not rough, but instead, it had facets cut into it. It was the most beautiful gem of a deep red color, and it constantly emitted pulses of energy. This energy went through his entire body, merging with the golden rays of Wu Wei to recreate his entire body from the inside.

  Unlike Wu Wei, which disintegrates the cells and rebuilds them while infusing each cell with Wu Wei, this red pulse was burying itself inside the cells and stayed there, fortifying them from within.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue was at a loss, but due to his curiosity, he instantly summoned Black Blood from his storage stone. Without adding any Qi to the dagger, he tried slicing his arm but was incapable of creating even the slightest cut. His skin had no traces of a wound present.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue could not help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. Even if he was now a King ranked expert, he should not have such a formidable defense. His thoughts instantly thought the cause was the pulsating gem within his dantian cave. Could it perhaps have a far stronger defense than even Wu Wei? Hui Yue was shocked.

  Adding Qi to the dagger, and fortifying like he usually did while fighting, he once more tried to slice his arm. Only a red line appeared on his arm, but no blood was seen. The red line quickly vanished leaving his arm with no marks whatsoever.

  Pondering for a moment, Hui Yue looked at the dagger then with a glance at his arm, which was now back to normal, he nodded absent-mindedly while he lifted the dagger high into the air. He aimed it at his leg, and with all his power he stabbed at his leg. His heart was beating rapidly as he knew that he would probably seriously injure himself. However, he needed to know how tough his new defense was. Without second guessing himself, he allowed for the dagger to stab his leg.

  Grimacing, Hui Yue looked at the dagger. A drop of blood was trailing down the edge of the blade. Looking at his leg, he was astonished to see that the stab containing all his power had not even managed to reach the bone, instead it only went a few centimeters into his flesh. Although the wound was painful and somewhat deep under normal conditions, Hui Yue’s face was filled with a smile and excitement bubbled up inside him.

  His body was now so tough that not even a Saint necessarily had a stronger body than him, and even now the pulsating feeling from the gem wi
thin his dantian cave had not stopped rushing through his entire body. Hui Yue was surprised to feel the pulsating feeling within him and his smile grew even larger.

  Although the wound on his leg did not disappear, Hui Yue guessed that if he waited for half an hour, or a little longer, then he would no longer be able to even pierce his skin. However as for where this strength came from, Hui Yue had no idea. He was greatly shocked thinking about the strong defense he had gained. Still, if the pulsation continued, he would soon be face to face with the memories of his previous life, and upon touching it, he would be capable of knowing everything about that lifetime.

  Currently, the phenomena he was the closest to merging with was the blue cloud, and he was very curious about what it contained, however, no matter how much he allowed for the blue cloud to surround him, he still had not managed to merge with it. To force the blue cloud to solidify into memories. This was a process which Hui Yue understood requires both luck and enlightenment.

  Sighing deeply, although Hui Yue was incredibly excited about the phenomena, he knew that right now he was the Grand Marshall of the war. It was his job to pick who would participate in the war and who would stay home. He had to decide what kind of training the guards were to go through. He had to determine which tactics to use, and although he wanted to watch the changes in his body, he was not one to forget his responsibilities. After feeling pleasantly surprised, he switched his focus to the papers in front of him.

  He paid full attention to the paperwork that was on his desk, and slowly one after another Hui Yue analyzed the experts, and he split the documents into two piles. One pile was the ones who were to stay in Shenyuan, and the other were the Saints who were going to participate in the war.

  The Saints who were staying home were to keep their guards by their side, while the Saints who were participating in the war would have their guards become soldiers.

  Contemplating for some time, Hui Yue decided that he needed all the guards to become one entity instead of guards from various families. Only those who could become one entity were worthy to be called soldiers.

  Having an army consisting solely of King ranked experts and above made it hard for Hui Yue to determine who would be the commanders of a thousand men, of two thousand men, and of five thousand men. Lastly, he needed to find people to command ten thousand men as well. It was obvious that these positions were to be given to the highest ranked experts, so the majority of these most senior commands would be Emperor ranked experts. The generals would obviously be the Saints.

  Each Saint had around ten thousand men with them. The majority of these were Kings with around one third being Emperors. Hui Yue, incapable of determining who would be best, sat down and wrote a letter to each of the Saints. A letter saying that he had decided who was going to war, and in his message he told the Saints to pick the five most supreme Emperors they had. These Emperors would become commanders of the army’s battalions.

  Thinking like this, he slowly started to bring structure to this new army. First, he wanted the soldiers to form groups of five. Within these five one would be the captain. This group of five would then be apart of a group of thousand which was controlled by a commander called the thousand man commander.

  Two groups of a thousand experts would then be controlled by a two thousand man commander, and eventually two of these two thousand man groups together with a one thousand man group would be controlled by a five thousand man commander. The highest ranking in the army below that of a Saint would be the ten thousand man commander who controlled two five thousand man groups.

  The thousand man commanders, the two thousand man commanders, and the five thousand man commanders all would have two lieutenants each. All commanders and the lieutenants were to be Emperor ranked experts, but as for who would go where the Saints who knew them best would decide.

  Writing these documents, Hui Yue was completely focused on writing and did not pay attention to what was happening with his body. He knew that many changes were occurring, however, how much it was changing, he still did not know. The only thing he experienced so far was the increase in his external strength from the gem within his dantian cave, not to mention the rebirth of all his cells caused by the Wu Wei.

  The entire night was spent writing. Hui Yue was so busy that he did not even have time to cultivate. Despite this, however, while he was busy writing, his body kept absorbing one pulse after another of the red energy emitted from the red gem. This gem was growing smaller and smaller as it pulsated away all its energy. It went from being a fist size to the size of a thumbnail.

  The moon was high in the sky when Hui Yue finally finished writing the messages he would send to the lords the following day. These documents would say which lords would stay and which would participate in the war, alongside requesting information about their Emperor ranked guards.

  Seeing that he could do no more and that the night still had a few hours left of bright moonlight, the young man opened the window and placed himself so the rays of moonlight could be absorbed as he started to cultivate.

  This was the first time he cultivated during the night, and a new and tingling sensation appeared within his heart. A sensation of a new energy he had never felt before. Examining it closer, Hui Yue could feel that all the essence of the heavens and the earth that he absorbed was filled with a white mist like membrane around it, the membrane containing pure Yin energies.

  As the energy went traveled through his meridians, this white Yin energy was shifted from the original essence of the heavens and the earth to the upper dantian slowly while the normal energy was being refined into Qi. In the upper dantian it merged with a black mist-like energy, similar to the white energy. The two entwined together, and the color of the energy turned pure golden. The golden mist then slowly entered the golden orb that was in the middle of his upper dantian. The orb shone even brighter now than before. The rays of golden light it emitted increased in intensity Even so, Hui Yue felt that although he had refined a large portion of energy, he still could feel that he was only at the early stage of the King rank.

  Chapter 45 – Building an Army

  Noticing how much of a change just a short while within the moonlight made for him and his energy caused Hui Yue to spent the rest of the night within the declining moonlight. He cultivated until the morning arrived and the sun rays broke through the sky. Feeling satisfied, Hui Yue stood up and stretched his body. Usually, he would cultivate while sitting on a bed, but tonight he had been seated on the cold stone floor, making him slightly more sore than usual.

  His blue eyes were filled with a calm which was not present previously. He knew that although he missed his friends in the capital, he had to fully focus on the things happening around him and not allowed himself to dwell the things he was missing, and leading a war was one of these things. Upon finishing the war, Hui Yue would return to his friends. Until then though he would do nothing but focus solely on winning this war for the beasts.

  Grabbing the letters, all of them were sealed with Qi. This was done so that they were not opened before they reached the lords for whom they were intended. As he grabbed the letters, he instantly left the room. He went searching for a guard on whom he could impose and ask to deliver all the letters for him. He, himself, had something he needed to take care of.

  “Hey, you there!” Hui Yue yelled out as he saw a guard in the distance. Running into a guard this quickly was pure luck, and the young man had a smile adorning his face. “I need you to take these letters and deliver them to the lords whose names are written on the top. You are by no means allowed to open these letters, they very important,” He continued, and although the guard wished to say no, he knew that doing so would bring him trouble. Taking the sixty-four letters, the guard heaved a heavy sigh as he asked himself why his luck was so terrible. Although he was unhappy with his task, he quickly turned around and went straight to the first lord whose name was mentioned, Wan Qiao.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue went to the gu
ard’s training grounds which was as empty as before. It was empty because the majority of the guards had moved outside the city gates. Sitting down, the young man decided to see if he could convince the blue cloud to solidify into a body in his dantian. Seated on the hard, rocky ground, Hui Yue entered his consciousness. As he appeared in the lower dantian, he instantly noticed the gem had shrunk even smaller than the size of a thumbnail. It was now as small as a grain of rice, but even so, it still emitted a pulse of energy, albeit the pulse was much weaker now than before.

  Hui Yue was elated to know that the gem was constantly active because this meant that the memories would solidify quicker than most of the other phenomena. This was very unlike the green pearl which would take a long time for Hui Yue to merge with. However, although, the red gem was continually pulsating it was still far behind the blue cloud if one were to consider how long they had been used. Hui Yue moved his attention from the small grain-like gem to the massive blue cloud which was waiting patiently in its cave. With nothing but a thought, this blue cloud billowed forth and took over the entire meridian system. It flowed out and shrouded the young man in a large blue cloud.