Drums of War

by Tinalynge

  “Although it was hard to convince them about the benefits of working in groups, it is true that we managed to convince the many soldiers to work together. Can I ask what the plan is for everyone when it comes to training?”

  “I will tell you when everyone has arrived,” Hui Yue said dismissively before he moved to another Emperor close by to greet him. Soon they had all arrived, and everyone present was quiet as they looked at Hui Yue with expectation. Everyone now looked at Hui Yue differently than they had before. If he truly managed to reach the eighth star as quickly as he had, who was to say that he could not enter the rank of Emperor just as swiftly. Looking at him, many of the Emperors already felt a sense of danger. There was something about this young man, something about his calm which was unnerving.

  “Welcome and thank you very much for coming here all of you,” Hui Yue said with a gentle smile on his face. The greeting causing the many commanders to nodding towards him, a sign of great respect towards a cultivator who was weaker than them.

  “Tomorrow I wish for everyone from the army to stand in line when the sun breaks through the sky. We are going to start turning these guards into true soldiers.” Hui Yue continued. His speech boomed through the arena and the surrounding areas. Many guards were standing on the ground watching the emperors and Hui Yue, and as soon as they heard his words, their blood started roiling in their bodies. Their faces sprouted uncontrollable smiles, and their eyes shone with excitement. Although they enjoyed being cultivators, they understood that for a war they needed to be more than just guards. For this young man with an insane cultivation speed to personally train them, it was likely that they too were capable of improving significantly.

  Hui Yue, knowing exactly what they were thinking did nothing but have a small knowing smile on his face. For him, it did not matter what incentives these experts had, as long as they would follow his orders to the letter. “That is all I have today,” Hui Yue said with a gentle smile after which he nodded to the experts. After getting their orders, all the Emperors left the arena.

  As they left the arena, all of them were surprised to see that Hui Yue had not moved. His face still had a small tranquil smile as he observed the many Emperors leaving. Staying in the arena was obviously a sign of wanting to spar with others, however, who would dare to step up on the stage and spar against their Grand Marshall? If they won, would they be punished? And losing on purpose was not something that they wished to do. Their dignity was incapable of accepting such a severe blow.

  Hui Yue stayed there while he waited for all the commanders to step off the stage. When the last did so Hui Yue cleared his throat and with a gentle voice he said just a few words, “Anyone of the eight or the ninth star who feels that they can defeat me, please give it a go,” Hui Yue said. His voice was low, but it seemed as though the wind carried it to every corner of the ground ensuring that everyone heard it. At the same time, he had not needed to raise his voice. As for how he accomplished this no one seemed to know. They all knew how to make one’s voice fortified with Qi so that it could reach a vast area, but to use the wind as a means to spread one’s voice was unprecedented.

  Everyone went silent not even one dared to move towards the stage; all were worried about fighting against him. Knowing what the experts were thinking, Hui Yue once more sighed deeply as he shook his head..

  “Do not fear,” He said with a friendly voice that bubbled with life and power, “I will not punish anyone who defeats me. Let every cultivator present bear witness to this oath,” Hui Yue said solemnly, and everyone felt respect for him in their heart. To swear that he would not abuse his power was something which the guards had never expected, and they all felt their respect towards this man growing even more.

  Hearing the oath although no one rushed to the stage, the previous look in their eyes had changed from completely opposing the idea to now somewhat more reluctant to fight. After the many experts looked at one another one man finally stepped forward.

  This man was quite small, but his body was incredibly lean, and his eyes had cat pupils of a golden color. His black tail was wagging back and forth, and black cat ears could be seen on him. Looking at this expert, Hui Yue understood that he was a very rare beast, a Black Lightning Cat.

  “Lord, although I am only an eight star King, I have been at this rank for twenty years now, and I would love to compare myself to you who just reached the rank.” He said very politely as he bowed towards Hui Yue.

  The white-haired young man smiled as he returned the bow and took his stance. It was time to try out the abilities that he learned from the monk.

  Chapter 54 – Skills of a Monk

  The Black Lightning Cat was not large, nor was his body bulky and filled with muscle like many of the other experts Hui Yue had been up against before. This was an expert who focused on speed and his nimble body to go against his enemies. Hui Yue, although he too felt that speed was his forte, as he controlled the high ranked skill Velocity Flow, he for once started wondering whether or not he would truly be faster than his opponent.

  At least the fight he was going to participate in today was not solely a fight of speed. It was a battle where he wanted to learn how to control the abilities that he learned from the monk. The feeling he got from the monk was far different from when he had merged with the wolf. With the wolf, everything was incredibly simple. He knew exactly what attacks the wolf preferred, and instinctively his body could go through all of them without practice; however, the monk’s abilities felt different.

  Three abilities appeared in Hui Yue’s mind, and although these three abilities were all strong, it felt as though the young man would need further enlightenment to be able to use them. The attacks were capable of controlling an opponent’s cultivation base. Standing in front of the Black Lightning Cat, Hui Yue casually rolled his shoulders and stretched his body.

  He was very well aware that he could not afford to lose this battle because then the army was likely to look down upon him if he did, but truth be told, the young man was not too worried about the battle he was about to fight. Had he not already merged with the monk then he would not have been so brazen, but now he knew that his abilities were far stronger than they were before.

  The crowd went silent as they saw the two experts greet each other. Both of them were standing opposite each other, their eyes locked together as they expected their opponent to make the first move. Neither were willing take the first step in this war as they knew little about the other’s abilities.

  Hui Yue cast Velocity Flow from the very start to ensure that his speed would not be too far behind the Black Lightning Cat’s. His eyes now no longer showed a gleam of having fun, instead they were serious as they observed every movement that was made.

  Finally, Hui Yue lifted his hand, and from his finger a strand of Qi appeared, however, this strand of Qi seemed odd. It was not white as such Qi was expected to be. Instead, it was light blue, the same blue color of the cloud.

  Within the audience a few gasps could be heard; gasps from female King ranked experts whose faces turned ashen and their breathing labored. Seeing the strand of energy these women’s eyes were filled with horror as they also connected it with the dreadful cloud that had absorbed their energy the previous day. The others looked at these women with confusion in their eyes, but soon afterwards their faces once more turned to the arena where the thread of energy turned into more threads of energy. One appearing on each finger and spreading forward moving like snakes which got ready to strike. One after another these strands flew towards the black cat causing him to use his agility to avoid them. Although he had no clue what these blue Qi strands did, he could feel his hair stand on end in alarm as soon as the first one got close to him.

  Hui Yue, seeing the opponent avoiding every one of the attacks let out a grin before he once more started maneuvering the threads around, never once letting them rest. He was constantly attacking the beast in front of him. Being constantly bombarded by the blue Qi threads, one
should have expected the cat to become flustered, however nothing of that sort happened. The cat kept avoiding his attack skillfully, and although the Qi threads got close, none of them were close enough to attack him.

  The speed of the Black Lightning Cat was indeed as fast as lightning, but Hui Yue was not the only one who was shocked. The cat was used to being one of the fastest creatures around, yet here he was fighting a young man who had just reached the eighth star and he was the one being pushed to his limits to avoid attacks. Not only that, he could clearly feel cold sweat appear on his back as the blue thread arrived closer and closer to him.

  Hui Yue knew that this was not going to work, and with a skillful movement of his hand the ten threads of blue Qi returned to him, only to be knitted together creating a net from the threads. At this point the net severed itself from hands and a complete net had been created. The net was now being held in one hand by Hui Yue. The young man was once more employed the abilities he learned from the monk. This net was not as simple as it might seem.

  Once again the two experts stood in front of each other, neither moving, both awaiting the other to move first. The first person to move was likely to be the one to lose. Seeing that neither planned on moving, Hui Yue took a deep breath. His sharp eyes were staring at the man in front of him and suddenly as if shot out of a cannon the white-haired young man darted forward. He still had the net in his hand and had not yet released it, instead he kept darting towards the Black Lightning Cat. As soon as the cat saw the movement, his pupils narrowed, but as long as the net was in his hands, the cat knew that he needed to be careful. Hesitatingly he moved further away from Hui Yue, but the explosive speed the young man displayed was far surpassed the expectations of the cat.

  Seeing the cat backtracking, a smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he followed suit. The moment of uncertainty that was evident on the cat’s face was enough for Hui Yue to follow through with the attack that he had planned.

  The arena was massive. It was an arena which had space for more than five pairs of experts to spar at the same time, and this allowed for the cat to draw a large distance before he noticed that he made a mistake.

  Withdrawing was something simple for a nimble and fast creature such as himself, but he was in his half-human shape and as a being with two legs moving backwards was definitely slower than the young man who was dashing towards him. As Hui Yue dashed forward, his face and body started to undergo a change. Red fur appeared on his skin, and his face turned into the face of a wolf as claws appeared on his hands, razor-sharp claws which were capable of shredding through almost anything.

  Seeing the change, the cat finally understood the seriousness of this match. That his opponent, although he had skipped a lot of ranks within a few days and was new to the eighth star rank, was no way as weak as he expected.

  Changing into a wolf, his already high speed rose to an even higher level and before the cat had the chance to fully understand what happened a red flash appeared by his side. The red flash was accompanied by a blue blur and a sudden cold feeling on the cat’s skin.

  The blue flash blinded the many observers and as quickly as it had arrived, it vanished. The only thing left was Hui Yue, who had returned to his human form and the cat which had collapsed on the floor. Seated on the floor, the cat was staring at Hui Yue with astonishment, his eyes widened and his heartbeat erratic.

  “How do you do it?” He asked astonished, as he felt that he could not use any of his inner energies. All of them were completely sealed. Upon entering his inner body with his consciousness, the cat found that his beast core had a blue net surrounding it keeping the inner energies completely locked down.

  The cat was stunned as he realized that his energy was now locked by the white-haired young man. No matter how he tried to force his energy out, all of it dissipated into the net as though it absorbed the energy before it could fully exit the core. Seeing this, the cat was terrified. Terrified about how long he would be without energy, and even more terrified that a creature had appeared who could completely lock down another expert’s cultivation base turning a cultivator into nothing more than a commoner.

  “Let me help you,” Hui Yue laughed as he saw the shock on the cat’s face. He knew what the ability was supposed to do, however he had never expected that the ability would be as strong as it was. To completely seal another person’s cultivation base was something he felt incredibly excited about.

  The ability was the blue cloud merged with Qi. The most basic of all energies; however these strands were capable of sealing the power of every expert. The experts with strength above Hui Yue would be capable of breaking the net, or the threads of Qi, however anyone weaker, or at the same strength as Hui Yue, would be locked within the net.

  Reaching out his hand, Hui Yue helped the cat onto his legs, and as soon as their hands grasping one another, the net slowly vanished into small Qi threads. These Qi threads vanished through the cat’s meridians and exited the hand which was touching Hui Yue.

  The entire audience was silent. The only thing they saw was the blue net touching the cat. The cat which was known to be one of the strongest eight star Kings within the army. His speed was renown, and his attacks were fierce, yet for some reason this cat only retreated. He seemed to do everything in his ability to get away from these blue strands of energy. As observers, no one was close enough to the energy to truly feel the danger that the cat felt. All they saw was the cat retreating for a time then suddenly a bright light followed. Afterwards, the expert they had expected to win was collapsed on the floor. As for what transpired no one knew. What the attack did no one knew.

  The battle ended as soon as it started. The two experts had not even exchanged blows. One escaped while the other attacked. Everyone felt both cheated and uncertain. Did he allow for Hui Yue to win since he was the Grand Marshall? Or was this blue light attack really so frightening that it would be enough to defeat an expert just like that?

  While some thought it had ended with the cat giving their Grand Marshall face, other experts looked at Hui Yue with excitement. Thinking of the attack, they too wished to experience it, to see if they were capable of handling it. The women who knew the ability of the blue cloud remained pale and were scared by the fact that this young man had managed to create an attack from the cloud which had previously assaulted them.

  The cat stood up with a surprised and humble expression on his face as he nodded to Hui Yue. “The Grand Marshall is definitely worthy of his rank,” He said with a respectful face. Only now did he understand that this expert had many secrets which they knew nothing about.

  The Emperors who were watching all frowned. They were usually capable of seeing through the attacks of lower ranked experts, but even they were incapable of seeing through this attack. Only the one attacked knew exactly what had happened, and the cat was tightlipped. He too understood that having an attack such as this would work best with the element of surprise.

  “Lord,” Suddenly a voice sounded out from the audience and another eight star expert stepped forward. “Lord, I wish to try receiving that attack of yours.”

  Chapter 55 – The Unbelievable Attack

  “Lord, I wish to receive that attack of yours!” A voice boomed throughout the grounds, and both the cat and Hui Yue looked at the speaker. The speaker was a tall One-Horned Eagle, clearly a beast from Wan Qiao’s army. He seemed to have the same rank as Hui Yue and the previous opponent.

  Seeing this, Hui Yue was calm. With a gentle nod and a curious look, he allowed for the next expert to ascend to the stage. This expert was not certain whether or not the cat lost on purpose, but to him, it did not matter. What mattered was to feel new extreme attacks, to understanding how others fought and learn from their understanding. This was a highly skilled expert, one amongst many in this group of guards.

  As the One-Horned Eagle headed towards the arena, everyone was watching intently hoping to see the net attack once again. Hoping to try and understand what it was.
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  Hui Yue knew that the threads of Qi alone would not be enough to fully block a beast core. While the eagle was making his way to the stage, Hui Yue called forth one strand of Qi after another merging them with the blue cloud. As it left his fingers, he skillfully knitted it all together until he once more stood with a blue net in his hands.

  The eagle stood in front of him with a look of respect. He bowed deeply to the Grand Marshall. Looking at the eagle, Hui Yue instantly understood that this guard was not someone here to prove that he was better than either the cat or Hui Yue; he was here because he wished to experience the attack Hui Yue had shown.He most likely had never seen anything like it before and wanted to use this opportunity to experience it for himself. Hui Yue, having merged with the monk, was incredibly calm. Seeing an expert with such an eagerness for extreme attacks such as this one made Hui Yue feel pride in the men who were under him.

  “Please attack me,” The eagle said as he stood straight in front of Hui Yue. “I will not move. I wish to experience the attack myself.”

  Having said that, Hui Yue nodded his head, and two moments later a bright blue light appeared in an instant and vanished just as quickly. Right after a thud could be heard as the eagle collapsed to the ground. His eyes were filled with astonishment, his mouth quivering.