Blue Phoenix

Hui Yue managed to gather all his friends. They were all together in the front yard of the Ling family’s mansion, and together with them were Old Man Ling and a few other experts of the Ling family.

Old Man Ling was strong, but he had at most comprehended four daos, and he had not yet reached the advanced level of understanding with any of his daos. For this reason, he was incapable of superimposing the daos.

Because of this, the strongest experts present were Pei Ziqi, Hui Yue, and Lan Feng.

Although they were the strongest, Hui Yue had a premonition that even if the three of them were to join forces, then they would still not be able to beat the powerhouse that was heading towards them.

If they had been in the Celestial Sword Sect, Hui Yue would have feared nothing. He knew that his father and his two uncles were incredibly strong. Their auras would in no way lose out to this cultivator that was speeding straight for them, but now he was stuck at the Ling family’s mansion. He knew that he had no protection to speak of. If this powerhouse wished to kill Hui Yue, all he could do was die with all his grievances.

“The one coming is very strong,” Hui Yue said with a solemn voice. “I don’t know if he has friendly or malicious thoughts; thus I suggest everyone scatter throughout the city.”

“If he is friendly then it won’t be too much trouble to arrive later to greet him, but if he has malicious thoughts, then it would not be a good idea for all of us to walk towards impending doom together,” Hui Yue said seriously.

He knew that this expert with his outstanding strength was coming for him. Although his friends were remarkable, they were clearly not the reason for someone to come all this way.

If it was an assassin that the demons had sent, then he would be the main target. If he could allow for his friends to survive, then he would definitely do so.

Even if he came for other reason the most likely being to steal the Celestial Sword, then he would still be looking for Hui Yue.

Hui Yue sighed as he looked at his friends. All of them stared at him with determined eyes and none of them seemingly willing to leave.

“We have shared many life and death experiences together,” Wan Qiao said as she stepped forward. “Do you really think that we are going to flee now that the danger has caught up with us?””

“I am not leaving my husband behind,” Huli said with a decisive voice and the two other women nodded their heads.

“I am your sworn brother. Although I can no longer be reborn, I am still not such a disgusting person that I would leave my brother behind!” Lan Feng said.

“I don’t know much about you, but I know that you value brotherhood. The way Lan Feng speaks about you is enough to earn my respect. Because of this, I too will stay here and face whoever is coming our way.” Da Hu said with a decisive voice as the Western Tiger was quite. She simply stood by Da Hu’s side, draping her hands around his arms and nodded her head.

The others said nothing; they just stepped forward nodding their heads. All of them had decisive expressions on their faces and clenched hands.

Even Zhong Fai who actually had nothing to do with their group was standing there, looking determined to go down with him. Seeing this, Hui Yue felt his heart grow warm.

These friends were indeed worthy to be life-long companions, and he was very happy.

“Let’s face him together then,” Hui Yue said as he turned around and looked in the direction that the aura was emanating from.

At the start, it had been a very vague feeling, but now it was like a mountain that was descending upon Hui Yue. He could feel the pressure and only by revolving the Ancestral Worldpower he had within his body was he able to stand against it.

What surprised him was that when he looked around, there was no one else who was feeling the same, only Hui Yue was pressured in this way.

“It seems that I really am his target,” Hui Yue mused to himself, growing slightly restless and worried. “He has locked onto me so that I can not escape. This is not the behavior of someone who is friendly.”

Unfortunately, he had no more time to consider it as the person in question came crashing down from the sky. This man seemed to be a little older than a middle-aged man. His hair and beard were gray, though there were few traces of black hair remaining.

His body was wrapped in a great black robe and silver embroideries of suns and moons were intertwined upon it.

His face was friendly but within his eyes burned a savage fire that seemed as if it could swallow up Hui Yue whole.

“Greetings Senior,” Hui Yue said with a bow as he looked at the man. His friends all stood behind him and quickly followed suit.

Although Hui Yue was polite, and although he wished they could peacefully resolve everything, he knew that they would probably end up fighting. If that happened, they would all be cut down, but at least they would go down fighting.

“You are polite enough,” the man said with a harrumph as he turned to look at Old Man Ling.

“Ling patriarch, since when has your marvelous family started to listen to the orders of a mere boy?” he asked as if he knew the Ling family well. His attitude showed that he was a person of this region, but even so, no one knew who he was.

Old Man Ling was not being suppressed by his pressure, only Hui Yue was, but Old Man Ling could feel that this man in no way simple. It was clear that he had some agenda, and even worse, his cultivation base was far above theirs.

“Young Master Pei has done a great service for the Ling family,” Old Man Ling said honestly as he nodded his head. “To provide such assistance, the reward was that we would support him as long as he is within our western region fighting against the Blood Demons.”

“Not to mention we fight for the sake of humanity. Working under Pei Yue might be discouraging for some, but for us, it is a great honor. More than a million demons have died in the hands of this youngster; I believe not many supreme experts can claim such achievements.”

“Amongst these million Blood Demons, quite a few of them have been supreme experts, they were not all just cannon fodder, and the more that are dead is to our benefit when it comes time for the final war against the Blood Demons.”

Old Man Ling was praising Hui Yue with every single word he spoke, and his words caused the elderly man to frown. He had to admit that this Pei Yue was indeed a great asset to the humanity’s side of the war.

“I am not here to cause trouble,” he said after some time with a sigh. “But I wish to test this young master Pei from the Celestial Sword Sect,” he said with a chill in his voice.

“Test Pei Yue?” Old Man Ling frowned. Who was this old man, and why was he so insistent on testing Hui Yue?

“I guess you are wondering why I am making things troublesome for you,” the elderly master said, and Old Man Ling could only nod his head. It was indeed exactly what he was thinking.

“It is simple,” the elderly man answered, and his words caused even Hui Yue and the others to be curious. What exactly could be the cause of this expert to seek out Hui Yue?

“Not long ago, this Pei Yue executed a group of human cultivators. I believe they had caused some disturbances and even insulted him, or might have gone as far as to attack him,” the elderly man said honestly. Although he loved his great-grandson, he was a capable man and able to see the light from the darkness. He knew that his great-grandson was incredibly arrogant, and he blamed himself for not having spent more time teaching the descendant not to be too arrogant.

“One of the people whom he killed happened to be my great-grandson,” he said seriously, and Hui Yue felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He could only thank his luck that this old man was reasonable and had not killed him on sight. This was enmity which was hard to resolve.

“I see,” Hui Yue did not know what to say. He had indeed killed the great-grandson of an expert almost at the apex of the martial world. There was nothing he could say as an excuse out of him killing this cultivator.

“You are surprisingly calm,” the expert said as he raised an eyebrow in surprise. Hui Yue shrugged his shoulders and looked the elder in the eye. He was neither humble nor was he arrogant; he was just very straightforward.

“I killed someone dear to you; the enmity you feel towards me cannot be small, yet you haven’t killed me. This puzzles me,” Hui Yue said honestly. “Still, if you killed me it could be argued that I would get what I deserve. If one is willing to kill, then one has to accept that one day they too will be killed. Only strength reigns supreme.”

“Smart boy,” the elder nodded his head. “Killing you is a waste, especially right now when we are fighting against the demons. This war of attrition is especially cruel and killing someone like you who is apparently quite skilled in slaying demons would be a complete waste.”

“Well I think that letting you living will be even more beneficial to me than killing you,” the elder said with a mysterious smile on his face. “You will face three tests. The first is simple. I want you to bring me proof that you have killed a hundred thousand Blood Demons within a year.”

“If you succeed, then I will explain the next trial to you, but if you fail it, then I will kill you and your companions.”

To others, it would be completely impossible to kill a hundred thousand Blood Demons in one year, but hearing this number Hui Yue frowned. Although he needed to rush, it would not be impossible for him.

It was true that he had just killed a million blood demons, but the truth was that these blood demons had been killed by the world ending bead. It was almost impossible to come across bigger groups of blood demons now that the war had evolved into group fighting.

It truly seemed like this old man was giving him a way out of this mess.

Bowing deeply, Hui Yue accepted the trial. He had no choice as he knew that if he declined this old man would instantly strike him down.

“Since Senior has given me such task, I will instantly prepare to set out,” Hui Yue said with a deep bow again as he turned to leave the Ling family mansion. He had to buy certain medicinal herbs before he could once more set out to kill even more Blood Demons.

“I wonder how you will prove how many demons you’ve slain?” the elder man said with a smile on his face as he vanished without a trace. He had decided that he would follow behind Hui Yue the entire year to get a much better understanding of this young man.

Having met him, he had the feeling of meeting a dragon amongst men.