Blue Phoenix Chapter 89 – Frozen Brigade

Upon giving a slight bow to the two cloaked beasts behind Sha Yun, Hui Yue slowly made his way towards them.

“I am glad to see that the two of you were willing to lend me your strength. I promise to make this trip worth your while,” Hui Yue said with a smile on his face as he led the three beast sisters into the mansion itself.

“As long as you are within my mansion I can guarantee that no one will treat you disrespectfully,” Hui Yue continued, as he showed the estate and the surrounding areas to the two guests. “I would suggest that you stay around the mansion the majority of the time. It will be risky for you to enter the city alone. However, if you truly need to go into the city, then make sure to wear your cloaks. They will grant you a margin of safety.”

Having said so much, Hui Yue went to the second floor where there were three rooms next to each other which all shone with a warm light emitting from within. The middle room belonged to Sha Yun, yet the snake-woman rarely used her room, as she liked to sneak into Hui Yue’s.

As long as the sisters were living in the mansion, Hui Yue granted the three of them full access to the second floor. He resided on the first floor. The sisters were allowed to move anywhere within the mansion, and every servant had been ordered to tend to their every need.

Shui Wu and Bing Niao were both genuinely amazed by the care which they were being shown. They were only used to experiencing the sort of humans who tried to hunt them down or tried to hurt them. To these two beasts, humans were all but toys and food.

“I imagine that Sha Yun already explained the plan to the two of you?” Hui Yue asked. He showed the two sisters around the entire compound and both sisters nodded their heads. Their eyes widened as they focused on observing their surroundings, rather than listening to Hui Yue’s words.

Although they did not pay much attention to Hui Yue, they still nodded at his question. A sly grin appeared on his face as he started to whistle and moved back to the stone garden. There he once again sat down. Entering into meditation caused his body to rise a few centimeters above ground and allowed the silvery hue to shine from his soon-to-be sweat-soaked skin.

“How come you have not hired any assassins lately?” a voice rang through the frozen mansion. Zhong Fai turned his head only to see a handsome youth walking out from behind one of the ice pillars, upon which his ice castle was built. The handsome man was wearing only a pair of trousers and shoes. His upper body was completely bare showcasing his ripped abs, as well as his white hair, skin, and eyes.

Closely looking one would be able to see that this man was truly not white skinned, nor was his hair white, but that a layer of frost covered everything. His eyes were not white, but they had long since become the color of a dead man’s. Looking at this youth who at first glance seemed handsome would startle anyone upon closer inspection.

An annoyed sigh escaped Zhong Fai’s lips, and he shook his head slightly as he looked at the frozen young man.

“There is no need to send any more for now,” he said dismissively. But the young man showed no interest in settling with such an answer.

“Why not?” he curiously asked as he cocked his head slightly. “Did you not say you wanted to temper him? You can’t be soft on him just because you like him more.” A pout appeared on the frost-covered face as he continued, “Look at me. This is how all your attempts at tempering youngsters go.”

A slight laugh escaped from Zhong Fai as he nodded his head in agreement. “To be honest, I did go over the line,” the living man said. “I sent a Silent Raven after him.”

“Seriously?” the frozen man asked as his jaw dropped down, agape. “So he will be joining us soon?” he asked hesitantly. At first, he had been joking about the new kid dying, but it seemed as though Zhong Fai never learned from his previous mistakes.

“The reason I don’t dare send any more assassins is that he killed the Raven,” the man seated on the ice throne finally sighed. This answer caused the handsome youth’s jaw to drop even further than it had previously. To kill a Raven was no easy task.

“I see,” he grumbled for a while. “When do you plan on picking him up?” he finally asked.

“I won’t make him a part of my Frozen Brigade,” Zhong Fai said with an enormous smile on his face. “I want this one alive. So, for now, I will watch him grow. In a few years, I will go and pick him up.”

Shaking his head, the frozen man looked at Zhong Fai as though he was looking at a dumb child, pity and disbelief filling his eyes. Although it seemed as though he wished to say other things no words escaped his lips. He instead turned around and left the main hall of the ice castle, shaking his head and murmuring something to himself.

Back in Riluo City, the tension had reached an all-time high as the City Lord finally started to move in opposition to the Wang and Deng families. All the leading families were baring their teeth at each other. Each faction had spent their savings on hiring extra guards from the commoner families. They also used their wealth and fame to recruit the noble families who had yet to decide upon with which faction they wished to ally.

While all the older generations of the factions were busy recruiting, Hui Yue was busy laying plans within his home. He would frequently have guests visiting him; some came with information while others came to get information. Everyone soon knew that Hui Yue was housing three high-ranked humanoid, magical beasts. No one dared to mess with them as they were guests of Hui Yue. Even though two of them were yet to be bound by a beast contract, no one wished to make yet another enemy during this time of war. Instead, they were left alone as they refused to choose a side.

Wang Ju Long and Deng Wu were the two guests whom Hui Yue saw most often. As they came to visit and chat with the beasts, they acted as though the whole situation in Riluo City was none existent.

Hui Yue enjoyed getting those visits. He could not help but feel the excitement growing within him. He looked forward to the battle which was to come.

Officially Hui Yue had not allied with either of the sides, yet Hui Yue already knew exactly what he would do during the battle. He had been spending a lot of time considering how to accomplish this task thoroughly.

Hui Yue had always loved the ancient history of his old world, and the plan which he was going to implement whenever the battle broke out was one which he had created with inspiration from the ancient Greek myths.

A sigh escaped Hui Yue’s lips ruminating over thoughts like these as he felt a few drops of water land gently on his skin, signaling a massive downpour, which started momentarily after. Looking at the downpour, Hui Yue managed to clad himself in flames, evaporating the raindrops before they managed to land on him. While doing so it was impossible for him to continue training his metal affinity within the stone garden. All his attention focused on managing his fire affinity instead.

Looking at the cloudy sky, Hui Yue allowed a sigh to escape his lips as he made his way into the mansion. What he saw made him stare with his jaw dropped.

In the middle of the mansion was a courtyard. This courtyard had an open ceiling allowing both sunshine and rain to enter. Upon entering this courtyard, Hui Yue expected that it would be deserted as it had started to pour down.

Looking at the courtyard, not even a slight drop of water had hit the floor. Seated on some bamboo chairs were the three beast sisters while a full array of the servants was waiting on them and complementing their incredible powers.

Above these three beast sisters was a giant blue orb filled with water. By looking at it, Hui Yue noticed that it was the same type of orb which Shui Wu used to entrap unwanted guests within in her clearing.

This blue orb was absorbing every single drop of rain, allowing none to slip past it. Thus it was keeping the courtyard and people within dry.

Having the beasts within the house, Hui Yue noticed the servants at first had been slightly nervous, and at the same time very curious. Eventually, their curiosity won out against their fear. The servants quickly found that these magical beasts were not only intelligent, they were also very human-like when one got to know them.

The three beast sisters had been provided with medicinal pills from Hui Yue, as payment for their willingness to help with his current endeavor.

Although Hui Yue was providing medicinal pills to his friends and now also to these magical beasts one has to remember that the price for these pills was astonishing. One of the Qi Congregating pills alone was enough to pay the salary of a teacher at the Royal Academy. Lower-quality medicinal pills were more widespread, although their usage was far below that of the higher-grade pills.

Despite the fact that Rong Liang was a City Lord, even he had problems purchasing high-grade medicinal pills. All the alchemists within Riluo City were of the lower ranks, but even they set an unreasonable price for their lower-grade pills.

The reason why the Royal Academy had such a large quantity of these pills was that they belonged to the Royal Family. The Royal Family employed all higher-ranked alchemists. For the City Lord to purchase the pills, he would need to pay an even higher price than the students at the academy did.

Hui Yue was able to buy pills in this quantity because he did not have to worry too much about his income. His entire income was for the sake of providing pills for himself and his friends.

Doing this was a thing which made all his friends stare at him with wide eyes and beating hearts. The few high-grade medicinal pills which their families owned were all used on their family leader or the elders as none of them had reached the Saint rank just yet.

These magical beasts did not know the actual value of the pills when considering the money spent to buy them. What they did understand, however, was that these pills were many times more effective than the fresh medicinal herbs they would eat inside the forest.

Having bought so many medicinal pills throughout the years, along with the purchase of a big mansion made Hui Yue’s wealth plummet. He went from being as wealthy as the Deng family to now only being as rich as the average noble family within Riluo City.

This, however, was still a significant amount of money for anyone, especially someone who only spent money on his servants’ salaries and medicinal pills.

“Milord! Milord!” a servant rushed through from the front gate, his breath ragged and his clothes soaked from running through the rain. Hui Yue instantly turned towards the young man. The servant's outstretched hand contained a black memory stone with a few signs of mist floating around.

This servant was one of Gao Yan’s most trusted men, and Hui Yue quickly accepted the stone before he placed it on his forehead.

‘Tomorrow is the day of new beginnings,’ said a voice within Hui Yue’s mind. A voice which Hui Yue recognized instantly as Deng Tsang Ying.