Chapter 229: 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 wished 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 hoa.r.s.e 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 still 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 sc.r.a.pe out his eyes, to hurt him in the most painful way possible.