Chapter 566: Hierarchy
Hui Yue opened his eyes. He was seated in his meditation room, but he was unaware of how long he had been experiencing the memories of his past life.
His body was sore and stiff from being in the same position for a rather long amount of time, but as for how long he had actually been sitting still, Hui Yue did not know. To him, it felt like a lifetime had passed as he had relived his previous life.
As the memories merged with Hui Yue the young man experienced everything that the wings had experienced in their life.
While they merged, Hui Yue found that he did not gain insights into any daos than the ones he had already comprehended, but a set of Ancestral Worldpower Skills appeared within his mind. After they appeared, he instantly knew that he would not need much time to be able to use these Ancestral Worldpower Skills to their fullest potential. His previous life had really worked hard to gain full mastery over the skills, and now Hui Yue would benefit from it.
Staying in the meditation room for a bit, Hui Yue was unsure what he should do first. Should he contact Pei Tian and admit that he had regained his memories?
Should he train these Ancestral Worldpower skills and gain control over the skills or should he return to studying?
"Well, either way, I succeeded in my goal," Hui Yue mumbled satisfied, and just as he was about to leave the meditation room when he felt something stir within his core.
Sitting down once more he entered the core with his consciousness. Feeling this disturbance, his face filled with a big smile and he had great expectations. There was only one being that was capable of causing his soul to stir like this, and that was Lan Feng. Had the phoenix finally awoken?
As soon as he looked at the phoenix within his core and looking into his eyes, he found that Lan Feng’s eyes, which used to be azure, were now golden. His blue feathers had a golden line now on their edge as well.
Hui Yue was stunned as he looked at the blue phoenix in front of him. The changes to him were earth-shakingly big, and his soul was no longer as weak as a new God. Now he was much more like a real God; a God with quite a deep Ancestral Worldpower pool.
"My bloodline has been activated," Lan Feng said with excitement when he saw Hui Yue. "Recently, I've felt close to understanding my bloodline, and when I managed to merge the dao of flame with the dao of ignition something stirred within my soul. I started absorbing Ancestral Worldpower rapidly, and I did not know what was going on."
"My bloodline is from the Vermilion Bird, and I am a second generation descendant!" He said proudly, "only my old man had a purer bloodline than I do and the fact that I have this bloodline means that I have access to the daos of fire!"
The excitement in Lan Feng's eyes was obvious as he bragged to Hui Yue, "The fact that I have this bloodline also means that every fire dao will be doubled in power compared to before. Now, I am simply an unbeatable entity amongst any at my own rank!"
"Not to mention, while unlocking my bloodline I absorbed an amazing amount of Ancestral Worldpower. My soul is no longer a new God’s!"
Lan Feng looked at Hui Yue and snickered, "You thought you had overtaken me, but although you have the bloodline of the great roc and all those memories, my bloodline is purer, and my natural talent is far above yours. I am finally useful again!"
Although he sounded arrogant, Hui Yue could hear some relief in his friend’s voice, and he laughed out loud, "You have always been useful to me. Your knowledge far outstrips mine, and your daos are not something I can look down upon. Still, it is great that I have you by my side once again, now we are even stronger than we were before!"
"Also, I need to talk with you," Hui Yue finally said as he looked at Lan Feng with an odd gleam in his eyes. "I spoke with Yanluo. He said that he will help us resurrect Ju Long if I manage to become the next Judge of Hell. So we need to give it our all to become the new judge!"
"But he also said something quite interesting... He told me about the phoenix’s power of resurrection and how it relates to humans. He said that if a phoenix uses their power to resurrect a human, it is not possible for them to resurrect itself ever again and that these nine lives of mine were a result of the sacrifice that a phoenix made for my sake."
Hearing this, Lan Feng looked quite sheepishly at Hui Yue as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, that's true. I guess I will never again be able to resurrect myself, but considering the fact I am a God, isn’t that fine?"
"As a phoenix, I can live forever. Whenever I die, I will be reborn from my ashes, even if my soul is shattered it will return to my ashes instead of the Yellow River and I will be reborn."
"Now though I am like any other God, able to die, but so be it! Getting you as a friend was worth it. Remember the situation I was in; I was sealed within a small hairpin and could do nothing."
"I had been within that pin for many years, so many years that I had given up on everything else, but when you came along, I had the feeling that this was the chance I had been waiting for."
"It was my life's biggest gamble. Rely on you and your body to resurrect the both of us; I did not even know if it was possible for me to be resurrected together with you, and then when I did, I was in a position where I could be consumed by you at any moment."
"Although it was the riskiest decision I have ever made, I never regretted it. Having you as a friend, and having you help me get my revenge, I could never ask for more!"
There was true brotherhood between Hui Yue and Lan Feng, and Hui Yue felt warm at heart when he heard the words spoken by the phoenix in his core. The two looked at each other, and they felt as close as real brothers, but neither said anything. Hui Yue cleared his throat, "I am going to train these Ancestral Worldpower Skills I got," he said excitedly. "I hope you won't be as hard to get into contact with in the future!"
"Don't worry little one. I already managed to activate my bloodline, and my daos have merged. I won't enter too deep a cultivation state for some time."
Nodding his head, Hui Yue withdrew from his core and smiled happily. His mood was incredibly good after talking with Lan Feng, and he wished to start cultivating. Though when he tried, he heard a knock at his door and went to open it.
Outside was a servant and the guard. Both looked at Hui Yue with an odd expression. The aura of the new God who had entered the room and the one who had just come out were clearly quite different. Something had happened, but as for what they could not say for sure.
"Master has summoned you," the guard finally said. He led Hui Yue towards the chamber where Yanluo was waiting.
At first Hui Yue thought it was just him that had been summoned, but as he started walking, he saw that others were also leaving their rooms and walking in the same direction.
No one spoke. Even when Hui Yue saw Pei Ze and Pei Feng, all he did was nod his head in greeting; he did not say anything as he understood that they were on their way to the second trial.
As they reached the hall where Yanluo was staying, Hui Yue noticed that by now a group of experts had already vanished, but he was not stupid enough to ask where they had gone.
As if Yanluo read Hui Yue's mind, a smile appeared on his lips, and he stood up from his throne he had been seated on.
"Welcome everyone. As you can see, some people have already been removed from the trials. They failed the second trial while you who remain have passed it."
As soon as the words left Yanluo's mouth, everyone looked shocked. A second trial had already happened, but they never participated in it. They had not even seen anything else other than their room for a long time; how could this be considered a trial?
Still, no one complained. Everyone just felt relieved that they had somehow passed the test.
"The next test requires all of us to leave Youdu. I hope you told your dear ones that this trial would take quite some time. We are going to enter deeper into Diyu and visit the first Court of Hell where the next trial will commence."
Hui Yue exchanged looks with Pei Ze who was clearly surprised, but then his face turned to one of excitement, excitement that Hui Yue did not understand. Pei Ze was doing his best for the sake of the Celestial Sword Sect and because of his enmity against Pei Feng. He had no real wish of actually becoming the new Judge of Hell, neither did he believe in his ability to become this judge, so why was it that he was excited to going deeper into Diyu rather than just staying in Youdu?
'It’s because of the soul energy there,' Lan Feng's voice sounded in Hui Yue's head. 'Diyu is the Kingdom of Hell, and in these Courts of Hell, many souls are on the verge of breaking down, if I understood your explanation well enough. That means that the soul energy is even denser within the deeper parts of Diyu. This is beneficial for any cultivator. Just staying here in Youdu has caused your soulforce to double and our Ancestral Worldpower pool to almost double due to our soul’s being strengthened so much. Imagine how wonderful it will be deeper into the territory of death.'
What Lan Feng said made perfect sense. The Courts of Hell could not be inferior to Youdu when it came to soul energy, and thus, he would benefit greatly from this trip.
"Each Court of Hell is also a province within Diyu. These provinces have villages, towns, cities, and each even has a capital. You will be given three days to prepare after which we will leave."
Having finished speaking, Yanluo sat down on his throne once more, and the guards led them back to their rooms.
Having three days left, Hui Yue dared not spend them on cultivating too much. If he entered too deep into cultivation, then it would likely backfire when he got woken up if he could not wake up naturally. Instead, he entered the study and spent his time studying the texts with information about the different cities in Diyu, the inhabitants, and the hierarchy of power.
The Judge of Hell which was ranked the lowest was the one who controlled the second court. His court was the one where most got punished, but it was also the simplest of the punishments. The position that was free was the weakest amongst all the judges, the second court.