Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Lan Feng was definitely a beast, and the easiest way to tame a beast was to feed it. Hui Yue could not help but smirk while thinking back on the way he usually convinced Lan Feng to behave.

  Hui Yue decided it was time to return to the village and have a look at the great surprise that was waiting for him. So he hoisted two birds and a hare he caught onto his shoulder while gathering the goats and moved down the hillside towards the village.

  However, just before Hui Yue entered the village, he noticed something out of the ordinary. There were a large number of tents erected on an empty lot next to the village. The tents looked uncomfortably similar to those that had been there a year before.

  ‘Lan Feng,’ Hui Yue mumbled while having a premonition that someone would be waiting for him. ‘You don’t think Rong Ming was serious when he said that he would return for me?’ He asked in a worried voice, but the only answer he got was stifled laughter.

  Hui Yue could not help but let out a sigh before he slipped into a personality that would fit a six year old child who saw visitors in their quiet town.

  “Hui Yue!” A voice called out, and with an internal sigh, Hui Yue turned towards the voice with a shocked and excited expression on his face.

  “Young master!” He said, with a beaming smile on his face. “I did not expect to see you here!” He continued, but what he actually wanted to say was something along the lines of ‘please do not take another month away from my cultivation. I am already far behind as it is.’ However, Rong Ming quickly took Hui Yue’s hand in his, after he safely returned the goats to their pen. He dragged the white-haired boy towards their campsite.

  Walking closer and closer to the campsite, Hui Yue felt a surge of uneasiness arise within. He was currently still just a second star Student, however, reaching the second star at six years of age was quite a feat.

  Both Hui Yue and Lan Feng knew that they would not be able to hide their cultivation base from Rong Ming’s father, and there was even a chance that they would be unable to hide the presence of Lan Feng.

  Fortunately enough, Rong Ming did not bring Hui Yue to meet his father, instead, he brought him to meet his sister. Rong Xing was a beautiful young girl with a gentle temper. She quickly greeted Hui Yue but apart from that she just sat there with a smile on her face while Rong Ming talked. He was telling Hui Yue about the past year.

  “I really did miss you a lot.” Rong Ming said multiple times during the conversation. “Oh, and we are doing very good at the academy. We are here this time for real practice you see. Do you want to cultivate too?”

  Rong Ming spent the following month once again following Hui Yue around. He would teach Hui Yue different cultivation methods and promised that he would definitely take Hui Yue with him to the academy when he turned ten years old.

  Hui Yue could only sigh, but deep inside it was impossible for him to hate the boy because his feelings were genuine. As to why Hui Yue received these feelings was a mystery to Hui Yue, although Lan Feng claimed to know but refused to say.

  After yet another farewell, Hui Yue guessed that Rong Ming would return to the village next year, but he did not have any intention of wasting time worrying about that now. Instead, he returned to his usual schedule of cultivating and practicing his martial art skills.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Hui Yue complained slightly. It had been almost a year since Rong Ming and his entourage had camped at the village last time, and Hui Yue was now a seven-year-old child. He was still as breathtakingly beautiful as ever, and his figure was depressingly short.

  ‘I am definitely using Velocity Flow perfectly, but even when I execute it right, my fists are still not able to deal a great amount of damage. Actually, often I am the one who ends up injured.’ Hui Yue continued while rubbing his head, wondering where he was going wrong.

  Lan Feng snorted, which usually happened whenever Hui Yue said something incredibly stupid.

  ‘It is a high King ranked movement skill... It’s a movement skill dumbass!’ He said with a sigh. ‘It allows you to move your body with great speed and accuracy, but it is your body it moves. It’s not the skills fault you are weak.’ Hui Yue could only grumble in reply to his answer. What Lan Feng said made perfect sense, and he should have understood it himself without needing Lan Feng’s explanation.

  Hui Yue could not help but feel grateful that he had Lan Feng to explain things to him. There were so many things that Hui Yue had a hard time understanding, even now, seven years after entering this new world.

  Hui Yue had now reached the third star and had perfected the movement aspect of Velocity Flow. He was capable of producing a mirror image at his previous location, and he was currently practicing the final aspect of this high ranked skill called optical illusion.

  Hui Yue did not have sufficient Qi to create more than one optical illusion, but upon perfecting just the skill, it would automatically increase later on when his Qi increased.

  ‘Oh,’ Lan Feng said smilingly. ‘Your friends are arriving early this year.’

  Hui Yue had expected that Rong Ming would appear fairly soon, so he was not terribly shocked upon hearing the information. Instead, he was slightly surprised to find himself not hating the idea of having a friend to talk with.

  Although there were many children in the village, none of them could be considered a friend as all of them had their own chores to do throughout the day, and that was far away from Hui Yue’s hillsides.

  Hui Yue gathered the goats and led them back to the village. He wondered what had happened during the last year, but when he reached the village, he noticed that things seemed slightly different from the previous years.

  Firstly, Lord Rong Liang was not present, and although this did calm Hui Yue down slightly, he could not help but worry about why this would be.

  “Are you Hui Yue?” A voice suddenly rang from behind him. Hui Yue swiftly spun around, and in front of him was a burly man with a kind face. He was wearing the uniform of a Rilou City guard and did not have any feeling of danger around him.

  Hui Yue nodded.

  “Please follow me. The young master has requested that you be brought to him as soon as you returned.” He explained and politely led the way towards the tent in the center of the camp.

  Hui Yue was greatly surprised to see where he was taken, but he dared not say anything. Lan Feng too was incredibly silent as he hid away in the Qi cave hoping to not be noticed by any of the exceptional experts that were present in the camp.

  “Hui Yue!” A familiar voice rang out the moment the young boy stepped into the tent, and Hui Yue looked at Rong Ming with confused eyes.

  Rong Ming was now twelve years old. He was sitting behind a desk in the middle of a tent and had an elderly man next to him. They seemed to be discussing something about the magical forest. A map was spread out across the desk and multiple flags were placed randomly on top of it.

  “I am sorry that I could not come pick you up this time,” He said apologetically. While he spoke, Hui Yue noticed that the middle-aged man at his side was clearly measuring Hui Yue. Slight fear crept into Hui Yue’s heart as this man was definitely no weaker than Lord Rong Liang.

  However, the man quickly retracted his gaze and returned to look at the many different paper scrolls on the table. This caused Hui Yue to breathe a sigh of relief.

  “I am in control of this year’s beast hunt.” Rong Ming explained proudly. “Father had some things that he needed to deal with in town and decided it was time for me to learn something about managing a party of soldiers. This is Bu Huang. He is father’s counselor, and he is assisting me on this trip.” Rong Ming explained while making a gesture towards the middle aged man.

  Hui Yue quickly clasped his hands together and bowed deeply before saying in a fearful voice, “Hui Yue greets Lord Councilor.”

  His actions seemed to cause some approval from Bu Huang’s, and he nodded in reply. “But,” Rong Ming continued, this time with a slightly depressed expression on his face, “I
have a lot of things that I need to do. Because of this, I won’t be able to entertain you that much this month.” Hui Yue nodded before answering.

  “This lowly one is nothing more than a poor child. Young master should focus on his responsibilities.” The look of approval within Bu Huang’s eyes grew stronger, and Rong Ming himself sent Hui Yue a sad smile before nodding.

  “At least have dinner with us!” Rong Ming exclaimed suddenly, and Bu Huang nodded. Hui Yue had no choice but to agree, and a feast was served for the three of them.

  Rong Ming was speaking constantly during the meal. He spoke about the past year and how he had reached the second star of the Disciple rank. Rong Xing had just reached the third star, but she had quite an incredible innate talent for cultivating. Hui Yue sensed he felt no jealousy towards his sister, rather Rong Ming was proud of the latter’s talent.

  Hui Yue did enjoy the evening and the food. He enjoyed it even more so when he realized that Rong Ming would be incapable of interrupting his training for the next month. After saying his goodbyes, he happily headed towards a small lake at the edge of the forest.

  It was summer, and the heat was both hot and humid. Hui Yue had been training all day, and although it was late, he really wanted to take a bath before going home.

  The still water was chilled, and every drop caused Hui Yue to feel refreshed when he washed the old sweat and dirt off his skin. His long, white hair glistened in the moonlight and his blue eyes shone with contentment. Hui Yue was as stunning as an immortal fairy.

  ‘Someone is observing you.’ Lan Feng quietly commented, and Hui Yue turned to look towards the forest at whoever it was. At first, he had been worried, but upon noticing the person, a smile appeared on his face.

  “Lady Rong Xing,” He said with his childish voice that bubbled with happiness. He quickly stepped out of the water and walked towards his clothes and saw clearly a shocked expression appear on Rong Xing’s adorable face.

  “Is there anything wrong?” He asked confused. Perhaps she had noticed something? He thought while being slightly scared.

  “You’re… You’re a boy?” She asked while her usually perfectly white skin had turned fiery crimson from embarrassment. Hui Yue looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, which caused Rong Xing to become even more shocked.

  “Of course?” He answered confused. Why would someone have to explain their gender? However, after thinking about it, he always said Hui Yue and never talked about his gender.

  ‘Lan Feng… ’ He spoke with a dreadful voice. ‘Don’t tell me that Rong Ming thinks I’m a girl...’

  Before Lan Feng had the chance to answer exuberant laughter suddenly rang out from within the trees. Hui Yue looked at Rong Xing who was laughing so much that tears were streaming down her cheeks.

  “This is perfect,” She giggled while trying to contain her laughter. “I’ll come visit you tomorrow when you're at the hills,” Rong Xing laughed while she turned around and returned to the campsite leaving Hui Yue and Lan Feng behind.

  ‘That Rong family is really quite messed up.’ Lan Feng finally said before the two of them returned home.

  Rong Xing walked into the central tent and saw that Rong Ming and Bu Huang were discussing the list of magical beast cores they were expected to procure on this trip before she giggled slightly.

  Her laughter made Rong Ming look at her.

  “Where have you been?” He asked curiously as Rong Xing rarely left the campsite whenever they were here.

  “I met with Hui Yue.” She answered with a voice brimming with happiness. Rong Ming’s face suddenly changed, and he grinned towards his twin sister.

  “Do you like Hui Yue?” He asked with a slightly nervous voice, as his eyes were fixed on Rong Xing’s face. A feeling of relief flooded Rong Ming when he saw his sister nodding.

  “Hui Yue is definitely an interesting person.” She said as her eyes shone with a light that was hard to explain.

  “What would you think if she became your sister in law?” Rong Ming asked seriously, but his expression quickly changed into a frown as his usually quiet sister started laughing uncontrollably. Although it was very out of character, it was still pleasant to the ear, and it was hard for him to stay mad at her.

  “Oh my dear brother,” Rong Xing said with a big smile on her face. “I would definitely love for that to happen; however, I do not think that it is very likely.” Rong Ming furrowed his brows upon hearing her reply, but he was a stubborn young boy.

  “We will see,” Was his answer before he once again returned to figuring out where the magical beasts they needed to slay would probably be located.

  Chapter 6 - Younger Brother

  * * *

  Chapter 6: Younger Brother

  It was early in the morning when Hui Yue woke up. Usually, he would be up and about within a few minutes, however, today was different. He had to force his young body to leave his comfortable worn-out blanket.

  The white-haired young boy left the shack, but today he did not walk towards the pen to pick up the goats, instead he walked towards the cottage belonging to the village elder.

  As Hui Yue walked on the silent streets, his whole body was enveloped by the thick morning mist. The temperature had dropped low during the night, making his small body shiver from the cold since the sun’s rays had yet to break through the sky.

  Relief appeared in Hui Yue’s eyes when he saw light within the village elder’s cottage, and he quietly knocked on the door, which was quickly opened by the village elder’s daughter.

  “Hui Yue!” She said with a surprised voice. “Do you need to see father?” She asked. This young child was known to be very mature, so the woman treated him as an equal, although he was only seven years of age.

  Hui Yue nodded, and slowly entered the warm home. To feel the heat from the hearth was a luxury that he did not have back home, so the young boy had to fight the temptation to stand in front of the gentle flame and allow it to heat him up. Usually Lan Feng would assist him in managing his internal temperature, however Lan Feng enjoyed sleeping in the mornings, so Hui Yue was on his own.

  The woman gave Hui Yue a gentle smile upon noticing his eyes that glanced towards the hearth. “Just wait next to the fire, and I’ll get father for you,” she said with a cheerful voice as she moved into the private quarters.

  It didn’t take long before the village elder stepped into the heated room and gazed at Hui Yue with confusion. Although, it wasn’t that rare for children to visit him during the morning to skip out of their chores. However, this hardworking child had never visited him before for such a reason.

  “Village elder,” Hui Yue said respectfully while cupping his hands together and giving a slight bow. “I need to ask for a replacement to take care of my chores today,” he asked hesitatingly. Hui Yue hated leaving his work to others, but right now he had no choice. Dealing with the Rong twins was definitely much more important than the goats.

  The village elder looked at him with furrowed brows. Hui Yue was clearly not sick, nor had he ever been sick, so he wondered why he needed the day off. Since Hui Yue had been looking after the goats for so many years without a break, it was not in the village elder’s heart to deny the young boy, so he just nodded his head. He then walked into another room of the cottage.

  “Little Lang,” he said loudly as rustling could be heard from within the chamber, “look after the goats today. Hui Yue has business to attend to.” He said, and the boy who had just been woken up grunted in reply.

  Hui Yue, grateful that he was not asked any questions, quickly bowed towards the elder once more before he left the warmth of the cottage.

  The mist had grown thicker as the heat had increased, but the sun’s rays still had yet to break past the mountain range towards the east. It was a calm morning as the village was slowly waking up, ready to welcome yet another normal day just like the countless days before.

  At least it was a normal day to every other villager. Hui Yue knew that
today was different for him. He was aware that if he made one mistake, it was likely that the calm village would be erased.

  His mind once again returned to what had happened the previous evening, and he gritted his teeth as he had understood why Rong Ming had been treating him so special. Although Rong Xing thought it was a funny joke, Rong Ming was the one who might feel as if he had been made a fool of.

  Hui Yue reached the edge of the campsite and quietly sat down below a tree as he waited for the young master to wake up. He could not help but feel slightly nervous. The current problem was obviously caused by a misunderstanding, and although it could be argued that it was Rong Ming’s fault for assuming that Hui Yue was a girl, it could also be argued that Hui Yue should have noticed, and cleared up the misunderstanding, rather than leading the young master on for many years.