Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Although it was incredibly unfair, Hui Yue could do nothing else than tighten his fists and nod his head. This was definitely different from the village he came from. This world was definitely different from the world he came from.

  “Your village is special,” Bu Huang suddenly said, “not many villages would be able to survive the way they do, so it is important that you don’t tell anyone about the location of your village. It is likely that these families would go there and take it by force.”

  Hui Yue nodded yet again as he understood just how important it was for him to keep quiet. Now it made sense, and he understood why his village did not even have a name.

  The landscape changed every now and then from fields with crops to fields with livestock grazing. The entourage continued to travel through quite a few villages just as Rong Ming had said, and Hui Yue noticed how every village had equipment made for cultivating. Each and every one of these villages showed the utmost respect towards the Rong family’s party.

  The Riluo City was closer than Hui Yue had expected. The party had been traveling for most of the afternoon when the young boy saw towers appear in the distance. The closer they got, the more the city was revealed.

  The city had a striking resemblance to the ancient cities that Hui Yue had studied back in his old world. The whole city was surrounded by a twenty meters tall wall build with black stone. The wall seemed to be quite thick, with guards stationed at the top of the wall. A four meters wide and eight meters tall gate was open at the end of the road but was heavily guarded by guards who were wearing the Riluo City’s emblem on their chest.

  Big buildings within the city seemed to be built in a similar style as the Chinese architecture from the Tang dynasty. Hui Yue could see several great Pagodas with multiple yellow roof tiles above the tall walls.

  The closer they got to the city, the harder it was to see the buildings that were hidden behind the massive wall, but Hui Yue felt uncannily in his element. The architecture was so familiar, but at the same time, everything was different from what Hui Yue knew.

  The trip to Riluo City had taken less than a day while riding on the magical beasts. However, the same trip took Hui Guang and the other men two days to travel by foot.

  A feeling of reverence stole into Hui Yue’s heart as he looked upon the city in front of him. This place would be the start of Hui Yue and Lan Feng’s new life.

  Suddenly a loud shout pierced through the air and dragged the young boy from his inspiring thoughts.

  “The young master is back!” A guard yelled from above the city wall. Bu Huang, Rong Xing, and Rong Ming nodded towards the guards and slowed their qilins while riding past the seven meters thick city gate before entering the bustling streets.

  Hui Yue’s eyes once again grew large as he realized his return to civilization for the first time in ten years.

  “We will host a feast tonight,” Rong Ming said with a smile as he noticed Hui Yue’s excited eyes, “tomorrow we will go to the Royal Academy, and you will take the admission test.”

  Chapter 8 - Admission Test

  * * *

  Chapter 8: Admission Test

  The sun was rising, colouring the sky with beautiful shades, promising to bring a day with bright weather. Hui Yue was looking out the window and enjoying the breath-taking scenery while feeling happiness within. No matter where he was, a sunrise would always be beautiful.

  He was in a city for the first time in ten years. However, this city was nothing like his old multicultural and technological world, so for him, everything was new. Looking at the sunset made him think about the previous day where they had arrived.

  The Rong entourage had arrived the previous day, and moved through the city. On the way Hui Yue had seen a number of shops and stalls all around, and even market places that seemed to be owned by the different noble families within the city.

  However, Hui Yue did not manage to have a good look at anything as they travelled rather quickly, everyone within the city made space on the populated roads to allow for the City Lord’s guards and the Rong Twins to pass through undisturbed.

  Arriving at the City Lord’s mansion shocked Hui Yue quite a bit. His mansion was styled very much like a Chinese palace.

  It was big with multiple buildings, where some were surrounded by walls, others by moats. Some of the buildings were one storage, while others were towers and even four pagodas could be seen within the outer wall.

  As soon as they passed through the gate, Hui Yue noticed that each of the buildings had their own courtyard. Some of them seemed to be small businesses while others were residential areas. Between these different kinds of buildings were beautiful gardens and elaborate statues.

  In the middle of the palace was a big building that was erected on a hill with hundreds of steps leading up to the entrance. It looked incredibly similar to the Hall of Supreme Harmony that Hui Yue had seen in the Forbidden City. The few differences were that this building had been erected on a hill at least double as tall as the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but the building itself was not as big.

  “That is the City Office,” Bu Huang explained, “it is the place where everything that has to do with the city is decided.”

  Hui Yue nodded, it was obvious that a city had an insane amount of land under its protection, and it would definitely need quite a large hall to house every scholar and government official that worked for the city.

  Bu Huang, Rong Ming and Rong Xing were heading for another gate, they called it the Donghua gate, and it was heavily guarded by Duke ranked experts.

  Behind this gate was the City Lord’s personal living quarters, but even so, it was bigger than what Hui Yue could ever have expected.

  The city guards that had followed the entourage on the trip were left outside the Donghua gate, and headed towards the barracks where they had been given a few days of rest.

  Bu Huang, Rong Ming, Rong Xing and Hui Yue continued forward together, moving to a corner of the residence where the City Lord’s stables were erected. On the way there, Hui Yue was placed on the ground and told to stay behind so that he did not shock the other magical animals within the stables, and he did as he was told, while admiring the beautiful surroundings. He felt as if he had been travelling back in time.

  ‘this style has been in this world for thousands of years’ Lan Feng said with a silent voice, only daring to speak now that they were alone, ‘The reason it has become popular in your world is most likely because an expert visited this plane and returned home with the designs or the other way around.’

  ‘You can travel between the worlds?’ Hui Yue asked shocked, this would definitely be amazing.

  ‘Yeah,’ Lan Feng answered as if it was common knowledge, ‘if you are strong enough, then you can create your own path between the different planes. Because of that you will see a lot of different styles and cultures all over the different planes. Everyone steals their ideas from other places.’

  Hui Yue nodded, he knew how every part of Earth itself had different designs and styles depending on where they went.

  ‘When you become an expert your lifespan increases. The stronger you get the longer you can live. When you become a god you can live for an eternity if that is what you want.’ Lan Feng continued, ‘Imagine living out eternity in one place. That is really no fun, after a couple of thousand years you ought to have seen every little stone of your home plane. Then most experts will travel to other planes.’

  Hui Yue furrowed his brows. ‘Earlier you said that there were only four gods, the four divine beasts, how can there have been other gods then?’ he asked questioningly

  ‘I have only seen four gods,’ Lan Feng explained, ‘and while I lived on this plane only four gods had ever existed here. But there are so many planes in the world and gods are able to create planes if they wish for it to happen. This plane is considered a very young plane and it is around the same age as the one you came from.’ This knowledge shocked Hui Yue, as he did not consider millions of y
ears to be young, but before he commented Lan Feng continued, ‘it is obvious that so many planes will create an insane amount of experts. Not even I know how many gods there are or where they live. If I were to travel around outside of this place, I would be considered a weakling, even though I am a saint.’

  Hui Yue could not help but gulp as he was shocked by the knowledge he had been provided with.

  ‘Don’t worry too much about it,’ Lan Feng sighed while quickly slipping back into the qi cave as he saw Bu Huang and the twins come closer, ‘when you reach God rank we will go grab your girlfriend’s soul and you two can go tour the different planes as much as you want.’ His voice became quieter and quieter as he descended into the dantian and hid himself once again.

  The Rong twins were both much older now than they had been when they first met each other, and their maturity had changed greatly, but even those two youths were grinning shamelessly and laughing while dragging the young Hui Yue around, showing their favourite places within the gardens to him.

  It was long past dinnertime before they finally reached the main house where Lord Rong Liang himself resided and hurried into the dining room where an extravagant feast was ready for the three youngsters.

  Lord Rong Liang was waiting for them and quickly greeted the three children before he and Bu Huang moved into another room where they had some issues that needed counselling.

  Hui Yue looked at the table and saw so many different foods that he had never seen before, some were shellfish, while others were meat of unknown origin. There were salads and sauces, vegetables and stews. Different types of soups and breads. It was the biggest feast that Hui Yue had ever seen.

  “Don’t be too nervous about tomorrow,” Rong Ming said while waving around something that looked a lot like a chicken drumstick.

  “Your cultivation is high enough for you to join the academy, and we will go with you to make sure that everything is fair,” he continued with a smile, before tearing half of the meat off the bone, and chewing it with delight.

  “I hope it is not Elder Wang that is dealing with the admission test,” Rong Xing said with a quiet voice, and Hui Yue looked at her questioningly, “he does not like commoners,” she explained, “so he sometimes cheats a little on the test to make sure that they don’t get into the academy.”

  “But don’t worry!” Rong Ming assured, while still gobbling on his food, “We will make sure that no one cheats when it is your turn.” Rong Xing gave a determined nod, showing that she too agreed upon this.

  “When you get accepted just stick to us at the start,” Rong Ming continued, “we will make sure you get to your classes at the right time and the right place. And with us around no one will even think about bullying you,” he had a big smile on his face, and quickly grabbed something that looked like mashed vegetables and handed it to Hui Yue, “Try this, it tastes really good!” he said with a mouthful of food.

  The three children spent the rest of the evening eating the food on the table, but no matter how hard they tried, it was impossible to eat it all. Eventually it had turned completely black outside and Rong Xing led Hui Yue towards a small two storey house with a personal courtyard that was placed close to the wall surrounding the residential area of the City Lord.

  “Stay here tonight,” she said with a smile and clapped her hands, causing crystals to light up all over the building, both inside and outside, “we will come and pick you up tomorrow,” she said before wishing Hui Yue a good night and turned around, walking towards her own home.

  Although Hui Yue had tried to fall asleep it had been impossible as he kept worrying about what was going to happen the following day. The admission test was incredibly important for him as he needed the extra help from the academy to quickly get past the student rank, however if anyone from the academy noticed Lan Feng, then he would be in trouble.

  ‘Bu Huang is a five-star King ranked expert and Rong Liang is nine-star King ranked. They both know that you hide something but they have been very considerate so far. Don’t expect to find other considerate people.’ Lan Feng warned, and Hui Yue nodded at the warning,

  ‘If we see anyone else who has unlocked the upper dantian then we need to scram,’ the blue phoenix continued, and in the end the two of them ended up spending the night planning a number of escape plans in case they were noticed. Before they realised, they saw that the sunrise was painting the beautiful sky in a warm light.

  Had he still been in the village, then he would already be on the hillside by now, looking after the goats, but although it was only two days since he had last done his chores, it already felt as if it had been a completely different world.

  Being in Riluo City was like moving within a dream. Everything he looked at was so familiar, but at the same time so foreign. He had seen chickens, which made him feel familiarity, but as soon as he looked closer he noticed a horn on their heads and a scaled tail behind. Even if things seemed familiar, there was always something else hidden beneath.

  Hui Yue spent the morning cultivating while listening to the tranquil sounds. Hui Yue had expected the city to be bursting with sounds, however the City Mansion was so big, and the City Lord’s residence was located so far away from the busy city that the sounds couldn’t reach them.

  At first, the only thing that Hui Yue did hear, was the sound of guards that would casually talk together while switching from one shift to another, but slowly the mansion woke up. Servants were rushing back and forth to ensure that everyone had their breakfast and necessities ready for yet another morning.

  Scholars was soon running around picking up scripts and scrolls for their teachers to be ready for another busy day at an office, and suddenly the whole Mansion was filled with life and energy, much like any other day would have been.

  A servant arrived at Hui Yue’s courtyard and brought an invitation to eat breakfast together with the Rong family, which Hui Yue quickly accepted, however as soon as he entered the dining room, he halted slightly as he noticed that Rong Liang and Bu Huang both were present.

  The young white-haired boy quickly cupped his hands and did a slight bow towards the two adult men, which both responded with a gentle nod, before they engaged in conversation once again.

  The Rong twins and Hui Yue ate a hearty breakfast filled with fruits and yoghourt, cured meat and bread together with some kind of milk and fresh pressed juice. Hui Yue could not help but be shocked upon seeing the insane amount of food that was created for each meal.

  “Don’t worry, the leftovers from the buffet always goes to the martial art schools that dad manages,” Rong Ming said proudly, upon noticing Hui Yue’s judging look, “all kids below ten years old can go to the martial art school and learn how to cultivate and then they get a meal every time they show up,” Rong Xing explained, “dad wants to help them learn how to cultivate so they can help their family earn money instead of being poor.”

  “But Elder Wang hates the martial art school,” Rong Ming whispered, “there is a lot of the poor commoners who gets the right to join the Royal Academy because of them, and he thinks it is stupid to teach martial art to commoners instead of ruling over them.”

  Hui Yue understood that this was not a subject to talk about while at school, but he instantly felt more positive towards the daunting Lord Rong Liang.

  “It is because Elder Wang’s family is a part of The Great Hundred Names,” Rong Ming complained, however he still kept his voice low enough for the two discussing adults to not hear what was said, at least he was convinced of that.

  Rong Xing sighed. Her twin brother kept saying things which Hui Yue had no idea of understanding, so she once again took the role of the translator, “The Great Hundred Names are one hundred families who can follow their ancestry all the way back to The Dark Age. It is only hundred noble families that survived whatever happened back then. They are in all three allied countries, so it is quite astonishing to be from one of the Great Hundred Names families.”

  Hui Yue nodded. It mean
t that their family history was at least four thousand years old, it was indeed quite a history for any noble family, and he imprinted the name Wang in his heart, ensuring that he needed much more caution whenever he was going to deal with those people.

  The meal was quickly eaten while Rong Ming was busy telling Hui Yue about some of his friends at the Royal Academy.

  Hui Yue had worn some of his usual clothes today, and although it was worn out, it was incredibly comfortable, however a maid quickly brought his new white set of clothes to him. It had been cleaned during the night, and the Rong twins both wanted him to wear the white clothes. They wanted to show off their friend’s beauty.

  With a sigh, Hui Yue followed their suggestions and quickly changed into his most beautiful piece of clothing. Hopefully they could convince the notorious Elder Wang that Hui Yue was a person fit to study at the Royal Academy.