Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  “It’s nothing, really,” Gao Yan answered while removing a tear from his eye, “It’s just, your Lordship, you are a noble person from the Great Hundred Names, yet you cannot see that younger brother Hui Yue is a boy. How can you not notice this? Or perhaps you did notice, but you take a fancy in beautiful young boys?” Gao Yan’s words definitely taunted, however, he kept every etiquette required when a commoner converses with a noble.

  Every word had for some reason caused Rong Ming’s face to redden slightly, and Rong Xing had to cover her small mouth with a hand to disguise her giggles.

  Wang Jingshen’s face was constantly switching between beet red and ashen pale as he could say nothing. Instead, he glared fiercely at Hui Yue, as if it was his fault that Wang Jingshen had lost face. Eventually, he turned around and gestured for his followers to leave, which they all did after sneering at Hui Yue and the others.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Ma Kong said with a smile while placing a gentle hand on Hui Yue’s shoulder. “He might be very loud, but in the end, he can’t do anything against you as long as you are with us. True his family is one of the Great Hundred Names, but so is Deng Wu’s, and don’t forget the Rong twins here. Not to mention me. Although my family received nobility quite recently, we do have the power to back up our rank. And never underestimate Gao Yan and his connections within Riluo City.”

  Hui Yue nodded gratefully after hearing the red-haired youth’s explanations, but inside he was mildly curious. The Ma family did not seem as simple as he had first expected, not to mention Gao Yan’s connections.

  ‘Seems like your instincts are improving,’ Lan Feng commented satisfied, ‘we need to look into the different power struggles within Riluo City. We already belong to the Rong Family Faction, so it would be ignorant to think that this has nothing to do with us. We need to be prepared for whatever may happen in the future.’

  Hui Yue completely agreed with the blue phoenix. It was important for the two of them to know what powers were on which side, and if there were any actual struggles for power, or if it was just smaller families complaining against each other. Hui Yue’s eyes grew determined as he decided to sit down and have a talk with the others later on so that he could actually understand the situation.

  “Go in there,” Rong Xing said gently while pushing Hui Yue into a closed room at the Academy office building. Within the closed room was an elderly man sitting behind a desk. Behind him were shelves upon shelves filled with thick and dusty books.

  Upon entering the room, Hui Yue drew a deep breath. This person was without a doubt the strongest person within the academy as a first star King ranked expert. Hui Yue quickly assumed that he must be the Academy Chief.

  Fortunately enough, the Academy Chief had no interest in inspecting Hui Yue, instead his whole attention was focused on the book in front of him. Gazing upon the book, Hui Yue noticed that each page was incredibly thick. The pages were filled with numbers, and next to the numbers were small marks that Hui Yue could not make out.

  The elderly man never lifted his eyes from the book, instead he raised his finger and made a beckoning gesture, causing the student emblem to instantly respond and fly from Hui Yue’s hand towards the book.

  It placed itself on one of the small unknown marks within. To Hui Yue, it looked incredibly random. The elder, however, furrowed his brows and started grumbling. He poked the emblem a few times, but it did not change position, nor did it even move an inch. In the end, the elderly man threw a glance towards Hui Yue before he stood up and turned around.

  He grabbed yet another book from one of the shelves behind, and once again beckoned the student emblem to move onto the next book. It quickly settled into a specific position, and the elder eventually sighed before sitting down.

  “You will be living at courtyard 1009,” the elderly man said with an annoyed voice, and as he mentioned the number, the emblem lit up with a stunning light.

  “Your emblem will work as a key. Bind it with your Qi so that no one steals it. If you lose it, even if it has been stolen, we won’t give you a new one. There is a place you can retrieve your bound key if it is stolen, though, but ask the other students about that.” Finally, the elderly man focused his gaze upon the book once again and started mumbling something unrecognizable, making Hui Yue understand that it was now time to leave.

  Outside Rong Ming, Rong Xing, Gao Yan, Deng Wu and Ma Kong were all patiently waiting for him while conversing about their summer vacations. They all focused their attention on the white-haired boy as soon as they saw him exit the academy office building.

  “So, which courtyard did you get?” Gao Yan asked quickly, clearly cutting in ahead of Rong Ming, and all of them looked quite curious.

  Hui Yue frowned for a bit, not understanding why it mattered, before he answered, “Courtyard 1009 apparently.”

  The answer caused some surprise as evident by the faces of all five youngsters, and Hui Yue could not help but become slightly confused.

  “Is there anything wrong with that place?” he asked, as he remembered the elder’s grumbling when he saw the room’s number.

  “Nothing wrong, no,” Rong Xing explained, “each mountain top has its own numbers. The first mountain, all their numbers starts with zero, the next starts with one and the following with two and so on. The courtyards on the mountain tops are numbered 1-10, so your courtyard is on the top of the second mountain top from here. Everyone wants the top courtyards since they have much thicker essence energy to refine into better quality Qi than the rest of the courtyards. Usually, only a few geniuses are given the right to live there from the start, and then five is given as a reward in the academy tournaments.”

  “We all live at the top on mount three, but we had to work to get the right to live there,” Gao Yan said, “you need to be careful now. Don’t let anyone know that you have gotten one of the top places.”

  “Why?” Hui Yue asked curiously,

  “If you have a top courtyard you must accept any challenge from a cultivator within the same rank as yourself. If you lose, you have to switch homes with the winner. A lot of the nine star Students will definitely challenge you.” Gao Yan explained, “the Rong twins got their rooms for their talents, and so did I, but Deng Wu and Ma Kong both had to challenge the previous owners to get their room next to ours.”

  ‘This is good,’ Fan Leng’s voice sounded within Hui Yue’s heart, ‘you definitely need some combat training, but currently, you are too weak to take on magical beasts. Playing with the Student ranked cultivators should be of great help to you. It might even help speed up your cultivation.’

  The five young people quickly brought Hui Yue to his new home, and on the way, Gao Yan was busy telling Hui Yue about all the duels he had won in the arena while explaining each and every one of his martial art skills.

  The bridges were all well built and around ten meters wide. Students were constantly moving to and from the residential area. It was obvious that this place was home for thousands of people.

  They quickly passed the first mountain, and although it looked enormous, Hui Yue could not understand just how big those mountains were until they entered the second mountain where he was supposed to live for the upcoming years.

  Roads were carved into the mountain’s side, and one courtyard after another was placed next to the road with tall walls, allowing the students some privacy. Each courtyard had a small garden to allow the students to cultivate outside without having to be disturbed by others.

  The road continued on and on, and as Hui Yue moved further up the mountain, he felt just how thick the essence energy was around his body. Finally, they were almost at the top, and Hui Yue felt how the essence energy was entering his body by itself and was starting to rush through his meridians, being refined by impulse. At first, he was worried whether or not the quality was sufficient, but he quickly relaxed as he noticed the controlling Qi within his Qi cave had taken over and kept refining the essence until it had the same pearly luste
r as the Qi personally refined by Hui Yue.

  ‘Oh my,’ Lan Feng’s voice sounded pleasant as they reached the mountaintop, ‘It seems like you have your first challenger.’

  Right in front of them was Wang Jingshen and the same group of people he had been with earlier. They were standing outside of the small courtyard that was numbered 1009, and a sly grin was plastered upon their faces.

  “This is my younger brother Wang Ju Long.” Wang Jingshen introduced while moving to the side, allowing a young boy to be visible behind him. He looked like a miniature version of Wang Jingshen, but his eyes were even more arrogant than his older brother's, “He is a new student like yourself. He is one of the greatest geniuses in our family, and he was excited when he saw that he was getting a neighbor on this mountaintop, so why don’t the two of you exchange pointers?” Wang Jingshen asked as a malicious grin spreading on his face. This caused all his followers behind him to grin like monkeys as well.

  ‘He is an eight star Student ranked expert,’ Lan Feng said calmly within Hui Yue’s heart, ‘You should definitely fight him. You need some practice. The worst that will happen is that he beats you, but don’t worry, I will make sure that you won’t get crippled.’

  Hui Yue could not help but snort at the friendly help that Lan Feng offered him, however, he was not a person who enjoyed being bullied. He would have accepted the challenge, either way, to prove this to the Wang family. At the same time, he was incredibly curious about just how well his Velocity Flow skill was working together with his current understanding of the Qi Guard.

  A big smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he walked forward, offering his hand to Wang Ju Long as a greeting. The appearance of Hui Yue could convince anyone that he was as pure and kind as a fairy.

  “Young Lord Wang, it would be my greatest honor to exchange pointers with you,” he said with glistening eyes and sugar-coated words.

  Chapter 10 - Qi Lightning

  * * *

  Chapter 10: Qi Lightning

  Hui Yue followed his seniors towards the arena area that he had first noticed upon entering the academy grounds. This area was idyllic and fairly remote. There were five different arenas placed on this mountaintop that was the furthest away from the academy office building.

  Currently, no other students were present except the two groups who had come here, but according to Gao Yan, it was one of the most frequented places. It was where students came to resolve grudges or to train for the tournament.

  There were four mountaintops dedicated to the arenas. The first two mountaintop arenas were surrounded by seats. Clearly, they were for promoted matches while the other two mountain arenas were smaller and the students were allowed to use them at their convenience.

  Wang Jingshen glanced at Hui Yue with a slightly apprehensive look when the younger kid instantly accepted the challenge, but he quickly calmed himself because he was certain that the child had misunderstood what an exchange of pointers actually implied.

  He had heard that Hui Yue was a child of unknown origin and was personally being looked after by the Rong twins. It was likely that he was some spoiled brat who had been treated gently throughout his life. However, no matter what background Hui Yue had, it was nothing compared to his Great Hundred Names family. He was thrilled when his younger brother had agreed to fight Hui Yue to show just who was superior.

  “You need to be careful,” Rong Xing warned with a worried face. “Wang Ju Long is known as an amazing talent within the Wang family. He is already at the eight-star Student rank. Losing to him would not be a disgrace.”

  “Wang Ju Long already lives at the top of the mountain like you, so he doesn’t gain anything from challenging you. More importantly, make sure to give up before he seriously injures you,” Ma Kong said from the side while giving Hui Yue a gentle pat on the shoulder.

  “I swear I will kill Wang Jingshen,” Gao Yan growled while shooting one fierce glare after another towards the other group of people.

  “He is below despicable! It was his own fault for not seeing that Hui Yue is a guy! Issuing a challenge like this to gain back his pride is pointless. I will definitely make sure he pays for this,” Rong Ming agreed with rage burning in his chest. He understood how embarrassing it was to mistake someone’s gender more than anyone else, but to react in such a way was truly despicable.

  “Don’t worry,” Gao Yan said while placing a hand on Hui Yue’s other shoulder. “We will make sure that Wang Jingshen and his followers pay dearly for this.”

  The only one who stayed quiet was Deng Wu. He just stood to the side with a slight smile on his lips as his black eyes danced playfully while observing Hui Yue. When his black eyes and Hui Yue’s blue eyes locked together, Hui Yue felt a shiver go through his body, and he feared that maybe the older boy could see right through him and had noticed Lan Feng. But after a second of thought, he knew such a thing was impossible as his cultivation had not even reached the middle dantian.

  Still, something about Deng Wu made Hui Yue alert and worried. He knew that Deng Wu was aware of this and it entertained him.

  ‘We can’t worry too much about him right now,’ Lan Feng warned. ‘Your entire focus need to be on the opponent in front of you. We will look into this Deng Wu and everything else later on.’

  Hui Yue forced his eyes off Deng Wu and slowly moved towards the middle of the arena in front of him. Wang Ju Long had moved there already and was waiting for Hui Yue to arrive.

  The two children had changed their clothes prior to the start of their friendly exchange of pointers because their long and incredibly beautiful robes were quite impractical when one’s body needed to move around quickly. Both were now wearing tunics and pants. The tunics were fitted on the upper bodies, allowing the wearer comfort while moving around and striking out. The pants were fitted around their small waists and provided a certain amount of protection due to the thick fabric. Although slightly baggy, the pants ended around the middle of the thighs where they were bound to the legs, ensuring that their feet would not get disturbed by the clothes while fighting.

  Although their style of clothing was the same, the quality was like heaven and earth. Wang Ju Long was wearing clothes created from the finest silken material that was woven smooth and clearly incredibly comfortable. Hui Yue was wearing clothes that had obviously been worn for a very long time. His clothes were comfortable, but they had gotten so through multiple years of wear unlike the others’, and they were created from a hemp-like plant material.

  Hui Yue’s clothes caused the Wang group to snort with disdain and laugh at him while they constantly yelled one insult after another as they would normally do to the commoner students. His clothing did not surprise Rong Ming nor Rong Xing as both knew about Hui Yue’s background, however, Ma Kong was slightly surprised as he still knew nothing concerning Hui Yue. Gao Yan suddenly felt a deeper kinship towards this young boy and swore within his heart that he would get revenge for him later on.

  Deng Wu had had no reaction once again, but his lack of reaction just caused Hui Yue more worry.

  The two boys stood in front of each other in the middle of the field, while waiting to hear who was to be the judge. Wang Ju Long was sneering as he looked at Hui Yue and his aloof expression.

  Wang Ju Long was supposed to be the only genius this year who was entitled to a top mountain courtyard. He had grown up knowing he was the only child in his family who could compete against the Rong twins when it came to innate talent, and his entry into the Royal Academy should have been grand.

  However, when he arrived today, things were nothing like he expected. None of the other noble families paid him any attention because they were more curious about the origin of this beautiful young child that was being escorted by the City Lord’s children.

  He had entered the academy much quicker than Hui Yue had, and rushed up the stairs to get to his top mountain courtyard and to let the other students understand just how important he was. He felt absolute satisfaction as he ha
d sat within his courtyard and started to cultivate.

  Unfortunately, his cultivation was interrupted by his older brother arriving with his usual group of dim-witted thugs, complaining to Wang Ju Long about a new student who was too ambitious. Wang Jingshen would definitely have challenged him if they had been within the same rank, however, only those in the same rank could challenge each other unless it was the weaker Student that challenged someone stronger.

  At first, Wang Ju Long had absolutely no interest in getting revenge for his brother, until hearing that it was a certain white-haired boy. Only then did he agreed to help.

  As Wang Ju Long was about to leave with the others, he noticed that a courtyard close by suddenly lit up with a bright light. This was the light that explained the courtyard had found an owner, and Wang Ju Long almost vomited blood when he saw the name Hui Yue written on the nameplate.