Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  The teacher was quiet for quite some time, allowing the students to chat amongst themselves. He was completely aware of how tempting the medicinal pills were, as he himself relied worked here for the sake of the medicinal pills he was rewarded.

  Hui Yue was sitting further back than the rest of the student, and he heard small breaks of conversations. It seems that many of the poorer families had to rely on their sons or daughters selling their medicinal pill every month and then give the money to their family afterwards. Having children who made it into the Royal Academy could be considered another way to gain an income. Although cultivation would be fairly slow without the medicinal pills, it was still not impossible for them to keep a decent cultivation speed.

  As the students finally calmed down a little, teacher Li Yuan continued, “Students at Riluo City’s Royal Academy are allowed to leave the Academy whenever they feel like it, there is no rules that say that you cannot visit your family to gain extra cultivation resources or martial art skills.”

  Although some students such as Wang Ju Long would most likely use the trips to gain extra resources, the majority of the students would travel to Riluo City to sell their pills and give the money to their families. The Royal Academy were perfectly aware of this, however considering the amount of cultivators who joined The Royal Army after graduating, they considered the medicinal pills to be an acceptable investment.

  “Once a year we encourage our students to leave the academy to engage in field training,” teacher Li Yuan continued while looking around, “Some will follow their families into the Magical Forests, while other will work together with their family guards for a period of time. Those without suitable placement for field practice will be offered a spot in the Royal Army.”

  Hui Yue nodded, he had heard about this a long time ago when he first met Rong Ming, so he knew that the Academy put a lot of value into the student’s outside practice, so he had expected this. He could not help but feel a slight admiration towards the Royal Family for reeling in cultivators at such a young age, although the majority of these students were thanks to Lord Rong Liang’s Martial Art Schools within the city.

  Teacher Li Yuan kept talking about the specific rules of the school and which buildings were used for what purpose which was completely uninteresting for Hui Yue, and instead he slipped into deep thought.

  Hui Yue knew that the Rong twins would most likely offer him to follow them into the Magical Forest the next year, however for now he was not certain how much he should accept from the Rong family. They had been treating him specially for quite some time. Hui Yue knew that Rong Xing and Rong Ming held no hostility towards him, however Lord Rong Liang was a City Lord. It was obvious that he was used to scheming and reeling in people, so Hui Yue would not accept too much from him, as he had no knowledge of what Lord Rong Liang expected to get in return.

  Although Hui Yue had no wish to rely on Lord Rong Liang for his future, he also knew that his family was unable to help him with his cultivation. None of them had cultivated above the student rank, and their economy was already incredibly bad, asking them to purchase medicinal pills would be the same as asking them to sell their land, which was something that Hui Yue would never do.

  In the end, Hui Yue decided that all he had to rely on was himself and Lan Feng. They would gain strength together without having to owe anything to neither their family nor their friends.

  However, Hui Yue knew that one thing was to say that they would rely on themselves, another thing was to actually go through with it, and the most important thing to have was money. It did not matter if it was in this world or his old world, money was the thing that made the impossible turn possible. Hui Yue needed a way to earn money.

  The first thing that flashed into Hui Yue’s mind was the looks of greed and desire that had appeared on Gao Yan, Deng Wu and Ma Kong’s faces when they heard about the martial art skills he had found within the Magical Forest. It seemed that Martial Art Skills would be a very good way to earn money, however selling those high ranked martial art skills had some downsides that caused Hui Yue to become unsure.

  Having fought Wang Ju Long, Hui Yue was now aware of how important and powerful those high ranked martial art skills that Lan Feng had given him was, and if he were to sell skills of that ranking he could not control who were to buy them. If they ended up in the hands of the Wang family or the Deng family, he would most likely be creating more trouble for himself.

  ‘Why don’t you just ask me?’ Lan Feng’s smug voice appeared within Hui Yue’s concentrated mind, causing the white-haired boy to be slightly startled.

  ‘Do you have a solution?’ he asked curiously, and sighed internally when he noticed how Lan Feng puffed up his feathers and looked very self-assured.

  ‘I am Lan Feng, the legendary Blue Phoenix! Of course I have a solution,’ He said with his usual haughty attitude. Hui Yue did not ask anything, and just observed the feathered boy, waiting for him to continue.

  ‘I have a wide array of Martial Art Skills and even Spiritual Art Skills. I even have some skills you don’t even know what is, but those I will not share with anyone. Of my limitless supply of martial and spiritual art skills, some of them are really quite useless. They might have very high rank, and their potential are almost unlimited, however some of them has been tailor-made to the creator so no one else is capable of activating them, others were created so quickly that they have become unstable. The cultivators within this City will not be able to see whether or not they are useful, and they will buy them as they will believe that some of their cultivators might be able to actually activate it one day.’

  Hui Yue furrowed his brows after hearing this, although it seemed promising, they were relying on the fact that the families did not happen to have anyone who would be able to activate the skills.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Lan Feng said quietly, ‘even if they do manage to learn the skill, they will need years upon years to actually perfect it, and by then you will be gone from here.’

  Hui Yue snorted upon hearing this. Lan Feng was definitely such a person that only cared about himself and a very few specific amount of people, everyone else could die for all he cared.

  Although this plan had some loose ends, Hui Yue knew that this was the best possibility they had to earn money quickly. Hopefully there were no one around who knew how to activate the said skills.

  ‘Okay,’ he finally agreed with a sigh, ‘after this class lets go to the library. I need to check a few things before we start planning how to do this.’

  Chapter 14 - Shenyuan

  * * *

  Chapter 14: Shenyuan

  The rest of the lesson went by at a snail’s pace as Teacher Li Yuan spent an extended amount of time to explain all the superior Qi Cultivation Methods that The Royal Academy provided. This information was mandatory for every teacher to teach new student as all the commoners had learned one of the standard Qi Cultivation Method within the Martial Art School.

  The Royal Academy was obviously much more prestigious than the Martial Art Schools and they were capable of providing more detailed cultivation methods, however the commoners had never been taught about the differences in the methods before, as that was considered unnecessary information since the Martial Art Schools did not have multiple methods to choose between.

  Hui Yue spent the time in deep thought, constantly contemplating the risks of selling a high ranked martial art skill. He tried to come up with other ways to earn money, but no matter what he came up with, none of the solutions would provide a significant income.

  Hui Yue sighed deeply, unable to completely ignore the uncomfortable feeling he had whenever he thought of Deng Wu suddenly mastering a high ranked martial art skill and he decided to stop worrying about it for now. Instead he allowed his gaze to sweep across the other students.

  Most of the commoners were paying attention to every word that Teacher Li Yuan said, while the nobles were busy doing other things. Some of them were chatting togeth
er with low voices while others were clearly mocking the commoners. A few were fiercely glaring at Hui Yue as they noticed his gaze, and once again Hui Yue looked at Wang Ju Long.

  Wang Ju Long was another reason he had to be careful. Deng Wu was terrifying because of his knowledge; however, Hui Yue had heard that he was not an outstanding genius. The likelihood of him being able to activate the skills were incredibly limited.

  Wang Ju Long on the other hand had a high quality of qi and at the same time he already processed enough skill for Hui Yue to be unable to beat him. If he had another high ranked skill, then it would be certain that Hui Yue could not win with the skills he had available for now.

  Teacher Li Yuan finally finished his speech about Qi Cultivation Methods before he went on to the Academy rules about duelling.

  Hui Yue had already heard all the rules from Rong Ming and Ma Kong before he engaged in the duel against Wang Ju Long, so he decided not to pay attention to the speech and instead found the low student ranked, non-combat martial art skill Fire Spark which he focused on completely.

  Lan Feng was about to complain about the choice of Martial Art Skill once again, but he noticed a slight change within Hui Yue’s soul, a sense of expectation, as if he had noticed something hidden within this Skill roll, and the blue phoenix decided to stay quiet and wait instead.

  Wang Ju Long narrowed his eyes as he noticed that the white-haired boy had started studying, and since he had sworn to defeat Hui Yue soon, he closed his eyes and started to meditate, slowly sucking in the essence from within the room and refining it into qi.

  Everyone in the room noticed the movement of the essence and looked at the cultivating Wang Ju Long. The sight shocked most commoners as they had never expected anyone to be so bold as to clearly ignore their teacher who was still speaking and instead started to meditate.

  However, when looking at Wang Ju Long, everyone would also look at Hui Yue as somehow to compare the two geniuses to each other, and when looking at this child, the students felt even more shocked upon noticing that he was not focusing on the teacher either. He was instead sitting still, reading what appeared to be a martial art skill.

  The commoners felt amazed from deep within while looking at these two boys. They were all clearly the same age, however those two individuals felt as if they were in a completely different world from them. Their indifferent attitude and stoic expressions clearly allowed the rest to know what it meant to be a true genius.

  Teacher Li Yuan could do nothing else than sighing gently while looking at those two children. Competition was a great thing, especially since it could push them to improve much quicker than if they had no one to compete against, however Teacher Li Yuan could not help but feel slightly helpless as both boys clearly ignored him, not paying attention to his lecture.

  Instead he cleared his throat and continued his explanation of the rules of duelling, about the arenas that were open for everyone and about the student emblem that would record wins and losses.

  When Teacher Li Yuan reached the part where he explained about the rewards of defeating an opponent, the chance of getting the higher ranked courtyards, and even the possibility of mountain top courtyards the students could no longer contain their excitement. Greed and expectation started to shine within their eyes, and the students were speaking with their sideman, discussing the possibilities about getting a mountain top courtyard.

  Unfortunately, the excitement was quickly dimmed when Teacher Li Yuan continued the speech and published the two students who currently lived within those courtyards, Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long.

  Although the mountain top courtyards were incredibly tempting, they were not so tempting as to give the students the illusion that they could defeat either of the two.

  “However,” Teacher Li Yuan said, “there is another way to gain the rights to reside within a mountain top courtyard.” The comment caused the students to hold their breath, hoping to hear something that sounded much more possible.

  “At the end of every semester will the Riluo City’s branch of the Royal Academy hold a tournament. The academy encourages all students to participate as anyone who participates are rewarded with an extra medicinal pill.”

  Hui Yue slowly lifted his eyes from the scroll in his hands and looked at the teacher with curiosity. He had heard about the tournament before, but he had only heard that the mountain top courtyards were the prizes.

  A pleased expression appeared on teacher Li Yuan’s face as he noticed how Hui Yue suddenly paid attention to him, and he quickly continued, “The higher the student is ranked the better the reward they will get. The rewards vary from the right to live within a mountain top courtyard, high grade medicinal pills or even permission to enter the high ranked martial art skill room within the skill hall!”

  These additional prices were definitely of value for both Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long. Although they already lived within the mountain top Courtyards they could always use extra strong martial art skills. Hui Yue knew that he could rely on Lan Feng to provide martial art skills, however Hui Yue was also perfectly aware that Lan Feng did not have all the martial art skills created, so adding more to their collection could never hurt.

  When looking at the rewards it was obviously the medicinal pills that were the most entrancing to Hui Yue. Especially the ones who were considered high grade. Currently Hui Yue was not aware how much money the martial art skills would sell for, nor was he aware how much medicinal pills would cost him, so he could not help but consider the possibility that even while selling the skills, he would still lack money to buy medicinal pills.

  Teacher Li Yuan ended the lesson after the information about the Royal Academy Tournament, and just as the lesson ended the loud sound of a bell ringing could be heard all throughout the mountains, showing that the canteens were starting to serve lunch.

  Some of the students instantly rushed out from the Qi Theory Lesson’s Hall and towards the canteens, while others gathered in groups and conversed about the subject that had been touched throughout their first lesson.

  Teacher Li Yuan did not stayed within the classroom for a short while, seeing if any students had questions for him, but as none of them paid him any attention, he swiftly strode out the door.

  Hui Yue stayed at his seat in the back of the room, observing one group of students leave after another. There were no more lessons this day, but Hui Yue still had some things he wished to get planned out.

  He slowly rose from his seat and although he was one of the last students to leave the room, Wang Ju Long and his followers were still seated within. Wang Ju Long was in meditation, most likely refining the essence he had absorbed earlier, and the other noble children waited patiently for him to finish.

  Hui Yue could not help but smile as he walked past them. Every single one of the children were glaring at him fiercely while reaching out their arms to protect Wang Ju Long as if they expected Hui Yue to suddenly attack him while the other was not paying attention.

  As Hui Yue left the hall he did not walk towards the residential area where the canteens were placed, instead he moved further into the mountains that contained the different school buildings, causing a slight panic in his soul caused by Lan Feng.

  ‘No food?’ he asked, and sounded as if the world was ending causing Hui Yue to chuckle slightly.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Hui Yue assured the blue feathered boy. “We will eat soon, but there is something we need to check up on first.’

  Lan Feng felt puzzled. Although he and Hui Yue shared a soul, all they could feel was the other’s emotions. Whatever it was Hui Yue intended was completely hidden from the other. It was therefore with great curiosity that Lan Feng observed as Hui Yue moved towards the Library.

  Hui Yue had to walk through three mountains to reach the library, and as he looked at the building he could not help but feel astonished. All the other academy buildings were built on top of the mountain sides, however this library was built from the mountain itself. Towers had
been carved out from the mountain side while the inside had been turned into a giant hall connected with tunnels leading towards smaller rooms used for studying.

  To enter the library, Hui Yue had to walk through two big stone gates and he felt goose bumps appear on his skin as he got closer to the building, the temperature was dropping as the mountain top covered the sun.

  A small breeze of warm air exited the building and swept across Hui Yue, making him smile slightly as he hurried inside.

  Although the library had taken the space of a whole mountain it was much less crowded than anywhere else, only a few elders were noticed here and there, spread out across the multiple bookshelves.