Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Hui Yue paused his steps while looking around, slightly uncertain as to where he could find the object he was searching for.

  “Hello junior.” An aged voice sounded from the side, and Hui Yue quickly faced the elder who was walking towards him. The elder had a gentle smile upon his face, and gave of a feeling of serenity. The elder was wearing a grey robe that slithered across the ground without making a sound, causing Hui Yue to feel slight alert, however he quickly noticed that the elder was an ordinary librarian.

  “Can I assist you with anything?” the elder said with his melodious voice that held the secrets of a long life, and in general gave Hui Yue a pleasant feeling about this man, however Hui Yue had also seen a flash of interest within the elder’s eyes, and he stayed alert as he politely greeted the elder.

  “I am in need of a map of the continent, I was wondering if elder could help me find it?” Hui Yue asked with a slight smile on his face as he felt a sudden bubbling of excitement rising from within his soul.

  The elder assumed that the smile was meant to be a politeness, however what Hui Yue felt was Lan Feng’s feelings that were overflowing.

  Lan Feng was not completely dumb. The blue phoenix did lack social skills and morals, however his intellect was far above what Hui Yue had ever seen before, and the word ‘map’ instantly explained what it was that Hui Yue was intending.

  Hui Yue followed the elder with great respect, and while nothing was noticeable on the outside, Hui Yue was smiling widely on the inside as he could feel the excitement and happiness bubbling in his soul, spreading towards every part of his body, this was one thing that meant a lot to Lan Feng.

  The library was much bigger than first assumed. Although it was not located in different levels, the mountain hall was spread out across hundreds of metres where the only thing visible was bookshelves upon bookshelves.

  The elder led Hui Yue all the way towards one of the walls. The mountain walls were filled with doors that lead to small rooms that had been carved further into the mountain itself. The room that the elder had brought Hui Yue to had not been opened in countless of years as a thick layer of dust was evident upon the door handle, and the elder needed to use his entire strength to pry it open.

  A heavy bang sounded as the mechanisms finally started working, followed by a loud creaking noise that rung through the entire library. As soon as the door opened a stale air escaped the room and assaulted Hui Yue’s nostrils, making him wrinkle his nose slightly.

  The elder clapped his hands and a dimmed light lit up within four crystals that were placed upon the walls, shining through the room. The room was considerably small, in the middle was a round table that took up the majority of the space. It was made from stone, carved out from the mountain itself, giving the entire room a rustic and slightly chilled feeling as no heat had entered in all the time the room had been sealed.

  The walls were covered with stone shelves, and scroll upon scroll was placed upon. Hui Yue gently picked up one scroll and moved towards the round table in the middle. He observed the elder from the corner of his eye, wondering why he still stayed to observe him, however even if the elder noticed Hui Yue pay attention to maps, it was not possible for him to know why he needed these maps.

  As soon as Hui Yue opened the first school the smell of soil appeared and the map started decomposing in his hands. Hui Yue could not help but wonder why the maps had been stored in a room like this, however it did nothing to help him find an answer, and instead he picked up a few more scrolls.

  At first he took the smaller scrolls, however he quickly found out that those contained maps of cities throughout the Three Allied Countries and he then moved on to the larger maps. The search took a lot longer than what Hui Yue had expected as he needed to be incredibly careful with the old maps to keep them from disintegrating, but finally the map he needed had been found.

  A big smile spread across his face as he moved the large map towards the stone table to observe the full view and gain more understanding of the new country he had lived within for ten years.

  The elder had been watching him the entire time, and he narrowed his eyes when he noticed that Hui Yue had indeed looked for a map of the continent. Most students who looked for maps would come with an excuse like this, however they were truly searching for maps leading to treasures within Magical Beast territories.

  A whistle escaped Hui Yue’s lips as his gaze swept across the map in front of him. Lan Feng had previously told him that the four divine beasts had created the continent and then split it evenly between them, and now he understood just how correct that sentence had been.

  The continent itself was in an almost rectangular shape. A few places had gotten dents where the sea had swallowed up some of the land, or even created peninsulas throughout the many years the continent had existed, however it was obvious that the land had originally been split into four equal sizes as the middle of the continent had been split into four even countries by a cross shaped mountain range.

  Hui Yue knew that they were currently in the Taiyang Kingdom, and located it quickly at the bottom left side of the map. Above Taiyang Kingdom was the elusive Shenyuan landscape located. The Siban Empire was the neighbour to Shenyuan, and beneath the Siban Empire and next to the Taiyang Kingdom was the Yueliang Province.

  When looking at the map, the three allied countries were all drawn in astonishing detail. Mountains, cities, rivers and forests were mapped accurately, however in sharp contrast to the three detailed countries was Shenyuan. The map had only managed to map out the edges of the country, and even the seaside was not completely finished with the map and instead had straight lines. It was obvious that no one had any idea as to what was locked within that area of the continent.

  ‘This is odd,’ Lan Feng commented after observing the map for quite a while, ‘Taiyang Kingdom is placed upon the Azure Dragon’s Kingdom, but who would have thought that my home has turned into a cursed land.’

  Hearing this made Hui Yue curious. It was four thousand years since Lan Feng had been sealed and banished from this world. It was obvious that a great fight had occurred but everything was shrouded in mystery, and now the mysteries were tied with Lan Feng in one way or another.

  Hui Yue and Lan Feng both observed the map for a little longer while their desire to leave Riluo City and travel to Shenyuan struggled within, however, after a few more minutes Hui Yue finally managed to supress his desires and packed down the map before he moved towards the elder with a smile.

  “Thank you for assisting me,” Hui Yue said politely and bowed slightly towards the elder before he turned around and moved towards the library entrance. Truthfully Hui Yue was curious about the many books within the library, and he was quite certain that some answers to his questions could be found within, however right now was not the time to focus on reading about the world history.

  Firstly, it was obvious that Hui Yue needed to cultivate to at least the Master rank before it was possible for him to leave Riluo City. Secondly, Hui Yue was not comfortable having the elder observing his every move, and he decided to return another day.

  The elder watched Hui Yue leave the library from within the warmth of the mountain hall. A curious expression had appeared within his eyes. As a librarian this elder spend every day reading books from within this library and could easily be considered the most intelligent person within Riluo City, however even he had been unable to understand the martial art skills he had seen Hui Yue use during the fight against Shen Ping.

  The elder had watched the recording a few times, but he quickly gave up on seeing through the skill. Instead he started looking through all the noble families from within the Three Allied Countries, however so far he had only found one minor family with the surname of Hui. It was a noble family from within the Yueliang Province, and it was obvious that this Hue Yue was not from there. A sigh escaped the elder’s lips as he saw the white-haired boy disappear in the distance.

  Hui Yue left the library mountain and
as walked through the academy buildings he ran into Rong Ming and Rong Xing who exited the Martial Art Skill Hall, and their faces lit up in gentle smiles upon seeing Hui Yue who instantly moved towards them.

  Hui Yue had promised Lan Feng that he would go get some food, and as the Rong twins had not eaten yet, the three of them moved together to a canteen where they could talk about their first day back at the academy.

  Rong Ming laughed loudly upon hearing what happened with Shen Ping while Rong Xing just shook her head. The Rong twins started discussing which Martial Art Skill they were going to buy, and Hui Yue observed them with fondness in his heart, but at the same time a slight feeling of guilt.

  Hui Yue were going to sell a high ranked Martial Art Skill within the Riluo City, and it was likely to cause trouble for the Rong family. They might spend an incredible amount of money on buying a useless skill, or they might end up worrying about their opponents who has gained a high ranked skill.

  Although Hui Yue feels guilty towards the Rong twins, he is very well aware that he has no other option than to act this way. It is true that the Rong family has been treading Hui Yue favourably the last many years, however Hui Yue was still unsure about Lord Rong Liang’s reasons for behaving this kindly.

  Even if the Rong family were positive towards Hui Yue, it was obvious that they would suddenly become alert if he was capable of pulling out strong martial art skills as they were aware that Hui Yue came from a poor village with no cultivators, and this left Hui Yue with the only option of selling the Martial Art Skills on the Black Market Auction while hoping that no one could activate them.

  “What are your plans for the first day off from the Academy?” Rong Ming suddenly asked Hui Yue, and turned towards the white-haired boy who had been completely absorbed within his thoughts,

  “Uh,” Hui Yue returned to the present and looked at Rong Ming before continuing, “I need to go to Riluo City to look for something,” he said slowly, hoping to avoid the subject as to what he needed to look for.

  “We will be visiting father,” Rong Xing explained, “We can give you a lift.” Hui Yue nodded gratefully as it was definitely quicker than having to walk.

  “What do you need to do?” Rong Xing continued curiously. She knew that Hui Yue was of poor origin and she could only come up with one reason as to why he would go to Riluo City the day after Pill Distribution Day.

  Hui Yue smiled upon seeing the look of apprehension on Rong Xing’s face and quickly waved his hand, “Don’t worry,” he assured her, “I am going to do some investment that will allow me to gain more than one medicinal pill.”

  Although Rong Xing had her doubts she was still a noble lady and she felt no reason to discuss anything that Hui Yue had already decided upon. It was his own medicinal pill after all.

  The conversation quickly returned to a cheerful and uncaring manner before Hui Yue finally rose from his seat and moved towards his courtyard under the excuse of needing to cultivate. What he truly needed was to plan out the sale of the Martial Art Skill, so that he once again could feel enough inner peace to cultivate.

  Lan Feng could sense the worry from within Hui Yue about their current idea, so he decided to explain which martial art skills he had planned on using.

  ‘I do have quite a few Master and Grand Master ranked Martial Art Skills. They might be the lowest ranked skills I have, however I do not think we should sell those,’ Lan Feng started, ‘They are low ranked compared to my other skills, but they do not have high requirement and all of them are really well made. If we sell those we will definitely be inviting trouble.’

  Hui Yue frowned upon hearing this and nodded, ‘what do you have in mind?’ he asked instead as Lan Feng was the one who knew which skills he had at their disposal.

  ‘I suggest that when we go to Riluo City we spend the coins we get from the medicinal pill to buy a memory stone. If we have enough coins to buy two stones, then we buy two stones as I have two skills I am considering.’

  Hui Yue nodded, currently neither he nor the blue phoenix knew exactly how much money they would be able to get from their medicinal pill, so it was best to assume that they could only purchase one memory stone as of now.

  ‘The skills I suggest are both middle King ranked. One is a Martial Art Skill while the other is a Spiritual Art Skill.’ Hui Yue was quiet upon hearing the high ranking, and Lan Feng could understand this worry. If by any chance there was someone who could actually activate this skill, then they would be in quite some trouble.

  ‘Although it is a high ranked skill, it is the one I have which is the hardest to use. These skills were created by an expert that wished to check his most powerful Qi attack and Spiritual attack after opening his higher dantian. They are both tailored to him as a person so it is the one who has quite some insane requirements from the cultivator,’ Lan Feng explained.

  ‘The Martial Art Skill is called Qi Burst and its purpose is to release the cultivator’s full qi force with one kick. To be able to activate this skill, a cultivator needs to have a purer qi than the expert who created the skill, and he also need to have the same amount of Qi as the cultivator has, if not more. Currently we only know of Lord Rong Liang and Bu Huang who might be able to use it. But even if they can, then it is a Qi attack, and they are quite useless compared to the attacks they can use after unlocking the higher dantian.’

  Hui Yue nodded. This Martial Art Skill was actually not as dangerous as he had expected as it could only be used by real experts, and real experts rarely had to rely on Qi.

  ‘The Spiritual Art Skill is the exact same,’ Lan Feng continued, ‘it is tailor-made to the expert and it has even higher requirements. The cultivator needs to have the same elemental affinity as the expert which is affinity for water, and then they will release the entire spiritual power in the form of a tsunami.’

  Suddenly a thought struck Hui Yue, ‘wait, if they cannot use the skills why would they buy them?’ he asked dumbfounded but Lan Feng snorted a reply,

  ‘They do not know if they can use it before they get the skill in their hands. A requirement such as purer qi than the creator is too vague to know just upon seeing the skill within the memory stone. Most families will definitely gamble on it, and if they have no cultivators who can use it now, there is no one who can say if they get any in the future.’

  Hui Yue nodded slightly, it did seem possible. A slight calm appeared within his soul as it seemed as if Lan Feng had actually thought it through. The calm was a sign that Hui Yue once again could focus on his training and he instantly activated Qi Guard which he trained until his qi vortex was completely empty before he sat down and meditated, absorbing and refining essence at an incredible pace.

  Chapter 15 - Pill Distribution Day

  * * *

  Chapter 15: Pill Distribution Day

  Hui Yue was looking at Wang Ju Long who was currently sitting next to him with closed eyes and his arms resting across his chest. It was obvious that the other boy was completely ignoring Hui Yue, causing the white-haired boy to sigh deeply and return his eyes towards Teacher Li Yuan.

  This morning Hui Yue had gone to the classroom just like the previous day and Teacher Li Yuan had explained the different subjects that the students could choose from. At first Hui Yue had not found any of the subjects particularly interesting, however upon hearing about Cultivation History within the Taiyang Kingdom, he was instantly interested as he hoped it would be possible for him to find some clues to Shenyuan and the Dark Age.

  The majority of the commoner students had been placed within the Qi Refinement and Theory Class as they had never been taught about the fundamentals of cultivation at the Martial Art Schools.

  A few noble students had been placed within the same class as the commoners, however the majority had been ranked in a class one level higher, the class called Understanding and Practice of Martial Art Skills. This class was for those who knew the basics of Qi cultivation and needed to learn more about how to use this Qi when it came to Ma
rtial Art Skills.

  The class which Hui Yue had been expected to enter was called Disciple Ranked Cultivation Methods as Hui Yue was considered one of the geniuses in the class, however Hui Yue had still chosen the extra class which anyone could enter.

  Cultivation History within the Taiyang Kingdom was a subject where anyone who wished to enter could enter, however it was also considered a subject where the student would not gain any help with their cultivation, and it was very rare for anyone to actually choose it. Teacher Li Yuan had been greatly shocked when he saw Hui Yue chose it.

  The classes were split between morning, noon and afternoon and each class would be taught by Teacher Li Yuan. The Cultivation History within the Taiyang Kingdom was sat on the afternoon schedule, which slightly annoyed Hui Yue, but there was nothing he could do about it.

  What was even worse was that right after Hui Yue had moved towards the corner designated to the Cultivation History within the Taiyang Kingdom, Wang Ju Long had risen from his seat and followed.

  Hui Yue had been slightly startled upon seeing the young master follow him at first, but afterwards he felt rather annoyed as neither of them had a favourable impression of the other.