Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  The dull light allowed Hui Yue to see cabinets and counters made from glass with what once was medicinal herbs within. Some of the cabinets were empty while the few plants that Hui Yue did see had long since dried out or withered from improper treatment.

  Everything within the room was filled with dust and dirt, clearly showing that nothing had been touched for a very long time. The only thing which was dust free was the glass counter.

  The room was so small that only a few children the size of Hui Yue could fit in it, and currently no one else was present. Behind the counter was an open doorway into another dark room, and a heavy scent was emitting out. This scent did not smell clear or healthy like the medicinal pills which Hui Yue’s father usually brought home, nor did it smell sweet or tempting like the medicinal pill he had gained the previous evening. This scent was thick and heavy, causing Hui Yue to become slightly drowsy, however his Qi was moving much more rapid than usual.

  Suddenly a sound could be heard from within the room, and a shadow appeared within the doorway. Hui Yue focused his eyes on the shadow and he could not help but narrow them slightly as the shadow turned into a person.

  This woman was as unusual as Hui Yue was. Hui Yue had hair as white as the new-fallen snow, however this woman had golden hair which reminded him of cascading sunshine. Curl after curl was framing her face, and her eyes were a golden hazelnut brown. As Hui Yue looked into these eyes, he felt as if his soul was being drawn from him, and a wisdom which did not suit her appearance was hidden far beneath.

  Within a few breaths of time, Hui Yue had been unable to breathe, his eyes had gradually grown larger and he had lost his control over his body. A feeling of weakness and powerlessness washed over his body, but it vanished as soon as it had appeared, as the woman blinked her eyes.

  Her body was well developed and Hui Yue would assume that she was around twenty years of age, but her eyes looked ancient and Hui Yue instantly regretted entering this store.

  “What can I help you with boy?” the woman asked in a friendly voice, and she moved to her counter, where she leaned against the glass and looked at Hui Yue with interested eyes.

  Hui Yue had felt how Lan Feng had hidden himself as he would whenever the two of them encountered Lord Rong Liang, and an alertness had appeared within his eyes as he quickly drew the jade bottle from a pocket.

  This transaction had to be completed as quickly as possible.

  “I heard from a friend that you might buy medicinal pills,” Hui Yue said quickly, but he did not move closer to the counter nor the woman. A feeling of danger kept appearing within his head, and although he managed to defeat the urge to instantly escape, he still had not managed to convince himself to advance.

  The smile upon the woman’s face grew larger as she saw the alertness within Hui Yue’s eyes, and she made a beckoning gesture with her hand, causing the jade bottle to fly towards her hand in a speed so quick that even Hui Yue who had perfected Velocity Flow was unable to stop it.

  The woman ignored the flash of worry that appeared within Hui Yue’s eyes, and instead opened the jade bottle in her hand while sniffing the medicinal scent that spread out. A slight furrow of her brows was then followed by a nod of her head before she once again sealed the lid and directly threw the jade bottle into the room behind her.

  A large clattering sound could be heard as it collided with other items, but the woman did not seem to have any care about the sudden sounds, instead she grabbed a memory stone from her belt and from this memory stone withdrew a big sack. Within the sack sounds of metal scraping against each other could be heard, causing Hui Yue to guess that this was a purse.

  Hui Yue knew about memory stones used as storage tools, however they were much more expensive than the average memory stone, so although the shop seemed as if it was run down and destroyed, it was obvious that this woman was not just any poor apothecary.

  The woman had not moved her eyes from Hui Yue as she put her slender hands into the bag and withdrew a few coins which she handed to the white-haired boy. Without looking at the coins, Hui Yue made a light bow to the woman and instantly backed out of the shop. He felt as if he stayed much longer, he would be preyed upon by a mighty beast.

  Outside the shop, Hui Yue once again wore his conical hat before rushing into a more trafficked road and slipped into the stream of people moving fourth and back.

  After moving around for a short while, Hui Yue found another narrow street where he sat in darkness and looked at his hand, shocked to observe that the woman had paid him three silver coins.

  The currency in this new world were coins much similar to what he was used to. A hundred copper coins were needed to get one silver coin, while a hundred silver coins were needed for one gold coin. Above gold coins where spirit coins which needed thousand gold coins.

  Although medicinal pills were incredibly expensive three silver coins was a handsome price for a Qi Grasping Pill. These pills were created by all apprentice alchemists, and they needed to make an insane amount of them while practicing, so the pills which the Royal Academy rewarded the students were all considered fairly normal.

  On would usually amount to one silver coin, perhaps two, but this woman had paid him three. This generosity did not please Hui Yue, instead it made him extra worried. It was obviously a gesture done to lure him back to her shop the following month, however Hui Yue leered slightly as he packed away the coins and moved back into the stream of people. He had no intention of returning the next month.

  ‘Smart,’ Lan Feng agreed satisfied, ‘although that woman is trying to lure you in, she did not scan you with her spiritual sense, nor did she use Wu Wei. There is no way for her to have noticed me, but in the future I suggest we do not get close to her. She is clearly not as simple as one might think.’

  Hui Yue nodded, as he moved towards a shop which specialised in memory stones. The next part, and the most important part, of their plan was about to be executed.

  Far back in a broken down shop was a golden haired woman still standing at the counter. A big smile was transparent on her face, and her brown eyes were shining with a light which had not been there before. As the woman looked out of the window the image of a young white-haired child appeared within her mind and a laughter escaped her lips as she turned around and moved into the dark room in the back.

  Chapter 17 - The Unknown Expert

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  Chapter 17: The Unknown Expert

  The sun was high on the sky, leaving the streets bathed in sunshine and a scorching heat caused waves of warm air to constantly rise from the hot roads. Each street and road was filled with people who were bustling to and fro, pushing their way through the massive hordes of citizens.

  A small boy with white hair was slipping past these busy adults, moving with a certain smoothness which allowed him to proceed much quicker than the hurrying grownups, however no one seemed to notice this youngster.

  This youngster was obviously Hui Yue. He had previously visited a shop which specialised in memory stones, however the shopkeeper had instantly thrown him out as he assumed that this young child was a poor commoner who wished to steal his goods.

  In the small childish hand were three silver coins, but although Hui Yue had gained these in a legit way, he knew better than to take them out. The shopkeeper had already deemed Hui Yue a criminal, and a poor child with three silver coins had obviously stolen them from a rich citizen. In turn, taking them from a thieving little child would not trouble anyone.

  This had caused Hui Yue to not linger around and instead sprint back into the street where he vanished within the masses.

  ‘Let’s head to an inn,’ Lan Feng said with a carefree voice as he thought of the extra coins they had gained. Buying two memory stones did not seem as a problem, and the two needed a place to sit down and go through their plan again. The sale of the pill had taken longer than expected, and although Hui Yue had the whole day at his disposal, he still needed to visit the City Lord’s mansion later
on during the day.

  Walking through the busy street, Hui Yue quickly found a big inn where he ordered a standard room for the day at the price of a few copper coins. Upon reaching the room, Hui Yue slowly opened his bag and pulled out a few items.

  The first thing that fell into Hui Yue’s hands was a piece of smooth fabric. This was the high quality robe that he had been given earlier by his village upon his departure.

  Hui Yue had was aware that he could not wear the robe unless he wanted to give a lead towards his person, but instead he pulled up the blue layer pants and shirt that was placed below the robe. Those two garments should be fairly neutral and not something that he had been seen wearing any time previously.

  After changing his clothes into the blue set, the white robe was carefully placed back into the old bag and a conical hat was taken out. This hat was one that Hui Yue had made during his spare time at the Royal Academy, and it was made from bamboo shoots that he had found within his courtyard.

  This conical hat was inspired by the ones used in his old world, but unlike those, this one was not supposed to guard him from sun nor rain but rather keep his face hidden. He had crafted it with that in mind, and while tying up his hair and taking on the hat, no one was capable of seeing anything else than a smooth white chin and beautiful red lips.

  Finally, Lan Feng took a deep breath, and released his aura, allowing it to surround Hui Yue. A gasp escaped the shocked young boy as he felt how ripples of energy was released from within him, causing the air to constantly vibrate around him. Layers of energy was protecting the body and they were like waves that originated within the Qi cave where Lan Feng was present, before they rushed out into the surroundings and finally was dissolved.

  To be able to get close to Hui Yue while this aura was active, one needed to be an expert of at least King rank. Another option was that Lan Feng would allow for one person to enter the protective space, which in return would allow the person to benefit greatly from the excess energy ripples.

  Hui Yue himself could feel how his Qi spiral was surging within his body. It was turning like a hurricane at such a high speed that Hui Yue no longer could see any Qi threads and instead saw a white tornado, and he felt how this tornado was constantly absorbing and refining the aura which Lan Feng was releasing.

  Although Hui Yue had not gained any boost to his strength, he still felt as if his senses were much sharper than before as he made his way out of the inn. It seemed as if Hui Yue was no longer walking like before but rather floating across the street.

  This aura was not limited to Hui Yue and everyone who came close to him could feel it. The citizens who had been bustling through the road, even the ones who previously pushed their way through with no care for their surroundings politely moved aside to open a path for Hui Yue to walk through.

  It was obvious for everyone present that this was an expert who did not usually belong within this city, also it was an expert that far exceeded the current noble families which were boasting of having King ranked experts as their family leaders.

  Hui Yue did not move with great speed but took his time as he made the way towards one of the market places. He could have gone to the same shop as before, but he had no intention of assisting anyone who previously chased him away.

  Instead he moved towards the centre of the city where the many market places were located. Hui Yue was not dumb. He knew that his sudden appearance had caused a few people to follow him and keep him under observation. Although Hui Yue would not usually notice these people, he was capable of doing so now that he had merged with Lan Feng’s Saint aura.

  A smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he felt the people following him, and he walked toward one of the smaller markets. The smaller markets were controlled by the minor noble families, and the shops that resided within these usually survived by selling staple items at a cheaper price than the bigger market places.

  The bigger marketplaces were able to take a bigger price as these places usually had higher grade magical items and medicinal herbs together with medium ranked martial art skills. The smaller markets were usually frequented by the mercenaries while the upper-class were the ones who went for the bigger markets.

  If Hui Yue had arrived at the marketplace earlier with his old clothes, it was very likely that he would have been barred from entrance, however with his current appearance and the extraordinary aura that he showed, no one dared stop him.

  The guards which were guarding the market place all glanced at Hui Yue with admiration and a slight fear, while the customers once again made space for Hui Yue to move around as he pleased with no one in the way.

  Hui Yue took his time while walking around the different stalls, sweeping his eyes over low grade medicinal plants, empty scrolls, low ranked martial art skills, low grade magical beast cores, low grade magical gems, weapons of lower quality, armour of lower quality and memory stones of lower quality.

  Memory stones were originally a black gemstone with no actual abilities, however each of them had a certain ability to absorb spiritual energy and transfer into tools which could be used for recording, tools that could be used as keys or even storage tools.

  A low grade memory stone was one which had managed to take in a slight amount of spiritual energy and changed into a stone which could perhaps record one Martial or Spiritual Art Skill, it could record a real action for a short time and keep that one action or it could be used to send one message to another person.

  Due to the lack of Spiritual Energy it was usually used as a container of Martial and Spiritual Art Skills. The memory stone would shatter when the Spiritual Energy ran out, and that would usually happen if the stone had been used a few times. This did not matter whether it was a Martial or Spiritual Art Skill, a recording of a fight or even a message to a friend.

  Considering that Hui Yue and Lan Feng had been paid three silver coins it was possible for the two to buy a medium grade memory stone, however the lower grade were actually more beneficial as they could only be viewed by a few people before they would shatter.

  When the memory stone was only able to be viewed a few times, it would cause the buyers to limit which people were allowed to try and activate it, which would reduce the chances of it being learned by anyone. Secondly, although someone would insert the knowledge into their heads from the memory stone, they could do nothing with it before they managed to activate it, that included creating new memory stones.

  Hui Yue still had remnants of worry from the whole plan of selling high ranked Martial and Spiritual Art Skills, but whenever he felt Lan Feng’s soul he felt an unexplainable excitement and a certain amount of schadenfreude which he could not understand.

  ‘Lan Feng,’ he said while looking at a stall in front of him, ‘what is the reason for you be this excited?’

  Although the two souls were able to sense each other’s moods, it was impossible to really understand one another.

  ‘Let me tell you a story,’ Lan Feng said with a patient voice, very similar to how Hui Yue had been told bedtime stories when he was a child. ‘A long long time ago there lived an expert. This expert sold me two skills of a high rank. One was a Martial Art Skill while the other was a Spiritual Art Skill. The price for these two skills were incredibly extravagant, but they also seemed to be way above average in ability. In the end I bought the memory stones containing the two skills, only to see that I was unable to activate them. I had to try it four times before I finally succeeded in learning the Martial Art Skill, and the memory stone shattered on my final attempt. The Spiritual Art Skill on the other hand still causes me some problems. It is created for someone who has an affinity for Water, so I ended up spending thousands of years of research before I managed to activate it.’

  It was obvious that the Phoenix still felt some pent up rage whenever he thought about what had happened back then, as he continued his speech.

  ‘To be honest, it really pissed me off, and later on when I tried to find the cultivator to get reve
nge I found out that someone else had killed him instead. Imagine how I felt. Pissed off but unable to do anything about it, but no more! This time it is my turn to screw over someone naïve and stupid. I need to feel like these two skills actually have some value to them!’

  As soon as Lan Feng finished the final sentence he broke into a loud, and rather insane, laughter. Although this in one way had caused Hui Yue to question the reasons as to why Lan Feng suggested that they sold Martial Art Skill rolls, it also calmed him down after knowing that not even the phoenix had been able to activate them easily.

  While it was true that the boy was feeling a certain amount of relief, the divine beast inside was feeling a cheeky satisfaction upon imagining how it would be after successfully selling the memory stones, and Hui Yue finally shook his head before picking out two of the lowest grade memory stones that he could find.

  These memory stones were only capable of being able to hold a Martial or Spiritual Art Skill for up to three viewings, and although this sounded like incredibly little, it had no actual influence on whether or not the skill would sell for an astonishing amount at the Black Market Auction House later on.