Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  After picking up the stones, Hui Yue turned his face towards the stall-owner.

  “I wish to purchase these two stones,” he said with his childish voice, causing the surrounding observers and commoners to assume that the hidden expert was in fact a woman. The figure was lithe, only a metre and a half, while the shape was frail. The skin was pale and the voice was high pitched but comfortable, much like a slow steam gliding past the beautiful landscapes.

  Although the expert seemed to be a woman, the shopkeeper still looked at this person with the utmost veneration and fear while bowing deeply.

  “Milady, please do not offend this humble servant and accept the stones as a token of my respect,” he managed to say with a shivering voice and a slight stutter.

  Looking at this unknown expert, the shopkeeper assumed that it was one who was merely traveling through the city. The garments were clearly men’s wear, however they were made from fabric which was not usual around these parts. Also the hat which she was wearing was something which he had never seen before, however it had been crafted with such care and precision that no one would think of it as being created on a whim.

  Hui Yue shrugged carelessly upon hearing that the stones were a gift. He was after all not a wealthy person, his entire fortune consisted of a little less than three silver coins.

  Hui Yue did not care much for being mistaken as a woman once again, and this time it was a benefit as it could further help to remove any suspicion from him. He thanked the shopkeeper and turned around, getting ready to leave the market as he noticed how the shop he had left suddenly had a boom in their visitors.

  All the commoners from the market were rushing towards the stall, buying their items from him. Even if he had gifted two memory stones of the lowest quality, it was obvious that the benefits to the shopkeeper were not minor either.

  A smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he strode out of the market and moved directly back to the inn where he had been checked in.

  He did not go to the counter but instead directly towards the room he had rented. During the return to the inn, Hui Yue was perfectly aware that he had been followed by the informants of all the major factions within the city, and the next part of his plan was crucial.

  Upon entering his room, Lan Feng quickly withdrew his aura, and once again contained it within himself, while Hui Yue rushed to switch his clothes back to the farmers clothes he had been wearing before. The conical hat was quickly packed down together with the garments and hidden within his bag, before he jumped onto the bed and sat down in meditational stance while cultivating.

  It did not take long before Hui Yue heard the sound of people moving around outside in the hallway and sounds of complaints could be heard through the old doors. A smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he tried to focus on his cultivation.

  A few minutes later, his door was forced open and the landlord together with a group of three men dressed in black was standing outside, looking into the shabby room with the poor cultivating child.

  Hui Yue looked as if he had been scared silly, and he stared upon the intruders with big eyes and slightly trembling hands. The three black clothes men moved away almost instantly and the landlord gave the child a slight nod before closing the door behind them.

  The next hour was spent cultivating while these three black clothed men searched through the entire inn, unable to find what they were looking for, and a cheeky smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he saw them exit the inn. Finally, it was time to pick up the two memory stones and imprint them with Lan Feng’s Martial and Spiritual Art Skills.

  While looking at the stone in Hui Yue’s hand, it was the size of half his palm and it had not been carved in a nice shape. It was as rough as it had been when the mercenaries had found it. The stone had a black surface and there was no shine to it. It was obvious to see that this was a low grade stone, which excited Hui Yue even more.

  He picked up the first stone and moved it to his forehead as he slowly closed his eyes. The rest of the imprinting depended on Lan Feng, and the phoenix slowly moved a feathered finger to his forehead where he pulled a thread of light out from between his eyes.

  This thread of light slowly condensed into a small ball, shining much like a pearl, and under Lan Feng’s careful guidance it was moved through Hui Yue’s meridians until it reached the forehead, where it got pressed the final distance out of the body and into the memory stone.

  As soon as the ball of light had left Hui Yue’s head, he slowly allowed his eyes to open, only to be blinded by a bright light as it entered the memory stone in front of him. It took a few minutes before Hui Yue was able to see anything again.

  When he was, the memory stone no longer seemed to be as ordinary as it had been before. The shape was still rough and unpolished much like before, however the surface had gained a shine as if it was filled with a black sun, and from time to time could a slight white mist be seen travelling around inside of the stone itself.

  Hui Yue could not help but feel excited when he saw that they had successfully trapped the first skill, and he quickly repeated the action. A wild feeling of joy appeared within his heart as he looked at the two stones within his hands and kept imagining just how much money they would sell for. Hopefully it would be enough to provide for quite some medicinal pills.

  After finishing the two memory stones, Hui Yue quickly changed clothes once again, and waited for Lan Feng to release the aura, before he made his way out of the inn, once again walking slowly and allowing the different followers to see where he was headed.

  Upon exiting the inn, Hui Yue could not help but frown slightly as he saw that the sun was almost about to reach the city walls, showing that it was in the afternoon and that Hui Yue was in a hurry if he wished to show up at the City Lord’s Mansion for the dinner which he had promised the Rong twins earlier.

  Still Hui Yue knew that he would gain nothing if he hurried with this part of the plan, and he forced himself to slowly walk through the city, moving towards the Ma Family Compound.

  The Black Market Auction House was not placed in the middle of the city like most other important business buildings, instead it was placed next to the Ma family’s own home so that they could provide the best security.

  The Black Market Auction House did not have to hunt down customers, the customers made sure to travel the extra distance to have a chance of purchasing unknown treasures.

  Although this place was called The Black Market Auction House, it was a big and popular building which was not considered illegal, nor was it a place which earned money from criminal activities.

  The reason that it had gotten its name was because of the policy that the Ma family had followed from the start. When an item appeared at their auction, they did not care how it had been achieved by the seller. If they had stolen it or robbed someone, even if they had murdered the previous owners, it was nothing that the Black Market Auction House would care about. The same went for old heirlooms of declining families which was sold here, no one knew who the sellers were and anonymity was the key.

  As soon as an item had been sold through the Black Market Auction House, the new owners had gained all rights to the item, and it could only be taken from them if the new owners wished to give it to others, sell it to others or if it had been taken from them by force.

  Reaching the building made Hui Yue gasp in astonishment as he looked at the extravagant surroundings.

  The road leading to the Black Market Auction House was paved with marble and on each side was a lawn which was groomed meticulously. The lawn was framed with big trees that had been groomed into squares, and jade statues could be seen placed in the middle of the lawns.

  Behind the beautiful landscape was the main building which was adorned with gold on all the pillars. Magical beasts had been carved into the frames and statues of beasts had been created from marble and more jade.

  The door was created from marble much like the pavement, but the doorframe and door handles were crea
ted from pure gold. All the colours were kept in white, red and black.

  The entire premises was tightly guarded by groups of experts who would patrol in specific patterns and even the guards at the door were at least Grand Master ranked.

  As soon as Hui Yue stepped onto the marble road and headed towards the Black Market Auction House, he noticed that the people who had followed him so far scattered and rushed away.

  The white-haired child could not help but chuckle slightly as he noticed their movement. It was obvious that they were heading back to their homes with news of Hui Yue’s visit to the Black Market Auction House.

  A new expert arrived in town and went for an Auction House. It could only mean one thing, treasure was going to go on sale, and everyone wished to have the first chance to acquire it.

  Allowing these people to follow him for the entire day was exactly for this reason. It was to increase the amount of people who knew about the expert who went to the Black Market Auction House.

  A smile was spread on Hui Yue’s face as he moved up the pavement, towards the front door.

  Chapter 18 - Black Market Auction House

  * * *

  Chapter 18: Black Market Auction House

  Yam Chi-Keung was a young man who had just turned twenty-three years old. He had been part of the first batch of students who aspired to attend the Martial Art Schools from the age of five years old. Although he did not have the talent to enter the Royal Academy, he had managed to reach the fifth star Student Rank a few months after the admission test by cultivating on his own.

  Yam Chi-Keung’s parents were poor. However, his uncle owned a shop and had just enough money to assist the young child in his cultivation. The uncle had considered it an investment as cultivators were in high demand, and he had been right.

  Yam Chi-Keung was currently a first star Practitioner Ranked expert. Although he had reached the Practitioner rank, he had braved the toilsome battle with the first bottleneck every cultivator encounters in their journey, before his eventual breakthrough, as the quality of his Qi was just below average.

  His Qi was of such quality that it was currently impossible for Yam Chi-Keung to open his middle dantian; however, if he were to consume a large amount of Qi Refining Pills, then it might turn possible. As to whether or not he could open the upper dantian, it would prove an ungodly endeavor against his favor; like trying to fuel an engine with soil. He would never be capable of doing so.

  The first many years had been spent at his uncle’s shop where he would be working hard on his cultivation, moonlighting as a security guard; but as soon as he broke into the student rank, Yam Chi-Keung had joined a mercenary group and travelled to the Magical Forest time and time again.

  Back then, his cultivation had been very low, and his job as an errand boy earned him some coin. Although they considered his job to be of the least importance in their midst – making it the least paid job – it kept Yam Chi-Keung out of danger, as nobody expected him to partake in the fights against the magical beasts.

  After five years of working within the mercenary group, Yam Chi-Keung had finally reached the last few stars of the Disciple rank, and it was now possible for him to join the army, which had been his goal from the very start.

  The Taiyang Kingdom’s army was a well-known army. The lowest-ranked infantry all had to be seven star Disciple ranked soldiers, and since they had to be cultivators, they were able to request a much higher pay rate than non-cultivators.

  The monthly salary from the Royal Army that Yam Chi-Keung received was equal to half a year’s worth of revenue from his uncle’s shop, and this sum of money alone enabled him to bring his entire family out of extreme poverty – and still allow him to set money aside for future purchases of Qi Refinement Pills.

  Just as Yam Chi-Keung had planned on entering the army, he had come across a recruitment poster about the Ma family’s recruitment drive in search of guards to strengthen the Black Market Auction House’s security. Although the royal army had a marginally better pay, there were a lot more benefits in joining the Black Market Auction House.

  One of these benefits were obviously that he did not have to participate in wars. It was true that the three kingdoms were currently in an alliance, however, terrifying magical beasts kept leaving Shenyuan in hordes every few months each year, and it was the army’s job to ensure the safety of the kingdom by killing these beasts. Joining the Ma family ensured that Yam Chi-Keung did not have to participate in these skirmishes.

  Another benefit was that Yam Chi-Keung would not have to leave his home but was capable of staying together with his family and friends. He had always been incredibly grateful to his parents and uncle for allowing him the possibility to cultivate, and now he wished to pay it back by ensuring their safety.

  Another, and the final, benefit was that every guard within the Ma family were the first to know of the gossip spreading around in town, and these sporadic, sometimes important pieces of information more often than not fetched a decent price to keen ears and plump pouches.

  The Ma family had worked its way into the ranks of the nobles by relying on themselves, and their family was still doing everything within their power to expand.

  Since the Ma family was a newly established family, it had no use for notions such as possessing an ancient bloodline from a certain lineage or words like honour; to them, those were unaffordable luxuries. The only thing that mattered to the Ma family was how much money things were worth and also how much potential a certain individual had.

  It didn’t matter if the family leader’s son proved inferior to the son of an elder, or any other child within the family for that matter, the entire clan would indiscriminately and collectively appoint the most skilled of their younger generation as the heir.

  This could also be seen on the way they handled their guards. Anyone that joined the Ma family had equal possibilities for promotion. As long as a person had a specific talent or was specifically hardworking, they could land themselves a steady and well-paid future.

  Yam Chi-Keung was one of those people who had forged a path with their own hands. Although his cultivated Qi was of poor quality, he still had a very high rank for someone his age, and he had gone all the way from a mere patrol guard to become a guard of the front entrance.

  Yam Chi-Keung was feeling incredibly important as he stood straight and looked at the many people who were moving towards the Black Market Auction House. No matter whether an auction was ongoing or not, the building would always be bustling with merchants who wished to sell their items or buyers who came to claim their purchases.

  These merchants all knew that the Black Market Auction House was a major faction within Riluo City and they even had some connections in all of the major cities within the kingdom, including the capital. It was definitely not a place to recklessly cause trouble, and so the majority of the passing crowd would typically respectfully lower their heads and show a certain amount of nervousness whenever they walked past one of the guards.

  A smug smile appeared on Yam Chi-Keung’s face as he felt a certain feeling of self-satisfaction. He had been born within the poorest part of Riluo City and had been treated like trash throughout his childhood, however, now, as a young man, the people whom he previously looked up to as being rich were now covering in fear when they saw him.

  This was a sanctimonious feeling which Yam Chi-Keung enjoyed thoroughly, and the smug smile spread to his eyes as he looked down the avenue in front, looking for the next person to intimidate as his eyes swept over a figure who made him somewhat frown.

  Halfway down the avenue was a person walking leisurely towards the front door. The figure was dressed in a blue set of garments, which did not look like the most common material around, but most intriguing was the hat.

  A hat shaped as a cone was placed upon the head of this unknown person, leaving the entire face in shade and making it impossible to make out anything from within.

  Looking at the shape, the person seem
ed to be a woman, however, as the figure got closer, Yam Chi-Keung noticed that although this person had pearl white hands and a narrow waist, it had no alluring bosom as one would expect, causing the guard to guess that it was most likely a child.

  However, as the child neared, step by step, Yam Chi-Keung noticed how no one else dared to encroach upon this unknown individual, and if anyone did get close, then they would instantly back away. As the stranger was within leaping distance to the entrance, the two guards felt as if their entire bodies grew heavy and their limbs felt like lead; their breaths were taxed and sweat was pouring down their foreheads and backs.

  The tense atmosphere was beyong stifling to the point where the two guards lost all control of their bodies, feeling as through the time around them collapsed inwards; and within the moment of their stupor, the unknown expert had seemingly already covered a distance of more than fifty metres and long since entered the Black Market Auction House before they came to.