Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  As soon as the liquid passed through the throat, it turned from liquid into small streaks of light which entered the body through the meridians and different blood vessels, rushing towards the Qi cave.

  Each streak of light appeared and rushed directly into the Qi spiral where it merged together with a Qi thread, which then grew in thickness, before it slowly parted into two.

  It took Hui Yue immense effort and sweat was pouring down his forehead as he ended up hunting down the wayward rays of light that had pervaded into his blood vessels. Had he not opened the Chong Mai meridian, then it would have been impossible for Hui Yue to locate these rays of light and, thus, have lost more than half of the pill’s efficiency.

  Hui Yue’s Qi cave had increased with up to an additional seventh of its original size, and although it might not sound like much, it was definitely an incredible amount considering the former size was cultivated through ten years of painstaking efforts.

  It was past noon when Hui Yue finally opened his eyes and looked up at the sun. It had taken him several hours to absorb the energy of the medicinal pill, but at last he had managed to squeeze out the latent effects of the pill.

  Hui Yue jumped up and instantly felt how the energy within him was bursting forth, rushing through his meridians and trying to force their way out of his body. A big smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he started performing Raging Strike, Stone Fist and Shattering Kick in a series, and the strength used in these was at least twice to what he had performed back when he dueled Wang Ju Long.

  ‘Stop playing around with those useless skills,’ Lan Feng’s spectral voice sounded out from within Hui Yue’s mind, but now, although Lan Feng’s voice seemed full of disdain, a feeling of childish superiority billowed from within Hui Yue and had him unable to stifle a laugh at the silly bird.

  ‘I absorbed the pill,’ Hui Yue said laughingly, as he looked around the courtyard. Inside their shared body, his soul was urging Lan Feng to understand his immense desire to know what high ranked martial art skill he would be getting.

  Lan Feng ended up laughing, causing Hui Yue to sprout a dumb grin as neither bird nor human could keep any emotions or thoughts secret from the other anymore. The two of them were literally stuck together like gum.

  ‘Okay, okay,’ Lan Feng laughed and Hui Yue quickly entered a meditational stance and created a mental projection, which appeared within the Qi cave, once he dived into his inner realm.

  The blue boy moved towards the seated Hui Yue and, much like the other times, raised a finger to his forehead and pulled out a sphere of blue light stuck to his fingertip.

  This blue light slowly travelled through the air and embedded itself inside of Hui Yue’s head, rupturing into a flood of knowledge and information.

  ‘Transforming Weapons’ was the name of this skill, and it was a Middle King ranked martial art attack skill.

  This skill fully allowed Hui Yue to step into Lan Feng’s shoes and grasp just why he looked down on the attack skills Hui Yue had learned so far.

  Transforming Weapons was a skill that allowed Hui Yue to mould his Qi into different weapon shapes; however, the shape of the weapons could not be bigger than the capacity of Qi residing within the individual cultivator.

  Hui Yue knew by intuition that he was currently only able to create knives and short swords. Even if he could only create knives and short swords, Hui Yue felt a great joy within his heart as he recalled all his days practicing Wushu.

  Hui Yue retained his seated position while allowing his Qi to flow through his meridians in a pattern according to the skill he had just been taught pretty much instantly, and, slowly, he felt how the coursing Qi threatened to rush out of his hands and take the shape of a knife.

  The first attempt ended in a vague mist nigh imperceptible to the naked eye; however, Hui Yue could feel the form of the mist and excitement rushed through his body, despite the feeling of holding the apparitional handle of the mist-knife being a short-lived luxury.

  He repeated the same action throughout the entire afternoon until he finally emptied dry his Qi reserves. Since he was currently training, it was impossible for him to apply the amount of Qi that the perfected skill would need to be sustained. However, even now, Hui Yue had felt how his Qi had vanished in a steady stream throughout the last couple of hours.

  As the final dregs of Qi had been squeezed out of the Qi spiral, a satisfied expression appeared on Hui Yue’s sweat-glazed face as he opened his eyes.

  Although several hours had gone by whilst practicing, Hui Yue had now managed to form the outline of the knife in his hand. Although this outline was a far cry from the perfected skill, the speed of his training was astonishing by normal standards.

  This was partly due to his higher purity of Qi, but the majority of the credit went to Lan Feng, since he had already perfected the skill, and with their souls now partially fused, Hui Yue had the benefit of an innate understanding of the skill beforehand.

  Hui Yue knew that it was unlikely the remaining time would be sufficient for him to try and fortify his body, and instead he sat down and savoured the warmth of the setting sun while absorbing the essence of the world and slowly refining it into Qi, while allowing his dried-out Qi spiral to slowly regain its previous splendor.

  The following night was spent the same way as the previous, with Hui Yue focusing on refining essence into Qi, increasing the size of his Qi spiral slowly but steadily.

  The following morning was no different. Hui Yue jumped out of bed as soon as he heard the first birds chirping awake the mountaintops and, once more, moved into the courtyard where he sat down below his usual tree.

  Slowly, he took his time as he created his mental projection and placed himself within his Qi cave after which he slowly meditated, allowing his mind to completely harmonize with his body.

  The mental projection once more moved into the Qi spiral and disappeared, after which a few strands of Qi moved to the Chong Mai meridian before slowly entering Hui Yue’s body, wrapping itself around one of his internal organs.

  First it was like the Qi Guard which shielded the entire organ. However, after a short while, this protective layer of Qi slowly sank into the organ, causing it to light up slightly with a white light. Another stand of Qi wrapped around the same organ and the action was repeated.

  This method allowed Hui Yue to strengthen his body internally, making it highly impervious to internal injuries. However, fortifying the body was a process that should be carried out throughout the course of one’s life as the Qi and other energy forms were constantly evolving.

  Fortifying the body was also a very time consuming process, and after half a day, Hui Yue had used up his entire Qi pool without finishing the fortification of the first organ.

  The organ itself was now much stronger; Hui Yue could feel how each strand of Qi needed more time to submerge itself within the tissue, but he kept patiently cultivating while implementing the improvements to the internal organ, and as his final drop of Qi had disappeared, satisfaction was once again evident on Hui Yue’s face.

  The time was only high noon, but Hui Yue decided against taking another medicinal pill so soon after his last, after considering the risks; instead, he sat down, cultivating while allowing the Qi spiral to gyrate and strengthen up again.

  After an hour, Hui Yue once again had the full strength he needed, and he resumed the practice of his Transforming Weapons skill.

  The next week went by in a flash, and Hui Yue had shirked his academic responsibilities and completely skipped his classes, focusing on his routine of taking a medicinal pill every second day, practicing his new martial art skill and afterwards fortifying his body, internally.

  Chapter 25 - Zhong Fai

  * * *

  Chapter 25: Zhong Fai

  Seven black-cloaked men had traveled non-stop for six days before they managed to arrive at the mountain range which revealed the border into Shenyuan.

  This particular part of the mountain range was not
home to incredibly strong magical beasts like the others, instead it contained a valley which led towards a beautiful mountain made of ice.

  From this mountain, ice cold winds were constantly billowed out into the world and bringing with them death to any creature that came into contact, which was the reason for no real life being visible within eyesight.

  These seven men, however, were completely unaffected by the cold winds, and even their black cloaks did not seem as if they were caressed by the wind. As the seven men inched closer to the mountain, they politely saluted to various patrols appearing within the white landscape.

  All of these patrols were shrouded in black cloaks exactly like the arrivals, but none spoke nor was there any friendliness or companionship visible between the many men.

  The seven men went towards the foot of the mountain where they knelt down in respect, waiting to be granted access.

  “Enter!” A voice boomed out into the entire valley causing the snow to tremble and the trees to shake. Every patrol was collapsing down on one knee, showing great respect towards the voice, and the seven men who were waiting started kowtowing, before they finally dared step on the stairs leading towards the residential area for the mountain lord.

  The men who seemed to pay no attention to Lan Feng were now moving with great care as if the smallest step could bring calamity, and after taking thousands of steps they finally reached the mountaintop.

  This mountain of ice was by far the largest mountain around and the top was buried within a cloud of snow, constantly coating the floor in snow.

  On this snow covered mountaintop, a massive building was erected, a building of the same type as the Black Market Auction House, however, where the black market auction house still had a structure of wood adorned with gold and gemstones this building was built of white jade entirely.

  The walls were as white as the snow falling from the sky and the entire area had a celestial shine to it. The closer these seven men got to the jade palace the more restless they grew. Hui Yue would definitely have been surprised upon seeing that these men could express fear.

  Inside the jade palace was a young man waiting patiently. His eyes were shining with interest as a slim smile was spreading across his face while looking at the seven black cloaked men who seemed to fear him by instinct.

  It took a few minutes for the men to arrive in front of him within the jade hall, and all seven instantly kowtowed in front of him, pressing their foreheads against the ice-cold floor.

  A beckoning gesture was made from the young man and one of the black-cloaked men quickly lifted a hand. On the hand was a ring, and on the ring was a small black stone. This black stone was, however, no simple black stone but the highest grade storage memory stone.

  From the stone two simple-looking black memory stones emerged and they instantly flew towards the young man. A hint of excitement was shown on his face as he grasped them and quickly placed both at his forehead.

  A light much brighter than when the stones were created emitted out as both activated at the same time, and all of this light slowly entered the young man’s forehead making the small smile on his face grow in size.

  “I knew it!” the man started laughing maniacally, and his laugh contained a certain degree of desperation, “Sang Young, did you really think you could pull the same trick twice? Hahahahahaha.”

  The man laughed for a long time before he finally sat down on his seat and picked up a tall glass made of white jade. With a flicker of his hand, he retrieved a bottle of red liquid from his storage memory stone, which he poured into the glass and slowly sipped it with delight as he looked at the seven still kowtowing men.

  “Rise!” he ordered, and as his voice boomed through the room, the seven men instantly rose to their feet.

  “This man once sold me two skills exactly like the ones you bought at the Black Market Auction House. Back then I was tricked and I suffered badly for my naivety. But never again! Since you have found this man, instantly bring him back to me!”

  The seven men bowed deeply before backing out of the room with a resolute march. It was now time for them to return to Riluo City and pick up the expert they had allowed to escape once before.

  “Do you think this is a good idea?” A soft and charming voice sounded from a corner of the jade hall, causing the young man’s face to mildly darken.

  “These puppets are not yours to play with Zhong Fai,

  he

  might not be happy with your actions.”

  Hearing this caused the young man, Zhong Fai, to snort with displeasure.

  “If I wish to have them capture that scoundrel Sang Young, then they will go and capture Sang Young. He will not care, even if he was to lose seven puppets such as these. Anyway he already gifted them to me so he has no say in this anymore.”

  Hearing this resulted in the other person within the hall to stay quiet and purse her lips; soon departing footsteps could be heard. Zhong Fai leaned back against his frigid jade throne as he looked out into the horizon. A satisfied and elated smile appeared on his face as he sipped the red liquid within his glass.

  Many miles away in Riluo City, a carriage was crossing through the city gates. Within this carriage was five youngsters and a young child seemingly around ten years of age.

  The five youngsters were all chatting amongst each other while the child was leaning against the carriage wall and sleeping soundly.

  This child was obviously Hui Yue. Within the last six days Hui Yue had gotten no sleep what so ever. The days were dedicated to training, meditating and fortifying his body while the nights were dedicated to absorbing the essence of the world. Not one minute had been spent on sleeping or playing around causing the friends to be worried about him.

  Hui Yue could not help but be happy when he heard that his friends had worried about him, and he made sure to tell them that he was practicing something important. As soon as they heard about his training, none of them had tried to distract him or forcefully drag him from his courtyard, but they still came by to check in on him from time to time.

  Their caring and consideration had warmed his heart, but even so he remained steadfast and unwavering in his practice. It was not until Ma Kong had told him they needed to visit the Black Market Auction House that Hui Yue finally halted his tireless training and began preparations to follow the them.

  Seeing Hui Yue finally leaving his courtyard, all the friends decided it was time for them to leave the academy and visit Riluo City.

  Hui Yue followed Ma Kong to the Black Market Auction House while they discussed the insurance idea, which Hui Yue briefly had mentioned previously, along the way.

  Excitement grew within Hui Yue as he looked forward to implementing the insurance concept in Riluo City.

  In a world filled with murder and death, insurance seemed to be able to get a good foothold.

  Although Hui Yue was currently an incredibly rich child, he was aware that if he gave just one of these spirit coins to his family back home, the entire village, which so far lived a whole year on just a few gold coins alone, would be capable of living a much more luxurious life on that coin alone.

  Hui Yue wished he could give the money to his family, however, right now, he had no way of doing so without attracting unwanted attention, so his excitement pertained to the insurance idea grew instead. By allowing the Black Market Auction House to spearhead his idea, he was likely to be given a certain amount of the revenue reeled in from the insurances. Even if it was a low amount, Hui Yue wished for this money to be given to his family, allowing an easier life for them.

  Today, the twins and Gao Yan were also traveling to Riluo City. They claimed they wished to go to the city for the sake of visiting the Martial Art Schools, but Hui Yue knew they were coming along because he needed to enter town and for the first time in a week, he allowed himself to relax.

  Unfortunately, loosening up had led to him falling asleep almost instantly. While Hui Yue was sleeping, the others had laughed at him
but none of them considered waking him up as they all knew just how hard he had been working recently.

  Deng Wu was also within the carriage. He needed to visit his family, but he refused to tell the others as to why he needed to go. He just smiled every time they had asked and shrugged it off as family business.

  Ma Kong, Gao Yan and Rong Xing had shown absolutely no interest in what Deng Wu was up to, however, Rong Ming was too curious and the more Deng Wu refused to answer, the more Rong Ming wished to know.

  By the time Hui Yue woke up, the carriage had already dropped off the Rong twins and Gao Yan at the City Lord’s palace where they would greet the City Lord before the three of them were to make their way towards the Martial Art Schools.

  Deng Wu was still within the carriage by the time Hui Yue woke up, as this was his carriage, but he was incredibly friendly by helping all of his friends to get to their destinations before he, himself, went on his way home.