Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  “This world was created by our fathers and given to us after a rite of passage. Unfortunately, SOMEONE got tricked by a mere human and we ended up like this.” Lan Feng reached an octave higher for a split second and snorted, “That useless son is in your figurine and he ought to stay there to think about his misgivings.”

  “Shut up, you damn bird!” a voice roared from the azure figurine. “You would have been tricked as well, and unlike you I am still sealed!”

  “So what?” Lan Feng retorted, “you caused us to be sealed, is it not fair that you are the last to be unsealed.”

  “You aren’t too lucky either,” the figurine mocked back, “I see you got free from the hairpin but instead you are locked up as some stupid servant to a brainless kid.”

  “Oh yeah? At least I managed to form a soul contract….” Lan Feng said, before his expression went from proud to annoyed, “I should not have said that. I should definitely not have said that.”

  While Lan Feng had gotten annoyed for saying something unintended, the figurine was completely quiet. This was most likely due to the shock of hearing that anyone was willing to establish a soul contract with a divine beast.

  Deng Wu was staring blindly at the figurine and at the possessed Hui Yue. The conversation was really impossible for him to follow.

  “So I take it that the two of you are old friends.” He said calmly, while looking at the two, causing both to be slightly embarrassed.

  “Ahem,” Lan Feng cleared his throat. “As you most likely have understood, this figurine used to be a divine beast much like myself, same saint rank as me too. He was even slightly stronger back then, but right now he surely is quite fragile.”

  The satisfaction within Lan Feng’s voice was impossible to mask and the grin that had appeared on his face had Deng Wu wondering which kind of creature this beast was, and how Hui Yue could stand spending every waking hour of the day together with him.

  “In the end, both of us have a secret that no one else is supposed to know about,” Lan Feng continued with a long sigh. “You keep quiet about Hui Yue and our secrets, and in turn we keep quiet about little Dragon and you.”

  “Little Dragon?” Deng Wu looked confused, “this figurine is named little Dragon?”

  The figurine gave a harrumph in reply, and Lan Feng let go of Hui Yue’s body, allowing him to take back control.

  “He is named after his father Qing Long, but it was too confusing to use the same name for both, so we never called him anything else than little dragon.”

  Hui Yue decided that it was time for him to go back to his own courtyard as Deng Wu now knew the truth about his item but also knew that both him and Hui Yue shared the same secret; if one was to be exposed, the other would likely follow.

  After visiting Deng Wu, Hui Yue had returned to his own courtyard where he prepared for another visit to the Medicinal Pill Outlet, intent on purchasing an amount of medicinal pills worth three spirit coins this time.

  Hui Yue was aware of how the more pills he took of one kind, the less effective they became. This had caused Hui Yue to mix a few different pills into his purchases to see how they were compared to the others.

  The life within the academy was exactly like it had been since admission. The students were moving around from lectures to mountain tops. The arenas were filled with students who held grudges against each other or those who simply felt like they needed to spar in order to improve their skills.

  However, unlike the royal academy, Riluo City was bustling with energy and new waves. The Ma family had decided to expand their business to no longer only focus on only their Black Market Auction House.

  An immense amount of wealth had been used to advertise the new business idea of ‘insurance’. Both the Ma family and Hui Yue had expected that it required a long time for the insurance to be accepted amongst the common people and noble families within the city, but contrary to their beliefs, the interest proved overwhelming.

  The insurance covering the houses was mainly bought by the noble families that had seen first-hand how the Shan family lost everything.

  The life insurance, on the other hand, was incredibly popular amongst the various guards, soldiers and especially mercenaries.

  Within the span of a few months, almost every family within the city had either a personal insurance or a family insurance, causing the Ma family’s reputation and importance to soar high into the sky.

  According to the contract, Hui Yue got paid 3% of the profits each month, and although it was a very slim amount of money in the beginning, it was still enough money to change the fate of his home village.

  Hui Yue had not been back home since he had left to attend the admission ceremony. He asked Gao Yan to help him find an errand boy whom he could trust, and just a few days later,a young man was ready to take on the task that Hui Yue had in mind.

  This task was to, once a month, travel to Hui Yue’s village and deliver the money from the Ma family, and in return he would be heavily rewarded. The reason a heavy reward was plausible was based on the fact that this man was a cultivator at the practitioner rank, and secondly because Gao Yan had insisted on making a blood contract.

  A blood contract was, as the name suggested, a contract signed in the partner’s’ blood. Signing a contract in blood meant that it was implausible for the people who had signed it to break their promise and should they do so, then they would die in the process.

  Chapter 30 - Dancing Qi Pillar

  * * *

  Chapter 30: Dancing Qi Pillar

  The Ma family was not the only family within Riluo City improving at a rapid speed. The Deng family had somehow gotten hold of an outstanding mechanism that no outsider to the family knew much about.

  It was obvious that these mechanisms were hidden beneath stone and wooden sheds close to the rivers outside Riluo City. They were currently constructing over seven different buildings all at once.

  The Deng family also sent out a message conveying that they would buy all the land available at a river with a strong current and that they would reward the sellers handsomely.

  The first of these buildings were finished half a year after they started the construction, and the winter was now retreating. The snow was melting but the cold winds and short days still had precedence in the season.

  The news about the Deng family gaining these blueprints from Li Fen, the esteemed expert, had caused the Deng family to have the upper hand within Riluo City, and currently they were the strongest family, not counting the Rong family.

  During this half year Hui Yue had fought a brave battle against his cultivation and had reached the peak level of the ninth-star Student rank, however, he felt as if something was missing for him to be able to make a further breakthrough.

  At least Hui Yue was in no hurry as he walked around the academy grounds. He was satisfied with his current cultivation and as he was now, there was no longer any use for his medicinal pills so he had gifted them to the Rong twins as a token of gratitude.

  At first the two of them had refused to accept the pills, only conceding when Hui Yue said that he had bought them for money he had gained from the Black Market Auction House and that he would feel much better if they would accept his gratitude.

  Having said that much, the Rong twins could no longer decline and took the pills, happiness evident upon their faces as they quickly excused themselves, heading straight to their individual courtyards.

  During this past half year the relationship between Deng Wu and Hui Yue had grown increasingly friendly. The two of them shared a big secret which they would never be able to tell anyone else about, and at the same time they also wished to find a way to use these esteemed experts’ knowledges in the best way.

  Qing had given Hui Yue a list of certain plants he should eat at specific times every day and they would help him in increasing the amount of essence he could gather at a time, in turn increasing the amount of Qi that he could refine at any given time.

  Hui Yue i
n turn informed Qing how Lan Feng had broken the seal, but unfortunately stabbing someone’s heart was not a very useful attempt for Qing.

  Firstly, if he were to stab someone in the heart, the two of them would die. Unlike Lan Feng, Qing had not gathered up all his energy within the past four thousand years, instead he had been sharing it with Deng Wu in allowing him to advance by leaps and bounds.

  Secondly, even if little dragon had been capable of stabbing someone in the heart and successfully create a reincarnation, they would once again be at least ten years behind.

  Hui Yue knew that little dragon currently was mainly used as a talisman which could disguise Deng Wu’s true cultivation and at the same time see through all disguises and provide good advice. However, Qing could not transfer any of his martial art skills, and eventually Hui Yue gifted one to Deng Wu.

  The skill Hui Yue gifted to Deng Wu was as highly ranked as the ones he himself used. It was a skill known as Dancing Qi Pillar and it’s as a High Duke Ranked Martial Art Attack Skill.

  This skill solidified Qi into a pillar of light which would move around based on the owner’s will and intentions. Those who got struck by the pillar would suffer tremendous damage. Although Hui Yue liked the name and the skill, he was aware that his Transforming Weapons was far superior in strength and he could not spend time on learning all these skills just yet.

  For those around Hui Yue and Deng Wu, it was interesting to see how the two of them interacted; no one felt as if it was their place to comment on it and instead they enjoyed how Deng Wu had calmed down and became an almost normal youngster.

  Hui Yue was sitting inside the classroom, looking outside at the frozen ground and wondered how long it would take before summer returned. He had long since decided to quit searching for more information about the Great Sin and the Dark Age as nothing seemed to be available to him and instead he prioritized growing stronger.

  Everyone within the academy kept telling him that one day he would get to know about the Dark Age. One day when he was old enough. So for now, gathering strength was what mattered.

  In the other end of the classroom was Wang Ju Long, present like always, however, this day he was not meditating as he usually did, instead he was staring at teacher Li Yuan with great interest.

  “Students,” he said with a tired voice and shocked expression as he noticed that both of his star students were actually paying attention to him this day. “As you most likely know already, the Riluo City’s Royal Academy tournament is going to take place next month. I need to sign you up for this. Everyone is required to attend, and everyone will gain a price.”

  Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long looked at each other, both pairs of eyes were filled with a stubbornness and an urge to fight, which caused their teacher to sigh deeply.

  Hui Yue rushed down and signed up on the papers teacher Li Yuan had brought, and Wang Ju Long followed right behind before doing the same.

  After signing up, the teacher ended the lesson and gave the youngsters a paper with the general information about the tournament.

  The tournament had eight groups of a thousand in each group. The groups were split up into which year they were from. The fights were then split into lower brackets and it was an instant knock out tournament.

  Eventually, after winning in one of the eight groups, they would fight another group before they would qualify to the semi-finals and from there to the final itself.

  The prizes were extravagant. Everyone were to get at least a medicinal pill; however, what really interested Hui Yue was the prices given to the top eight.

  First prize was a set of leather armour inscribed with lower ranked spiritual inscriptions. These inscriptions were capable of deflecting the majority of attacks from foes of equal strength or below.

  The second prize was twenty Qi Congregating Pills which would make any cultivator salivate just by thinking about it.

  The third prize was a set of leather gloves which had been inscribed with a specific attack inscription, allowing a single fireball to be shot out every half hour.

  The rest of the top eight were to get ten Qi Congregating Pills each.

  Another prize, which did not matter much to Hui Yue, was that the top two in each of the eight groups were allowed to move into one of the courtyards located at the various mountain tops, and those courtyards were enough to make most of the commoner students gasp in surprise.

  This was the Riluo City’s Royal Academy Tournament, thus it was held for an audience consisting of the entire Riluo City, however, compared to the Royal Academy Tournament which took place three months from now in the capital, this was nothing but a small gathering.

  Hui Yue was excited as he left the classroom. It was finally time to try and put all his effort into practice. He rushed back, although he was not rushing back to his own courtyard, but instead rushing towards Deng Wu’s. It was time to show Wang Ju Long who was the strongest of the two of them.

  Hui Yue was currently standing within Deng Wu’s courtyard. His clothes were sticking to his body as sweat was dripping down his back and his face. The last three hours had been used for sparring against Deng Wu and Hui Yue finally allowed a smile to appear on his face.

  “You are a monster,” Deng Wu said, shocked as he looked at all the damage which had been done to his home. “Young master Wang is definitely in for a surprise, however, you forget that I am also participating in the tournament and so far you can’t beat me.”

  A smile adorned Deng Wu’s face, however, it quickly disappeared when he noticed the smug grin which Hui Yue was displaying.

  “That’s true, but are you likely to allow your true cultivation base to be shown?” he asked mischievously, “I doubt you will actually manage to get through to top eight unless you unleash at least some of it.”

  Deng Wu remembered that it was indeed true that no one else knew about his strength and an average talent was not supposed to suddenly jump this much in his cultivation base.

  “Right,” he sighed dejectedly. “You better win this thing for me then. I will look forward to see how you do.”

  The smile upon Hui Yue’s face widened and he gave a thumbs up before he rushed out of the courtyard, running towards his own home.

  Returning home to his own courtyard, a smile was still evident on Hui Yue’s face as he swirled his hands and two knives appeared. These knives were white as the finest jade and crackling with pure energy. The knives were both as long as Hui Yue’s forearms and the handles were fit perfectly to Hui Yue’s hands.

  Hui Yue knew that Transforming Weapons without a doubt was the most challenging of all the skills he had practiced so far, and after more than half a year of training he had only managed to perfect one type of weapon out of the numerous to choose between.

  Back when Hui Yue started practicing, he had realised that his skill at handling knives was as terrible as if it had the first time he tried wielding it. Back then, shock had filled the young man as he had assumed that he could easily wield weapons as he had practiced it for multiple years in his old world. However, even if he had been using it back then, it was still almost eleven years since his reincarnation and within these last eleven years, Hui Yue had only focused on cultivating and learning specific Martial Art Skills.

  As soon as Hui Yue noticed that his cultivation was improved on the expense of no longer being able to remember how to properly move according to his former world’s instructor’s teachings, he instantly decided to once again skip the lessons given by teacher Li Yuan and instead use those additional hours a day to focus on his wushu training, starting at the basic level.

  Although Hui Yue’s reincarnated body had never experienced this kind of training before, he quickly managed to get past the basics as he had previous experience by soul. Currently, although he was far from his previous abilities, he was still not one who could easily be defeated.

  Hui Yue’s smile grew as he looked at the two knives in his hands and he swirled them around, playing with them before he m
oved towards a newly acquired target dummy.

  Playing with knives and practicing the body was one thing not usually emphasized within the academy as the majority of cultivators focused solely on their martial art skills to deal with both offence and defence, however, Hui Yue had decided to combine his martial art skills together with his previous knowledge. This way Hui Yue no longer relied solely on the skills but managed to improve them, merge them, with his own body’s movement.

  As Hui Yue started practicing this new type of fighting, he had trained only within his courtyard so that his fighting style did not get revealed before the tournament. The tournament was time for redemption, the tournament was the time to show that Hui Yue was not just equal to Wang Ju Long.

  He was more than just the white-haired genius. He was a silver monster.