Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  'Mhm. We are brothers already. To be able to protect each other's back is what we should do! Fighting side by side for what we believe in is also what we should do. I cannot do it now, but that does not mean that I cannot do it in the future.'

  Lan Feng and Hui Yue both turned silent as they looked into the distance. Moments like these were rare. Hui Yue was seated on the top of the mountain belonging to his father, his entire body feeling incredibly tranquil as he sensed the world around him.

  Suddenly the dao of the breeze appeared for Hui Yue’s inner eye, forcing its way into his mind. The breeze that he felt around him was gentle yet powerful. It was slow yet unstoppable. Hui Yue suddenly seemed to gain understanding into this dao, and although he was not planning on comprehending any dao, he fully submerged himself in the feeling.

  For two days, Hui Yue did not move as he gained an initial mastery into the dao, but after two days went by he slowly awoke from his trance-like state.

  Lan Feng did not need to ask how it went; he already knew that Hui Yue had gained a shallow understanding of the dao, but he was far from having fully comprehended it.

  Still, Hui Yue was not willing to focus on charging after this dao. He followed the plan from before and went to the Mission Tower to pick up another arena mission before going to challenge another Immortal of Creation and get his hands on more contribution points.

  After the first arena challenge, Hui Yue had not had any difficulties overwhelming his opponent by using his formations and supplementing his attacks with his daos. During his subsequent fights, he used all his strength each time to overpower his opponents, but he had to admit that his opponents often let him win without struggling too much because they feared what might happen to them if they didn’t.

  Having gotten his contribution points, Hui Yue headed straight for the meditation room where he went to practice more formations. By now he could control an astonishing fifty-seven seals!

  Anyone who had studied formations was aware of how hard it was to compress soulforce into seals. The more seals one had, the more difficult it was to compress them. To be considered a Formation Master one needed to be able to control a thousand seals, but when one controlled a hundred seals, then one would be regarded as an accomplished formation expert. Hui Yue's aim was to form a hundred seals in less than half a year, something that would make any who had ever studied formations cough up blood if they heard his goal.

  While most people were unaware of his rapid advancement, the clerk, and elder of the Formation Palace, was aware of just how fast he was advancing. Hui Yue had often come to buy formations, and thus the elder knew his current strength.

  In the beginning, he did not believe it, but now he was fully convinced and deeply shocked. He too was waiting to see if Hui Yue could produce a miracle or if he would hit a bottleneck.

  Chapter 614 - Formation Master Debate

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  Chapter 614: Formation Master Debate

  "What do you mean, you want my son?" Pei Tian asked suspiciously as he looked at this young-looking elder from the Formation Palace. Although he was currently smoldering with rage, he held himself back.

  "I understand that I do not have the qualifications to take him as my disciple, his talent is far above my own, but for a time, I can give him some helpful advice. The only thing I request in return is that he helps us out during the next Formation Master's debate."

  The young-looking man was as stubborn as Pei Tian, and his eyes were unyielding as he looked at the ancestor in front of him.

  "I will be going to the next Formation Master's debate, but I need to bring a younger generation member as well who can display the talent of our newer generations."

  "In total, we have three experts who can be considered decently skilled at the formation arts. All of them can now form around one hundred seals which is not considered fast nor slow."

  "However, your son managed to refine over fifty seals in a few weeks! He is capable of reaching a stage much higher than any of the other youths!"

  "We are up against the Nightcrawler Sect as usual, and they have a very talented disciple. And it is not just him, but the one we need to guard against the most is a young man from the Heavenly Dragon Gate."

  "Although they are not ranked amongst the top sects, their younger generation is very strong! They have many talented individuals, especially this youngster. He is quite troublesome to deal with."

  "If we want to beat him, we need someone who is incredibly talented, and the only one who can do this is Pei Yue. Think of the glory he will bring to our Celestial Sword Sect!" the elder continued to talk as he tried to convince the ancestor time and time again, and finally, Pei Tian could not help but sigh.

  "For the glory of the sect, is it?" he asked as he understood that he had no room to deny his request when it was put in such a manner. Even though he knew this, he still felt uncomfortable making his son waste his youth to study formations. Although Formation Masters were looked at with reverence and they were fairly strong, they often needed a team to be able to display their strength.

  Pei Tian wished for Hui Yue to be the strongest expert in the entire Celestial Sword Sect. To participate in a mere Formation Master debate would be a waste of time, but Pei Tian wished for the sect to retain its glory. As such, sending Hui Yue did sound like the best option.

  "I will send him to you when he comes back from the meditation rooms. Knowing him, it should be another two days before he is finished."

  Pei Tian had paid attention to his son's schedule and knew that he would spend five days in the meditation rooms every week. Even the young-looking elder was familiar with the young man's schedule as the two had casually spoken together whenever Hui Yue went to get his hands on new formations.

  While the young-looking elder was aware of Hui Yue's talent, Hui Yue still thought that this elder was nothing more than a knowledgeable clerk. He had not learned that he was an elder yet, and the elder had childish excitement in his heart; he could not wait to see the expression on Hui Yue's face when he realized who he was.

  While Pei Tian and the elder were speaking with each other, Hui Yue was busy learning how to control and create formations. He was now spending roughly one day to learn a new formation, and when he had learned it, it was impossible for him ever to forget. Because of this, Hui Yue now knew quite a lot of beginner formations. Everything which required less than a hundred seals was considered a beginner formation, although the simplest were the ones requiring ten seals.

  Hui Yue knew that the use of these beginner formations was very simple and crude; they were not the best to use during a fight. He also understood that they were incredibly easy to use. The more seals he could command, the easier it was to deal with low-leveled formations and the less time he needed to cast them. An attack like the Blazing Tiger was already an amazing attack when merged with the dao of flame, dao of ignition, and dao of inferno.

  Hui Yue understood that these basic formations were simple, but they would explode with their full potential if he could merge them with his daos. Unfortunately, he did not have many daos that suited the formations he was practicing.

  Another reason that he continued to focus on formations was because he knew that the more formations he had mastered, the easier it was to overwhelm an enemy. There was no limit to how many formations an expert could have active at one time, the only thing which decided this was how many seals one could control mentally. Being able to mix and match between thousands of formations would be ideal.

  For now, Hui Yue was far from this, but it was his goal. Even if the formations he could use were crude and small, if he formed five attack formations at once, then even Immortals of Creation would be troubled to deal with them.

  'You are doing good, just keep pushing forward!' Lan Feng praised, and Hui Yue nodded his head. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and clenched his hand before he once more summoned his seals and arranged them into three formations at the same time.

  Cas
ting three formations at once was already Hui Yue's limit, and these three only required him to use thirty seals, but it took a huge strain on his mind to control all three at once.

  Creating one formation after another was not difficult, having them made back to back was possible, and Hui Yue could easily control five formations at the same time if he did it like that, however, when it came to creating these formations he needed a lot of energy to be able to make them.

  As he created the three formations at once and saw that they were successful, a smile appeared on Hui Yue's lips. "Not bad," he praised himself as a sigh of relieved came from his lips and he dropped to the floor from exhaustion.

  "Okay, my results today were good. I am now able to create three formations at the same time, and I have successfully managed to create a fifty seal formation."

  Hui Yue did not know if he was speaking to himself or Lan Feng. Both knew what he had achieved today, but at the same time, he felt like he had to speak out loud to acknowledge his achievement.

  "I only have two more formations to learn, then I need to return to the Formation Palace to get my hands on more," Hui Yue said, this time to Lan Feng. "But that is all for the night. Now I will seek the dao til daybreak, and then we will continue with the Gate of the Awakening Dragon."

  The Gate of the Awakening Dragon was a rather famous formation. It was known as the strongest beginner formation of all and had been created by the Heavenly Dragon Gate. It was named after their sect because of its astounding strength.

  Hui Yue said no more and sat down. He closed his eyes and felt the dao of breeze around him. It was gentle like a mother's embrace and as warm as a summer day. Together with this gentleness and softness was also a force that was hard to ignore. The breeze swept across everything, impossible to stop. It was slow but unstoppable.

  By completely comprehending the dao of breeze, Hui Yue would be able to suddenly feel and move anywhere the breeze was. He would be able to gently avoid his opponent's attacks, using the wind from their attacks to steer clear of their weapons.

  The gentle breeze was a dao used for movement, but when merged with the dao of gale, then it would become quite frightening. Although Hui Yue had decided not to focus on the dao for now, he was eager to see just what kind of attack he could create from merging these two daos.

  Just like that, two days went by. Hui Yue managed to fully control the Gate of the Awakening Dragon, and he was astounded to see just how powerful it was. Unfortunately, the element needed for this dragon was water, and Hui Yue had no water daos. Therefore, sadly he could not enhance it, but even without a dao supporting it, it was as strong as the Blazing Tiger that was boosted with three daos!

  Hui Yue also learned another formation, but it was many times weaker than the Gate of the Awakening Dragon, and although Hui Yue had learned it, he was questioning if he would ever actually use it.

  "That was it for this time," Hui Yue said as he stood up. His clothes were quickly replaced as he changed from a set of tattered rags to a set of beautiful robes. His hair was suddenly tidy and tied up, and his skin was no longer dirty from the explosions of his many failed seals.

  As he left the room, he contemplated where to go first. Should he return to his father's place and then enter the Divine Beast World and give pointers to his younger brother, Jo, and Lao, or should he go to the Formation Palace first and get his hands on a few new formations.

  After thinking about it for a moment, he found that the decision was not hard to make. His family and friends were much more important to him, and thus the decision was easy.

  "Little Yue, I need to speak with you," someone suddenly said, and Hui Yue stopped in his tracks as he entered the mountain. It was clear that Pei Tian had waited for him to return, and Hui Yue felt his heart quiver. Had he done something wrong?

  "Don't worry," Pei Tian laughed slowly as he saw the worried expression on Hui Yue's face. "I had a talk with Elder Pei Bai," he said, and Hui Yue who had never heard about Elder Pei Bai before, listened intently as he remembered the name.

  "Elder Pei Bai is in charge of the Formation Palace, he knows quite a bit about you and seems to be astounded by your talent in formations."

  "In half a year’s time there is a gathering for Formation Masters from all across the galaxy known as the Formation Master debate."

  "During this debate, there will be different groups competing. One such group is the younger generation another is for Formation Masters."

  "Pei Bai would like to have you participate in this debate. There will be two who attend every time, and he wants it to be you and him. He has placed great expectations on you," Pei Tian was rather sour when he said this. Although he was proud of his son's unexpected talents, he still felt that he was not ready for this. That the pressure would be more of a punishment than a benefit to Hui Yue.

  Hui Yue paused for a moment, very uncertain what he should do. He had never even heard about this Formation Master debate before, so it was rather shocking to be introduced to it in such a way.

  "Uh, thank you," Hui Yue said while contemplating, not sure how to answer, but Pei Tian lifted his hand. "Listen to me; you don't have to give your answer now. Speak with Pei Bai; he will explain the event, and not just that, he will also explain it in detail for you. I am not very familiar with the Formation Master's debate. I don't know much about it, so you should get the information from him."

  Chapter 615 - Pei Bai

  * * *

  Chapter 615: Pei Bai

  Hui Yue wasted no time and headed straight for the Formation Palace to see Pei Bai.

  "What do you think?" he asked Lan Feng while flying towards the Formation Palace, but the bird was quiet for quite some time. It was not that he was not considering the question, but he was contemplating what they should do.

  'I think it might be beneficial for you,' Lan Feng finally said slowly. 'Currently, you are focused on formations, and thus you need something to pressure you. Having an event like this will be able to help you improve much faster, not to mention you would be getting pointers from a true Formation Master.'

  "That’s true," Hui Yue said. He was used to taking chances that put his life at risk so joining something as seemingly laid back as this debate did not seem dangerous, but the rewards were quite substantial. There was no reason to say no to joining.

  They reached the Formation Palace and entered. Hui Yue was curious about this Pei Bai who knew about him but whom he had never met before.

  "As a matter of fact, I only know the clerk guy who is behind the desk. I have never seen anyone else within this Formation Palace. I wonder if he has seen me before to know so much about me," he mumbled to himself as he walked straight towards the counter.

  "Hello," the man said with a friendly smile and a wave to Hui Yue. The two could have been considered friends by now as they had spoken together quite a few times and the clerk had given Hui Yue a few pointers on how to improve his formations.

  "Hey," Hui Yue smiled back. "I need to speak with some elder named Pei Bai," he said politely to the clerk. "He went to visit my father earlier and said he had to speak with me; I was wondering if you know where or how I might get in touch with him?"

  The clerk smiled mysteriously and nodded his head. "Give me a moment. I will need to close the palace, and then I'll take you to the elder," he chuckled, his strange amusement confusing Hui Yue.

  After closing the door and leaving a closed sign in front, the clerk turned to enter the inner parts of the Formation Palace. "Follow me," he said, and Hui Yue, who had never before been inside of the Formation Palace followed him silently, looking all around curiously.

  They walked through corridors and hallways, rooms and studies. What struck Hui Yue was that although they walked through multiple closed doors, and through rooms that seemed to work as libraries and even training rooms, none of them possessed any living people. The Formation Palace was not small, but there was no sign of life deep within. It was as if the only living being in the
entire palace was this clerk.

  "There are not a lot of Formation Masters within the sect are there?" Hui Yue asked a little sad as he looked around. While the sect was massive with tens of thousands of members, this place was as deserted as a newly created realm.

  "We have a handful of soulforce experts within the sect," the clerk said with a nod. "We have managed to get three experts from the younger generation who possess soulforce; this result is already considered incredibly good. Unfortunately, two of these youngsters are not interested in becoming Formation Masters."

  "The other youngster does not have much talent for formations. His patience is not great, and he is not very good at compressing seals. He has just now managed to complete a hundred seals after two hundred years. This performance is not bad, but it cannot be considered great either."

  "Apart from this youngster, who is talented, we have around seven other experts who have dabbled in the art of formations. Of them, we have three Formation Masters."