Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (17 page)

Hui Yue nodded. It meant that their family history was at least four thousand years old, it was indeed quite a history for any noble family, and he imprinted the name Wang in his heart, ensuring that he needed much more caution whenever he was going to deal with those people.

The meal was quickly eaten while Rong Ming was busy telling Hui Yue about some of his friends at the Royal Academy.

Hui Yue had worn some of his usual clothes today, and although it was worn out, it was incredibly comfortable, however a maid quickly brought his new white set of clothes to him. It had been cleaned during the night, and the Rong twins both wanted him to wear the white clothes. They wanted to show off their friend’s beauty.

With a sigh, Hui Yue followed their suggestions and quickly changed into his most beautiful piece of clothing. Hopefully they could convince the notorious Elder Wang that Hui Yue was a person fit to study at the Royal Academy.

Outside the City Lord’s Mansion was a carriage waiting for them. It was being pulled by four Kirins. They were related to Qilins, however they were much more elegant. Where the Qilin was like a horse and dragon mixed together, the Kirin was more a deer mixed with a dragon. It was gracious and elegant while the lean muscles were bulging underneath the scaled skin.

“The Royal Academy is located on a mountain range behind the city,” Rong Xing explained, “It is not too far away, but we are expected to ride a carriage when we travel from the City to the Academy.”

The travel through Riluo City was much like the previous day where Hui Yue did not have the time to see anything in detail, but he comforted himself with the fact that he had no money to entertain himself with. Cities were only fun for the rich people.

The travel to the Royal Academy really did not take long. As soon as the carriage exited the city walls they gained in speed and almost flew towards a distant mountain. With the Kirins pulling the carriage it only took them half an hour to reach the destination.

The carriage stopped right at the foot of the mountain where large fields were filled with young children and their entourages. Some of the children had come in groups and looked poor, which caused Hui Yue to assume that they were the commoners that Elder Wang was supposed to dislike, while other children were bringing a wide array of experts and servants with them to the examination.

There were seven elderly figures apart from these children and their entourages, and they were positioned in a straight line in front of the mountain entrance. There was exactly three metres between each of the elders, and in front of them were a small table.

On the table was a book, a pen and a white stone slab. In front of the elders were a queue of around ten children. One child at a time went towards the elder and stated their name and age, then the elder ordered them to lay their hand upon the stone slab, before they themselves inserted some of their qi to activate the slab, making it write down the child’s real age and cultivation rank.

Hui Yue furrowed his brows slightly, as the highest ranked of those Elders was a four-star duke, where the others were nine star Grand Masters. None of these elders would be capable of detecting Lan Feng.

‘Their skilled experts must be hiding within the academy,’ Lan Feng said with slight relief visible in the voice.

“Oh no,” whispered Rong Ming next to Hui Yue, who had been busy worrying about being noticed, “Elder Wang is here. Let’s go queue up over here,” he continued and grabbed Hui Yue’s arm while dragging him towards one of the elders all the way to the side.

Hui Yue was confused. Elder Wang was supposed to have a high standing within this academy, however none of the experts here were any real threat to Hui Yue and Lan Feng. Suddenly a thought hit Hui Yue, and he narrowed his eyes slightly while asking, “What rank are the teachers

at the academy?”

“Hmm, most of them are Grand Masters. A few are Masters and we have a couple of Duke ranked experts,” Rong Xing answered after thinking for a bit. Hui Yue felt relief washing over him, as he had realised why. This was after all only the outer disciples. The students here all depended on the lower dantian to train, while the students who had already opened the middle dantian would be moved to the main Royal Academy within the Capital City.

It made perfect sense that any instructor or teacher with a higher cultivation would teach the higher ranked students. For now, it did not seem as if Lan Feng and Hui Yue would have any problems while moving around at the academy.

Hui Yue was in a great mood when he stood in the queue, waiting for his turn to be tested. The Rong twins were standing next to him, and although they were already students and allowed to enter the Royal Academy already, they would not go before Hui Yue had been accepted.

The two children of the City Lord who stood next to the unknown beautiful kid did cause quite a

commotion and many noble families started guessing as to what the heritage of this unknown child could be.

Neither Hui Yue, nor the twins had any interest in the gossip that was going around, as all three knew that his origin was to be kept a secret, and as soon as it was their turn, Hui Yue strode towards the elder with a calm radiating from within that was unlikely anyone his age.

“What is your name?” the elder asked with a friendly voice. This child was after all being guided by two students of high profile.

“Hui Yue,” was the clear answer,

“Place your hand on the stone slab,” the elder ordered, and Hui Yue did as he was told. A second later, the elder placed a finger on the same stone slab and allowed some of his qi to pull out a bit of Hui Yue’s qi from within his body. Suddenly letters appeared on the surface and Hui Yue removed his hand.

“five-star student rank. Boy age ten.” The elder said with a mumbling voice while recording the result within the book on the table. He opened a bag and pulled out an emblem. The emblem was small and shaped as a pentagon. Printed on the emblem was five flower petals that surrounded a sun in the middle.

“Here you go,” the elder said while handing the emblem to the child in front of him, “Keep this for the years you study at our academy. Make sure to keep it safe.” With a wave of his hand, the elder moved his attention towards the next child in line for the admission test and Hui Yue quickly moved forward, following the Rong twins towards the entrance leading up the mountain.

The entrance was simple. The three children moved through a stone pavilion, and Hui Yue noticed how his student emblem started shining as soon as he entered, but nothing else happened, and as soon as they had walked through, the weird shine had vanished.

“It is a key,” Rong Xing explained, “only the ones who has an emblem that belongs to the Royal

Academy can enter the Academy grounds.” The Rong twins found their own emblems, both looked identical to Hui Yue’s.

“A golden one shows that you are an inner disciple from the Royal Academy in the capital. The teachers and instructors all have white symbols,” Rong Xing continued to explain.

“This is the worst part of the academy,” Rong Ming said with a sigh, while looking in front of him, and Hui Yue moved his gaze towards the front, only to see endless stone steps leading towards the mountain top.

The three children smiled to each other before they slowly started moving up, one step at a time. It has to be said that they were all cultivators so it required quite a bit for those three children to be tired, but Rong Ming was often bored, and he had had enough after half an hour of climbing the stairs.

“We got a lot of friends at the academy, and I am sure that they will like you too,” he started while looking disapproving at the many steps in front of him. “Quite a few of them are commoners, but your family background does not matter if you are strong, that is what father always taught us.”

“I usually hang around with Gao Yan, Ma Kong and Deng Wu.” He continued while the three climbed one step after another, “Gao Yan’s family is really poor, but his talent is as good as mine and Xing Er’s. Dad asked us to look after him at the start, and he is a really good guy. Most of the commoners at the academy look up to him. Ma Kong is from the Ma family, they are nobles, but they gained nobility quite recently so most of the other nobles looks down upon them, and then Deng Wu. He is a weirdo. The Deng Family is one of the Great Hundred Names, but Deng Wu is such a skirt chaser. He followed us from the start because he fell for Xing,”

After getting a quick explanation of the different friends’ family backgrounds they had arrived at the top of the stair and Hui Yue sucked in a deep breath.

This was supposed to be a mountain top, but instead it was a city buzzling with youngsters everywhere. Every mountain top had been connected with long bridges and there were flying magical beasts hovering around, waiting for their masters.

Four of the mountain tops were filled with small houses, counting at least a thousand on each, which Rong Xing explained to be dormitories. Each student had their own room. There was also a canteen placed on each mountain top that would offer food three times a day free of charge.

These four mountain tops were all to the left from the staircase while the right side was filled with tall buildings. Each building had different nameplates pasted upon. One said ‘Martial Art Skill Hall’, while another said ‘Qi theory lessons’, yet another said ‘Cultivation methods’.

Several mountain tops had been completely flattened and changed into training grounds and yet again others were changed into fighting arenas.

Right in front of Hui Yue was a big pagoda which was the Royal Academy main building. It housed the most important martial art skills and all the instructors and teachers lived within.

Everywhere Hui Yue looked he saw students. Some were young and scared, while moving around in groups, while others were older and much more comfortable while traveling with a certain feel of belonging.

This was the new place for Hui Yue to live, and he could feel joy bubbling inside. A whole new world was waiting for him, just waiting to be explored.

“Rong Ming!” a voice called from the side, and Hui Yue turned around to see a youngster rushing towards them.

Chapter 9 – Courtyard 1009

Hui Yue narrowed his eyes as he observed the young man who was running towards them, yelling Rong Ming’s name, however his tense muscles quickly softened as he noticed the biggest smile he had ever seen was plastered upon the youth’s face. It was obvious that there was no hostility between the two.

“Hey Gao Yan,” Rong Ming said happily as the shouting youngster reached them, and Hui Yue used the opportunity to hide slightly behind Rong Xing, observing the boy. According to the information given earlier, Gao Yan was as talented as Rong Ming and Rong Xing, however he was born from an incredibly poor family, and the only reason his talent had been discovered was due to one of the Martial Art Schools that Lord Rong Liang had opened all over Riluo City.

At first Gao Yan had only seen Rong Ming, as the two of them were good friends, but he quickly noticed the white-haired boy hiding behind Rong Xing. Gao Yan opened his mouth, and was about to say something, when he was interrupted by a dramatic voice,

“He is a boy, you commoner,” it said, and although the voice was slightly arrogant, the way he said commoner was more caring that unfavourable.

Hui Yue looked at the newcomer and noticed that this was indeed a beautiful young man. He was the same age as the others, but he seemed slightly more mature. He was the tallest of the group, and his body was lean with strong muscles playing underneath the white skin.

His long hair was black as charcoal and his eyes were like two beautiful obsidian gemstones. Within those eyes were small stars of happiness dancing around, mischievously observing the world around him with a certain arrogance. His body was clothed in simple black clothes, but although the robe was simple, it was obviously of the best quality. This man was a young master.

The young master slowly strode towards the group and handed a flower to Rong Xing, before he fell onto one knee “Oh Lady of my heart, the long summer has left me thirsting for the sight of you, as a poor man thirsts for water within the scorching desert. The only thing that kept me going was my hope of seeing your beautiful face which grants me the energy to keep living my lowly life as a slave of your heart.”