Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (19 page)

‘This is good,’ Fan Leng’s voice sounded within Hui Yue’s heart, ‘you definitely need some combat training, but you are too weak to take on magical beasts. Playing with the student-ranked cultivators should be great help. It might even help speed up your cultivation.’

The five young people quickly brought Hui Yue towards his new home, and on the way Gao Yan was busy telling Hui Yue about all the duels he had won in the arena, including explaining each and every one of his martial art skills.

The bridges were all well build and around ten metres wide. Students were constantly moving to and from the residential area, and it was obvious that this place was the home for thousands of people.

They quickly passed the first mountain, and although it looked enormous, Hui Yue could not understand just how big those mountains were before they entered the second mountain where he was supposed to live for the next many years.

Roads where carved into the mountain side, and one courtyard after another was placed next to the road with tall walls, allowing the students some privacy. Each courtyard had a small garden to allow the students to cultivate outside without having to be disturbed by others.

The road continued on and on, and as Hui Yue moved further up the mountain he felt just how thick the essence energies were around his body. Finally, they were almost at the top, and Hui Yue felt how the essence energy was entering his body by itself and was starting to rush through his meridians, being refined by impulse. At first he was worried whether or not the quality was sufficient, but he quickly relaxed as he noticed the controlling qi within his qi cave had taken over and kept refining the essence until it had the same pearly lustre as the qi personally refined by Hui Yue.

‘Oh my,’ Lan Feng’s voice sounded pleasant as they reached the mountain top, ‘It seems like you have your first challenger.’

Right in front of them was Wang Jingshen and the same group of people he had been with earlier. They were standing outside of the small courtyard that was numbered 1009, and a sly grin was plastered upon their faces.

“This is my younger brother Wang Ju Long.” Wang Jingshen introduced while moving to the side, allowing a young boy to be visible behind him. He looked like a miniature version of Wang Jingshen, but his eyes were even more arrogant than his older brother, “He is a new student just as you yourself. He is one of the greatest geniuses in our family, and he was excited when he noticed that he would get a neighbour on this mountain top, so why don’t the two of you exchange pointers?” Wang Jingshen asked with a malicious grin spreading on his face, causing all his followers to grin like monkeys.

‘He is an eight-star student ranked expert,’ Lan Feng said calmly within Hui Yue’s heart, ‘You should definitely fight him. You need some practice. The worst that can happen is that he beats you, but don’t worry, I will make sure that you won’t get crippled.’

Hui Yue could not help but snort at the friendly help that Lan Feng offered him, however he was not a person who enjoyed bullying, and he would have accepted the challenge either way to prove this to the Wang family. At the same time, he was incredibly curious about just how well his Velocity Flow skill was working together with his current understanding of the Qi Guard.

A big smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he walked forward, offering his hand to Wang Ju Long as a greeting. The appearance of Hui Yue could convince anyone that he was as pure and kind as a fairy.

“Young Lord Wang, it would be my greatest honour to exchange pointers with you,” he said with glistening eyes and sugar-coated words.

Chapter 10 – Qi lightning

Hui Yue had followed his seniors towards the arena area that he had seen when he first entered the Academy grounds. The area was idyllic and fairly remote. There were five different arenas placed on this mountain top that was the furthest away from the Academy Office Building.

Currently there were no other students present than the two groups who had come here, but according to Gao Yan, it would be one of the most frequented places as students would come here to solve grudges or train for the tournament.

There were four mountain tops dedicated to the arenas, and the first two of the mountain tops were surrounded by seats, clearly those were for promoted matches, however these last two mountains each had smaller arenas that the students were able to use as they saw fit.

Wang Jingshen was looking at Hui Yue with a slightly apprehensive look as he noticed that the younger kid instantly accepted the challenge, but he quickly calmed himself as he was certain that the child had misunderstood what an exchange of pointers actually implied.

He had later heard that Hui Yue was a child of unknown origin and that he was personally being

looked after by the Rong Twins, so it was likely that he was some spoiled young child who had been treated gently all through his life. However, no matter what background the child had, it was nothing compared to his Great Hundred Names family, so he was thrilled when his younger brother had agreed to the challenge, and to show Hui Yue just who was superior.

“You need to be careful,” Rong Xing warned with a worried face, “Wang Ju Long is known as a great talent within the Wang family, and he is already at the eight-star student rank. Losing to him will not be a disgrace.”

“Wang Ju Long already lives at the top of the mountain like you, so he doesn’t gain anything from winning. More importantly, make sure to give up before he seriously injures you” Ma Kong said from the side, while giving Hui Yue a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“I am going to fucking kill Wang Jingshen,” Gao Yan growled while shooting one fierce glare after another towards the other group of people,

“He is a cunt. It was his own fault for not seeing that Hui Yue is a guy, making a challenge like this is pointless. I will definitely make sure to pay him back,” Rong Ming agreed with rage burning within his chest. He understood how embarrassing it was to mistake the gender more than anyone else, but to react this way was despicable.

“Don’t worry,” Gao Yan said while placing a hand on Hui Yue’s other shoulder, “we will make sure that Wang Jingshen and his followers pays dearly for this.”

The only one who stayed quiet was Deng Wu. He was standing to the side with a slight smile curling on his lips and his black eyes dancing playfully while observing Hui Yue. When the black eyes and the blue eyes locked together, Hui Yue felt a shiver go through his body as he feared that the older boy could see right through him and had noticed Lan Feng, but he was aware that it was impossible as his cultivation had not even reached the middle dantian.

Still, something about Deng Wu made Hui Yue alert and worried, and he knew that Deng Wu was aware of this, and that it entertained him.

‘We can’t worry too much about him right now,’ Lan Feng warned, ‘you will need your entire focus on the opponent in front of you, but we will look into this Deng Wu and the rest of the City situation later on.’

Hui Yue forced his eyes to leave Deng Wu and he slowly moved towards the middle of the arena in front of him. Wang Ju Long had moved there already and was waiting for Hui Yue to arrive.

Both the two children had changed their clothes before they started engaging in the spar, as their long robes were incredibly beautiful, but also quite unpractical while the body needed to move around. Both were now wearing tunics and pants. The tunics were fitted on the upper bodies, allowing the wearer comfort while moving around or striking out. The pants were fitted around the small waists and provided a certain amount of protection with the thick fabric. They were slightly baggy, and ended around the middle of the thighs where they were bound to the legs, to ensure that the feet would never get disturbed by the clothing while fighting.

Although the style of clothes was the exact same, the quality was as far away as heaven and earth. Wang Ju Long was wearing clothes created from the finest silken material that was smooth and clearly incredibly comfortable, while Hui Yue was wearing clothes that had obviously been worn for a very long time. The clothes were comfortable, but they had gotten so through multiple years of wear unlike the others, and they were created from a hemp-like plant material.

Hui Yue’s clothes had caused the Wang group to snort with disdain and laugh at him while constantly yelling one insult after another as they would to the commoner students. The clothes had not surprised Rong Ming nor Rong Xing as both of them knew about Hui Yue’s background, but Ma Kong could not help but being slightly surprised as he still knew nothing. Gao Yan suddenly felt even more kinship towards this young boy and swore within his heart that he would get revenge later on.

Deng Wu had had no reaction once again, but the lack of reaction had just caused Hui Yue more worry.

The two boys stood in front of each other in the middle of the field, while waiting to hear who was decided to be the judge. Wang Ju Long was sneering as he looked at Hui Yue and his aloof expression.

Wang Ju Long was supposed to be the only genius this year who was entitled to get a top mountain courtyard. He had grown up knowing that he was supposed to be the only child within his family who could compete against the Rong twins when it came to innate talent, and his entry into the Royal Academy should have been grand.

However, when he arrived today, things were nothing like he had expected. None of the other noble families had paid him much attention as they were curious about the origin of this beautiful young child that was being escorted by the City Lord’s children.

He had entered the Academy much quicker than Hui Yue had, and rushed up the stairs to get his top mountain courtyard and let the other students understand just how important he was, and there was quite some satisfaction as he was sitting within his courtyard and started to cultivate.

Unfortunately, his cultivation had been interrupted by his older brother who had arrived with his usual group of dim-witted thugs, complaining to Wang Ju Long about a new student who was too outrageous. Wang Jingshen would definitely have challenged him if they had been within the same rank, however only student ranked could challenge other student ranked cultivators, unless it was the weaker student that challenged the stronger.

At first Wang Ju Long had absolutely no interest in getting revenge for his brother, however after hearing that it was a certain white-haired boy he agreed to help.

As Wang Ju Long was about to leave with the others, he noticed that a courtyard close by suddenly lit up with a sharp light, the light that explained that the courtyard had found his owner, and Wang Ju Long almost vomited blood when he saw the name Hui Yue was written on the nameplate.

Wang Ju Long was a proud child who had grown up while being told that he was the future of his family. It was obvious that he could not stand the person in front of him who had taken away some of his well-deserved attention and the only way to satisfy his raging hate was to utterly defeat this trash and let the world know which one of the two was the superior cultivator.  

While Wang Ju Long was thinking these malicious thoughts, Hui Yue was standing in front of him with a face as calm as a forest lake and a gentle smile upon his lips, but at a closer inspection it was clear that the smile did not reach the blue eyes that contained a coldness unsuitable for a child at the age of ten.

‘You are on your own,’ Lan Feng warned slightly, ‘I won’t help you unless it seems like he will seriously injure you or cripple your cultivation. You need to learn for yourself.’ With that, Lan Feng slowly drifted down into the qi cave where he focused his attention towards the fight that was about to break out.

Hui Yue let out a slight breath and felt grateful towards Lan Feng. It had been far too long since he last tried fighting, but he was fairly confident whenever he thought about the martial art skills that he had spent the last years practicing to perfection.

“The rules are simple,” Deng Wu said, as he took the job as a judge. He was one of the Great Hundred Names, and although he might be slightly bias towards Hui Yue, he was definitely less bias than Wang Jingshen.

“You are not allowed to kill your opponent. This is an exchange of pointers, and injuries are to be expected, however if you are too overbearing then I will personally ensure that the Academy Chief knows of it.”

Having said that, he nodded to the two youngsters before moving to the edge of the arena. The edge where Rong Xing was standing, and he was obviously looking to be praised for being serious. Hui Yue had narrowed his eyes and was observing the black-haired young man as he felt Deng Wu was a bigger threat than Wang Ju Long.