Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (22 page)

Not all the students from the Martial Art Schools had high enough cultivation to join the Royal Academy, and those who did not qualify had started working as normal citizens within the city, but even so, they still followed Gao Yan, giving him an incredible information network that was spread everywhere across the city. Some were working as maids within the noble houses, others were working as carpenters or farmers, but one thing was for certain, all the information they gathered went straight to Gao Yan.

Deng Wu was known throughout the Academy as a player who enjoyed to fool around. He was rarely seen as a serious person, but he was liked by pretty much everyone who saw him. Deng Wu was highly valued by the Deng family, which caused Hui Yue to feel that he had even more secrets than what he had first assumed. If Deng Wu had an incredible cultivation then it would make sense as to why the family valued him so highly, however the cultivation he had shown at the Academy was just above average. It was obvious that this cunning personality was someone that Hui Yue could not afford to underestimate.

Rong Ming was considered the centre of this small group of people. He was the next City Lord and he tried his best to live up to this responsibility. He had an incredibly good reputation at the Royal Academy as he would not allow any bullying nor would he approve of the nobles looking down on the commoners, however this had caused some of the nobles to oppose the young lord and resulted in a group of young nobles who would use their powers within the school to go against Rong Ming.

Rong Xing was the practical person. She would keep track of all the information given by Gao Yan and consider which parts were important and which weren’t, she was the reason that Deng Wu had decided to stick with this group rather than the other nobles, and she knew how to utilize all the pawns at her disposal. To Hui Yue, Rong Xing seemed to be the most powerful individual within their group – as long as he did not consider Deng Wu.

The group of noble children who opposed Rong Ming was led by Deng Lau who was a cousin of Deng Wu. Although the two were in opposing groups and that they would clash quite often, Deng Lau never once insulted Deng Wu.

Fortunately enough, Riluo City was considered a quiet city. Although different factions were gathering within, none of them had shown any signs of rebelling against the current City Lord, and even though the children had a few clashes, they were after all just clashes between students at the Royal Academy which was to be expected.

Hui Yue released a deep sigh of relief the last night before the classes were about to start. It had required all his skills in acting to get the information he had needed, but he was finally satisfied with the result. Looking out at the starry night Hui Yue couldn’t help but thinking about how much his life had changed, but this new life was much more exciting than anything he had ever experienced before.

‘Let’s find the location of the medicinal pills tomorrow,’ Lan Feng said with a cheeky grin on his face, ‘we need to start speeding up your cultivation or I won’t get my revenge as my opponent will die from old age.’

Chapter 12 – Infamy

Hui Yue woke up in his new home and allowed himself a few minutes more resting. The bed at this small house was obviously stuffed with feathers, and the softness of the mattress was unlike anything Hui Yue had ever experienced before. The blankets were soft and knitted from the finest yarn, unlike the old sack that was both coarse and kept scratching his skin.

After a few more moments of rest, Hui Yue sighed deeply and forced himself to leave the warmth of his bed. Today was an important day, it was the first day of lessons, and Hui Yue was curious as to whether or not the teachers were better than Lan Feng at explaining, or whether or not the there had been found something new about the art of cultivating. After all, everything that Hui Yue relied on was more than four thousand years old.

Hui Yue quickly washed his face and dressed in yet another set of worn out clothes before he slowly made his way towards the closest canteen. Each mountaintop had a number of canteens located in between of the courtyards so that there was enough space for all students to eat at once. The canteens were always serving the same menus, but since there was more than one canteen, they were never filled with people.

It was early morning and Hui Yue did not expect anyone to be at the canteen already, however he was surprised when he noticed that there was already some groups of students eating their breakfast.

This was the first time that Hui Yue was eating alone as he had usually been picked up early morning by his friends and forced to eat with them, and as soon as the white-haired boy entered the canteen, the groups of students broke out into conversation.

Most of the students were openly staring at Hui Yue, and not hiding the fact that they started a conversation about him. These were commoner students who were excited about starting their first day at the Royal Academy and had been unable to sleep, or students who were used to waking up early due habit from their previous lives, Hui Yue was not the only one who felt as if this was a new beginning.

Hui Yue was used to being stared upon from his previous life, but the eyes which looked at him was no longer lovestruck girls but children who seemed to think he was some kind of a monster.

“I heard he duelled Wang Ju Long because he got mad when he was called girly,” one guy said, just loud enough for Hui Yue to hear, and all he could do was sigh as he heard the rest of the group reply with comments about his appearance, and that they had to be sure never to insult him.

Hui Yue quickly passed the group and noticed their expressions change into fear as his gaze swept across their table, however, as soon as he reached the next group of people even more gossip reached his ears, although this time it was of another caliber,

“It is the first time I’ve seen him in person,” one of the students said with reverence, and another pushed out his chest while proudly saying, “I’ve seen him before when he walked around with Gao Yan and his group. I heard that he beat Wang Ju Long, so he is definitely worthy of being in Gao Yan’s group,” this student said while looking at Hui Yue as if he was a hero of some sorts.

Hui Yue increased his speed to get past the other students as quickly as possible and ordered a standard breakfast before he sat down in one end of the canteen with no other students.

Hui Yue noticed that while he was eating his food, although he could no longer hear what the other students were saying, he still noticed the obvious glances that was sent his way.

‘Great,’ Hui Yue thought with a sigh, ‘I’m like a monkey in a zoo.’

Although Hui Yue was not expecting an answer Lan Feng was quick to jump in, ‘Get used to it,’ he said with a smug face, ‘for starters you look way too different from anyone else, and you will have to keep impressing them one time after another for us to be able to actually achieve our goals.’

‘Shut up,’ Hui Yue sneered at Lan Feng, his appearance had changed because of the soul contract with the damned bird, and the soul contract was currently a taboo subject for Hui Yue, ‘If you mention it once more,’ Hui Yue threatened, ‘then I refuse to eat any sweets and will live of chicken for the next three years.’

Lan Feng gasped shocked and quickly retreated back into the dantian cave. Sharing a body with Hui Yue also meant that Lan Feng felt every single thing that Hui Yue felt, he tasted every piece of food that Hui Yue tasted and he experienced the same physical challenges that Hui Yue had to go through.

Throughout the years, Lan Feng had developed a sweet tooth and enjoyed eating cakes and sweets as the Rong twins usually brought sweets every time they visited. The canteens at this academy also provided cakes, and Lan Feng had felt great happiness when he saw the unlimited amounts of cakes. If he was in control of their body, it was obvious that they would be gaining a noticeable amount of weight.

Hui Yue smirked happily as Lan Feng had retreated back to the cave, and picked up a cake to eat on the go, as he returned to his courtyard to pick up a few things that he would need for his first day at lectures before he quickly made his way towards the mountain tops where the school buildings were erected.

Hui Yue took out his student emblem and inserted a certain amount of qi into it. During the last couple of days, Hui Yue had noticed that this emblem had many hidden features, and one of them was a personally tailored schedule. Although the schedules were personalised, all first year students would have the same lessons at the first couple of weeks before they got split into groups based on either talents or interests.

The Royal Academy did not force the students to participate in the lectures, however the students who did not participate would usually end up unable to advance to the next year. Although no specific rank was necessary to advance, it was important that the student had shown some sort of  progress throughout the year to be promoted with the rest of the class.

Hui Yue made it towards the first mountain containing the school buildings and started looking around. It was still a few hours until the lesson was supposed to start, so he decided to move through the different buildings, familiarizing himself with different locations and also determining which buildings would be useful and which would not.

The first building that came into view was the ‘Qi Theory Lessons’ building where the first lecture was supposed to be held, and although a few students were already gathering at the entrance and inside, Hui Yue saw no reason to wait for a few hours when he could explore instead.

The next building was the ‘Cultivation Methods’ which held no interest for Hui Yue, Although Lan Feng was incredibly annoying and cunning, he had still provided Hui Yue with an incredibly strong cultivation method, that he was certain this school could not replace. Instead he quickly moved further away.

The next building was ‘Martial Art Skill Hall’ and looking at this building definitely peaked Hui Yue’s curiosity. The hall was open to students all day and Hui Yue gently pushed the door open and looked inside.

The first thing that hit him was the stale air and dim light. Although the Skill Hall was a place that students frequently visited, all students showed the utmost respect while entering, and to protect the many scrolls inside, the door was always closed.

As soon as Hui Yue entered, and had closed the door behind him, light suddenly started to light up within the room. These were crystals similar to those he had in his courtyard, and the dim room was quickly lit up with a gentle light.

‘Do you really have to waste time here?’ Lan Feng complained as he looked around with disdain, ‘I’ve told you before that the Martial Art Skills you can gain from these places are really lacking in quality.’

Hui Yue, however, chose to completely ignore Lan Feng and looked at the many shelves within the room. Hui Yue picked up one of the scrolls and slowly opened it. The scrolls were similar to those he had been given by Rong Ming previously, and this particular scroll was about igniting a small flame on top of a candle by using qi to create strong enough friction. After a quick walk through he noticed the system in which the skills were displayed.

At the front of the room were all the student ranked martial art skills, in the middle was the disciple ranked and at the back was the practitioner ranked skills. Each of the ranks was then split into attack skills, defense skills and non-combat skills.

Hui Yue took his time and walked past the different shelves before he eventually picked up a few skills he decided to bring back with him. One of the skills was the low student ranked Fire Spark skill that he had seen at first.

The student emblem would automatically record which martial art skills a student had brought with them outside of the Skill Hall, which was why the hall could be open all the time without any elders having to watch over it. If a student tried to open the door without bringing their student emblem, they would find that no matter how much they pushed, the door would not bulge.

Inside the hall was another room, however that room was sealed shut, and Hui Yue was unable to enter. He had heard about the room from Rong Ming previously and all the stronger martial art skills that the academy owned were all placed within. The only way to enter was to be invited by a teacher after having done something that would show an outstanding cultivation, and even the Rong twins and Gao Yan had only entered once within the last five years.

After a final look around the hall, Hui Yue quickly exited the Skill Hall and noticed how his student emblem shone with a silvery light before once again returning to its usual appearance.