Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (23 page)

Hui Yue could not help but being deeply impressed by the student emblem as it looked very ordinary, however one new feature after another kept appearing, proving that it was really nothing like expected.

‘Stop gaping over a useless memory stone,’ Lan Feng complained from within the qi cave, ‘we don’t have much time left before the lesson starts, so hurry up and find the Medicinal Pill hall!’ Although Lan Feng had been feeling some pressure from the previous threat, he was not capable of keeping quiet for long, and he was very excited about the possibility of snatching some medicinal pills to help increase their rank without a long time being spent on refining essence into qi.

Hui Yue sighed. He knew that it was possible to once again scold Lan Feng, however he himself was quite curious about these medicinal pills. His father from this world had spent his days hunting low grade medicinal plants from the edge of the Magical Forest, and from everything he had heard, medicinal pills were capable of producing miracles.

That being said, Hui Yue had no actual knowledge about medicinal pills. He could guess that they were concocted by mixing medicinal plants, but how it was done was unknown, and he started to scan his surroundings for anything that could lead him towards the pill hall that Lan Feng had mentioned.

Finally, Hui Yue found a building which was easily the same size as the Martial Art Skill Hall, and over the entrance was the sign that said ‘Medicinal Pill Outlet’. Hui Yue felt his heartbeat increase and a silly grin spreading across his face. It was exciting to increase his knowledge about these magical pills, however his smile quickly froze as he reached the pill outlet’s door.

‘Will open after the first monthly pill distribution day of the new semester.’ A note said, and obviously the pill outlet was currently closed. The disappointment that Hui Yue felt was quickly enhanced by the disappointment Lan Feng felt, and both of them were suddenly rather annoyed.

‘When is the pill distribution day?’ Lan Feng mused while sighing, and Hui Yue just shrugged his shoulders, ‘who knows,’ he said, not in the mood to make trouble for the depressed phoenix, ‘maybe we will get told during the first lesson today,’ he said, and both of them were seriously hoping that that would be the case.

‘Is it possible for anyone to make medicinal pills?’ Hui Yue suddenly asked. It seemed that medicinal pills were incredibly popular, but at the same time quite the hassle to get, so it would be ideal if he learned how to create them. Unfortunately, right now he had no knowledge about how to concoct pills, and the medicinal plants that his father and the villagers had gathered in the Magical Forest seemed to have limited effects on their own.

‘Only alchemists can make pills, but since it has some requirements to become an alchemist they always end up as stuck up and arrogant people,’ Lan Feng snorted with clear annoyance in his voice, causing Hui Yue to smirk.

‘You didn’t qualify to become an alchemist?’ He asked, his voice slightly mocking as it required a lot to be even more arrogant than this feathered boy was.

‘Shut up,’ was all the answer Lan Feng gave before he pouted his lips and hid himself deep within the qi cave, ignoring any question that Hui Yue asked.

‘Come on,’ Hui Yue finally got annoyed after being ignored for most of the trip back to the Qi Theory Lessons building, ‘at least I have not tricked you into merging your soul with a lying bird.’ His voice was slightly judging, and the comment did cause Lan Feng to reemerge, a slightly guilty feeling appeared from within their shared soul.

‘To become an alchemist you need to have a dual elemental affinity, but not just any dual elemental affinity works,’ he started the explanation, ‘The first one of the affinities need is fire. Fire is needed to be able to refine the materials needed for the pills and to control the strength of the flames while concocting the pills. If you do not control fire you  cannot control the flame precisely enough.’ Hui Yue nodded, this did indeed make sense.

‘The other element is wood. Wood is the element that grants the cultivator a detailed understanding of the plants of this world. It is the element that grants life and harvest, and from this life springs the power to create. Obviously there are some limits as to what you can create, but medicinal pills are definitely amongst them.’ Lan Feng paused slightly to allow the information to sink into Hui Yue’s mind before continuing.

‘Getting dual elemental affinity is in itself hard, but I managed to get it,’ Lan Feng said proudly,’ Unfortunately the elements that I control are Fire, I am pretty sure I told you before, and Earth. I can’t become an alchemist.’ At this point a slight dissapointment had appeared within Lan Feng’s voice, and Hui Yue noticed a bit of longing in their soul.

‘Since alchemists need to have succeeded in unlocking their middle dantian to discover their elemental affinity it makes it decreases the amount of alchemists even more. Within a city as big as this Riluo City I would bet that there are no more than one or two alchemists.’

Hui Yue sighed slightly and suddenly understood why medicinal pills were valued so highly. He had always thought that the hardest part had to be to find the medicinal plants, but now he learned that the profession itself was where the trouble laid. It would be great if he could become an alchemist, but it was something so far ahead that he did not have the luxury of dreaming about it, instead he needed to figure out a way to get his hands on these lucrative pills.   

During the conversation Hui Yue and Lan Feng had once again reached the Qi Theory Lessons building. Previously some students had been waiting outside, but the doors were now open and groups of students were waiting inside of the hall while others were waiting outside the building. What all of the students had together was an appearance of both excitement and worry while they had gathered in groups and nervously awaited the teacher’s arrival.

Hui Yue sighed as he noticed some of the students which he had seen this morning, and his arrival once again sparked discussions about his earlier duel against Wang Ju Long, his appearance and assumed hate for being called feminine or even whether or not he was suitable to walk around with Gao Yan.

Hui Yue could do nothing but sigh, and he moved into the hall while ignoring the staring students around him. Usually a duel like this would never have had these reactions, however Wang Ju Long had been known as a genius since a young age, and the commoners had been told that he was unbeatable. To beat the unbeatable was indeed something that caused shock amongst the other students.

Inside the hall Hui Yue moved to one side where he leaned against one of the chilled walls and narrowed his eyes while observing the rest of the students. Although some of them gave off nervous expressions, others were clearly much more comfortable and while some were discussing with smiles on their faces, others were just observing much like Hui Yue himself. Some of the students seemed their age and their youthful faces were filled with childish innocence while others seemed more mature.

Suddenly Hui Yue fixed his eyes at the entrance, and at the same time all the conversation stilled as Wang Ju Long and his followers stepped through the door.

Wang Ju Long himself seemed as if no one apart from him existed, that all these commoners were so far below him that they were not even visible. The followers however all glared at the students, intimidating all of them and almost taunting them to continue their conversations.

Hui Yue narrowed his eyes as some of the followers seemed to be above ten years old while others were the same age as Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long. As soon as the latter saw Hui Yue his eyes were suddenly turned red and it was easy for anyone present to notice the hate that was contained within.

Wang Ju Long’s entourage quickly noticed Hui Yue, and although some of them had never seen Hui Yue before, they could easily guess that it was him.

All these children were obviously of noble heritage, and their haughtiness and arrogance far exceeded Lan Feng. Each and every one of the students were glaring daggers at Hui Yue, but so far none of them had the courage to do anything else.  

The nobles were speaking together in a low voice and suddenly one of the older boys stepped forward.

‘tsk,’ Lan Feng snorted at the young man who stepped forward, ‘he is twelve years old and at the ninth star of the student level,’ he said as the person moved towards Hui Yue.

This boy was a lot larger than any of the other children. He had a large build and he had definitely started his growth with at least one and a half head taller than Hui Yue.

His name was Shan Ping and although he was twelve years old, he was supposed to be taught together with the first year students. His family was one of the older noble families who currently got by on their name alone, and they had supported the Wang family since long ago. Unfortunately the family had no assets and their cultivators had not gained an incredibly high cultivation, causing them to have very little influence at all, and they therefore gained almost no favour from the Wang family.

When the Shan family noticed that Wang Ju Long were to start at the Royal Academy they signed up their youngest son and each year that the class promotions they had kept him back, not allowing him to be promoted into another year so that he could follow Wang Ju Long as a pawn and hopefully carry favour that way. For now the boy was definitely much stronger than his peers. That was if Hui Yue looked at cultivation rank alone.

Shan Ping knew that Wang Ju Long was at the eight star student rank, and although he himself was only one star higher, he hoped that he had a bigger chance of winning. One star was after all quite a high amount of qi needed. Even if he failed he would be seen as a brave soldier who would sacrifice himself for the sake of his master, and his only order while being at the academy was to improve his relationship with Wang Ju Long.

However, what Shan Ping had forgotten to consider was that although Wang Ju Long was only at the eight star, he was considered the number one genius from the Wang family, and his actual strength was far above the ninth star.

The main thing that had increased Wang Ju Long’s strength was his pure qi. It was refined much better than that of his peers, and added with that, it had allowed him to practice the Qi Lightening martial art skill.

This was also the case for Hui Yue, but Hui Yue had even purer Qi and more than one high ranked martial art skill which had allowed him to tie with Wang Ju Long earlier. These two children were both much younger than Shan Ping and their strength were recorded as below his, however there were no questions as to which were the stronger.

Hui Yue had obviously noticed the hostility, and as soon as Lan Feng had told him about the older boys cultivation, and the glances he sent towards Wang Ju Long, clearly hoping to be praised made the white-haired boy sigh deeply. Hui Yue was not dumb and he clearly understood what was happening as he had seen group bullying before, however he had never tried being targeted.

Hui Yue straightened up his back and slowly activated Velocity Flow before awaiting Shen Ping making his first move. Fighting was prohibited outside the arenas, however defending was fine. Once again the student badges were capable of recording the actions, making it easy to determine the cause of a fight and punish accordingly.

Hui Yue did not have to wait for long before a qi-covered fist moved towards his head at what could be considered fast for his rank. This was clearly some kind of martial art skill, however it was a skill that had been picked up at the low ranked part of the Martial Art Skill Hall, resulting in being completely useless against Hui Yue.

The qi that was covering Shan Ping’s hand was not pearl white as Hui Yue’s, nor was it milky white as Wang Ju Lang’s, instead it was a light shade of grey, showing Hui Yue that the quality was far below his.

Hui Yue let out yet another sigh before he finally moved. His figure disappeared with a flick, leaving no mirror image behind this time. Instead he moved behind Shan Ping, and the students that were present all gasped in surprise upon seeing the execution of a high ranked martial art skill.

As soon as Hui Yue arrived behind Shan Ping he decisively activated his Raging Strike martial art skill and slammed the side of his hand against the other’s temple, causing Shan Ping to instantly collapse on the floor.

Hui Yue looked surprised at the unconscious Shen Ping. He had expected that the older boy would stumble back and leave him alone, however instead he was now laying lifeless on the ground and a small stream of blood trickled out from the corner of his mouth.