Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (45 page)

“The mathematics are quite solid, and as long as this unknown expert doesn’t go around annihilating any more noble family compounds then we should be up and running within a few years.” Ma Kong’s eyes still glistened as he looked at Hui Yue. “We need you to come visit us and sign a contract, but there are a few things the elders require.”

As soon as Ma Kong mentioned the contract, his excitement quickly got contained and he began to behave in a very respectable, dignified manner. Ma Kong did all this unconsciously, and Hui Yue whistled with raised eyebrows. This young friend of his was definitely plenty skilled in controlling and masking his emotions.

“The contract will give you three percentages of the revenue instead of one, but the reason we changed it to three is because it is not only profits. If we are to fail miserably with this idea, then you are to pay three percentages of the loss.”

Hearing this made Hui Yue suddenly gain respect for the Black Market Auction House. Hui Yue had been aware that it was a great business. However, only now did he understand just how thorough they were with their commerce and investments.

This question about the contract was obviously a way to test Hui Yue. If this child was being used as a way to make the Ma family lose money, then at least he would also lose money by doing so. At the same time, if he truly was imparting such a great idea, as the calculations promised, then he did indeed deserve the three percentages.

Ma Kong was obviously uncomfortable about imposing such a rule on a friend of his, however, he was a member of the Ma family and understood how important it was for their family to be able to keep up their growth. The Ma family sought to expand their reach to other major cities within the Taiyang Kingdom, after all.

The two boys were seated for the rest of their breakfast while reaching a consensus that Hui Yue would follow Ma Kong to sign a contract the following day off from lectures.

After the agreement, Hui Yue excused himself as he moved towards the mountaintop where Deng Wu’s courtyard was located.

Knocking on the courtyard door yielded no response, however, Hui Yue did not give up just like that. He stayed outside and knocked the door with a few minutes break in-between, knowing that Deng Wu could hear him.

While waiting, Hui Yue looked around at his surroundings. At the time he started attending the academy, it had been at the warmest month of summer, and more than a month had passed since then. In this time Hui Yue had managed to sell two skills and rely on that money to buy pills which helped his cultivation to climb into the ranks of an eight-star Student.

It had taken Hui Yue ten years of painstaking cultivation to reach the fifth-star Student rank. However, in the passage of this month alone, he was now an eight-star Student. His training speed was definitely astonishing.

Hui Yue had broken into the sixth-star rank on his own. Lan Feng had caused him to reach the seventh star, and by consuming medicinal pills, Hui Yue reached the peak of the eight star.

During all this time, Wang Ju Long had been cultivating without end, working his fingers to the bone, but even while doing so, he was still only at the peak of the eight-star Student rank.

A satisfied smile appeared on Hui Yue’s lips. He was now certain that he could defeat Wang Ju Long if they were to fight again according to his assessment, and he once again knocked on Deng Wu’s door.

Once again, there was no response and Hui Yue started to get a little annoyed. It was no longer the warmest time of summer, and the morning wind was slightly chilled, causing the boy to become greatly annoyed

“Big brother Deng Wu!” he called as loudly as he could, causing a lot of people to look at him with an odd expression, “If you do not let me in I guess we have to talk over the gate.”

Hearing this, the courtyard door suddenly opened and a grumpy looking Deng Wu was standing in the doorway, wearing his clothes in a disheveled mess and clearly had just rushed out from his bedroom.

In contrast to Deng Wu, Hui Yue was neatly dressed with a clean and washed face. His face was not grumpy but filled with smiles and laughter which in turn felt as if someone dropped a bucket of cold water on Deng Wu.

“Close the door after you,” Deng Wu grumbled as he turned around, allowing Hui Yue to follow. The big smile on Hui Yue’s face was retracting little at a time and instead the young face was filled with an alertness that did not suit a boy his age.

Finally, the two entered the house and sat down in front of each other. Neither spoke as they just observed the other. Deng Wu had completely discarded his usual, arrogant attitude, and instead he looked as alert as Hui Yue.

‘Give him the ring back’ Lan Feng said and Hui Yue quickly followed the order. The ring contained a black memory stone and Deng Wu grew increasingly worried as he saw Hui Yue playing around with it.

“How much did you figure out?” Deng Wu finally sighed as Hui Yue tossed the ring towards him. With a practiced move, Deng Wu caught the ring and looked at it tentatively. Last time he had touched it; it had scorched his finger. The burn mark was still visible, but this time no heat was emitted from the ring and Deng Wu allowed it to slip back onto the injured finger.

Chapter 29 – Karma

As the ring slipped onto the finger, a small light appeared and the azure dragon figurine appeared from within and Deng Wu placed it on the table between the two.

“When I turned ten years old I was allowed to pick up a smaller treasure from within the family treasury as a reward for being accepted into the Royal Academy.” Deng Wu said with a sigh.

Since Hui Yue had arrived here it was obvious that he knew something and the best way was for the two of them to share their secrets and then keep them hidden from the rest of the world.

Another reason as to why Deng Wu decided to explain his history with the figurine was because he knew nothing about this figurine, but when he had touched Hui Yue back at Riluo City, Deng Wu got the feeling that the Azure Dragon Figurine had been terrified by the beast currently imprisoned within Hui Yue’s body. Consulting Hui Yue about it could perhaps bring him some answers.

“My father was thrilled when I took this item since everyone considered it a useless piece, only worth using as a decoration. The first year I brought it with me everywhere and just as my father thought, this figurine was really quite useless.” Hui Yue was quiet, but he had an interesting premonition as to what this dragon figurine was, and he could not help but wonder how Lan Feng felt about finding it here while both were as weak as they were.

“One day when I returned home, someone came and stole my storage stone where my figurine was in and I spent three days fighting to get it back. I know it was not useful but I still fell in love with its beauty.” Deng Wu shook his head ruefully and Hui Yue could only muster a wry smile. He, if any, understood how it was to fall for an item the second one’s eyes locked on to it. Unfortunately, the one Hui Yue had found ended up killing him within the hour.

Deng Wu saw the wry smile on Hui Yue’s face and he got the impression that Hui Yue knew exactly what sort of emotions he felt.

“When I finally got it back, the figurine started speaking with me,” Deng Wu said, at this point rather quickly and a little embarrassed. Deng Wu understood perfectly well how insane it sounded.

“The figurine has a lot of effects. It has given me a cultivation technique that is much stronger than anything I had seen before. It is capable of masking my own cultivation base but also look through any disguise of someone weaker than him. He instantly recognized the aura of a divine beast on you, but I never would have thought that it was someone he knew.” Deng Wu went past the abilities the azure dragon figurine had, and this time he hid nothing from Hui Yue.

“A cultivation technique is not enough to get such a high rank in your cultivation base in five years,” Hui Yue pointed out with a smile, and Deng Wu in turn gave an embarrassed smile.

“This figurine used to be very strong and it was well-versed in pill concocting when it was still alive, and it has helped me with various herbal extracts that has improved my cultivation by leaps and bounds.”

Hui Yue grinned upon hearing that this one was capable of being an alchemist, something Lan Feng had wanted to do badly.

“I need to have a small talk with my dear cohabitant, I am not sure how much he wishes to tell you.” Hui Yue said and internally asked, ‘Lan Feng, what do we do?’

‘Let me speak through you,’ Lan Feng said with a sigh, and Hui Yue quickly accepted tacitly. He wandered inwards and materialized a mental projection and headed down to the dantian cave where the feathered blue boy started to get transparent before he turned into ball of light which exploded into thousands of strands that went through the meridians and eventually overtook the body.

Unlike last time, this was not a forced takeover, rather a permission which Hui Yue granted Lan Feng, and it was a skill which Hui Yue had not known about prior to the fight with the black-cloaked men.

“Listen up boy,” the celestial voice sounded from Hui Yue’s mouth, causing Deng Wu to get startled and the figurine on the table to rumble loudly.

“Have you been told about the history of our world?” Lan Feng continued while Hui Yue had sat down in the dantian cave, leaning against the wall and allowing the phoenix to take care of everything this day.

“I have not.” Deng Wu said politely. He was after all aware that he was currently speaking with the genius behind Hui Yue. The mysterious expert who destroyed the Shan family compound with a single low ranked attack.

“I will not tell you the long story, but this world used to belong to the families of the four divine beasts, until we got tricked by a human and sealed within various decorative items, after which we were scattered amongst different planes in the universe.” Saying this caused Deng Wu’s eyes to widen in shock as he had never expected anything like that to be true.

“The one you have gotten your hands on is none other than the descendant of the Azure Dragon, and I have to tell you, it brings me great joy to see him locked up in such a small figurine.” Lan Feng said with a certain amount of schadenfreude and a toothy grin. This was karma.

“The Azure dragon’s descendant?” Deng Wu repeated while frowning. Unlike Hui Yue, he had never heard about the four divine beasts before. Deng Wu had grown up within the Taiyang Kingdom and due to this, he had never heard about what transpired during the Dark Age.

Hui Yue on the other hand remembered how shocked he had been when he found out that this azure figurine was the descendant that was tricked into betraying the others, and whether it was intentional or not, he was also the cause of the four descendants being sealed within the various decorative objects.

“This world was created by our fathers and given to us after a rite of passage. Unfortunately, SOMEONE got tricked by a mere human and we ended up like this.” Lan Feng reached an octave higher for a split second and snorted, “That useless son is in your figurine and he ought to stay there to think about his misgivings.”

“Shut up, you damn bird!” a voice roared from the azure figurine. “You would have been tricked as well, and unlike you I am still sealed!”

“So what?” Lan Feng retorted, “you caused us to be sealed, is it not fair that you are the last to be unsealed.”

“You aren’t too lucky either,” the figurine mocked back, “I see you got free from the hairpin but instead you are locked up as some stupid servant to a brainless kid.”

“Oh yeah? At least I managed to form a soul contract….” Lan Feng said, before his expression went from proud to annoyed, “I should not have said that. I should definitely not have said that.”

While Lan Feng had gotten annoyed for saying something unintended, the figurine was completely quiet. This was most likely due to the shock of hearing that anyone was willing to establish a soul contract with a divine beast.

Deng Wu was staring blindly at the figurine and at the possessed Hui Yue. The conversation was really impossible for him to follow.

“So I take it that the two of you are old friends.” He said calmly, while looking at the two, causing both to be slightly embarrassed.