Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (48 page)

The final month went exactly as the previous six months had with Hui Yue, spending all his time sticking to his training regimen and occasionally exchanging blows with Deng Wu.

During this month, only Hui Yue was capable of being so relaxed. Every other student within the academy was fidgeting about the tournament. This nervousness was not only due to the exorbitant stakes nor was it because the sale of tickets had started. No, the main reason why everyone was so nervous was because of the forced attendance.

Usually, the eight groups within the tournament were split among the students based by ranking for the sake of allowing students to fight a fair match for the top eight slots, however, this year the Academy Chairman had decided on another system. This year relied solely on luck, and looking at the board which had been displayed within the academy, one could see that it was very unlikely for first years to be able to proceed into the top eight.

Looking at this disappointed both Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long as the two of them were in group two and group seven respectively. Seeing that he and Wang Ju Long were placed in two groups so far from each other caused an unsightly expression to appear on Hui Yue’s face.

First, a winner would be found in each group. After that, they would fight against the winner of another group, with the victors from group one and two fighting each other while those from group three and four fought each other and so forth.

When a winner had been decided from the match between the winners of group one and two, they would fight against the winner of the match between the winners of group three and four. In the end, Hui Yue had no way of facing Wang Ju Long unless they both made it all the way to the finals.

A chill flashed through his handsome, blue eyes as Hui Yue decided that no matter how hard he had to fight he would make it to the final and fight Wang Ju Long.

Since long ago the enmity between the two had been growing steadily, however, it was not a hatred where the two of them wished for the other’s death; instead it was more inspired by an urge to prove their worth to the other. A strange feeling of rivalry Hui Yue had never felt before was telling him to do his very best. He knew that Wang Ju Long would do just that and in his heart he had already approved of Wang Ju Long and his hardworking ethics.

How could Hui Yue not know that Wang Ju Long worked hard to gain his title as a genius? Every lesson they shared, he spent cultivating, and he never stepped out of his courtyard unless it was absolutely necessary, otherwise he just stayed at home and cultivated.

Hui Yue started wondering whether Wang Ju Long had chosen the history classes for the sake of cultivating in peace rather than to annoy Hui Yue who also picked the class.

The reason why Wang Ju Long spent all his time cultivating and not training his skills like Hui Yue was due to his current martial art attack skill Qi Lightning.

Qi lightning was a high-ranked skill and the highest ranked skill he would ever be able to acquire for a long time. Wang Ju Long had already perfected it and being unable to find anything better, he would rather not take a step back to learn lower ranked skills. As such, his main focus was on improving his Qi spiral, and to jump into the disciple rank as soon as possible.

The only reason that Hui Yue was able to catch up was due to the help of Lan Feng. Without Lan Feng and the near limitless source of medicinal pills, it would not have been possible for him to reach the peak of the ninth star Student rank this quickly. Nor would it have been possible for him to possess the high-ranked skills allowing for his combat strength to increase, not to mention the cultivation method he was using to refine the purest of Qi.

However, although Hui Yue had received much from Lan Feng, Hui Yue was not feeling any sort of extreme gratefulness towards him as he still assumed that his death had been caused by the blue phoenix. If he had the guts to kill him, it was only natural to redeem himself with something as important as immense strength. Especially since Lan Feng’s revenge also relied on Hui Yue.

That being said, Hui Yue still listened to Lan Feng. He did not hate him for killing him, as long as it was possible for him to be reunited with Li Fen in her next life. Lan Feng was much more knowledgeable when it came to cultivation so it was only natural for Hui Yue to follow the orders, but only for as long as Lan Feng was useful.

Nonetheless, after ten years, Lan Feng had turned into the only person who knew everything about Hui Yue and the vice versa, and the two had become an odd pair of friends. Hui Yue sighed as he realized that he would never be completely free from this arrogant phoenix as their souls had completed a fusion. His lips curled upwards at the thought.

Hui Yue’s eyes locked on to Wang Ju Long only to find that the two of them were staring at each other. A soundless agreement was made and their sharp gazes obviously conveyed ‘don’t you dare lose before the finale.’

After the message had been relayed Wang Ju Long immediately turned around and started moving towards his courtyard, no doubt to refine more Qi in an attempt to charge through the bottleneck that existed between the nine-star Student rank and the first-star Disciple rank.

Hui Yue himself was at the same rank now as Wang Ju Long, but he was in no rush to try to attack the bottleneck just yet, the feeling of something lacking was simply too profound and instead Hui Yue focused on his martial art skills. In the entire Royal Academy no one could defeat him when it came to martial art skills.

Hui Yue was the focus of many students. Almost anyone within his group had offered to forfeit if they were to meet him, causing Hui Yue to become slightly aggravated.

Hui Yue had no intention of reaching the finals by not even fighting his opponents. If he could not defeat them, how would he be capable of defeating Wang Ju Long?

The tournament would go on for three weeks. The first day would be used to narrow down four thousand people to two thousand people. After each day, a day of rest followed before the number of participants was halved once again. This process continued until only eight students emerged as the group winners.

The first ten days of the tournament would go on like this. After finding the eight group victors there would be two days of rest before the eight was narrowed down to four. The four remaining would then have three days of rest before it was narrowed down to two. Another five days would then be given as rest before the grand finale.

The guests of the tournament were invited to stay the entire three weeks, and during these three weeks an extra mountaintop had been cleared for the sake of creating an extra residential area to be used as housing for the guests. This was a mountain top next to the one belonging to the teachers, ensuring that the visitors were unable to cause any trouble for the participating students.

Next to the arena mountain top was a large sign with the name and rank of all the participating students.

Chapter 32 – The First Fight

The poster which showed every participating student stated both the rank of these students, their odds at winning and their first opponents.

The Rong twins were both at the first-star Practitioner rank due to the medicinal pills which Hui Yue had given them. Although Hui Yue had also passed some pills to Gao Yan, unfortunately it had not been enough to allow him a breakthrough. Still, he was a nine-star Disciple ranked cultivator and his cultivation based had grasped him a shared second place with another young man from the year above them.

Ma Kong and Deng Wu were both noted down as seven-star Disciple ranked, which somehow caused Hui Yue to snort slightly. If they were to know about Deng Wu’s real cultivation level, it would without a doubt shock them, though Hui Yue also understood why Deng Wu was unable to tell anyone just yet.

Hui Yue himself was rated rather far down, however, this was to be expected since Hui Yue was just a first year student and had yet to break through to the Disciple ranked cultivation. Although he was considered a genius within the first years and a promising youth, he was still very far from being one of the stronger students within the academy.

Walking out of his courtyard, Hui Yue came to a sudden stop as he looked at the five people who were standing in front of him, with cheeky grins plastered across their faces. A deep sigh escaped his lips, before their cheerfulness caused him to smile in return.

“You forgot that it was today, didn’t you?” Rong Ming asked smilingly and Hui Yue nodded with an embarrassed smile on his face.

Today was the day the tournament was to begin.

The six of them went to the canteen together, only to find it filled with students, making it impossible for them to find seats where all six could sit next to each other. Instead of having a big breakfast, they instead ordered stuffed bread-rolls to go, and made their way to the arenas.

Around all of the arenas, even the smaller ones, were several adults, many of whom Hui Yue had seen before at the auction. All of them would be present at the Academy for the next three weeks, and they kept observing the students that were moving around.

The few of them  drew a lot of attention as it had the two top seeded participants amongst them, not to mention the sons of two families that kept on increasing their influence within the city.

However, even if they hadn’t been there, Hui Yue himself was enough to draw an insane amount of attention. His white hair and blue eyes stood out amongst all the black haired, brown eyed students that walked around at the academy.

One could say that the eyes of the spectators were drawn towards the unusual white child. Only after looking at the child did they notice the Rong twins.

Hui Yue and the others quickly looked at the schedule. None of the other five were in Hui Yue’s group, although Ma Kong was in the same group as the Rong twins and Wang Ju Long. Gao Yan and Deng Wu were also separated.

Currently, there were a few minutes before the first fights started, and Hui Yue could relax until noon, when it would be time for him to step up on the stage.

Hui Yue’s first opponent was a third year student who was a second-star Disciple ranked cultivator, putting the opponent’s odds above Hui Yue’s.

The Rong twins both quickly settled their duels within few seconds as their opponents forfeited after only three attacks each, and something similar happened to Gao Yan.

Ma Kong had a little more trouble in his fight, and he ended up with a cut in his eyebrow, although he still pulled off a first round win.

Deng Wu was not up by the time Hui Yue had fought his first match.

Hui Yue stepped up on the stage and he felt completely calm. The person in front of him was three years older and his physique was much larger, however, for the audience it was obvious that, while one was calm as ice, the other was sweating and looked as if he was very worried about the fight that was about to commence.

The audience was stupefied. It was obvious that Hui Yue was at a disadvantage so why would the teachers look at his opponent with pity, and the boy look that scared?

The answer was quickly given. As soon as the bell rang the older boy scuttled towards him, his eyes widened incredibly and light grey Qi gathered around a fist which was being thrown at Hui Yue

Hui Yue stood still for a bit before he snorted. Qi rushed through his meridians and activated Velocity Flow, allowing him to dodge without any trouble.

After dodging, Hui Yue kept observing as his opponent stumbled and almost fell in front of him, however, Hui Yue did not take advantage of this mishap, but instead waited for the boy to come at him once again.

Fist after fist was thrown his way, and Hui Yue kept retreating, not allowing the forceful fist to even hit the corner of his clothes. Disdain was evident within his eyes.

Hui Yue was capable of knocking this guy unconscious within a second, however, he kept remembering what had happened last time he used his skill on Shan Ping, and although he did not feel any guilt, he still did not wish for his first kill to be some random accident within the tournament.

After dodging for ten minutes, Hui Yue had finally given up being patient. His hope had been that his opponent would forfeit when he saw how inferior he was, however, that had not happened, and Hui Yue had no other option than to take action.