Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (51 page)

“Let the forty-seventh fight of group seven begin!” the judge’s voice rang through the air; as soon as it sounded a crackling sound started to emanate from Wang Ju Long’s hand.

This Qi was far superior to how it had been when Hui Yue and he had duelled half a year previously. A big tempest of whirling Qi threads created an immense hurricane within his hand, constantly growing in size.

Within this hurricane one bolt of lightning after another appeared. Each of these bolts were at least four time as big as they had been before, and Hui Yue could not help but feel his heart pounding as he wished it was him on the stage rather than Ma Kong.

Hui Yue felt a smile spread on his face as the whirling Qi tornado grew in size so much that it was now wrapped around Wang Ju Long’s entire body, lifting him from the ground and allowing the Qi lightning bolts to orbit around him, one steady in each hand.

The Qi lightning skill had evolved. There was only two ways for a skill to evolve and one was to break into a higher rank while another was to personally spent time and change it to the cultivator’s liking.

It was much like Velocity Flow. The higher his rank, the more copies he could create. In Qi lightning, being higher ranked resulted in a greater tornado of Qi, releasing more Qi lightning bolts.

Wang Ju Long had not spent time to improve his already high ranked skill, and how could Hui Yue not know that he had been spending all his time cultivating? Even the lessons were used to cultivate!

Wang Ju Long spent a lot of time cultivating, and it was obvious that the effort had paid off as he had managed to break through to the Disciple rank, causing the amount of Qi he had to be more than double what it had been before.

Excitement shone within Hui Yue’s eyes as his blood was boiling, scalding his veins inside-out, imploring him to fight. Prior to this, he had feared that their fight would be too simple, as he had gained more high ranked skills and Wang Ju Long might have faced a wall. Now, the fight was

exciting. The fight was the only thing Hui Yue could think about. His canines felt like they protruded from their gums more than ever before, a hunger surging from deep within as he wheezed grittingly.

Deng Wu was standing next to Hui Yue - and his eyes were darkened. He could feel the killing intent emitting from Hui Yue, and observed how the younger boy stared at Wang Ju Long, almost licking his lips like a beast ready to pounce. The eyes were focused, observing every little move; he had completely blocked everything which was happening around him.

The Rong twins and Gao Yan had not noticed anything as their entire attention was focused on the match in front of them as well. Unlike Hui Yue they, were not excited upon seeing the Qi tornado which had started to envelop Wang Ju Long, instead they were filled with dread and worry as they knew that although Ma Kong had a good latent talent, he usually preferred focusing his attention on how to learn business management. For Ma Kong to win a duel like this would not be easy.

Ma Kong tightened his fists and white shineless Qi started to surge out of his body, covering his entire right arm. This Qi was very much white; however, it was far from the Wang Ju Long’s pure qi’s white lustre, and as Ma Kong was aware of this, he planned ahead.

Suddenly, with an explosive step, Ma Kong shot towards Wang Ju Long from the front, his fist coursing straight for the face with a speed and strength that clearly showed his superior rank. Nevertheless, the explosive advance was quickly halted as he got closer to the massive hurricane wrapped around Wang Ju Long, causing the force hidden within the hit was to disperse.

Ma Kong did not seem flustered when this occurred and instead his right leg swept out from the end and hit the hurricane, only to result in a twisted scream escaping Ma Kong’s lips as it had been twisted by the strong winds, clearly broken, after a direct confrontation between leg and Qi.

The intensity within Hui Yue’s eyes grew as the gaze darkened. Although he wished for Wang Ju Long to win, he definitely did not want his good friend to be injured; he promised himself to later ensure that Wang Ju Long felt the same amount of pain.

Even though Ma Kong had broken his leg he had no intention of ending the fight just yet and instead moved back. He summoned more Qi which he placed around his injured leg, working as a crutch ensuring that he could still move.

Hui Yue looked surprised at first, but slowly a smile formed on his lips. Wang Ju Long had no intention of fighting against Ma Kong, he would leave it to Ma Kong himself to forfeit.

The day before, Hui Yue had managed to end a fight solely by dodging and moving out of range as soon as an attack arrived. Wang Ju Long felt like he needed to prove that he could do better.

He did not even have to move away from the attacks, he could take them head on!

This arrogance ignited Hui Yue’s raging blood to the point where he had to clench his fists so hard that blood dripped from the palms as his nails had cut through the skin.

It seemed that everyone who knew about the past between Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long understood the silent declaration which said ‘I’m better than you.’

Both geniuses looked stubbornly at each other, neither wanting to back down. Ma Kong also noticed the gaze, and his pain-riddled face was brightened by a smile which made him understand. If Ma Kong had fought this fight seriously he might have had a chance, but he knew how important it was for Hui Yue, so he had intended to test whether or not Wang Ju Long had been worth Hui Yue’s time.

Unfortunately, such arrogance had caused him to lose miserably and incur severe pain to boot.

“I give up,” Ma Kong said smilingly, as he allowed a wood affinity Master ranked teacher to help him leave the arena and heal his leg.

Chapter 35 – Wood affinity

As Ma Kong gave up the fight, the Rong twins and Gao Yan were rushing towards the infirmary. However, Deng Wu had stayed behind to oversee Hui Yue’s progress in the tournament.

It was not that Hui Yue did not care for his friend and did not worry. The truth was, currently, his blue eyes had locked onto Wang Ju Long who was staring back at him, both trying to conceal an easily seen challenge in their gazes.

A smile spread on each of their individual faces. Both smiles were filled with self-confidence and promised an epic battle to come. The two were locked in their mutual gaze like this for a few moments, until Hui Yue finally nodded his head and turned to walk towards the infirmary.

The academy’s infirmary was situated behind the office building; during the tournament a temporary tent had been established behind the arenas, where all teachers with wood affinity were stationed.

The infirmary was actually not one big tent but rather a small village numbering twenty tents. Within each of these tents were some teachers with wood affinity and within others there were seriously injured students resting.

In front of all the tents occupied by the teachers, long queues of students in need of treatment had gathered. These students had suffered everything from broken limbs to internal injuries, however, none of them serious enough to be life-threatening.

Ma Kong was one of these students. He stood in the middle of a queue while his Qi gathered around his leg, still in effect to help him support his weight and keep the pain subdued.

As soon as Hui Yue and gang had spotted Ma Kong, they instantly rushed towards him. Ma Kong was not a weak-minded person and his face was calm as a lake where not even the smallest ripple could be seen.

His calm face did break into a smile, as he saw his friends on their way to give him mental support. Rong Ming and Gao Yan spoke constantly about how unfair it was that Wang Ju Long had such an overpowered skill. None of them could comprehend how he had managed to evolve his skill to such an extent, not to mention how he had managed to break into the disciple rank at the age of ten. His latent talent was clearly more impressive than any of the other students apart from Deng Wu. In Hui Yue’s opinion, Deng Wu did not count, as his talent was given to him by little dragon, much like he had gained all of his from Lan Feng.

The queue proceeded slowly, and while they patiently waited for it to be Ma Kong’s turn, they took the chance to look around.

A young woman ran around, either shouting orders to the staff or scolding youngsters who thought the infirmary was a playground to pass their time while waiting. This woman was no stranger to Hui Yue, as he had seen her back when Shan Ping had been injured, although right now she was far too busy to notice the white-haired boy standing in one of many queues.

Only five master-ranked teachers were healing at a time while the others were meditating to replenish their supply of spiritual energy.

Wood elemental affinity was the affinity giving control over life and death. It was especially well-connected with the vegetation realm, but it could in some instances be trained to focus on humans. Those were called healers, and they specialized in using the wood element to help mend the human body rather than growing and refining medicinal herbs.

The wood element was usually used to attack the soul of the opponent, but when it came to the spiritual attack skills, they usually attacked the body directly, distorting the life left within or in some more extreme cases even draining the longevity.

Having a wood elemental affinity was not terribly rare. The balance between the heaven and earth had caused a fifth of each cultivator to have wood as an elemental affinity; however, less than one percentage of these cultivators also had an affinity for fire, making them able to become an alchemist.

Elemental affinities were something Hui Yue had found incredibly interesting ever since Lan Feng had told him that it was very much akin to what his old world had considered magic. Unfortunately,

Hui Yue was not even close to unlocking the middle dantian, but he was very excited to see how the wood element users would expend their spiritual energy to heal an injury, such as a broken bone.

The time passed slowly and Deng Wu did his very best at making Rong Xing feel comfortable while waiting. At first, he had somehow managed to provide a chair, although as soon as he had proudly shown it to Rong Xing, she instantly gave it to Ma Kong instead.

This had caused a depressed expression to appear in Deng Wu’s eyes, however, when Rong Xing started to praise him for thinking about their injured friend, the happiness in his eyes returned.

Afterwards, he brought snacks and drinks for everyone in hopes of once again being praised for his consideration. Deng Wu’s actions caused them all to feel light-hearted, and even Hui Yue lost the last roots of the killing intent embedded in his blue eyes ever since exchanging glances with Wang Ju Long.

Finally, after waiting for a few hours, it was Ma Kong’s turn to enter the tent in front of the queue. The tents were large enough to fit up to ten people and Hui Yue and the others followed.

The Rong twins and Gao Yan were obviously there for the sake of giving mental support to Ma Kong. Deng Wu was here because of Rong Xing and Hui Yue. Hui Yue in turn was obviously there because he cared about his friend, but he ended up weighing heavier the spiritual healing by the wood element teachers over his friend’s injuries.

Everyone within the tent, apart from Hui Yue, had seen the healing before. For them, this was no big deal; healers were people all the major families within Riluo City had a few of, and as children who cultivated, they all had to visit them from time to time.

Entering the tent, Ma Kong was placed on a bed and the clothes were cut off around his legs, displaying a broken bone and open wound.

Looking at the open wound caused Hui Yue to feel slight nausea, but he quickly steeled himself. This was after all only a broken leg, it could easily have been much worse.

Looking at his leg, Ma Kong’s face paled slightly, and as he removed the Qi assisting him in dulling the pain, he grit his teeth and closed his eyes. Wave after wave of pain flooded over Ma Kong, making the friends feel uncomfortable, fidgeting and wondering what they could do to help him feel better.

Before any of them could ask if they could help, the teacher finally turned towards them and looked at the lying Ma Kong. This teacher seemed fatigued. His cheeks were hollowed out and his eyes were filled with a misty cloud.