Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (54 page)

Hui Yue understood that his tempo had been broken and he quickly backed away, creating a large distance between the two. During this entire time, the knife had not stood still, constantly swirling in Hui Yue’s hand making him seem like a rogue waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

The entire audience was quiet. No one had expected to see the genius child who already possessed some high ranked martial art skills suddenly reveal another unknown skill which definitely had been of the higher rank.

Everyone present felt how they shuddered in wake of the revelation of talent which clearly proved much more promising than what they had first expected, yet astonishment was quickly replaced by shock and fear. How could such a young child possess such a wide array of high ranked martial art skills?

While the audience had their eyes glued to the battle in front of them, Hui Yue’s opponent was gritting his teeth. It was obvious that he had not expected Hui Yue to actually back up his title as a genius and sweat was soaking his back as he stubbornly hung on to the possibility of winning due to having a larger Qi pool.

The enmity between Hui Yue and the opponent was one which had been slowly built up for the last three weeks, and Hui Yue somewhat understood the reason as to why he was disliked.

Nevertheless, it was not Hui Yue’s fault that he had been gifted with great luck - or perhaps misfortune across lifetimes - nor was it his fault that he was now proving to be stronger than this young man in front of him.

Soon, the battle turned into chaos. Every time the opponent let out a barrage of attacks, Hui Yue would dance closer and make a few more slashes only to run away as soon as he had completed his attack.

Each attack caused an uneasy feeling within Hui Yue to grow, but he forcefully suppressed it as he focused on the match in front of him. The uneasiness was a feeling of thrill and excitement. A feeling of wanting to kill the opponent.

These feelings were some which Hui Yue did not know that he had previously, yet now they were threatening to break free from their bonds, annoying Hui Yue to no end.

Forcefully suppressing it once more, Hui Yue focused his entire attention to the match he was currently fighting.

Having taken one attack, Hui Yue understood perfectly well just how big a difference there was between the two of them in power. Fortunately, this older boy had a fairly average quality of Qi and his way of using it was far inferior to Hui Yue.

The two once again stood with a large distance between them. Hate was shining out of the opponent’s eyes and the stage was covered in his blood. This sight was similar to that of Rong Xing and her opponent all those days back.

Unfortunately for this person, Hui Yue had no intention of backing off or admiring the perseverance. Not to mention, Hui Yue was the one who was definitely at a disadvantage according to theory. He was, after all, only a nine-star Student ranked cultivator.  

Looking at the boy with shoulder-long white hair moving around with his pearl white Qi dagger brought fear into the heart of some family leaders who had come to watch the emerging geniuses.

All these family leaders quickly agreed that the boy on the stage was not a genius, he was a monster.

A silver monster who stood there with a cold expression on his face as he observed his opponent with slight disdain. It could have been an easy win if he had seriously injured him.

Hui Yue was not dumb. He had seen the hate and killing intent within his opponent’s eyes from the very start and now he paid back. Anyone who showed such contempt for Hui Yue, he would repay with the same contempt.

A smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face, but this was no longer the smile of an innocent ten-year-old with clean hands, instead it was a sinister grin of an adult in preparation of something terrible. Turning his head from left to right he allowed popping sounds to be heard before he shrugged his shoulders.

“Are you going to forfeit?” Hui Yue asked, his voice as cold as ice, “or would you rather that I become serious?” suddenly another set of light appeared within the left palm, and after a second Hui Yue was now dual wielding his knives, able to create the double amount of pain.

The two daggers within Hui Yue’s hands were emitting a baleful aura, causing the other boy to feel nauseous. Hui Yue had turned into an overwhelming presence.

Upon seeing the additional dagger within Hui Yue’s hand, a cold shiver ran down the spine of the older boy and anyone close enough could see the sinister look within the younger boy’s eyes. It was obvious that this child was not as simple as they expected. He gritted his teeth and hate roiled undisguised within his eyes.

This older boy was not the only one who was shocked to see the second knife to appear, the entire audience was seated, completely quiet and with baited breath observing everything which was happening in front of them.

Scanning the child caused all the high ranked specialists within Riluo City to frown slightly. It was obvious the aura released from this child belonged to a nine-star Student ranked cultivator.

This cultivation base also relied on human cultivation, something which made it clear to anyone who watched that this was no magical beast in human shape which they had expected at first.

Nevertheless, no matter how much they looked at the child, there was something odd about the dantian cave. It felt as if they were missing something important every time they searched and a feeling of worry overwhelmed them.

The only way to hide something from an expert was to have a higher cultivation level, but this child held some secrets that even they were unable to look through.

“I forfeit,” the opponent said between clenched teeth as his gaze filled with anger and despair. Hui Yue would not be shocked if this guy would do anything in the world for revenge, however, right now he just wished to get away.

Hui Yue let out a relieved breath.

‘Was it really that terrible?’ Lan Feng asked curiously, as he understood Hui Yue much better than anyone else.

‘What exactly did you expect?’ Hui Yue answered with a grumpy voice, ‘it’s the first time I cut flesh and even if it wasn’t deadly it was still quite a nauseating feeling.’

‘Get used to it.’ Was the only answer he got from the phoenix as the results of the match was shown. Hui Yue quickly removed both the Qi Guard and the Transforming weapons before he slowly turned towards his friends and left the arena mountain top behind.

Chapter 38 – Right Hand Man

“Did you need to become that aggressive?” Deng Wu asked worriedly. He was the only one of all the friends who knew about Hui Yue’s third high ranked skill. Seeing how Hui Yue so blatantly had shown it off had shocked Deng Wu severely.

“Don’t worry,” Hui Yue said with a small smile, as they moved towards the canteen for their free lunch. “I still have some secrets hidden if I need to win.”

“You aren’t planning on using…. Well, him.... right?” Deng Wu had a perfect reason to be worried about this. If Hui Yue were to unleash Lan Feng’s powers, then it would be very hard to keep his identity as Li Fen a secret, however, Hui Yue just laughed at his worried friend.

“I have more options than that, don’t worry,” he assured his friend.

“What are the two of you talking about?” Rong Ming asked curiously, but neither Hui Yue nor Deng Wu answered the question and just smiled at each other.

Back at the mountaintop, the new fight had yet to commence, as a small break had been given. Even the teachers were standing together in clusters, discussing the student who just displayed three high ranked martial art skills.

The same discussion was ongoing between the audience, and multiple families had left their seats to discuss with other families as to what their theories of the unrecognized genius’ background were.

The entire fight had been recorded by the judge and was already spreading to the different teachers, and eventually the school decided to sell the recording to the visitors.

Every major family purchased at least one version of the recordings that had been made of this fight. The main reason was not because they admired Hui Yue, but because he had performed three high ranked martial art skills. It was possible for others to maybe create their own if they

managed to analyse and understand the martial art skill, then they could create a skill in half the time they would usually need.

Hui Yue would have laughed if he knew that these hopeful men were wishing to learn or create a high ranked skill by looking at him in a recording. Hui Yue had spent years upon years of practice to be able to perfect the skills he had used. Qi Guard and Velocity Flow was impossible to understand, and Transforming Weapons would be a lot harder, as it had so many possible weapons to use that the one weapon he had used did not show enough material to get an idea of the basics.

Half an hour passed by like this before the academy continued to the next group’s fight. Everyone sat down, eager to see which kind of fight would be brought to them. Unfortunately, it would be hard to be more interesting than the previous fight, and various figures were still discussing it up at the seated areas.

On another mountain, Hui Yue was seated down with his friends, calmly eating his dinner before the lot of them needed to return. There were still two battles which would prove whether Gao Yan and Rong Ming could follow suit and rank as one of the top eight participants.

“I never knew you had yet another high ranked martial art skill,” Rong Ming said with an admiring voice, albeit jealous. The Rong family possessed in total two high ranked martial art skills, however, Rong Ming had not qualified to learn either of them. Despite being Hui Yue’s friend, Rong Ming could not help but become jealous of Hui Yue. At the same time he also became suspicious.

Rong Ming was Hui Yue’s first friend and the two of them had know each other for so long, yet now Hui Yue no longer seemed anything like the sweet and naive boy whom he had known for so many years.

Does he perhaps have a teacher? Rong Ming asked, incredibly curious about Hui Yue’s newfound secrets.

Rong Xing had learnt one of the high ranked skills from within the City Lord’s mansion, and this was the one which had caused the various wounds on her previous opponent. During the academy tournament it was against the rules to use weapons. That being said, any weapons created from Qi did not count as they were ranked as a martial art attack skill.

Rong Xing had learnt the family’s High Duke Ranked martial art attack skill called Flying Qi Daggers. What it did was quite similar to Transforming Weapons, although not as flexible.

It would create a number of small daggers, which then were shot towards the opponent. These daggers could not be controlled individually but worked as a barrage, and after each barrage the cultivator needed to recreate another set of daggers.

Unlike Transforming Weapons, it was not possible for the Flying Qi Daggers to create another type of weapon, just as it was impossible for Rong Xing to use the daggers as close combat weapons.

Nevertheless, even while considering such flaws, this was a mean technique with the capability of unleashing an immense amount of damage upon the target, almost guaranteed to kill anyone inferior with one swarm of daggers, and seriously hurt others of the same rank as Rong Xing herself.

It was also due to this ability that Hui Yue, and the others, assumed that if Rong Xing was to go all out, she could easily be the strongest student in Riluo City’s Royal Academy. That being the case, if no one was counting Deng Wu.

Looking out the window, Hui Yue noticed how every student and adult nearby were glancing towards him. He had previously used high ranked martial skills, although never in such a pushy way as today. It was no longer possible for him to be the naïve and relaxed boy he had always been in the future.

It was time to fully embrace this new world and fight to defend his place within it. Firstly, Hui Yue started to consider who were his friends and who weren’t. By going all out in front of such a large audience, it was obvious that some high ranked experts would have sensed that something was amiss.

Despite not knowing what it was that was amiss, Hui Yue still felt the danger lingering around every corner. Hui Yue had mastered at least three high ranked martial art skills and soon he would be flooded with offers to buy them or threats to hand them over.

While thinking about such things, a flash of ice cold rushed through his eyes. Although Hui Yue’s friends had quite a few connections, it was about time for him to start consider ways to keep himself safe. Right now he could think of one way where he could call in some favours and stall the minor families.

For some reason, however, Hui Yue could not shake the feeling that there was something uncomfortable about Lord Rong Liang. This feeling had nothing to back it up, but every time Hui Yue saw the man, his hair stood on ends and a feeling of dread washed over him.

Hui Yue knew that both Lord Rong Liang and Lord Bu Huang had previously used their cultivation base as a way to screen Hui Yue’s body for abnormalities. Although they clearly have not found Lan Feng, it was also obvious that they did find something, but nevertheless, neither of them asked questions.

Lord Rong Liang had always done his utmost to seem like a perfect person, even going as far as to erase Hui Yue’s past, but the feeling of danger still remained buried deep within Hui Yue’s heart, as he could not shake it off.

This constant sense of danger had caused Hui Yue to be careful about his secrets. What Hui Yue had learnt in this world was that strength determined everything and Deng Wu already made sure that he understood how dangerous information could be.

This made Hui Yue feel slightly guilty. He would prefer if he could tell the Rong twins, Ma Kong and Gao Yan about his secret, but for now he had to keep it hidden. If Hui Yue were to let go of his secret it was likely that someone would start expecting something different from Deng Wu as well.

“You really live up to the nickname they gave you,” Gao Yan sighed, as he looked at the relaxed Hui Yue, causing the younger boy to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

“Nickname?” he said laughingly. He had seen that Gao Yan previously had spoken with some of the commoner students, and while they spoke, glances were thrown his way.

Hui Yue had expected to get attention due to his glamourous show, but he had not expected to get a nickname. In a way, it made him feel like a pro wrestler from his old world and the thought made him slightly hesitant.

His eyes no longer held the childish innocence his had been displaying for the last ten years, instead they were sharp and cold, observing everything around him.

“It is about time to return,” Hui Yue said and the others instantly stood up, following Hui Yue back towards the mountain peak.

Although Hui Yue was by far the youngest in their group, it was as if he seemed older than the others, and they would all listen to him, following his suggestions easily. Even the hard to deal with Deng Wu followed anything Hui Yue said.

Returning to the mountaintop, Hui Yue’s small group caused a great uproar. One person from each family wished to greet him and gift him great valuables in hopes of reeling him in, but no matter what they brought Hui Yue respectfully declined showing the maturity he previously had tried to hide.

Walking towards the arena took longer than expected, as Hui Yue had to stop every few steps and greet people he had never seen before. Although he had no idea to whom these families belonged, Hui Yue still showed great respect as they treated him well. Being arrogant could easily court unnecessary trouble.

Finally, they reached their destination, and this time it was Gao Yan’s turn to fight for the position within the top eight.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Gao Yan sighed as he looked at the person in front of him who had a brilliant grin showing on his face.

Gao Yan had not spent any time considering who his opponent would be. From the very start he had said that he would only care about winning and nothing else. This had also caused Gao Yan to not spare a glance at the poster which revealed who fought and when.

After having exhibited such arrogance, it was obvious that shock filled him when he noticed that Cheung Chan Tin was standing in front of him.

“Hey boss,” the grinning young man cordially said, as he strode to the top of the platform. “I’m sorry boss, but I have to fight you today. Those pills will really make the world of a difference for my parents.”

Hearing this made a wry smile appear on Gao Yan’s face. He was in the exact same position. He nodded his head solemnly before finally returning the greeting. “If you hold back on me, I will be very mad at you,” he said with a sigh as he got into position.

Hui Yue looked intently at the fight which was about to break out. To fight one’s friends would usually result in a real spar rather than a frantic battle, and by watching a real spar, one could gain a deeper understanding of their own abilities.

“Receive this blow of mine,” Gao Yan said as he shot forward like a cannonball, straight towards his friend who decided to try and take it on.

“Bring it on!” was the answer which was returned to him, the smile still playing on the Cheung Chan Tin’s face.

White Qi with a faint hint of grey could be seen covering the arms of Cheung Chan Tin. His shit-eating grin had been replaced by a serious expression, as he steeled himself for the initial impact.

As Gao Yan moved forward, Cheung Chan Tin also leaned forward to accept the hit quicker, causing Hui Yue to shake his head. With this, he was currently ensuring that the attack from Gao Yan would inflict more pain than if he had jumped back as the hit had connected, using the force given by Gao Yan to decrease the damage incurred.

It seemed as if Cheung Chan Tin had understood his mistake as his teeth gritted together and Gao Yan moved back again. Unlike a usual fight, Gao Yan did not take advantage of the moment of pain in his opponent, instead he waited until the other was ready before he took a defensive stance.

“Give me everything you got!” Gao Yan said, and his friend did not need to hear this more than once before he gathered all his grey-shining Qi around his fists. Both the quantity and quality of the young men’s Qi were quite equal.

The Qi which had gathered on Cheung Chan Tin’s hands condensed and solidified, covering only his knuckles, turning into a spike on each knuckle.

A shiver ran down Gao Yan’s spine as he saw the martial attack skill which his friend was using; however, he knew that he should not avoid it. He had to take it head on. A grin started spreading across his face and a beckoning gesture was made toward Cheung Chan Tin. This was going to be one exchange of blows after another until one of the two had to give up.

Years back the two of them had run down the dirty streets in Riluo City together, glancing in through the windows of shops and seen the legendary cultivators walk the street.

When the Martial Art School project started the two of them enrolled together, and throughout the entire time at the Riluo City’s Royal Academy, Cheung Chan Tin had obviously become Gao Yan’s right hand man.

This was the first time that Cheung Chan Tin and Gao Yan had the chance to fight all out against each other.

Chapter 39 – The Final Eight

Looking at Cheung Chan Ti’s martial art attack, it was impossible for Gao Yan not to feel a rush of adrenaline. Their friendship was obvious to the onlookers and neither expressed an intent of seriously harming the other, but it was impossible for them to get through the fight unscathed.

These Qi thorns on top of Cheung Chan Ti’s knuckles looked exactly like knuckle dusters made from energy, and they were moving towards Gao Yan at a frightening speed, aiming for his head, ready to pummel into his jaw with the force of a thousand suns.

Gao Yan moved back slightly as to increase the time before the impact and in his hand a swirl of Qi was spinning around turning into a great ball of Qi. As the ball reached palm-size it suddenly started to flatten itself and turned into a shield, which Gao Yan hoisted forth as he rushed towards Cheung Chan Ti.