Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (74 page)

Finally, the snake-woman sighed deeply, making her seem even more human, and then she nodded her head. She was one of the three sisters of this magical forest, and her honour and dignity was high, yet when it came to their survival she would give up every shred of dignity to live another day.

“We have a deal?” Hui Yue asked once more, and the beast nodded again clearly unhappy with the outcome but unable to think of anything else they could do.

“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Ma Kong suddenly broke in with furrowed brows. “How can we trust them?”

Hui Yue chuckled slightly as he tapped his storage memory stone and withdrew a couple of jade bottles containing medicinal pills.

“We cannot trust them.” He said as he shared the pills to his six friends. “But they cannot trust us either.” He continued and then tossed the medicinal pills to the beasts.

Although these beasts have never eaten medicinal pills they often eat medicinal plants and enjoyed the raw energy within them, so when they opened the jade bottle and the thick and rich fragrance emitted from within, their nostrils twitched and greed appeared in their eyes. These were definitely much more enjoyable to eat than raw herbs.

A feeling of doubt flashed inside the snake-woman as she looked questioningly at Hui Yue. Had he not just given these pills to his friends, then she would have thought he was about to poison her, yet now she believed that he truly held no more hostility towards them.

The dreadful killing intent which previously had enveloped the entire area had disappeared, and the white-haired boy now smiled to the beasts who were greedily eating the medicinal pills.

Finally, a low growl rung out and the snake woman started to make her way back to the forest where they lived. Her heart was filled with opposing and complicated emotions. In one way she severely feared this young boy, who wielded such strong and destructive power. The two of them had been evenly matched although she was suppose to be stronger, but as soon as he had unleashed the fireball, she was perfectly well aware that she was losing.

To admit defeat had been hard, but this young human had allowed for her to stay alive and even keep her dignity by promising not to enter into their domains again. Not to mention that they had just been given medicinal pills to heal the injuries which they suffered. No one could argue that the injuries were their own fault, as it had been the beasts who attacked the humans first.

Sighing, the snake-woman turned back, noticing that the white-haired boy was still looking at them, her heart clenched slightly and she was unsure whether she hated him or admired him.

‘What do we do now?’ The blue scaled woman growled to the Snake-woman who sighed at the question.

‘We do what we promised to do.’ She growled back, her eyes shining with a mysterious light. ‘Had we not agreed to this, then we would have died by now.” She said as she moved deeper into the

forest itself.

‘But big sister.’ The blue scaled woman growled rather viciously, ‘they were the ones who entered into my territory. We can slay them the next time they step foot in the forest!’

‘I gave my word that I would allow for them to hunt for two months. They will not annoy us, and we will not annoy them. The enmity between the two of you was solved with the medicinal pills!’ The Snake-Woman roared back, finally getting angry. No one was going to get her to go back on her promise.

Also due to magical beasts having a beast core rather than dantians, they were much better at absorbing the essence within medicinal plants. It was an evolution which had happened throughout the ages, and now that they had been given a medicinal pills which contained a wide array of plants, all of the three sisters benefited greatly.

Back at camp, Hui Yue looked at the ground and sighed deeply. The entire field was marred by the fight which had occurred there. Some places were burnt, while others had many craters in the ground created by Deng Wu’s Dancing Qi Pillar and Ma Kong’s Qi Bombs.

Long cracks had been created by Rong Ming’s Slashing Qi, and multiple stab wounds had been made by the Qi Daggers belonging to Rong Xing.

At first the students had not looked much better themselves. Their clothes had been shredded by the beasts’ ferocious attacks and their skin was not much better. Rong Xing still had a gaping wound on her leg, but after all of them had consumed some of the medicinal pills, colour was returning to their bodies, and they all sat down cultivating.

This battle had allowed for all six youngsters to gain enlightenment in their respective attacks. While seated in their meditative stance, the essence from the heavens and the earth rushed towards these youngsters, as if it was eager to participate in the current breakthrough of their understanding.

Deng Wu was the first to open his eyes, and as he did a golden flash appeared in his pupils only to vanish again within a second. He looked at Hui Yue who was in a deep trance. The essence of this world was gathered around him, causing even the air to ripple with energy, as he absorbed and refined Qi while pondering about how to advance and evolve his Velocity Flow and Qi Guard skills.

Rong Xing was the next to open her eyes, and as she did she was completely quiet and she moved to the village where she started cooking food for the rest as they woke up.

The next who awoke was Gao Yan followed by Ma Kong, and both spent some time practicing their martial art skills before they moved into the village, tempted by the delicious smell of roasted meat.

Around an hour after Ma Kong and Gao Yan had awoken, Hui Yue opened his eyes and a deep understanding was visible within his eyes, yet what he comprehended was not enough for Hui Yue to instantly evolve his Velocity Flow.

Closing his eyes once more, Hui Yue understood that it was possible for him to evolve Velocity Flow; to make it much stronger than before by allowing the copy to no longer just be a copy, but an actual duplication of himself, yet he was missing a crucial aspect of it. No matter how hard Hui Yue thought about it, the final aspect of how to implementing the changes was always out of reach for him.

Looking at Rong Ming a smile appeared on Hui Yue’s lips as he saw how the other boy was surrounded by essence from the heavens and the earth, essence which was automatically drawn to this person who was cultivating. From this essence, Hui Yue could easily guess that Rong Ming was the one who had gained the most enlightenment of them all, and the white-haired boy could not wait to see just how far his first friend would grow.

A low chuckle escaped Hui Yue’s lips, as he thought back on all the days he had spent with Rong Ming and Rong Xing at this very field in the past. The good mood stayed and Hui Yue moved towards the village ready to eat some of Rong Xing’s delicious food, before starting to plan the remaining time of their training camp.

Chapter 60 – Stalking

Hui Yue stood bent over the One-eyed Demon Dog corpse, and he was about to remove the beast core when a deep sigh could be heard coming from him. He straightened his back and looked up into the tree-crowns above him, before he said out loud: “Okay, come out. How long do you plan on stalking me in this forest?”

It had been three weeks since the battle against the three female beasts, and Hui Yue had since then entered the magical forest together with the others. Everything had been exactly as they had previously agreed upon, and none of the humans stepped into the clearings which belonged to the humanoid beasts, just as those three ensured that the Saint ranked magical beast stayed away.

The three weeks had gone by in a flash, and the six youngsters had moved further and further into the forest, as they were gradually increasing the difficulty for each fight. Even though they were now fighting beasts of the Disciple rank, none of these proved difficult as they all had overpowering skills and they could not compare to the intense fight against the three females at the start of their training.

Even though the fights had proved slightly lacklustre, the six young people managed to gain one enlightenment after another regarding their abilities. Each time one of them gained enlightenment, the essence of the heavens and the earth would flood around that person, rapidly increasing the speed in which they would break through.

This help from the heavens and the earth caused everyone present to manage to refine much more Qi in a short amount of time than they had ever done before.

Hui Yuemanaged to break into the ranks of a six star Disciple, while Rong Xing had reached the peak of a third star Practitioner. Rong Ming had finally caught up with his sister, stepping into the third star like her.

Gao Yan, shocked Hui Yue once again. His cultivation technique had allowed him to reach the fifth star Disciple rank after only a few insights It was obvious that this guy would soon overtake Hui Yue’s rank once more.

Ma Kong had not managed to break into the Practitioner rank, before entering the Magical Forest, but after having enlightenments of his own regarding the Qi Bomb, he now found that he too had entered into the realm of Practitioners.

Deng Wu was the one who Hui Yue was most anticipating a break through. He had been a peak nine-star Practitioner for such a long time, yet he still had not broken through. This alone showed just how hard it was for someone to unlock the middle dantian.

Although it had not happened yet, Hui Yue knew that it would soon. Every time Deng Wu moved around within the forest, the air would fluctuate and the various elements would be drawn to this boy. It was as though the specks of energy waited to see which elemental affinity would be revealed.

Since the fight, Hui Yue had felt a constant pair of eyes which followed his every move. At first these eyes caused a feeling of danger, but Hui Yue quickly noticed that they no longer contained hostility, but curiosity.

Currently Hui Yue was partaking in a competition, which Gao Yan had started, to see who could gather the most beast cores within three days. It would be their final one, before they would journey back to Riluo City, but even now these eyes were following his every move.

Having accepted three weeks of being followed, Hui Yue had finally had enough, and he decided to call out the snake-woman who had been following him for so long. Just as his voice rang out through the dense forest, a slithering sound could be heard and the yellow woman appeared in front of him; her eyes shone with curiosity whenever she looked at him.

A big smile appeared on her face as she held out her hands, within them were beast cores which had come from random Disciple ranked beasts. Seeing this many cores, Hui Yue could not help but suck in a breath of air, and his eyes were displaying disbelief as the snake-woman urged him to take them.

Seeing this, a thought struck Hui Yue and he withdrew a few Qi Congregating Pills from his satchel, which he placed in the clawed hands as he accepted the beast cores.

The snake-woman cocked her head to the side slightly, reminding Hui Yue of a pet which waited to be granted allowance to eat a snack, and an involuntary laughter escaped his lips.

The laughter caused the snake-woman to remove her focus from the four pills in her hands, as she looked at the boy in front of her before, she to, laughed as well. Her laughter was like pearls of water falling on dry land, and even Hui Yue was put into a trance just by listening.

The forest suddenly turned much more appealing than it had been before. The colours were more vivid, and even the dead carcass of the One-eyed Demon Dog seemed like a fluffy puppy.

Hui Yue was smiling mindlessly as he floated closer to the snake-woman. Suddenly a jolt went through his body, and Hui Yue felt how his consciousness was sucked away, leaving his body to be controlled by Lan Feng.

Shock filled Hui Yue as he understood that this snake-woman was indeed an enchantress who could confuse the senses of men, yet he also understood that she was not aware of doing so. In a way she was exactly like a child.

‘Don’t be fooled.’ Lan Feng warned as he stayed in control over the body. ‘Although she is not ranked incredibly high, she still has the intelligence equal to a King ranked beast considering her human blood.’

Hearing this somewhat shocked Hui Yue, as he had never expected human blood to give such a major benefit to a magical beast. Although it was a benefit, it also proved that these humanoid beasts did not belong together with the rest of the magical beasts, but neither were they humans.