Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (75 page)

Low growls appeared from the snake-woman as she looked at Hui Yue with curious eyes.

“No.” Lan Feng said out loud. “We will be leaving soon.” As soon as those words were said out loud, a worried expression appeared on the face of the woman, and a throaty growl followed by a sneer.

“We are from the big city.” Lan Feng said, and Hui Yue saw how the phoenix was conversing with the snake-woman. The conversation went on for quite awhile, and Hui Yue felt annoyance grew more and more intense within Lan Feng’s soul, as he kept trying to explain that Hui Yue was here only for training, and that he lived far away in a city much bigger than the village which lay  just outside the forest.

“Listen up woman!” Lan Feng finally roared, as he had lost his patience, “You cannot see him again unless you make a beast pledge!”

Hui Yue furrowed his brows as he heard the word beast pledge. As a cultivator, how could he not understand what a beast pledge was. Beast pledges were much like blood oaths. It was a pledge which the beast swore on their blood, vowing that they would give their lives to the cultivator whom they pledged to.

Unlike the soul contract, the beast pledge was a master servant relationship, and it was a bond which was affirmed by blood. This meant that the cultivator and the beast were just that, a cultivator and a beast. They were unable to communicate with each other, until the beast had a high enough intelligence to learn the human tongue which usually would not happen before they reached the ranks of an Emperor or King.

A beast would never lower themselves to volunteering a beast pledge, while many would rather die than becoming a human’s servant. If this happened, the cultivator had the option of catching the soul of the beast and ingesting it.

To catch a beast soul one needed an inscription pattern created by a water affinity cultivator. These inscription patterns would not allow for the soul to move into the netherworld, but instead link it to the person who activated the inscription, and while swallowing the soul it would be linked to their cultivation base, forcing the soul to lend its strength and abilities to the human cultivator.

Hui Yue had understood from the previous conversation that it was obvious this snake-woman had been curious about Hui Yue and other humans, but after hearing Lan Feng mentioning the beast pledge Hui Yue knew that the snake-woman ought to be mad. If she was not mad, then she should at least be displeased, and try to change the subject.

Unfortunately, things did not go the way Lan Feng and Hui Yue had expected. Quick as lightning, the snake-woman pounced forward, a cold chill spreading through Hui Yue’s body, yet by the time he managed to withdraw blood was already running from his arm.

Seeing this Hui Yue was alert, and he quickly circulated his energy within his body about to release his most dangerous attack, Fire Spark, when he saw that the snake-woman had not followed up with another attack, instead she had sliced her own arm with one of her claw-like nails.

She then mixed the blood of Hui Yue with the blood of herself, and her voice allowed for certain growls to escape.

As soon as those growls had vanished a golden light shone on the wound on her arm, and a  silvery light enveloped the entire beast, eventually illuminating the entire area in this soft and gentle light.

Hui Yue felt how this light was absorbed by the cut on his arm as it slowly closed up, leaving behind a small scar. The rest of the light flooded towards the snake-woman. Some of it entered her wound as well, closing it up much like Hui Yue’s had done.

The rest of the light moved to her forehead where a pearl like gem had become visible, and this gem absorbed the rest of the light. Slowly the gem vanished into her forehead, and now her eyes no longer shone with the beautiful red colour they had previously. Now they were silvery, the sign that showed one had successfully been subdued by a cultivator, and that she had made the beast pledge.

Silence overtook the small area within the forest as both Hui Yue and Lan Feng were completely shocked, neither attempting to speak as they were gobsmacked to see a beast initiate the beast pledge. Finally, Lan Feng cleared his throat before finally asking, “So what is your name?”

Walking back to camp, Hui Yue sighed deeply. He was currently walking hand in hand with his new beast companion, yet no matter how he looked at this woman, it was impossible for him to see her as a beast.

Her lower body was that of a snake while her upper body was that of a beautiful mature woman. Her head was at the height of almost two meters. Her beautiful face was of a woman who had seen the world and her now silvery eyes shone with intelligence.

Yet this intelligence was only in certain aspects as she seemed to know absolutely nothing about the world outside. During the conversation earlier Hui Yue had learned that her name was Sha Yun. She did not understand the concept of age, so she had no idea of how old she was.

Three weeks ago she had gotten interested in Hui Yue when he had spared her and her sisters and even gifted them medicinal pills. After that she then had observed him daily, and she slowly found him more and more interesting to the point where she started wondering what other humans were like. What the world outside this forest was like.

She had always wished to ask him, but she knew that he did not understand her questions;  when she heard that Hui Yue was going to leave the forest fear struck her, and she had acted rashly and initiated the beast pledge.

“What is she doing here?” Gao Yan asked with furrowed brows, as Hui Yue made his way into their camp with Sha Yun in tow.

Chapter 61 – The Three Beast Sisters

Walking through the dense forest back to the camp had given Hui Yue a lot of time to think things over. At first he had been completely against the fact that he now had his previous opponent following him, yet he knew of no way to release a beast who had made  the beast pledge other than killing.

Looking at the beautiful woman behind him, Hui Yue had no intention of killing her, but bringing her along seemed slightly out of place as well. Not to mention that she had completely subjugated herself to him, a feeling which caused his scalp to grow numb.

‘Don’t complain too much.’ Lan Feng said with a hearty laugh. ‘Having such a good looking woman as your servant is not bad. If you don’t want to enjoy her, then don’t mind if I do!’

‘Stop it.’ Hui Yue hissed, trying to make the phoenix serious, but he quickly understood that although Lan Feng had been deeply shocked by seeing a humanoid beast personally initiating the beast pledge, he was pleasantly surprised compared to the shock and despair which were the emotions that had overtaken Hui Yue.

This day the campsite was located at a beautiful river which was running through the forest. The forest floor was filled with beautiful flowers and many animals and magical beasts of lower cultivation roamed around, giving the area a welcoming feel.

The river was fairly wide, wide enough to allow for the youngsters to see the rays of sunshine which shone down between the gap made in the tree branches, but not so wide that they could no longer see the opposite river bank.

Every day, the group would move their campsite to a new location where they would hunt beasts. One person would be left behind to guard their tents and cook their dinner, and this person was determined by drawing sticks. Today the person who was waiting was Gao Yan.

Walking into the campsite dragging Sha Yun with him, Hui Yue saw that no one else had returned, and he heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

“What is she doing here?” The older boy asked with furrowed brows as he looked up from the pot in which he was currently cooking stew for their dinner. No actual hostility was seen on his face, but instead utmost confusion.

It had been three weeks since the battle between the humanoid beasts and the young students occurred, but that fight caused the biggest breakthrough for every member of the group. This caused them to feel slight gratitude towards these beasts, even if the fight had been much more dangerous than anything they had ever experienced before. With great danger came great rewards.

“She is curious about humans.” Hui Yue said hesitantly, as he led her towards the fire where he sat her down on a log. “Sit.” He ordered as though he spoke to a little girl or smaller animal, yet the snake-woman seemed not to mind his manner of speaking at all, and she curled her tail as she sat down on the log as told.

Sha Yun had been living within the Magical Forest for multiple years, yet most mercenaries knew that they were to avoid the three clearings that belonged to the three beast sisters that enjoyed ambushing unsuspecting cultivators. Although it would be possible for some mercenaries to kill these sisters, the reward was really not worth it. Their strength was far above the rank of their beast cores, thus they had lived a fairly sheltered life.

Sha Yun and her sisters were aware that they had human blood in their bodies, and this blood had gifted them with extraordinary intelligence compared to other beasts. Their intelligence also allowed for them to befriend the Saint ranked beast King of the forest, as he usually got bored without anyone to have a proper conversation with.

Yet although their intelligence had grown, the three sisters had grown up relatively sheltered from humans causing their curiosity and mentality to be similar to that of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old young woman. A young woman who had never been outside of her own front door and knew nothing of the astonishing world which was waiting for her.

Sha Yun was exactly like this. She was curious by nature and could not help but wonder what the humans were like. All her life she had been taught that they were the enemies of magical beasts, and that she ought to kill on sight because the humans would do the same. It was survival of the fittest in this Magical Forest.

Yet, after living year by year believing this, Sha Yun suddenly experienced a strong young boy who was capable of appearing out of nowhere, and although he had defeated both her and her two sisters, he still allowed for them to leave with their dignity somewhat intact.

Such a human was different, and Sha Yun could not help but wonder if the human world could be different as well. Suddenly the narrow world which contained the forest had opened itself in front of her. Although it meant subjugating herself to a human, Sha Yun already realised that her life had been in the hands of this young master, and he had allowed her to leave with her sisters. Based on this alone, Sha Yun’s dignity told her that she owed him her life.

“Hello.” A voice suddenly rang out, dragging Sha Yun from her deep thoughts and she looked up, her silvery eyes locking onto the young man who was standing in front of her. Looking at him, Sha Yun could easily see that he was older than Hui Yue, and she remembered that he had been fighting with one of her sisters earlier. Yet right now he was sprouting a gentle smile and his only reaction to her silvery eyes was a raised eyebrow.

“My name is Gao Yan.” The young man introduced himself. “I take it you do not speak human yet?” He asked, and Sha Yun could only nod in reply. She had never expected that this young man would welcome her like this.

A low growling sound escaped her lips, and she tried copying the words which Gao Yan had said, though to no avail. A disappointed pout appeared on her face and her snake-tail started tapping the ground in displeasure.

“Her name is Sha Yun.” Hui Yue said over his shoulder as he moved toward the river, getting some water before finding a place to wash. Fighting the magical beasts daily caused them to be covered in grime which would smell horrid after a short amount of time.

The riverbanks were filled with the softest grass and a small slope lead down to the refreshing water. Jumping into this water Hui Yue  shivered slightly  as the drop in temperature was quite extreme, yet after few moments his body had gotten used to the chilled water. As it cleaned his skin,a satisfied sigh escaped his lips as he closed his eyes and allowed the stream to slowly sweep him down the river and past the campsite. The water soothed his taunt muscles and tired body.

Suddenly a loud growl broke through the air causing the relaxed Hui Yue to instantly become alert, yet before he managed to see anything, a large shadow landed on top of him, and he felt something slither around his waist, dragging him against the stream.