Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (80 page)

It was a warm summer day, and the sun shone down with rays of warm sunshine, heating up the ground and allowing for the arena to be bathed in a comfortable welcoming light. A slight summer breeze was floating through the mountaintops, constantly bringing fresh air and causing the heat to be comfortable rather than stifling.

Standing at one of those mountaintops, Hui Yue looked curiously as he saw how Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun both moved into the arena in front of them. Both wore serious expressions on their faces as they turned towards each other.

A vicious smile appeared on Sha Yun’s face, causing her stunning features to look sinister. Her silvery eyes lit up from within with a strange light, and the tip of her tail was tapping hard against the solid ground, raising a cloud of dust with each hit.

Wang Ju Long did not smile, but her eyes were shining with an unyielding light and within her hands, a small hurricane started to appear. Much like the other times, the wind picked up and the hurricane grew, yet this time it was no longer just wind which was visible, but a large quantity of Qi which was floating around the young woman. No Qi lightning bolts were visible, and Hui Yue felt excitement as he guessed that this hard to train high ranked martial art skill once more had evolved at the hands of Wang Ju Long.

Seeing the wind pick up a snort escaped Sha Yun’s lips as she coiled up her tail, forming a spring which she used to propel herself forward straight into the raging hurricane in front of her.

While rushing through the sky, Sha Yun finally activated her Qi, and a small pearl like orb suddenly appeared on her forehead, just above her eyes. The Qi circulated outside the body, flooded down her beautiful figure before all of it gathered at her hands, creating long dagger like nails which she used with utmost precision.

These Qi nails were ready to shred the hurricane, yet as soon as Sha Yun reached Wang Ju Long, the latter jumped up high leaving behind the safety which the fierce winds provided her.

Only a moment later the sound of slashing could be heard, and the fierce winds slowly died down. Sha Yun had managed to perfectly slice through the hurricane, yet no Wang Ju Long was inside, and the snake-woman instantly became alert as she looked around.

Wang Ju Long was nowhere to be seen on the ground, and a loud gasp could be heard as Hui Yue looked into the sky. The former was currently hanging in the sky with wings created from Qi lightning that were attached to her back, and with each flap of the wings more energy was created. Each small flap of energy was then fed to a larger Qi lightning bolt which patiently was swirling around the young woman’s waist.

This was an evolution which Hui Yue had never expected, and it was also something which made him wonder just what the young girl had to go through to unlock the insights needed for such a transformation.

A loud hiss could be heard coming from Sha Yun, and the Qi which had previously been used as an offensive attack was channelled to her tail where it clad the tail in a protective layer, giving the scales a white shine.

Now it was Wang Ju Long’s time to sneer as she flapped her wings, allowing for multiple Qi lightning bolts to descend down upon Sha Yun. Seeing this, the snake-woman hissed in indignation, and by using her swift reactions she managed to avoid the majority of the bolts, while the Qi covered tail took care of the few she was unable to avoid.

Neither human nor beast were in their best condition, as both the Qi Lightning had sucked a lot of Wang Ju Long’s Qi pool and Sha Yun had needed a lot of her Qi to block those lightning bolts, yet none of them wished to bow to the other.

Sha Yun was a snake-like magic beast, and she was unable to fly in the sky unlike Wang Ju Long, however she was used to sparring against her bird sister and she had picked up multiple tricks along the way.

One of these tricks was poison. Channeling her Qi, Sha Yun gathered everything in her mouth where she spat out some of her poison and covered it completely in small Qi energy balls after which she spat hard towards the floating woman and then created another poison ball.

At first, Wang Ju Long considered these poison balls easy to avoid, yet after few moments when more than ten had been thrown her way, she realised that Sha Yun was not aiming to hit her, she was aiming to exhaust the former’s Qi pool and in that way force her to land on the ground.

Gritting her teeth, Wang Ju Long did just that, but as she landed on the ground her wings did not dissipate as Sha Yun had expected, instead they transformed from wings to a glove which was draped upon her beautiful slim jade hand.

Chapter 67 – Strange Occurrences

The lightning bolts were now all gathered around Wang Ju Long’s hand and the crackling sound caused the air around the glove to be twisted by the strong energy fluctuation.

Although Sha Yun had been looking down on Wang Ju Long previously, she no longer dared to do so as she feared this final attack of hers. Instead she gathered all of her remaining Qi and sent it to her tail. In the end if she wanted to deal with such a terrifying attack, she had to use her most powerful counter attack.

Unlike last time when Sha Yun gathered her Qi within her tail, this time it no longer draped the tail as a beautiful protective layer of white, instead it was concentrated on three scales alone which were located almost at the tip of the tail. These three scales shone with light: one blue, one white, and one sand coloured.

This was an attack which the three sisters had created together, and it contained a slight bit of  the cultivation base from each of the three sisters. It was an attack which required channelling and now was the best time to use it.

Wang Ju Long fell to her knees, as the energy fluctuations around her outstretched arm constantly grew in size, and as the world blackened she forced her consciousness back and got to her feet before rushing towards the snake-woman in front of her.

Wang Ju Long had been rushing after Sha Yun for a few seconds, before she gave up and accepted that when it came to speed, she had no way of defeating against the snake-woman. Instead she stood still, her lightning glove intensifying above her clenched fist and sweat pouring down her face, as she struggled to keep control over the power which was currently within her grasp. Each second require an immense amount of mental strength to not allow for her body to collapse on the stage.

Sha Yun was in a similar position as her channelling had been slower than she had expected due to Wang Ju Long’s pursuit which had been shockingly close, even considering the agility that Sha Yun had.

Suddenly Sha Yun started moving, jolting forward like the snake she was and her tail was whipping through the air, gaining momentum before it slammed into Wang Ju Long and her Qi lightning glove.

A large boom resounded and the very ground shook from the impact, causing everyone at the mountaintop to stare shocked at the two. A cloud of dust had been raised from the ground, causing the stage to be covered in a blanket of sand, and making it impossible to see the outcome of the match.

Hui Yue swore inwardly, as he realised that the two of them were likely to have suffered some severe injuries from this final exchange of blows, and he could not help but blame himself for his curiosity. That being said, it was obvious that Wang Ju Long had greatly benefitted from the cultivation technique she had been given, and she was likely to become a worthy rival for Hui Yue once more.

This caused Hui Yue to be filled with mixed emotions. On one side was happiness and excitement, but on the other was worry. He was the one who urged them to duel so in this situation it was his fault, should they be injured.

The dust slowly cleared and Hui Yue, together with the others, were breathlessly staring at the stage, seeing a Wang Ju Long walking down wobbling. She was clutching her arm which had previously been covered by the Qi Lightning Bolt’s glove, and anyone could see that the exchange had caused some injury to the young girl’s body.

The usually jade white skin had turned pale and drops of sweat were increasing as Wang Ju Long nodded to the others before she, without a sound, took her departure moving towards the infirmary.

Looking back at the stage, Hui Yue’s face turned equally pale as he rushed up to support Sha Yun. The snake-woman had collapsed on the stage, kneeling on the hard floor and was coughing up blood, which stained the ground black.

Going closer, Hui Yue noticed that it was not as bad as he had expected, a strong determination was evident within Sha Yun’s eyes and she managed to stand up on her own, although slightly unsteadily, as she moved to Hui Yue.She gestured that she was okay, and small growling sounds appeared together with one more mouthful of blood.

After the fight it was obvious that both Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long had gained some mutual respect for each other, and although neither liked the other, both of them were in a state where they chose to completely ignore each other.

As the new school year started once again, Wang Ju Long started hanging out with the group and she was quickly welcomed by the others. Sha Yun had become a part of the group as well, and she could always be seen following Hui Yue around.

As Sha Yun was Hui Yue’s magical beast she lived together with him in his courtyard, and all her spare time was spent on trying to learn the human language. The first word she learned to say was ‘Hui Yue’, and within half a year she had managed to perfect her linguistic skills.

During this half year, Wang Ju Long had managed to break through once more, and she was now the same rank as Hui Yue, causing the two childhood rivals to spar with each other on a daily basis.

Hui Yue only focused on his cultivation, and he would spar against Rong Xing, Sha Yun, Deng Wu, and Wang Ju Long almost every day, after which he would enter meditation to gain understanding of his skills while increasing his cultivation base.

Sha Yun kept changing as she became a part of the outside world. Together with her linguistic skills that grew  so did her confidence which she had lacked up until then, and she turned into a true seductress overnight, usually causing problems for Hui Yue. She would from time to time wander the academy alone and flirt with the human boys as she had gotten aware of her sensual appearance, not to mention the times she would try and seduce the elder who was in charge of the medicinal pill outlet.

Each and every time she would be dragged back to Hui Yue and told to behave properly, yet no matter what Hui Yue said, Sha Yun was unable to completely listen as she was experiencing the most exciting time of her life.

As the warm summer ended it became time for the national tournament at the main branch of the Royal Academy, but Hui Yue had politely declined joining as he felt his cultivation base was lacking.

That was his official reason, while in truth, Hui Yue did not have any intention of standing out on a national stage just yet. Although he was becoming famous within Riluo City, it was only one of the many cities within the Taiyang Kingdom and boasting was very common when a new genius child emerged. Unfortunately there were as many geniuses as there were clouds in the skies.

The Rong twins and Gao Yan were all picked for the national tournament, and they all did well during the battles, yet Hui Yue enjoyed his time at the academy to train, feeling no sense of jealousy when he saw their prizes.

The excitement from the tournament lasted all winter and with it came snow and the colder temperatures but soon the snow melted and spring returned. Years came and years passed while Hui Yue was focused on cultivating his Qi, hoping to break into the master rank.

Deng Wu had broken into the Master rank at the tender age of sixteen and he had shocked the entire Riluo City with this feat. His elemental affinity had turned out to be Metal and Earth, and although he was unable to become an alchemist he was still practicing hard to become an inscriber.

This astonishing event had caused the entire city to celebrate for a whole week as they saw the birth of a genius above the usual. A genius who might possibly manage to break into the ranks of a Saint.

Although geniuses were as abundant as clouds in the skies, geniuses which had the ability to ascent into the ranks of a Saint were limited. It was indeed something worth celebrating.

After a year, at the age of seventeen, the next to break through had been Gao Yan. This shocked everyone as they all knew his cultivation base had been shattered, and he was seen as another peerless genius of the younger generation.