Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (87 page)

Back at the inn, Hui Yue woke up after having slept for the majority of the day, and as he woke he could feel how his body was much heavier than it had been in a long time. His movements were nowhere as fluid as they had been, and he felt as though his head was being stomped on by elephants. In many ways, Hui Yue once more felt as if he had an immense hangover, like the ones he had experienced in his old life.

Sighing deeply, Hui Yue allowed for his tired body to sit up only to be greeted by Sha Yun and a table filled to the brim with food. However, while looking at the table all Hui Yue could see was root vegetables and red meat. A large quantity of both items.

“This is?” He asked curiously, looking at the table he gave a sheepish smile as his stomach started growling.

“It is filled with iron.” Sha Yun said with a serious expression on her face. “This will help you gain your strength again.” The snake-woman continued as she loaded plenty of root vegetables mixed with a few bloody red steaks onto a plate.

Although Hui Yue had been hungry previously, his appetite vanished the moment he saw the steak. Although it was seared on the sides, it was obviously still raw in the middle and this rawness was really rather unpleasant.

Looking at the root vegetables, Hui Yue could only sigh as he understood that it was clearly Sha Yun who had been cooking for him, and although he genuinely enjoyed the sweet thoughts, he also preferred his vegetables washed before they were served.

Hui Yue sighed as he slowly made his way down to the inn’s ground level, which served as a tavern and he ordered a much more well-cooked meal, which he bought for the both of them to eat together.

The rest of the evening, Hui Yue did everything he could to entertain the snake-woman, yet no matter how much she asked Hui Yue refused to tell her who caused his injuries. Hui Yue knew Sha Yun well enough to know that she would go out and seek vengeance for him, and although Sha Yun was strong she never paid enough attention to her cultivation and as a result she was no longer as strong as Hui Yue. If this man had managed to put Hui Yue into such a sorry state, then how easy would it be for him to turn Sha Yun into a snake-skin bag?

Sha Yun was easily distracted by Hui Yue and the two of them spend the rest of the evening chatting until Hui Yue decided that although his wounds had healed, he still needed more sleep. So he dragged his exhausted body to the bed where he allowed for himself to once more enjoy a great night of rest.

Although Hui Yue had been sleeping a lot recently, it was not something which happened often, as Hui Yue was a cultivator and he wished to use every hour of the day to cultivate. However now that Hui Yue had suffered an injury, or if he had been forced to use up his entire cultivation base, then he would allow himself a night of rest to replenish both his body and his Qi spiral, in the most natural way possible. This allowed for him to minimize the strain on his body, not to mention stabilizing his Qi.

Waking up the following morning, Hui Yue once more managed to slip out from the snake-tail which was wrapped neatly around him, before he moved towards the kitchen where he ordered two large meals.

Today was the day where they would meet Deng Wu to have a look at a place which could possibly turn into their new home. Sha Yun was as excited as Hui Yue and the two of them quickly finished off their breakfast before they headed out the door, slowly making their way towards the Deng family compound.

Deng Wu was smiling brightly as he greeted Hui Yue, his eyes shining with excitement.His hands tightly grasping a key memory stone, used to unlock the mansion, which they were looking at, yet the excitement quickly dulled and turned to worry as Deng Wu saw that Hui Yue was not his usual self.

The usually jade white skin had turned ashen grey. The eyes which usually shone with life and determination were filled with exhaustion, and Sha Yun who walked on his side used her arms to support him.

“Are you okay?” Deng Wu asked worriedly, as he looked at Hui Yue who was coming his way only to get a firm nod in reply. Seeing this, Deng Wu was curious as to what could have happened to the younger boy, yet no matter how much he looked, he did not see any wounds or injuries.

“Let’s take a carriage.” Deng Wu said as he once more glanced towards Hui Yue, before he rushed back to the family compound and brought the carriage which was being pulled by his magical beast.

Seated within the luxurious carriage, Hui Yue looked out the carriage-window after a while. The mansion which he was currently looking at was located in a nicer part of town, yet still quite a distance from the family compounds. The mansion was created for smaller families and not for the sake of big family clans, and one of these houses was exactly what Hui Yue was on his way to see.

Gazing at the busy streets which were floating in front of Hui Yue’s eyes, he suddenly turned serious as his eyes locked onto the eyes of another man. This man was large with a wild beard and intelligent eyes. He was wearing a black cloak, and as soon as he saw Hui Yue he moved his finger to his throat and sliced slowly, signaling that he was coming for him.  

Chapter 75 – The Mansion

Hui Yue narrowed his eyes as he saw the bearded man’s gesture, clearly promising suffering later. This man was without a doubt the cultivator whom Hui Yue had the pleasure of sparring with the previous night, and the white-haired boy felt how the red mist within was boiling, fighting against the blue cloud to get out.

Hui Yue took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes as he calmed himself and slowly dimmed the killing intent, and as his eyes opened up once more they were filled with a coldness which coupled with his pale skin caused him to look like a grim reaper.

Both Sha Yun and Deng Wu noticed the difference in Hui Yue, but as they looked out the window there was the two of them saw nothing apart from the usual city streets which quickly swept past them due to the magical beast that was pulling the carriage.

The carriage suddenly had a tense atmosphere as nobody dared to ask Hui Yue what he had seen, then Deng Wu started to talk about the birthday celebration and all the new gossip he had heard that night.

The majority of the gossip was centered about cultivation and which ranks the different family members had obtained, not to mention which sons or daughters were now old enough to get married.

When meeting at social gatherings the different families would converse and find allies. Some would even decided to consolidate their alliance with marriage. Hui Yue was fortunate that his background was unknown which was why no one tried to speak about the subject to him.

Deng Wu kept speaking about rank the members of the many different families had gained until they arrived at a nice area in Riluo City.

This area was very much like the area with the family compounds with green trees by the sidewalks and smaller parks and gardens located between the mansions.

The house which they had stopped in front of was three stories tall, and each story was adorned with a roof that had beautiful red tiles, and a carved dragon on top. The second story had a balcony created with red wood, engraved with even more dragons. These dragons were all painted in golden colours which were shining brightly as the rays from the low winter sun touched them.

Leaving the carriage, Hui Yue was completely astonished, and he quickly forgot everything about the cultivator whom he had been fighting with earlier. Instead his entire focus was aimed at the house in front of him, as it was a lot more than what he expected.

The mansion was built on a mound raising it above street level, and the stone steps lead up to the beautiful mansion gate. This place was so big that Hui Yue could never imagine living there alone.

Moving up the steps, Hui Yue noticed that to the side and behind the mansion were three small gardens. One of these gardens was a stone garden. The gravel was neatly arranged to make a floor and on top various stone figurines were placed. The second garden had a lake and a small pagoda together with a bride. The lake took up a big portion of this garden in which Dragon Fish were swimming about energetically, their scales glittering in the sunlight.

The final garden was full of green trees and bushes, and it also had a small stream which fed water to the lake from an outside source. A small trail led through the garden and following it took Hui Yue, Deng Wu, and Sha Yun to a small clearing where there was space for training as well as a hot spring.

Having seen the surroundings, Hui Yue felt how the tranquil blue cloud within him was surging, as though it grew in size from just being within these three scenic gardens.

Hui Yue had also noticed a change in the essence which he absorbed in the these gardens, it was as though the plants and atmosphere produced much more essence than  anywhere else in Riluo City, that Hui Yue was aware of. Not even the big family compounds had a place like this, because all the essence would be swallowed up before it had the chance to accumulate.

Walking into the mansion, he noticed that the middle had a lovely courtyard with a small water fountain. The rooms were all built around this courtyard, which was surrounded on all sides and one could see all three stories up,  each room was massive comparable to the size of his old house.

Looking around, Hui Yue knew that this was a place he could call home, and he was as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve as he walked around the entire house, looking at the stunning engravings and the beautifully carved statues of magical beasts.

A big smile was evident on Hui Yue’s face. The difference from when he had arrived was like night and day, currently there was absolutely no question in Hui Yue’s mind that this was the place he wished to call home.

Purchasing the mansion required a hundred spirit coins, which was an astronomical price for such a building, and also the reason why it had not been sold despite being on the market for such a long time.

Although Hui Yue had earned a lot of coins when he sold the skills back in his first year within Riluo City, he had spent more than half of them on medicinal pills, and now he was spending a lot on a home, yet to Hui Yue it was worth every single coin that he spent.

His income had been increasing steadily, but even though he did get a good amount of money from the Deng Family and their watermills, it was still only around twenty to twenty-four spirit coins. Hui Yue easily used at least fifty spirit coins a year on medicinal pills for his friends and himself.

It would have been more financially stable had he received money from the insurance company as well. Even still Hui Yue never regretted giving the money to his village and his family. It allowed for his father to spend more time at home repairing their old shack and spoiling Hui Yue’s little brother as well as encouraging him to cultivate. Hui Yue highly valued his family which included his new little brother Hui Lei. Hui Yue wished them all the best.

The mansion which he was buying was big enough to allow for his entire village to move in, despite this Hui Yue already knew that they would not leave their home and come live with him. Still the doors were always open for the villagers  whenever they happened to be in town, so that they had somewhere to rest up.

Although the villagers gained quite a bit of coin from the insurance, all these were used to improve the standard of living within the village, and although every villager was helping out it was still something which required both time and money.

Every youngster within the village was now training according to certain cultivation techniques, allowing the younger generation to become cultivators, all of them were inspired by Hui Yue who seemed so much more accomplished than their parents.

Having purchased the mansion, Hui Yue received the house’s key stone, and he returned to the academy with a feeling of nostalgia. The many events which had transpired at the academy kept appearing in his mind.

The time when he just entered the academy and sparred with Wang Ju Long. Finding out that Wang Ju Long was a girl. Meeting Deng Wu, Gao Yan, and Ma Kong. The many doubts he had about his new friends and the fact that he finally came to trust them. Hui Yue also remembered Li Shing, the first person he killed.

Thinking back on this, Hui Yue could not help but chuckle slightly. Back then, killing left him with an uncomfortable feeling, yet he steeled his determination and went through with it. Since then he had killed many humans and magical beasts, either while he was fighting for survival against assassins, or hunting beasts for their cores.