Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (92 page)

Seated within the dantian cave, Hui Yue’s mental projection looked around and saw that a new tunnel-like structure had appeared at the ceiling right above the Qi spiral. He noticed how strands of Qi from the spiral were being sucked into the new tunnel at an incredibly slow pace.

At this sight, Hui Yue scrunched his brows and excitedly allowed his mental avatar to float up into the tunnel, to see where it ended.

The tunnel was long and the stone cave twisted slightly from going upwards to becoming a slope. The tunnel walls had at first been jagged and rough, yet the further Hui Yue moved the smoother they became and eventually Hui Yue no longer felt as though he was walking through a rough tunnel but rather a stone hallway.

After travelling through this hallway for a period of time, Hui Yue reached a set of gates. The gate doors were massive and created from carved out stone, elaborate carvings of two phoenixes with a massive vermillion bird in the middle spreading a daunting yet resonant presence from the sealed entrance. . Looking at the gate, Hui Yue could not help but wonder what had created such a thing within him.

‘They were carved by Qi, like a manifestation.’ Lan Feng answered his question. ‘Ever since you reached the peak of the ninth-star Practitioner rank, every excess strand of Qi you refined went into carving out this gate, allowing for you to open your middle dantian. The more elaborate the gate, the more promising the spiritual sea will become.’

Hearing that, Hui Yue gaped. ‘When your gate finished, all the Qi you refined for the gate rushed back to the Qi spiral, allowing for it to surge and push you into the Master rank, but you have yet to open your middle dantian.’

Hui Yue nodded. It made sense that the surging power he felt before was from the return of all the Qi he had refined over the last couple of weeks. At first, Hui Yue noticed that the essence he refined had vanished, yet he had assumed that it was due to him having hit the bottleneck. That he was simply unable to absorb more Qi until he broke through.

With excitement in his eyes and a slight tremble in his hand, Hui Yue placed his palm on the massive stone gate and gently pushed. After pushing, Hui Yue’s brows sunk into an angry slope, because the stone did not move an inch.

‘Are you an idiot?’ Lan Feng’s bright voice sounded, uncontained laughter could be heard in his mind. ‘This is a massive door. For you to unlock the middle dantian, do you think it is as simple as just gently pushing it with your hands?’

The mocking words made Hui Yue consider his actions, and he let a self-mocking laughter escape his lips, as he caressed the big door in front of him.

‘Breaking into my middle dantian, huh?’ Hui Yue mumbled and with but a thought, the Qi spiral in his lower dantian instantly gyrated wildly before it shot a volley of Qi strands into the newly opened tunnel, where he now stood.

With the speed the Qi was traveling at, it took no more than a split second before the strands had arrived at Hui Yue’s side and gathered together in a ball. Spreading his arms, Hui Yue shaped the ball into a battering ram, proceeding to forcibly smash open the door with the spectral tool.

The onslaught of the battering ram yielded no result at first, yet after a few consecutive strikes, the big stone door started to show signs of budging, before eventually the final strand of Qi from his spiral had been integrated into the battering ram. Creaking sounds could be heard from the gate, as it slowly crumbled under the pressure, the gathering dust filling the air before revealing the appearance of a new cave .

Gaping, Hui Yue dissolved the Qi battering ram and allowed for each and every one of his Qi threads to go into the dantian cave once more where they settled down within the Qi spiral, before he took a step into this new place.

It was an inner cave unlike anything Hui Yue had ever seen before. He surmised its position to be somewhere beside the heart, yet the size was thousands of times bigger than that of the dantian cave. Alas, the cave currently seemed just as empty as it was big.

Looking at the cave, Hui Yue noticed that he had not a lot of space to move on, instead he was able to hover above the ground, which looked exactly like a dried up sea. No matter how much Hui Yue strained his eyes, nor how much Qi he used to fortify them, it was impossible for him to see the end of the dried up sea. The only reason he knew how big it was, was because he could feel it with his mental projection. It was able to observe the entire body from the inside.

‘This is huge.’ Lan Feng said in an astonished voice. ‘It is obvious that the purity of your Qi has produced miracles.’

Hui Yue could only nod. He had no way of knowing how large the spiritual sea was for other cultivators, but he was definitely of the impression that this sea was vast and would be difficult to fill up with spiritual energy.

Just as Hui Yue was starting to feel slightly depressed, he noticed how gusts of Qi appeared within the cave, and a copy of Hui Yue materialized in the very middle of the spiritual energy sea, where it was seated with closed eyes and hands neatly formed into the bird hand symbol.

This copy looked exactly like the one within his lower dantian and just like that copy refined Qi from essence, this copy was attracting a steady stream of Qi threads which in turn were absorbed. Ever so slowly, it started refining the first drop of spiritual energy.

Hui Yue was silently observing the spiritual essence sea in front of him for a long time before he finally managed to wrest his attention away. Looking next to him, Lan Feng was standing proudly and upright, looking at the same sea as Hui Yue. The white-haired boy noticed how nostalgia was flooding him from Lan Feng’s soul.

To Lan Feng, Hui Yue was the only way he would be able to regain his body, not to mention getting revenge on the man who forced him into such a sorry state, and this step of forcing ajar the middle dantian was only a small step on the road to greatness. However, this spiritual energy sea was so vast that it exceeded Lan Feng’s every expectation, and although it would require much more effort to fill it up and advance into the King rank and thus finally the upper dantian, it also made for a much stronger foundation and ability to deal with other middle dantian ranked experts, outclassing his peers in quality by leagues.

‘So... where do I find my elemental affinity?’ Hui Yue asked Lan Feng, his excitement still high. Thinking about the affinities, Hui Yue could not help but secretly hope for it to be wood.

‘Sit down.’ Lan Feng ordered, and Hui Yue’s mental projection did just that. ‘Feel out your entire spiritual energy sea. Somewhere in this dry ground is a coloured flame. This is your affinity flame and you control the affinities existing here.’

Hui Yue once more followed the orders given by Lan Feng, and it did not take him long to find the supposed flame Lan Feng had mentioned, only it was not one flame, nor was it two.

In front of Hui Yue’s mental projection were five flames of various strength and colours. The first flame was yellow which was soaring all the way to the cave ceiling, clearly representing Earth. The second flame was red and much like the yellow one, it was aiming to reach the top, both seemed as if they were fighting one another to topple the other for supremacy.

The third flame was silver and it was only slightly below the first two flames, yet the final two flames were both quite weak, one was blue the other green.

‘I have never seen anything like this before.’ Lan Feng said, flabbergasted, deep inside he started to worry about how this young man and how he had managed to have so many secrets inside his body, most of them things which Lan Feng had not even heard about, even in his long life.

‘Does this mean I have five elemental affinities?’ Hui Yue asked as a thrilled and slightly greedy appearance was shown on his handsome face.

‘I do not know.’ Lan Feng answered in turn, before he mumbled a little to himself. ‘Try calling them.’ He finally said. ‘If they heed your beckoning then they truly are within your grasp, yet if they ignore you, then I have absolutely no idea what it means for all five flames to be present. It can have something to do with the nine gates within your dantian cave.’

Hui Yue quickly nodded his head as he sat down, closed his eyes, and waited for a moment. ‘How I am supposed to call them again?’ He asked sheepishly, as he had been seated for some time, unable to do anything.

‘You really are quite dumb.’ Lan Feng commented before he started to describe the procedure. ‘Firstly, you need to want to get them to you. The more you want them to be within your hand the quicker they will respond. Make sure to focus on a specific area where you want them to appear, if not they will just randomly appear anywhere or in some cases not move at all.’

Having heard that, Hui Yue nodded. Previously, he had called out to them with his soul, yet no reaction was seen and a slight worry manifested itself within. Extending both hands, Hui Yue once more thought about the five flames, and this time he wanted them to be within his hands. He wanted his elemental affinities to become his strength and then suddenly he felt something land in his hands.

Opening his eyes, Hui Yue stared at three colourful flames, each and every one of them trying to outshine the other. In one hand was the red flame, while the other was shared by the yellow and silver. Neither the blue nor the green flame had moved even an inch and disappointment flooded over Hui Yue as he no longer had the hope of becoming an alchemist.

Still, dabbling in alchemy was not the only amazing profession and while most were lucky if they got two elemental affinities, Hui Yue was now seated within his newly opened middle dantian with three roaring fires within his hands.

Looking at these flames, Hui Yue felt satisfaction within his heart. All three of them were strong, and he was going to use them both for survival and for attacking his enemies. Although he wished for alchemy, it was not so bad now that he gained inscription instead.

With a flicker of his hand, Hui Yue allowed for the three flames to return to their original position underneath the copy, who was currently refining the Qi strands ever so slowly, and once an hour, Hui Yue could feel how a drop of pure spiritual energy landed within his spiritual energy sea.

‘Rest now.’ Lan Feng said in an excited voice. ‘Tomorrow, I will teach you a new skill, not to mention telling you about your new rank. Soon we will be able to set off into the Dungeons of the Divine.’

Chapter 81 – Delay in the Plans

‘Rest now.’ Lan Feng told Hui Yue, but how was he supposed to rest when his entire body was shaking from adrenaline? Excitement about starting his new training schedule was definitely evident, and Hui Yue was unable to contain his impatience as he sat down in meditation once more. This allowed him to assist his cultivation technique in refining Qi, allowing for the speed to be double what it was previously.

Seated within the spiritual energy sea, Hui Yue could not help but allow for his mental projection to sweep out over his entire body, and what met him caused him to be greatly shocked.

Hui Yue had never had a masculine body, nor was he particularly tall, yet after breaking into the Master rank major changes took place which he did not noticed earlier. Hui Yue was still very effeminate, but his body was now streamlined with lean muscle all over. Looking around, Hui Yue noticed that his entire body had evolved, yet it had not changed into a manly, muscular body with great strength, instead it had changed into focusing on agility and nimbleness.

Hui Yue could not help but smirk as he felt how his entire body was like a cheetah. Whenever he used his taut muscles, he would be moving with an explosiveness which caused extra strength to be exerted.

Usually now would be the time where the Chong Mai meridian would be opened, yet Hui Yue had already opened it long ago. Due to the many years which had passed, his entire body was fortified with Qi already which put Hui Yue in a favourable position, ready to start practicing spiritual arts in the following days.

At least that was what Hui Yue had expected. Refining the spiritual energy was a process which took much longer than what the white-haired young man had expected, and although he was now able to learn spiritual arts he was unable to practice them unless he used Lan Feng’s spiritual energy, which the phoenix straight out rejected.

‘I need this spiritual energy to refine some Wu Wei.’ He said without any room for discussion, and Hui Yue could only smile wryly, as he sat down and once more started the cumbersome task of refining Qi to increase his cultivation base.

It did not take long before Hui Yue’s friends had found out that Hui Yue broke into the Master rank, and all of them came to visit him, bringing snacks as they seated themselves within the newly decorated rear garden.

Nothing from the rear garden survived the fire, which killed Old Beardy but it did not take Hui Yue’s servants many days to make the garden look as pretty as it had, although it cost Hui Yue a decent amount of coin.

Even if it cost him a few coins, Hui Yue did not mind it as one thing kept rolling around within his head. He was soon ready to face the Dungeons of the Divine. It was a place which Lan Feng wanted Hui Yue to go train, yet the bird refused to tell him what it was and where it was. The only thing Hui Yue knew was that it contained Divine Flowers.

One night while Hui Yue had been spending all day cultivating his spiritual energy, Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long both came to dine with him, and Hui Yue enjoyed a round of sparring against his older friend.

Hui Yue was perfectly well aware that he did not currently know any spiritual art skills, yet at the same time he also knew that it was possible to think up spells. As long as one had decent control over their element, and Hui Yue used this to try and create earthen spears much like the ones that old beardy had used.

Although Hui Yue did manage to create spears, they were a mere twenty centimetres tall and therefor not something which could come even close to threatening Deng Wu. In fact they shattered as soon as the older boy stepped on them.

That being said, Hui Yue was not completely defenceless, and as soon as he had pulled out the Fire Spark skill Deng Wu instantly forfeited the match as he remembered the last battle which he had watched.

Most Master and above ranked cultivators preferred using their spiritual energy to do battle, yet Hui Yue could not help but feel that it was slightly lacklustre standing far away from each other and chanting different spells to activate one’s elemental affinity. Based on this opinion, Hui Yue never gave up on training his Qi methods, thus his training schedule intensified.

From morning till noon Hui Yue would train various Qi methods and then from noon till the following morning Hui Yue would spend as much of his time as possible on cultivating.

Splitting his life into two like this had caused his cultivation base to jump by leaps and bounds, and after only two weeks did Hui Yue have as much spiritual energy as Lan Feng had managed to refine after a few years.

It had to be remembered that Lan Feng was refining his spiritual energy purely with his soul, yet Hui Yue’s speed was simply too amazing for anyone to keep up with. Although he had now gathered enough spiritual energy to start practicing the spiritual arts, it was obvious that he was still a one-star Master ranked cultivator.

“Hui Yue, I have something I need to speak with you about.” Deng Wu said, as he was about to leave the mansion. His usually cheerful expression was now filled with cautiousness and his usually laughing voice was grim and cold.

The contrast to Deng Wu’s usual personally caused Hui Yue to frown but he nodded and lead the way into the house after which the two of them spoke. An hour later, Deng Wu emerged from the front door, his face ugly to behold, as he slipped into the streets and rushed towards his home.

Suddenly the young man stopped in his tracks and looked back at the mansion with sadness in his eyes as he mumbled, “You really should not trust us so much.”

After looking at the mansion for a few moments Deng Wu heaved a heavy sigh, as he once more turned around and walked away with rushed steps.

Back in the mansion, Hui Yue was seated in a chair and his hands were tapping the table slowly, his eyes appearing sunken as he was deep in thought. Sha Yun was seated next to him, and her eyes were glistening with a menacing silvery light as she looked out the door from which Deng Wu has left earlier.

“I’m sorry Yun.” Hui Yue said quietly as he closed his eyes and slowly stroked his forehead. “It seems as though we need to stay here in Riluo City for a while longer.”

Across the city in the Deng family compound Deng Wu’s face was still twisted in disgust as he was summoned by his father and the elders to hurryto the main hall.

“So.” Deng Tsang Ying started, as he looked at his son with expectation in his eyes, “Did you convince that child to join our faction in the battle that is to come?” He asked directly, not bothering any sugar-coated words. The entire Deng family knew about the plans which were to be executed within a year’s time.

“No.” Deng Wu said with a clear voice as he looked his father in the eyes. “He said that he does not wish to join our cause, and that he would suggest us to stop what we are doing right now.”

“Who does he think he is?!” Deng Tsang Ying roared throughout the entire main hall, his cultivation base erupting and all flames within the room roared as though they were fuelled by the man’s anger alone.

“Let us get rid of him,” one of the elders said, his face pale. “We cannot allow for him to know about our plans, if he does not join us.”

“It is not that easy,” Deng Wu said with gritted teeth as he glared at the elder, “He already took care of of old beardy from the Silent Raven. Do you think we can do better than that?”

Hearing that Hui Yue had dealt with a Silent Raven caused everyone present to suck in a breath of air. They all knew about old beardy and to know that he had been killed by a mere child was impossible to understand.

“Well old beardy was only a Master ranked cultivator after all,” Deng Tsang Ying said with a laugh, “If we send someone who is a higher rank then there should not be any problems.”

“Hui Yue was only a Practitioner ranked expert when he dealt with old beardy. Unless you plan on sending one of our higher ranked cultivators to deal with him.” Deng Wu was quiet for a moment before he continued, “Oh I forgot.” He said with a badly hidden sarcasm, “If we were to send any of our higher ranked cultivators, then we will end up with having to come up with a good excuse when the water affinity scouts track the combat traces back to our Deng family.”

Hearing this an ugly expression appeared on Deng Tsang Ying’s face, as he knew that killing Hui Yue would be a bad idea. The water affinity cultivators were capable of finding traces from other cultivators. Each item sent ripples throughout the world much like how ripples would appear on the surface of a lake if one were to throw a stone into it.

“We will need to discuss this with the Wang family.” Deng Tsang Ying said eventually as he summoned a servant who was given the task of getting one of the Wang family elders to visit them.

Not only was the Deng family sending out messages, even Hui Yue was considering which steps he should take with the information he had been given. The Deng family had pulled together with the Wang family, and those two family leaders wished to end Lord Rong Liang’s reign over Riluo

City.

For them to actually try and recruit Hui Yue, the white-haired boy knew that things were not longer able to be calmed down with talking. The only end result that he could see was that the two factions would end up in a violent clash, yet the Rong family and their allies knew nothing of the Deng and Wang families advances.

Sighing deeply, Hui Yue looked out the window once more as the faces of all his friends appeared in front of him. Wang Ju Long and Deng Wu were without a doubt the ones Hui Yue spent the most time with, yet he would never sacrifice the Rong twins after everything they did for him when he was young.

Gao Yan and Ma Kong were both part of the Rong faction and should it come to actual combat, it was likely that all of them would struggle against each other. Hui Yue was not interested in seeing his friends battling one another, and he sunk into deep thought as he considered his options.

“Did you tell him?” Wang Ju Long asked Deng Wu the following day, as the two of them met up at the Deng family where the two families were once more gathered, discussing the plans of what was to come.

Deng Wu nodded his head as he looked into the horizon. “Hui Yue trusts us.” He said with a wry smile on his face, and a happiness bloomed within his eyes. “He actually trusts us even after telling him what is going on.” Wang Ju Long smiled back at the handsome boy next to her, a small blush appeared on her cheeks, as if she had been given the most beautiful compliment in the entire world.

“I knew he would trust us.” She said happily, “He is so kind when it comes to his friends that there was no way he would not trust you after everything you have been through together.”

Looking at Wang Ju Long and hearing her words, Deng Wu could not hold back his laughter. He stood up from the pair of chairs that they had occupied and slowly moved towards the hall where the elders were frantically discussing which plan they should follow.

Chapter 82 – Plea for Help

Although Hui Yue gained some important information he kept quiet about it for some time, as he knew that although the Deng and Wang families were getting ready to make their move it was obvious that they could do nothing for the next year. Everything needed perfect planning and timing, and that was one thing which could not be rushed.

The Deng family had always been a major family within Riluo City, yet after they gained the watermills they had gotten greedy, due to their income increasing tenfold, and they wished for more.

The Wang family were different. They did not participate in this battle for Riluo City because  of greed, no they were driven by revenge.

The current leaders within the Deng and the Wang families had long since agreed that Deng Tsang Ying were to become the new City Lord, as long as the Wang family was allowed to take over everything which belonged to the Rong family.

As for which of the two families set this revolt into motion, Hui Yue did not know and truthfully for him it did not matter who was the leading force behind it.

What he did care about was the fact that his friends had been split between the two factions, and Hui Yue felt as though he would have to make an important decision.

Hui Yue was, however, not the only one who was stuck with an important decision which needed to be made. The Wang and Deng families had ensured that no one knew about their plans from the very start, yet their attempt to attract the young genius with ties to an esteemed expert had backfired on them.

Not only did he declined joining their group, he now also possessed knowledge of their plans to a certain degree, and if he were to tell this information to the City Lord then their plans would collapse. Then their hopes of ever overthrowing Lord Rong Liang go down the drain.