Blue Phoenix

As soon as Hui Yue had grasped the black knife with his hand the red mist within his dantian cave instantly started roiling, impossible to suppress any further. As soon as Hui Yue gave up on suppressing the killing intent, he had expected that it would erupt into the room sweeping across all the elders present, yet it did not.

All the mist which was rushing out from the cave-in within the lower dantian entered his meridians after which it flowed out of his palm, and entered the knife causing it to feel as though it was an extension of Hui Yue’s own arm. A red glow appeared on the knife, and everyone within the room could feel just how dangerous Hui Yue had become while wielding the knife.

“Ahem,” the manager cleared his throat as a shiver ran down his spine. “This is our gift to you, can you think of a name you wish to give this weapon?” he asked.

Hui Yue furrowed his brows while thinking for a moment. Looking at the black knife with the red hue a smile appeared on his face. In Hui Yue’s mind only one name would fit such a grand weapon.

“Black Blood,” he said with a sinister smile on his face; the previous naïve child was nowhere to be seen. “This is Black Blood. The dagger which is dyed black from seas of blood.”

Hearing this caused everyone to feel a foreboding of disaster, because this child was in no way normal, yet they did not regret their gift. It was obvious that this dagger was perfect for Hui Yue, and a perfect gift would cause happiness which in turn would allow for the young boy to speak highly of them in front of his teacher.

The visit had exceeded his expectation, and Hui Yue had managed to get both the manager and Ma Kong quite a lot of face within the family. Even if the insurance was still a growing business, it had much bigger chance of becoming their main focus when they were to expand into the other big cities of Taiyang Kingdom.

Hui Yue said his goodbyes to the Ma family, and rushed back to an inn where he was lodging until it was time for them to set out on their way to the Magical Forest.

‘Lan Feng,’ Hui Yue started, curiosity finally overwhelming him as he entered his rented room. ‘I have heard quite a bit about inscriptions lately. Why don’t you tell me about them?’

Lan Feng snorted as he heard the curiosity within Hui Yue’s voice. ‘Every elemental affinity has a strength which can be used to craft or create. You already noticed that Wood is used for alchemy and healing. You’ve also seen how the wood affinity is capable of restoring things to their previous appearance.’

Hui Yue nodded, he did remember how his target dummies would heal themselves due to the wood affinity energy which had been located within their core. He also remembered how both Gao Yan and Ma Kong had been healed to perfect health by the help of a wood elemental affinity master, but he had never spent a lot of time to truly considering it before.

‘Metal affinity has the obvious ability to form metals, but they also have the ability to extract the energy within magic cores or beast cores and use this energy to create inscriptions.’

Lan Feng paused slightly as if to go through all his memories about inscriptions.

‘Inscriptions can be used in multiple ways,’ Lan Feng said hesitantly as he recalled the uses. ‘Firstly it can be used like the one on your armour and the one on the knife, enhancing the items themselves. Secondly, inscriptions can be used to inscribe some specific spiritual skills that the creator knew, allowing for other cultivators to have an extra attack. Doing it this way is slightly weaker than the original attack practiced by the cultivator, but it is definitely beneficial for the buyers.’

Hearing this caused Hui Yue to nod. Inscription seemed to be at least as useful as alchemy, and yet it was not as rare because a dual affinity was not needed.

‘There is also the possibility of inscribing actions or consciousness into items much like your target dummies which are capable of react to your training. This is really quite hard to learn as it requires the creator to absorb the soul and instincts of a living magic beast, and then inscribe it within the metal creation. It is considered the pinnacle of the profession and life goal of a metal affinity cultivator.’

‘Your second affinity was earth right?’ Hui Yue asked curiously, as he was leaning back against the wall in the scruffy looking room he had rented.

‘Yeah,’ Lan Feng nodded. ‘Earth is simple but strong. Everything within this world relies on the earth for life: birth, stability, death. All made possible through earth’s elemental essence. We rely on soil for eating, and we could not live without the earth below our feet. It is what give everything life, without Earth we would have nothing. Since I could not get wood affinity I have to admit that Earth is the one I wanted next. If you control Earth you control life itself. Upon controlling life, death too is within your grasp.’

Hui Yue felt excited upon hearing this. After the soul fusion, Hui Yue now had a part of Lan Feng’s soul, which meant that he too had an affinity for Earth and Fire. His affinity was much weaker than that of Lan Feng’s, but it was still present, and it was something which could increase his strength tremendously later on.

‘When you have wood you can control the time of plants helping them sprout and grow or wither and die. As a wood elemental you have to work with plants which are at least seeds. There has to be a plant or seed there before they are capable of injecting their spiritual power into it.’ Lan Feng paused for a moment before continuing. ‘Earth is different. Every plant is born from the earth, every stone and mountain grew from the soil. With earthen elemental affinity you are able to create something from nothing. Your spiritual energy allows for you to create seeds from soil, sprout mountains from the ground, or control the ground on which humankind stands.’

Hearing these words that Lan Feng said, caused Hui Yue’s heart to race within his body. Before he had not thought too highly of Earth, yet after hearing this, he could not help but feel a shiver run through his entire body. He had severely underestimated the earthen elemental affinity.

‘The Earth is sacred,’ Lan Feng continued as he felt Hui Yue’s reaction. ‘All energy is split between the heavens and the earth. To have Earth as an affinity is a gift sent from the heavens which allows for easier comprehension of the secrets of deities.’

‘The secrets of the deities?’ Hui Yue asked while frowning, this was one thing he had never heard about before.

‘To ascend into immortality you need to understand the truths of the heavens and the secrets of the earth. But don’t rack your little brain too much with things such as this. If you manage to break into the middle dantian within the next couple of years, then we will be satisfied.’

Hui Yue nodded his head, agreeing to what Lan Feng had said, yet within his soul was an unyielding fire burning as he heard about the truths of the heavens and the secrets of the earth.

Truth be told, Hui Yue was grateful to Lan Feng. Had Hui Yue stayed within his old world, then his life would have turned into a sad love story, yet here he no longer thought about his own misfortune.

Yes, Hui Yue had died, but together with death was his rebirth. Hui Yue was walking down his own path; he was paving a road in front of him, a road of cultivation which lead to ascension into immortality. This was a path much more suited for him than the empty life which had been there before, and deep inside Hui Yue was grateful to Lan Feng for bringing him here.

This was what Hui Yue was born to do. This was the road he wished to walk. The strong determination was evident within his eyes as he slowly closed them and sat down forming the bird seal with his hands, and then he submerged himself into his dantian cave where he kept refining essence into Qi.

The following day, as Hui Yue was about to leave the inn at which he stayed, he suddenly ran into Deng Wu. This time his friend was inviting him to dine with the Deng family, their purpose much like the same as the Ma Family, but they also had another agenda with this visit.

“Welcome to the Deng family,” Deng Tsang Ying said as he was seated in the family leader’s chair within their main hall, greeting Hui Yue.

The Deng family had summoned Hui Yue as he was the closest anyone could get to the esteemed expert that had appeared almost a year ago, and the Deng family owed this expert an incredible amount of gratitude.

Not only had this expert given them plenty of face which had improved their standing within the city, she had also given them the blueprints of watermills which had allowed for their business to sky rocket.

Half a year ago, this expert gave another gift to the Deng family, she gifted Deng Wu with two high ranked martial art skills, which was known by all the elders of the family.

Truthfully these skills had been gifted to Deng Wu by Hui Yue, but it was not something which Deng Wu could tell his family.

The Rong twins, Ma Kong, and Gao Yan had all hidden the secret that they had gained high ranked skills from Hui Yue, however the situation with the Deng family was slightly different. After talking it over, Hui Yue and Deng Wu together decided that because the Deng family knew about the relationship between ‘Li Fen’ and Deng Wu, along with their knowledge of his actual cultivation base, they chose to tell them about the skills.

Knowing about the skills didn’t change anything as Deng Wu still had not perfected either, and he was therefore unable to store it within memory stones, to save as family heirlooms.

Still, having a son within the Deng family practicing two high ranked martial art skills, albeit secretly,would help pave the road for their future, and also count as another important pawn within the hands of Deng Tsang Ying.

Standing in front of Deng Tsang Ying and the eight elders of the Deng family, Hui Yue felt a certain amount of pressure, yet nothing could be seen on his small and naïve face as he bowed deeply to all of them, greatly pleasing the elder generation.

“It is my honour to be invited. My master ordered me to bring her best wishes.” Hui Yue said politely, ignoring the grumbling bird within his dantian that mumbled something along the lines of ‘I never said anything of wishing anything for such a minor family.’

Yet hearing these words caused all the people present, elders and juniors alike, to be astonished. This was the first time where it was known that Hui Yue had acknowledged Li Fen to be his teacher, as to why he had decided to reveal this was something which only Hui Yue and Deng Wu knew about.

Getting such sudden information caused the Deng family to once again feel as if they had the upper hand when it came to gaining favour with the elusive expert, and they instantly decided to keep this knowledge a secret.

A smile was protruding on Deng Tsang Ying’s face as he waved his hand and called forth a servant much the same way the Ma family had done the previous day.

Unlike the Ma Family, the Deng family did not produce some sort of weapon or armour. Instead, they brought forth a white jade case which was sealed with a small red ribbon.

This ribbon had a pattern on it, and as Hui Yue focused his eyes he was shocked to noticed that the entire ribbon was filled with inscriptions all over it.

‘This can’t be….’ Lan Feng said as he stirred within the dantian cave.

“This is a gift we wish to give your master as a thank you for assisting us as much as he has,” Deng Tsang Ying said as he stood up and headed down the stairs to stand on the same level as Hui Yue.

His hands picked up the jade case with great care and moved towards Hui Yue. The spiritual energy started to fluctuate around Deng Tsang Ying’s hands and it was obvious that he was circulating his energy.

After a few minutes a click could be heard and from within the case a strong spiritual aroma wafted out, filled the entire room.

Within the case a small white flower was visible. This flower was as white as Hui Yue’s Qi with a small blazing sun in the middle and drops of shining liquid falling from the petals.

The flower was only a flower, no stalk nor any other way to gain nutrients, yet even still it showed no signs of withering any time soon.

‘To think that they had something like this….’ Lan Feng said shocked, and Hui Yue felt the greed, astonishment, and shock reverberating within his soul. This hit Lan Feng hard.