Chapter 5: You're A Boy?
The village returned to usual as soon as Lord Rong Liang led his entourage away. Although the villagers were proud of the fact that someone as important as Lord Rong Liang had visited them, they also knew that they were in no condition to entertain him or waste time on celebrating as they had their chores they needed to do to fill their stomachs and ensure their livelihood.
While most villagers missed the excitement of the visitors, Hui Yue could not help but feel happy when things returned to normal. The last month had been the first break the pair had taken from cultivation, but Hui Yue did not enjoy the forced break. He was filled with excitement upon remembering Lan Feng’s promise about teaching him a martial art skill, and this morning he hurried to pick up the goats even earlier than usual.
Upon reaching a fairly close hillside, Hui Yue sat down impatiently and waited for Lan Feng to understand his hint. He wanted to be able to use the Qi he had painstakingly gathered over these last few years.
‘Do you even know what a martial art skill is?’ Lan Feng asked slightly overbearingly as he disliked it whenever anyone tried to rush him.
‘I expect you to explain it to me,’ Hui Yue said with the sweetest smile on his face and a naivety in his eyes that made Lan Feng snort with disdain.
‘I’ll explain. But only because I need you to be strong.’ Lan Feng said arrogantly. ‘Don’t think I will fall for your stupid acting.’ Hui Yue had nothing to say in return as Lan Feng was as usual correct, and in the end he would gain the knowledge needed.
‘Martial art skills are ranked the same as cultivators. That is to say: Student, Disciple, Practitioner, and so on. Each rank is split into low, medium and high level.’ Hui Yue nodded as it made sense.
‘The cultivation base of a martial art skill has nothing to do with what rank you are at. It is only to rank the potential strength of the skill. Martial art skills have no actual rank restrictions they all depend on how much Qi you can use and the ability will grow together with your rank until the day you reach the rank of the skill. Let us say that you have a King ranked martial art skill, this skill will grow together with you until the day you are a King ranked expert. By this time it will be unable to advance further.’ Lan Feng explained, once again incredibly overbearing. Hui Yue was slightly annoyed by his tone, but he had no intention to comment as he knew Lan Feng would start a discussion rather than continuing on with the martial arts explanation.
‘That being said there are quite a lot of the higher ranked skills that you can’t use before you reach a certain rank since you don’t have sufficient Qi to activate them.’ Hearing his explanation made a lot of sense to Hui Yue, and he nodded again with great interest.
‘Also, although I told you the ranks of martial skills, it is not like you can find any ranked skill just like that. When creating a martial art skill, you cannot make a skill above your rank. When cultivators open the middle and upper dantians, they no longer need to spend a lot of time on martial art skills since they get spirit power and Wu Wei.’ Hearing this made Hui Yue grumble slightly as he was getting quite a depressing premonition.
‘Therefore you will have a lot of Student, Disciple and Practitioner level martial art skills. You will also find a decent amount of Master ranked skills as they are still trying to create spirit energy, but Grand Master and Duke ranked martial skills are quite rare. King, Emperor, and Saint level martial art skills are as rare as a phoenix's tear. At least they were back when I lived here. I have never even heard about God ranked martial art skills.’
‘Are you telling me this because you are going to give me some useless martial art skill?’ Hui Yue worriedly asked, but he was met with indignation. ‘Did I ever give you anything useless?’ Lan Feng retorted feeling insulted. Hui Yue had to admit that Lan Feng was doing his utmost to ensure that he would become strong.
‘I am going to give you a movement martial art skill.’ Lan Feng said with determined satisfaction; however, Hui Yue could not help but feel slightly disappointed.
‘A movement martial art?’ He asked downcast. ‘What use is that?’
‘You really are stupid,’ Lan Feng answered impatiently. ‘First, you need a movement martial art skill to be able to run away. Even if you do know any fighting skills, your cultivation base is simply too low. It is better to teach you how to run away so that you can stay alive. I don’t care about honor or dignity. All we need is to stay alive until we reach our goals, and this skill is needed for you and me live.’ Although Hui Yue had been slightly depressed, he could not help but acknowledge what Lan Feng said.
‘A movement martial art skill also has other uses.’ Lan Feng continued. He did after all want to prove his extensive knowledge to the younger Hui Yue. ‘You can use a movement martial art skill to speed up your attacks or defense. Also when you have managed to perfect it, you will be able to leave behind a mirage while moving or even create an optical illusion causing your opponent to waste energy attacking nothing.’ Lan Feng sounded fairly smug, and Hui Yue understood why. The movement skill was definitely much better than what he had at first expected.
‘What rank is it?’ Hui Yue asked curiously. It would be quite good if it were a Master ranked skill.
‘It is a high King ranked skill.’ Lan Feng said indifferently causing Hui Yue to doubt his hearing.
‘High King rank!? Didn’t you just say that those were incredibly rare?’ He asked shocked, and his reaction clearly pleased Lan Feng.
‘I would not be this confident in myself if I did not at least have a vast amount of high ranked skills.’ Lan Feng said with a self-satisfied voice. Hui Yue was quite relieved knowing that he had a library of skills for when he should need it.
‘However,’ Lan Feng continued, as he understood what Hui Yue was thinking. ‘I have no intention of giving you any more skills no matter how easy they are until you have perfected this one.’ Lan Feng was as stern with his martial art skills as he was with Qi refining. Although Hui Yue was tempted to ask for more, he managed to hold back as he fully understood Lan Feng’s decision.
Lan Feng ordered Hui Yue to sit down in a meditation position and slowly guide his consciousness into his dantian where the phoenix was waiting for him.
Lan Feng then ordered the adult consciousness of Hui Yue into yet another meditation position where he was ordered to put his hands together forming the bird seal and then he closed his eyes.
Lan Feng moved slowly as he lifted his finger towards his own forehead and pressed it between his eyes where his upper dantian was located. A sharp ice-blue light instantly lit up the entire dantian cave. Lan Feng extended his index finger, and a small pearl appeared at the tip, which quickly sucked in the shining blue light. Lan Feng quietly observed the pearl sucking in the light, and gave a satisfied nod as the final speck of light disappeared. He looked at the pearl in his hand which had gone from transparent to a lustrous ice-blue.
Lan Feng moved towards the meditating Hui Yue and pressed the blue pearl against his forehead. The pearl slipped into Hui Yue’s head and illuminated his consciousness with knowledge from within.
The unnatural light that was breaking out from within Hui Yue was the only thing that indicated something different was happening instead of his usual Qi refining.
Lan Feng was exhausted upon retracting the martial art from within and slumped down against the cave wall while observing his focused friend.
The blue phoenix could not help but feel a slight bit of relief upon looking at his hard working student. Hui Yue did not have any incredible talent when it came to cultivating, nor did he have pills or elixirs to help speed up the process, but he did have an unwavering determination, and he had been continuing refining for year after year to ensure that the quality of his Qi was as good as possible.
Lan Feng would never admit it, but even he would have given up the painstakingly slow cultivating that they were doing so he could not help but have a strange feeling of gratefulness towards Hui Yue.
While Lan Feng was exhaustedly inspecting his feelings, Hui Yue was swallowed by a sea of information. As soon as the pearl entered his head, it dissolved into rays of light that spread throughout his body which taught Hui Yue the martial art skill known as Velocity Flow.
To perfect a martial art skill, the cultivator would have to practice it unceasingly. The information he was given was which routes to direct his Qi to flow through his meridians to power the skill, and it also included the two seals he would need to form within his lower dantian.
The rays of light shot through his meridians show Hui Yue examples of where and how to apply his Qi, and he quickly remembered the paths, combinations, and different seals needed to practice the martial art skill. Although it was only one skill, it had many uses. Each usage had its own unique Qi flow, and to be able to perform the individual abilities each and every one of them needed practice.
Slowly the light disappeared, and Hui Yue opened his blue eyes which were glistening with excitement as he thought about this new knowledge. He could not wait to try it out, and he returned to controlling his body rather than his consciousness.
Hui Yue remembered every combination, and quickly lead his Qi towards his legs. He allowed it to flow through the paths he had learned, but his brows quickly furrowed as he felt that something was wrong.
Although he felt as if he had gained some speed, it was definitely far inferior to what it should have been. Not only that, his new speed was very uneven and impossible to control.
Hui Yue frowned at first, but his frown quickly turned into a brilliant smile because he knew what the skill would be capable of doing upon perfection. All he needed to do was practice the skill, and practicing and training were definitely something that Hui Yue did not fear.
After learning the martial art skill, Hui Yue had to change his schedule slightly. Prior to this, he would spend his whole day cultivating; however, now it was obvious that he needed time to practice his martial art skill, so he ended up spending the morning and early noon practicing and the afternoon and evening were spent on refining Qi.
Another year passed while Hui Yue followed this schedule. He worked harder than before but also felt a great sense of happiness every time he gained more Qi or when his control over Velocity Flow improved.
On this day, which was like any other, Hui Yue was guarding the goats on the hillside while training Velocity Flow.
Lan Feng had allowed his consciousness to leave the safety of Hui Yue’s body as there was no danger around and a smile suddenly appeared on his face as he looked towards the village.
‘Hui Yue,’ He called with an excited voice. ‘There is a pleasant surprise waiting for you when we return home tonight!’
Although Lan Feng had allowed his consciousness to roam around on the grassy fields, their conversation was still held within their minds. Hui Yue looked at Lan Feng with a quizzical expression on his face, but he did not ask any questions. Even something as simple as a new dish created by his mother was enough to excite Lan Feng.
Sharing a body with Hui Yue had its benefits. Lan Feng naturally felt everything that Hui Yue felt, however, he had no way of taking over the body so he could only sit back and enjoy the experiences.
Hui Yue smiled at the phoenix who had changed slightly over the years. Back when they first met, Hui Yue was sure that Lan Feng was the haughtiest creature in the world; however, after years of conversations, it was easier to look at Lan Feng as a spoiled boy with an extensive amount of power and knowledge on odd subjects.
Lan Feng would still act arrogant from time to time, however, he was easy to coax into a good mood and friendly behavior. Especially since Hui Yue started practicing his martial art skill and would make use of it to hunt down critters in the forest and bring them home for dinner.
Lan Feng was definitely a beast, and the easiest way to tame a beast was to feed it. Hui Yue could not help but smirk while thinking back on the way he usually convinced Lan Feng to behave.
Hui Yue decided it was time to return to the village and have a look at the great surprise that was waiting for him. So he hoisted two birds and a hare he caught onto his shoulder while gathering the goats and moved down the hillside towards the village.
However, just before Hui Yue entered the village, he noticed something out of the ordinary. There were a large number of tents erected on an empty lot next to the village. The tents looked uncomfortably similar to those that had been there a year before.
‘Lan Feng,’ Hui Yue mumbled while having a premonition that someone would be waiting for him. ‘You don’t think Rong Ming was serious when he said that he would return for me?’ He asked in a worried voice, but the only answer he got was stifled laughter.
Hui Yue could not help but let out a sigh before he slipped into a personality that would fit a six year old child who saw visitors in their quiet town.
“Hui Yue!” A voice called out, and with an internal sigh, Hui Yue turned towards the voice with a shocked and excited expression on his face.
“Young master!” He said, with a beaming smile on his face. “I did not expect to see you here!” He continued, but what he actually wanted to say was something along the lines of ‘please do not take another month away from my cultivation. I am already far behind as it is.’ However, Rong Ming quickly took Hui Yue’s hand in his, after he safely returned the goats to their pen. He dragged the white-haired boy towards their campsite.
Walking closer and closer to the campsite, Hui Yue felt a surge of uneasiness arise within. He was currently still just a second star Student, however, reaching the second star at six years of age was quite a feat.
Both Hui Yue and Lan Feng knew that they would not be able to hide their cultivation base from Rong Ming’s father, and there was even a chance that they would be unable to hide the presence of Lan Feng.
Fortunately enough, Rong Ming did not bring Hui Yue to meet his father, instead, he brought him to meet his sister. Rong Xing was a beautiful young girl with a gentle temper. She quickly greeted Hui Yue but apart from that she just sat there with a smile on her face while Rong Ming talked. He was telling Hui Yue about the past year.
“I really did miss you a lot.” Rong Ming said multiple times during the conversation. “Oh, and we are doing very good at the academy. We are here this time for real practice you see. Do you want to cultivate too?”
Rong Ming spent the following month once again following Hui Yue around. He would teach Hui Yue different cultivation methods and promised that he would definitely take Hui Yue with him to the academy when he turned ten years old.
Hui Yue could only sigh, but deep inside it was impossible for him to hate the boy because his feelings were genuine. As to why Hui Yue received these feelings was a mystery to Hui Yue, although Lan Feng claimed to know but refused to say.
After yet another farewell, Hui Yue guessed that Rong Ming would return to the village next year, but he did not have any intention of wasting time worrying about that now. Instead, he returned to his usual schedule of cultivating and practicing his martial art skills.
‘I don’t understand,’ Hui Yue complained slightly. It had been almost a year since Rong Ming and his entourage had camped at the village last time, and Hui Yue was now a seven-year-old child. He was still as breathtakingly beautiful as ever, and his figure was depressingly short.
‘I am definitely using Velocity Flow perfectly, but even when I execute it right, my fists are still not able to deal a great amount of damage. Actually, often I am the one who ends up injured.’ Hui Yue continued while rubbing his head, wondering where he was going wrong.
Lan Feng snorted, which usually happened whenever Hui Yue said something incredibly stupid.
‘It is a high King ranked movement skill... It’s a movement skill dumbass!’ He said with a sigh. ‘It allows you to move your body with great speed and accuracy, but it is your body it moves. It’s not the skills fault you are weak.’ Hui Yue could only grumble in reply to his answer. What Lan Feng said made perfect sense, and he should have understood it himself without needing Lan Feng’s explanation.
Hui Yue could not help but feel grateful that he had Lan Feng to explain things to him. There were so many things that Hui Yue had a hard time understanding, even now, seven years after entering this new world.
Hui Yue had now reached the third star and had perfected the movement aspect of Velocity Flow. He was capable of producing a mirror image at his previous location, and he was currently practicing the final aspect of this high ranked skill called optical illusion.
Hui Yue did not have sufficient Qi to create more than one optical illusion, but upon perfecting just the skill, it would automatically increase later on when his Qi increased.
‘Oh,’ Lan Feng said smilingly. ‘Your friends are arriving early this year.’
Hui Yue had expected that Rong Ming would appear fairly soon, so he was not terribly shocked upon hearing the information. Instead, he was slightly surprised to find himself not hating the idea of having a friend to talk with.
Although there were many children in the village, none of them could be considered a friend as all of them had their own chores to do throughout the day, and that was far away from Hui Yue’s hillsides.
Hui Yue gathered the goats and led them back to the village. He wondered what had happened during the last year, but when he reached the village, he noticed that things seemed slightly different from the previous years.
Firstly, Lord Rong Liang was not present, and although this did calm Hui Yue down slightly, he could not help but worry about why this would be.
“Are you Hui Yue?” A voice suddenly rang from behind him. Hui Yue swiftly spun around, and in front of him was a burly man with a kind face. He was wearing the uniform of a Rilou City guard and did not have any feeling of danger around him.
Hui Yue nodded.
“Please follow me. The young master has requested that you be brought to him as soon as you returned.” He explained and politely led the way towards the tent in the center of the camp.
Hui Yue was greatly surprised to see where he was taken, but he dared not say anything. Lan Feng too was incredibly silent as he hid away in the Qi cave hoping to not be noticed by any of the exceptional experts that were present in the camp.
“Hui Yue!” A familiar voice rang out the moment the young boy stepped into the tent, and Hui Yue looked at Rong Ming with confused eyes.
Rong Ming was now twelve years old. He was sitting behind a desk in the middle of a tent and had an elderly man next to him. They seemed to be discussing something about the magical forest. A map was spread out across the desk and multiple flags were placed randomly on top of it.
“I am sorry that I could not come pick you up this time,” He said apologetically. While he spoke, Hui Yue noticed that the middle-aged man at his side was clearly measuring Hui Yue. Slight fear crept into Hui Yue’s heart as this man was definitely no weaker than Lord Rong Liang.
However, the man quickly retracted his gaze and returned to look at the many different paper scrolls on the table. This caused Hui Yue to breathe a sigh of relief.
“I am in control of this year’s beast hunt.” Rong Ming explained proudly. “Father had some things that he needed to deal with in town and decided it was time for me to learn something about managing a party of soldiers. This is Bu Huang. He is father’s counselor, and he is assisting me on this trip.” Rong Ming explained while making a gesture towards the middle aged man.
Hui Yue quickly clasped his hands together and bowed deeply before saying in a fearful voice, “Hui Yue greets Lord Councilor.”
His actions seemed to cause some approval from Bu Huang’s, and he nodded in reply. “But,” Rong Ming continued, this time with a slightly depressed expression on his face, “I have a lot of things that I need to do. Because of this, I won’t be able to entertain you that much this month.” Hui Yue nodded before answering.
“This lowly one is nothing more than a poor child. Young master should focus on his responsibilities.” The look of approval within Bu Huang’s eyes grew stronger, and Rong Ming himself sent Hui Yue a sad smile before nodding.
“At least have dinner with us!” Rong Ming exclaimed suddenly, and Bu Huang nodded. Hui Yue had no choice but to agree, and a feast was served for the three of them.
Rong Ming was speaking constantly during the meal. He spoke about the past year and how he had reached the second star of the Disciple rank. Rong Xing had just reached the third star, but she had quite an incredible innate talent for cultivating. Hui Yue sensed he felt no jealousy towards his sister, rather Rong Ming was proud of the latter’s talent.
Hui Yue did enjoy the evening and the food. He enjoyed it even more so when he realized that Rong Ming would be incapable of interrupting his training for the next month. After saying his goodbyes, he happily headed towards a small lake at the edge of the forest.
It was summer, and the heat was both hot and humid. Hui Yue had been training all day, and although it was late, he really wanted to take a bath before going home.
The still water was chilled, and every drop caused Hui Yue to feel refreshed when he washed the old sweat and dirt off his skin. His long, white hair glistened in the moonlight and his blue eyes shone with contentment. Hui Yue was as stunning as an immortal fairy.
‘Someone is observing you.’ Lan Feng quietly commented, and Hui Yue turned to look towards the forest at whoever it was. At first, he had been worried, but upon noticing the person, a smile appeared on his face.
“Lady Rong Xing,” He said with his childish voice that bubbled with happiness. He quickly stepped out of the water and walked towards his clothes and saw clearly a shocked expression appear on Rong Xing’s adorable face.
“Is there anything wrong?” He asked confused. Perhaps she had noticed something? He thought while being slightly scared.
“You’re… You’re a boy?” She asked while her usually perfectly white skin had turned fiery crimson from embarrassment. Hui Yue looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, which caused Rong Xing to become even more shocked.
“Of course?” He answered confused. Why would someone have to explain their gender? However, after thinking about it, he always said Hui Yue and never talked about his gender.
‘Lan Feng… ’ He spoke with a dreadful voice. ‘Don’t tell me that Rong Ming thinks I’m a girl...’
Before Lan Feng had the chance to answer exuberant laughter suddenly rang out from within the trees. Hui Yue looked at Rong Xing who was laughing so much that tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“This is perfect,” She giggled while trying to contain her laughter. “I’ll come visit you tomorrow when you're at the hills,” Rong Xing laughed while she turned around and returned to the campsite leaving Hui Yue and Lan Feng behind.
‘That Rong family is really quite messed up.’ Lan Feng finally said before the two of them returned home.
Rong Xing walked into the central tent and saw that Rong Ming and Bu Huang were discussing the list of magical beast cores they were expected to procure on this trip before she giggled slightly.
Her laughter made Rong Ming look at her.
“Where have you been?” He asked curiously as Rong Xing rarely left the campsite whenever they were here.
“I met with Hui Yue.” She answered with a voice brimming with happiness. Rong Ming’s face suddenly changed, and he grinned towards his twin sister.
“Do you like Hui Yue?” He asked with a slightly nervous voice, as his eyes were fixed on Rong Xing’s face. A feeling of relief flooded Rong Ming when he saw his sister nodding.
“Hui Yue is definitely an interesting person.” She said as her eyes shone with a light that was hard to explain.
“What would you think if she became your sister in law?” Rong Ming asked seriously, but his expression quickly changed into a frown as his usually quiet sister started laughing uncontrollably. Although it was very out of character, it was still pleasant to the ear, and it was hard for him to stay mad at her.
“Oh my dear brother,” Rong Xing said with a big smile on her face. “I would definitely love for that to happen; however, I do not think that it is very likely.” Rong Ming furrowed his brows upon hearing her reply, but he was a stubborn young boy.
“We will see,” Was his answer before he once again returned to figuring out where the magical beasts they needed to slay would probably be located.