Blue Phoenix

Hui Yue fully submerged himself in his room. He created one paste after another. His success rate was an astonishing one hundred percent. Even so, it was easy to see a difference between the first pastes he had created versus the newer ones.

The old ones, although good enough to be considered at the alchemist level were lacking in potency. No high ranked family would purchase these low-grade pastes, but many commoner families would save for years to purchase them for the most talented members of their family.

The pastes he had made at the start were of this low-grade quality. They could be considered successful, but just barely. His control over the temperature and the flame had been crude, and his ability to merge the ingredients even more so.

Hui Yue had been seated for three days in his room refining paste after paste. As he finally used up all the red orchids he had, he retracted the two flames from within the cauldron.

Losing his focus on the cauldron and looking around, Hui Yue was astonished to see jade bottles filling his room. Even the bed had jade bottles laying on top of each other.

It now only took Hui Yue five minutes to create the Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid, and he had constantly concocted them for three days. The amount of pastes he made was naturally an incredible number.

With a swipe of his hand, Hui Yue stored every single jade bottle in his Universe Box and stood up. The moment he rose though a spell of dizziness hit him and he almost collapsed to the floor again, but with a determined step forward he managed to balance himself once more.

'Frightening!' Hui Yue exclaimed to Lan Feng. 'No wonder alchemists become so strong! Having refined for only a mere three days, my strength has already increased by so much?!'

Hui Yue was genuinely shocked. He knew that he had been using his energy constantly and that the body had naturally opened any pores it could. This allowed the body to suck in the essence of the heavens and the earth and greedily refined it all at the fastest speed possible. Hui Yue had truly benefitted greatly from the experience. This was a speed of refinement he had only before experienced during battle or hard training.

'It is not bad at all,' Lan Feng agreed with a nod. 'At first, I was slightly hesitant when you decided to focus on crafts all of a sudden, but not only do you gain a very useful skill, but you also manage to increase your strength quite quickly as well. It is definitely beneficial for us. Make sure you take the exam tomorrow; we need you to gain access to more formulas. Sadly, I, alone, can not continue to support your rapid speed of improvement.'

Hui Yue was fully aware that what Lan Feng said was correct. He had gained a lot of internal energies, but he also knew that the majority of this energy was gained at the start when he struggled to refine the materials perfectly and thus he was unable to create a perfect paste. He wasted some of the energy from the herbs because he did not manage to merge them perfectly at the start, but as time went on he got more proficient at refining and merging the paste. Unfortunately having trained for this long had exhausted his pile of red orchids and spirit grass.

"Well, I know one place where you can purchase anything." Hui Yue said with a smile. "Let’s head back to the Black Market Auction House."

Standing up, Hui Yue did just that and moved towards the Black Market Auction House. As always, when he was spotted, many servants rushed through the mansion to inform both Ma Kong and the patriarch about his arrival. One of the reasons that Ma Kong had gained such a high position as he had was partly because of his relationship with Hui Yue. Hui Yue had done so much for them already, and he kept providing them with many opportunities and amazing items.

"This way master Hui." A servant said very humbly, and even the guards bowed to Hui Yue as he entered the auction house. Everyone who was present in the large hall, either buying or selling items, could not help but stare at this striking young man who walked with steady steps and had a gentle expression on his face.

Hui Yue completely ignored the many people as he nodded at the servant. He followed her into the inner areas of the mansion, moving towards Ma Kong's office.

"It is rare for you to visit me here at my office, yet you have now come twice in the past week. I cannot help but be curious about what might have brought you here today." Ma Kong laughed as he looked at Hui Yue and poured a glass of fine wine for his friend.

"I am here because I want to trade something. I am sure you'd be interested." Hui Yue laughed, and with a flick of his hand, the entire desk between Hui Yue and Ma Kong was filled to the brim with jade bottles.

"This is?" Ma Kong asked shocked as he looked at all the vials. He was completely unable to guess what was inside. "Please check for yourself," Hui Yue laughed, and without waiting, Ma Kong picked up a vial and opened it. Smelling the medicinal fragrance which wafted out from within the vial Ma Kong’s eyes which had been filled with uncertainty suddenly filled with shock.

"This... This is the Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid? And so much of it! Since when did you become an alchemist?" Ma Kong was shocked, but he was still as smart as ever. He knew that apprentice alchemists made these pastes and it was impossible for Hui Yue to purchase such a large amount of them even if he was with the Royal Academy, the place in Muchuan City that bought almost all of the low ranking medicines.

"I started to dabble in alchemy recently." Hui Yue said with a smile. "Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of formulas to practice. Thus I figured that your family would be interested in trading these pastes for something a bit more beneficial for me, something like formulas."

Hearing the words Ma Kong could not help but laugh. Had Hui Yue appeared and asked for formulas, they would gladly give them to him. Having the support of another alchemist was great, and even better if the alchemist was Hui Yue! Having an alchemist join their auction house would normally mean them paying a great deal of money, but now he wanted to pay them back with his own personal stash of Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid. The patriarch would be dancing in joy, had he been in the room.

"I will go find some pill and paste formulas for you. I assume you want the easiest to create pill formulas? Although you are considered an alchemist when you can create pastes such as this one, the alchemist society will not consider you a part of it until you have managed to create actual medicinal pills."

"You understand my situation so well," Hui Yue sighed in praise, and Ma Kong just sent him a wry smile. "Excuse me for some time, I need to go get some suitable formulas." He said as he stood up leaving Hui Yue alone in the office.

"Nephew Kong!" A voice rang out causing Ma Kong to instantly came to a halt. "Ma Kong greets the patriarch," He said with a short bow before he raised his body once more.

"I heard that Hui Yue has come?" The patriarch said curiously. "Can it be he is here to ask for a favor?"

"No." Ma Kong shook his head, his expression somewhat dejected. "I would feel better if he had come for a favor, but instead, he wants to trade. He has a thousand bottles of Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid, and they are all of quite good quality. He wishes to trade them for formulas for easy to concoct pills."

Hearing these words, the patriarch's eyes widened from shock. His face became pale then beet red within moments. "A thousand bottles of Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid? I have never heard of an individual who do as much business with us as Hui Yue does! Flying items which require of him to have Metal affinity, medicinal pastes which require Fire and Wood. He is an enigma, but one which brings us amazing fortune. Find a copy of each and every formula we have in stock and hand them to him. Although this price is more than what he is paying, having gained his favor will be great for us. Not only is he a genius at fighting, but he is also a grandmaster spiritual blacksmith, and now it seems he is also an apprentice alchemist. We simply cannot afford to offend him."

The words of the patriarch were incredibly direct. Stay on Hui Yue's good side and treat him as one would their own ancestors. Although Hui Yue had not paid enough to get a full copy of all their formulas, the patriarch was more than willing to pay the difference. He wanted to be sure that the Ma family had a solid relationship with Hui Yue.

"I am sorry it took so long," Ma Kong said as he opened the door and entered the office once more. "These are copies of all the formulas our current Ma family possesses. Treat them with respect and don't teach them to outsiders.

"All of them?" Hui Yue answered stunned. "Why would you give me something so valuable? These pastes are not worth that much."

"It is a sign of goodwill from the patriarch. A way to thank you for everything you've done for us. We value your help immensely." Ma Kong said smilingly. Although at this point words were not needed between the two, Ma Kong still wanted to voice his thanks to Hui Yue.

"In that case, I will gladly accept them," Hui Yue said elatedly. He could not wait to look through the many pill and paste formulas he had obtained, but he needed to wait till he went home. "As long as you are a part of the Ma family, I will do everything in my power to protect and assist them. Not that my protection is needed." Hui Yue said solemnly before he stood up, "I might come again soon, but I need to head home and prepare for the alchemist exam tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to pass it." Hui Yue laughed before he turned around and left the office.

Hui Yue had been in the Ma family mansion many times already, and he could easily find his way out. Outside Hui Yue headed back home, and once again hoped for Sha Yun to be there, only to be disappointed.

'Do not open the memory stone you got from the Ma family.' Lan Feng suddenly warned, and Hui Yue frowned as he looked at the memory stone in his hand. 'Why not?' He asked curiously, and Lan Feng sighed. 'Tomorrow you are going to participate in the exam. Right now the only formula you know is the one which you are going to make tomorrow. However, if you read through all these various formulas in such a short time, you will be confused and need time to gain enlightenment on each of them. You simply don't have that time for them right now. You need to focus on the Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid.'

Realizing that Lan Feg was correct, the memory stone vanished into his palm. Hui Yue, instead of going through the various formulas, decided to sit down in front of the cascading moonlight. Sitting he felt the soft Yin light envelop him as a cold breeze entered his room. Hui Yue not only felt the cold but could feel the vast expanse of land spreading out into the city as he was seated in a lotus position, merging with the world around him. Every speck of dust was visible to young man, every person moving about was within his range and could be seen as clearly as if Hui Yue was standing right next to them. Everything became like a world within his mind; a world where he could see everything. While he was merged with the Earth, the Yin energy was being greedily sucked into Hui Yue's body being refined and added to his Wu Wei core.

The night went by quietly; everyone was busy cultivating, and as night faded and daylight rose, Hui Yue breathed out heavily before he opened his eyes.

Excitement could be seen within as he got ready. The exam was at noon today, and he needed to make sure that he was there on time. If he missed this exam, then he would have to wait a full month for the next test. This was something Hui Yue would not let happen.

Wearing a white robe with blue embroideries, Hui Yue looked like a celestial being as he strode through town. Anywhere he moved people would stop and stare at him. Jaws were dropped, eyes almost popped out of commoners’ heads, and even merchants did not call out to him for fear of disturbing this son of the heavens. In the eyes of these commoners, Hui Yue had to be an immortal. Only an immortal could be this stunningly beautiful.