Blue Phoenix

‘What is this?’ Hui Yue quietly asked Lan Feng as he looked at the stunning flower in front of him. Somehow the feeling he got from it caused the blue cloud within his dantian cave to boil with excitement, and Hui Yue secretly rejoiced with his choice of allowing these people to know about ‘Li Fen’ being his master.

‘In this world there are some plants which are capable of cultivating,’ Lan Feng stated breathlessly. ‘These plants are the ones considered medicinal herbs; plants which absorb the essence from the heavens and the earth to increase their own cultivation. When a plant like this absorbs the essence from heaven and earth it will naturally become stronger which is seen by how the effect of these specific herbs becomes multiplied. This is also why older plants are much more beneficial than younger sprouts.’

Hearing this, Hui Yue was almost about to nod as this was information he had been given previously.

‘All these medicinal plants are material plants which sprout from seeds left behind by the same type of plant. They are all able to cultivate, but they are nothing like the plant in front of you.’ Lan Feng said, awestruck.

‘This is a Divine Flower,’ Lan Feng finally said after a small break, but he did not get the time to continue to conversation.

The two of them were still within the Deng family’s main hall, and all the Deng family members were looking at the dumbstruck facial expression which was spread across Hui Yue’s face.

“Oh I am sorry,” Hui Yue quickly said, the shock which had previously been on his face was now completely sealed behind a perfect poker face. “I was astonished by the beauty and aura of such a flower. I have never seen anything like it before.” Hui Yue continued while praising the beautiful flower in front of him.

Currently, Hui Yue was capable of making an oath to the heavens and earth that he did not know what the flower in front of him was, so he had no fear of playing the role of an unknowing boy.

“This was a beautiful flower which has been in our treasury since the first generation of our family. No one has found anything particularly about it, yet its beauty is outstanding.” Deng Tsang Ying said while smiling towards the child in front of him, fully believing Hui Yue.

In fact, everyone within the main hall fully believed Hui Yue when he said that he was astonished by the beauty. Everyone except Deng Wu, and this particular young man had a knowing smirk on his face as he was feeling grateful that the item they were giving to Hui Yue had some actual usage.

“This is a gift which we hope your teacher will like,” Deng Tsang Ying continued, and with a strand of spiritual energy he managed to reseal the box.

“Anyone who possesses spiritual energy will be capable of opening this box,” he explained as Hui Yue bowed deeply in front of him. “I am sure your teacher will value it.”

Hearing this, Hui Yue could only silently agree. He could feel the waves of excitement clash into his soul from Lan Feng’s their mental connection filled with happiness and excitement.

The following meal was eaten in a side building next to the main hall, and Hui Yue was seated next to Deng Wu. The entire meal was like a long trial for the young boy as everyone at the table used the time to talk badly about Deng Wu, intentionally degrading him as they were unaware that Hui Yue knew his actual cultivation level.

What Hui Yue quickly noticed was that the elders were clearly not used to degrading Deng Wu and obvious discomfort was shown by their expressions whenever they attempted to do so, yet Deng Wu’s own father, Deng Tsang Ying, was insulting him and calling him trash with no qualms whatsoever.

At first, Hui Yue had considered it odd, but had brushed it away with thinking that Deng Tsang Ying was a great actor, yet after half an hour it was obvious that he enjoyed trashing his son. Hui Yue could not help but feel astounded that none of the elders seemed to understand the family head’s true feelings.

Hui Yue had looked at Deng Wu, wondering if he were to comment on the obvious hostility from his father, yet the older boy shook his head ever so slightly. It was obvious that this was family affairs, something which he would deal with on his own.

The meal was finished with a feeling of impatience from Hui Yue’s side. He smiled and chatted with everyone yet his biggest wish was to rush back to the inn to hear more about the Divine Flower.

Could it be a flower which had reach Deity from cultivation? A specific type of flower who could cultivate much stronger than any other cultivator? No matter how much Hui Yue thought, he couldn’t get any closer to an answer, and Lan Feng was completely quiet within the dantian cave. The only thing which betrayed his presence were the feelings of joy and excitement which flooded Hui Yue’s soul.

To make a Saint ranked divine beast show such attention towards it, it definitely was an immense treasure. If the Deng family knew about this, it was obvious that they would not have gifted it to anyone, not even an esteemed expert.

Slowly the sky turned dark outside, and the moon rose above the Deng family compound allowing for Hui Yue to say his goodbyes and slowly slip back to his inn.

The day had been filled with rewards for Hui Yue. Firstly, the Divine Flower which he still did not know enough about, and secondly was the knowledge about Deng Wu’s background.

Seated in the inn, Hui Yue looked at the jade box within his hands and waited patiently for Lan Feng to start speaking.

‘Last time I saw a Divine Flower was in the Dungeons of the Divine,’ Lan Feng sighed his remembrances of the past leaving Hui Yue at a loss. What was the Dungeons of the Divine?

‘Do you remember what I told you about medicinal plants?’ Lan Feng asked first, and a satisfied harrumph could be heard when he felt the knowledge reemerge within Hui Yue’s mind.

‘Those plants are born from seeds which have been left by their ancestors, much like humans are born from other humans, but there are some flowers that are born from nothing.’ Lan Feng paused slightly. ‘These flowers are born from seeds created by the essence between the heavens and the earth.’

‘In areas where there is abundant essence, this essence will gather into a seed which it will nourish until it sprouts and turns into a flower. The petals are made from Qi, the drops are refined Spiritual Energy. The blazing sun is Wu Wei. A flower like this one will never die as long as it is in an area with essence from the heavens and earth, instead it will be nourished into a great treasure.

‘But what does it do?’ Hui Yue asked curiously while he looked at the flower with newly found astonishment.

‘You eat it.’ Lan Feng said directly. ‘You eat it and absorb the energies within. In the middle of this flower, currently submerged in the shining energy known as Wu Wei, is the seed from which it sprouted. We need you to absorb this seed and place it in your Qi swirl. If it is there it will attract the essence from the heavens and earth, allowing your cultivation technique to refine Qi even faster than it already does.’

Hearing this Hui Yue could not help but gape in astonishment. This was indeed an immense treasure, yet he could not help but wonder why no one within the Deng family had tried to eat it before.

‘It is obvious,’ Lan Feng said with a sigh as he felt the confusion. ‘Do you remember how I previously told you that if you eat a beast core it will do you no good, absorbing all the Qi you have spent your time refining?’

Hui Yue nodded. He had heard this many years ago, but it was one thing which he had not forgotten. Eating a beast core was one thing which Hui Yue would never do.

‘This is a great treasure, but it could be like the beast core. Once eaten it would have taken the cultivation base of the cultivator who ate it, yet since there was only one flower, they cannot test it on lower ranked family members as the flower will be wasted by then. Even such an immense treasure has pros and cons when it comes to figuring out what it can do.’

A thoughtful expression appeared on Hui Yue’s face. Had he not been told to eat the flower, then he would never had thought of it especially not after knowing what happens when one eats a beast core. Most medicinal plants are refined so one would expect that this was one which should be refined as well.

Yet after hearing that it was a flower which was created from Qi, Spiritual Energy, and Wu Wei, Hui Yue understood that it was unable to be refined like other medicinal plants, but still he would not have thought of eating it much like he was now.

‘So what are you waiting for?’ Lan Feng said with an excited voice, clearly impatient to see his friend eat the flower. A goofy smile appeared on Hui Yue’s lips, and he allowed for his consciousness to form a mental projection of himself as he moved within the dantian cave towards Lan Feng. Lan Feng was holding one drop of spiritual energy within his hands; the drop which was needed to open the jade case in which the flower was being held.

Slowly, Hui Yue allowed for this one drop of Spiritual Energy to travel through his meridians and slowly exit his hand dripping down on the ribbon which was used to close the case. A click could be heard as the ribbon untied itself, and the case slowly opened which allowed for the heavy energy to start wafting out.

Hui Yue’s heartbeat became erratic as the heavy energy filled his room, and he picked up the flower with shaking hands. He noticed how the energy which was being emitted from the flower instantly rushed in through his meridians cleansing them on the way before arriving in the dantian cave where it was picked up by the Hui Yue copy which was created by the cultivation technique.

Astonishment filled Hui Yue’s eyes, and he slowly lifted the flower to take one final look at the beautiful flower before he slowly placed it within his mouth.

Energy exploded within Hui Yue’s mouth quickly flowing through blood vessels, meridians, muscles, and bones; it flowed throughout his entire body. Hui Yue felt how whereever the energy touched the body got purified, and after few seconds sweat began to appear all over his body, quickly followed by a black steam which was all the impurities that were being removed by the Divine Flower.

The petals which were created by Qi, slowly disintegrated within Hui Yue’s mouth and throat splitting into threads of pure Qi.

Looking at this, Hui Yue finally got serious as his mental projection slowly welcomed all the new Qi strands. He picked up some of his own refined Qi threads and merged them together only to heave a big sigh of relief.

Having different purities of Qi would cause an imbalance within the Qi Cave, and usually ended in seriously injuring the cultivator, not to mention causing the martial skills to become unstable, yet looking at these Qi threads they were a perfect match to Hui Yue’s own threads.

Having spent so much time on cultivating these threads finally paid off, and Hui Yue allowed for the Qi threads which kept floating in from the flower to fill up the Qi swirl within his Qi cave.

Thread after thread joined the Qi spiral and allowed for it to grow to an immense size. Strength filled the young boy and astonishment filled his eyes as he felt the strength of his entire body shaking.

He was breaking through into the fourth star of the Disciple rank!