Blue Phoenix

Hui Yue wasted no time and headed straight for the Formation Palace to see Pei Bai.

"What do you think?" he asked Lan Feng while flying towards the Formation Palace, but the bird was quiet for quite some time. It was not that he was not considering the question, but he was contemplating what they should do.

'I think it might be beneficial for you,' Lan Feng finally said slowly. 'Currently, you are focused on formations, and thus you need something to pressure you. Having an event like this will be able to help you improve much faster, not to mention you would be getting pointers from a true Formation Master.'

"That’s true," Hui Yue said. He was used to taking chances that put his life at risk so joining something as seemingly laid back as this debate did not seem dangerous, but the rewards were quite substantial. There was no reason to say no to joining.

They reached the Formation Palace and entered. Hui Yue was curious about this Pei Bai who knew about him but whom he had never met before.

"As a matter of fact, I only know the clerk guy who is behind the desk. I have never seen anyone else within this Formation Palace. I wonder if he has seen me before to know so much about me," he mumbled to himself as he walked straight towards the counter.

"Hello," the man said with a friendly smile and a wave to Hui Yue. The two could have been considered friends by now as they had spoken together quite a few times and the clerk had given Hui Yue a few pointers on how to improve his formations.

"Hey," Hui Yue smiled back. "I need to speak with some elder named Pei Bai," he said politely to the clerk. "He went to visit my father earlier and said he had to speak with me; I was wondering if you know where or how I might get in touch with him?"

The clerk smiled mysteriously and nodded his head. "Give me a moment. I will need to close the palace, and then I'll take you to the elder," he chuckled, his strange amusement confusing Hui Yue.

After closing the door and leaving a closed sign in front, the clerk turned to enter the inner parts of the Formation Palace. "Follow me," he said, and Hui Yue, who had never before been inside of the Formation Palace followed him silently, looking all around curiously.

They walked through corridors and hallways, rooms and studies. What struck Hui Yue was that although they walked through multiple closed doors, and through rooms that seemed to work as libraries and even training rooms, none of them possessed any living people. The Formation Palace was not small, but there was no sign of life deep within. It was as if the only living being in the entire palace was this clerk.

"There are not a lot of Formation Masters within the sect are there?" Hui Yue asked a little sad as he looked around. While the sect was massive with tens of thousands of members, this place was as deserted as a newly created realm.

"We have a handful of soulforce experts within the sect," the clerk said with a nod. "We have managed to get three experts from the younger generation who possess soulforce; this result is already considered incredibly good. Unfortunately, two of these youngsters are not interested in becoming Formation Masters."

"The other youngster does not have much talent for formations. His patience is not great, and he is not very good at compressing seals. He has just now managed to complete a hundred seals after two hundred years. This performance is not bad, but it cannot be considered great either."

"Apart from this youngster, who is talented, we have around seven other experts who have dabbled in the art of formations. Of them, we have three Formation Masters."

"I can imagine that Elder Pei Bai is the most talented of all the Formation Masters within the sect?" The clerk looked a little troubled when he heard this question. He cleared his throat in a slightly embarrassed way and said with a somewhat low voice, "some would say he is the best, but he does not dare claim such a title."

Hui Yue looked curiously at the clerk and wondered why he was acting so odd today, but before he had the time to ask, the two had arrived in front of a large wooden door.

"Behind this door is Pei Bai's office," he explained. "Pei Bai never really likes to stay within his office and takes on other tasks instead, so don't be shocked when you see the state of the office." The clerk was very apologetic as he opened the door and led Hui Yue into a large office.

This office was overflowing with scrolls. There were scrolls everywhere, scrolls with formations or theories about formations.

"But there is no one in here," Hui Yue mumbled to himself when the young clerk stepped behind the desk and sat down on the chair that was meant for the elder.

Hui Yue looked at him dumbfounded, and the clerk looked back with amusement and expectation on his face.

"Where is Elder Pei Bai?" Hui Yue asked as he narrowed his eyes and looked at the clerk in front of him, but the smile on his face just grew wider, and he pointed towards his chest with a strange satisfaction on his face. It was clear that he was enjoying Hui Yue's confusion.

Although Hui Yue was shocked, he was not stupid, and the person he had known to be a clerk turned out to be an elder instead. His reaction was not as spectacular as the elder had hoped, and his face, which was filled with a smile and clearly showed expectations quickly turned disappointed.

"What is up with your expression?" he said sourly to Hui Yue when he saw that the young man did not express the shock or disbelief he had expected.

Only now did Hui Yue understand why his father had said that speaking with Pei Bai was needed to understand what exactly was going on. This Pei Bai was a strange one.

"I take pride in my appearance," Pei Bai suddenly said. "I am one of the seventh generation descendants, and not many of us are left, but those who are left are all old geezers. I was able to have a breakthrough into the Immortal of Creation rank at only three hundred years of age. So far I am one of the youngest Immortals of Creations of all the experts in our sect, and because of this, I decided not to age any longer! I have looked the same for more than ten thousand years!"

Pei Bai was clearly very proud of himself, but Hui Yue did not know exactly what this strange elder expected from him. Should he clap his hands and praise him? Should he ignore it?

His eyes displayed his confusion, and eventually, he nodded his head, "It is amazing that you managed to become an Immortal of Creation with such speed," he said eventually. It was indeed quite an achievement so praising him was not just to make him feel good.

"So, Elder Pei Bai, I came because I heard about this Formation Master debate," Hui Yue went straight to the topic at hand, and Pei Bai, who seemed to have survived his disappointment from not shocking Hui Yue more than he did, nodded his head.

"The Formation Master's debate is a convention kind of thing. You will meet up with other Formation Masters and exchange insights. You will have to display your prowess when it comes to formations, and you will also challenge other formations with your own."

"Although you can only control simple formations for now, but I have great trust in you and your talent. I will provide you all the formation scrolls you might need free of charge for the next half year. You will need at least one hundred seals, but with your current speed, that should not be too troublesome."

Hui Yue was stunned. He had half a year to reach a hundred seals. That alone did not challenge him too much, but he knew that if he wanted to display his full strength with all those seals, then he needed to be able to do much more than just control a single formation composed of them.

'This is the perfect time to learn how to create multiple formations at the same time. And don't forget, I am here too,' Lan Feng grinned. 'Imagine if you could form ten Blazing Tigers at the same time! And if these formations were all boosted by my dao of fire!'

'In half a year I will have finished my fourth dao, and then we will have an even stronger army of Blazing Tigers. Although it is a beginner attack, I cannot wait to see if other formation apprentices around your level can hold you down.'

Hui Yue had to agree that if he continued to look for formations that required the daos that he could control, then his strength would soar to the heavens. He would be a true force to be reckoned with. However, he was still a far cry away from being able to create ten Blazing Tiger formations at the same time.

"I would like to participate, but tell me about my competitors. I imagine that they have been brought up with a silver spoon, practicing formations all their lives. Compared to them, I might as well not even go," Hui Yue said honestly as he spoke to Pei Bai.

"The majority of the sects are in the same situation we are," Pei Bai explained. "They have a few experts with soulforce, but just because they have the force required does not mean that they have talent for the art; however, in the end, the sects cannot be picky. Soulforce is simply far too rare!"

"Because of this the majority of the sects have experts who focus on formations from the younger generation, but that person is nothing more than an average Formation creator. The person you really need to be wary of is a youth from the Heavenly Dragon Gate."

"The Heavenly Dragon Gate is different from the Celestial Sword Sect," Pei Bai continued explaining. "Where the Celestial Sword Sect is a sect made for the descendants of the Great Roc, the Heavenly Dragon Gate is a sect that invites any kind of talent to join their ranks."

"They especially adopt those who have talent for formations, and their sect is known for producing heaven-shaking Formations Masters. This time they got their hands on a young man who was only fifty years of age when he joined them. He is a true prodigy when it comes to formations, and he was, as you described, fed with a silver spoon. Anything he wanted, he got."

"I do not expect you to defeat this young man, but ranking second will be enough to earn our Celestial Sword Sect quite some fame."

Hui Yue was quiet for some time and considered what had been said. He did not like winning second place and would strive to become the number one in the debate, but he also acknowledged that he had a serious disadvantage when it came to knowledge about formations as well as time spent practicing. He had just started far too late compared to this cultivator from the Heavenly Dragon Gate.

"I will do my best," Hui Yue finally said as he gave a decisive nod. He would not worry about what rank he got, as long as he could do his best then he would be satisfied.

Deep inside he felt excitement. He had expected a boring future where he would focus on formations alone, but now he felt a sense of urgency.

"Don't spend contribution points on meditation rooms, just pick one here in the Formation Palace," Pei Bai said. "I will show you around so follow me!"