This chapter is sponsored by Cole Hausner, so join me in a big round of applause for him ~
Hui Yue had followed his seniors towards the arena area that he had seen when he first entered the Academy grounds. The area was idyllic and fairly remote. There were five different arenas placed on this mountain top that was the furthest away from the Academy Office Building.
Currently there were no other students present than the two groups who had come here, but according to Gao Yan, it would be one of the most frequented places as students would come here to solve grudges or train for the tournament.
There were four mountain tops dedicated to the arenas, and the first two of the mountain tops were surrounded by seats, clearly those were for promoted matches, however these last two mountains each had smaller arenas that the students were able to use as they saw fit.
Wang Jingshen was looking at Hui Yue with a slightly apprehensive look as he noticed that the younger kid instantly accepted the challenge, but he quickly calmed himself as he was certain that the child had misunderstood what an exchange of pointers actually implied.
He had later heard that Hui Yue was a child of unknown origin and that he was personally being looked after by the Rong Twins, so it was likely that he was some spoiled young child who had been treated gently all through his life. However, no matter what background the child had, it was nothing compared to his Great Hundred Names family, so he was thrilled when his younger brother had agreed to the challenge, and to show Hui Yue just who was superior.
“You need to be careful,” Rong Xing warned with a worried face, “Wang Ju Long is known as a great talent within the Wang family, and he is already at the eight-star student rank. Losing to him will not be a disgrace.”
“Wang Ju Long already lives at the top of the mountain like you, so he doesn’t gain anything from winning. More importantly, make sure to give up before he seriously injures you” Ma Kong said from the side, while giving Hui Yue a gentle pat on the shoulder.
“I am going to fucking kill Wang Jingshen,” Gao Yan growled while shooting one fierce glare after another towards the other group of people,
“He is a cunt. It was his own fault for not seeing that Hui Yue is a guy, making a challenge like this is pointless. I will definitely make sure to pay him back,” Rong Ming agreed with rage burning within his chest. He understood how embarrassing it was to mistake the gender more than anyone else, but to react this way was despicable.
“Don’t worry,” Gao Yan said while placing a hand on Hui Yue’s other shoulder, “we will make sure that Wang Jingshen and his followers pays dearly for this.”
The only one who stayed quiet was Deng Wu. He was standing to the side with a slight smile curling on his lips and his black eyes dancing playfully while observing Hui Yue. When the black eyes and the blue eyes locked together, Hui Yue felt a shiver go through his body as he feared that the older boy could see right through him and had noticed Lan Feng, but he was aware that it was impossible as his cultivation had not even reached the middle dantian.
Still, something about Deng Wu made Hui Yue alert and worried, and he knew that Deng Wu was aware of this, and that it entertained him.
‘We can’t worry too much about him right now,’ Lan Feng warned, ‘you will need your entire focus on the opponent in front of you, but we will look into this Deng Wu and the rest of the City situation later on.’
Hui Yue forced his eyes to leave Deng Wu and he slowly moved towards the middle of the arena in front of him. Wang Ju Long had moved there already and was waiting for Hui Yue to arrive.
Both the two children had changed their clothes before they started engaging in the spar, as their long robes were incredibly beautiful, but also quite unpractical while the body needed to move around. Both were now wearing tunics and pants. The tunics were fitted on the upper bodies, allowing the wearer comfort while moving around or striking out. The pants were fitted around the small waists and provided a certain amount of protection with the thick fabric. They were slightly baggy, and ended around the middle of the thighs where they were bound to the legs, to ensure that the feet would never get disturbed by the clothing while fighting.
Although the style of clothes was the exact same, the quality was as far away as heaven and earth. Wang Ju Long was wearing clothes created from the finest silken material that was smooth and clearly incredibly comfortable, while Hui Yue was wearing clothes that had obviously been worn for a very long time. The clothes were comfortable, but they had gotten so through multiple years of wear unlike the others, and they were created from a hemp-like plant material.
Hui Yue’s clothes had caused the Wang group to snort with disdain and laugh at him while constantly yelling one insult after another as they would to the commoner students. The clothes had not surprised Rong Ming nor Rong Xing as both of them knew about Hui Yue’s background, but Ma Kong could not help but being slightly surprised as he still knew nothing. Gao Yan suddenly felt even more kinship towards this young boy and swore within his heart that he would get revenge later on.
Deng Wu had had no reaction once again, but the lack of reaction had just caused Hui Yue more worry.
The two boys stood in front of each other in the middle of the field, while waiting to hear who was decided to be the judge. Wang Ju Long was sneering as he looked at Hui Yue and his aloof expression.
Wang Ju Long was supposed to be the only genius this year who was entitled to get a top mountain courtyard. He had grown up knowing that he was supposed to be the only child within his family who could compete against the Rong twins when it came to innate talent, and his entry into the Royal Academy should have been grand.
However, when he arrived today, things were nothing like he had expected. None of the other noble families had paid him much attention as they were curious about the origin of this beautiful young child that was being escorted by the City Lord’s children.
He had entered the Academy much quicker than Hui Yue had, and rushed up the stairs to get his top mountain courtyard and let the other students understand just how important he was, and there was quite some satisfaction as he was sitting within his courtyard and started to cultivate.
Unfortunately, his cultivation had been interrupted by his older brother who had arrived with his usual group of dim-witted thugs, complaining to Wang Ju Long about a new student who was too outrageous. Wang Jingshen would definitely have challenged him if they had been within the same rank, however only student ranked could challenge other student ranked cultivators, unless it was the weaker student that challenged the stronger.
At first Wang Ju Long had absolutely no interest in getting revenge for his brother, however after hearing that it was a certain white-haired boy he agreed to help.
As Wang Ju Long was about to leave with the others, he noticed that a courtyard close by suddenly lit up with a sharp light, the light that explained that the courtyard had found his owner, and Wang Ju Long almost vomited blood when he saw the name Hui Yue was written on the nameplate.
Wang Ju Long was a proud child who had grown up while being told that he was the future of his family. It was obvious that he could not stand the person in front of him who had taken away some of his well-deserved attention and the only way to satisfy his raging hate was to utterly defeat this trash and let the world know which one of the two was the superior cultivator.
While Wang Ju Long was thinking these malicious thoughts, Hui Yue was standing in front of him with a face as calm as a forest lake and a gentle smile upon his lips, but at a closer inspection it was clear that the smile did not reach the blue eyes that contained a coldness unsuitable for a child at the age of ten.
‘You are on your own,’ Lan Feng warned slightly, ‘I won’t help you unless it seems like he will seriously injure you or cripple your cultivation. You need to learn for yourself.’ With that, Lan Feng slowly drifted down into the qi cave where he focused his attention towards the fight that was about to break out.
Hui Yue let out a slight breath and felt grateful towards Lan Feng. It had been far too long since he last tried fighting, but he was fairly confident whenever he thought about the martial art skills that he had spent the last years practicing to perfection.
“The rules are simple,” Deng Wu said, as he took the job as a judge. He was one of the Great Hundred Names, and although he might be slightly bias towards Hui Yue, he was definitely less bias than Wang Jingshen.
“You are not allowed to kill your opponent. This is an exchange of pointers, and injuries are to be expected, however if you are too overbearing then I will personally ensure that the Academy Chief knows of it.”
Having said that, he nodded to the two youngsters before moving to the edge of the arena. The edge where Rong Xing was standing, and he was obviously looking to be praised for being serious. Hui Yue had narrowed his eyes and was observing the black-haired young man as he felt Deng Wu was a bigger threat than Wang Ju Long.
Hui Yue did not have the chance to keep his focus on Deng Wu for long, as he suddenly felt an incredible pressure appear opposite him and gather at Wang Ju Long’s hand. At first a small breeze was moving towards him, but it quickly grew in strength until it had gathered into a huge tempest that was swirling around on top of Wang Ju Long’s open palm. The tempest was constantly growing in size, going far into the sky and the wind would pick up, trying to drag anything close by into the vortex.
Hui Yue narrowed his eyes as he noticed that within the tempest were flashes of light. The light was small lightning bolts that were created by qi, and he could not help but shutter involuntarily. Although the qi was not as white as Hui Yue’s, it was definitely of a superior quality. Not only was the quality great, Wang Ju Long clearly had more refined qi than Hui Yue did.
“He is using the Qi Lightning skill from the start?” Rong Xing whispered with big eyes and slightly trembling voice, as she looked at the scene in front of her. It was obvious that the others were as worried as they were mumbling indistinctly to one another,
“Deng Wu, you have to stop it!” Rong Xing said with a scared voice as she looked towards the black-haired youth, however to her surprise he just smiled back at her,
“Don’t worry yet. Let’s trust younger brother Hui Yue and see if he can perform miracles.”
Deng Wu was not dumb, he knew exactly how dangerous Qi lightning was. It was a low duke ranked attack martial art, and the Wang family considered it one of their greatest treasures. The skill did not only have a high rank and fierce attack power, it also required the cultivator to have very pure qi to be able to utilize it, and Deng Wu himself was slightly surprised to see that Wang Ju Long had qualified to use it.
Deng Wu smiled as he returned his gaze towards the young white-haired boy in front of him. He understood why the others were worried. Clearly they had not noticed anything wrong with Hui Yue, nor would they be able to notice anything for a long time, however, he had seen it from the start.
Five years ago when he was about to enter the Royal Academy he had been gifted a family heirloom as a reward. This heirloom had many uses, one of them was to disguise his own cultivation. Another was to see through any disguise, and as soon as he had seen Hui Yue, he had noticed the saint ranked divine beast that was hiding within his qi cave. He was aware of how important this information was, but Deng Wu was more curious as to how a ten-year-old child had managed to capture such a strong beast, and for now he had no intention of telling anyone about this rarity and instead enjoy the show. His smile grew larger while looking at Hui Yue, and his eyes were glistening with a mysterious light that Rong Xing had never seen before.
Hui Yue grit his teeth and understood that he had underestimated Wang Ju Long. It was obvious that he was using a high ranked martial art skill, and that the rank was not that different from his own Velocity Flow and Qi Guard, however Hui Yue was betting that Wang Ju Long had not perfected his use of the skill yet, and he quickly activated his lower duke ranked, defensive martial art skill Qi Guard.
As soon as he called out the skill, he created a few hand seals and thin strands of qi quickly started to flow out from the qi cave and through specific patterns within the meridians before Hui Yue’s entire skin was glowing faintly with a pearl white lustre.
Together with Qi Guard, Hui Yue also activated Velocity Flow and focused on moving behind Wang Ju Long. Hui Yue left behind an afterimage and kept moving quickly while being behind Wang Ju Long, so that he would not materialize and make his current plan fail.
Hui Yue did not have to wait for long. Wang Ju Long’s wind tempest with qi lightning had grown to the largest size that he could control, and he looked at the boy in front of him with disdain. He could not help but think that the kid was too naïve to be standing there, waiting for one of his hits to land.
“Don’t blame me for any injury you will suffer!” Wang Ju Long roared as he launched three qi lightning bolts out of the vortex. They shot out much quicker than what Hui Yue had expected, even Velocity Flow would have some problems escaping every one of the bolts. This could turn into a bigger problem than he had first anticipated.
The three bolts of qi lightning all slammed into the small boy, and smoke started to rise from the area where the impact had happened. At first the side where Wang Jingshen and his thugs were standing had been full of cheers and laughter, but it quickly stilled and was replaced with disbelief. Everyone present was filled with shock, and even Deng Wu was narrowing his eyes as he had never seen any martial art skill like this before.
Rong Xing and Rong Ming were both completely stunned. They were aware of Hui Yue’s background and both knew that he had no way of gaining a high ranked martial art skill, however it was obvious that he was currently using one. They could not help but feel curious as to how he had gotten it.
Hui Yue was not planning on taking it easy on Wang Ju Long, and attacked as soon as the qi lightning slammed into his afterimage. He quickly activated his low practitioner ranked attack martial art skill, Raging Strike, that he had been given by Rong Ming and his fist was suddenly covered by a pure white lustre, the qi covering his fist was filled with an oppressive force.
Although Wang Ju Long was full of himself, he had been trained from a very young age, and his family had often made him spar against their family guards, giving him a certain amount of live combat practice, and he felt the overbearing feeling coming from Hui Yue’s perfect qi. He quickly turned around and his white qi gathered around his forearm as he blocked the strike.
Hui Yue had been relying on the Velocity Flow’s insane movement to increase the power of Raging Strike, however raging strike was after all a low tier skill, and it was not able to break through Wang Ju Long’s defence.
Without a second thought, Hui Yue activated his high disciple ranked attack, Shattering Kick, and swung his leg hard against Wang Ju Long’s waist.
Wang Ju Long had shown quite the skill by being able to block the previous blow with his qi, however the qi he was using was not a defensive martial art skill, and he was unable to cover his whole body at once, causing him to be flung away by the kick.
Hui Yue felt a certain amount of satisfaction when he felt how his kick went through and a few ribs were broken in the process, however he did not have time to celebrate the slight victory as another four qi lightning bolts shot towards him with incredible speed.
Cursing, Hui Yue tried to gain momentum by using the Velocity Flow skill, but he was unable to avoid all the lightning bolts, and had to take one of them head-on.
Wang Ju Long had landed on the ground and a sinister expression was visible on his face as he saw how one of the bolts struck Hui Yue at the shoulder. He knew how devastating the damage was from even one lightning bolt, and a smirk was appearing on his face, together with loud cheers and insults that erupted from Wang Jingshen’s thugs.
Differently from Wang Jingshen’s side, Rong Xing and Rong Ming were incredibly worried. Although Hui Yue had shocked them once with Velocity Flow, they had never expected the small child to have other secrets, but they were surprised yet again as they completely focused their eyes upon Hui Yue.
As soon as the qi lightning bolt hit Hui Yue’s shoulder, the faint white glow that had been covering his body all fight suddenly condensed and became much thicker, much like an armour made from white pearl. It managed to defend against the lightning bolt, before it returned into the faint glow from before.
Although the Qi Guard had managed to protect Hui Yue from serious injury he was still sent flying and his shoulder turned numb. Hui Yue let out a relieved sigh, however he quickly noticed that the Qi Guard had needed an incredible amount of qi to block that attack. With his current amount of qi he would only be able to block about two more at most.
Wang Ju Long was unaware of this fact. All he saw was that his most potent attack had no effect on Hui Yue, and his insides were turning with rage. He quickly stood up and once again focused on the vortex in his hand before he shot another four qi lightning bolts towards Hui Yue.
The distance between the two was far greater this time as both had been knocked away, and Hui Yue could utilize Velocity Flow enough to narrowly escape and close the gap between them. He decided to go all out, and invested more of his sparse qi into creating a copy that attacked together with him, while activating the shattering kick once again.
Wang Ju Long used yet another set of qi lightning bolts, to attack the two bodies that were rapidly gaining on him, and as soon as one hit the copy it vanished, giving him enough time to block the shattering kick.
Hui Yue on the other hand, used the opportunity to retreat, ensuring that he would not get hit by yet another qi lightning bolt, as he realised that his qi would be running out quickly if he did.
After the exchange both boys were standing in the arena with a certain distance between. Wang Ju Long’s tempest had been reduced by half, and the amount of qi lightning strikes left had also halved from the original number, while Hui Yue could feel that he had spent a little more than half of his qi. The Qi Guard alone had used a third of his total qi to defend against that one qi lightning bolt, which showed just how damaging it was.
Wang Ju Long was filled with hate. There was nothing he wanted more than killing this unknown child in front of him, however so far, his Qi Lightning technique had not had any real effect, instead he had been exhausting his qi pool with repeated attacks.
Hui Yue on the other hand was on the defensive. He had a smaller qi pool than Wang Ju Long and the previous attack had shown him just how dangerous it would be if he relaxed only a little. Both were standing still, staring at each other and none of them felt like giving in when suddenly they heard clapping.
“Well done!” Deng Wu said with a big smile upon his face, eyes playing mischievously, “you both did incredibly well at this exchange of pointers. Although you both got slight injuries you managed to hold back and not seriously injure the other. That is not seen often!” Deng Wu was praising the both, and made it sound as if this outcome had been intended. Although the comment caused Wang Ju Long to grind his teeth hard against each other and his eyes to flash violently with anger, he was unable to say anything else, as it was against the rules to intentionally injure other students.
Hui Yue somewhat shared those feelings, as he was incredibly disappointed with himself. He was aware that Wang Ju Long was a higher cultivation rank than he himself, however it was only three stars and Hui Yue had to use more martial art skills than Wang Ju Long. Although he had the skills to escape from much stronger opponents it was still very dissatisfying that he could not defeat his opponent.
“Young Lord Wang Ju Long, thank you so much for this exchange of pointers. It has really taught me a lot,” Hui Yue said with a gentle smile upon his face and a grateful expression in his eyes, however inside he swore to train endlessly to increase his rank and to perfect the Qi Guard so that Lan Feng would teach him an attack style martial art skill.
‘Let’s see how the next fight will go,’ he thought determined and coldness once again flashed within his sky blue eyes, causing the smile on Deng Wu’s face to increase slightly.
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