Chapter 10: Qi Lightning
Hui Yue followed his seniors towards the arena area that he had first noticed upon entering the academy grounds. This area was idyllic and fairly remote. There were five different arenas placed on this mountaintop that was the furthest away from the academy office building.
Currently, no other students were present except the two groups who had come here, but according to Gao Yan, it was one of the most frequented places. It was where students came to resolve grudges or to train for the tournament.
There were four mountaintops dedicated to the arenas. The first two mountaintop arenas were surrounded by seats. Clearly, they were for promoted matches while the other two mountain arenas were smaller and the students were allowed to use them at their convenience.
w.a.n.g Jingshen glanced at Hui Yue with a slightly apprehensive look when the younger kid instantly accepted the challenge, but he quickly calmed himself because he was certain that the child had misunderstood what an exchange of pointers actually implied.
He had heard that Hui Yue was a child of unknown origin and was personally being looked after by the Rong twins. It was likely that he was some spoiled brat who had been treated gently throughout his life. However, no matter what background Hui Yue had, it was nothing compared to his Great Hundred Names family. He was thrilled when his younger brother had agreed to fight Hui Yue to show just who was superior.
“You need to be careful,” Rong Xing warned with a worried face. “w.a.n.g Ju Long is known as an amazing talent within the w.a.n.g family. He is already at the eight-star Student rank. Losing to him would not be a disgrace.”
“w.a.n.g Ju Long already lives at the top of the mountain like you, so he doesn’t gain anything from challenging you. 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 swear I will kill w.a.n.g Jingshen,” Gao Yan growled while shooting one fierce glare after another towards the other group of people.
“He is below despicable! It was his own fault for not seeing that Hui Yue is a guy! Issuing a challenge like this to gain back his pride is pointless. I will definitely make sure he pays for this,” Rong Ming agreed with rage burning in his chest. He understood how embarra.s.sing it was to mistake someone’s gender more than anyone else, but to react in such a way was truly despicable.
“Don’t worry,” Gao Yan said while placing a hand on Hui Yue’s other shoulder. “We will make sure that w.a.n.g Jingshen and his followers pay dearly for this.”
The only one who stayed quiet was Deng Wu. He just stood to the side with a slight smile on his lips as his black eyes danced playfully while observing Hui Yue. When his black eyes and Hui Yue’s blue eyes locked together, Hui Yue felt a s.h.i.+ver go through his body, and he feared that maybe the older boy could see right through him and had noticed Lan Feng. But after a second of thought, he knew such a thing was impossible as his cultivation had not even reached the middle dantian.
Still, something about Deng Wu made Hui Yue alert and worried. He knew that Deng Wu was aware of this and it entertained him.
‘We can’t worry too much about him right now,’ Lan Feng warned. ‘Your entire focus need to be on the opponent in front of you. We will look into this Deng Wu and everything else later on.’
Hui Yue forced his eyes off Deng Wu and slowly moved towards the middle of the arena in front of him. w.a.n.g Ju Long had moved there already and was waiting for Hui Yue to arrive.
The two children had changed their clothes prior to the start of their friendly exchange of pointers because their long and incredibly beautiful robes were quite impractical when one’s body needed to move around quickly. Both were now wearing tunics and pants. The tunics were fitted on the upper bodies, allowing the wearer comfort while moving around and striking out. The pants were fitted around their small waists and provided a certain amount of protection due to the thick fabric. Although slightly baggy, the pants ended around the middle of the thighs where they were bound to the legs, ensuring that their feet would not get disturbed by the clothes while fighting.
Although their style of clothing was the same, the quality was like heaven and earth. w.a.n.g Ju Long was wearing clothes created from the finest silken material that was woven smooth and clearly incredibly comfortable. Hui Yue was wearing clothes that had obviously been worn for a very long time. His 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 caused the w.a.n.g group to snort with disdain and laugh at him while they constantly yelled one insult after another as they would normally do to the commoner students. His clothing did not surprise Rong Ming nor Rong Xing as both knew about Hui Yue’s background, however, Ma Kong was slightly surprised as he still knew nothing concerning Hui Yue. Gao Yan suddenly felt a deeper kins.h.i.+p towards this young boy and swore within his heart that he would get revenge for him later on.
Deng Wu had had no reaction once again, but his lack of reaction 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 to be the judge. w.a.n.g Ju Long was sneering as he looked at Hui Yue and his aloof expression.
w.a.n.g Ju Long was supposed to be the only genius this year who was ent.i.tled to a top mountain courtyard. He had grown up knowing he was the only child in 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 expected. None of the other n.o.ble families paid him any attention because they were more 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 to his top mountain courtyard and to let the other students understand just how important he was. He felt absolute satisfaction as he had sat within his courtyard and started to cultivate.
Unfortunately, his cultivation was interrupted by his older brother arriving with his usual group of dim-witted thugs, complaining to w.a.n.g Ju Long about a new student who was too ambitious. w.a.n.g Jingshen would definitely have challenged him if they had been within the same rank, however, only those in the same rank could challenge each other unless it was the weaker Student that challenged someone stronger.
At first, w.a.n.g Ju Long had absolutely no interest in getting revenge for his brother, until hearing that it was a certain white-haired boy. Only then did he agreed to help.
As w.a.n.g Ju Long was about to leave with the others, he noticed that a courtyard close by suddenly lit up with a bright light. This was the light that explained the courtyard had found an owner, and w.a.n.g Ju Long almost vomited blood when he saw the name Hui Yue written on the nameplate.
w.a.n.g Ju Long was a proud child having grown up 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 his well-deserved attention. 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 w.a.n.g Ju Long was thinking these malicious thoughts, Hui Yue stood in front of him with a face as calm as a forest lake and a gentle smile on his lips. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that his smile did not reach his blue eyes that contained a coldness unrecognizable in a ten year old child.
‘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 fought, but he was fairly confident whenever he thought about the martial arts 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 also from one of the Great Hundred Names, and although he might be slightly bias towards Hui Yue, he was definitely less bias than w.a.n.g Jingshen.
“You are not allowed to kill your opponent. This is just 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 where Rong Xing was standing. He was obviously looking to be praised for being serious. Hui Yue narrowed his eyes while observing the black-haired young man as he felt Deng Wu was a bigger threat than w.a.n.g Ju Long.
Hui Yue did not have the chance to keep his focus on Deng Wu for long. Suddenly, he felt an incredible pressure appear opposite him and gather at w.a.n.g 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 the top of w.a.n.g Ju Long’s open palm. The tempest was constantly growing in size and rose far into the sky as the wind increased, 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 seeing this, he could not help but shudder involuntarily. Although his Qi was not as white as Hui Yue’s, it was definitely of a superior quality. Not only was the quality superb, but w.a.n.g Ju Long clearly had more refined Qi than Hui Yue did.
“He’s using the Qi lightning skill from the start?” Rong Xing whispered with big eyes and a slightly trembling voice as she watched the scene in front of her unfold. It was obvious that the others were just as worried as they mumbled incoherently to one another.
“Deng Wu, you have to stop them!” Rong Xing said in 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 arts skill, and the w.a.n.g family considered it one of their greatest treasures. The skill did not only have a high rank and fierce attack power, but it also required the cultivator to have very pure Qi to be able to utilize it. Deng Wu himself was slightly surprised to see that w.a.n.g Ju Long was already able 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 different about 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 Deng Wu was to enter the Royal Academy he had been gifted a family heirloom as a reward. This heirloom had many uses, one of which was to disguise his own cultivation. Another was to see through any disguise of others. Therefore, as soon as he had met Hui Yue, he had noticed the Saint ranked divine beast that was hiding within Hui Yue’s Qi Cave. Deng Wu was aware of how important this information was, but he was more curious as for how a ten year old child had managed to capture such a strong beast. So, for now, Deng Wu had no intention of telling anyone about this rarity and would closely observe Hui Yue’s actions. His smile grew larger while looking at Hui Yue, and his eyes glistened with a mysterious light that Rong Xing had never seen before.
Hui Yue gritted his teeth and understood that he had underestimated w.a.n.g Ju Long. It was obvious that he was using a high-ranked martial arts skill. This skill’s rank was not much different from his own Velocity Flow and Qi Guard, however Hui Yue was betting that w.a.n.g Ju Long had not perfected his use of the skill yet. He quickly activated his lower Duke ranked defensive martial arts skill, Qi Guard.
As soon as he called out the skill, he created a few hand seals with thin strands of Qi quickly starting to flow out from his Qi Cave through specific patterns within the meridians before Hui Yue’s entire skin started glowing faintly with a pearl-white l.u.s.ter.
Together with Qi Guard, Hui Yue also activated Velocity Flow and focused on getting behind w.a.n.g Ju Long. Hui Yue left behind an afterimage, and he kept moving quickly while staying behind w.a.n.g Ju Long so that he would not materialize and make his current plan fail.
Hui Yue did not have to wait for long. w.a.n.g Ju Long’s wind tempest with Qi lightning had grown to the largest size that he was currently able to control. After fully unleas.h.i.+ng his skill, w.a.n.g Ju Long looked at the boy in front of him with disdain. w.a.n.g Ju Long could not help but think that this kid was too naive to be standing there, waiting for his attack to land.
“Don’t blame me for any injury you suffer!” w.a.n.g Ju Long roared as he launched three Qi lightning bolts out of the vortex. They shot out much quicker than Hui Yue expected, and even his Velocity Flow would have problems escaping from all of these bolts. This was turning into a bigger problem than he had first antic.i.p.ated.
The three bolts of Qi lightning all slammed into the small boy, and smoke started to rise from where the attack landed. At first, w.a.n.g Jingshen and his thugs had been full of cheers and laughter, but they quickly quieted, filled with disbelief. Everyone present was shocked, and even Deng Wu had narrowed his eyes as he had never seen a martial arts skill like this before.
Rong Xing and Rong Ming were both completely stunned. They were aware of Hui Yue’s background and knew that he had no way to obtain a high-ranked martial arts skill. However, it was obvious that he was currently using one. They could not help but be intrigued as to how he had gained it.
Hui Yue was not planning on taking it easy on w.a.n.g Ju Long. He attacked as soon as the Qi lightning slammed into his afterimage. Quickly he activated his low pract.i.tioner ranked attack martial arts skill, Raging Strike, that he had been taught by Rong Ming, and suddenly, his fist was covered in a pure white l.u.s.ter. The Qi covering his fist was filled with an oppressive force.
Although w.a.n.g Ju Long was prideful, he had been trained from a very young age. His family often made him spar against their family guard from which he had gained a certain amount of live combat experience. Feeling the overbearing feeling coming from Hui Yue’s perfect Qi, w.a.n.g Ju Long quickly turned around and with his white Qi gathered around his forearm, he blocked the strike.
Hui Yue had been relying on the Velocity Flow’s insane movement speed to increase the power of Raging Strike, however, Raging Strike was, after all, a lower tier skill, and it was not able to break through w.a.n.g Ju Long’s defense.
Without a second thought, Hui Yue activated his high disciple ranked attack, Shattering Kick, and swung his leg hard against w.a.n.g Ju Long’s waist.
w.a.n.g Ju Long had shown quite the skill by being able to block his previous blow with his Qi, however the Qi he was using was not a defensive martial arts skill, and he was unable to cover his entire body at once causing him to be flung away by the kick.
Hui Yue felt a certain amount of satisfaction when he felt his kick cause a few of his ribs to break. But he didn’t 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 Velocity Flow, but he was unable to avoid all the lightning bolts and was forced to take one of them head on.
w.a.n.g Ju Long landed on the ground with a sinister expression visible on his face as he saw how one of his bolts struck Hui Yue’s shoulder. He knew how devastating the damage was from just one lightning bolt, and a smirk appeared on his face, together with loud cheers and insults erupting from w.a.n.g Jingshen’s thugs.
Unlike w.a.n.g Jingshen’s group, 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 continued to focus 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 during the fight suddenly condensed. It quickly became much thicker and shone with a pearly-white brilliance, and it managed to defend against the lightning bolt before it returned into the faint glow from before.
Although his Qi Guard had managed to protect Hui Yue from serious injury, he was still sent flying, and his shoulder became numb as a result. Feeling that his shoulder was just numb, Hui Yue let out a relieved sigh. He quickly noticed that the Qi Guard had consumed an incredible amount of Qi to block the attack just now, and with the current amount of Qi he had, he would only be able to block about two more attacks at most.
w.a.n.g Ju Long was unaware of this fact. All he saw was that his most powerful attack had no effect on Hui Yue, and his insides were burned 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 utilized Velocity Flow to narrowly escape and closed the gap between them. He decided to maximize his efforts and invested more of his spa.r.s.e Qi into creating a copy that would attack w.a.n.g Ju Long together with him while activating the shattering kick once again.
w.a.n.g Ju Long used yet another set of Qi lightning bolts, to attack the two bodies that were rapidly gaining on him. 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 knew that his Qi would quickly run out if he were hit again. After the exchange, both boys stood in the arena a certain distance apart. w.a.n.g Ju Long’s tempest had been reduced by half, and the amount of Qi lightning left had also been halved from the original number. Hui Yue could feel that he had spent a little more than half of his Qi. His Qi Guard alone had used a third of his total Qi to defend against that one Qi lightning bolt, which showed just how terrifying an attack it was. This clearly showed that the inheritance one received from just living in a Great Hundred Names family was indeed amazing.
After their exchange, w.a.n.g Ju Long was filled with even more hatred for Hui Yue, and there was nothing he wanted more than to kill this unknown child in front of him. But his Qi lightning technique had not had any lasting effects on Hui Yue. Instead, he was quickly exhausting his Qi pool with the many repeated attacks.
Hui Yue, on the other hand, was on the defensive. He had a smaller Qi pool than w.a.n.g Ju Long, and the previous attack showed him just how dangerous it would be if he relaxed even a little. Now both cultivators were standing still, staring at each other. Neither felt like giving in when suddenly clapping sounded out.
“Well done!” Deng Wu said with a big smile on his face and with eyes containing a mischievous glint. “You both did incredibly well during this exchange of pointers. Although you both sustained slight injuries, you managed to hold back and not seriously injure the other. This is not often seen!” Deng Wu said praising both of them, and he made it seems as if this were the actual outcome. Although the comment caused w.a.n.g 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 because it was against the rules to intentionally injure other students.
Unknowingly, Hui Yue somewhat shared w.a.n.g Ju Long’s feelings. He was incredibly disappointed with himself. He was aware that w.a.n.g Ju Long had a higher rank than himself, if only by three stars, and Hui Yue had to use more martial arts skills than w.a.n.g 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 w.a.n.g 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 on his face and a grateful expression in his eyes. However inside he swore to train tirelessly to increase his rank and perfect the Qi Guard so that Lan Feng would teach him an attack style martial arts skill.
‘Let’s see how the next fight goes,’ he thought determinedly as coldness once again flashed within his sky-blue eyes, causing the smile on Deng Wu’s face to increase slightly.