Chapter 45: The Final Match
‘Another life?’ Hui Yue was dumbstruck as the words appeared within his mind. He had never actually considered the fact that he might not have always been Hui Yue, that this could be just one of his many incarnations although the only one which he could remember anything about was his previous life.
‘Is it so shocking?’ Lan Feng asked confused. ‘Didn’t I already explain it when we spoke about that chick of yours? When you die your soul goes to the Netherworld in which it will wander around until all your memories are forgotten. By then you will reincarnate as another person in another plane and begin another life.
‘You did mention it,’ Hui Yue said, but he finally started to understand just how heavy it would be if he were to suddenly remember his numerous lifetimes.
‘That is what you are going to do to Li Fen,’ Lan Feng commented. ‘You are going to forcefully drag out her memories from a previous incarnation. Are you sure that is what you want?’
Hearing this, Hui Yue could not help but feel startled. It was true that everything was due to his selfish desires.
‘I know,’ he sighed. ‘But I feel like it is incomplete. I am not resurrecting Li Fen with the expectation that she will suddenly love me; I just feel as if I need to tell her what my feelings truly are. I never had the chance to do so in my old life, but when I become strong enough I can tell her. Should it turn out that she married and had kids long ago I will resurrect her entire family and find a good place for them to live out their second life.’
Saying this caused Hui Yue to hurt inside, yet he was still firm in this decision. Hui Yue was perfectly well aware that Li Fen had never looked at him in a romantic way, still he wished to tell her to get closure. He needed it so he could move on. Should it go completely wrong with Li Fen getting furious at him, then he could always help her forget all the memories and start a new life as it had been originally planned.
Thinking about all of this caused the previously curious Hui Yue to slump down depressed by the thought of a furious Li Fen.
Seeing this, Lan Feng snorted. Love did not belong in a world where only the strongest survive.
‘Don’t rack your little brain in worry yet,’ Lan Feng tried to console him, ‘it will be an eternity before you reach the rank of God anyway, so until then you should enjoy youth, and the lovely women around. I personally recommend you to try see what you can do with this lovely little girl who pretends to be a man. She is not bad. Rong Xing on the other hand is quite the stunning lady, and she already has a favourable impression of you.’
Lan Feng continued to talk about the different girls at the academy for an extended period of time. Fortunately, Hui Yue had long since learned how to block out the annoying voice of the perverted bird, and he quickly returned to his training. If he was going to defeat Li Shing he would need every single strand of Qi that he possessed.
His days of rest went by quickly. During this time, courtyard 1009 was bustling with energy as everyone present was either training or cultivating.
Lan Feng made a training schedule for each of his friends, which was much like the one he had made Hui Yue half a year prior, just cutting away certain parts such as fortifying the body.
Gao Yan was cultivating like a madman. He did not sleep, nor did he eat anything apart from medicinal pills.
Every time one medicinal pill had been eaten he would practice his Qi Knuckle Dusters until it had been integrated thoroughly. Then he would cultivate normally before once more relying on a medicinal pill to increase his cultivation base.
This method, given to him by Lan Feng, had worked miracles. Gao Yan had already reached the sixth star Student rank at a speed which caused great admiration and slight jealously from everyone present. Especially from Hui Yue who painstakingly trained for ten years to reach that level.
Although Gao Yan had reached a high rank within such a short amount of time, he still did not have perfectly pure Qi like Hui Yue. His current Qi was now much purer than it had been before, yet the white strands were lacklustre when comparing them to the younger boy. This was the one thing which allowed for the younger boy to keep his sanity.
Hui Yue sighed as he stood up allowing his tired body to stretch. He had finished a long night and early noon of cultivation gathering the final few strands of Qi before he now moved towards the arena. It was finally time for the final match of Riluo City’s Royal Academy’s tournament.
As he was approaching the arena one would have expected the young boy to show signs of nervousness or panic, however, the closer Hui Yue got to the arena the more overbearing the atmosphere around him became.
Hui Yue did not once believe that he would lose this match. This was the match in which he had to get revenge, not only for Gao Yan, but also for Wang Ju Long.
That being said, although Hui Yue felt certain about his win, he also knew that Li Shing was no easy opponent, and his senses were as sensitive that they could be. His entire childish body was taut and alert, observing and analysing everything that was happening around him.
The more Hui Yue thought about Li Shing, and his deeds, the more his aura grew overbearing; so much so that eventually none of his friends wanted to stand next to him, as the air was stifling and menacing causing their hearts to beat erratically, and making it impossible to breathe easily.
Today the judge was the Academy Chairman. This was due to the mishap which had occurred during the previous fight where the judge had ignored Wang Ju Long’s forfeit due to it being beneficial for his faction.
The Academy Chairman had never entered a faction, nor has he ever bothered with anything like worldly possessions or ranks. This was the reason why he had been shipped off to such a small side branch of the Royal Academy, rather than teaching at the main branch of the academy in the capital.
As Hui Yue entered the stage a murderous aura was emitted from him, causing any of the students close by to gasp for air while the audience all started mumbling amongst each other. To see such a young child produce such a thick killing aura, one could easily see that he was anything but normal.
Hui Yue on the other hand was being aggravated by the overwhelming killing intent as he used his focus to try and keep it down; he wanted to keep it in check and insure that it would not flare up in the middle of the fight and cause Hui Yue to kill Li Shing or target his life.
Although Hui Yue loathed Li Shing he still did not wish to kill a fellow student, yet he knew that there was a strong possibility that he would lose to the bloodlust, which came from the very core of his soul. That bloodlust had turned into Hui Yue’s biggest question.
Hui Yue had the demeanour of a killer. The air around him was heavy and ice cold. His eyes were sparkling like frozen winter lakes and that overbearing aura was crashing against Li Shing as he stood on the other side of the stage.
Slowly but surely, Hui Yue managed to reel in his killing intent, and the previously hard to breathe air suddenly cleared up as though a light breeze had blown from around the edges of the stage into the middle of the arena.
Li Shing, who had been faced with such killing intent showed no surprise on his face, nor was any sign of fear or shock evident. The only thing visible was a smirk on his lips, and a seriousness which appeared within his eyes. He dared not to look down on this Student ranked cultivator.
Hui Yue, in turn, also allowed for his senses to envelop everything which was happening on the stage. Li Shing was not like any other opponent he had met before, and the younger boy could not allow for a silly mistake, such as not paying enough attention to the young man in front of him, to be his downfall.
With bated breath, Hui Yue allowed for his Qi to travel through his meridians filling his entire body and allowing him to activate Velocity Flow as soon as the battle would start.
Bending his knees, it was obvious to everyone that Hui Yue intended to escape as soon as the battle begun, but no one would blame him for doing so. Li Shing was obviously circulating his Qi all the same allowing for a competition of speed.
The academy chairman moved towards the stage, his steps unsteady and his speed slow. He was the personification of an ancient man, as Hui Yue felt the profound strength which roared beneath his skin, and he looked at the man with a certain amount of alertness.
“Let the final begin,” he said with a voice that sounded old and weak, yet everyone within the entire academy heard every single word strike down like thunder in the quiet arena.
As soon as the words had been said a flash of white appeared. Li Shing once more opened the battle with a swift swing of his Qi whip testing whether or not his whip could catch up to the high ranked movement skill which this youngster in front of him used.
Although Hui Yue had high ranked martial art skills at his disposal he was well aware that he was at a disadvantage, and with his senses strained to their limits, he managed to narrowly avoid the Qi whip which came for him.
Li Shing’s face lit up while Hui Yue’s darkened. Even though he had managed to escape the first attack it was obvious that the Qi whip had an overbearing power, yet power was not the only problem that Hui Yue faced. The speed of the Qi whip was definitely equal to that of Velocity Flow, and just now although Hui Yue had escaped the damage,his clothes had been brushed which ended up shredding his shirt slightly.
Looking at Li Shing, Hui Yue knew that it was impossible for him to keep thinking, and instead he started randomly running around the stage while creating a copy.
These two versions of Hui Yue were like a blur flashing back and forth on the stage dancing as they kept avoiding the Qi whip causing white slashes to appear everywhere one of the black blurs had been previously.
While rushing around, Hui Yue summoned his two daggers trying to get closer to Li Shing; so close that he could deal some damage to the opponent, yet each time he tried the Qi whip was in the way defending him.
Gritting his teeth, Hui Yue felt how his Qi was slowly diminishing, emptying his Qi Cave little by little, and he knew that he had to do something.
Dodging back and forth, continually causing the Qi to be wasted caused a big smile to appear on Li Shing’s face as he felt victory coming his way. Still he did not lower his guard, even a little, and instead tried to increase the speed at which he attacked with the Qi whip.
Hui Yue was swearing. As his entire focus was needed to avoid the Qi whip which in turn caused him to lose control of the killing intent that was slowly rising within his body.
As the killing intent rose, that baleful aura once again started seeping out causing Hui Yue to move faster than before, and in turn also resulted in the Qi whip slowing down.
Unfortunately, the killing intent also caused Hui Yue’s Qi to rapidly decrease and within moments only a few strands were left.
A growl appeared within Hui Yue’s throat, and he moved his palms to face each other. The few strands of Qi were forced to flow around the meridians in the pattern which formed the Fire Spark skill.
As the strands of Qi floated past Lan Feng the bird noiselessly lifted a hand and a small drop of silver liquid fell from his finger into the Qi thread, in turn allowing it to grow in size and change colour to silver with a moonlike shine.
Everywhere the silvery strand of Qi passed within the body caused his blood to roar. His meridians were trembling as if they were struggling to stay together and eventually the strand exited his palms exploding into a Fire Spark much bigger than any he had ever created before. The Fire Ball within his palms grew at such an incredible speed that it slowly moved above his head where it sucked in everything in the arena, only to instantly burn it to ashes.
The wind picked up, causing the Qi whip to become incapable of hitting Hui Yue, and instead move towards the Fire Ball where the Qi was absorbed, further adding to the fireball’s growth.
Suddenly the ball could grow no further as Hui Yue felt his very last strand of Qi being forced from his body and, in turn, his killing intent soared to previously unknown heights.
His blue eyes were as cold and merciless like those of a mass murderer, and without any worry Hui Yue threw the Fire Ball at Li Shing who was standing on the same arena that he was standing on.
The moment the Fire Ball left Hui Yue’s hands, he felt how his entire body started sucking up the essence between heaven and earth forcing itself to refine Qi at a never seen before speed.
‘Congratulations,’ Lan Feng said happily from within the dantian, ‘you are finally a Disciple ranked cultivator.’