Blue Phoenix

Soul Contract

Hui Yue was firm, and he agreed to do whatever the phoenix required of him; however, even though he agreed he could not help but feel slightly uncomfortable about the unknown.

‘He seems quite happy,’ Hui Yue thought as he could feel Lan Feng’s emotions that were washing over him. Although the phoenix had not said anything, these emotions were all of a pleasing nature, making Hui Yue apprehensive.

‘I did say we need a soul contract, but sadly we can’t make one right now,’ Lan Feng said mildly complaining. The phoenix was clearly not paying any attention to Hui Yue.

‘In order to form a soul contract we need to gather at least the minimum required qi, but considering we are currently stuck in an infant’s body, this will take some time to achieve,’ he stated frankly.

Hearing this caused mixed emotions to rise within Hui Yue. At first, he was slightly relieved because he wished to know more about this so-called soul contract. He was not happy with the thought of becoming someone’s slave willingly but thinking about the promise of being reunited with Li Fen made his determination unwavering. Although he was relieved about the outlook of not being a slave just yet, he was also a little bit disappointed with the fact that the sketchy soul contract could not already be fulfilled as it was the first step in the process of reuniting with Li Fen.

However, to be able to form this soul contract, Hui Yue had to work hard and refine the needed amount of qi. ‘At what age do children usually start cultivating?’ Hui Yue asked anxiously as he wondered when he could establish this contract with Lan Feng.

Feeling that Lan Feng was impatient but calm, Hui Yue, also calmed down. He had previously felt apprehensive and slightly worried about the whole soul contract thing, only agreeing to it because of Li Fen, but now he felt more comfortable. He suddenly had the feeling that Lan Feng was not trying to trick him. Still, he was certain that there was some hidden motive from this phoenix within his body, that he was not questioning.

Though Hui Yue was now somewhat certain the phoenix was not trying to trick him; he grew even more impatient because they would have to wait so long. Neither of them were stupid. Both knew that they would have to walk a long road to reach their goals of reunion and revenge.

Hui Yue was aware that in front of him was a new path in life. He was going to be an expert among men, a hero among heroes! He could not wait to take his first step towards his new life as a cultivator!

‘If a kid starts cultivating early then they usually start when they are about four years old, but in general, it is around six or seven,’ Lan Feng said in a mocking tone. Hui Yue was once again thrown into the depths of despair from hearing his answer, and he assumed that the laughter was mocking his character causing his anger to rise yet again. His enmity towards the phoenix had not disappeared.

‘I have to wait for four more years before I can cultivate? What do you expect me to do during these years?’ he aggressively interrogated the ignorant phoenix. ‘He was the one who said he would help me!’ Hui Yue thought with a harrumph, ‘Let’s see exactly what his plan is for helping me!’

‘It’s not too bad,’ Lan Fang answered the angry Hui Yue; his mocking tone still very much present, lingering within every word he said, not caring at all about Hui Yue’s feelings.

‘I mean you should consider this first,’ Lan Feng allowed a pleasurable sigh to escape before continuing. ‘We are currently sleeping on a pair of giant t**s. I personally wouldn’t mind spending a couple years like this.’

The words made Hui Yue dumbfounded and a sudden urge to punch Lan Feng erupted within Hui Yue, but he was uncertain whether the phoenix was being sarcastic or not. Unfortunately, the two of them were capable of feeling each other’s emotions, and a familiar feeling spread from the phoenix. Now, Hui Yue was positive that this creature was a lewd p*****t.

‘She is our mother!’ Hui Yue exclaimed, deeply grossed out by the emotions which were sweeping over him. He tried to make Lan Feng abandon his inappropriate thoughts unfortunately, it did not have much effect.

‘Aw, come on. Sleeping on big t**s is every man’s dream!’ Lan Feng laughed mischievously. Hui Yue could do nothing against the phoenix who now seemed to enjoy both the t**s they were currently hugging and the distress he was causing Hui Yue.

‘You’re deranged!’ Hui Yue mumbled giving up on the subject. By now he had already realized that it was impossible to argue with this self-righteous bird. It also didn't help that every time he tried to argue and got annoyed a stupid sense of happiness assaulted him. It was obvious that the current enmity was very much mutual.

‘It’s okay. I’m a mere beast. It’s only natural for me to be driven by my beastly desires,’ Lan Feng said proudly. Sharing a body meant that both souls were able to feel what the body felt, could taste what the body tasted, and see what the body saw. The only difference between the two souls was that while Hui Yue was in control of the body, Lan Feng was sitting behind purely experiencing the five senses.

A thought suddenly hit Hui Yue, and he furrowed his brows in confusion. Something did not add up about this so called beast.

‘I listened to your story earlier,’ he informed Lan Feng. ‘And I am pretty certain that you told me that the descendants of the four divine beasts were humans and not beasts like yourself.’

Hui Yue was both slightly confused and slightly annoyed. He was certain that Lan Feng was the Vermillion Bird’s descendant, but he was also certain that Lan Feng had said that his descendants were human. This meant that either he was lying about being a beast, or he was lying about his heritage.

Either way, having Lan Feng lying to him was one thing which Hui Yue would not accept. If it turned out that he had in fact been lying, then who knew which aspects of the story from earlier were true and which were lies. This made it basically impossible for Hui Yue to trust anything he had been told.

‘I used to be human; that is true,’ Lan Feng said matter of factly, seemingly not intent on hiding anything from Hui Yue. ‘But when we received the legacy from our fathers, we turned into beasts.’

Hearing that it was possible to be turned from a human into a divine beast was something that completely stunned Hui Yue. It made no sense! A fear sprouted within him, a fear that there was nothing unchangeable here, not even one's race or gender.

Another point was how easily this phoenix answered any questions that he had. It did not seem to matter whether the answer was something incredibly personal or even uncomfortable, as long as it was a question related to the world they now resided within then the bird was willing to answer it.

His quick responses caused some guilt to rise within Hui Yue. He was a person who always considered himself fair towards other people. Someone unprejudiced in judgements towards others. However, for some unknown reason, he was currently incredibly prejudiced against Lan Feng.

Lan Feng claimed that he did not kill Hui Yue; he also claimed that he had not summoned the truck to endanger Li Fen. Although Hui Yue had always gone by the rule of everyone being innocent until proven guilty, he just changed his belief and blamed the bird for everything.

He arrived in this new world where everything seemed absurd and ridiculous to him. He was scared and worried about how he would survive, but this time the phoenix stepped forward and helped him understand where and what he was.

But even when Lan Feng answered all his questions, he could not help but feel annoyed at the damned bird’s voice in his head. His smugness and haughtiness were simply annoying to no end. The arrogance in his voice made Hui Yue want to give him a very good thrashing. His perverted thoughts were simply too vile for the newly reincarnated human.

A sigh escaped the infant’s lips and slightly stirred the sleeping mother allowing an approving sound to appear again within Hui Yue’s mind. This sound was enough to wash away any feeling of guilt that Hui Yue was currently feeling, and anger replaced it instead.

Although it was interesting, now was not the time to go into details about Lan Feng’s past, nor was it the time to worry about humans turning into beasts because it would not currently help him survive.

‘Are there many magical beasts in this world?’ Hui Yue asked. After he thought things through Hui Yue concluded that divine beasts ought to be fairly rare. However for a beast to turn divine an evolution seemed to be needed. This thought caused him to have some assumptions he wished to clarify.

However, although this was a question which Hui Yue asked after some thought, it still caused Lan Feng to snort with contempt. For him this question was silly. Nonetheless, no matter how silly the question, he still replied with a serious answer.

‘Of course, there are magical beasts,’ Lan Feng replied with a certainty that made Hui Yue feel rather stupid for asking his question. ‘They live everywhere. Some are tamed and domesticated, but the majority of them live in the forests and mountains.’

Hui Yue nodded as he understood this concept. It sounded exactly like the animals within his old world. However, he now started thinking about whether or not there were any non-magical beasts in this world. Although Hui Yue wished to ask this question, he still waited until Lan Feng finished his explanation about magical beasts.

‘The beasts which have been domesticated will always be weaker than the ones roaming in the wild. If you are strong, you can force some magical beasts to serve you. Most of the bred magical beasts are either for mounts, guard dogs, or some similar duty of that sort. There are definitely a lot more magical beasts than there are humans in this world, though.’

Hui Yue was not very surprised when he heard that; however, he was slightly surprised to hear how the domesticated beasts had a lower strength than the wild ones. He had assumed that people would breed and mix beasts to create monsters. He had a feeling that this would turn into useful information later on.

‘Then are all beasts in this world magical beasts?’ Hui Yue finally asked as he knew that Lan Feng was done with his explanation. He continued to try and learn more, but once again he heard a snort, and suddenly a feeling of pity washed over him.

Lan Feng was pitying him for being so dumb! This caused another wave of rage to surge within Hui Yue. But even if Hui Yue was angry, he had no intention of giving voice to his emotions; instead, he kept quiet. He needed the phoenix to explain how this world worked and to get the answers he would have to swallow his anger.

‘No, only the beasts who are capable of cultivating are considered magical beasts,’ Lan Feng replied. Once again, even if he did pity Hui Yue, he gave a very satisfactory reply.

‘Then every beast could turn into a magical beast if it learned to cultivate, but it just rarely happens since they are too dumb to try.’ Hui Yue nodded thinking it made sense in a way.

Cultivation was a very interesting subject. Hui Yue felt astonished as he thought about how cultivation was something which in theory all living creatures were capable of doing, but it seemed that while some where talented others were not. Some knew how to cultivate while others did not, or they simply did not care.

Nonetheless, he was incapable of cultivating and instead he regained his focus and paid attention to the following explanation by Lan Feng.

‘Wild magical beasts are usually hunted by cultivators,’ Lan Feng continued his explanation of magical beasts.

‘Humans gather their cultivation base into their three dantians while magical beasts gather it in a core which is located within the beast’s head. Their core looks like a gemstone, and it contains their essence and qi. A beast’s core can be used in different medicinal recipes that can help increase one’s cultivation, or its strength can be extracted and used to enchant armor and weapons. There are quite a few ways they can be used by human cultivators, but they are never eaten. Rather, if one eats a core it will absorb all the qi you have patiently cultivated.’

Hui Yue nodded again. All the information he was given was very valuable. It seemed that the gemstones were of high quality, but he was not silly enough to go hunting for them anytime soon.

Lan Feng laughed when he noticed Hui Yue’s interest was piqued, ‘Magical beasts are split into the same levels of cultivation as humans; however, a human needs to have a much more refined qi to be able to take on a beast of the same level. Well, to be honest, you could win if you had good martial arts skills, and those are something I can help you with I guess.’

Lan Feng once again sounded so self-satisfied, but this time it only caused Hui Yue to chuckle slightly. Lan Feng did have the right to be self-satisfied as he most likely did have an extensive amount of knowledge hidden within that flaming head of his.

‘Death really does sound like a very common occurrence in this world,’ Hui Yue commented with a bit of sorrow as he thought about the information he was given by Lan Feng. For some reason it made him feel slightly hesitant about the new life he was forced to live.

He had grown up in a world where murder was frowned upon, but to survive in this world, he would without a doubt have to kill people sooner or later.

This thought alone made him feel repulsed. His stomach contracted, and he was close to vomiting. Killing shouldn’t be a big deal, but thinking about hacking down another human made his complexion pale and nausea sweep over him.

The thought of blood splattering everywhere, the imagination of flesh being torn, everything made Hui Yue feel sick to his stomach. He had no interest in wondering what it would be like to kill someone.

‘You need to forget your old world,’ Lan Feng said with a gentle voice as he felt the discomfort Hui Yue had. ‘We have a goal and to achieve that goal you cannot be soft.’

Hui Yue knew that Lan Feng was right. Thus, he fortified his determination to achieving his goal. Although Hui Yue currently felt sick to his stomach, he knew that there was no turning back. Even the slightest hesitation would end with his death which in turn would result in him no longer being able to be reunited with Li Fen.

A chilling coldness appeared in Hui Yue’s eyes as he said, ‘I refuse to s*******r needlessly, and I will not touch those who do not trouble me, but if anyone wishes to kill me, I will kill them! If they stand in our way, I will remove them. If you are ready to kill someone, you have to be ready for death yourself.’

‘What will you do if family members or friends go against you for revenge?’ Lan Feng asked. The phoenix was of the philosophy that showing mercy would only injure one later.

‘Let them come. I will fight whoever opposes me, but I will not touch those who have not gone against me.’ This was the rule that Hui Yue set for himself. This was so he could retain some aspect of his humanity.

Hearing this caused Lan Feng to shake his head slightly, nevertheless, he did not say anything. He knew Hui Yue’s current state of mind was still very unstable. The chaos and discomfort from dying were still present, and although Hui Yue said that he was ok with killing it was one thing to say something, but quite another to actually do it. Now was not the time to pressure Hui Yue with his ideals.

‘I am happy that you at least accept killing,’ Lan Feng said laughingly. ‘There are some things we can do, although we are in the body of an infant.’

Hearing the laughter within Lan Feng’s voice made Hui Yue leave the thoughts of murder behind, and instead, he sighed in despair. He feared that their tit discussion from earlier was resurfacing.

‘The reason that children do not start cultivating before they reach four years old is because it is quite difficult to grasp the method needed to cultivate,’ Lan Feng said slowly enjoying the hope he felt growing within Hui Yue’s mind. 

‘The most important part of cultivating is to make sure that the qi you absorb is refined into pure energy. The purer it is, the stronger you will be. Do you remember me saying that earlier?’ Lan Feng asked. Suddenly his usual haughtiness and arrogance were gone replaced by a newfound seriousness. Hui Yue nodded. He did indeed remember this from earlier.

Hearing the seriousness in Lan Feng’s voice caused Hui Yue to understand just how important their current conversation was. Thus, it seemed within his heart some of the enmity between the two was finally slowly starting to evaporate.

‘What we need to do is to make sure that you build a very strong and pure energy foundation. Usually for one to gather essence that is turned into qi, they would need to meditate. Another reason why it is so difficult to start cultivation is that meditation needs a specific position at the beginning to help facilitate the refining process. The more used to the refinement you get, the easier it is to absorb essence constantly, even while on the move.’

Hui Yue nodded, this information made sense; however, he was still not certain how it would help him because he had years to go before he would be able to start meditating.

‘But, I know another way of gathering essence,’ Lan Feng said slowly. ‘However this way is very taxing, and it is going to take a lot longer than if you were to allow your body to meditate naturally.’

Hui Yue stopped breathing as excitement overtook him. When he heard Lan Feng mention that there was another way to refine his qi hope grew within him. He quickly let his breath go, and asked breathlessly, ‘So, I can start cultivating now!?’ Expectation was evident in his voice, and Lan Feng was very pleased with the eagerness he was showing. His revenge and revival depended on Hui Yue’s strength after all.

‘It is possible,’ Lan Fang continued. ‘But I need to tell you that it really will take a lot longer than anyone else when they start to cultivate. When a four year old or five year old starts meditating, they will reach the first star Student rank within the first day with proper meditation, but with this method, it will take you between half a year and a year to reach the same level. And that is the level we need to reach to be able to perform a soul contract.’

Hui Yue was a little surprised about how big the difference in essence gathering was, but he was still determined to go through with it. Even if it did take him a year, it was still better than waiting until he was four. Thus, he patiently waited for Lan Feng to explain the procedure.

‘Our current body is really small so the amount of essence we can absorb at a time is minuscule. However, this is actually not a bad thing,’ Lan Feng started to explain. ‘The smaller the amount of essence you absorb the more attention you can pay it when you refine it. Remember, you need it to be refined to the highest quality, or we will never be able to reach the rank of Emperor,’ Lan Feng said strictly. Hui Yue, in turn, nodded his head in understanding; he knew how important one’s foundation was.

‘This method allows you to gain qi of a better quality than your peers, but you will need to spend a lot more effort and time with it. This is why most children don’t use it. They would never have the patience to do so,’ Lan Feng said with a laugh. Being reborn was definitely beneficial for him.

‘For now, I need to explain everything to you, but when we complete the soul contract, I will be able to transfer my knowledge directly to you,’ Lan Feng stated with a sigh. The sigh clearly represented his feelings on how much of a waste of time it was to explain everything. However, even if he was impatient, he made sure to explain everything thoroughly.

‘Close your eyes and steady your breath,’ was the first order Lan Feng gave, and Hui Yue quickly did as he was told.

Anyone who saw the newborn baby would be unaware of the conversation that was going on inside Hui Yue’s mind, as their two souls were communicating within their shared infant body. Lan Feng knew that Hui Yue would be unable to cultivate with the body he had now, so he decided to teach Hui Yue a way to refine essence into qi using his consciousness alone.

‘I need you to enter your body and search for your lower dantian. Flow through your veins until you reach the area below your navel.’ Hui Yue did as he was told, and he was consumed by the sound of his blood flowing through his veins. Shock filled his mind as he noticed that a mental projection of himself was standing in the middle of a tunnel-like structure within his body.

‘Focus!’ Lan Feng ordered with a stern voice, as Hui Yue was focused on this strange structure inside of him, he jumped in surprise before allowing his soul to descend further and further down until he reached the dantian where Lan Feng was awaiting him.

Within him was an empty cave. A cave which gave him a strange feeling. His consciousness settled down inside, and he quickly noticed the blue orb of fire that was Lan Feng waiting for him there. Astonished he looked around as he never expected to find a cave like this within himself. Even more surprising was the fact that his consciousness looked exactly like he had looked before he died. He was no baby within his consciousness.

‘It is quite big,’ Lan Feng said approvingly while looking around. ‘This cave will be able to gather quite a lot of qi.’ Hui Yue had a feeling that it was caused by having both himself and Lan Feng cohabiting within his body.

‘Sit down, cross your legs, and form your hands into the Bird hand seal,’ commanded Lan Feng. Hui Yue was a bit surprised at first but quickly followed the given order. He sat down with crossed legs and made the hand sign as told.

‘Steady your breath and follow the blood out towards your skin. When you reach the outer layer of your body open up a suction force and keep moving at a steady pace until you have gone a whole circle through your body then return here to your dantian,’ Lan Feng explained the best he could. Hui Yue gave a slight nod before his consciousness turned into a streak of light that made its way through his veins sucking up essence from outside.

It took him half an hour to go a full circle around his body, and when he returned to the dantian, he had a small mist of essence that was hanging around his consciousness, similar to a low valley that gathers mist early in the morning.

Lan Feng nodded content at the sight.

‘Sit down like before; now make sure you use the Bird hand seal. Do not open your eyes no matter what happens,’ he ordered, and was satisfied when he saw how Hui Yue followed his directions with no questions asked.

‘Keep breathing steadily. With each breath inhale some of the essence around you. Let it spin in a cyclone inside of you until it has turned as white as newly fallen snow. The whiter it is, the purer the quality,’ Lan Feng gave the final order before he stopped talking. The orb of blue fire was quiet as he spent his time observing Hui Yue refining the essence he gathered.

Hui Yue ended up spending five hours refining the essence. When he finally finished, all the essence around him had vanished; instead, it was replaced by a fine thread of qi. It was of the purest white. So white that it was shining and it kept swirling around itself in the middle of his dantian cave.

Hui Yue was exhausted but gratified. The amount of effort he had put in had only amounted to a single qi thread that looked so alone inside the empty cave.

However, this single qi thread was the product of Hui Yue’s hard work, and he felt great satisfaction within his heart.

‘Well done Hui Yue. That is a very good quality qi,’ Lan Feng said happily. He had never seen qi this pure before. Hui Yue had spent more time refining it than even Lan Feng expected. ‘Rest for today; we will do it again tomorrow. This will take a lot of time.’ Hui Yue nodded. Although he wished for the possibility of being a great talent, he quickly acknowledged that he needed to be realistic. Being a great talent was not very likely.

The days went by one after another. Hui Yue spent around six hours every day absorbing essence and refining it into qi. He wanted to absorb energy twice a day, but Lan Feng would not allow him to because the refinement took a lot of energy. If he were to try twice a day, the quality of qi was likely to drop.

Upon hearing the reasons, Hui Yue acquiesced. He wanted only the highest quality qi possible.

Deep inside he was grateful for the help the phoenix was giving him, and their initial enmity had almost completely dissipated. In return, Lan Feng was slightly less haughty towards Hui Yue as he was astonished by the boy’s perseverance.

Hui Yue never complained as he struggled day after day while absorbing the essence and refining it. Hui Yue’s qi was of a quality much purer than his own had been before, and the fact that Hui Yue followed any order given caused Lan Feng to take a liking to the stubborn young man.

Apart from refining qi, Hui Yue began to understand that he was born into a poor family. He had no siblings, but his parents were both young. His mother, named Hui Lifen, was younger than Hui Yue had been in his previous life; leaving Hui Yue feeling rather odd about the whole situation.

His father, Hui Guang, was earning money by going into the forest and collecting medicinal herbs. Nevertheless, he could only gather low-grade medicine as they had the least amount of danger. Both of his parents were Student ranked cultivators; his mother was a four star while his father was a seven star Student.

Lan Feng said it was the result of not cultivating, but by passively absorbing essence during their everyday life. It was likely that everyone from his village was ranked somewhere in the Student level because they did not have the resources or knowledge to seriously cultivate. Even if they managed to reach the nine star Student rank, the quality of their qi would be too poor to allow for any breakthrough.

Everyone who worked in this village lived by gathering medicinal herbs and once a month they would travel towards Riluo City and sell them.

As none of them were cultivators, they would be given the absolutely lowest price possible for the herbs, but that was enough for everyone in the village to survive. Even if they were poor, everyone helped each other, and the whole village was incredibly friendly.

Hui Yue’s new mother looked after their shack while growing vegetables. During the day she also helped look after the few animals that the village raised. She would bring Hui Yue with her on her daily chores to watch over him, but Hui Yue would usually be sleeping.

Hui Yue spent the night cultivating and then would sleep during the day pretending to be a child while looking at the other children he was supposed to play with. Lan Feng would usually just sleep his days away or give Hui Yue a little information about the world they were now living in.

Hui Yue was a beautiful baby. Everyone adored his big eyes and fair skin. His skin never became tanned. Even when his parents took him outside under the sun all day, the village elders would say that he was as fine skinned as a noble lady. His hair and eyes were black much like in his previous life. His appearance and temperament made him a very loved child throughout the whole village.

With the passing of days, eight months quickly went by. Hui Yue quietly and diligently gathered essence and refined it into qi during this time. The quality had not dropped at all from when he started, but the fine thread had turned into many threads that were swirling around all over his dantian cave. Nonetheless, something occurred after Hui Yue finished refining his qi thread for the day. All the threads grouped together and tangled into each other. They merged into a long rope of qi. A rope that swirled around itself in a cone-like spiral in the middle of his cave. The rope was so white that it shone brilliantly.

The light being emitted from the spiral radiated throughout Hui Yue’s infant body imbuing it with a power he had never felt before. Shock and happiness were evident on his face as he understood that he had finally reached the first star Student level!

‘Well done!’ Lan Feng said from the side of the cave where the blue orb of fire moved towards the qi spiral. ‘Now, Hui Yue are you still willing to make a soul contract with me?’ he asked while inspecting the spiral. Hui Yue nodded, clearly excited to see what would happen now. As soon as Lan Feng heard his reply a flame shot out from the fire orb. A flame which absorbed the entire qi spiral.

Hui Yue stared bewildered. He was dumbfounded to see his eight months of hard work disappear in a flash. As the qi entered the blue orb, it grew in size sizzling with power before it finally burned down and left behind something human shaped.

The anger which had been dormant for so long started rising again until he noticed that the human shape left behind started moving.

Hui Yue stared as the person slowly straightened out. It was a boy who seemed to be around ten years old. Both his eyes and hair were azure blue, and his whole body was covered with small white feathers that were so white it gave him a celestial aura.

Hui Yue was astonished as he saw the boy, but he quickly adjusted and smiled. Who would have guessed that Lan Feng was actually a ten year old boy.

Although Hui Yue was shocked, this world already held so many surprises that Hui Yue no longer felt greatly shocked upon seeing the display which had just occurred.

‘i***t,’ Lan Feng exclaimed while watching Hui Yue. He was displeased as he felt that Hui Yue was making fun of his current form. ‘You have the body of an infant, and I need to scale down my consciousness too, or our body would explode from my mental energy alone,’ he explained.

Lan Feng went straight towards Hui Yue without giving him any time to reply. He took out his hand and with his nail made a long cut on his palm. No blood appeared, but instead, a silver colored liquid slowly oozed out. Hui Yue clearly understood what was expected of him and copied the gesture. He held out his hand towards Lan Feng who grasped both hands together and allowed the liquid to merge.

A voice, which sounded much older than what it should have, came from his body and resonated within the dantian cave. ‘You hold my soul, and I hold yours. In accordance with the ancient soul contract, we are now one and one shall we be till death do us part or goals achieved.’

As soon as the words were said, a huge power forced its way through the cut in Hui Yue’s hand and circled his entire consciousness a few times before retracting itself into Lan Feng’s palm. At the time it left him, Hui Yue felt some of his own consciousness return to him giving him the feeling of being complete again, a strange feeling since he had never felt that he was not complete before.

As soon as the power vanished Hui Yue felt as if he had been exercising excessively as his whole body ached. He was exhausted. Lan Feng, too, seemed rather tired as he sat down and leaned against the cave wall. Hui Yue walked to him and sat down beside him. He then closed his eyes.

‘So my eight months of hard work needs to be redone?’ he said with a sigh as he looked at his now empty cave. Lan Feng heard the exhaustion in Hui Yue’s voice and laughed gently, ‘No, it will come back when you rest. But you do need to continue refining every day. We need you to get stronger after all.’ Hui Yue nodded as relief flooded him. It would have been depressing if his eight months of hard work had really vanished just like that.

Lan Feng looked at Hui Yue and smirked. The soul contract caused some changes to Hui Yue’s appearance, but Lan Feng felt no reason to tell him just yet as he noticed how the consciousness turned blurry. He saw Hui Yue slipping into a deep sleep.

Morning broke as usual on this day, and Hui Yue’s father was on his way to the forest when his eyes fell upon his son who was sound asleep in his crib. His eyes widened, and he froze up before he finally woke up his wife.

“What’s wrong?” Hui Lifen asked with a grainy voice while rubbing her eyes.

“Yue-er has white hair now!” Hui Guang said in a disbelieving voice as his eyes never once left the crib where their child was asleep. The words caused Hui Lifen to furrow her brows in disbelief, but she quickly looked at their baby and instantly shrieked. The shriek woke up Hui Yue who opened his eyes and looked at his parents curiously wondering why they would shriek upon seeing him. But, soon his question was quickly answered.

“His hair is white and his eyes are blue!” Hui Lifen gasped full of disbelief.