Chapter 29: Confrontation

With her hands still firmly around the young boy’s neck, a low growl erupted from the woman’s throat as she slowly withdrew her shaking hands. Within her eyes, the insanity had been suppressed and instead, profound sadness flooded in like a tide.

The woman swiftly raised her hand, and with a sharp nail stretched out, swinging down fluidly, she cut a fine line on Hui Yue’s cheek.

Small blotches of blood started to drip from this cut, painting his snow-white skin crimson. Even so, Hui Yue did not wake up.

A sigh of vexation escaped the lips of the intruder. She lifted her outstretched finger and made a beckoning gesture towards the wound. Three drops of blood slowly rose from the wound on Hui Yue’s cheek and floated towards her.

When the three drops of blood came closer, the woman gently touched her belt. One jade vial appeared in her hand. The three drops of blood trickled down the neck of the vial before the woman sealed it with spiritual power.

Just as she had arrived, this stranger moved towards the window and stood there for a short while, tarrying reluctantly, gazing at the sky. Eventually, she turned her head and looked at the sleeping boy. An emotionally rich and ineffable expression appeared on her face.

“Stay alive, little lord. At least till we meet again,” she whispered before faintly mumbling a few words. As she spoke the words, a large inscription array lit up, releasing the courtyard from a temporary spell.

Upon exiting the window, big hazel-brown eagle-like wings sprouted from the woman’s back. With a few flaps, she was soaring high into the night, the moonlight spraying her figure silver for a moment.

Unlike the previous visit, this woman no longer flew back to Riluo City disappearing into the darkness. Now she flew towards the cold north and the mountain range which separated the Taiyang Kingdom from Shenyuan.

Hui Yue’s heavy eyelids slowly opened being encrusted by overnight rheum but were greeted by the rising sun from outside his window. Usually, when Hui Yue allowed himself to sleep, he would be fully rested and energized after a good night of sleep. This morning an inexplicable feeling kept making his hair stand on end; random shivers ran down his spine, and his heart pounded harshly.

This feeling was not entirely unfamiliar to Hui Yue, as he alertly examined his entire courtyard. This was the exact same feeling he experienced when he had stood face to face with the seven black-cloaked men. This time it felt even more dangerous. A sense of immense danger crawled within Hui Yue’s skin. As he looked in the mirror, his eyes widened as the small wound came into his line of sight.

The shock within his eyes quickly turned into a chilled hatred, his pupils contracting. Someone was here last night, Hui Yue thought with a murderous expression appearing on his face. The one night he had been asleep was the one night a visitor had arrived.

Having lived in this world for so long allowed Hui Yue to know that there was no such thing as a coincidence. The person who had visited him last night obviously had been keeping him under surveillance.

I must hurry, Hui Yue thought with certainty. I must become much stronger. The decisiveness within his eyes shone out. Hui Yue quickly gathered his clothes, washed his face and stepped out into the early morning air.

‘I am sure that this azure figurine has something to do with Deng Wu’s cultivation speed,’ Lan Feng commented from within the qi cave. ‘We need to speak with the two of them together. If we do not, we might get cheated.’

‘The two of them? How can we speak with a figurine?’ Hui Yue asked with scrunched eyebrows. He had long since understood that the item was far from normal, but to speak directly with it was something that hadn’t occurred to him.

‘Don’t worry your little white head about this,’ Lan Feng said with a snicker. ‘This is good luck for us. Very good luck indeed. I’ll explain it to you when we manage to catch Deng Wu and sit down for our lovely talk.’

“Younger brother Hui Yue!” a voice called cheerfully just as Hui Yue stepped out of the courtyard. Hui Yue flinched. Staring blankly as he turned around, he spotted Ma Kong running towards him with a big grin on his usually calm face.

“They want to go for it!” he said breathlessly as he leaned forward and held his knees in his hands to catch his breath. It was obvious to Hui Yue that Ma Kong had run all the way from his own mountaintop to Hui Yue’s abode. A breeze of warm air surrounded Hui Yue, and it quelled some of the hatefulness surging within him after his recent devastating discovery.

Seeing Ma Kong rush all the way for the sake of speaking with him was something that warmed his heart. He allowed the warmth to sink in and let go of his worries, at least for now.

“What is wrong?” Hui Yue asked with a raised brow, as he looked at the panting Ma Kong. Usually, he would not have been short of breath if he had just run. Ma Kong was a cultivator after all. For him to be this much out of breath could only be caused by him sprinting at his top speed the entire way.

“I got the reply from the elders,” Ma Kong smiled, his breath finally steady. The two made their way towards a nearby canteen where they could eat breakfast together while discussing the matters mentioned by Ma Kong.

“We have had multiple elders spend some time calculating the potential and premise of your insurance concept. They were supposed to give the results at a family meeting last night,” Ma Kong said, his eyes shining with excitement. Hui Yue could not help but lightly chuckle. The always stoic Ma Kong turned into a boy who acted his age whenever they were dealing with the insurance project.

“The mathematics are quite solid. As long as this unknown expert doesn’t go around annihilating any more noble family compounds, then we should be up and running within a few years.” Ma Kong’s eyes still glistened as he looked at Hui Yue. “We need you to come visit us and sign a contract, but there are a few things the elders require.”

As soon as Ma Kong mentioned the contract, his excitement quickly became contained, and he began to behave in a very respectable, dignified manner. Ma Kong did all this unconsciously. Hui Yue whistled with raised eyebrows. This young friend of his was definitely plenty skilled in controlling and masking his emotions.

“The contract will give you three percent of the revenue instead of one, but the reason we changed it to three is that it is not only profits. If we were to fail miserably with this idea, then you would be required to pay three percent of the loss.”

Hearing this made Hui Yue suddenly gain respect for the Black Market Auction House. Hui Yue had been aware that it was a great business. However, only now did he understand just how thorough they were with their commerce and investments.

This question about the contract was obviously a way to test Hui Yue. If this child were being used as a way to make the Ma family lose money, then at least he would also lose money by doing so. At the same time, if he truly was imparting such a great idea, as the calculations promised, then he did indeed deserve the three percent.

Ma Kong was obviously uncomfortable about imposing such a rule on a friend of his. However, he was a member of the Ma family and understood how important it was for their family to be able to increase their growth. The Ma family sought to expand their reach to other major cities within the Taiyang Kingdom, after all.

Sitting for the rest of their breakfast, the two boys reached a consensus that Hui Yue would follow Ma Kong to sign a contract on the next day off from lectures.

After the agreement, Hui Yue excused himself as he moved towards the mountaintop where Deng Wu’s courtyard was located.

Knocking on the courtyard door yielded no response. However, Hui Yue did not immediately give up. He stayed outside and knocked on the door every few minutes, knowing that Deng Wu could hear him.

While waiting, Hui Yue looked at his surroundings. At the time he started attending the academy, it had been during the warmest month of summer, and more than a month had passed since then. In this time Hui Yue had managed to sell two skills and rely on that money to buy pills which helped his cultivation to climb into the ranks of an eight-star Student.

It had taken Hui Yue ten years of painstaking cultivation to reach the fifth star Student rank. In the passage of this month alone, he was now an eight star Student. His training speed was definitely astonishing.

Hui Yue had broken into the sixth star rank on his own. Lan Feng had caused him to reach the seventh star, and by consuming medicinal pills, Hui Yue had reached the peak of the eighth star.

During all this time, Wang Ju Long had been diligently cultivating, working relentlessly, but even so, he was still only at the peak of the eight-star Student rank.

A satisfied smile appeared on Hui Yue’s lips. He was now confident that he could defeat Wang Ju Long if they were to fight again according to his assessment. Once again he knocked on Deng Wu’s door.

Again, there was no response. Hui Yue started to get a little annoyed. It was no longer the warmest time of summer. This morning’s wind was slightly chilled, causing the boy to become greatly annoyed.

“Big brother Deng Wu!” he called as loudly as he could, causing a lot of people to look at him with an odd expression. “If you do not let me in, I guess we will have to talk over the gate.”

Upon hearing this, the courtyard door suddenly opened, and a grumpy looking Deng Wu was standing in the doorway, wearing his clothes in a disheveled mess, having clearly just rushed out from his bedroom.

In contrast to Deng Wu, Hui Yue was neatly dressed with a clean and washed face. His face was not grumpy but filled with smiles and laughter which in turn felt as if someone had dropped a bucket of cold water on Deng Wu.

“Close the door after you,” Deng Wu grumbled as he turned around, allowing Hui Yue to follow. The big smile on Hui Yue’s face was retracting a little at a time. Instead, the young face was filled with an alertness that did not suit a boy his age.

Finally, the two entered the house and sat down in front of each other. Neither spoke as they just observed the other. Deng Wu had completely discarded his usual, arrogant attitude, and instead, he looked as alert as Hui Yue.

‘Give him the ring back,’ Lan Feng said, and Hui Yue quickly followed the order. The ring contained a black memory stone. Deng Wu grew increasingly worried as he saw Hui Yue playing around with it.

“How much did you figure out?” Deng Wu finally sighed as Hui Yue tossed the ring towards him. With a practiced move, Deng Wu caught the ring and looked at it tentatively. Last time he had touched it; it had scorched his finger. The burn mark was still visible. This time no heat emitted from the ring and Deng Wu allowed it to slip back onto the injured finger.

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