Blue Phoenix Chapter 16 – Refining Bone Marrow

As blood filled the tunnels, fewer and fewer beasts made their way towards the stone chamber which Hui Yue had claimed as their own. Even the original owner seemed to have decided to flee rather than to try its luck by attacking the youngsters.

As soon as the influx of magical beasts stopped, Hui Yue gave the order to his friends that all the blood from earlier be removed, to not allow for any evidence to be left behind. He had no idea how long it would take before the Dragon Corps arrived, but when they did, everything had to look as normal as possible.

The first few days went by in peace. The meat was getting smoked while Hui Yue spent some time on analyzing the phenomena of the caves from within his dantian qi cave.

The red mist had grown by a noticeable amount. It was roiling as if it was filled with anger, locked up within the cave in which it usually resided.

Next to it was the blue cloud which also seemed to have grown in size. Unlike the constantly turbulent and frenzied red mist, the blue cloud of tranquillity was calm and composed, staying still within its designated cave.

The green pearl was slowly rotating. With each swirl qi from within the qi cave slowly flowed into the pearl. It was then refined into whatever kind of energy the green pearl was made of.

Observing the pearl, Hui Yue furrowed his brow and started various experiments. In some of them, he intentionally injured himself by cutting, others were injuries inflicted by his friends when he asked, and finally, some of the tests occurred while he was sparring and was wounded in battle.

No matter which experiments Hui Yue underwent he found that the pearl would sometimes start healing his wounds and yet at other times completely ignore the injuries. It seemed as if the healing was completely random as to whether or not the green pearl activated.

Trying his very best to understand the pearl, Hui Yue was frustrated beyond words as soon as he realized that the results of the pearl were different from time to time. That even if the same wound was inflicted, it might or might not be healed. This uncertainty drove Hui Yue crazy.

Eventually, he had no other option than to give up this endeavor. Grumbling he closed his eyes and sat down in a meditative position, then he submerged himself in cultivating more spiritual energy. He did all this while waiting for the rest of the meat to smoke.

One day after another quickly went by within the stone chamber. Hui Yue and his friends used the time to stabilize their cultivation bases, and since the chamber was rather large, they also used it for sparring.

Each day two of them would go out to hunt food, which consisted of different magical beasts, while the other two would stay back and guard their new home.

The first thing Hui Yue requested of Deng Wu to create was an inscription that would inform Hui Yue whenever the gateway leading into Cave’s End opened so that they would be aware of the movements of the Dragon Corps. A few times per day, Hui Yue and Sha Yun would also merge with the earth, scan the surroundings, and see whether or not they were lucky enough to notice the Dragon Corps.

So far nothing had been found. After a week of multiple sparring matches, hunting down magical beasts, and merging with the earth, Hui Yue finally felt that his cultivation base had steadied itself and become much more stable than it had been before. A satisfied smile appeared on Hui Yue’s mouth as he finally opened his eyes which were shining with pleasure.

Although he had not increased his rank, he could feel how his strength had grown tremendously from being stabilized. His cultivation base was no longer something to be trifled with. This excitement caused waves to crash upon the shore of his spiritual energy sea. The five flames in the middle of the sea were all growing in size. This sight alone filled Hui Yue with happiness.

Opening his eyes, Hui Yue withdrew a storage stone from within another storage stone, then emptied the contents onto the floor in front of him. A mountain of magical beast bones appeared in front of him. Swiftly the now empty storage stone was once more deposited into the stone embedded in his belt. Hui Yue drew out yet another stone from which he withdrew jade bottles and parchment.

Sitting down with crossed legs, Hui Yue took a few deep breaths before he picked up a bone from a magical beast and thoroughly observed it.

It was the hind leg of one of the wolves they had slain earlier when they had first entered the tunnels. Although it was not from one of the strongest wolves, it was still a bone of remarkable size.

Upon closing his eyes, Hui Yue’s mental projection traveled to the spiritual energy sea where it summoned the silver colored flame before he allowed it to fill his entire body. Its energy flowed through his meridians and entered his veins.

Metal was the one element which Hui Yue still had not taken the time to understand and increase his affinity with. However now that they were stuck within the boring tunnels, he figured that it would be the perfect time to try it out. He could not help but feel the excitement as he was seated with the wolf’s hind leg bone in his hands.

At first, he removed all the marrow from the bone and placed it in a bowl. Then he produced a silver flame. The silver flame was contained between his two palms. Unlike the fire flame he usually created, this one had no heat radiating from it. Instead, a chilling air seemed to radiate outward from Hui Yue.

This flame created a few tongues of silver fire which dug into the bowl in his lap. There it swallowed up the marrow and brought it into the middle of the flame.

At first Hui Yue expected the flame would do all the work on its own. However, he quickly noticed that the flame started to subtract energy from the marrow. It then fed itself the energy from within the bone marrow, rather than encasing it. This left none of it remaining for Hui Yue to refine for later uses.

Sending his will into the flame, Hui Yue observed that although the flame was under his control, it kept struggling against his will as if the flame hungered for the energy hidden in the marrow.

Gritting his teeth, Hui Yue refused to give in. Instead, he focused his intent and threw yet another portion of will into the flame. This time much more demanding than the one before. By constantly keeping his attention on the flame, Hui Yue finally subdued the fire. Nevertheless, he knew that he could in no way relax his grip on the blaze, or it would end up devouring the energy which he wanted to refine.

The bone marrow no longer had the same structure as it did previously. Instead, it was now a red and thick liquid which constantly seemed to diminish in size but darken in color.

Its previously meaty look was now turned into a glistening drop of shining red energy. After ensuring that it could no longer be refined anymore, only then, did Hui Yue place his first refined energy within a jade bottle.

The jade bottle was quickly closed before Hui Yue heaved a heavy sigh of relief. Looking at the small drop of energy he had refined, Hui Yue quickly understood that more than half of the energy within the bone marrow had been consumed. It was used up by feeding the metal flame before he had managed to take control of the flame.

The energy was like fuel to the fire. It provided the elemental flame with increased strength and tenacity. However, it had no lasting effects on the flame, and the energy was therefore wasted.

Even though Hui Yue wasted some of the energy, he was more than pleased with the final result considering that this was his very first attempt. The fact that he had refined even one drop of energy thrilled him.

Looking at the bone in front of him, Hui Yue contemplated the benefits of starting to refine the bones, or if he should finish refining all the bone marrow. After having thought about it for some time, Hui Yue picked up another bone and scraped out the bone marrow, getting ready to once more refine. He hoped to gain at least double the amount of energy he had obtained during his previous attempt.

Hui Yue decided not to start refining the bones until he finished all the marrow. He knew that bones were even harder to refine. This was because they contained much more energy. The reason he kept refining the marrow was that bones were not refined in the same way and he would rather repeat an action than to switch between two different methods of refinement.

Hour after hour went by. As the day came to an end, Hui Yue had already processed half of the bone marrow he had managed to store after the fight.

As the evening turned into night, Hui Yue was still refining bone marrow. He showed no intention of stopping anytime soon. As always, when the young man got his attention drawn to something, it was impossible for him to stop before he had finished his goal.

Hui Yue had long since perfected the method used to refine bone marrow. His mind was now saying the incantation needed to keep the metal flame under control by reflex, yet he still showed no signs of quitting.

The world within the tunnels was one long night. No sun was shining nor were there any other sources of light, only the light stones which Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long had brought with them. Although the darkness was constant, it truly made no difference. All of them did nothing but pay attention to Hui Yue and his obsession with refining.

At first, he filled up one jade bottle with pure bone marrow energy, but soon one bottle turned into to five. Then the five bottles turned into ten, and now twenty-three bottles were seated next to him.

The energy from the bone marrow was perfect to use for writing inscriptions. There was enough here for Hui Yue to practice inscriptions for a very long time.

After all the hours Hui Yue had spent refining it should have been morning. But the underground world was the same as usual. Hui Yue felt nothing other than excitement. He looked at the twenty-seven jade bottles by his side; all filled to the brim with bone marrow energy.

This energy was the essence of the beast. Just like there was the essence of the heavens and the earth. Each living thing had an essence of its own, and this essence could only be found in the very core of their being. For most living creatures this was the bone marrow of their bodies.

Hui Yue, who had now perfected one kind of refinement, spent some time contemplating his next moves. Although he was incredibly excited about starting to make inscriptions, he also knew that a mountain of broken bones was placed next to him. These bones contained another form for energy and essence. Something which he also could use for his inscriptions.

With a sigh and a longing glance at the bone marrow jade bottles, Hui Yue quickly stored them all within a storage stone. He then turned his entire attention towards the pile of broken bones. His expression once again turned serious as he once more picked up the bones of a magical beast.