Blue Phoenix Chapter 54 – Morning Hunt

The sun rose early in the summer months, and this morning Hui Yue awoke with the first rays of sunshine as they shone down upon him. Although Hui Yue had only returned to his village for a month or two, he was aware that he had moved away from home, and soon his bed was going to belong to his younger sibling.

The Rong twins seemed aware of this. Rong Ming said they needed to make a tent for Hui Yue while he spent the day conversing with his mother, catching up with his family, and Gao Yan was rushing around hunting Fanged Hogs.

A Fanged Hog was quite similar to the warthogs which Hui Yue knew from his previous world, except these Fanged Hogs were many times bigger. A Fanged Hog was two meters long and a meter and a half tall. Its cultivation base was extremely low, and the same could be said about its intellect.

These animals were mainly used for breeding and eating. The outskirts of the Magical Forest was filled with them as they reproduced quickly.

Although Fanged Hogs all had a low cultivation level, they were by no means something which Hui Yue should underestimate. First, although the cultivation base was low, the sheer size of the hog made it dangerous, and second, even with a low cultivation base, it was still sufficient to grant the beast enough speed to pose a threat to Student ranked cultivators and Student ranked commoners, much like Hui Yue’s father.

The following morning, Hui Yu rose alongside the sun as usual. After a night of meditation, the energy within Hui Yue’s body was overflowing, making him slightly restless. Had he been at the academy, he would have moved out to sit under his favorite tree and absorb the sun’s early morning rays. Today he felt as though he needed to try something different.

Exiting through the tent’s opening, Hui Yue squinted his eyes slightly as the early sun was sharp, but his eyes adjusted to the new light within seconds. Looking around the field in which they were camping, Hui Yue noticed that the morning mist was moving off exposing the fact that they were currently hidden deep within a valley.

At the end of the field was a small trail which led towards the Magical Forest. Hui Yue found himself moving towards this path quietly. He was making his way towards the thin line of trees which he could see in the distance.

A smile appeared on Hui Yue’s lips as his adrenalin started pumping. He no longer walked slowly towards the trees; now he was jogging. Even so, he was still as quiet as before.

Hui Yue had decided that it was time for him to put his Transforming Weapons, bow style to the test while moving around in the outskirts of the forest.

Hui Yue, having rushed to the trees, quickly arrived at the tree line which had been visible in the distance a few moments ago. This youth was as quick as the wind and as silent as the morning air as he shot into the forest on his hunt for prey.

After making his way through the forest for a few moments, Hui Yue came across a lone Fanged Hog; this was clearly a male. It was bigger than the one Gao Yan had found yesterday. Hui Yue had a hard time not whistling in respect for this massive animal in front of him.

Although this was an impressive animal, it was also the perfect target for Hui Yue. The boy slowly made his way up into one of the big trees where he sat perched on a thick branch. Slowly he allowed his qi to circulate through his meridians making a specific pattern internally before it gushed out of his hands forming itself into the shape of a bow.

The bow itself was a little shorter than a longbow, and the string required quite a bit of strength to pull it back. The arrows were created by Hui Yue’s qi. What he lacked in strength the purity of the qi more than made up for in hitting his target.

Currently, Hui Yue was capable of hitting his target dummies every time, even though he had only managed to create the most basic of all arrows. The arrow which was created by Hui Yue’s qi was exceedingly sharp and filled with a ferocious energy which made Hui Yue proud. Even so, every time Lan Feng noticed this he would start asking why his arrows did not explode yet, or why they were not capable of being as swift as the wind.

Hui Yue always felt slightly depressed as he heard the disdain in Lan Feng’s voice. He kept training harder, and now he finally had the chance to prove that his arrows might be simple, but they definitely were not inferior when it came to causing damage.

Steadily Hui Yue pulled the bowstring back, and qi gathered into a sleek and white arrow. Slowly, Hui Yue aimed. Then he let the Qi Arrow fly through the air. Quicker than the eye could see, it buried itself within the Fanged Hog’s neck.

Although the arrow hit the hog right in the neck, it was not enough to kill the boar right away. Hui Yue instantly loaded another arrow. From the beginning, he had known that he would need to use more than one arrow to defeat this giant hog.

Arrow after arrow rained down from the big tree in which Hui Yue had located himself. The first shot had hit where he aimed dead-on, yet, after the first arrow, the others went slightly off target, with three missing it completely.

Hui Yue sighed as he looked at the enraged and bleeding Fanged Hog below the tree. He created yet another arrow and waited patiently.

Finally, the arrow was let loose. A squishing could be heard before a loud thump sounded, followed by squeals of agony. Looking down a satisfied smirk appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he saw the Qi Arrow slowly dissipate, leaving behind a bleeding eye.

The arrow had gone straight into the skull. Although the hog was currently screaming, it did not have long left to live. Looking down at the beast, Hui Yue wondered whether he should wait patiently for it to die, or if he should try out his new dagger and kill it swiftly.

In the end, he decided to wait it out. Although the hog was on the verge of dying it was obvious that it still had the strength to wail in agony. Hui Yue felt slightly apprehensive about allowing his ten year old body to get close to the giant pig. Instead, he leaned back against the large tree trunk and watched the wailing hog, waiting for its last breath.

The wailing sounds were loud. They could be heard all across the area, even way back at the village. Deng Wu was the first to wake up. He was calm as soon as he had been told by Little Dragon that the sounds came from a beast with which Hui Yue and Lan Feng were currently playing.

Leaving his tent, Deng Wu noticed the villagers were gathered into groups. Terrified, they stared in the directions of the wailing cries. Next to them were the Rong twins vigilantly keeping an eye on their surroundings. Behind the group was Gao Yan and Ma Kong, also keeping an eye on the surrounding areas, ready to defend should they suffer an attack from any powerful magical beasts.

Seeing this, Deng Wu could not help but laugh slightly. As soon as the laughter escaped his lips, a deathly glare was sent his way by Rong Xing. She seemed to think that the laughter was mocking.

“What’s so funny?” she hissed, clearly nervous about what could have caused these agonizing screams to resound throughout the entire area.

“Nothing really,” Deng Wu chuckled not looking sorry at all. “What you’re hearing is a Fanged Hog currently playing tag with Hui Yue,” Deng Wu said with a shrug of his shoulders, after which he moved towards a group of villagers who had doubt written all over their faces.

“It’s Hui Yue?” Rong Ming asked surprised. After a short while, he nodded his head without waiting for the answer. It made no sense for a high-ranked magical beast to wander so close to the village and then go hunting down Fanged Hogs.

Other than magical beasts, the only ones who were capable of attacking and defeating these hogs were the students who had arrived the previous day. Of the six of them, only Hui Yue was not present.

The villagers could not help but shiver upon hearing that Hui Yue, their darling youngster, had gone into the outskirts of the Magical Forest to fight Fanged Hogs which against not even they stood a chance.

What also confused these worried villagers was the fact that none of Hui Yue’s new friends seemed to show any worry for this young boy who was currently fighting alone against a Fanged Hog.

The wailing died down, and an eerie silence overtook the small village. All the villagers had returned to their daily chores, as they knew that they had no ability to protect themselves, nor save anyone else, and instead left all their hopes for the future on the shoulders of those five youngsters who had arrived the previous day.

Half an hour had passed before Ma Kong noticed a small figure moving towards them dragging a massive beast. When this figure drew closer, they saw the young Hui Yue lugging the biggest Fanged Hog they had ever seen.

The distance which Hui Yue previously traversed that had taken only a few minutes now took him more than twice the amount of time to traverse. He was dragging the massive Fanged Hog by its tail.

The villagers who were doing chores on that side of the village quickly stopped in their tracks as they gawked at this sight. Other villagers also returned to see Hui Yue slowly dragging along something so big, only to leave it in front of his friends.

“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I couldn’t wait for you guys. I went to get the first kill of our trip.”

Hearing this, the five other friends all chuckled gently as they went to observe the hog that lay before them.

“Don’t show off,” Gao Yan said while pushing forth his chest. “If Fanged Hogs count, then I definitely won with my kill yesterday.”

Hui Yue could do nothing, but shrug his shoulders as that was indeed true. Instead of trying to argue about something obvious he unsheathed his black dagger, Black Blood, and removed the magical core from within the hog’s head with steady hands.

This was the first time Hui Yue had tried to remove a beast core from within the head of a beast. It had gone surprisingly well. The knife was truly a treasure. It managed to slice through the hog’s skull as though it was made of butter.

The beast core itself was quickly scooped out. Although grime and gore covered Hui Yue’s hands and clothes, it was nothing compared to killing a fellow student. So the young child sprouted an expression devoid of interest throughout the entire process.

After looking at the beast core, Hui Yue was slightly disappointed. All beast cores were the same size, around the size of a pearl and one centimeter in length. This was the only point on which this beast core resembled a pearl. Its outsides were jagged. Furthermore, the color was a lusterless brown. This coloring caused it to look like an ordinary pebble. Had Hui Yue not personally dug this beast core out from the Fanged Hog’s head, he would not have believed that it was truly a beast core.

The higher the cultivation level of a beast the clearer in color the beast core would be, as well as the smoother the jagged surface would become. A magical beast of the Duke rank would have a beast core which looked exactly like a pearl. At the same time, beasts of King rank and above would start to have a golden luster within their cores. Magical beasts of the Saint rank possessed golden pearls within their heads.