Blue Phoenix Chapter 57 – Into the Magical Forest

Hui Yue and the others spent the first six days visiting the Magical Forest only during the daytime; this resulted in the six of them gaining an immense amount of low-grade beast cores. Not to mention the village was able to fill their pantries with all kinds of dried, salted, and smoked meats.

Each evening’s meal was a feast! They ate various roasted magical beasts, stewed magical beasts, and even fried magical beasts. Although Hui Yue was in his growing stage, he was certain that the amount of protein he was getting was slightly over the daily requirement.

These six days had not proven difficult to Hui Yue, nor to any in the group. After catching so many low-ranked beasts, they finally felt ready to tackle something more challenging with a higher rank. The six of them left to enter deeper into the actual Magical Forest for a week. They would spend the week fighting higher-ranked beasts, yet they would not enter into the core regions where the strongest magical beasts resided.

Hui Yue chuckled slightly as he looked at Gao Yan and Rong Ming. Both kept yawning as they made their way through the trails within the forest. It was obvious that neither had managed to sleep particularly well last night, which now caused the two youngsters some troubles.

Hui Yue did not understand why Rong Ming was so excited considering he had been hunting these grounds every year for the last six years. Nonetheless, things were different now as he had six friends who were traveling with him. Especially considering how those two older boys were both incredibly competitive. Both wished to prove that he was better than the other. Neither cared about the differences in their cultivation bases.

Hui Yue shook his head with a smile on his face, and once more focused his attention onto the trail on which they were traveling. It had been created by magical beasts that were moving through the forest, and it seemed fairly worn. The trail ground had been stomped flat while the plants grew abundantly on the sides of the trail, showing that all the plant roots had been either destroyed by being stepped on or eaten down to nubs.

On the outskirts of the Magical Forest, the trees were spread fairly loosely allowing the youngsters a good view quite far ahead of them. The further into the forest they traversed the denser the trees became, and more beasts could be heard moving about.

Although there were many more beasts at this place than there had been on the outskirts, these beasts did not allow Hui Yue and the others to see them. The beasts would, in general, try to escape as soon as possible when they noticed a group of six cultivators entering the forest.

The higher the cultivation of the beast the higher their intellect would be. At this point, most of them knew that a group of cultivators would be no easy target. Even if they both had the same cultivation levels, despite the fact human cultivators were supposed to be weaker than beasts of the same rank, the beasts understood there was safety in numbers.

This safety in numbers most beasts did not have. Unless the beasts were capable of laying an ambush and guaranteeing their escape, none wished to attack these humans.

After walking for a couple of hours, the group reached a small pond which was placed in a clearing. The tall trees stood ten meters tall, and their crowns were so dense that almost no sunlight broke through.

The pond was small and round, approximately twenty meters across. Multiple water animals were visible within the still and clear water. The forest floor was covered with moss, unlike the rough path they had taken so far. The moss acted like a thick blanket that muted all sounds from outside areas.

“Let’s camp here for now,” Deng Wu said with a sigh, and Hui Yue quickly agreed. The six of them had traveled for a couple of hours. Now they wished to eat some food before they sat down to plan their next move.

A small fire was created by Rong Xing who quickly started to prepare a stew for their lunch. At first, they planned to set up tents, but after considering it for a short while, Hui Yue decided against it. If they suddenly needed to move during the night, the tents could easily prove to be more trouble than protection.

Instead, they started to look at the pond and their surroundings, wondering why it was so incredibly silent. Previously while making their way through the forest, Hui Yue and the others heard various magical beasts moving around. This pond which should be swarming with them was completely silent. Not even shadows were moving about.

The silence which seemed so tranquil turned eerie suddenly, and Hui Yue backed up. Moving towards the fireplace, he gestured to the others that they should do the same.

None of them spoke as they slowly made their way back to the campfire. Everyone was now completely aware that something was off. Their eyes shone with vigilance as each of them kept observing their surroundings, all senses strained to their limits.

Watching everything slowly, Hui Yue knew that they were currently being observed by a beast. This beast was most likely one of the higher-ranked beasts in this part of the forest. Knowing this caused him to be extra alert and he started to send his qi roaming his meridians, activating Velocity Flow.

Suddenly something was happening! The pond water instantly started swirling, creating a cylinder-shaped water hurricane which moved towards the six youngsters gathered at the campfire.

The water moved within seconds, allowing none of them much time to react. Hui Yue rushed to the side by using Velocity Flow. At the same time, he placed his palms parallel to each other, channeling the Fire Spark skill.

Although Hui Yue had multiple attack skills, none of them would be useful against a massive body of water, yet Hui Yue knew that water would evaporate if he used fire. Unfortunately, the fire might be extinguished by the water, but it was his only option. He channeled the skill with no time to spare.

The big cylinder-formed body of water quickly morphed into four small orbs. Each one of them possessed a long tail which connected it to the middle of the lake.

Hui Yue was not the only one who had pre-activated his skills. A smile appeared on his face as he heard a loud boom resound through the clearing in which they were fighting. Ma Kong had not managed to escape the water prisons which attacked them. However, he was able to activate his Qi Bombs, and the loud bangs kept resounding as he tried to blow his way clear of the water.

Rong Ming, Rong Xing, and Gao Yan had also became trapped. Flashes of different shades of white were constantly shown on the water prison in which they were caught. Every one of them was fighting to the best of their ability.

Deng Wu, who had been quick enough to escape, had long since activated his Dancing Qi Pillar, but just like Hui Yue, he was currently charging it to maximum strength.

“Go for the lake itself!” Hui Yue yelled loudly, as he saw how the water prisons were constantly restored to their previous appearance after each attack.

The Fire Spark skill had reached its max for Hui Yue to control it without adding any spiritual energy. He and Deng Wu timed their attack together.

While Hui Yue threw the fire orb into the lake, Deng Wu used this chance to cut the water prisons from the lake with his Qi Pillar, which in turn allowed for the four captive youngsters to escape.

As soon as Fire Spark hit the water's surface, the blazing orb instantly exploded. The heat was so severe that the water it came into contact with immediately evaporated. The entire clearing was filled with steam within seconds.

“We did it!” an excited voice sounded within the steam, but Hui Yue quickly hushed them, causing whomever it was to turn quiet instantly.

“We still haven’t seen the beast itself,” Hui Yue whispered, while his senses were pushed to their limits. “Keep an eye out.”

A low laughter appeared in the thick mist, followed by a bloodcurdling shriek. The laughter contained happiness, but unfortunately for Hui Yue, he recognized the shriek as belonging to Rong Xing.

‘This is most likely not a pure beast, but one of the mixed races,’ Lan Feng said with evident hostility in his voice. ‘I did not intend to help you out, but I will make an exception right now,’ he continued, after which he stopped suppressing his aura allowing the aura of a Saint ranked beast to exude Hui Yue’s body.

The voice which was previously laughing heartily now wailed in fear, and it swiftly vanished into the distance. Not only had this beast become terrified of Hui Yue, constant rustling could be heard followed by panic-stricken roars and loud sounds of other beasts retreating.

Hui Yue did not listen to the retreat of the many beasts which clearly had appeared to see humans die, instead he rushed towards the area from which he had heard Rong Xing shrieking.

Rong Xing lay on the grass, her body limp and eyes closed. Her skin was pale, as if devoid of all blood. Her leg looked badly injured, with a bruise appearing on her neck. None of these injuries seemed to be severe which led Hui Yue to breathe a deep sigh of relief.

Lan Feng’s aura was quickly suppressed once more, as it was too dangerous to keep it up. If there was another Saint ranked magical beast within the Magical Forest, it would obviously not wish to share its territory, culminating in a fight. Although Hui Yue had obtained the aura through Lan Feng, he was obviously no match for a true Saint ranked beast.

“What happened?” Ma Kong asked seriously. None of them could figure out why the magical beasts had retreated in such a panicked manner just now. Their answer was quickly given by Lan Feng as he took over Hui Yue’s body.

“I, the always benevolent and almighty, Lan Feng was the one who scared them away,” he said with his usually arrogant voice, instantly revealing that he had taken over their body. Though as soon as the sentence had left his mouth, the smug expression changed to that of a serious child.

“That beast was most likely a mixed breed,” he said causing the others to look slightly surprised. A sigh escaped the phoenix as he sat down and gestured the others to do the same. With the flick of his hand a jade case appeared which he handed to Rong Xing. It contained healing medicinal pills which he had bought at the academy before departing upon their trip.

Rong Xing gratefully took one before handing the case back, and looked at Lan Feng who finally started explaining.

“Magical beasts of a certain cultivation are capable of changing into human form. I have one myself, and I dare say I am incredibly handsome,” Lan Feng started explaining while Rong Xing’s injuries were healed in front of them.

“When a human and a magical beast have a child it is neither a beast nor a human, instead it becomes a mixture. Some of these half-breeds are much weaker than humans and beasts while others are much stronger, as they have gained the benefits of both races.”

Hearing this a shiver ran through Hui Yue’s spine. Magical beasts with the intelligence of humans was simply too terrifying to think about.

“You guys cannot handle a strong mixed breed yet,” Lan Feng said with a sigh. “When we run into them I will make sure that they disappear, but everything else is up to you guys to deal with. Also, she will be back later, so I suggest that we scram now.”