Blue Phoenix Chapter 2 – The Maze

Hui Yue stood up but did not rush towards the exit to start searching for Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun. Instead, he quietly observed his surroundings with an alert expression on his face.

The cave was as barren as he had expected, but a few types of mushrooms grew in the darkest corners. As soon as Hui Yue activated a light stone, the mushrooms started to disintegrate as though sunlight was toxic.

The light stone was truthfully a low-grade storage stone which contained a seed of light. The storage stone was of such poor quality that the interior was exposed, allowing for the rays of sunshine to illuminate everything around it.

The seed of light was not an actual plant. Instead, it was a small pearl refined from the sun’s rays of light. Creating one seed of light required more than a year, and the price was extravagant, as both plant and pearl were very important. Seeds of light were not something just anyone could buy.

That name was given because it could be planted in the ground and a tree of sunshine would grow. A tree would absorb the light shining down upon it, bearing fruit that contained more seeds of light.

Although this sounded like an easy process, it was vital that the trees had a constant supply of sunshine so it could refine its seeds. If not, the trees would be unable to create seeds. Within the whole Taiyang Kingdom, only one place lived up to the harsh requirements needed for farming seeds of light.

Hui Yue only brought two seeds of light on this trip, yet both were with him. He could not help but feel worried about Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun, who were stuck in this dark maze with no light at hand.

The room that the stone lit up was dark and damp. It was completely closed off from the world with no windows and only one pathway they could follow, leaving behind all discussion about which direction to take.

Thinking the situation through, Hui Yue handed over the light stone to Deng Wu before he quickly sat down in meditational position.

Seeing this, Deng Wu furrowed his brow in confusion as he did not think now was the best time for cultivating, but he said nothing and just waited patiently for the younger man to finish whatever he was doing.

Hui Yue became merged with the earth, but he had yet to reach the level that would give full control over the surrounding earth. Even when perfectly merged, because the young boy still needed to hone his affinity, he was not able to command larger masses of earth.

Hui Yue was seated down in meditation, yet, unlike what Deng Wu thought, he was not cultivating; instead, he was manipulating his earth elemental affinity to scan as much of the entire mountain as his ability would allow him to.

Hui Yue was one with the earth. One with the walls of the maze as they twisted and turned inside the mountain. Unfortunately, Hui Yue’s control over earth only allowed for him to thoroughly scan up to a few kilometers away from his location, and no matter how he searched it was impossible for him to find any trace of Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long.

Frowning, Hui Yue opened his eyes and stood up, patting his robe to remove the dust that gathered while he was seated on the floor.

“I did not feel the presence of any living beings, nor signs that any had ever been here,” Hui Yue said aloud explaining what he had seen. “The maze continues for much further than I can scan. It goes upwards and downwards, left and right, and has many different levels. It is quite complicated. I am sure that this maze fills up quite a significant amount of space, so our biggest question is which way we should walk to find those two.”

Deng Wu nodded. Although he was unable to sync with his element, he was still able to use it. He quickly found a carving knife after which he engraved an inscription at the front of the room they ended up in.

This was a safety inscription which had multiple benefits. Deng Wu wrote it because he could leave behind a message in the inscription, and he would instantly know if any living being got close to it.

Should Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long happen to stumble upon the inscription, an illusionary Deng Wu would appear, telling them to stay in the room. At the same time, Deng Wu would be informed about the two’s arrival.

As an inscriber, there was no limit to how far away he could be to sense it. As long as the inscription was created by him, it would inform him even if he were to leave the plane. An inscription was something which one created by pouring their cultivation base into.

Seeing Deng Wu create an inscription, Hui Yue nodded in approval before he slowly started to make his way down the only path with Deng Wu following behind.

Although these roads were obviously millennia old, it was easy to see that they had been created with perfect attention to detail. The now moldy and damp stone walls had once been dry and were adorned with light stones every fifteenth meter.

Such extravagance shocked Hui Yue deeply, as he had personally investigated the size of the maze and he knew how rare seeds of light were. These seeds had long since withered up, unfortunately, leaving no light on the now deserted hallways, causing Hui Yue to feel slight regret.

Walking through the maze was done in a world of darkness with only a little light from the light stones. It was impossible for the two men to keep track of the days. When they got hungry, they would sit down and eat some rations. When their energy was nearly depleted, they would sit down and cultivate.

In another room, days before, Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long had woken up, just as Hui Yue and Deng Wu had done, only to find that they were separated from their friends.

Unlike the calm and collected Hui Yue, Sha Yun instantly panicked. She was about to charge out of the stone chamber to look for her master, only to be forcefully held back by Wang Ju Long.

The two women were of quite similar strength, yet currently, Wang Ju Long had the advantage. She only needed to use her full strength and Sha Yun would have to give up.

“What do you expect us to do then?” the snake-woman hissed at the girl she was stuck with, hate evident within her eyes. Sha Yun had been unhappy when Wang Ju Long followed along on the trip, but since it was Hui Yue’s wish, she would not oppose his decision. It was, however, quite obvious that Sha Yun would do anything in her power to ensure that the other knew she was unwelcome.

Wang Ju Long was an aloof kind of person. She was the complete opposite of Sha Yun, and although she did feel that Hui Yue was special, she never once paired that emotion with love. Not even when her face flushed red and her heart beat rapidly. Wang Ju Long was only capable of seeing these symptoms as a sign of lacking food or rest.

Currently, within the room, Sha Yun was fuming with rage because she was held back by Wang Ju Long, who was searching through her different storage stones only to break into a smile finally. She fished out two light stones, tossing one to the snake-woman.

Wang Ju Long’s elemental affinity was that of wood. She had a special connection with the seed of light because she used it while practicing her elemental affinity. Due to this, a dazzling light emanated out from within the transparent memory stone.

Looking at the moist stone which was surrounding them a frown could be seen on Wang Ju Long’s usually very tranquil face before she turned around, looking at Sha Yun for a moment, clearly deep in thought.

Sha Yun could not help but cross her arms when she noticed Wang Ju Long staring at her, and she backed away slightly. She had no idea what the other was thinking, but it seemed to have something to do with her, and that alone caused her to be cautious.

An eerie silence was slowly creeping up on Sha Yun, causing the snake-woman to involuntary shiver. Her eyes were flickering between the contemplating Wang Ju Long and the black world outside the cave.

Finally, just as Sha Yun thought that she could not take the silence anymore, Wang Ju Long opened her mouth, a friendly voice sounding out, “Your affinity is earth, right?”

Sha Yun was startled, yet listening to the question she nodded her head. She did indeed have an affinity for earth. An affinity she had since birth that she had honed to the best of her ability.

Looking at Sha Yun and Hui Yue, both of them had an earth elemental affinity, but, even so, their abilities were quite far from each other. While Hui Yue could merge with the earthen element, he was still improving. Although he was now capable of becoming one with the earth, it was limited. After all, he could currently only fuse with the earth so much.

Since Sha Yun was born with her earth affinity, she had a much stronger relationship with the earth, making her attacks more powerful and allowing her to control a much larger mass of earth.

However, even though Sha Yun was born with the affinity, she was not truly able to become one with earth. If a magical beast, or human cultivator, actually became one with the earth or any other element for that matter then they would lose their original bodies and it would afterward be impossible for them to return to their former state. Due to this phenomena, the beast core set a limit to how much a magical beast could merge with their element.

This was a limit not present in humans and gave them the chance to increase their affinity constantly. That being said, trying to increase one’s affinity as a human was no easy task. Only one out of ten thousand would have the talent to increase it to the point where they could completely become one with their element.

“Let’s try and scan the area,” Wang Ju Long said with a sigh as she gently knocked on the stone wall in front of them, and Sha Yun nodded her head.

Sha Yun sat down and allowed for her body to become one with the earth. Within the silence of the room, creaking sounds could be heard as the stones around Sha Yun seemed to come alive.

The small gravel on the ground started climbing up her, and within a few moments, her entire tail was covered by stone. Beneath the gravel, Wang Ju Long saw how the body itself had turned to stone.

Suddenly, Sha Yun opened her eyes causing Wang Ju Long to become startled as she looked at the snake-woman.

“Those idiots,” she hissed as she shattered the layer of stone that had condensed on top of her tail before a yellow hue reappeared on her body. She then started to break every single wall between her and her unknown destination.

Wang Ju Long raised an eyebrow at her sudden action but said nothing as she quickly followed the swearing snake-woman.

“Those idiots... Why would they move AWAY from us!” Sha Yun grumbled, as she upped her speed and crashed straight through the maze. An option which Deng Wu and Hui Yue had never even considered.