Blue Phoenix

The three days passed in a blur. Although Hui Yue managed to form one Sacred Solarflare sun perfectly, the next were not so great. Some of them exploded before they could be created while others just failed making Hui Yue suffer quite a backlashed. Still most just dissipated into thin air.

At the start, it was rather difficult and only one out of ten tries were successful, but slowly as time flowed on he almost managed to perfect his skills. After three days of practicing passed, every other time he attempted to use the skill it would be perfect while the other time it would summon a smaller sun which while dangerous was not as powerful as the perfected version of the ability.

It was early morning, and Hui Yue had just finished absorbing the Yin energy from the cold rays of moonlight before he stood up as his expression turned serious. Leaving the mansion, he headed swiftly towards the blacksmith’s shop excited about what was going to happen.

As soon as he arrived, he was surprised to see that the door was open. As he entered, he found both Cou Ling and the young man waiting for him. The woman’s face was clearly filled with hesitation and deep within her eyes lingered an indescribable fear.

“Took you long enough to arrive,” She grumbled as she picked up a few storage stones from the counter and pushed herself past Hui Yue out the door as she gestured for him to follow.

The young man did not question her and instantly followed behind. He had many questions, but seeing the discomfort the woman showed he decided not to ask. He was certain that she would tell him if and when he needed to know.

The three of them walked together through the city before they reached the east city gate. Although it was early morning many caravans and carriages could be seen, not to mention a steady stream of merchants, citizens, and adventurers. Groups of mercenaries teamed up to taking on anything from escort missions to trips towards a nearby mountain range to search for beasts and medicinal herbs.

Looking around, Hui Yue enjoyed the bustling atmosphere, yet Cou Ling showed absolutely no interest in them as she sped up and started running past the area where everyone was gathered. Following behind her, Hui Yue could not understand where they were going.

The three of them kept running for the majority of the early day. They passed by many villages, farms, and forests before they finally reached a desolate place. This place was filled with rocks, and almost no plants could be seen.

As soon as they reached this desolate place Cou Ling stopped and started walking at a slow pace, from time to time she would pick up a stone and look at it before placing it where she had taken it. It was clear that she was looking for something specific, and although Hui Yue was incredibly curious, he held his tongue while watching the woman with his full focus instead.

Moving through this place the woman finally started to pick up her speed and after fifteen minutes of looking at one stone after another, they finally arrived at a small stone altar. The altar was black, but on the top runes seemed to have been etched into the rough stone, runes that made absolutely no sense to Hui Yue.

“Okay, tell me if you change your mind,” Cou Ling said with a sigh as she picked up her storage stones and took out a silver colored hammer with runes similar to the ones on the stone altar. Placing the hammer down on the ground, Hui Yue felt a tremor run through the earth. The hammer obviously a few tons and was not anywhere as light as the woman made it seem.

“The Nine Heaven’s Blood Forging is anything but a simple and easy forging technique. As the word says we will need your blood, but just your blood alone is not enough,” She sighed deeply as she exposed a long scar on her own arm. “You need to infuse your blood with the Metal affinity you have deep within your body. The more Metal from you Metal flame in your middle dantian you can push into your bloodstream, the better results the blood forging will have.”

“Your blood alone is not enough,” She continued as she looked up into the sky. “When we activate this stone altar we will also summon the wrath of the heavens. The heavens will strike down nine bolts of lightning. You need to make sure to be hit by every single one of these bolts. You will have to tame the energy within and allow for it to flow through your body into your bloodstream. When it comes into contact with the Metal affinity in your blood, it will allow me to restore the sword. Although it will not return to the sword it once was, it will without a doubt become a sword which can rival its former glory.”

“It has to be my blood?” Hui Yue asked curiously as he looked at the blacksmith in front of him, but she nodded her head seriously. “Try picking up my hammer over there,” She said as she pointed at the hammer, and with a shrug, Hui Yue went towards it only to find that no matter what he did it was simply impossible for him to move it even an inch.

“This weapon will only follow the commands of its owner. The one who feeds it blood will be the only one who can command it. Unfortunately, with such a weapon one will have to constantly feed it blood. The metal that it ends up creating is known as The Nine Heaven’s Blood Devouring Metal. Where some weapons need to be oiled and looked after, these weapons and tools need to devour blood. You can choose to feed it your blood or others’, but to be honest, since you live in the middle of a city suddenly killing people is not a very good idea.”

Considering what the woman was saying, Hui Yue could only nod. Going around killing people in the city was in no way a good idea, and he himself had spilled plenty of blood already so as long as the sword was restored, he was willing to do almost anything.

Seeing the determination within Hui Yue’s eyes, Cou Ling could not help but sigh deeply. “This is in no way going to be easy,” She warned again and from her storage stone she brought out a small circle seemingly created from silver.

“You need to hold this. It will draw the lightning towards you. Let me warn you, though, when I forged my hammer, I stayed here for a total of three months. During this time I had to forge my hammer nine times. I was incapable of taking more than one bolt of lightning at a time, and even then I almost died. Had I not had a good friend with me, someone who could look after me until my body steadied once again, I would long since have died.”

“Do not think that you can easily handle all the lightning at once. We will need to try a few times at least,” The woman continued with uncertainty in her eyes. Although she knew that forging one time was not enough, she could not guess how much this young man could endure.

“I understand,” Hui Yue said with a nod as he looked at the blacksmith in front of him. She nodded her head and went towards the altar, “Place your sword here. This altar will be my anvil.”

Having been given the first order, Hui Yue did exactly as he was told and instantly took the sword out of his storage stone before placing it on the altar. Looking expectantly at the woman in front of him, he saw how the unwillingness grew increasingly stronger, but although she clearly did not wish to do this, she still continued forward.

“Inside your middle dantian should a Metal flame hovering above your spiritual energy sea,” She said guiding Hui Yue, and the young man nodded his head. “Take a small bit of this flame and push it into your bloodstream.”

Closing his eyes, Hui Yue entered his middle dantian and with but a thought a small bit of the flame separated itself from the massive flame. Pushing it through his meridians, Hui Yue guided it towards the Chong Mai meridian, the meridian which allowed Qi, Spiritual Energy, and Wu Wei to enter the body itself. This was also the place where it could move from the meridians into the body itself. It was also this meridian he used whenever he was fortifying his internal organs and bones.

At the start when he first opened the Chong Mai meridian, Hui Yue had to manually push his energy through the meridian and into his body, but the stronger he became the more volume he could absorb at once. When the energies passed through the meridian energy they would automatically exit the meridian and strengthen the body.

It was precisely this meridian that Hui Yue now pushed the small flame of Metal through and then it entered into his bloodstream. Picking up Black Blood from his bag he made a long cut on his arm and the blood infused with Metal started dripping onto the stone altar.

As soon as the blood touched the altar, a rumbling could be heard and a tremor ran through the ground. The previously clear sky started to become darker all of a sudden and looking upwards, Hui Yue saw a cloud appearing out of nowhere.

“We need to hurry,” Cou Ling said as she grabbed her hammer and the broken sword. Placing it on the altar, she grabbed Hui Yue’s arm so that the blood dripped on top of the sword. While nothing seemed to change with the sword, the altar was started to shine with a brilliant light. After a few moments, the stone had become transparent and heat started to flow outwards.

Hui Yue said nothing, instead his eyes were constantly looking at the cloud above him. “Here take this. The lightning will come soon. Use all your inner energies to protect yourself, and make sure that if you are about to take too much damage, throw the small piece of metal away and the lightning bolts will instead hit the highest location close by. Which will be those big stones over there,” She said as she pointed at two massive boulders located around twenty meters away.

Hui Yue nodded his head as he looked at the sky, and he accepted the piece of metal while gritting his teeth. He once more entered his lower dantian and activated the beast core allowing red energy to billow outwards, surrounding him with energy. Hui Yue wished to finish the forging as soon as possible, and since it all depended on how many lightning bolts he could manage, he was willing to use all the energy he had within his body to withstand the lightning bolts.

As the blood kept flowing from his arm, Hui Yue suddenly heard the largest thunder he had ever heard before, and moments after, his entire body was enveloped by a power so strong that everything went black in front of his ice-blue eyes.

The blackness did not last long as it was instantly replaced by excruciating pain. The lightning bolt stuck his entire body and fractured some bones from the intense pressure of the blow. The red mist which had protected him had completely dissipated. And blood sprayed from his mouth.

It was obvious that Hui Yue underestimated the lightning, and now all the remaining mist energy within his body flooded out surrounding him just in time for the second lightning bolt to hit him. This time, his entire body shook, and even more blood sprayed from his mouth, but there was no physical damage to his bones. Although he was turning pale, the fact that he had survived two lightning bolts in a row made him happy.

Knowing that he had only mere seconds before the next bolt appeared he pushed out his golden Wu Wei and covered it over himself. This helped protect him from the next lightning bolt.

While Hui Yue was struggling with the lightning bolts, Cou Ling was surprised as she saw how he managed one bolt after another, although he was clearly seriously wounded he was still about to hold on.

Shaking her head, the blacksmith paid no more attention to Hui Yue, and instead looked at the sword on the altar. Using her hand she placed the sword under the blood dripping from Hui Yue’s arm. His blood had turned silver and the sword was greedily absorbing one drop after another.