Soul Fusion

“There he is,” a cold voice slashed through the morning air, making it seem as if the summer had ended.

It had been some time since Hui Yue and Deng Wu had stepped out of the carriage. The two of them had momentarily tarried at the foot of the mountain, discussing the watermill and its uses.

The watermill was a concept which had been used in Hui Yue’s previous world dating back thousands of years. No one had ever needed to create items such as the watermill in this world, as the leaders and serfs all relied on their strength and cultivation to get things done.

The two of them had taken twice the amount of time to climb the stairs. Even as they reached the top, they had been deeply engrossed in their conversation while reviewing the blueprints.

The shrill voice cut through their tranquil state of mind like a knife to butter and roused them from their own world, dragging them back to reality.

Rong Xing was standing in front of Gao Yan, Rong Ming, and Ma Kong. Her usually adorable and smiling face was as dark as a cloud, ready to release an unequaled blizzard. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her fingers kept tapping on the opposite arm, clearly urging the two newcomers to explain themselves.

Ma Kong still wore his usual smile on his face and tried to act as if the current situation had nothing to do with him. His smile was slightly larger than usual, and laughter could be seen within his eyes. It was obvious that this calm and collected young master thoroughly enjoyed watching Rong Xing getting ready to scold the two.

Rong Ming seemed slightly worried. He did not have his usual dumb smile on his face. He had furrowed brows and made random gestures with his arms, which neither Hui Yue nor Deng Wu was capable of understanding.

Gao Yan was the only one who acted as if nothing different had happened. He was tired and yawning, clearly unhappy with how the Rong twins had forced him up early this morning. As to why Rong Xing was so mad, none of the people that were present knew.

“Deng Wu!” Rong Xing said with her ice-cold voice and the promise of suffering apparent on her face. “I can accept that you go around playing with random women. I honestly don’t care if these women are extreme experts. In all honesty, I find it wonderful for you to share your love with other women. But by no means are you allowed to take Hui Yue with you!”

The previous day Rong Xing had stopped to visit, but no matter how much she called and how hard she knocked on the courtyard gate, no one had answered her. Rong Xing had felt worry creep into her heart. Hui Yue had not mentioned anything about leaving that day. The only other explanation that she was capable of thinking up included the Wang family.

Her young mind had flooded with scenes of the naïve and young Hui Yue being tortured for the sake of his high-ranked martial arts skills. Images of him being killed as a repercussion for embarrassing their genius son. All sorts of bad images were surfacing within Rong Xing’s mind, so she had with great haste gathered all her friends, only to find that Deng Wu was not present either.

Having seen the panicked expression on Rong Xing’s face, Gao Yan had gone to speak with his friends only to be told that Hui Yue had been seen in Riluo City.

Rong Xing remembered how she went from worrying to feeling indignant. Hui Yue was, after all, only a ten year old child. He was not supposed to travel to Riluo City by himself. He should have asked the Rong twins for help.

Early in the morning, Rong Xing had decided to wait for Hui Yue to return and scold him. They had heard a rumor about Deng Wu and the unknown expert. Now Deng Wu had arrived with Hui Yue, both of them deeply engaged in a conversation and not noticing their friends who were waiting.

All the hostility which Rong Xing had felt towards Hui Yue instantly shifted to Deng Wu. It was obvious that Deng Wu had tricked the naïve little Hui Yue into joining him for a trip to Riluo City.

“Rong Xing. My heart! My lifeblood! Do I look like a cheating husband?” Deng Wu said with a depressed look on his face as he fell on his knees in front of the stern girl. “I merely accompanied Hui Yue as I assumed he would enjoy a few days in a much better place than this academy,” Deng Wu argued with a presumptuous voice. “We were just discussing some business matters. It seems he is capable of assisting me with an issue that I did not fully understand.”

Rong Xing shook her already trembling fists with an exasperated look on her face. Deng Wu was all smiles, and Rong Xing quickly felt her anger dissipating into thin air. “Well, little brother Hui Yue came back safely,” Rong Xing mumbled as she turned around. They all walked towards the closest canteen so that she and the others could get breakfast because they had been waiting since before sunrise after all.

“I heard that the Shan family ended up leaving Riluo City,” Gao Yan said while they were eating breakfast. “I have this friend who worked as a maid in their family. She said that after the blaze, all the servants were fired. She managed to overhear the master and young master speaking together. They are going to find a bigger city and take it over.”

“It is not like much will change for them,” Deng Wu commented with a knowing smirk. “And it seems like many families are fighting to buy their grounds so that they can expand. We are one of them as well.”

“They should have had insurance,” Hui Yue said with a small sigh, causing the others to look at him strangely. Hui Yue was happy to eat breakfast twice. He had not the foggiest idea about the weird looks pointed his way as he was focused on the grilled fish and vegetable soup in front of him. However, the sudden quiet was rather disconcerting, so he looked up and saw their weird glances.

“What?” he asked while slurping the soup up with great delight. Every meal Hui Yue ate meant more energy; having more energy made it easier for Lan Feng to regain his strength.

“Is insurance a high-ranked martial arts skill?” Gao Yan asked with big eyes and a hopeful expression that caused Hui Yue to burst into laughter.

“No,” he calmed himself while preemptively wiping a tear that had gathered in the corner of his eye. “Insurance is a kind of… Hmm, I don’t know how to explain this,” Hui Yue said while mulling it over.

“Imagine that we here pay a silver coin each full moon to a shared golden memory stone. Then if our houses were to burn down the shared golden memory stone would pay for the repairs of the house as long as we were not intentionally destroying it.” The others furrowed their brows in uncertainty. It did not seem like such a profitable thing. Seeing the other’s expressions caused Hui Yue to sigh. He had to explain it in a different way it seemed.

“Okay, imagine it like this. You have the entire Riluo City, and every house pays between one copper coin and one silver coin depending on the size of their houses. That is a lot of money, yes? When an instance such as the one with the Shan family’s compound happens, it would be expensive for the insurance company, but how often does that happen? Not very often, right? So insurance is quite a good business.”

Ma Kong, the one currently learning from the Black Market Auction House, was the first to do the calculations, and the result stunned him. Hui Yue smiled slightly upon seeing the amazement on his face.

“It can be done with other things as well,” he continued, ready to reel in Ma Kong completely. “Imagine cultivators paying between one copper and one gold coin a month. The insurance company promises to pay out a large sum of money if the cultivator dies. This money would go to the family members of the deceased cultivator. That way, a cultivator can ensure that their family is capable of living a good life even after they die.”

Gao Yan was astonished upon hearing that part of the insurance aspect. As a commoner who grew up in the poorer part of Riluo City, he constantly feared what could happen to his family if he was to die while exploring or in a war after joining the army.

“Obviously the insurance does not pay out if you commit suicide or if you are the reason of your own death, such as insulting a much higher-ranked expert. Apart from that, it would be fine. You should be capable of getting quite a few guards and mercenaries interested in such a concept,” Hui Yue continued, clearly making a sales pitch tailored for Ma Kong.

Gao Yan, the Rong twins and Deng Wu all stared at Hui Yue with big eyes, astounded about the idea he had come up with. Even Deng Wu, who had previously been astonished after hearing about the watermill, now knew that Hui Yue was not likely to have found all of this within the Magical Forest. Deng Wu finally realized that Hui Yue was even more mysterious than he had first assumed.

“On the next day off, please come with me to meet the manager of our Black Market Auction House,” Ma Kong offered. Hui Yue quickly nodded in agreement. He had gained what he wanted. Even if he only got one percentage on return from telling them about the insurance idea, then it was still worth it; especially since the main reason was to pay back these friends of his.

But Hui Yue also knew that he was unwise just to blurt out idea after idea. Today he had already given Deng Wu the watermill and now Ma Kong the concept of insurances. If he were also to hand over methods of increasing the family revenue to Gao Yan and the Rong twins today, instead of gratitude, he was likely to be paid back with his friends being alerted and wary of where this profound knowledge originated.

The lessons of the day had already started, but for some reason, none of the friends were in a hurry to rush to their classrooms to participate. Instead, the five of them stayed seated for quite some time, chatting about their everyday life until they finally split up.

The feeling of having friends was one which always warmed Hui Yue deep inside. The sense of satisfaction and warmth also helped Lan Feng improve slightly. His white feathers were slowly regaining their celestial hue.

While the friends were returning to their courtyards to cultivate, Hui Yue finally felt an excitement growing within him. An excitement caused by one thing. It was time to spend some of the money that he had received from the previous day’s auction.

Money in the academy was controlled by the memory stone, so Hui Yue withdrew one spirit coin from his golden memory stone and added it to his student emblem. He moved steadily towards the Medicinal Pill Outlet he had seen previously but never before entered.

The mountains which contained the classrooms were flooded with people, but as Hui Yue reached the Medicinal Pill Outlet, he saw how the streets were now deserted.

Medicinal pills were considered heavenly-sent help to cultivators. Their prices were far from what students usually could pay. Most of the young masters relied on medicinal pills sent by their families, rather than the ones which could be bought at the academy itself.

The Medicinal Pill Outlet was exactly like the other buildings in this academy. It was open every day and night, allowing the students to enter whenever they pleased. However, these students would be unable to enter unless they had money inside their student emblems.

No one was present within the room which Hui Yue entered. The entire room was filled with glass cases that displayed various types of medicinal pills.

The majority of the displayed pills were obviously the three varieties which were distributed each month, the Essence Gathering pill, the Qi Refinement pill and the Qi Grasping pill.

Apart from these pills were the Floating Pill which Hui Yue had seen being used by the academy infirmary when they had come to pick up Shan Ping. The description on this pill was to allow the consumer to fly for a short amount of time.

These four pills were without a doubt the most interesting pills for Hui Yue. The others focused mainly on useless aspects such as the Sun Obstructing pill which would ensure that no matter how much a person traveled under the sun, their skin would stay as jade-white as if they had never seen the sunshine.

Hui Yue sighed slightly as he saw the high monetary cost of the Qi Grasping pills and could not help but feel a certain degree of longing. Just as he was about to reach out his hand and prepare to pick up one of the pills, a voice broke the silence.

“Student. Why don’t you enter here?” a grim voice sounded from behind Hui Yue. “As long as you have money, then you can purchase much higher-quality pills.”

Hui Yue slowly turned around feeling slightly alarmed. This person had managed to appear behind him without a sound, catching the younger boy completely off guard. He had been too interested in reading the signs about the various medicinal pills.

“Elder, please allow me to hear about these higher-grade pills,” Hui Yue said politely as he looked at the man in front of him.

This man did not seem very old. An astuteness was visible in his eyes, along with a pleasant look. This appearance did in no way suit the voice of an ancient and rather grumpy man as he had previously sounded to be.

“You seem to be carrying a large amount of cash in your student emblem,” the young elder pointed out. “We usually welcome students like you to have a look at a much more refined variety of medicinal pills.”

Hui Yue felt a chill run down his spine as he heard the elder confirm that he had inserted a spirit coin into his student emblem. Suddenly he was grateful for the fact that he had not fallen into temptation and had not added a couple of spirit coins instead.

The knowledge that the student emblems were currently supervised by the academy made Hui Yue feel slightly uncomfortable and somewhat wary about the emblem. He made a mental note to discuss it with Lan Feng when the bird was feeling better.

Having done that, Hui Yue decided that he needed the high-ranked medicinal pills and he followed the young elder into the back room.

As soon as Hui Yue entered, his nostrils were assaulted by a much stronger scent. It was obvious that in here the pills were much more potent; the scent was stronger, the sizes were bigger, and the colors much brighter than the previous pills.

Some of these pills were carrying the same names as the ones in the other room. However, these had a much brighter color and stronger scent. Hui Yue understand that these versions were of a higher refinement than the previous room.

Together with the pills from the other room was one pill which allured Hui Yue with a sweet and tempting scent, causing Hui Yue to move towards it.

The outside of the pill was green and so shiny that it seemed as if it had been polished. The pill was called the Qi Congregating pill. The description said that it could absorb a portion of the essence from the heavens and earth and create it into a mass of qi equal to the qi of the cultivator. The higher quality of the qi, the less qi is created from each pill.

These pills were without a doubt the highest-rank pill which Hui Yue could find within the store. He felt that he really needed this pill.

“Senior, do you have more of these pills?” Hui Yue asked with big eyes as he pointed towards the Qi Congregating pill that was on display.

“We do,” the elder said satisfied, “but they are expensive.”

These pills were what was used as payment to the teachers who worked at the Royal Academy. Currently, they were being sold for one hundred gold each. This price was above the market price, and the elder was perfectly aware of this, but he did not care. The money went towards the Royal Family anyway.

“I’ll take as many as I can buy for one spirit coin,” Hui Yue said with glistening eyes. Those eyes grew larger as he saw how the elder brought back ten small jade cases, each holding one Qi Congregating pill.

The elder made a beckoning gesture with his hand, causing the student emblem to fly from Hui Yue’s hip into the elder’s hand. He pressed a finger at the top, after which the spirit coin was withdrawn from the emblem. After withdrawing the coin, the emblem and the ten pill cases were returned to Hui Yue. He quickly bowed deeply before rushing back towards his courtyard.

Although Hui Yue wished for nothing more than to instantly digest one of the Qi Congregating pills, he sat down under a tree in his courtyard and forced himself to enter his mind and create a mental projection of himself after which he moved towards the dantian cave.

Hui Yue had felt some changes within his body since yesterday. He wished to know exactly what kind of changes they were before he ingested a medicinal pill.

At first Hui Yue saw no changes. Then, suddenly, he noticed a small strand of blue light which was connected between the mental projection of Hui Yue and the medicating Lan Feng. The strand of blue light was embedded within the two soul projections’ hearts, causing Hui Yue to furrow his brow slightly as he had never seen anything like it before.

Hui Yue was worried as he saw how Lan Feng was still unmoving. The strand of light was dimmed at the end which was embedded within Lan Feng’s heart, and bright at the end connected to Hui Yue.

No matter which way Hui Yue looked at this odd phenomenon, he was completely unable to understand what it was and why it had suddenly appeared. Out of answers, Hui Yue decided to try to investigate it. He allowed for his consciousness within the mental projection to probe at this unknown strand of light.

As soon as the consciousness came into contact with the strand of light, all the energy within the qi cave fluctuated while the qi spiral itself started swirling around at an immense speed. Awe filled Hui Yue as he felt some of his energy releasing itself from the qi spiral and merge into the blue strand of light.

As soon as it had entered the strand of light, Hui Yue lost all contact with the energy. Despite the fact he could no longer sense it, he could still see how the energy was slowly making its way towards the exhausted phoenix.

The energy which moved through the strand of light slowly allowed for the dimmed side of Lan Feng’s side to light up slightly. In turn, his complexion looked slightly better.

This reaction was one which Hui Yue had never expected. More than dismay, he felt mirth. Instantly Hui Yue gathered more of the excess energy within the qi cave which he pushed into the strand of light and observed. As it floated towards Lan Feng, he became better and better from each portion of mental energy sent towards him.

After a few hours of constantly replenishing his energy, followed by feeding it to Lan Feng, the phoenix finally opened his eyes and looked down on the strand of blue light with a shocked expression on his face.

‘Soul fusion?’ he exclaimed, astounded.