18 Chapter 18

On the night before the final, Chu Yueli gave a precious pellet to Xia Qingyue to restore her vitality. She had drained a lot of her vitality in the semifinal using the domain against Ling Yun, and wouldn't be able to use her full strength in the final if she didn't take this pellet.

Qingyue initially was modest and tried to refuse the pellet, but upon her master's insistence and reminder that she was the future Asgard master, she accepted it.

A few minutes later, a Xiao sect disciple ventured towards her, trying to flirt, but was severely discouraged upon seeing the other finalist Yun Che going to the same destination. For the first time since transmigrating, Yun Che gave off an intimidating aura and looked at the Xiao sect disciple with cold and threatening eyes.

Unable to bear the domineering aura of a higher realm practitioner, the Xiao sect disciple could only gulp drily and run away. He had been warned by his seniors not to offend the second most talented genius in Blue Wind Empire's history, who had received the attention of one of the great sects.

Yun Che walked towards where Qingyue was sitting by a lake and looking at her reflection in a daze, her thoughts unknown.

"Qingyue, I have come to see you." He declared gently, waking her from her reverie. She turned around to see him and her eyes shook upon making contact.

She got up and immediately threw a barrage of questions, "I was expecting to see you here, but how did you cultivate so fast? Why didn't you tell me about the Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins? No, why did you go that far and awaken that in the first place?" She sounded desperately curious.

Yun Che raised an eyebrow, smiled, and made a placating gesture with his hands, "Easy, easy. One question at a time."

Qingyue slightly blushed in embarrassment at her previous action and composed herself, "Third question then. Why did you exert yourself so hard and give me Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins? There must be some reason for it, right?"

Yun Che chuckled and shook his head, "Everything that happens in this world has a reason, no matter how accidental or spontaneous it may seem; that's not the point. The reason for my doing so was very simple actually – I already had a gut feeling back then that we would be separated for a long time and wanted to give you something to remember me by."

Qingyue was stunned by this reason. It was as simple as that? But it was indeed effective – she would be flooded with Yun Che's memories every time she made a breakthrough, remembering that she owed a major part of her progress to him. Her heart fluttered and she began feeling complex emotions.

But she was anxious – she didn't want to be in his debt and wanted to do something for him, pay him back in some way. As if reading her thoughts, Yun Che said, "Do you really want to repay me for it? In that case I have a small favor to ask. But let's answer your other two questions first."

Qingyue nodded and asked her second question, "Why didn't you tell me that you had opened all my profound entrances? If you wanted me to remember you because of it then you should have told me about it, right?" She was curious about this, which seemed to be a hole in his logic.

He replied, "A simple reason again. You probably didn't know about the profound entrances at that time, so it would have been difficult to convince you of it. After all, I was crippled trash at the time. Why would you believe me?

And my gut feeling told me that you had an amazing master, who would probably know about the profound entrances and tell you about them anyway."

Qingyue was stunned again. He had predicted everything accurately – she probably wouldn't have believed him if he told her about the profound entrances then, and she did have a powerful master.

She felt some guilt at how her master and others had always treated him as trash and looked down upon him. At the same time, she felt pride at how he had proven them all wrong and become a genius – an emotion she had never felt before.

She then asked her final query, "Alright, how did you cultivate so fast? Even the Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins couldn't have done that."

Yun Che nodded at her in agreement and said, "You are right about that. The answer to this is more complicated. First of all, I am not only a genius doctor but also an alchemist. I refined many pellets which boosted my cultivation. But that's not all." He grew serious here.

Looking at her solemnly, he brought up his left hand and ignited a scarlet flame, "Qingyue, this is a big secret and I am confiding this to you because I trust you. But don't reveal this to anyone else. Otherwise the consequences will be bad not only for me, but also you and possibly the entire empire."

Qingyue also grew serious at this and sternly nodded. She was a bit surprised that he had fire affinity, but couldn't understand what the secret about it was. Nevertheless she wouldn't divulge his secrets: it was the least she could do as gratitude.

Yun Che asked, "Do you know about the Ten Thousand Beasts mountain range?" Upon receiving an affirmative answer he continued, "I went to the core of that place just a couple of months after repairing my profound veins. And there I discovered a big secret – that place is actually the location of the trial grounds of the divine Phoenix – the same divine Phoenix centered around whom the Divine Phoenix Empire is built."

Qingyue's eyes widened as the implication dawned upon her. "But how could this be possible?" She softly asked.

He continued, "Apparently the original Phoenix spirit split into two due to some conflict; I don't fully understand. One half went on to establish the Divine Phoenix Empire that everyone knows about, and the other one set up its trial grounds in isolation at the Ten Thousand Beasts mountain range."

Qingyue nodded, understanding now why he said this could bring a disaster upon the entire Blue Wind Empire. "So you passed the trial and inherited the divine Phoenix legacy?" She asked, speculating on what could have happened.

Yun Che's eyes widened slightly in surprise and he nodded, "Exactly. You have a sharp mind. I inherited the legacy of the Phoenix and that increased my cultivation talent a lot. Since then my level has rapidly increased."

She looked at the fire lit upon Yun Che's hand and realized it was the Phoenix flame. She sighed, "In that case there's no way I am going to beat you. There's no way I can overpower Phoenix fire."

He shook his head, "That's what my favor is about. I will not be using my Phoenix flame tomorrow since that would attract the negative attention of the Divine Phoenix Empire. My favor is very simple – I want you to go all out tomorrow, hold nothing back."

She was surprised. How was this a favor? Restricting himself while telling her to go all out, did he want to lose? She asked as much.

He laughed and shook his head, "Winning and losing doesn't matter to me anymore. The only difference would be getting the Dragonscale armor or 3 drops of Purple Veined Marrow Quenching Fluid. The fluid is useless to both of us since we both have Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins and with my cultivation speed the armor will also quickly lose its value for me.

No, what I want is to test myself. As I had said back then, I want to prove myself worthy of you. For that, I want to compete against you at your strongest. I can't use my Phoenix fire in public but I will use everything else."

"That's a blatant lie", Jasmine commented, amusing herself in this meeting.

"I also want you to use your everything – your domain, highest level of Frozen Cloud arts you have mastered, your strongest weapon, everything. Don't hold back against me", Yun Che said, ignoring Jasmine.

Qingyue looked conflicted here. She wanted to repay her debt of gratitude, but not in this manner. She worriedly asked, "What if you get seriously hurt? I don't want that."

He reassured her, "The Phoenix also gave me an additional gift in her legacy – resurrection. You know how the Phoenix is said to resurrect from its death, that it's immortal? Well, she gave me that ability. If I ever actually die, I will resurrect. I am practically immortal. So no need to worry about seriously hurting me."

Of course, he had said this to her so that she wouldn't worry when he seemingly died during the demon sealing.