Dance Of The Phoenix
40. Soul Power

It had been three days that Gu Yuena was in the pavilion belonging to Elder Gao. The abundant Qi helped Gu Yuena's meridians develop faster than usual. Unfortunately, Gu Yuena still had to be very careful of the formation pressure that often hurt her.

If it continues to be here, sooner or later the identity of the witch will be discovered. He had to think of a way to survive without being discovered for 2 months.

It could be out of here and out, but it's a bad idea. There were many things he did not know about this world. Other than not knowing the path and being able to get lost at any time, his strength was still not enough to wander by himself. Gu Yuan would not allow it either.

Gu Yuena got out of bed and did a little stretching after cultivating all day. He felt his bones become stiff because they were in the same position for a long time.

"Xiao Yuena, are you awake? I'll wait for you at the training yard. Get ready!"

Luo Yi's voice entered Gu Yuena's room. Gu Yuena immediately shouted in response, "Alright, Brother-in-law!"

Luo Yi left from the pavilion courtyard, letting Gu Yuena prepare by herself. Gu Yuena hurried to change the clothes Gu Yuan had given her.

It didn't take long to prepare, Gu Yuena walked out of her room. He looks as usual without wanting to appear flashy. The white dress that Gu Yuan gave her was very fitting for her. Although it seemed plain, the model of the clothes was very beautiful and highlighted Gu Yuena's cheerful side.

Stepping down the stairs, Gu Yuena's journey came to a halt as soon as she saw the figure of a white-haired old man sitting on a chair while sipping his tea and looked at the mountain scenery. The presence of the old man made Gu Yuena unable to ignore him despite wanting to.

Gu Yuena slightly stepped towards him, then bowed to greet him. "Greetings, Elder Gao."

Just as Gu Yuena was about to leave, Elder Gao suddenly said something, "Some time ago, there was an intruder who forced his way into Yinyang Palace. He was burned when he entered the first gate. Why do you think he's on fire?"

Gu Yuena stopped her steps, then glanced at the old man carefully. What does Elder Gao want to talk about?

Unable to ask him directly, he could only reply, "Yinyang Palace has strict guard. It's not surprising that an intruder died."

"He was not killed, but rather escaped after stealing something. Someone who won't even burn to death, what do you think?"

Gu Yuena was getting confused. "My insights aren't broad, just the first time I've heard them."

"It's only natural that you don't know. But recently the same formation showed peculiarities. If someone broke the rules of the formation, it should have been burned to the ground by now, but he wasn't like that."

Gu Yuena was silent for a while. Is Elder Gao talking about it? The old man suspected it?

"For this, Yuena had no assumptions whatsoever.  Yuena had only stayed three days in Yinyang Academy, not understanding the specifics of the problems the academy was experiencing." Gu Yuena tried to stay on the radar safe.

Elder Gao chuckled at Gu Yuena's words. He stood up, then turned to look at Gu Yuena who looked very calm. "Even at a time like this, you're still very calm, I salute you."

"Yuena didn't understand what the elder meant." In fact, Gu Yuena was very nervous because the aura that made her uncomfortable was haunting her even more. Elder Gao seemed to be using spiritual power to suppress it.

"The "forms used in the academy don't seem to bother you much. I thought you would trouble Gu Yuan over the rejection of the formation."

"Forms?" Gu Yuena pretended not to know. Right, it's been discovered. But it seems like Elder Gao still doesn't know much.

"Just like Gu Yuan on the first day of entering the academy, and the reason I raised him as a disciple. You sisters surprised me so much for having such an unstable soul."

Gu Yuena remained silent for a while, then asked, "What's wrong with Big Brother?"

"Your unstable souls have traces of soul power left. The soul force on your soul is greater than Gu Yuan. That makes me wonder why you could hold the formation while your brother was nearing death in the past."

"Sir .. how ...." Gu Yuena instead of worrying about herself, thought to her brother instead. Her brother had once almost died from soul force, what did he mean?

"You just calm down. Gu Yuan's soul was already stable. Although there was still the rest of the soul force, he managed to seal it." Elder Gao spoke in a calm tone, then looked at Gu Yuena seriously. "The problem is now in you. Your soul is more unstable, such as having just experienced some kind of unexpected soul exchange or soul damage from a fight."

Gu Yuena could barely say anything. How could Elder Gao guess it like this? He just barely guessed correctly and almost said that Gu Yuena's soul now was not his original soul that had been attached since birth.

Regarding his relationship with soul force, Gu Yuena was still hard to understand.

"Elder Gao, previously said about the soul power that is in my soul and Big Brother. What does that mean?" Gu Yuena was curious.

"Seeing you ask like this, it seems like you really don't know anything. Soul power was passed down from birth by the previous owner of soul power. I don't know what your relationship with Linghun Palace is to cultivate using soul force, but I advise you not to use it. Although its combat power is enormous, but it is a forbidden power that can damage your soul. If your unstable soul is damaged, it is likely that your mind is uncontrollable, it will forever be unable to incarnate."

"How do you know I have soul power? Can you see my cultivation base?"

Elder Gao was silent for a while while looking at Gu Yuena. "I know of it because of formation detection. In this world, there were only a few people whose cultivation could not be detected. First was that naughty student—Luo Youzhe—then a burned intruder, and the last one was you. Don't waste your talent for evil, save that soul power without showing it."

"I don't know about this. Elder Gao, thank you for the warning." Gu Yuena bowed in thanks. He gets new information that is likely to be useful in the future.

"I suggest not too long. After 2 months, you better return to Yuansu Academy. You won't be able to survive the formation any longer than that."

"Yuena will remember. In that case, Yuena gave her permission to meet Brother Luo Yi in the academy courtyard."

Elder Gao nodded slowly, before finally letting Gu Yuena go to meet Luo Yi.

...ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ...

The duel between Gu Yuena and Luo Yi was watched by many of the inner courtyard disciples of Yinyang Academy. They had indeed planned the duel beforehand to see how Gu Yuena had progressed during her half year in Yuansu Academy.

It was undeniable that Gu Yuena's magical abilities were developing so quickly. Luo Yi who was at the beginning of the 6th level even had to be careful of Gu Yuena's flames which added a strange corrosive nature.

The corrosive nature of Gu Yuena's fire came from her magical power, not the innate phoenix flame. Since he was a magician, it was not a problem if he had to add a corrosive nature to warn Luo Yi about the 'ordinary fire' he threw.

Whereas Luo Yi had a purple flame that resonated with the fire-elemented monsters in the mountains ever since her strength had risen to level 6.

Tier 6 was the deciding tier, in which direction a cultivator would bring his own strength. Of course, the strength of each cultivator would be different despite being at the same level. Especially if it had risen to level 7 and above, their strength would be increasingly weighted and could not be defeated by the tiers below it. Of course they should already be in a different life than ordinary cultivators.

For tier 6s like Luo Yi and Gu Yuan, they were arguably peak level ordinary cultivators. The division of levels to reach the next level is of course different, no longer using a star count, but based on how much they achieve.

Luo Yi's purple flames were combined with yin and yang magic which made Gu Yuena bother half to death. If not for his speed surpassing that of an ordinary mage or mage, he would have already lost many times to this weak defensive.

The defensive power of the long-range attack user was extremely small. That's why most of them chose to keep their distance while fighting and carry out attacks in the shadows.

They also have to be helped by colleagues, very useful in group matches. If the individual matches, let alone against assassins and hunters, they would lose by a landslide.

Gu Yuena used a qi flake as a weapon that followed her to protect herself from Luo Yi's defensive attacks. His speed could barely be seen by Luo Yi's two eyes, but Luo Yi's frequently missed attack effect was always unavoidable.

Gu Yuena was forced to scatter the pieces of qi that followed her in all directions, then made an attack of focused area towards Luo Yi.

Gu Yuena's big attack was inevitable for Luo Yi. Luo Yi was forced to accept it and use a high-level magic defense so as not to be affected by the attack. The pressure he received was quite high. If he was an ordinary disciple, it would definitely receive the impact of an attack and lose heavily.

Purple flames spread from his entire hand to the arena floor. Luo Yi circulated her strength widely, then put pressure on the qi shards that attacked her so that it re-spread and crumbled within the purple flames.

The ability of the purple flames to create a terrain by reducing the speed of the opponents below made Gu Yuena difficult. Plus, Luo Yi had benefited a little bit of defense from Gu Yuena's attack which made her have a chance to counterattack. The purple flame field overwhelmed Gu Yuena right then and there.

Gu Yuena's speed was reduced, her body felt pressured to such an extent that her avoidance was overtaken by time. He had to guess when the attack was landed so as not to be exposed to the negative effects of purple fire that could lower his vitality.

A terrifying level 6 strength. If this was the battlefield, that urged Gu Yuena would have definitely unleashed her phoenix blood strength to crush Luo Yi. However, since this was only a duel for the exchange of abilities, the phoenix blood was not required.

Having no chance of dodging due to the purple flame field, Gu Yuena received Luo Yi's attack and made a defense to protect her body. He retreated a few meters, before finally the attack disappeared along with the shrinking purple flame field.

Gu Yuena almost fell limp back then due to exhaustion.

Match, done.

"That's enough for now. Xiao Yuena, you are so much developed and too powerful that it forces me to use the terrain. It's my fault." Luo Yi extended her hand in front of the half-falling Gu Yuena.

Gu Yuena greeted Luo Yi's helping hand, then stood up straight. "Obviously. I am incompetent, unable to destroy the purple flame field."

"The purple flame field formed after I absorbed the essence of a level 7 monster, highly poisonous to opponents below level 5. If your body feels bad, just tell me."

"I'm fine." Gu Yuena pulled the corner of her lips and raised both her clenched hands, showing she was fine and extremely strong.

After all, purple flames were no match for phoenix flames. What is poison? He was like this just exhausted from draining too much qi during the game.

"Rest me, I'll bring you a snack to the room." Luo Yi patted Gu Yuena on the shoulder, then went to pick up a snack.

Gu Yuena only looked at his disappearance, ignoring the curious-looking disciples below the arena. Xiao Hei came at him, falling into Gu Yuena's arms comfortably.

Recalling what Elder Gao said, Gu Yuena thought he should find out what the soul force in his body was like. Dangerous or not, that is what determines.

Returning to the room, Gu Yuena entered into the spiritual realm to check the spiritual power in her body. The Yinyang Academy's formation pressure suppressed his strength to the limit. Luckily he was able to compete with Luo Yi unharmed.

The more Gu Yuena used her magic, the more the formation would suppress her. According to Gu Yuena, this was a suitable pressure training before entering the battle between the outer courtyard elites of Yuansu Academy. Coupled with abundant qi, it would increase even faster.

Gu Yuena examined the entire state of his body in detail, but found no way to use soul force or find the soul force that Elder Gao was referring to.

There should have been a way, but that strength seemed to be very quiet and silent made him doubtful. Gu Yuena found nothing different regarding his aura and spiritual power.

"Sister, can soul power be seen that easily by someone?" Gu Yuena said, when she found out someone had entered her room. He opened his eyes, then gave a slight smile to Gu Yuan who came carrying a little snack from Luo Yi.

"The soul cannot be seen, but it can be felt. Why are you suddenly asking this?" Gu Yuan asked.

"There's a lot of things you're hiding, I'd love to know."

Gu Yuan was silent for a while, seemingly thinking of something. "Did the teacher say something?"

"Because I already know, I think there's nothing to keep secret between us. Elder Gao said we have residual soul force, which makes the formation of the academy suffer a rejection. I should have experienced the same thing as you in the past, but things were different. I don't know why." Gu Yuena looked at Gu Yuan slightly demanding an answer. She was sure, her brother knew a lot of things.

"Nana, this isn't something you should worry about." Gu Yuan placed the tray onto the table, then sat down next to Gu Yuena.

"Is that right, it's okay to forget? Brother, I feel like there are a lot of things I don't know about myself .. and our family. Does it have anything to do with mom? Or his death?"

"The words of Elder Gao, assume never to hear them. It's not just a family matter. It's not time you know." Gu Yuan affirmed his words in a low tone. He was a bit reluctant to say it out of fear of hurting Gu Yuena, but he had to.

Gu Yuena was silent for a while, but her gaze did not stop demanding all questions. Did he just tell you? About his life?

"What if ... I die tomorrow? or the day after? You still won't tell?"

"Nothing's gonna happen to you, I promise."

"You can't promise something about life and death."

Gu Yuan smiled wryly. "Don't be too idealistic. As long as I'm alive, I'll do whatever it takes to protect you."

"Is it so dangerous?"

"I don't know, but I think so." Gu Yuan replied hesitantly.

"Let me help." Gu Yuena offered herself. He didn't want anything to happen to his only family, like in the past.

"You being safe has helped me a lot. Nana, don't interfere in any matter. If there is danger, run. I don't want my family to be the only problem."

Gu Yuena pouted, feeling somewhat annoyed, but could not do anything about it. She hugged her brother from the side to suppress the emotions in her heart. However, he did not promise to obey this time, he could not run away from danger or rather have a dead end to return to his original place.

Since he had phoenix blood, he would not be separated from any problems. Especially regarding Linghun Palace.

"If you need help, tell me anytime. I'll come save you." Gu Yuea said in a low tone. That was all he could say, as a message that he would not run away from reality.

Gu Yuan rubbed his sister's head affectionately, then hugged her warmly. "You haven't changed."

"I never change." Although his soul was different, he was still the same Gu Yuena. Gu Yuena who does not change from time to time and always longs for the affection of her family.

It won't change.