"So all these strange legends about magic and wizzards are true?" that was Ash's first thought while looking at his floating feet.
"So you realy are wizzards." he continued.
"Humph! Don't compare us to those mortal weaklings!" Bai Ling responded discontentedly.
"Don't mind her." added quickly Bai Juan. "We are actualy from the phoenix race."
She viewed all life forms as important and didn't want to explain how proud the phoenix race could be, and that wizzards were just mortals with some negligible power at hand compared to them.
Sure, for normal peope wizzards were all mighty, but they were at the bottom of the cultivation world. Every magus apprentice who failed at ranking past the first level would be called a wizzard due to already old age.
"Phoenix race?" repeated suspiciosly Ash. No matter how he looked at them, they didn't seem like the pictures he saw on the net. After all, a human and a gigantic bird made of flames didn't look that similar, did they?
Seeing his strange look Bai Cheng smiled and turned to his daughter, signaling her to take action.
Sure enough Bai Ling told Ash that phoenixes could change forms when they reach a certain level of cultivation and due to less energy consumption they prefered staying in a human form most of the time, only changing to a phoenix form in dire situations and battles to the death.
Knowing that Ash might have many other questions, Bai Cheng changed the topic by inviting him for a dinner after school and hurried up to leave with his family.
For nomal people the events that took place on this day would have them in deep thoughts for a while and Bai Cheng knew Ash needed some time of his own, thus leaving immediately after saying goodbye.
....
Looking at the clock, Ash saw that it's almost time for school, so he put on his uniform and prepared quickly before leaving.
"1 minute untill the first class starts" Ash heaved a sigh of relief as he saw the time and took the nearest free seat.
After putting the textbooks on his desk, Ash turned his head to see his desk mate.
"Ling?" He asked in surprise.
"Did you expect somebody else?" asked, Bai Ling. This was the last desk that was unoccupied.
The bell rang and the homeroom teacher began with the salutations before Ash could say anything.
"Ash Heartfallen"
"Here"
"Why were you missing yesterday?" The teacher asked in a serious manner.
"I am sorry teacher, I had important things to settle. " Ash, as the usualy lazy student who skipped a lot of classes in middle school, said with a grave expression.
"Ok then, hope you've settled it then. Bai Ling. What's your excuse for missing out on school yesterday?" She continued.
Not knowing what to say, Ling repeated Ash's words almost stuttering in the procces.
With a weird look on her face, the teacher continued on and gave up on further questioning.
She had seen all kinds of students and knew when someone was lying at first glance.
After the counting, class began. It was quiet, but full of flying papers all around when the teacher wasn't looking.
One such paper landed on Ash and Ling's desk. "I'm Jeannie from two desks on your front. Wanna go for a coffie?" Ash read.
"What does it say?" Bai Ling moved closer to Ash and poked him on the arm.
Turning to the left he saw Ling's curious look and was secretly charmed "cute" was all he could think of right now.
After a few seconds of staring eachother, Ling's cheeks turned a bit red and to avoid the awkwardness she took the paper from Ash and turned immediately.
This small interaction was caught from the nonpaying attention in class girls and it spreaded like wildfire.
"ufff... Jeannie, I guess he is taken." said Ashley, the girl next to Jeannie.
"H-he hasn't responded yet, maybe.... You know.." responded Jeannie with a smile, but feeling also a bit of dissapointment deep in her heart.
It was love from first sight for her at the ceremonial day, but after the ceremony Ash was nowhere to be seen. After that both Ash and Bai Ling didn't come to school the next day.
Jeannie knew that such a boy would be taken or confessed to the moment class stopped so she mustered all her courage to invite him on a date.
While Jeannie was in thought and expectation Ash was writing a letter back to her.
Secretly watching him from the side, Bai Ling turned from curious to red and from red to pink. It was too embarrasing for no one has ever written in that way for her.
"Jeannie, I am sorry to say that i have to decline your offer but I already have dinner to attend with a beautifull girl today..." seeing how Bai Ling was wathing him from the side, Ash continued "We don't know much about eachother, but I know that she is something I wish to cherrish with..."
'Flutter' Bai Ling touched her chest. She recalled her papa's words" You will find love only if you give someone a chance, so give him a chance and maybe he can surprise you. "
...
Last bell rang and everybody happily started cleaning their desks and going to the dorms or homes, if they lived near.
Both Ash and Ling made a lot of friends and were happy.
" Ash. Let's go." Bai Ling said with a smile.
"Sure." answered Ash as he prepared his bag.
They left side by side like nothing happened, but little did they know that this short conversation would lead to rummors and ignite a sparkle in the girls' eyes and jealousity in the boys' hearts.
"So she is the girl Ash talked about in the letter!" exclaimed Ashley.
"Maybe they were a couple from middle school" Jeannie thought.
Most schools didn't mind couples as long as they didn't show it or acted indecently.
...
"This is your home?" Ash asked with a baffled expression.
Bai Ling's home destroyed the harmony of the city. To the left and right you couldn't see a single building. The garden was made for giants. There was a park in it and also a mini lake beside it. As the hiuse was in the center of whatever you could call that, they both had to go trough a small forest to reach it.
The funny part of all this was that after crossing the street from the entrance you would see modern buildings all over the place.
After entering from the front door and passing the small forest, Ash was dumbfounded yet again.
In front of him was a chinese castle. One would ask oneself, how rich are these guys?
Seeing Ash looking at her home all frozen Bai Ling waved her hand infront of him and gently smiled "C'mon let's go inside".
"Ah..." Ash nodded and followed her in.
The first thing Ash noticed after entering was that the interior looked like nothing he immagined.
It was spacious and old stylish, but it also looked modern and comfy.
They took an elevator and went straight to the 3rd floor.
"This is the guest place and also where we eat or relax, and the 4th floor is entirely for my parents and the last, 5th floor, is where I and my brother sleep. " Bai Ling described in short.
"You are finaly here!" smiled Bai Juan while holding a few plates "Ling, help me serve the food" said she while walking to the balcony.
"I'll go help her. " Ash followed Bai Ling to the kitchen.
...
"A considerate young man" smiled Bai Juan as she sat down on the table next to her husband.
"I think he is also a lot of trouble. His heart and the way his blood flows isn't normal for a human" Bai Cheng added "You wont be able to detect a pulse because his blood flows trough his body like a continous stream".
"You mean if a powerfull cultivator, magus or ancient is to see this..." the obvious went trough both of their heads.
Both Ash and Bai Ling would be in danger.