Chapter 183: Meddling in the Affairs of Another
Just every so slowly, a twitch started to creep onto Bai Yunfei’s lips as he looked straight ahead in helplessness at the still talking young man in front of him.
“That man in charge of the examinations, Song Lin, he’s a late-stage Soul Ancestor! Did you see how strong he was when he came out, or how cool he was! Over a thousand people went quiet as soon as he appeared! If uncle Zhao didn’t tell me about him earlier, I would’ve thought these people realized how noisy they were! Hey, uh, brother Bai, why are you wearing that ugly strawhat? I heard from uncle Zhao that you were stronger than even him, is that true? Why do you want to join the Crafting School? Cousin Liu Mang and I want to join because we want to make our own soul items, what about you….”
This young one was named Zhong Xuhao, a twelve year old youth that acted towards Bai Yunfei with great familiarity since the very beginning. From the start, he chatted with Bai Yunfei as if they were old friends for practically an eternity.
From Zhong Xuhao’s self-introduction, Bai Yunfei knew that he was the young heir to a noble family from one of the sourthern cities in the empire. He came with his cousin to the Crafting School to join, and he was extremely confident that he’d be able to join. By his side was the equally young person named “Liu Mang”. True to his name, his eyes stared surreptitiously at the prettier-looking women in the groups around him and rarely involved himself in the talks between Bai Yunfei and Zhong Xuhao. The fact that he chose to mind his own business made him look rather pitiful.
They were twelve years old, but they were middle-stage Soul Personages, making them both to be geniuses of their generation.
By the side of these two was a middle-aged man that was said to be the ‘uncle Zhao’ from before. He had a helpless look on his face when he stared at Zhong Xuhao. Beforehand, he had even warned Zhong Xuhao about approaching Bai Yunfei, “I told you this person behind us isn’t your average person and that you shouldn’t talk to him.”
But in the end, Zhong Xuhao went to talk with Bai Yunfei. If not for the fact that Bai Yunfei didn’t seem like a bad guy or an arrogant person, this man would’ve dragged Zhong Xuhao away.
“He has a very plain aura to him, I almost missed him the first time. But he’s undoubtedly of the Soul Sprite stage at the very weakest. He can’t possibly be from one of the more major families, can he? Only the ‘self-proclaimed’ major families would take this public route to entering the Crafting School. The major families would all just send their children to the seniors of the school for an apprenticeship….maybe this is some sort of genius from a village somewhere?”
The man thought to himself as he made his own discreet judgement of Bai Yunfei. Despite the confusion and suspicion, he decided not to pursue the matter any longer.
While absentmindedly listening to the blathering of Zhong Xuhao, Bai Yunfei began to look around himself. Many of the people lined up behind him were the ones who had been at the front of the crowd prior to the start of the examinations. Only a single look was needed to tell that they were all from wealthy families since they all had plenty of bodyguards with them. They were all calm, but arrogant, but they were all soul cultivators at the very least. Surely they all had to be the younger generation wishing to try their luck in joining with the Crafting School. As long as they did, then their prospects for the future would surely look bright.
It was at that moment the ear-piercing sounds of someone cursing up a storm could be heard from the side. Turning his head, Bai Yunfei was just in time to see Li Jiannan. As he was being walked away with his bodyguards, Li Jiannan was constantly swearing to himself in anger.
“Hmph! Li Jiannan deserved to be eliminated! He of all people don’t deserve to join the Crafting School?” Zhong Xuzhao snorted in response to seeing him walking away from the place.
“Hm? Do you know him?” Bai Yunfei asked.
“I don’t, but I met him on the road. What a stuck-up asshole! On the way, he kept trying to use his power to play around with any women he saw. If we didn’t arrive when we did, those poor women would’ve suffered a terrible fate. He’s the scum amongst scum, and a disgrace to all us nobles! He’ll be crippled by someone one day, I bet!” Zhong Xuhao critiqued him with an undisguised amount of juvenile hatred. He was clearly a twelve year old child that was trying to pretend to be a fully matured noble.
Bai Yunfei could only sigh at that. He didn’t particularly care about the nobles since there were plenty of them–Zhang Yang was the perfect example of this. While Bai Yunfei didn’t like these types of nobles, he couldn’t simply beat sense into them whenever possible. If he didn’t come across one committing a crime, Bai Yunfei didn’t care to do a thing about them.
It was just at that moment another person was called out to have “high talent” and passed. It was a young late-stage Soul Warrior, causing everyone to look on and discuss to one another.
Wanting to see what was going on in front, Zhong Xuhao stood up on his tip toes and turned away from Bai Yunfei to look. Bai Yunfei looked relieved for a moment before a sudden thought struck him. With practically a second to think about it, Bai Yunfei slipped away from the line and disappeared into the crowd.
“Brother Bai, that person is just a little older than me, but he’s already a late-stage Soul Warrior. How amazing! How’d you think he trai–
“–Brother Bai? Where’d you go?” Turning his head back to Bai Yunfei, Zhong Xuhao was surprised to see that Bai Yunfei was gone.
Uncle Zhao was surprised as well. Looking around the place, he could see no hint of Bai Yunfei’s figure. “I was only just distracted for a brief moment, but he slipped away without me noticing him…”
……
Looking ahead of themselves, Chen Lu whispered to the grinning Li Jiannan in concern, “Young lord, it would be for the best for you to not act this way. We are still near the Crafting School, if someone were to find us here, it’d spell trouble for us. I know you are feeling angry still, but it’d be best if we return to Redfire City….”
“Shut your mouth! I can think for myself! We’re already far enough from the examination grounds! If we wait a little bit, we’ll be able to avoid anyone’s eyes!” Li Jiannan snarled. Looking straight ahead, he licked at his lips with a vulgar look on his face. “It was a good idea to come on out here with the family. Hehe, how beautiful this is! I’ll be bringing home something good….”
Chen Luo’s eyebrows knitted together in worry. He was well aware of the addiction the young heir had, but while he disapproved of it, he couldn’t exactly say anything about it either. The house of Li had took care of him since he was a young boy and had even given him a primal stone to help him breakthrough to become a Soul Sprite and a bodyguard. For his gratitude, he knew it wouldn’t be his place to critic Li Jiannan in place of his father. All he could do right now was to pray that Li Jiannan was right and that no one else was nearby….
And now that they were practically a kilometer away from the examination ground, Chen Luo and the other two bodyguards with him followed behind Li Jiannan as they walked through the forests. Slowly trekking ahead, they could just faintly hear the sounds of a melodious voice–or the voice of a fairy–singing in the tune of a strange song.
“Lalala, Xiao Rourou, where are you hiding? Even if you hide, I’ll be able to find you~” The singer of this song was currently being followed by Li Jiannan. When Li Jiannan and his group left the examination grounds, they became across this girl and decided to help find this ‘Xiao Rourou’ with her. Without her knowledge, she found herself in a relatively far away place before being stopped by a young man.
Halfway through a giggle and a skip, the young girl came to a sudden halt. Turning her head askew to look at the youth, she asked, “Eeeh? Who are you? Why are you blocking Dai Dai’s way? Do you want to play hide-and-seek with me?”
Li Jiannan’s face was completely red and his facial features were completely distorted in his excitement. The very sight of this young woman was enough for his wretched personality to fully show itself. No longer would he bother playing the good guy.
With a sinister chuckle, he stalked towards the young girl. First, he’d capture her and take her away from the place.
Then, he’d live out the ‘pleasures’.
But the young girl continued to stare at Li Jiannan innocently, as if she didn’t understand what he was planning on doing.
“Hey! Are you really planning on trying something here? I advise you to stop or else face a tragic consequence.”
Just as Li Jiannan was several meters away from the young girl, a calm voice called out from the left parts of the forest, causing Li Jiannan and his group to give a small start. Whipping their heads towards the source of the voice, they could see a strawhat wearing youth sitting on top of a tree branch twenty meters away from them with a calm look on his face.
Startled by the newcomer, Li Jiannan took a single step back before turning to look at Chen Luo. Calming himself down, he looked back to Bai Yunfei and snarled, “Brat, go mind your own business or else I’ll start getting rough with you!”
“Chen Luo, if that kid tries to do something, get rid of him!” Li Jiannan barked out a command to Chen Luo before turning back to stare down the girl who was currently staring at Bai Yunfei curiously. As he drew close to her, a lewd expression appeared on his own wretched face. “Little loli, I’ve got you in my sights…”
Author Note: Should there be a problem if a different world has the term loli too?
But Chen Luo could only grimace to himself when he heard Li Jiannan’s command. Staring at Bai Yunfei, he thought to himself, “How easy it is for you to say that. This isn’t Vernox City where you can act as you please. I can barely see through the strength of this person, and you’re telling me to get rid of him?”
Seeing how exceedingly arrogant Li Jiannan was, Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows furrowed together. Just as he was about to move in to help the young girl, another unforeseen development had just then been thrown into motion!
That girl, she….
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