Chapter 186: Elder of the Crafting School
The reason why Bai Yunfei had said ‘crap’ wasn’t because of the danger to himself, but rather….
When the strange ambush happened onto his hand, it had activated the +10 additional effect of the Flameblade Bracer!
(+10 Additional Effect: When blocking, there is a 9% chance of absorbing and converting the attack power into personal attack power, releasing it with your next attack. It can be held for 3 seconds. The amount of converted attack power cannot exceed the defensive strength of this item.)
And the activation moment was when both their fists collided!
According to his calculations, Bai Yunfei’s usage of the Ninefold Fist Force would be enough to knock Fei Nian back without much damage to either parties. From there, he’d be able to have the chance to explain things and hopefully end the fight there. Bai Yunfei was really afraid that this fight would end up as a battle to the death.
But now that the effect of his bracer was activated and the power of his enemy’s punch was absorbed to fuel his own punch, Bai Yunfei could no longer control the outcome….
“Crack!”
A crack perforated the air as Fei Nian’s entire body flew through the sky. Tumbling in the air as he went, Fei Nian tumbled down to the ground with his left arm holding onto his shaking right hand. His teeth were clenched together from the pain, and his face was flush red due to his pain threshold being passed.
An apologetic light entered Bai Yunfei’s eyes as he brought his fist back. It was an accident to say that this happened, but he couldn’t apologize for that either. Expressionlessly, he spoke to Fei Nian, “It was you who wanted to fight me, I just wanted to tell you that I had no intentions on hurting your junior at all.”
“Hmph! Don’t get too excited! I’m the successor to the second elder of the Crafting School, how could I possibly lose to a no-namer like you!” Fei Nian’s face grew red–either from pain or anger; he was clearly angry now however, and his eyes were revealing the humiliation he felt.
With a howl, his left hand forced his right hand to shake once. In a flash of light, a black sphere the size of a soccer ball appeared in his hand. With some soulforce, elemental fire began to gather in his hands and into the sphere. Covering the entirety of its surface, the soccer ball slowly began to float up into the skies and start to rotate.
A sense of dread began to fill up Bai Yunfei’s mind. Sweat starting to drip down from his back as he regarded the sphere in front of him–if Fei Nian were to use this sphere, Bai Yunfei’s life would be in danger!
“Tsk!” Bai Yunfei’s eyes narrowed together, “If you’re going to try and kill me, don’t blame me for anything!”
With a shake of his right hand, the Glacial Pricker appeared in his hand.
“Fei Nian, stop!!”
A forceful cry rang out from behind the two. A pair of male and female appeared in this moment so that one of the two would be by Fei Nian’s side while the other would be by the young girl’s side. The male was the overseer to the examinations, Song Lin, and the female was a twenty-something year old young woman with hair that traversed past her shoulders and a face that was tender in appearance.
“Seniors!”
The colors in Fei Nian’s face changed drastically at the sight of these two. Quickly recalling the black sphere back into his hands and recontrolling the power in it, he turned to meet Song Lin with a rather unwell-looking expression.
“Who told you to use that! Do you want to kill yourself?! What if your junior was hurt by your actions!” Song Lin rebuked him with narrowed eyes.
“I….”
“I don’t need your explanation. Go on back and subject yourself to solitary confinement for three days in penitence!” Song Lin finished up before noticing the wounded right arm of Fei Nian. “You’re hurt? What happened?” He asked in concern.
“Heehee, sister Lian Lingming, brother Song Lin, why’re you here?” The voice of the young girl called out at that moment. She could be seen tugging at the arm of the other female in audience before continuing to say, “Brother Fei Nian was having a match with brother strawhat! Heehee, they’re both so strong….”
“Ehhh….” Song Lin was at a loss for words.
A big sweat drop appeared on Bai Yunfei’s face—“I was telling you guys this entire time, but not once did you help try to explain. Do you think this is a game?!”
Taking out a small handkerchief, the one called Lian Lingming dabbed at the tear trails of the younger girl affectionately, “Dai Dai,” she spoke softly, “Tell your sister, what happened? Why were you crying?”
“Wahh….a super ugly person tried to scare Dai Dai, but Dai Dai managed to send him running, heehee….” Dai Dai looked to the crater where Li Jiannan once was with a smile.
Song Lin had still a questioning look on his face, but when he was about to ask for more clarification, something caused him to whirl around in surprise, “Master has arrived!”
“Who dares bully my little girl!!” No sooner did Song Lin finish speaking did a howl like a crack of thunder come blasting into the area. A wave of soulforce washed over the area so that it felt everything in the vicinity was being searched. When Bai Yunfei was hit with this wave of soulforce, he felt his breath suddenly recede back into his throat so that it felt as if he was choking.
Even before the final words of this angry howl could be uttered, a male and female figure could be seen flying through the skies.
Yes. They were flying in the skies.
The male was a bulwark middle-aged man with a disk of green light underneath his feet. Besides him was a purple-robed middle-aged woman with a dignified expression. Rather than a disk of green light, her feet was standing on top of a flashing green long sword.
No sooner did these two appear did they descend to the ground right by the young girl’s side.
“Master!”
Song Lin, Lian Lingmin, and Fei Nian called out in greeting at the same time. But while Song Lin and Fei Nian were referring to the male, Lian Lingming was referring to the woman.
A look of elation entered the little girl’s face when she saw the middle-aged woman. Dropping the pig in his arms, she ran towards the woman and dove into her arms with a giggle, “Mom! Why are you and dad here?”
Stroking her head with a loving touch, the woman cooed warmly, “We sensed that something was happening so we came over at once. Rui’er, tell your mother what happened, okay?”
“Waaa…..nothing really. Xiao Rourou and I were playing hide-and-seek, that’s all.” She pointed at the sad-looking pig she discarded earlier for her mother’s embrace before then pointing to the man-shaped crater besides them. “There was a baddy too, but I scared him off! Heehee, he was really weak! Even my cat gloves were able to beat him….”
Nodding, the middle-aged man turned to look at Bai Yunfei with a dark expression, “Who are you?” He growled, “Speak now, and if you hide anything, I’ll cripple you!”
The indomitable pressure weighing on him made Bai Yunfei’s entire back slick with sweat. The pressure felt as if there was an increasingly heavy hill being dumped on top of him, and so Bai Yunfei felt it almost impossible to breathe even. But trying as hard as he could, he managed to lift his head and speak one word at a time, “This. Junior. Is. Weak. But. I’m. Not. The. Criminal. Please. Don’t. Interrogate. Me. Like. This!”
“You!!” A furious glare entered the man’s eyes. Never did he imagine that a youngling like Bai Yunfei would speak to him like so!
But even so, he relented and decreased the pressure he had building up in the area, and even the red light in the area dimmed in intensity by a bit.
Still, Bai Yunfei’s entire forehead was dripping with sweat and his legs were shaking so badly that he felt he’d fall down any second now. However, he didn’t back down.
“I was helping you guys, and here you are threatening my life and interrogating me with so much pressure, what the hell!”
“That’s enough….using your presence as a Soul Exalt to intimidate a youngling, have you no shame?” Right as Bai Yunfei was reaching his breaking point, a warm voice cut into the air as the middle-aged woman walked to the man’s side with the young girl in tow, “When will you ever fix this temperament of yours so that we can ask this young man nicely?”
Embarrassed by her words, the middle-aged man relented and widthrew his aura so that the pressure in the area was reduced. The middle-aged women then walked up to Bai Yunfei with a small smile on her face, “My husband is very worried about our daughter, so I hope you won’t take too much offense to his treatment just now. Rui’er says you’re not a bad person, so would you perhaps tell us what happened just now?”
“Whew….” Bai Yunfei sucked in a deep breath of fresh air before replying, “I am Bai Yunfei, if I may ask who you two seniors are….?”
“These are the second and third elders of the Crafting School!” Song Lin warned him from some distance away.
“Elders of the Crafting School! No wonder they’re so strong…” Bai Yunfei thought to himself with a nod of his head, “Well, what really happened was….”
Without exaggerating any of the details or hiding any of it, Bai Yunfei explained all that he saw and heard with the young girl sometimes nodding or adding something in collaboration.
……
“Hmph! Just how are you running this examination if an outsider managed to catch onto this before you!” The second elder glared at Song Lin, “After the examinations are over, report to Tiechui and accept your punishment!”
“Yes, master….” Song Lin didn’t dare retaliate and accepted his punishment meekly.
“As for that damnable brat…” The second elder turned towards the direction Li Jiannan and the others escaped to with a baleful glare. “If they’re looking to find a way to die, I’ll be more than happy to show them the way!”
Finishing his speech with a wave of his hand, the green disk from before appeared right in front the man once more. Standing on top of it, he immediately set off to give chase.
Bai Yunfei was surprised; “Killing someone just to vent his anger, really?”
Despite only a slightest amount of killing intent detected from the man, Bai Yunfei had no doubts that he would slaughter Li Jiannan and the others should they meet.
With power like his, a feat like this was as easy as a snap of the fingers.
“How many times have I told you to change your habits? Why must you always be so reckless….?” The middle-aged woman sighed, “When there’s so many younglings around, you cannot act so rashly like this. Be calm, like what one expects from us old ones. Those ones didn’t hurt Rui’er either, so death would be too extreme of a punishment….”
Bai Yunfei let out a sigh in relief, it seems that this senior was a kind one….
But then her next words crashed Bai Yunfei’s parade. “There’s no need to kill them. Cut off one of their hands and cripple their cultivations, that should suffice.”
“………”