Chapter 219: Skipping a Stage to Refine by Compression!
The two continued to chat for some time before Huangfu Rui finally came trotting back to them after taking down the kite.
“Brother strawhat, sister Yun, do you want to eat barbeque?”
“Barbeque?” Bai Yunfei raised an eyebrow.
Huangfu Rui nodded, “Yea! Let me tell you something. The barbeque Dai Dai makes is the best! Xiao Rourou loves eating it.”
Bai Yunfei reeled backwards in shock. Almost losing his step, he looked at the nearby red pig, “It….it eats meat?!”
“Yea!” Huangfu Rui responded. “Xiao Rourou eats a lot, even more than Dai Dai does!”
This time, Bai Yunfei was seriously at a loss for words. “It eats meat! How wrong is that?! You’re a pig for heavens sakes….”
Tang Xinyun realized what Bai Yunfei was thinking about and spoke softly to him, “Yunfei, Xiao Rourou is a late-stage fifth-tier soulbeast, should you really be comparing it to….one of those?”
“Oh!” A lightbulb popped into his head, “How could I forget?! I can’t be so easily cheated by a soulbeast’s physical appearance!”
As if understanding what Bai Yunfei was thinking about, the red magiboar gave a snort and cracked open its maw so that its pearly-white teeth shined at Bai Yunfei….
“I don’t have the things to make barbeque….’ Bai Yunfei shook his hands in front of him as if to indicate he had nothing to give. There was plenty of things to pick up on his travels, but the stuff for barbeque was not one of them.
“I do, I do!”
No sooner did Huangfu Rui give an enthusiastic response did she pull out the small pink pouch by her side. Sticking her hand into it, she groped around before finally pulling out a two meter long grill for barbeque in a flash of red light.
“And then….some purple charcoal, it makes the barbeque taste even better!” She pulled out a clump of charcoal the color of purple right afterwards.
“And then a table.” In a third flash of red light, a table with several stools were brought out in front of them.
“And! And some deer meat, and a five-finned fish, and a….” One after another, Huangfu Rui ‘pulled’ out platters of meat and fish dishes and placed them onto the table.
“……”
Bai Yunfei was gobsmacked. “Are you Doraemon?!”
“Are…are you Doraemon or something?!” Bai Yunfei blurted out by accident.
“And that’s it!” Huangfu Rui had only just dusted off her hands after plating the last ish onto the table before turning to Bai Yunfei, “Eh? Brother strawhat, what did you say just now? Doraemon? What’s that?”
“Er, it’s nothing…” Bai Yunfei shook his head. “Junior Rui, this bag of yours….”
Tang Xinyun spoke up to answer Bai Yunfei first. “It’s a space pouch, they’re similar to a space ring. I heard that the previous headmaster made it for Xiao Rui personally..” She smiled.
“The previous headmaster? Headmaster Zi Jin?”
“That’s right! Uncle Zi is so nice to me! Dai Dai wanted to be able to store things in here, so he helped make me a spatial soul armament!” Huangfu Rui slapped the pouch merrily as she explained the backstory.
“Headmaster Zi Jin is….” Bai Yunfei tilted his head slightly before realizing something.
“Oh, how does one even make a spatial soul armament?” He asked.
But Tang Xinyun shook her head cluelessly, telling Bai Yunfei that he asked the wrong person.
But then Huangfu Rui suddenly shot her hand up into the air, “I know, I know!” She piped up.
“Wha? You know?”
“I do!” Huangfu Rui took on the posture of a teacher, “A person ha to understand the laws of space in order to craft a spatial soul armament. Otherwise, one has to be a soul cultivator with an affinity for the very rare space element. You have to be a Soul King to be able to start understanding the laws of space…”
“The space element and Soul King…” Bai Yunfei shook his head sadly. As he was now, there was no point in thinking about the two.
……
Afterwards, Huangfu Rui made sure to show Bai Yunfei some of her best techniques in the art of barbeque. Needless to say, the barbeque was great, and Bai Yunfei and Tang Xinyun were able to eat plenty.
As for the red magiboar, it was able to eat enough meat for three people–no, three boars. Even the quickshade bird was only able to peck at a single slab of deer meat.
Both of which let Bai Yunfei come to a conclusion: One can’t use the ‘secular’ standards to come and try to understand the beings known as soulbeasts….
…………
Later that night in his cave.
Bai Yunfei felt much better after spending half the day in rest. When he started to craft again, a success popped up straight away.
Equipment Grade: High Rare
Attack: 451
Upgrade Requirement: 77 Soulpoints
Taking a look at the silver shortsword in his hand, Bai Yunfei quirked an eyebrow, “This must be what they mean by being in tip-top shape when crafting. I’ve only just started and I was able to make a high-human grade soul armament. An earth grade isn’t….too far away then….”
A dagger was made another three hours later, but this one was only 435 in attack; it was weaker than the first attempt.
“I still can’t! I’m lacking in something still! I need to make an earth grade soul armament! Just one….” Bai Yunfei shook his head in disappointment and placed the dagger away into his space ring.
If Chen Huanghua were to find out that Bai Yunfei was able to make two high-human grade soul armaments in a row, he’d be filled with resentment and so much jealousy that he’d break a wall with his head in shame.
“Junior Rui said that she could compress materials to their limits this afternoon. She said that this way, its power would be magnified….I remember there was a method like that said in the art of crafting….” Bai Yunfei suddenly thought back to one of the things Huangfu Rui had let slip from her mouth earlier today. Thinking about it, he flipped his hand so that the manual for crafting would appear and started to flip through it.
A moment later, Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up, “Got it! Refinement via compression!”
Scanning through the text, Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows knitted together after he finished reading, “This is a method only a Soul Ancestor should try to attempt….ugh!!”
But then he thought about the idea again and muttered, “But still. This method doesn’t look too hard. Maybe….just maybe I can do it? The only difference is how strong the compressions have to be. I might not get it to perfection, but I might just be able to make an earth grade soul armament this way….”
“Should I try it out?” Bai Yunfei hesitated, the scroll still waiting in his hand.
“……”
“Who cares! Nothing ventured nothing gained! If I fail, I’m only just going to lose materials, that’s all!” Bai Yunfei spoke in a way similar to what a spendthrift might say. No longer hesitating, he started to read on the subject and started to try and learn the methodology behind it.
In concept, the method wasn’t complicated. It was only just a matter of surrounding the materials in fire before compressing the materials over and over again to refine it. The better quality the materials were, the more force that was required to compress it. That’s how the soul armament got stronger.
Of course, one had to make sure that the materials being compressed didn’t exceed their limits. Any more and the materials would be crushed beyond use, subsequently turning them into waste.
About an hour afterwards, Bai Yunfei placed down the scroll and stored it back into his space ring. “All I have left are some high quality vermiculite ores, that should be enough. I have to make an earth grade soul armament by tonight!”
Placing his right hand onto the cauldron once more, Bai Yunfei sent some soulforce out. Since he was wearing the Ardent Sun Glove on his hand, the glove glowed bright red in color. A small flame almost similar to the sun in brightness appeared right above his palm–Bai Yunfei was using the elemental fire from the glove to supplement the strength of the fire.
“Bang!”
A fire roared to life within the cauldron and swiftly spread out so that the flames covered the entire cauldron in its light.
With a wave of his left hand, five pieces of vermiculite ore was deposited into the cauldron. In a flash, they were liquated and turned into a small blob of pure essence surrounded by fire. Honing his eyes onto it, Bai Yunfei forced a small vortex to appear in front of him. As it spun around the essence, the vortex grew smaller in size along with the essence.
Soon enough, a small glob of essence about the size of his fist took form within the vortex. As it shined bright red in color, Bai Yunfei glared even harder at it, “Not enough!”
Following another wave of his left hand, a few more clumps of vermiculite ore was added into the cauldron….
Bai Yunfei’s eyes were practically boring holes into the essence in the cauldron, and his mind was completely engrossed into this very action alone. His soulforce continued to pulsate outwards so as to continue compressing and refining the materials.
“Still not enough!”
A few more vermiculite ores were thrown in….
The amount of materials he was using now usually enough to make a fifty kilogram hammer, a giant tower shield, or any other heavy-type soul armament. But under Bai Yunfei’s compression, the materials were becoming smaller than a ball!
Another two hours later, Bai Yunfei’s eyes were already blood-shot from the amount of focus he had going on. His soulforce was already at a peak in what he could throw out, and the fire in the cauldron was already dancing so wildly that the interior of the cauldron was impossible to see in.
“Pow!”
An explosion came out from the cauldron, shattering the silence that had been present in the cave.
Straight away, Bai Yunfei grew shocked!
“Crap, I lost control!!”