All was silent in a single cave before Bai Yunfei and Xiao Qi appeared out of thin air and onto the cave floor. Stooping over, Bai Yunfei picked up the Core Stone and stored it away before walking out from the cave.
From the cave entrance, Bai Yunfei walked down the mountain just in time to watch a blue streak of light come flying at them.
It was Long Lan.
“Yunfei, has your training finished?” Long Lan asked as soon as he came to a stop.
“All went as planned.” Bai Yunfei smiled.
“That’s good then,” Long Lan started to smile, “But hold on, why don’t you feel any different?”
“Haha, it’s a rather special circumstance, I’ll tell you about it later.” Bai Yunfei laughed, “Let’s leave this place first, how are the others?”
“Everyone else is already done. You’re the last one.” Answered Long Lan.
“Excluding you, Lian Lingmin was the last one to finish at noon today. Because no one knew when you’d be done, everyone decided to wait elsewhere for the meanwhile.”
“Alright then, let’s head on over there.”
……
Under the guidance of one of the Underworld School’s students, Bai Yunfei and the other two soulbeasts left the mountain and returned to the residential area of the school.
They walked until they reached the courtyard where the other people of the Crafting School were, and as Bai Yunfei expected, a large group of people were already there and aware of his arrival.
“You’re finally here, Yunfei!” Zheng Kai boomed in greeting from his seat in between Song Lin and Xu Ran.
Bai Yunfei raised an eyebrow when he took in Zheng Kai’s substantially different aura. Before, Zheng Kai was only a Late-stage Soul Exalt. Now, Zheng Kai’s aura was definitely that of a Peak Late-stage Soul Exalt. The Extreme King Pill had definitely a strong effect on him.
Song Lin was of the same situation. His aura wasn’t tremendously different than before, but there was a strange feeling that made it feel a lot thicker and more refined.
“Haha, has everyone’s meditation gone smoothly?” Bai Yunfei bumped fists with Zheng Kai before he took a seat on the right side of the table. “Judging from everyone’s expression, you all had a good time? It won’t be long before you all become Soul Kings, you all have my early congratulations.”
“It was indeed a plentiful harvest. The wall I always felt was impassable is no longer there. I feel like the road forward was opened to me.” Song Lin nodded. “But I’m still standing in front of the door. It’ll take some hard work before I can push open those doors and become a Soul King.”
“No need to rush things. If the road is open, then you’ll reach its end soon enough. Let it take you where you need to go.”
“What were you even training in this past half month, Yunfei? I don’t see any difference in you.” Zheng Kai suddenly asked, confused by the lack of change in Bai Yunfei.
“Haha, I was only going over a few things I learned from my battles.” He smiled. “Brother Xu Ran,” He turned his head to change the topic, “Do you know if the treatment of that girl is going well?”
“I knew you’d ask such a question, brother Bai.” Xu Ran chuckled, “Rest assured, she’s fine. Her treatment finished yesterday in fact. I’m sure she’ll be able to walk by herself soon enough.”
“Oh? That’s great to hear!” Bai Yunfei broke into a smile.
He took a look around the courtyard then. “Where’s the first elder?” He asked Song Lin.
“Discussing things with the elders of the Underworld School.”
“Again?” Bai Yunfei blinked, “How hasn’t his negotiations finished yet?”
“Haha, it’s not the same matter as before. Some news suddenly came out from the outside so the elders are talking about it to themselves.”
“News from the outside?” A gleam of curiosity entered Bai Yunfei’s eyes, “Does it have to do with the battle for the pills?”
“Eh? You could tell even that?!”
“Isn’t it? What happened exactly?”
“Hehe, that’s what we were just talking about!” Zheng Kai laughed with excitement. “The aftermath of the battle was pretty big. The entire structure of our world, and the prodigies of it, have changed drastically.”
“What do you mean by that?” Bai Yunfei asked. So far, what Zheng Kai was saying didn’t seem all too strange to Bai Yunfei. Aside from those who were too far away from the province, there had still been a considerable amount of powerful factions that took part in the battle. Even the strongest of the schools and clans had been involved.
It was inevitable that plenty of participants died within the pocket. Even if it was just one person that died, it was still a tremendous blow to their respective group’s strength. As for those who managed to tough it out till the end and managed to get a hold of some of the Extreme King Pill fragrance were obviously granted an advantage over the others. No matter what, the list of prodigies would have its shake-ups.
“Well, let’s start from the top now…” Zheng Kai cleared his throat, “There’s not really a point talking about the Underworld and Crafting Schools, aside from you, everyone else managed to take in some of the Extreme King Pill fragrance. Of the Ten Schools, the Wind and Lightning School lost one of their three students, the other two took in some of the fragrance. From the Fire School, two students were heavily injured and one managed to get some of the fragrance. Of the Wood School, one person was heavily injured and two managed to take some of the fragrance. Of the five clans—me included—Wang Kunpeng from the Wang and Li Yuchun from the Li managed to get some of the fragrance. Then there are some of the relatively major schools like the Returning Sword School had three of their students…”
Faction by faction, Zheng Kai listed each of the participating groups and which one of the students received what. Soon, more than half of the people who participated in the whole thing had already been listed.
But there was something that felt off to Bai Yunfei.
“Ah’Kai, aren’t you forgetting about a few schools? What about the Metal and Earth Schools? And the Water School? They took part too, didn’t they?”
“Don’t rush me, I wasn’t finished yet.” Zheng Kai took a sip of his tea with one hand held up to stop Bai Yunfei. “I didn’t forget about them, I was just about to mention them, in fact.
“As I was saying, those mentioned just now are the ones who benefitted the most, or at least to some degree, from this entire thing. The next few are the ones who suffered greatly…
“First up is the Beast Taming School. While Lin Dongxiao took in a decent amount of the Extreme King Pill fragrance, the other three beast tamers that went in into the pocket with him were all killed! They couldn’t even find the corpses! What a blunder…
“Then there’s the Metal and Wood Schools…the Water School failed to get there in time, so they didn’t get anything. But the Metal and Wood…all their students were gravely injured, if not killed! Of the three students from the Metal School, two of them died and the third one is still in critical condition!! The Metal, Wood, and Fire Schools banded together, but they got lost when they were trying to climb the mist mountain. From there, the Metal School was attacked by someone! As for the Wood School, they had their strongest three students enter the pocket and yet they were all killed by someone on the way!
“Even the three elite students of the Tianhun School from the Southward River Province were all killed by someone in the pocket!!
“Then there’s Bai Han from the Flying Snow School. As you know… he’s dead. And then there’s the Melodic School from the Jade River Province, all their students were killed…The house of Yue had all their participating memories killed too…”
The more Bai Yunfei listened to Zheng Kai, the more he felt surprised by what he was hearing. While he knew that plenty of people had been killed in the pocket, it was still surprising to hear it from Zheng Kai.
“The Wood and Metal, and even the Tianhun School…these are all schools far stronger than all the other schools. How could they have their members killed just like that…?”
As Bai Yunfei was thinking to himself, memories of a figure in black came back to mind. “Was it him?!”