The wind-infused palm strike was without a doubt a strong move beyond what everyone watching had expected. Most of them were forced to shut their eyes due to the energy and shied away from the area.
This elder was without a doubt a Soul King. Only such people could have so much power contained with a single wave of their palm.
Bai Yunfei looked almost indifferent to it all, still. The only change that overcame him was the fact that his eyes narrowed slightly before his glowing-red right hand drew forward…
“Whoosh…boom!!”
To the further amazement of everyone there, a fireball the size of a large water jar materialized in front of where Bai Yunfei swung his hand. The displacement of air could be heard as the fireball traveled forward and struck the green palm strike. A deafening explosion echoed through the air with such force behind it that even the airship itself trembled for a moment. Unable to take the pressure of the explosion, several of the nearby doors splintered into pieces.
“He stopped another one of a Soul King’s attack! How is he doing this!?”
“Materializing so much elemental fire so fast? But how? Is…is he also a Soul King?!”
“No wonder he’s willing to fight the Qin then, he has the strength to do so.”
Billows of energy rolled across the hallway as the audience muttered to one another. Just like the audience around him, Qin Pingzhi was in a state of flummox himself.
He hadn’t used all his strength in this one attack due to his misgivings. Still, the power in his attack was definitely beyond what any normal Soul Exalt should’ve been able to defend against. By all rights, any Soul Exalt would’ve been blown away, but this young man in front of him had not only been blown away, he shrugged off the attack with hardly any trouble at all.
By now, Qin Pingzhi was half-convinced that Bai Yunfei was a Soul King in disguise.
Of all the people in the airship, Bai Yunfei was the calmest and collected. He was staring at Qin Pingzhi was a calculative gleam in his eyes as if thinking about the best way to deal with this. With his current strength, an Early-stage Soul King like Qin Pingzhi was of no major concern to him. He didn’t even care about the Qin, no matter how big of a tree it was.
So…should he use his name and affiliation then?
It was certainly a plausible method in dealing with this case, but Bai Yunfei didn’t really want to go down that route. Like all times before this, Bai Yunfei disliked the notion of using his name to deal with or bully others if it wasn’t necessary.
Now seemed like a better time to do so, though if it meant he could get to the Forest Pass Province without any further incident.
“……”
The area was silent now. Neither Bai Yunfei nor Qin Pingzhi made a move, choosing instead to stare at one another with a glare that grew increasingly more tense with each passing second.
“Dear sirs, no fights are allowing within the airship!!”
From the entrance of the airship, a relatively large group of people rushed over to where Bai Yunfei and Qin Pingzhi was. The one who cried out was one of the two youths leading the group from the central-right side.
Aside from the two youths leading them, the rest of the group wore the garbs of the Tianhun School. They were quite strong too—a Soul Exalt at the very least—and were most likely the elite students responsible for the security of the airship.
“That’s young master Sima! Even they got caught up in this mess, I see.”
“The airship’s generally managed by the lord-mayor of the city, it’s not weird to see young master Sima here. The Sima are probably one of the only people in this city capable of mediating this conflict right now…”
“If he’s here, then there won’t be another fight. I wonder how he’ll deal with this…”
The Tianhun School students and two other youths arrived in front of the surrounding spectators and settled right in. A young man in his thirties and dressed in white-robes faced Bai Yunfei and Qin Pingzhi. He clasped his hands and bowed in greeting, “This one is Sima Ran. Dear sirs, if there is a disagreement between you two, please do so civilly.”
“Eh? Bai Yunfei?! It’s you?!”
The youth next to Sima Ran spoke up in surprise before Bai Yunfei and Qin Pingzhi could even speak. This one youth was dressed in a gold robe and looked quite similar to Sima Ran.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flickered over to the second youth. His eyes widened briefly as soon as he recognized just who the speaker was.
“Haha, Sima Dong? Long time no see.”
The youth dressed in golden robes was one of the sons of the lord-mayor of Redfire City, Sima Dong. Bai Yunfei still recognized him.
Sima Ran looked taken aback at the outburst from his brother. “Brother, did you say he’s…”
“He’s Bai Yunfei, brother!” Sima Dong broke out into a smile, “Weren’t you always talking about wanting to meet him? Now’s your chance.
“Brother Bai,” he turned around, “this is my second brother.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, lord Sima.”
“Haha, your name precedes you, brother Bai. At last I’ve the honor to meet you, it’s an honor…”
And now with the polite greetings out of the way, Sima Ran drew himself upright to address Qin Pingzhi.
“You must be an elder from the esteemed house of Qin, correct? I’m sure senior already knows the rules, but please allow me to reiterate. Reserving the entire airship requires the agreement of every single passenger. If Bai Yunfei is unwilling to relinquish his room in the airship, then please do not strongarm him in giving it up. This airship is a spacious one, riding together wouldn’t be much a problem, I’m sure. Would senior please consider about it?”
Qin Pingzhi had a strange expression on his face ever since he heard Sima Dong mention Bai Yunfei’s name. The expression softened a bit when Sima Ran started speaking to him. Knowing he had to reply, Qin Pingzhi reverted back to a neutral expression. “If young master Sima asks of it, then I cannot refuse your request. There are plenty of men traveling with us today, so if I could trouble you to reserve us a larger room, young master Sima. We don’t wish to be disturbed.”
“That can be done, of course. I’ll have my men make the preparations right away.”
Now fully back to normal, Qin Pingzhi looked neither angry nor pleased. One last glance was given to Bai Yunfei before the elder turned to leave with the rest of his guards walking behind him.
With the permission of Sima Ran, one of the Tianhun School students immediately moved to go make the preparations for the Qin.
The glare Qin Shoufeng gave Bai Yunfei was a bit puzzling to him. It seemed that if anything, Qin Shoufeng was even angrier and more envious of Bai Yunfei now that he knew who he was.
Ultimately, the fierce battle everyone was expecting had been stopped in just a few sentences. Stunned when they heard who Bai Yunfei was, the audience kicked up into another storm of chatter. They were all happy to hear that they’d be able to stay on the airship again as well. Finding the nearest member of the Qin, most of the soul cultivators returned the ‘compensation’ given to them earlier and returned to their rightful rooms again to wait for the airship to leave.
Sima Ran and Sima Dong spoke to one another a moment after before the two bid farewell to Bai Yunfei and left, leaving the latter free to return to his room and upgrade his equipment.
……
Staring from one side of the transparent crystal windows of the airship, Bai Yunfei watched as the clouds and rays of sunshine pass by.
Right now, the airship was far high up in the skies and moving at a speed shocking to most. On the inside, the ship didn’t even feel like there was any movement at all with only the occasional turbulence to remind the passengers that they were indeed flying.
“Sigh…”
A disappointed sigh escaped from Bai Yunfei’s lips as green powder fell from his fingers.
Yet another equipment had been destroyed.
Well over an entire day had gone by since Bai Yunfei started his upgrading attempts. Over a thousand accessories and several hundred other equipment had been prepared before he stepped onto the airship, but Bai Yunfei had already gone through half of them by this point. The results were disappointing to say the least, and Bai Yunfei had yet to see any one of them with an additional detoxifying effect.
Sure, he was seeing all sorts of additional effects; but not the one he wanted. It was like trying to find the needle within a haystack.
Far too lazy to continue upgrading, Bai Yunfei sat up on his bed and began to recollect his soulforce.
“Eh?”
Hardly seconds after starting his recovery attempt, Bai Yunfei’s eyes blinked open again one more time in surprise to look out his room.
His soulsense was telling him that someone was approaching his room.
And judging from that aura, this person was Qin Shoufeng!
What was he planning on doing??