Chapter 1166: Revealing a Secret

Huangfu Rui’s mental and physical growth were both exceedingly slow!!

Not only was she just barely learning to speak when she was five, but she also looked like a two or three-year-old!

A child experiencing problems in growth wasn’t meant to happen! The genes of a soul cultivator were superior to those of a commoner. A child born from two soul cultivators, like Huangfu Rui, wasn’t supposed to experience any developmental problems! 

But there was a reason why such a problem had occurred. It was because of a certain person whom Cang Yu fought and was injured by!

Dongfang Ming!

His goal at the time wasn’t to injure Cang Yu, but to use a technique to target the unborn baby in her! It was a technique that not even Zi Jin had noticed at the time!

The couple was heartbroken upon realizing that. All sorts of doctors were called upon in hopes that they could heal Huangfu Rui.

But no doctor could.

The pain grew even worse when they found out that Huangfu Rui’s mental growth had capped at the age of a pre-teen.

It pained Huangfu Nan and Cang Yu greatly for nearly twenty years. That was why the two of them were so excited to hear about the Yao clan still existing.

…………

……

Bai Yunfei was quiet. Zi Jin’s story had been a more heavy one than he expected. Never had he ever expected the Crafting School to have a story like that.

The Soul Refining School had actually attacked the Crafting School thirty years ago!

And to think Dongfang Ming was that type of person… 

It was no wonder Jiang Nan had been so angry when he asked about the second disciple… 

“Please be assured, master. I’ll definitely bring little Rui to the Yao clan to see if they can help her.”

The Yao clan had actually given Bai Yunfei plenty of high-grade pills and such, but those were primarily geared towards recovering soulforce or wounds in battle and not meant for something like what Huangfu Rui had. It was best that the Yao clan take a look at her first. They had many different types of pills, after all, maybe they had a pill that could help her.

The Yao clan had recipes for many pills, most of which they had little of in their repositories. Due to the limited resources on the Qimang Mountains, the Yao clan found it impossible to make many of the pills written in their records. Some pills also required a Soul Emperor to be the one to make it. 

With the Yao clan being in the Soulbeast Forest now, they would undoubtedly have the means and resources to make even more pills than before. A few of the elders were already preparing themselves to become Soul Emperors with the cooperation of the soulbeasts. Given all that, the Yao clan would without a doubt be able to reclaim their past glory with pills that would be even more astonishing than before.

It was nearly a month since Bai Yunfei and Li Chengfeng parted ways, meaning there was a little over two months until they promised to meet again at the Crafting School. It wouldn’t do for Bai Yunfei to leave with Huangfu Rui back to the Soulbeast Forest without putting any preparations on Li Chengfeng’s soul armament. It might be best for Huangfu Rui that his master take her to see the Yao clan. Maybe they’ll have a pill to help Zi Jin recover his strength too… 

“Yes, well, there’s no need to rush this issue. Plan it out as you will…” Zi Jin spoke, he noticed how deep in thought Bai Yunfei was. 

“It’s getting late now, hurry back to your courtyard. We can talk about this another time, rest up for now…”

But Bai Yunfei didn’t move from his spot. Confused, Zi Jin turned around. 

“Yunfei? Is there something on your mind?”

Bai Yunfei looked up to his master, a hesitant expression still on his face. “Master…” He decided at last, “There is an important secret I would like to confess about…”

“A secret?” Zi Jin’s eyebrows rose upward, “What is it?”

“I…have this unexplainable ‘power’. I can ‘upgrade’ any soul armament like another crafter might refine one. All I need to do is concentrate on it and I can greatly improve a soul armament’s power.”

“What?” Zi Jin didn’t know how to respond to such a declaration, “What are you talking about, Yunfei?”

He could understand what Bai Yunfei said, but the meaning behind them was a little too much for him to comprehend.

“I can’t explain it fully, this ‘power’ of mine, but it was something I was able to use even when I was just a commoner. I called it the Equipment Upgrade Technique. As long as I think about ‘upgrading’ any equipment—like a soul armament—then I can strengthen them without danger.”

“You’re…”

Zi Jin didn’t seem to quite understand yet, but he had a grim look on his face, “Are…are you telling the truth, Yunfei?”

“Absolutely.” Bai Yunfei nodded. “I could never joke to you, master. If you can let me borrow a soul armament you’re familiar with, I can show you.”

Zi Jin obliged. Taking out a small red blade, he tossed the weapon over to Bai Yunfei.

Bai Yunfei took the soul armament, it was an ordinary low-heaven tier soul armament without any distinguishing features. Concentrating on the soul armament, Bai Yunfei muttered, “Upgrade.”

A moment later, he said it again. “Upgrade.”

And again. “Upgrade.

“Upgrade…”

“……”

Confused by Bai Yunfei’s mutterings and what he was trying to do, Zi Jin watched him in silence. He didn’t understand at first, but the more he watched Bai Yunfei do whatever it was he was doing (and fail twice), the more the understanding dawned on his face… 

His eyes could see the flow of soulforce. Every time Bai Yunfei said that word, some of Bai Yunfei’s soulforce would trickle into the soul armament in his hands and cause a reaction!

The last time Bai Yunfei said the word ‘upgrade’ was when the soul armament was +10. The soul armament flashed once with red light, causing Zi Jin to gasp out loud. “That’s…the Law of Fire!”

Having a soul armament become +10 meant it’d gain an additional effect. This one in particular gained one pertaining to elemental fire, which was evident by the Law of Fire appearing. Bai Yunfei knew that and understood that it was the Law of Fire that was responsible for ‘granting’ an additional effect.

Zi Jin was a Peak Late-stage Soul King, but he was once a Soul Emperor before he lost his strength. As such, his power of perception was better than any Soul King. Furthermore, he was even more sensitive to the flow of elemental fire as a crafter and could easily tell what the Law of Fire meant if it was doing here.

Its appearance wasn’t the result of Bai Yunfei summoning it here. It flowed into the soul armament for a brief moment before causing the soul armament to change drastically!

He didn’t even need to hold the soul armament himself to tell that it had changed. That low-heaven tier soul armament was…now a mid-heaven tier!

……

“Master, this is the ‘upgrading’ I told you about. This soul armament has now been upgraded to +10, but upgrading it any more would risk it being destroyed. It’s nearly twice as strong as it was before and has a special ‘power’ now. There’s a 30% chance to send a wave of elemental fire whenever its used to attack.”

Smiling at the stunned expression on his master’s face, Bai Yunfei bowed deeply to him. “Please forgive me if this offends you, master!”

“Whoosh!”

Then he threw the blade at Zi Jin!

He knew it was easier to show than it was to explain. The best method of proving it to his master was to show the changes of the upgraded soul armament himself.

“Eh?!” Moving immediately to protect himself, Zi Jin grabbed hold of the thrown dagger with his right hand, clamping the blade in between his index and middle finger.

“Clang!”

A metallic hum ran up the blade as it thrummed in between Zi Jin’s fingers. The soul armament…was definitely as strong as a mid-heaven tier soul armament now!

“Whoosh!”

Enveloping the dagger in a bubble of elemental fire, Bai Yunfei had it pull itself from Zi Jin’s grasp and move in to slash at him!

“Clang clang…”

Zi Jin slapped the dagger away immediately, causing sparks to fly between where his palm and the dagger made contact. But rather than be safe as he expected, Zi Jin was alarmed to see a wave of elemental fire erupt from the dagger toward him!

“Bang!!”

A wave of fire washed over Zi Jin but failed to do any damage to him. Dispersing the flames, he watched as the dagger slowly floated back down to his hand.

“I…”

He was at a loss for words. There was no way he didn’t believe in Bai Yunfei’s words now, but still… 

This situation seemed…impossible still!