In the halls of the Crafting School.

Plenty of crafters were gathered in the halls, the rest having been relegated to the cleanup of the battlefield. Everyone here was a Soul King or higher in strength.

Though the battle was over, and the spoils of war were great, many of the crafters had a grave expression on their faces. The cause of their concern were two figures in particular.

One of those two figures was as still as a statue and was being hugged by a devastated Cang Yu; Huangfu Rui. 

The second was Zi Jin. Presently, he was enveloped in a bubble of red with both his eyes closed as if unconscious. Twisted together, the muscles on his face pushed against one another as if he was in pain. Above him stood Chu Yintian, whose right hand was pressed onto his shoulder so he could transfer soulforce to the man.

Shen Pojun sat on a chair at the very end of the hall. Both eyes were closed as he meditated. The battle took a lot from him, and the injuries he received would take some time to recover from.

Several others sat nearby, such as Yang Yao, Hu Yang, Kou Changkong, and Xiao Binzi. Even Li Chengfeng, Nalan Yin, and Zhi Tian sat in their own group with expressions of solemnity.

No one spoke in the hall, the mood was simply not the right one for conversation.

……

Tang Xinyun suddenly looked up, her eyes brightening with light. The Core Stone in her hand pulsated with soulforce before a figure appeared right beside her. Bai Yunfei.

“Yunfei!” She cried out, unable to hide her joy.

The eyes of everyone in the hall was on him at once. Even Shen Pojun had his eyes cracked open to stare at Bai Yunfei.

Bai Yunfei looked completely recovered. Giving a nod to Tang Xinyun, he asked, “Is the battle over, Xinyun?”

“Yes. Beside those Gu Lianhun carried off with him, everyone else was killed. Our ancestor was able to kill Dong Wanlei as well…”

Her news came as no surprise to Bai Yunfei. Without Gu Lianhun, the enemy forces were at a huge disadvantage. Shen Pojun and Chu Yintian could easily defeat Dong Wanlei and Huo Zhenting while Yang Yao could defeat Qi Ning. Having Xiao Qi there would also make cleaning up the rest of the stragglers a cinch. There was no way no Soul King would be able to escape, let alone anyone weaker.

Without any further questions for her, Bai Yunfei turned to greet Shen Pojun, “Ancestor.” He bowed.

His greeting was returned with a grateful smile, “It is a blessing for my school to have an outstanding student such as you.”

Having fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Bai Yunfei, Shen Pojun couldn’t even find it in himself to think of Bai Yunfei as someone from the ‘newer generation’. After inquiring about him following the battle, Shen Pojun was able to learn a few things about him, and everything he heard astounded him. Never in a thousand years would a student as gifted as Bai Yunfei appear again, and to think that he’d be here in the Crafting School left Shen Pojun hopeful of the Crafting School’s continued prestige. 

Bai Yunfei turned his attention next to Zi Jin. Concerned, he asked, “Ancestor, will my master be alright?”

He was without a doubt, concerned for both Zi Jin and Huangfu Rui. It hurt for him to see the both of them in such a state. Truth be told, just looking at Zi Jin had Bai Yunfei’s heart racing with nerves.

The smile faded away from Shen Pojun’s face. “It isn’t looking the best…It was a severe wound, one inflicted by a demon armament, no less. There is a demonic aura invading his body and preventing us from helping him. If we cannot erase that demonic aura, then I’m afraid…”

His words trailed off, but Bai Yunfei understood what that meant. Clenching both fists, tightly, he began to think.

“An injury caused by a demon armament…”

A blood-red sword appeared in his hand. It was the very same demon armament that had been used to harm Zi Jin.

He also had the helix sword gained from Dongfang Ming when the man was sealed into the Core World. At Shen Pojun’s mention of the word’ demon armament’, Bai Yunfei figured it was best to take out these demon armaments to see if something could be done about Zi Jin’s situation.

“Ungh!”

A darker shade of red flashed across Zi Jin’s body the moment the demon armaments appeared. Seemingly reacting to the presence of the demon armaments, Zi Jin groaned in pain. Realizing the sudden spike in activity, Bai Yunfei quickly stored the demon armaments back into a space ring.

He was no stranger to the demonic energy of a demon armament. The Vampiric Demon Edge and its abilities was experienced firsthand by him, after all, but his compatibility with it had been rather high, meaning the demonic energy’s effects had been diluted. In comparison, Zheng Kai had been worse off using it than him.

His plan was to see if he could upgrade and turn these demon armaments into his soulbound armaments. By doing that, it may be possible to draw the demonic energy out from Zi Jin and back into the demon armaments. But that would be a difficult task, and raising the compatibility wasn’t always an easy thing when upgrading. And if by chance Dongfang Ming’s compatibility with it was even higher than his, then the plan would definitely end up failing… 

There was, of course, an easier way. If Dongfang Ming were to die, then the demon armaments would be without an owner and would easily ‘submit’ to a new one. But that couldn’t be done, since… 

Bai Yunfei looked to where Huangfu Rui was.

There was still Huangfu Rui left to be saved, and the key to that was held by Dongfang Ming!

Soul Puppetry in itself was already a very obscure technique. What Dongfang Ming used on Huangfu Rui was no doubt something even stronger than normal Soul Puppetry, and Bai Yunfei was unsure what trick there was to it. And from what he heard, this trick had been applied to Huangfu Rui even when she was still in the womb, meaning she had lived her entire life like this.

So not only did Bai Yunfei want to find a way to undo this state of puppetry onto her, but he also wanted to make her whole again.

And sadly, Dongfang Ming was the only person that would know how to do that. Thus, Bai Yunfei wouldn’t kill him. If not for that, Bai Yunfei would’ve gladly killed the man and cut his corpse into thousands of pieces for what he had done to Zi Jin.

Several of the others could see how deep in thought Bai Yunfei was. Both Huangfu Nan and Cang Yu were especially concerned, “Yunfei, “Huangfu Nan spoke up, “How…is Dongfang Ming?”

His wounds weren’t light, but his worry for his daughter compelled the man to ask.

“Please rest assured, Dongfang Ming is alive for now. He—!?”

Suddenly, a voice spoke into Bai Yunfei’s head as he was speaking to Huangfu Nan.

“Yunfei! Something strange is going on with Dongfang Ming!!”

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