Though his world had essentially been turned on its head, Bai Yunfei didn’t feel tired. Not even the journey to the city tired him. Left without even a single iota of drowsiness, Bai Yunfei sat right next to the windowsill.
As he sat there, entranced by the rising full moon, Bai Yunfei’s ears suddenly perked up. Someone was walking down the hall towards his room. He leaped to his feet to run towards the door and open it.
A surprised Wang Tong stood on the other side of the door. One of his hand was outstretched as if prepared to knock on the door before it was opened. “Haha, so I see you were still up, brother Tang Long…”
Bai Yunfei led Wang Tong into his room first before he responded. “Big brother Wang Tong…would you perhaps have that recall pill…?”
His impatience for the pill had Wang Tong smiling. Shaking his right hand, he produced a small pill that seemingly glowed blue in the moonlight. “This is that very pill. If your memory-loss is due to a concussion, then this pill will help you return your memories after a night’s dream.”
He held the pill out for Bai Yunfei to take.
Hands shaking as he reached forward, Bai Yunfei urged for his rapidly-beating heart to still. Not even his breathing rate seemed to want to cooperate with him.
“I know you’re impatient to take it, so do so and we’ll find out tomorrow if they returned. Then…we can talk about some other matters.”
“Truly,” Bai Yunfei choked out, “I truly thank you for your help, big brother Wang Tong!”
“Haha, there’s no need for that. I’ll be going now then, see you tomorrow.”
“Kcht…”
The door closed behind Wang Tong on his way out, leaving Bai Yunfei to stand there alone in his room. Sitting down, Bai Yunfei held the pill up to eye-level as if to examine it. Several deep breaths later, he tossed it into his mouth.
A refreshing sensation flowed through Bai Yunfei’s body the moment the pill was taken into his stomach. A blissful sensation like none other propagated throughout his entire person and head as the pill started to be digested. Bai Yunfei’s vision felt blurry for just a moment before falling back onto his bed. One moment later, Bai Yunfei was asleep.
“Snn….Snnn….”
The soft winds from Bai Yunfei’s breathing were all that could be heard within the room as he slept. Bai Yunfei’s eyes were closed, and his eyebrows knitted together. His body shivered non-stop and beads of sweat formed one after another all over. Parts of his body was starting to grow red, alarming Lao Sha with how sudden the change was.
But this was something that surely had to do with the pill Wang Tong gave Bai Yunfei. Lao Sha knew that Wang Tong was going to give Bai Yunfei and was therefore not suspicious of any harm befalling its master. However, it still couldn’t say it was completely without concern…
The night went on like this before the first rays of sunlight started to shine through the window….
“Ahhh!!!”
As if waking from a nightmare of some sort, Bai Yunfei let out a wail of fear. His body shot up like a spring from his bed and brought him upright!
“I….I…I…”
His face went blank for a moment as he stared at his hands. Something within his mind was occupying the entirety of his concentration.
“The…the Azure Cloud!!” He exclaimed! “I’m from the Azure Cloud Province, not Earth!!”
“Talus City. The Zhang. Uncle Wu. The Glacial School!!”
A discontinuous stream of thoughts flowed through his mind and mouth. He clutched at his hair as he muttered madly to himself. Each word was spoken with emotion as if unloading some sort of weight off of him, and Bai Yunfei looked almost pained at the memory associated with the words.
“The Blackwood School. Li Chengfeng. Jadewillow City. The Jadewillow School. Hong Yin…a trap…Liu Meng!! Ahhh!!!”
Another burst of words. Nonsensical out of context, but eye-opening within. Bai Yunfei’s eyes looked ready to burst with blood as they bulged outwards from their sockets from pain. Face twisting in on itself, Bai Yunfei suddenly let out a furious roar!
“Boom!!!”
A heavy wave of energy exploded outwards from his body with his scream. The bed beneath him was immediately reduced to splinters before being set aflame from the red light shining from Bai Yunfei. The very air around him was starting to warp as if being baked by the heat he exuded.
“Bang!!’
The door to Bai Yunfei’s room crashed open as a wide-eyed Wang Tong charged in.
“Late-stage Soul Warrior!” He exclaimed the moment he saw Bai Yunfei.
“And so much elemental fire…what’s going on!! Tang Long, what’s wrong?!”
The state Bai Yunfei was in was currently a terrifying one. His skin was cracked all over, looking as though he was a living bomb ready to burst. Worried as he was, Wang Tong knew now wasn’t the time to just wait for an answer. He flew to Bai Yunfei’s side at once and took out a white pill to administer into Bai Yunfei’s mouth.
“Hngh…”
Bai Yunfei let out a relieved sigh the moment the pill was taken into his mouth. From his mouth, a white light flowed across the rest of his body and dimmed the red light around him.
“Is this…him becoming a Soul Sprite? What kind of breakthrough is this?!”
None of the answers made sense to Wang Tong. The amount of elemental fire in Bai Yunfei’s body made no sense to him. No matter how hard Wang Tong thought, nothing about this situation made sense to him.
————————
It was with a start that Bai Yunfei woke. A quick look around him was all he needed to know that this wasn’t his room anymore. He was in a new room, and Wang Tong, Kai Wen, and Feiyun were in there with him.
“Ah! You’re up!” Feiyun was the first to speak, happy to see that Bai Yunfei was up. “What did you do? It was just a recall pill you ate, how’d you manage to react that violently? I don’t remember the recall pill being able to make you stronger!”
Fatigued, Bai Yunfei tried to sit upright. His arms were failing to listen to him though. “I…what happened?” He asked.
“Your soulforce went out of control and nearly burned down your own body with elemental fire. It’s a good thing we were able to stop it. Did the recall pill help you? Do you remember who you are?”
Bai Yunfei’s body trembled in response to Wang Tong’s question. His hands shot up to his head to cradle himself as if in pain.
“Hm? It didn’t work?”
“It…did.” It took a brief moment for Bai Yunfei to find the energy to shake his head. “I remembered many things, but…not everything…”
It was true, he did remember quite a lot. From living in Talus City to being punished by the Zhang. To being forced to escape into Jadewillow City. From there to some more, he could remember practically everything…
But there was still something very important he was missing. The puzzle piece amongst the blanks. The key to remembering who he was.
His name.
He was still unable to recall his own name!
If Bai Yunfei were to explain it, then he’d say that he found the locked door that held his memories. From looking through the keyhole, he was able to glimpse at a few memories that told him who he was. But the truth was still locked up, and Bai Yunfei was without the key to unlocking the rest of his memories…
“Not everything?”
The three alchemists were taken aback. “Then…your memory loss wasn’t just due to physical trauma then. It most likely has to do with the damage to your soul. It won’t be easy to recover from that, I’m afraid…” Wang Tong trailed off.
Bai Yunfei looked up at him, “Big brother Wang Tong…If I…If I were to have a second recall pill, would…”
If he were to try a second pill, would he be able to recall even more about himself? One was already enough to give Bai Yunfei a tremendous amount of information. Perhaps a second one would….
“Absolutely not!”
But just like that, Bai Yunfei’s hopes were driven away in a flash.
“A pill like that can’t be taken multiple times. A second pill will fail to do anything. In fact, you’ll most likely be stuck in a nightmare and go mad!”
The light of hope faded away from Bai Yunfei’s eyes at once as he despaired the loss of a possible avenue…
He had so much hope with this pill, but in the end, he was only able to remember just a small amount. How was it so difficult to remember who he was?!
“Sigh….”
Bai Yunfei looked back up at the three. “Feiyun, big brother Wang Tong, big brother Kai Wen. I truly cannot thank you enough for your help. If…if I may ask for your help to return me to the village…”
Wang Tong looked uncomfortable at his request. “That…cannot be done for now.”
“Ah? Why is that?”
“Right now…our clan has given the order for the city to be sealed. No one is allowed to go out. You will have to stay here for the meanwhile…
“But don’t worry,” He smiled to reassure Bai Yunfei. “You may rest here for now, I’ve the clan head’s permission. If you so wish, we can teach you how to cultivate and how to control your soulforce. There’s a possibility that you’ll be able to slowly repair the damage done to your soul. The total recall of your memories won’t be out of the question then.
“And if you’d like…once you become a Soul Sprite, you have permission to learn the art of Alchemy.”
He smiled. “So how about it? Are you willing?”