Thinking to himself for some time, Bai Yunfei raised his right hand and focused on his overturned palm. A streak of purple light sparked to life over it, dancing erratically on top of his palm.
It was his companion lightningseed. His control over it was a little better than Ye Ming's control over his. Just calling out the companion lightningseed was no problem for him.
He carefully observed the companion lightningseed, though Bai Yunfei could already feel his soulforce start to change in him. Feeling the companion lightningseed start to tremble and look like it was starting to crumble a bit, but not enough to disappear completely. Just faintly, he could feel the lightning bolt shape of his companion lightningseed start to destabilize a bit and pulsate with energy before starting to change.
The change was made quickly, but the reversion back to its lightning bolt shape took two seconds as if unable to hold onto that change indefinitely. Controlling the companion lightningseed, Bai Yunfei tried to alter the lightningseed's shape again, only to have his efforts be rebuffed.
With each time he tried, the lightningseed seemed to have a bigger change to its shape. Slowly, it was attaining the shape of 'fire'.
Several minutes went by with the companion lightningseed of Bai Yunfei growing closer and closer to being a flame in shape. It was also remaining in said shape for several seconds now.
The more Ye Ming watched, the more he was amazed by what he saw. It took him countless attempts to succeed when he first thought of the idea, but now it was only taking Bai Yunfei a few minutes to get him closer and closer to the point of success. At this rate, Bai Yunfei would succeed in no time at all.
It wasn't for another ten minutes almost when Bai Yunfei decided to give up. Putting away his companion lightningseed back in his body, Bai Yunfei started to recirculate his soulforce to freshen up. "Ye Ming, thank you." He spoke gratefully to the other.
"Ah….instructor Bai, what do you mean?" Ye Ming replied, feeling Bai Yunfei's words to be wrong. "I ignored your teachings, instructor Bai, how could you be thanking me for that? This isn't proper…"
"The one who was instructing the other should be you actually. I should be thanking you, proper or not."
It was true. Ye Ming started off with trying to ask for some advice from Bai Yunfei, but it ended up with Bai Yunfei becoming the one to ask him about how to deal with his companion lightningseed. Ye Ming's perspective on how to train the companion lightningseed gave Bai Yunfei a great deal of benefit, and so it was only right that Bai Yunfei thanked him.
The two talked for a moment longer before Bai Yunfei finally spoke, "Ye Ming, you shouldn't worry. Your companion lightningseed is completely fine. If you keep training like this, you'll definitely see yourself getting stronger and stronger. In my opinion, using the companion lightningseed won't net much power by itself, but using it in conjunction with your elemental fire will see to a fifty percent increase at the very least!
When Bai Yunfei used his companion lightningseed, he'd normally see the strength of his elemental fire increasing by twofold or even threefold. With Ye Ming's 'flame-shaped lightningseed', he'd be able to experiment himself and see just how much his own strength would increase by.
"Then I am relieved." Ye Ming nodded his head. Thinking a bit, he spoke up again, this time a little more hesitantly, "Instructor Bai, you said before that when I reached a seventy percent success rate with crafting high-human tier soul armaments, you'd help teach me the method of how to craft earth-tier soul armaments. I feel that I am already at such a percentage, would it be possible….?"
"Oh? This quickly?" Bai Yunfei looked surprised, "You've already reached seventy percent success rate?"
Ye Ming nodded. "Yes."
Ye Ming's talent for crafting was unexpectedly extremely high….
Bai Yunfei felt pleased about Ye Ming's success. He smiled, "In that case then, we ca—"
His words died in his mouth mid-breath. Mouth freezing in place, Bai Yunfei suddenly whirled around to look outside the cave.
His sudden action startled Ye Ming. Turning his head to the outside as well, Ye Ming was confused. He didn't see anything there, and his soulsense wasn't sensing anything out of the ordinary. "Instructor Bai, what's wrong?"
Bai Yunfei's expression looked murderous almost, his eyes seemingly spitting fire. "Ye Ming, we'll talk about teaching you how to craft earth-tier soul armaments another time. I've an important matter to take care. I'll be leaving first!"
His feet flashed violet in light before Bai Yunfei flew out from the cave. His Tempest Sword came out from his space ring, and in no time at all, Bai Yunfei took off into the skies on it.
Ye Ming stood there inside the cave for some time after that. Feeling as Bai Yunfei's aura disappeared into the distance, he looked at the skies, "Did instructor Bai find out something if he's so hurried?"
……
Just five kilometers away from the southern gates of the Capital stood a small forest with a small clearing.
A young woman dressed in a flowery robe where she sat over a small patch of flowers with a smile. Sometimes, she'd bend down to pull one or two wild grasses while a small white pig by her feet roamed around the area. Not too far away from the two, two other beautiful woman smiled and spoke to one another in small voices.
These three women were Tang Xinyun, Kou Tingting, and Huangfu Rui.
Aside from them three just a hundred meters away almost, there were another eight middle-aged man scattered about on the ground. One of these men on the ground had only a single eye and no eyepatch even to hide his missing eye. Without anything to cover his missing eye, the man looked rather scary, and the many scars on his face didn't help. Just at a glance alone, anyone could tell he wasn't a very friendly man.
All of the men on the ground were knocked out, and flying above them all was a small bird the colors of the rainbow looking down on them all. It was Xiao Qi.
A green streak of light coming towards them caught Tang Xinyun's eye. As she turned to look, Xiao Qi's chirp was made known to her, "Yunfei's here!"
A moment later, the green streak of light came to a stop right next to Tang Xinyun and the others, revealing Bai Yunfei inside.
"Xinyun, Tingting, are you all okay?"
Bai Yunfei spoke up in concern, looking around the area as he did.
Tang Xinyun smiled, "Yes. No need to worry, Yunfei, we're fine."
That was when Bai Yunfei noticed the people laying down on the ground. "That's good." He sighed.
"Bro strawhat, you're here!" Huangfu Rui came running up to him with Xiao Rourou in hand. "We went mountain climbing today! It was a tall mountain—much taller than Mt. Crimson! There was also a strange stone that was like Xiao Rourou! Heehee, we wanted to pick it up, but sis Ting said no….we can take you there next time!"
"Haha…" Bai Yunfei patted her on the head, "Well, I'll come with you next time, for sure."
He gave a glance at the group of people still laying unconscious on the ground. "Xinyun," He whispered to her, "are those people the ones that attacked you? Are there anyone else?"
Xinyun shook her head, "There shouldn't be anyone else but the ones there. We were going to return to the Capital when we were stopped by them. They were going to kidnap us before Xiao Qi knocked them all out. I didn't see anyone escape."
"That's good then." Bai Yunfei nodded. "You should all go back first then. I'll deal with this."
He nodded to Xiao Qi, "Can you send Xinyun back and then come back?"
"I can."
Tang Xinyun looked a little concerned, "Yunfei, you….you should be careful. Don't do anything dangerous."
"Don't worry, I'll be careful. I'll be back before it's late."
……
Watching as Tang Xinyun and the others skywalked back to the Capital, Bai Yunfei whirled around when he saw them safely reach their destination. Stalking towards the group, the smile on his face slowly receded away and was replaced by a bone-chilling look.
The reason he was so hurried on his way out the crafting cave was because Xiao Qi had communicated to him through their soul bond that someone had tried to attack Tang Xinyun!
Xiao Qi had also told him that the nuisances had already been taken care of, hence why Bai Yunfei wasn't too overly panicked. While he was flying over to Tang Xinyun, Xiao Qi was already describing what had happened.
While Tang Xinyun were about to return back to the Capital from their excursion, a group of people came forward to stop them. They weren't normal bandits but….a group of Soul Exalts!
The leader of the group was a late-stage Soul Exalt! Furthermore, three of them were mid-stage Soul Exalts and four were early-stage Soul Exalts!
Not only was such a high levelled group trying to stop Tang Xinyun, they were trying to kidnap her!
As of today, Tang Xinyun was only an early-stage Soul Exalt and Kou Tingting was a mid-stage Soul Exalt. The little genius that was Huangfu Rui was a late-stage Soul Exalt (thought not yet fully accustomed to her strength). Combined with the early-stage class six Xiao Bai and the mid-stage class six red magiboar, the group themselves were at a disadvantage. If they fought, Tang Xinyun and the others would stand a very small chance of winning.
But the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, for there was still one entity not yet accounted for….
Xiao Qi!
The group of 'bandits' didn't seem to realize the situation of Tang Xinyun's group and was more than ready for an 'easy' kidnapping. But unfortunately for them, Xiao Qi resolved the issue in no time at all and knocked them all out.
For a class seven soulbeast like Xiao Qi, people like those Soul Exalts were powerless.
Xiao Qi had only knocked them out rather than kill them since he wanted to wait for Bai Yunfei to come and deal with them.
……
Bai Yunfei sat down on a large rock in front of the group of people and looked at them one by one. Lifting his left hand to take out his Lightning Eagle, Bai Yunfei shot at the thighs of two Soul Exalts.
"Ah!"
"Ah!!"
Two loud cries of pain rang out as the two victims were roused out from their slumber with pain.
One of the two was the one-eyed man and a late-stage Soul Exalt. The other person was a scrawny early-stage Soul Exalt. Because of Xiao Qi forcing their soulforce into a lull, neither of them were able to move.
Bai Yunfei waited for the two to stop screaming before he spoke. "Speak. Who are you and who sent you?"