In the morning of the next day,
Bai Yunfei slowly opened his eyes after practicing for a whole night. At that moment, his eyes seemed to flash with a trace of light. They then returned to normal, seeming not to have undergone any change, but the expression in his eyes also seemed to be clearer than before.
“It’s really inconceivable. I can only control the Mingmu acupoint, and worse still, at an elementary level, but my vision is already much better than before. Not only can I see farther now, I can also see much more clearly…” Bai Yunfei thought to himself as he looked around for a while.
“Then next I’ll study those several basic acupoints in the arms first. According to what that scroll says about their effectiveness, if I can control those several acupoints proficiently, I should be able to use the second level of the Overlapping Waves Art called Ninefold Fist Force with relative ease!”
In fact he could already use the Ninefold Fist Force earlier when he had still been a late Soul Personage, but the price would be too high. After just one use, his arm would be paralyzed for half a day, and even worse, it would hurt excruciatingly. Therefore, he had only used the Threefold Fist Force in the battle earlier.
“If I can use the Ninefold Fist Force proficiently, I’ll become much more powerful. And if I can even use the Ninefold Thrust… then unless something unexpected happens, basically every time I thrust the Fire-tipped Spear out, its explosion effect will be triggered. At that time…” At this point, Bai Yunfei could not help starting to fantasize again.
After bidding farewell to this simple and honest family, Bai Yunfei continued to head for Li Chengfeng’s house.
He trained along the way. After taking several detours confusedly, in the evening of the fifth day, Bai Yunfei finally arrived in Li Chengfeng’s current village again.
Seeing Bai Yunfei again, Li Chengfeng was naturally very happy. The other people in the village also showed special enthusiasm for him when they knew that he was the visitor because they considered him their ‘benefactor’. The entire village held a ‘welcome banquet’ for Bai Yunfei as if they were celebrating a festival, making him feel quite embarrassed.
At night, it was pleasantly quiet in the village. Most of the people had already turned out the lights and gone to sleep. On a small hillside outside the village, Bai Yunfei and Li Chengfeng were sitting with legs crossed.
“Not long ago, a good several batches of men suddenly showed up around here one after another and asked people in the village about that Blackwood Stronghold. Luckily I had already instructed them earlier so they all handled this pretty well. Besides, I had already hid those horses deep behind the mountain when noticing that the situation had been abnormal. Luckily it seemed those men didn’t think that a village like ours would have something to do with those bandits, so they all left after casually asking some people…” Li Chengfeng slowly recounted what had happened recently while gazing at the several dots of lamplight yet to be put out in the village.
Bai Yunfei nodded, saying: “Yeah, you did a great job. We definitely can’t let them know that we were behind the destruction of the Blackwood Stronghold, otherwise the village will be put in danger. But I think they won’t pay attention to this place again. After all, nobody would suspect a small village like this one.”
Then he turned his right hand over. The three scrolls appeared in his hand. He held them out to Li Chengfeng, saying: “You’ve already reached the Soul Personage stage. Tomorrow you should start practicing the second stage of body control, the bone-blood control. You can also practice the soul techniques in this scroll. The last scroll requires you to reach the Soul Warrior stage to practice. Just leave it there for now.”
“Oh? Is it okay to give me all of them?” Seeing him hand over three scrolls at once, Li Chengfeng asked doubtfully as he received them.
“Never mind, of course I have remembered all the contents before giving them to you. Now I don’t need them anymore. I’ll stay in the village for a while and wait until I have become proficient in acupoint control to leave. During this period of time, you can ask me if you have any questions about cultivation.” Bai Yunfei said smilingly.
Li Chengfeng gave his wrist a shake and the three scrolls disappeared. They had been sucked into the interspatial ring in his finger — it was none other than the former interspatial ring of Han Xiao, chieftain of the Blackwood Stronghold.
“Right, have you finished doing what you wanted to do when returning to Luoshi City this time?” Li Chengfeng asked in a seemingly very casual manner.
Bai Yunfei nodded, saying: “Yeah, I’m done with it. I won’t go back to that place anymore. I intend to leave Qingyun Province directly in a while and go to Pingchuan Province, which has a school of soul cultivators called the Crafting School. I want to go there to study under a master.”
“Oh, it’s a good idea to leave too. You’re like a floating white cloud. A small place like this can’t make you stay, right?” Li Chengfeng added smilingly as if he was joking: “Unfortunately, I’m still too weak, otherwise, I’d really want to go on a journey with you…”
“Give me a break…” Bai Yunfei scolded jokingly, “You just got married not long ago, but you’re already thinking about the teeming world outside? Don’t tell me you’re willing to part with your precious Ling’er? And if you want to travel the world with your family now, even I will disagree with you. Can you protect Ling’er?”
“Er… I wasn’t serious about that.” Li Chengfeng scratched his head in an embarrassed manner, “Of course I’m aware of these things so you can rest easy. Before making a breakthrough to the Soul Warrior stage like you, I definitely won’t consider leaving.
“However, now that I’ve already got this kind of power, I can’t stay in this hamlet for life. Eventually I’ll have to go and experience the outside world. At that time, can we still meet again?” Li Chengfeng said in a longing tone while looking up at the numerous stars in the sky.
“That goes without saying! We’ll definitely meet again. At that time, you can’t be too weak!” Bai Yunfei said smilingly, “I just got a one-step head start on you, and nothing more. When the time comes, you can go to the Crafting School to find me. Or if you join another school, make a name for yourself, I’ll come and find you at that time…
“Right, I’ve learned a bit about schools in the world recently. I’ll tell you about them so that later you’ll be well aware of the situation…”
Bai Yunfei then told Li Chengfeng carefully what he knew, including the information on the ten great schools, before continuing: “I don’t know much about the Soul Sprite stage after the Soul Warrior stage either. I only know that from the Soul Sprite stage, you can control the power of the natural elements. It seems when you make a breakthrough to this stage, you’ll have to choose the type of element you’ll want to control, and this will have something to do with the attributes of your soul essence. In short, after reaching the late Soul Warrior stage, you’d better choose a school and train under a master’s expert guidance. If you grope about in the dark by yourself, you can easily run into problems.”
Li Chengfeng was somewhat stupefied. Only after a good while did he murmur: “The outside world is really splendid! I’ll definitely train a bit faster then go and experience that big world!”
“Hey! Did you really hear what I said?”
“Uh, mm, I did. You don’t have to worry. I’ll be careful…”
“… …”
… … … …
Just like that, Bai Yunfei then stayed in this hamlet. However, he did not come here to enjoy a quiet, comfortable lifestyle at all. He knew that he would have to leave this place and Qingyun Province soon.
What he had to do now was practice, practice and practice, to master the acupoint control method and become proficient in his soul techniques. He had to make every effort to improve his power so that later he could face the ever-present threat of being hunted down…