A blast of wind came at the back of his neck. Clenching his teeth, Bai Yunfei poured all of his soulforce into his legs and pushed them against the ground fiercely. The stone slabs of the street under his feet immediately shattered and his body also dashed away several inches in the blink of an eye thanks to this outburst of soulforce.
Seeing that his grab was about to miss, Liu Cheng gave a cold snort and turned the claw into a palm. His right arm then suddenly reached out a bit further, allowing the palm to hit Bai Yunfei in the middle of his back. This was none other than the Arm Lengthening Palm!
“Pu!”
Bai Yunfei spouted another mouthful of blood. His speed increased again, but this happened because this palm strike had hit him, sending him flying forwards ten something meters before leaving him lying on the ground.
A cold expression showed up in Liu Cheng’s eyes. Without slowing down, he rushed up, wanting to grab the opponent.
However, when he was only three or four meters away form Bai Yunfei, his expression changed all of a sudden. He unexpectedly stopped moving forwards and hurriedly backed off right away!
“Whiz… Clang!”
The moment he retreated, a whizzing sound came from the distance through the darkness. A streak of cold light then approached him and in the blink of an eye landed on the place where he had just been.
A sword about one meter long had pierced into that stone slab. Its hilt was shaking slightly, creating slight buzzing sounds.
Liu Cheng stood still staring ahead cautiously with a solemn expression.
“Who dares to run wild in the territory of my Green Willow School?!” A question was shouted then several silhouettes appeared in his field of vision. Judging from their appearances, they should all be women. They were dressed entirely in white clothes adorned with various green patches which looked like willow leaves. As they walked, the corners of their skirts swayed slightly, making those patches appear to be willow leaves fluttering in the wind, which felt rather ethereal under the dim light of the night.
“Green Willow School!” Liu Cheng’s pupils contracted. His expression become even more solemn.
This group of people was not slow either. By the time Liu Cheng could see them clearly, they had almost already gone up to his face. They stopped beside Bai Yunfei. Two beautiful figures then dashed out and helped him up from the ground.
“You’re finally here…” Bai Yunfei wiped the blood off the corners of his mouth and looked at Qiu Luliu and Chu Yuhe, who were supporting him. He gave a faint smile, but a strange thought emerged in his mind: “Why do helpers always come on the scene at the most critical moments? Why can’t they show up a bit earlier? That way I wouldn’t have needed to take the last palm strike…”
Chu Yuhe looked at Bai Yunfei, who had a somewhat strange expression on his face, with a pair of wide opened eyes filled with tears, almost on the verge of crying, and asked anxiously: “Are you okay, brother Yunfei? Are you hurt anywhere? Are you seriously injured? Please don’t make me worry…”
Surprised, Bai Yunfei looked at this anxious little girl then chuckled and said comfortingly: “I’m alright. Don’t worry. I’m just slightly injured. There’s nothing serious about my injuries.”
After saying so he turned to Qiu Luliu, who was also looking at him with a deeply concerned expression, smiled at her in return and said: “I have troubled you, Luliu…”
“You don’t have to stand on ceremony, Yunfei. You’re Yuhe’s sworn brother. My master also said that we should help you.” Qiu Luliu smiled then looked at a middle-aged woman about thirty years old standing in front of Bai Yunfei, saying: “This is my junior aunt Mu Feng, the elder of the Green Willow School. My master specifically told her to go with me to help you.”
Mu Feng inclined her head a bit to cast a look at Bai Yunfei, nodded slightly then raised her head looking at Liu Cheng in front of her, saying with cold laugh: “I was wondering who you were. Turns out you’re elder Liu from the Glacial School. Why did you go into my Luliu City without reason instead of keeping watch on your Glacial School? You’re even attempting to harm my school’s guest. What’s the meaning of this?”
Liu Cheng frowned slightly, looked at Bai Yunfei then turned to look at Mu Feng again. Giving a soft sigh, he folded his hands in salute, saying: “You’re taking it too seriously, elder Mu. I definitely have no intention of offending your school. This is merely a personal feud between me and this man. Besides, I didn’t know that he’s related to your school at all, so…”
“There’s a feud between you and him? What is it that can make a soul cultivator of the middle Soul Sprite stage like you personally get into action to deal with a junior of the Soul Warrior stage?” Mu Feng interrupted him and asked in a slightly satirical tone.
“He…” Liu Cheng was somewhat speechless temporarily. After pausing for a moment, he continued: “He killed the son of my school’s elder Zhang, so I want to capture him…”
“Oh? He killed Zhang Zhenshan’s son? Do you have any evidence?” Mu Feng raised her beautiful eyebrows, “Besides, why do you want to avenge the death of elder Zhang’s son? Why do you take the trouble to get into action yourself, elder Liu?”
Liu Cheng fell silent for a while then said in a deep voice: “So this means your Glacial School wants to save his life?”
“I already said, this man is a guest of the Glacial School. As long as he’s in this Cuiliu City, my school definitely won’t sit by and watch him get hurt by his enemy. If there’s really a feud between him and Zhang Zhenshan, please tell elder Zhang to come here to confront him in person.” Mu Feng’s tone was resolute and unfaltering. She was the only elder of the Glacial School and a late Soul Sprite, so she was even more powerful than Liu Cheng. Furthermore, they were at the gate of her school at the moment so naturally she would not want to appear weak.
After saying those words, she waved to the people behind her. They then surrounded Bai Yunfei to protect him. With Qiu Luliu and Chu Yuhe supporting him with their hands, they walked out of the city gate slowly.
Seeing that Bai Yunfei was being taken away, Liu Cheng’s eyes flashed with a trace of severity. But noticing that Mu Feng was staring at him on full alert, in the end he did not take any action and watched them walk away with an unsightly expression.
Mu Feng gently pulled her sword out from the ground, put it back in its sheath and looked at the subordinates who had already chased up to this place behind Liu Cheng, saying indifferently: “Elder Liu, if you want to go into Luliu City to be our guest, my Green Willow School will definitely welcome you. If you have time, please do me the honor of coming to my school for a visit, my school will definitely treat you with courtesy too… However, if you want to secretly make trouble in this city, looking down on my school, then my Green Willow School won’t be so easy to bully! This place, is not a territory of your Glacial School like Baifeng City!”
Having said these words, Mu Feng turned around and left without caring about what the opponent thought.
The color Liu Cheng’s face alternated between blue and white. He was extremely furious inside, but there was nothing he could do. Indeed, this place was not Baifeng City. At the moment, he simply did not dare to come into conflict with the Green Willow School. He had only brought two disciples from his school with him into this city. Even though his plan had been carried out, this had been done by borrowing the forces of the Long family, which had a rather close connection with the Glacial School.
“Elder, what should we do now?”
Liu Cheng did not say anything and a man beside him could not help asking when he saw this.
Seeing that Mu Feng and her group had disappeared outside the city gate, Liu Cheng sighed in frustration and waved his hand, saying: “Send men to keep a close watch on the Green Willow School’s surroundings. If Bai Yunfei leaves, tell me about this immediately! He’s already injured. Within the next several days, he should stay in the Green Willow School all the time to treat his injuries. Inform headmaster about the situation here right away for him to decide. Before that, we won’t take any action and won’t come into conflict with the Glacial School!”
As Liu Cheng led his men back, he was still frowning tightly, rather irritated inside. Who would have thought one unexpected thing after another would happen to the trap he had meticulously set up so that in the end he would gain nothing from it?
“The day Bai Yunfei appeared in this city, I already sent someone to inform the school about this. Why hasn’t headmaster arrived yet? It’s impossible that he has no interest in Bai Yunfei. Could it be… something happened in the school? And he was delayed by this?
“In the current situation, I can only wait. Do we need to come into direct conflict with the Green Willow School…?”
As this group of men walked away slowly, the street became quiet again. From the entrance of a nearby alleyway, a silhouette then walked out slowly. This person’s entire body had been hiding in the dark. He had been paying close attention to this place all along without being detected by anybody. This was none other than Hong Yin.
He pondered for a while then turned around and walked out of the west city gate…
…………
In front of the Green Willow School’s gate, Bai Yunfei saw Mu Wanqing and You Qingfeng again. Who would have thought these two would be waiting for everybody at the gate of the manor? Bai Yunfei gently brushed away the two girls’ hands, which they were assisting him with, stood firmly with difficulty and folded his hands lightly to everybody, saying sincerely: “Everybody, this time I really have to thank you very much for your help. If not for you, I would have fallen into the hands of that Glacial School, and I don’t know if I would have been able to survive that.”
Mu Wanqing said with a faint smile: “You don’t have to stand on ceremony like that, Yunfei. You already became Yuhe’s sworn brother so helping you is what my school should do. Besides, as the Glacial School looked down on my Green Willow School like that, if we had done nothing after knowing that they were secretly carrying out a scheme in the city, my school would have lost face.”
Things had been so easy according to her, but Bai Yunfei knew that this time, because of himself alone, she had confronted another school without hesitation. This was really a big favor.
“Then thank you very much, headmaster. I’ll never forget your school’s favor this time, no matter what. Later, if I have a chance, I’ll definitely repay it!” After saying so, seeming to have affected his injuries, he gave a couple of coughs and blood came out of the corners of his mouth once more.
Chu Yuhe was very anxious again. She hurriedly went up and supported him, saying sobbingly: “Brother Yunfei, please stop talking. Hurry up and treat your injuries.”
Mu Wanqing’s expression also changed slightly. She had not expected him to be injured so severely. Frowning a bit, she looked at Mu Feng.
After their eyes met, before she could ask, Mu Feng already answered: “Headmaster, because we were waiting outside the west city gate before receiving the news, when we saw young hero Bai appear while being pursued and attacked by Liu Cheng, he was already…”
“Please don’t blame senior Mu, headmaster. I didn’t think it out carefully and was already injured before she arrived.” Bai Yunfei hurriedly said. Then he wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth and continued in a somewhat embarrassed manner, “Er, headmaster Mu, I think we should go inside first. I need to treat my injuries quickly. Tomorrow I’ll come over and thank everybody properly.”
“Oh, I forgot about this. Luliu, Yuhe, the two of you take Yunfei into a guest room for him to rest then prepare some vulneraries for him.” Mu Wanqing gave a gentle smile and led everybody walking into manor.
After Bai Yunfei had been taken to a guest room, Mu Wanqing and You Qingfeng walked in the other direction slowly. You Qingfeng had not said anything all along, but now he asked: “Wanqing, is he worthy of being helped by you like that?”
“Oh?” Mu Wanqing was startled then said laughingly: “Why do you ask this question again? Didn’t I say before that as long as this man achieves something in the future, my school will also benefit from this?”
“But now you have become enemies with a school comparable to the Green Willow School because of him.”
“The Glacial School? We’re both the two largest schools in the north of Qingyun Province so originally there was not much friendliness between us. Besides, I didn’t say that we’d have to become enemies either. At the moment, I’m just assuring Bai Yunfei’s safety a bit within the acceptable limit. If something unforeseen happens later, I’ll make other plans…”
While Mu Wanqing was talking, a disciple suddenly came to report that there was someone outside the front gate who wanted to pay her a visit, and this was none other than the person who had come here in the afternoon and informed them of Bai Yunfei’s situation to help him.