“A deal?” Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows rose with a quirked smile, “What do you mean?”
“I will teach you my family’s secrets in exchange for your accessories that increase speed! However, I don’t want the ones you can give out on a whim. You most likely have even better ones, right? I only want the ones that make me faster!” Jing Mingfeng earnestly spoke.
“Oh? You want accessories that make you even faster?” Bai Yunfei’s smile remained on his face as if he wasn’t shocked at all. “Did you really think I’d trade with you?”
“Give it up! I know you’re interested in my family secrets. I also saw that you don’t see those accessories as anything important, or at least they’re not completely beyond the notion of being exchanged. What say you? Do we have a deal?”
“How about being able to change one’s face and being able to hide one’s soulforce?”
“Go to hell! In your dreams maybe! The Soul Concealment Art is something you should give up on. I wouldn’t even think about handing over to you right now! I’ll only give you the perfect Face Change Technique for four of your super effective accessories. I’ll say it again. They have to increase my speed! If they can’t, then we forget about this deal!”
Bai Yunfei’s smile gradually became smaller as his eyes began to sparkle. After pretending to debate Jing Mingfeng’s words for some time, he finally nodded his head, “Fine. I agree to this deal. However, I’ll have to think of which accessories to give you over the night.”
Jing Mingfeng’s eyes lit up with a flabbergasted expression. “Wha- you can even ‘choose’ which ones!? These items are priceless even in comparison to Soul Items. Do you really have that many? But how… these items are something that even my grandfather only had two of…”
At Jian Mingfeng’s slip of tongue, Bai Yunfei felt his heart skip a beat. What Jing Mingfeng had revealed was that there were accessories that could increase the elemental affinity of the wearer!
“There are other accessories that could give a boost to ‘elemental affinity’? Ah, well if a soul item can be reforged to increase strength using a method different than the Upgrade technique but still achieves similar strength, then there would have to be accessories that could increase one’s elemental affinity as well… Then that means I shouldn’t have been worried about trying to explain the uniqueness of these accessories.” Bai Yunfei’s head began to spin with thoughts. He couldn’t let Jing Mingfeng know what he was thinking; otherwise, it would be hard to explain.
“I’ve had some fortunate encounters, that’s all. The Heavenly Soul Continent has no shortages of those, does it not?” Bai Yunfei smiled. “Many of the accessories I have have negligible effects. However many it takes to trade with you will be however many it takes. That’s why I wish to think about it.”
Jing Mingfeng stared at him for a moment with a quirked mouth, “Forget it, what do I care what you’re thinking about? As long as this deal is fair.”
Shaking his right hand, a gray-colored soul technique scroll appeared in his hand. Tossing it to Bai Yunfei, Jing Mingfeng said, “You take it first then. Learn it overnight and give it back tomorrow.”
“What? You’re just giving it to me like that? Aren’t you afraid of me backing out of the deal?” Bai Yunfei took the scroll with a questioning look.
“No matter. If you were to take it and run, then I’ll have to admit that I was blind in my judgement. Besides, I owe you still, I’ll take it that our debts are even now.” Jing Mingfeng waved his hand before quipping, “Are you going to back out of the deal?”
“Haha, definitely not. I’m still looking forward to trading for the other secrets you have. How could I possibly consider cutting off a future path that I could take?” Bai Yunfei laughed and put away the scroll.
“You’re still on about the Soul Concealment? Forget about it, it’s completely different from the Face Change technique. Although those items of yours are unusual, it’s not worth exchanging for a soul technique at all.” Jing Mingfeng snorted as he shot down Bai Yunfei.
“The Soul Concealment technique is… that important? Well, changing one’s appearance and hiding one’s soul are two different concepts I guess…” Bai Yunfei thought to himself. Looking away to see Tianming waving at them, Bai Yunfei stood up and dusted himself off, “Let’s eat dinner first. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
It was only after watching Bai Yunfei’s back recede into the distance that Jing Mingfeng stopped smiling. Turning to look up at the moon, his eyes glazed over with a vacant light.
“Father, grandfather, I’ve… traded away the Face Change technique. Will you blame me for that? But still, with the clan gone… is there a need to hide them anymore? I only wish for power. I want to become strong. Using our secrets to trade for power… it can’t be helped. I’d rather die than hand them over to our enemies, but Bai Yunfei is different from them. It’ll only be the Face Change technique, that shouldn’t be a problem…”
“Father, mother, grandfather, brother, everyone… wait until I become strong enough. I won’t hide in the shadows like an ostrich in the sand. I vow that there’ll be a day where our debts of blood will be paid for with blood!!”
With thousands of ideas flashing through his mind, Jing Mingfeng could only give one final sigh to calm his nerves. Replacing the expression on his face with a wretched smile, he began to walk to where the others were gathered…
Although aunty Zhao had not found Jing Mingfeng to be a pleasant addition to the group, she said nothing about the matter. Her guarded nature had only moved on from Bai Yunfei to Jing Mingfeng. Huang Wan knowing that Jing Mingfeng was a soul cultivator caused Huang Wan was so pleased knowing that Jing Mengfeng was a soul cultivator that he had made preparations for him to sleep in a nice tent.
Late that night within a tent, Tianming was blissfully sleeping away the night. On the mat next to him, Bai Yunfei sat with a scroll in his hand and a pondering look on his face.
“The Face Change technique… it allows control over the facial muscles and skeletal structure to change the appearance of the face. By manipulating the entire skeletal structure and muscles in the body, one can change their body shape. By manipulating the throat, one can change their voice… How was someone able to create such a perfect skill like this in the first place? I didn’t even know there was a special way of using the pores of the body like this…”
When a soul cultivator became a Soul Personage, they became adept in the way of controlling the skin and flesh to gain a very preliminary understanding of how to change their appearance. However, this transformation was limited and could not be held for long due to the constant need of vigilance and control. The Face Change technique, however, was a perfect method of transformation. The complexity and peculiarity of the transformation had been so overwhelming that Bai Yunfei felt dizzy just by reading it.
To be brief, Bai Yunfei would be able to change his appearance at will as long as he mastered this soul technique. He wouldn’t need to constantly maintain this transformation either. Even if he died, the transformation would be maintained. There was also a wide range of functionality within his transformation. Of course, turning into a three or four meter tall giant or a one meter tall dwarf was impossible.
Closing his eyes to ensure that he had properly memorized the contents of the scroll, Bai Yunfei put away the scroll. He steadied his breathing to try as he used the technique on himself.
Several minutes later, the muscles on Bai Yunfei’s face began to shake. Slowly, his nose grew larger and his forehead expanded out. His chin grew flat and his face stretched wider just by a little.
Not caring for what he was changing into, Bai Yunfei was merely just trying to test out the most basics of transformation on his face. If any regular civilian were to see his face now, the civilian would swear up and down that he was looking at the face of a demon. Under his careless transformation, Bai Yunfei’s face grew grotesque and bizarre.
About an hour later, Bai Yunfei finally stopped the experiments on his face before he calmed down. Then the trembles on his face began to start again, and not even ten minutes later, his face was back to normal.
Opening his eyes, Bai Yunfei felt his face with a curious look, “Mastering the concept is rather easy, but… if I want to change into the face I want, that’ll need more practice…”
“Well then. I’ve gotten enough practice for now…” Bai Yunfei’s right hand shook to reveal a white bracelet in his hand. “I’ll prepare the items to exchange tomorrow. I may have several of these, but not all of them are the same quality…”
“Upgrade…”