“Uh….”
Both Bai Yunfei and Si Kongxian could only stare at the cave where the fuming fire had came out from.
A single person soon came out from the cave. Leaping down several hundred meters to the ground, the person collapsed straight away after touching the ground.
“Damn, fa–cough–failed again! Why are high-human tier soul armaments so hard to make?” His entire body was dark with ash as he tried to dust himself off in his anger. His clothes were singed in every area, and even parts of his hair had curled up from the heat. His face was as black as soot as if he was mining coal just now.
But it looked as if this person was accustomed to such an experience. Taking out a bottle of water from his space ring, the man poured it over his entire body. Allowing it to wash over his head and face, he then used his soulforce to evaporate the water over his body.
“…..”
Bai Yunfei had no words to say in such a situation like this. Instead, he quirked his lips and stayed quiet.
“Senior Chen, are you okay?” Si Kongxian was the first to react and rushed forward in concern.
“Blech!” Chen Huanghua spat out two globs of ashened spit from his mouth before turning to look furiously at Si Kongxian. Striding forward, he grabbed at Si Kongxian’s collar and pulled him up so that the two were now eye-to-eye.
“Bastard! I told you to bring me some cooling powder earlier, not now!! It’s because of you I screwed up!” Chen Huanghua shouted, furious that he had failed.
“Se–senior Chen, this isn’t my fault! I….I didn’t waste any time at all! You also said….you said that you would need cooling powder for the next soul armament too….” Si Kongxian stammered. He tried hard to break away from Chen Huanghua’s grasp. But as a late-stage Soul Warrior, how could he fight against Chen Huanghua who was already a late-stage Soul Sprite?
Struggling was useless, and Chen Huanghua’s grips were like iron. Such was his grip on Si Kongxian’s collar that even his neck was starting to feel constrained, resulting in the gradual reddening of Si Konxian’s face.
“Drivel! I bet you were trying to make me look even uglier, right?! You trash! You’re of the inner school, but you’re not even a Soul Sprite yet, I bet you’re jealous of the fact that I’m about to become a Soul Ancestor, is that why you’re trying to mess with me?!” Chen Huanghua babbled on furiously, adamant that Si Kongxian had been the reason for his failure. With one hand clenched tightly, he cocked it menacingly behind his shoulder and then let it loose towards Si Kongxian’s face!
There were several other students around, but not a single one of them had gone forward to help Si Kongxian when he was being bullied. Many of them didn’t seem to care much, but some were showing looks of annoyance. Despite that, they were seemingly too afraid of Chen Huanghua to step in.
Already, Si Kongxian closed his eyes and brace himself for impact.
But out of nowhere, a black and purple gloved hand came from the side and grabbed onto Chen Huanghua’s wrist!
It was Bai Yunfei who had stopped Chen Huanghua. Without letting go, he spoke. “We’re all students of the Crafting School. An act like this is too much….”
Startled by his appearance, Chen Huanghua quickly recovered in a moment. “Who are you? This is none of your business, let go of me!”
In his anger, Chen Huanghua had pulled back his right hand. His opponent had ‘sensibly’ let go of his wrist, but then Chen Huanghua suddenly realized that his left hand suddenly went numb; as if he was holding onto nothing.
Looking there, he realized that Bai Yunfei had taken the opportunity to break Si Kongxian away from his grasp.
Walking backwards with Si Kongxian in tow, Bai Yunfei started to speak with a low voice, “Si Kongxian is also of the inner school. Shouldn’t you be delegating material procurement to the outside school? The fact that you’re blaming him on your failures is a little laughable, don’t you think?”
Since Chen Huanghua had only just failed in creating a soul armament, he was in a very sour mood. He initially wanted to beat Si Kongxian as a way to release some steam; as he had already done so multiple times before. A minor altercation like this would never make its way back to the seniors, so Chen Huanghua had always believed he had some leeway in this. Never did he imagine that today would be the day someone would come to meddle in his affairs.
He snorted after listening to Bai Yunfei speak, “Him? Of the inner school? Hah! He’s just trash that even a good majority of the outer school can beat! Someone like him should have been tossed out from the inner school a long time ago! What’s with you anyways? If I say he did wrong, he did wrong! Stop meddling!”
His eyes looked closely onto Bai Yunfei. A spark of recognition washed his eyes before they blinked several times in surprise. He started to laugh, “Oh, I see who you are now….You’re that new ‘temporary’ senior…..I haven’t seen you in a month, so I could hardly recognize you. My mistake….”
His words were sickeningly sour to the ears, and one could clearly hear the contemptuous scorn he had for Bai Yunfei.
Bai Yunfei was taken back, but it wasn’t a surprise that Chen Huanghua would know him. Back when they first entered the Western Point, Song Lin had introduced all of the new students there to the ones before. But since there were far too many people, Bai Yunfei wasn’t able to take note of everyone. This person in front of him had left no impression on him, so he was curious on why this person had so much hostility towards him now.
It was then that Si Kongxian tugged at Bai Yunfei’s sleeves from the side. “Senior Bai,” He whispered. “He’s one of the more outstanding members of the inner school, Chen Huanghua. In the crafting examination, he was able to walk 4.7 kilometers, but he still wasn’t made into a disciple. His talent as a soul cultivator is extremely high too. When we both joined five years ago, he was still on track of becoming a Soul Ancestor while I’m still trying to become a Soul Sprite….”
He realized then that it was because of the fact that he became a disciple by exception that this person held such hostility towards him.
It was no wonder too, if someone who tested beneath him in the crafting examinations was given the opportunity everyone could only dream of, he’d be extremely jealous of their good fortune too.
Unfortunately, there would undoubtedly be many of such people.
“Si Kongxian, don’t think I didn’t hear you! You think you can get away with mocking me?! Watch yourself, I’ll get you one day or another!” Chen Huanghua glared at Si Kongxian menacingly before turning back to face Bai Yunfei with a ‘polite’ smile. “Well now….what was your name again? Oh right. Senior Bai, what brings you here today, have you already learned the arts of crafting?”
Even though he was being mocked so openly, Bai Yunfei felt disinclined to do anything but to frown to himself. Since he was just here to take a walk, Bai Yunfei waved his hand, “I’m just here to look around, don’t mind me.”
And so with that, Bai Yunfei glanced at Si Kongxian so that the two of them could prepare to leave.
“Ah, senior Bai, I heard that you fought senior Fei Nian from the Southern Point to a draw? I’d like to compare notes with senior, would you be willing to share some advice with me?” Not even before Bai Yunfei could even turn around, Chen Huanghua’s mocking voice was already starting to speak out.
Pausing, Bai Yunfei turned to quirk an eyebrow to him, “Not interested.”
Chen Huanghua had clearly expected such an answer however and replied with that strange voice of his, “Oh, I get it. Senior Bai is a disciple, the very first ‘exception’ that only walked 3.7 kilometers in the examinations….A person like that is special indeed. Of course he’d not bother to lower himself to teach us juniors of the inner school….”
Ah. So this is what it mean to want a foot after winning an inch…
Bai Yunfei didn’t want to quarrel with him, but the way Chen Huangfu was deliberately trying to challenge him was already doing its job of angering him somewhat.
He glanced around the area.
There were already plenty of people gathered around here, and even more people were starting to walk out from their caves to observe what was going on at the entrances.
Bai Yunfei could tell that everyone was already expecting a fight to break out. Some of them were already eyeing Bai Yunfei the same way Chen Huanghua was looking at him.
“No one’s going to admit it out loud, but they’re most likely angry with the fact that I became a disciple through an exception….” Bai Yunfei sighed. “If I want to stay here for a long time, having everyone treat me like this wouldn’t be a good thing….”
Bai Yunfei thought to himself for a while longer. Just as Chen Huanghua was about to say something else to rile Bai Yunfei even more, Bai Yunfei looked up at him.
His face was calm, but his eyes were glowing brightly and his lips were smiling.
“Alright! I’ll compare notes with you then!”