The Soul Sprite realm was when the essence seed formed. This was also the realm where manipulation of the elements was possible and the temperance of the body with said elements could be done. Soulforce wasn’t the only thing that circulated around the body of a Soul Sprite, the elements would circulate around the body as well with the essence seed at their core. Together, they worked with one another to strengthen the body, and when the elements in the world needed to be controlled, the essence seed would use the elements in the body as a primer to gather and condense the elements into a stronger, more tangible form.
As of right now, Bai Yunfei couldn’t feel even a single strand of that elemental fire in him!!
This was a first since he had become a Soul Sprite many months ago. It made him feel both powerless and confused.
Xiao Binzi sighed when he saw the flustered look on Bai Yunfei’s face. “Yunfei, feel for your essence fireseed right now…”
“Eh?” Puzzled at the request, Bai Yunfei closed his eyes and did as Xiao Binzi asked. Concentrating on the essence fireseed at the core of his person, Bai Yunfei was able to ‘see’ a minute flame that flickered gently where it was.
When he ‘saw’ his essence fireseed, Bai Yunfei could feel a slight sensation of ‘warmth.’ There was a very faint–practically imperceivable–wisp of elemental fire that drifted out of the essence fireseed. When it drifted too far away, the feeling of warmth was lost to Bai Yunfei.
“My essence fireseed is still there…” Bai Yunfei sighed in relief. The very worst of his suspicions were cleared, but upon further investigation, Bai Yunfei could tell that the essence fireseed was a lot weaker than before. In fact, Bai Yunfei had the slight feeling that if he were to spread his soulsense out, it’d be enough to ‘blow’ out the essence fireseed…
The consumption of soulforce had never been a problem for him before. No matter how much he used, or how the Upgrade Technique knocked him unconscious, his essence fireseed always remained lively and bright as ever. This situation right now was a first for Bai Yunfei. He tried to materialize some essence fireseed as an experiment, but absolutely nothing could be felt.
With that observation, Bai Yunfei pulled himself out from his trance helplessly and reopened his eyes.
“First elder…” He looked back at Xiao Binzi, but he was no longer as emotional as he was before. This time, his eyes were filled with confusion and helplessness.
A strand of pity flickered across Xiao Binzi’s eyes. “Yunfei,” He sighed, “You were too rash. Conserving your essence fireseed was already difficult enough, but… even I cannot help you now. Even brother Zi Jin cannot help you. A full recovery is fully dependent on your own body, but even then, that will take a very long time. For the time being, you cannot use your elemental fire. Unless you’ve another element to train in, you are limited to the soulforce any Soul Ancestor has without being able to make use of the world’s elements…”
The silence in the room was palpable as Bai Yunfei raised his head. No one could tell what he was thinking at that moment, but at last, he prefaced his next words with a sigh, “First elder, where is Xinyun? I want to go see her…”
Xiao Binzi’s eyebrows furrowed together. Looking at Bai Yunfei, he shook his head, “Yunfei, I’m sure even walking is an extremely difficult feat for you, is it not? Don’t force yourself and focus on getting better first. Use your soulforce to heal your body. You can see her after that.”
Song Lin chose that time to pipe up, “That’s right, Yunfei. Get better first. With the third elder, Xinyun will be fine so don’t worry. Who knows, maybe when you heal up she’ll be awake.”
Jiang Nan was slightly pale in the face, but even he nodded at Bai Yunfei. “Junior brother, I had no idea that you were a disciple of the master. I owe you for helping me, but allow me to thank you later. Listen to the first elder and focus on healing yourself.”
Bai Yunfei wanted nothing more than to go find Tang Xinyun right now, but he could see the reason in Xiao Binzi’s words. The very act of walking was something Bai Yunfei couldn’t do and even thinking was a problem right now. Thinking about it, Bai Yunfei finally replied, “Well… fine then…”
For the sake of leaving Bai Yunfei to heal, Xiao Binzi and the others left the room so that only he was left alone to concentrate; though it was more so he could also calm down as well.
Seated on his bed, Bai Yunfei took out a spirit aiding accessory from his space ring. It didn’t have the ability to increase his soulforce recovery rate, but it would at the very least increase the amount of soulforce he could have. Bai Yunfei would make sure to take care of the injuries that required soulforce to heal first.
In accordance to what the Art of Training the Soul taught, Bai Yunfei made a strand of his soulforce circulate around his body. With each revolution, the amount of soulforce he maneuvered increased by a small margin. There weren’t any complications in his attempts, so Bai Yunfei was able to gradually build up the amount of soulforce in his body. This, in turn, made Bai Yunfei feel better than before. His mind had been hazy when he first woke up, but now he was feeling far more sharp-minded. Even his strength was returning to his previously weak body.
However, the very small sliver of elemental fire moving about his body left Bai Yunfei with an uneasy feeling.
Roughly three hours later…
His eyes slowly opened as a sign of him waking up from his trance. His soulforce wasn’t fully recovered just yet, but it was enough for now. In his current state of affairs, mobility and regular thought could be done on the same level as any other commoner.
He wanted to try and gather some elemental fire to see how bad things were, but he knew that that couldn’t be done at the moment.
‘Ugh…” Bai Yunfei sighed in depression.
Without being able to use the elemental fire, he felt as if he was back to when he was a Soul Warrior. It was a disappointing feeling reminiscent to being reduced to a shade of his former self. Xiao Binzi had told him that recovery would be extremely hard and unpredictable; who knows when he’d be able to make a full recovery.
A month? A year? Several years? Or if ever…
He thought about the recent battle and how Tang Xinyun had thrown herself in front of him to stop the palm strike. The moments after that were when he had lost all sense of reasoning. The only thing he could remember was him destroying all the enemies and then using the Cataclysmic Seal imbued with his essence fireseed. He had no idea things would turn out this way or that what he did would have such a harsh consequence.
He was practically decrepit and confused, but Bai Yunfei didn’t regret his actions. Bai Yunfei would be willing to repeat it all even if it were to happen again.
For the sake of ensuring the well-being of the girl who he cared about, he’d make whoever hurt her pay heavily for it!!
“As long as there’s hope, that’s fine by me. I just need to believe in myself, I will get better!” Bai Yunfei vowed silently to himself as he walked to the door.
“I’ll go see Xinyun first. With the heavens looking over her, Xinyun will definitely get better…”