Within the main halls of the Crafting School, Kou Changkong sat in front of a table. In his hands was a single jade slip that he took his concentrated on quite heavily.
When something caught his eye, he put the jade slip down and smiled at the newcomer.
“Haha, senior uncle, what brings you here? Is something the matter?”
The person who had come in was Xiao Binzi, the first elder of the Crafting School. Narrowing his eyes in response to the smiling Kou Changkong, the man said, “Headmaster, I heard from the younglings that something happened further down the mountains and that Bai Yunfei was involved in the matter?”
“That was indeed the case.”
“And that it involved some guests from the Glacial School on our grounds?”
“Yes, Li Tiechui received them and let them stay within the outer dormitories on the Southern Point.”
“Then if my memory isn’t wrong, didn’t the Glacial School have a grudge with Bai Yunfei?”
“Indeed, there was a grudge or two.”
“Then, why are they still at our Crafting School?”
“Because Bai Yunfei has already resolved those grudges.”
“Hmph, you call that a resolution?” Xiao Binzi snorted, “The biggest transgressor, Zhang Zhenshan, was let loose. How is that a resolution? Why not kill him? He’s far too soft-hearted!!”
Knowing that Xiao Binzi was criticizing Bai Yunfei for his lack of resolve, Kou Changkong shook his head with a small smile. “Yunfei was thinking about the Crafting School when he made his decision.”
“Hmph! He thinks too much then! What kind of negative response would our Crafting School? Even if several of the Glacial School members were killed, who would say anything to us!?”
“Even if no one says a thing, there will still be many who will criticize us in the dark. Furthermore, the Glacial School is a subsidiary of the Beast Taming School, and the men from said school were there at the time.”
“Again with the Beast Taming School? Were they trying to appear righteous by helping out a weaker school? In the end, Bai Yunfei lacked the resolve. He should’ve killed them all, especially that Zhang Zhenshan! How could he let that man go? Hasn’t he heard of what happens when you return a tiger to its mountain? Zhang Zhenshan might be closer to a feral dog than a tiger, but when his jaws come snapping down on you one day, will you care what kind of animal it is? Better kill the rot before it spreads!”
Kou Changkong just had to shake his head as Xiao Binzi’s unreasonable justifications, “The way I see it, Yunfei didn’t seem like he lacked resolve at all. Like I said, he was just thinking about the reputation of our school.
“Also, I don’t quite think he’s as soft-hearted as you think…” Kou Changkong started before he grinned, “Look there, don’t you think this ‘lasting regret’ of his will soon be cleared away?”
Like Kou Changkong, Xiao Binzi noticed something going on behind him. Looking beyond the walls in that direction, he snorted, “If he was going to kill him in the end, why let him go to begin with? What a superfluous thought…
“But if he knows to treat the wound before it festers, it’s not too late for him…”
Above Mt. Crimson, a streak of green light shot to the north. It caught the eye of anyone that saw it before it disappeared into the horizon.
“Hey, wasn’t that person flying by just now brother Bai?” Mo Xiaoxuan asked from his spot on the mountain.
“Yeah, looked like him.” Xi Yan nodded in agreement next to him.
“Wasn’t he at the Western Point a while ago? What’s he doing flying that way? He’s flying quickly, did he forget to do something?”
“Who knows…”
Up in the sky in the green light, Bai Yunfei stood on top of his Tempest Sword. He seemed to be concentrating on locating a hazy aura as he flew.
The reason he was flying was for no other reason but to kill Zhang Zhenshan!
Yes, Bai Yunfei might’ve let Zhang Zhenshan go while he was in Crafting School’s territory, but that didn’t mean he was lenient or merciful. He said the things he did because he didn’t want to tarnish the name of the Crafting School.
The logic behind ‘returning a tiger to its mountain’ was not lost on Bai Yunfei, and he knew the dangers associated with such an event. The hatred Zhang Zhenshan had for Bai Yunfei wasn’t something that could be easily forgotten or fixed. He’d get revenge for his son one way or another.
Hence, Bai Yunfei couldn’t allow such a threat to continue living.
This man had to die!!
The moment Zhang Zhenshan left the perimeter of the Crafting School, he’d be killed!
By doing it this way, anyone who noticed him killing Zhang Zhenshan could only say that he was a hypocrite. It’d be a personal blow to him as a person, but not to the Crafting School.
Would his actions even be called up for complaint? They shouldn’t be.
Back then, Bai Yunfei said that his grudges with the Glacial School had been absolved, but not his grudges with Zhang Zhenshan.
Zhang Zhenshan already had three hours to escape Mt. Crimson; that much in itself was already a benevolent act of mercy.
Due to the difference in strength between him and Zhang Zhenshan, it was an easy matter for Bai Yunfei to leave some of his soulforce in Zhang Zhenshan’s body to track him. Bai Yunfei had done it when he had first kicked the man away in the fight. It was a bit surreptitious to the eyes of everyone else, but Kou Changkong had easily seen through it. Perhaps that was why Kou Changkong had Yu Fei and the others stay behind in the Crafting School to avoid the parties from meeting with one another.
Since Zhang Zhenshan had been severely weakened by Bai Yunfei, it’d take more than a day for him to fully flush out the tracking aura and it would take him much longer to get far enough away to lose Bai Yunfei.
He wasn’t even quick enough to run away, so how could he possibly beat the speed of the Tempest Sword?
Since honing in on the aura he left on Zhang Zhenshan required concentration, Bai Yunfei wasn’t able to drive the Tempest Sword as fast as he could.
Consequently, it took him about an hour before he felt close enough to make a full-on pursuit of Zhang Zhenshan!
One man was trying his best to run away, the other was having a nice and easy time.
This scene seemed like it was familiar, but… the roles seemed to have been reversed.
“Hmph!!”
A pained grunt echoed from under one of the trees, revealing a hurt Zhang Zhenshan. His right hand was pressed against his chest as he tried to gather his breath.
Running full speed with his wounds had exacerbated them, rendering his face white. Even now, blood would sometimes trickle out of his mouth, and his clothes were becoming tattered because of the tree branches he had passed through.
He looked like a beaten dog.
“Hssssss… Bai Yunfei… Bai Yunfeiiiii!!! I’m going to kill you! One day, I’m going to make you wish you were dead!!!”
With his son gone and him being humiliated to such a degree, Zhang Zhenshan’s hatred for Bai Yunfei simply couldn’t even be described with words anymore.
If Zhang Zhenshan was asked what he’d do to Bai Yunfei, he’d reply by saying he’d devour his flesh, drink his blood, and destroy his soul!
Zhang Zhenshan took another minute to rest before deciding that was enough; he didn’t want to stay in one place for too long. With the soulforce he had left, the man restarted his escape.
Just ten steps after he began again, he came to a rigid stop. He turned around with an unsightly look to his face—
Flying just overhead the forest in his direction was something extremely fast!!
In a matter of seconds, the light crashed down from the sky like a bolt of lightning, dropping on a nearby tree a hundred meters away. A single person walked out of the light to look down on Zhang Zhenshan.
As soon as the person’s figure was clear to Zhang Zhenshan, his eyes widened in bemused surprise. “I knew it.” He scoffed, “You weren’t letting me go at all. You let me go so that you could save the laughable honor of your Crafting School…”
“You may think upholding the Crafting School’s name might be laughable, but it’s ultimately important to me…” Bai Yunfei replied impassively, “Why would I let you go? You didn’t let me go, so it’s natural that I’d do the same to you. Today, you’ll be killed by me, tit for tat.
“But talking’s pointless. If you won’t give up this grudge, then you’ll forget about it with your death.”
With a flourish of his hand, Bai Yunfei pounced forward to stab at Zhang Zhenshan with the Fire-tipped Spear!
Despair flickered in Zhang Zhenshan’s eyes before turning into rage. “If you want to kill me, it won’t be easy!” He roared.
Then, with his right palm raised high, he slammed it into his own chest!
“Bang!”
There was the sound of something breaking into pieces. Sequentially, rays of white light started to flow out in spasmic waves. They came Zhang Zhenshan’s body along with his soulforce!
Bai Yunfei had seen something like this before…
“Dissolving your origin essence for a short burst of power, I see…” He was within twenty meters of Zhang Zhenshan when he realized the change going through his body.
Even after noticing a burst in power, Bai Yunfei didn’t slow down at all—
Zhang Zhenshan may have gotten stronger, but he was still on the verge of death anyways. The difference in strength was too big for Zhang Zhenshan’s sacrifice to even start to bridge the gap between the two, so Bai Yunfei was confident that he could easily kill the other man.
When Bai Yunfei was in front of Zhang Zhenshan with his Fire-tipped Spear about to stab into the man, the look on Bai Yunfei’s face drastically changed before he tried to pull his spear back!!
“You won’t be able to kill me without paying the price, aaaahhhhhh!!!!”
Furiously howling, Zhang Zhenshan could feel his strength growing past the late-stage Soul Sprite level. With his origin essence gone, his power level was skyrocketing past the Soul Sprite stage and had surged into the Soul Ancestor realm—
It was still increasing!
This wasn’t from dissolving his essence fireseed. It was from… self-exploding!!
Knowing that there was no way he could kill Bai Yunfei, Zhang Zhenshan made the ultimate decision!