Finally drumming up some courage, Bai Yunfei managed to say, “Xinyun, I have something I need to tell you…”

Withdrawing her gaze from the sky, Tang Xinyun smiled at Bai Yunfei, “Is it about the Yun’s Soul Ring?”

He paused. “Xinyun, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lie to you, but I…”

“There’s no need to apologize to me.” Tang Xinyun interrupted him. “Everyone has their own secrets. By saving me, you had to reveal your secret. I still don’t know what that secret is, but if I had to guess, your secret is inconceivable but dangerous. Hiding the secret from me is just… human nature…”

“Xinyun, I…”

Her understanding of the situation made Bai Yunfei pause. Her gentle smile paired with her pretty complexion was more than enough to have such an effect on him. Tang Xinyun was one of the people Bai Yunfei could trust completely, and since the situation had already reached this point, there wasn’t a point in hiding his secret anymore.

He decided then.

“Xinyun, I’m sure you can guess it by now. The unique ability of the Yun’s Soul Ring is something I gave it.”

“Gave!?” Despite having such a suspicion, Tang Xinyun was still surprised to hear it from Bai Yunfei’s own mouth. “Are you saying you can…”

“That’s right. The Yun’s Soul Ring was originally an ordinary ring. I gave that ring a special effect.” Bai Yunfei confirmed his ability again. “I’ve a special ability I can’t explain. I guess it’s like a scientific law. As long as I think about it, I can ‘upgrade’ an item. By extension, I can give an item even more power and all sorts of special effects.”

“That’s…” She was tongue-tied. What Bai Yunfei was saying was simply beyond her comprehension.

Now that the secret was out, Bai Yunfei felt a whole lot better about himself. He didn’t need to hide anything anymore. He smiled, the sight of his companion’s quivering lips and wide-open eyes had such an effect on him. “I know it’s hard to explain, so how about this, I’ll let you see what I was talking about…

“Did the ‘Violet Soul Bracelet’ get taken back by the third elder?”

“The Violet Soul Bracelet?” Tang Xinyun asked. “No,” she shook her head, “the master said that it’d be my welcoming gift so I didn’t need to return it.”

“Really now? But isn’t the Violet Soul Bracelet one of the most precious soul armaments the Crafting School owns? If the third elder gives such a special item to you, wouldn’t the others get jealous?” Bai Yunfei asked in concern.

“Haha, not at all. The other sisters are very kind people and look after me. The master said that they all have their own soul armaments. Though theirs aren’t as strong as the Violet Soul Bracelet, they’re all still one-of-a-kind…”

“Oh? That’s good then. Xinyun, let me see the Violet Soul Bracelet then.” His eyes sparkled.

“Alr—alright…” Tang Xinyun nodded. The sleeve of her robes pulled back to reveal the delicate skin of her left arm, and on her wrist, a violet bracelet hummed softly with a violet light.

She was in the middle of taking the bracelet off her wrist when Bai Yunfei hurried to stop her, “Keep it on. I just need to touch it. That’s all.”

Since the bracelet was responsible for helping Tang Xinyun recover her soulforce, Bai Yunfei had no intention of taking it away from her.

Under the watchful eyes of Tang Xinyun, Bai Yunfei reached a hand out to touch the bracelet.

Bai Yunfei’s mouth dropped open by a slight amount. Though he expected to see abnormally good stats, it was still really astonis.h.i.+ng to see it for himself.

“Low-heaven tier! That’s even higher than the Violet Soul Ring!! Having it grant 960 spirit is already far more than what my Violet Soul Ring can give at +10! The effect’s really amazing too… it can increase the rate of recovery by a percentage!” Eyes s.h.i.+ning brightly, Bai Yunfei was lost in his own thoughts.

“Yunfei, what’s wrong?” Concerned about how Bai Yunfei was staring off into the distance, Tang Xinyun decided to ask him a question.

“Ah? Oh… it’s… it’s nothing.” He responded. “Xinyun, the Violet Soul Bracelet has a great effect, but with the power I told you about, its effects will become even greater. You’ll understand what I mean in a moment.”

“Uhm… just like that?” Tang Xinyun asked. From what she was imagining, she thought that the special method Bai Yunfei was talking about would involve recrafting the item.

“Just like that. Just wait one second.” Bai Yunfei nodded.

His eyes narrowed as he started to concentrate. “Upgrade.”

“Upgrade.”

“Upgrade.”

When Bai Yunfei suddenly went quiet, Tang Xinyun was confused by the situation. She could sense his soulforce fluctuating just slightly, but then she realized something, the soulforce coming from the Violet Soul Bracelet was… changing!?

It had to be an illusion, she thought, but she was quick to realize that even her own soulforce was changing! And not on a minute level, this was a very noticeable change!

She was speechless. For a good while, all she could do was stare at Bai Yunfei in dumb shock.

Another two minutes had gone by before Bai Yunfei’s eyes opened once more in joy!

Tang Xinyun was surprised. Her soulforce was coming back to her at an even faster rate. By her estimations, the soulforce was fighting against the corrosive energy roughly thirty percent faster than before!

“Haha, it worked! And it’s a soulforce recovering effect too!” Bai Yunfei remarked in joy.

How lucky that another soulforce recovering effect would appear as soon as he upgraded it to +10! And by thirty percent, no less!

“Yunfei… le—let go…”

In the midst of his excitement, Bai Yunfei had completely forgotten about Tang Xinyun. Realizing that her voice was far more shy than normal, he turned to look at her in confusion, “Xinyun, what’d you say?”

“My… my hand… let go…” Bai Yunfei looked as though what he was doing was nothing important, but Tang Xinyun’s face was bright red as she tried to tug her left hand away.

It was when her hand started to be tugged away from Bai Yunfei that he realized his hand wasn’t on the Violet Soul Bracelet anymore. At some point in his excitement, his hand had clutched her wrist.

When Tang Xinyun tried to pull her hand away, Bai Yunfei’s hand slipped down her impeccably soft wrist.

Several seconds pa.s.sed before Bai Yunfei finally pulled his hand back. “Uh… Xinyun, I… I didn’t mean to do that… I was just… just excited…” He tried to explain.

“Yes.” Her head was bowed, but the flush on her cheeks was still noticeable. She didn’t seem to be in the mood to debate with Bai Yunfei whether it was intentional or not, so she changed the subject, “Yunfei, what did… what did you just do? Why do I feel…”

“Oh, that was the ‘special energy’ I was talking about, haha! Xinyun, did you feel your soulforce grow, and that you’re recovering more of it now?” Bai Yunfei inquired gleefully.

She slowly answered, “I do. Yunfei… do you really have such a strange power!? I’ve never heard of something like this… it’s… it’s impossible to think about, really!”

Bai Yunfei laughed. “This way, your rate of soulforce recovery might just beat out the corrosive energy, won’t it? You’ll be able to slowly drive it out!”

The very notion of that gave Tang Xinyun some semblance of hope. Nodding excitedly, she replied, “Yes! I can feel a change! I’m sure in no time at all, I’ll be able to completely eradicate it!”

“That’s good, very good…” Bai Yunfei sighed once more as if another weight had dropped from his shoulders.

A small expression of grat.i.tude made its way up Tang Xinyun’s face as she looked at Bai Yunfei’s gleeful face, “Yunfei… thank you…”

“Eh?” Bai Yunfei’s eyes widened, “Don’t say thanks, I’d feel guilty if you did. Just get better as soon as you can and get rid of that corrosive energy. We can find a way to recover your essence fireseed then…”

“Recovering my essence fireseed…” That topic brought a dark shade of pain to Tang Xinyun’s face.

Bai Yunfei wanted nothing more than to slap his own face at that reaction. She was happy up until he went and brought up that topic.

“Xinyun, there’s no such thing as a definite in this world. There’ll be a way, don’t you worry! I’ll make sure to help you find a way to recover your essence fireseed! I promise!!”

“Yes.”

She nodded her head again, but this time even softer. There was clearly not many expectations to be had on this subject.

Hurrying to change the topic, Bai Yunfei said, “Oh, Xinyun. Please… keep this special energy of mine a secret to everybody. I don’t want anyone else to know about it…”

Tang Xinyun’s face finally softened into a smile. “Don’t worry. I know what this secret means to you. I won’t tell anyone else.”

Just as Bai Yunfei wanted to talk to her about something else, the voice of another person called out from behind them.

“Sis Yun! How much longer are you going to talk with brother strawhat? Dai Dai’s so sleepy! Dai Dai wants to go back and sleep!”

The two turned around. It was Huangfu Rui who was down below the lighthouse staring sleepily up at the two of them.

“Uh…” Upon realizing that it was getting late, Bai Yunfei said to Tang Xinyun, “Xinyun, I’ll be heading back first then. Take Doraemon to sleep and take care of yourself. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Tang Xinyun nodded her head. “Yes, you have a good night’s sleep. I know you’ve been very tired so recently…”

With that, Bai Yunfei watched Tang Xinyun take Huangfu Rui with her before he turned around to leave.

“Time for me to think of a way to recover my own essence fireseed…”