The sudden transformation of Song Lin caused Bai Yunfei to start in surprise. Cautiously, he probed, “Senior, have…have I said something wrong?”

“Er…” Realizing his loss of composure, Song Lin quickly apologized to him, “My apologies. I got lost in the moment.”

“Senior, there’s no need for you to apologize.” Bai Yunfei waved his hand once before carefully rewording his previous sentence, “Senior. This second….that person, what happened to him?”

Song Lin’s eyebrows furrowed together for a moment in vexation before he let out a sigh. “That man is a taboo to the Crafting School. It’s not important for you to know about him, but since you’re a disciple of the school now, you’ll learn about him eventually….Junior, I have to warn you, you must under any circ.u.mstances never mention him. Especially when the elders are in earshot, understood?”

The absolute severity on Song Lin’s face and the steel in his voice was enough for Bai Yunfei to understand that he was asking a question he shouldn’t be asking about.

Nodding his head, Bai Yunfei replied, “I understand. Thank you for your warning, senior.”

For the sake of eliminating the rigid atmosphere that was gathering around them now, Bai Yunfei attempted at trying to change the topic. “Senior, I have another question to ask. When the Crafting School was accepting students that day, there was a young girl at the base of the mountain. She….”

“Haha, are you talking about junior Rui?” Song Lin’s face revealed a smile. “Her name is Huangfu Rui. She’s the seventeen year-old daughter of the second and third elder. Her nickname is Dai Dai and is considered to be the princess of our school. She has a pure heart and is quite the loving girl….”

“Seventeen? I could’ve sworn she wasn’t any older than fifteen….” Alarmed, Bai Yunfei asked, “How strong is she…?”

“You must have realized it that day. Haha, junior Rui is a middle-stage Soul Ancestor with talent that’s almost as strong as the fourth elder himself. But her situation is rather unique. She might be a middle-stage Soul Ancestor, the reasons behind it is a little complicated….You’ll learn about it soon enough.”

The roasted suckling pig immediately came to Bai Yunfei’s mind as well. “Ah, there was also that one pig called ‘Rou Rou’ or somet—”

A hand immediately flew up to interrupted Bai Yunfei from saying anything more. “Junior, let me tell you right here. Do not call the pig that name right in front of it. Only junior Rui is allowed to call it that name. Even the master and the elders aren’t allowed to do so! Don’t think that it’s some sort of pet for her, it’s a rare fifth-tier soulbeast, the Red Magiboar! Even I don’t know if I’d be able to beat it!”

“I….I see….” This information had been a surprise to Bai Yunfei. He knew that ‘Xiao Rou Rou’ was an amazingly strong fifth-tier soulbeast, but he never thought that it’d be that ‘special’. To have Song Lin talk about it so seriously, he knew that there was no room for jokes. “Senior, I will take note of that.”

“Good. Then hurry on back and make sure you learn the scroll the master gave you. If you have anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me. Your fellow students can help you as well. They might be lower than you in ranking, but when it comes to the art of crafting, you aren’t any higher than them either.”

“I understand, senior.”

The two had returned to the Western Point by now. Bidding farewell to Song Lin with several parting words, Bai Yunfei returned to his own room–a small room in the middle of the courtyard sequestered for the rest of the disciples to live in.

Not even half a step into his own room, Bai Yunfei immediately began to make a diagnostics of his entire body to see if his body was in its most optimal state before then starting to summarize the days events and the ‘profit’ he gained.

Looking at the Ardent Sun Glove on his right hand, a notification popped up in his head.

Attack: 2236

Defense: 2580

+10 Additional Effect: A fireball can be summoned to shoot down an enemy with power no greater than 50% of the equipment’s total attack.
Upgrade Requirement: 160 Soulpoints

Thinking to himself, Bai Yunfei thought, “A fireball can be shot out…it’s similar to the ‘active trigger’ of the Flame Winged Blade. Plus…this fireball is long ranged?”

The Flame Winged Blade was limited to the area above his right arm, but the fireball that this Ardent Sun Glove could shoot out was a ‘projectile’. This meant to say it was a long-ranged attack. Thinking about it, this move felt similar to how the flame darts and fireb.a.l.l.s acted like from in that cave.

In other words, Bai Yunfei would be able to attack like that as well?

The concept of materializing a fireball to be thrown wasn’t all that hard. Even Bai Yunfei could do it if he wanted, but the effects would be severely weaker than ideal. If he wanted to make it stronger, it’d require even more soulforce. But with the effect of the Ardent Sun Gloves, he’d just need to use some soulforce and a little thought to summon a fireball with what….an attack of 50% of the gloves?

That was already more than 1500 points of attack!

“I wonder just how much soulforce is required to summon it? Too bad I can’t test it out….

“Forget it, I’ll try it out another time. There’ll be time for that later, there’s more important things to worry about right now….”

To what Bai Yunfei understood about this equipment right now, the most important thing to know was that if a large amount of soulforce was required to summon the fireball, it’d mean the consumption would be undoubtedly big on himself. For sure it’d be no smaller than what the maximum consumption would be for the Flame Winged Blade. The amount needed to summon a fireball whenever he wished would have to be determined first.

Not bothering to take out the Fire-tipped Spear to study, Bai Yunfei decided to put aside his thoughts about the soul armaments first in favor for the red scroll Kou Changkong gave him.

Focusinig, Bai Yunfei transmitted some soulforce into the scroll, and soon enough, several pieces of information began to float into Bai Yunfei’s mind.

Several moments later….

Bai Yunfei’s eyes opened once more with an excited light to them. It was a light that s.h.i.+ned oddly on his face.

“The Secret of Firebending….This is the training method the students of the Crafting School learn to control fire….how mysterious. I never thought that there’d be such a complex way of being able to manipulate elemental fire. If I think about it now, the way how I ‘controlled’ fire before by gathering and condensing it was the same as a kid would play with mud….” Bai Yunfei remarked to himself as he looked at the scroll in hand.

“There’s several dozen acupoints one needs to train along with just as many techniques to manipulate fire. Some of the topics involve several difficult aspects of how to change how the soulforce moves as well….

“And I’ve only a month to learn this, how limiting that is!” Bai Yunfei sighed.

“If I became a Soul Ancestor, my understanding of the elemental fire would definitely be higher than what it is now. Training in this would be a lot easier for sure. Too bad I’m not as advanced as I wanted to be….”

As it were, Bai Yunfei was a late-stage Soul Sprite. With the situation from earlier today, as long as he used the Upgrade Technique to use up his soulforce, he’d definitely see an increase of his soulforce. This would mean that his breakthrough into becoming a Soul Ancestor would be easily done if his soulpoints were to reach the range that denoted what a Soul Ancestor should have.

This was what Bai Yunfei thought at first. But now that reality had hit him….things weren’t as he initially thought!

When he had that feeling of being on the ‘verge’ of breakthrough, Bai Yunfei’s soulforce was approaching a numerical value of six thousand. This meant to say that a Soul Ancestor should have six thousand soulforce at the very least.

But!

Bai Yunfei’s soulforce was now way past six thousand, and he was still a late-stage Soul Sprite!

There was still a wall he hadn’t yet climbed stacked in front of him. No matter how ‘much’ soulforce he had, he wasn’t able to smash through this wall.

For that, Bai Yunfei knew that it was a matter of ‘quality’ rather than quant.i.ty.

The stages of a soul cultivator wasn’t only just about the amount of soulforce, it was also about how much one understood. Or how much he understood about elemental fire to be precise.

“The Secret of Firebending talks only about the aspects on how to manipulate elemental fire. As long as I understand something from the teachings, I should be able to make a huge improvement on how much I understand the elemental fire! It’s also the prelude on the art of crafting, so as long as I understand the basics, I should be able to learn the rest with ease. Let’s get started then….

“I’ll focus on training! In the Crafting School, there shouldn’t be any dangers since I’m a disciple now. I can focus completely on training!

“If I have the chance, I shouldn’t let it go so easily! In three months, I’ll definitely become a true disciple!!”