The next morning. In the forests behind the courtyard belonging to the disciples of the Western Point.
The Western Point might not be the main peak of the Crafting School, but it wasn’t small in comparison either. Behind the courtyards was a long blanket of trees so vast that it’d be better to describe the forest as a sea of trees. It extended so long that it reached the main peak of the Crafting School and even to where the crafting caves were. The rest of the forest was continuous and covered the entire mountain range with its trees.
Walking on the beaten path on the ground, Bai Yunfei finally arrived at a decently-sized lake several thousand meters away from the courtyards.
“Is this place far away enough from the others?”
Surveying the area, Bai Yunfei could tell that the lake was a thousand meters in length around. There were plenty of trees around, but when he made use of his soulsense, he couldn’t sense the presence of any humans within a thousand meter.
Bai Yunfei stood at an empty side next to the lake sh.o.r.e with a concentrated look. Bringing out his Fire-tipped Spear, Bai Yunfei muttered, “One by one it is then….”
His eyes narrowed together in concentration. Urging his soulforce to spread all over his body, Bai Yunfei’s feet pushed off against the ground so that he could practice his footwork and spearmans.h.i.+p.
The speed in which he delivered each form was quick, seamless, and powerful. His spear danced and fluttered through the air with such intensity that the leaves that were drifting down nearby were sent into a crazy flux from displacement. In a series of movements, Bai Yunfei’s body weaved in and out irregularly so that no spectator would even be able to guess where he’d go next.
But then all of a sudden, Bai Yunfei’s body came to a screeching halt. At the same time, his spear began to flash brightly before Bai Yunfei’s body grew faint.
In a single flash of light, two mirror images suddenly materialized into view right next to Bai Yunfei!
Doppelgangers!
Side by side by side, the three Bai Yunfei’s stabbed forward with their spears to stab into a tree tall enough to tickle the skies and wide enough for three fully grown men to hug it.
“Thwock!”
Stabbing into the tree without resistance, the three spears began to glow whilst the hands that clutched at its s.h.i.+ft jerked in a circular motion!
“Boom!!”
First came the explosion before a dazzling wave of fiery light washed over the entire area. All vision was lost as the elemental fire blanketed over the ground and reduced all the gra.s.s to ashes.
“Crack….crack….”
The sounds of several trees starting to creak and break under the pressure made itself known. Soon, several tremendous trees began to tilt and crash onto the ground with a heavy tremor.
As the red light scattered apart, Bai Yunfei could be seen left with the Fire-tipped Spear in his hands. By this point, the two doppelgangers were gone, and all that was left were a tremendous pile of wood that was broken here and there.
Humming as he regarded the destruction he created, Bai Yunfei stored the Fire-tipped Spear away and scratched at his chin with his hand. “The explosion is far stronger than before, but the amount of soulforce increased as well. Plus this….20 second cooldown. What a problem, I used to be able to activate the explosion effect several times in a few seconds….”
Deep in thought, Bai Yunfei walked up to one of the still standing trees. Taking a half step back with his right foot, Bai Yunfei c.o.c.ked his right hand back in preparation to punch. The muscles in that hand swelled up by a noticeable amount as soulforce filled that part of his body; and in less than ten seconds, he let loose a tremendous punch!
Eighty One Fold Fist Force!!
“Pow!”
The powerful fist smashed against the tree, eliciting a crack from the interior of the tree.
The entire tree looked as if it was quivering in the second after it was struck. With each pa.s.sing instant, this quivering motion grew more and more p.r.o.nounced with countless of leaves drifting to the ground.
Then, the tree began to fall over. Cras.h.i.+ng onto the ground with an ear-deafening boom, the tree brought forth a second localized earthquake in the area.
Aside from the tree roots, the one-meter area where Bai Yunfei struck had been completely reduced to powder.
It was with a grimaced expression that Bai Yunfei pulled his quivering arm back. His face was flushed red, and his teeth were clenched tightly against each other as if trying to bite back on what pain he was feeling!
Press his left hand to his right arm, Bai Yunfei watched as a red glow of light slowly a.s.similate itself through his right arm.
Half an hour later, Bai Yunfei shook his right arm gingerly as if to feel how it was. Raising it up to his eye, he muttered, “How surprising, a Soul Ancestor using the Eighty One Fold Fist Force still requires so much energy! Seems like I’ll need to become a mid-stage Soul Ancestor before I can use that move on a regular basis….but would any enemy of the same level of strength as me be able to take it if I used it?”
Shaking his hand even more to stretch it, Bai Yunfei thought, “Whatever, let’s continue with the experiments!”
Clenching his right fist again, Bai Yunfei decided to punch out. But this time, it was just a regular punch rather than one of the Overlapping Wave Arts. When his right hand flew forward, the Ardent Sun Glove on the hand immediately began to exude a bright crimson light before a brilliant flame detached itself from his fist and flew straight ahead of his hand!
“Bang!”
The fireball flew a few hundred meters forward before smas.h.i.+ng into a boulder. As soon as the two made contact with one another, the giant boulder immediately started to fracture under the pressure and crumbled in several places.
Quirking his lips, Bai Yunfei opened up his fist to form a knife-shaped palm to chop through the air rather than a punch!
When the second flash of red light came into being, an equally red blade of fire came flying out as well from Bai Yunfei’s hand. It continued on the same trajectory as of the fireball from before and struck the same boulder from before. The power of this blade was many times stronger than the fireball, resulting in the boulder being completely split in two following the impact!
The fire blade continued onwards past the boulder and smashed into a tree within the vicinity before disappearing from sight.
After shooting the fire blade, Bai Yunfei’s right arm dropped down ahead of his chest. His palm faced outwards as he concentrated heavily on the glove on his right hand. Fire rose out from his palm, but this time, it remained on top of his palm as if trying to form something on there.
“Whoos.h.!.+”
A fireball the size of a chicken egg shot out from the center of his palm. Not even a second later, a dozen more similarly shaped fireb.a.l.l.s shot out in a mini-barrage!
“Thump! Thump! Thump…..”
The bisected boulder that Bai Yunfei was using as target practice was immediately struck by the barrage of fireb.a.l.l.s. And in no time at all, a wisp of gray smoke hid the boulder away from sight.
The barrage persisted for half a minute with well over a hundred fireb.a.l.l.s being shot out before Bai Yunfei dropped his palm down.
By the time the smoke cleared away, the two halves of the boulder were no longer even visible. In its place, a crater several meters deep was all that was left….
Admiring the aftermath of the destruction he made, Bai Yunfei nodded to himself in satisfaction.
The +10 effect of the Ardent Sun Glove, a barrage of fire!
An attack like this wasn’t too hard to pull off. All it required was a soul cultivator of the fire affinity to make the most out of it. But Song Lin would experience far more difficulties than Bai Yunfei if he were to try to do the same.
But Bai Yunfei could do this feat as easily as turning his hand over!
Finis.h.i.+ng the experiment with the Ardent Sun Gloves, Bai Yunfei turned about to gaze off over the lake surface. Pensive, his right hand took out the red brick from his s.p.a.ce ring.
“And now for the most important experiment of them all…”