Chapter 100: As Like the Heart Flying With the Clouds, Be Free and Easy
After shattering the final stone fragment to pieces, Bai Yunfei turned to look at the relatively far away aunty with a chilling glare. Up to this point, Bai Yunfei had not felt any anger in his heart.
“I’ve already said that this was a misunderstanding, but if you still want to bring me into this mess, then I will start to fight back!”
The aunty seemed to appear as if she hadn’t heard a single word of what Bai Yunfei said. With a tinkling from her saber, she pulled it out of the ground. Compared to before, the light on the saber was noticeably dimmer compared to before. Vigorously treading across the ground, she flew close to Bai Yunfei and waved her saber to stab him.
“Hmph!”
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed menacingly as he began to circulate his soulforce. The Fire-tipped Spear in his hands began to tremble for a moment as a heatwave was instantly expelled from it. The heatwave had been hot enough for even the young woman several meters away to cry out in shock and take several steps back.
“Clang!” Following a red gleam of light, Bai Yunfei’s spear twirled to slam against the long saber that was coming in to stab him. After the clanging sound from the collision, the saber was sent arcing in a perpendicular fashion to the side. The aunty had looked surprised as well due to the amount of force transmitted from her saber to her arm had caused her feet to stagger to the side as well.
As a middle Soul Sprite with his Fire-tipped Spear, Bai Yunfei was substantially different than before. Combined with his proficiency with the usage of the elemental fire, he could truly understand the true might of the Fire-tipped Spear. After increasing the amount of elemental fire within him, his strength was many times stronger than before.
The aunt’s soulforce had already depleted by a decent amount after the usage of her soul technique. In this one strike, if it were not for Bai Yunfei deliberately holding back and using his spear to block the saber with the pole instead of the tip, the human-tier soul item in her hands would have most likely been destroyed instead of deflected.
Seeing at the spear, the chilling eyes of Bai Yunfei, and how the saber in her arm was trembling from the shock, the aunty had finally woken from her angered stupor. She casted a glance at the Fire-tipped Spear with a strange glance before shouting, “Hmph! Do you think yourself to be invincible by relying on a strong soul item?! Even if I cannot hit you, so what? I’ll….”
“I’ve said it before, you’ve mistaken me for someone else.” Bai Yunfei’s eyes narrowed together. “With my strength, if I really did ‘assault’ the young lady, do you really think you’d be able to remain unharmed?”
“You….” Seeing that the person in front of her was so unwilling to ‘concede in front of death’, her heart began to feel fury once more. Even the saber in her right arm was beginning to shake in anger.
“Aunty Zhao, please stop fighting….”
Just at that moment, a gentle-sounding voice could be heard from the side. Seeing that the older woman was potentially about to start fighting once more, the young woman had hurriedly called out to her. At the same time, she hurried on over to her side and pulled the aunt’s arm back gently with a shake of her head.
“But miss, he….”
“Aunty Zhao, I really think that we found the wrong person. This man….may possibly not be the same one as the one we saw last night.” The girl shook her head again.
“How could he not? His face and even sound is the exact same. Furthermore, he was just holding onto my….”
“But his eyes aren’t the same.” The girl interrupted the older woman. Looking at Bai Yunfei, she spoke, “Whether it’s from the way they speak or move, this man and the man from last night varies greatly. Although they look the same, I feel as if the two are two completely different people, isn’t that right?”
The aunty’s eyes narrowed in warning, “Young miss, you should know that in this world, everyone may seem different from what they appear to be. Some may even disguise themselves as….”
“Aunty, why don’t you get some proof for what you’re saying! Just how am I pretending to be someone I am not?” This time, it was Bai Yunfei that had interrupted her. Knowing that there was not much of a chance for another fight to break out again, he had put away his Fire-tipped Spear. Unsatisfied, he retorted, “If I was really that ‘scoundrel’ you say I am, would I be that much of an idiot to have that….thing in my hand?”
“Besides….” He immediately grew pensive for a moment before continuing his train of thought, “Before this, someone had bumped into me without a word and stuffed that thing into my hands. Then when you appeared, I had already more or less figured out what had happened….”
“Oh? Does mister know something about this?” The young woman’s eyebrows rose upwards on her face in surprise.
“More or less. If my guess isn’t off, then the person in question is most likely trying to take ‘revenge’ on me….” Bai Yunfei paused at that moment as if realizing something. “Then that person just now was him. In that case, he would definitely plan on being nearby to observe this ‘embarrassment’, then….”
He began to turn his head around as if inspecting the area for something.
Five hundred meters behind Bai Yunfei, there was a two-story tavern that could very well be used to spectate what was happening between the three in clear details. A regular person wouldn’t be able to see much because of the distance, but for a soul cultivator, such a distance like this was negligible.
A big-nosed youth could be seen sitting rather sloppily on the banisters to this tavern. In his hands was a melon with a plate full of melon seeds to the side for him to eat one at a time. He had been staring at the spectacle between Bai Yunfei and the two with keen interest even–this person was without a doubt Jing Mingfeng in disguise.
“Huh? Why aren’t they fighting? Did you fuck up, aunty? You’re a middle Soul Sprite as well, how could you be so easily defeated by him?” Jing Mingfeng grumbled in discontent. But then suddenly, his eyes widened in shock. Forgetting that he had been sitting on top of the railing of the balcony, Jing Mingfeng had fallen back on the floor with a startled cry. But instead of getting up, he silently hid behind the balcony’s railing.
“Did he find me? But how? Did he realize that I was spying on him?”
……
Bai Yunfei’s eyes swept around the area, but he hadn’t found any person that might be suspicious. Looking at the teahouse several hundred meters away to the left, Bai Yunfei then glanced away before muttering, “There’s far too many soul cultivators looking at this place with interest. I won’t be able to find him this way, and with that odd disguising ability of his, it’ll be even harder….”
“Mister, I believe this was a case of mistaken understanding. For the trouble my aunty has caused, please forgive us. I hope that you will not take offense to this.” While Bai Yunfei had been deep in thought, the voice of the young woman could be heard.
Bai Yunfei looked to the aunty who had called him a scoundrel and was glaring at him for a moment before replying, “If the lady is willing to speak reason, then I’ll give thanks first. However, after this unrighted wrong, when I find the one responsible for framing me, I would like to be proven innocent given the chance!”
“That would be for the best.” The young woman spoke for the aunty before looking around. “Let’s leave the area first. A confrontation between soul cultivators may be something the government might turn a blind eye towards, it wouldn’t do to stay around here too long either.”
For a moment, Bai Yunfei had been silent. Knowing that there was no need to continue speaking with one another, he cupped his hands and bowed to the two, “Then I’ll take my leave first. We’ll meet again some day!”
Unwillingly putting away her saber after watching Bai Yunfei walk away, the aunty looked to the young woman, “Young miss, why were you so polite to him, do you really take his words to be true?”
“It doesn’t matter if I believed it or not. If we looked at the circumstances, would you really be able to beat him if you continued fighting, aunty?” The young woman watched the retreating figure of Bai Yunfei in deep thought. But after hearing the aunty speak, she shook her head.
“That….” Aunt Zhao had been speechless. Although she and Bai Yunfei were of the same level of strength, but with that unique soul technique to aid his movements, she herself had practically been under his thumb. That high level soul item had been even more shocking however.
“It doesn’t matter anymore, aunty. We probably won’t ever see him again, so there’s no need to continue this. Let’s get ready and leave Yanlin City.”
Speaking with a smile, the young woman took the older woman around and began to walk the other direction….
“Eh?” Two steps later, the young woman had just then realized she was still holding something–it was the wooden bird that Bai Yunfei had hurriedly stuff into her hands earlier.
Turning around to look for Bai Yunfei, she saw that he had already long since disappeared from sight. Turning back around, she began to look at the wooden bird.
It was a fist-sized bird with its wings spread out. On the bottom was a circular disk meant for placing on a flat surface. Both of its wings were fully spread out and its eyes were staring straight ahead. The beak was slightly open as if it was in the middle of letting out a cry. All in all, the bird was rather life-like.
Interested, the young woman began to feel and caress the statue when something strange on the bottom of the disk had caught her eye. Turning it over to inspect it, she had been taken back as if she had seen something that amazed her.
Back when Bai Yunfei had been selecting this bird, he had first asked to borrow a carving knife. Then on the bottom, he had carved out an inscription that had portrayed the thought that arose in his mind at the moment.
“As like the heart flying with the clouds, be free and easy.”
TL Note: This is a pun based off of Bai Yunfei’s given name.