Chapter 649: Kicking Someone While They're Down
After his battle with Cheng Yao in the Royal Palace, Bai Yunfei rested for an entire day before it was time for his weekly class at the academy.
Today, as it seemed, was a day where Zheng Kai was free. Coming to find Bai Yunfei, the two of them were ready to head to the academy together. It was after a small chat that Bai Yunfei found out that Du Shaokong and his friends had already left the Capital, and Huang Bin and the others were busy with a few things, hence why Zheng Kai was here today to come find him.
“Are you alright, Yunfei? You seem a little different than before—are you thinking thinking about something? Were you hurt yesterday with your battle with Cheng Yao?”
Zheng Kai had noticed on the way to the academy that Bai Yunfei was rubbing his temples with his hands and his eyebrows were furrowed together.
His battle with Cheng Yao in the Royal Palace wasn’t known to many, but Zheng Kai was one of the privileged few that did know. Only a few people that heard about the battle knew of the results, so Zheng Kai only knew after Bai Yunfei told him that he had won against Cheng Yao. Admittedly, Zheng Kai was surprised. Even without Cheng Yao being in the Capital, it was widely known there that he was one of the strongest of his generation. Many elders praised his abilities heavily and there were even a few that were equating Cheng Yao to be on the same level of genius as Zheng Kai’s eldest brother, Zheng Cheng. And the two of them were on the top of the list for the ‘Top Ten Prodigies’.
“It’s nothing to worry about, just feeling a little tired. My battle yesterday was pretty big, and I haven’t yet healed from it.”
The battle yesterday had been a short one, but the soulforce he used up to defend himself had been plentiful. That Dual Dragon Burst and the soul attack had been extremely taxing despite how easily he had beaten Cheng Yao with it. With how heavy the price was, even an entire day to heal wasn’t nearly enough for Bai Yunfei to feel normal. Right now, he felt weaker than even the normal person, and his mental strength wasn’t back to normal either. As he was, Bai Yunfei was not at optimal levels of anything; he was feeling fidgety, his mind was unable to concentrate, and he was completely distracted with everything else.
Fortunately, this was something that’d only take two or three days to fully recover from.
The two continued to talk on their way to the academy. As they were just about to crossover into the sixth year area, the two slowed to a stop.
A group of people was in their way. As with how things looked, this group were waiting for somebody.
Somebody meaning them two.
With Bai Yunfei’s arrival, the entire group looked up. The leader of the group spoke a few words to the people around him before he strode on over.
As the group came over, their sweltering attitudes seemed to increase with each step.
Each of these people were Soul Exalts, and there were at least thirty of them!
“They….seem to be looking for you, Yunfei? What’s going on?”
Zheng Kai blinked a few times, unsure of what was going on in this situation.
Like Zheng Kai, Bai Yunfei watched them walk on over with a raised eyebrow and surprised expression. “I….don’t know either….”
“Did you perhaps flirt with some rich girl, and now her family is coming for your head?”
“Is there a story like that in your book?” Bai Yunfei glanced at him.
“.....Hehe.”
“.....”
The two chattered with one another without even bothering to look at the group in front of them.
While the two were chatting, the group was already splitting up to surround Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai from every side. The four leaders were right in front of Bai Yunfei, and a thick-browed middle-aged man from the right stepped forward after looking at him for two seconds. “If I may ask,” He clasped his hands together, “might you be Bai Yunfei, sire?”
Eh? They were actually being polite?
Surprised, Bai Yunfei nodded his head. “I am, whom might you all be?”
“This one is Zhao Feng. I am here on behalf of Justice Minister Li to escort lord Bai as a guest!” The man replied with a serious voice.
“Justice Minister Li?” Bai Yunfei repeated, turning to Zheng Kai for clarification.
“That’s Li Chen’s father.”
Li Chen was one of the people Bai Yunfei broke the arms of back in the Training Forest!!
“War Minister Ceng wishes to invite lord Bai as a guest!”
“War Minister Zhu sends a cordial invite to lord Bai to be our guest!”
“Revenue Minister Peng wishes to have lord Bai as a guest!”
The three other people next to Zhao Feng replied one after another—through this, they were revealing their affiliations.
“The Li, Ceng, Zhu, and Peng…” Bai Yunfei muttered, “It’s them…”
These four families were the ones who tried to invite Bai Yunfei last time before he ignored them. As things turned out, the four families hadn’t given up on Bai Yunfei, and now it seemed they were going for a more direct approach.
The lords of the four houses were all people of high statuses. There was no way any of them would sit quietly with their sons being beaten so badly. Bai Yunfei’s special statuses wasn’t strong enough to fully protect him from their machinations, so the four families tried to ‘invite’ Bai Yunfei the first time. With the end result being them being ignored, the four of them were infuriated beyond belief. Because the Cheng hadn’t lifted a finger, none of the four did anything until now. And then when Cheng Yao returned to the Capital, they figured the Cheng would cause trouble for Bai Yunfei now, so they waited for the Cheng to do their thing.
But then new information came in: Bai Yunfei and Cheng Yao had a spar in front of the Royal Family!
None of the four families knew the outcome, but they didn’t care. This was the signal they were waiting for, this was the time to act!
The battle between Cheng Yao and Bai Yunfei didn’t seemed to have left any visible wounds on Bai Yunfei, but what they were here for was to kick Bai Yunfei while he was down!
They didn’t want anything from Bai Yunfei, they just wanted to regain some of the face they had lost. So the four families debated with each other to see what could be done. And the plan they came up with today was to send some people to the academy to ‘invite’ Bai Yunfei.
……
“You trying to kick me while I’m down? This must be their way of regaining some of their lost honor….” Bai Yunfei thought to himself now that he knew just who these people were.
He smiled, “Do they really think I’m that easy to bully…?”
“Thank you for your kindness, but I’m afraid that this one hasn’t the time to accept your master’s ‘invitations’.” Bai Yunfei declined at once.
Zhao Feng narrowed his eyes. “Lord Bai, it is with great sincerity that my lord wishes to invite you to his abode.”
“I’ve said it already, I’m busy!”
Before Zhao Feng could say anything else, a dark-skinned middle-aged man sneered. More impatient than the other, this man replied, “Pah!! My lord has already said that we are to invite lord Bai back no matter what. Please come with us, sire!”
Revealing himself to be a late-stage Soul Exalt, the man shot forward like lightning to grab at Bai Yunfei’s robes with an outstretched hand!!