Chapter 688: Xiao Lan's Breakthrough
The black and blue energies that wrapped around Xiao Lan like twisters started to calm down almost immediately. Shrinking and wrapping around the wyrm, it soon became a giant black and blue cocoon about three stories tall to cover the wyrm completely. Cut off from the world, the only thing that could be felt inside it was the wyrm’s soulforce and nothing else.
Bai Yunfei stared nervously at the cocoon, watching intently on just what was going on to Xiao Lan. He saw a person flicker to their side, and then Long Zhen’s person came into sight right next to Wu Dijian. He hesitated for a second before taking Xiao Qi over to greet him.
When he arrived in front of Long Zhen, Bai Yunfei bowed and spoke, “This junior pays his respects to senior Long.”
Long Zhen gave him a curt nod. Appraising Bai Yunfei, Long Zhen looked slightly surprised, “It has been but a moment since we last met, and yet you’ve become a peak late-stage Soul Exalt already? Hm...very good. You are as talented as I expected.”
Bai Yunfei took the praise in stride, “Senior praises this one too much. It was but only a fortunate matter.”
Wu Dijian too ka second look at Bai Yunfei at this. Although he was surprised at the leap in Bai Yunfei’s strength, now wasn’t the time to be talking about it. Turning to Long Zhen, he spoke, “Senior Long Zhen, that person was hidden underneath the academy library, but we know not his identity….”
Long Zhen smiled. “Worry not, this old man scanned through his soul when I Extracted it and learned plenty enough. This person is a wandering soul cultivator from the Brocade Province. His name is Zhang Fanren. As you surmised, he was trying to infiltrate the academy and get ‘its’ attention. However, I was unable to find any information on the real mastermind. The most important information was hidden deep in his soul and I was unable to retrieve it. He has a few comrades with him, but since they’re not here, they must’ve fled by now….”
“Soul Scan!!” Bai Yunfei took a half-step back. Just as the name applied, the ability to scan souls meant one was able to look through one’s soul and view their memories!
“So….something like that is possible!” He exclaimed to himself. He himself was capable of something similar to this—like in the case of Qiu Bailu. By using the effect of the Charm Bracelet, Bai Yunfei was able to sift through Qiu Bailu’s memories. But he was only able to do that through a combination of luck and the application of his Charm Bracelet’s additional effect. Long Zhen was able to do the same thing with just a lift of his hand!
He wasn’t using the effect of an equipment or anything, this was just the application of his actual strength!
“When one becomes strong enough like that, will they be able to scan souls easily like that?” Bai Yunfei questioned, “But….what kind of level is that? A late-stage Soul King? Or maybe even….stronger than that?”
Wu Dijian narrowed his eyes at the name. “Zhang Fanren? I’ve heard of him before, but never did I hear anything about him joining any group….why is he here in the Capital? And if he was hiding underneath the library means he was prepared for this. His comrades….who are they?”
He looked over to Bai Yunfei. “Bai Yunfei, you were the first to see him, right? Was there anything out of the ordinary when you saw him?”
“Nothing.” Bai Yunfei shook his head. “I was only passing by the library when I saw him leap out from the ground. I saw him try to leave right before you came, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
“I see….then there’s no clues then….” Wu Dijian sighed in sorrow. “Forget it. I’ll speak to the chairman when he gets back. Not like this is the first time this happened. There’ll always be people who are plotting for ‘it’. Not strange at all….”
His mutterings surprised Bai Yunfei, ‘not strange at all’?! An intruder coming into the academy was….’normal’?!
And….’it’??
Bai Yunfei was curious. He already heard that there was ‘something’ underneath the academy, but to have people actually spying on ‘it’....what in the world was it??
As curious as he was, Bai Yunfei knew better than to think about things he didn’t have the answer to. Whatever ‘it’ was, it was a giant secret and a problem for the seniors to worry about. Bai Yunfei wasn’t nearly strong enough to be allowed in on this ring of seniors and had no right to know about whatever it was.
……
Afterwards, Wu Dijian cleaned up Zhang Fanren’s body while Long Zhen observed the blue-eyes wyrm’s situation. Bai Yunfei and Xiao Qi both stood nearby to watch the wyrm nervously.
A group came by some time later to speak with Wu Dijian. They conversed softly to one another for a moment before leaving together, indicating that they were from the academy and were here to investigate the source of the intrusion.
Bai Yunfei had never seen these people before, but they were all Soul Kings!
As things would appear, the object underneath the library was something extraordinarily important if the strongest of the academy were all here to come investigate the matter.
Time went by slowly after that. The moon was already drawing to an end on the other side of the horizon when all of a sudden, the wyrm suddenly lit up up in energy!
The night sky was interrupted by a tremendous outburst of energy. Shining and dazzling in light as it shined, the energy illuminated the area for an entire kilometer. Countless rays of black and blue light shone from the wyrm and then reconverged back onto it.
“Elemental water and elemental darkness….? When did Xiao Lan have an affinity for darkness? I remember that it only had an affinity for water when I first met him…..what in the world happened to Xiao Lan in that small moment we were apart in the Soulbeast Forest?” Bai Yunfei muttered to himself in confusion over the wyrm’s elemental darkness. He did notice before that Xiao Lan had a second affinity in it, but it wasn’t very clear before. Right now, Bai Yunfei could clearly tell this second affinity was for elemental darkness, and right now, it was almost as strong as its affinity for elemental water—which was very odd.
All of the elemental energy within a kilometer radius of the wyrm was forcibly attracted to where the wyrm stood. Before long, the wyrm was completely surrounded by a large ball of elemental energy so massive that Bai Yunfei took a step back in fear. Wisps of soulforce could be felt from within the ball of energy, and it was slowly growing stronger and stronger….
The owner of that soulforce was the blue-eyes wyrm!
“Roarrr!!!!!”
A draconic roar exploded into the air from where the wyrm stood. Like a surging torrent of water, the elemental energy in the area started to whirl around with the wyrm standing at the center!
With every breath, Bai Yunfei could see a blue and black ball of elemental energy grow in size. Pulsating like a heart, the ball of energy had light shine from its body with each ‘pulse’. Slowly, the ball started compress bit by bit. From several hundred meters to a hundred meters, then from several dozen meters to just ten meters….
Finally, the bicolored ball of energy shrunk to about three meters in diameter, but still big enough to fully hide the blue-eyes wyrm from sight!
But its soulforce was completely hidden inside of the ball!
……
Long Zhen smiled at the sight from his position far away. “Haha, it’s finally over.”
Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up with excitement as he tried to see just what was going on within the ball of energy and light.
“Crack…..”
There was a sharp cracking sound as a single line ran through the ball of energy, shattering the silence that had been there before. A dazzling glow of light poured out from the crack, and with it, a tremendous wave of soulforce exploded outwards!
“Ahh!!!”
The cracks over the ball of energy multiplied before a joyful cry could be heard from within. Like two halves of a shell, the ball of energy fell apart to reveal a large but built man inside!!
Blue and black light shined from behind the man so his face couldn’t be seen. However, this man was gigantic in size in that he looked to be at least two meters tall. He was muscular in frame and was like a tower of intimidating muscle.
Needless to say, this man was the blue-eyes wyrm!
It….no, the wyrm was now a he….
He was finally a class seven soulbeast and was now capable of taking human form!!