Book 1 Chapter 2: Item Upgrade Technique
Enduring the severe pain in his body, Bai Yunfei slowly stood up from the ground then looked in stupefaction at that ferocious youngster in front of him.
“How… How could I do that kind of thing? Just now, it seemed those movements were only natural. I… What’s going on?”Now Bai Yunfei had regained his consciousness completely. But when he recalled his attitude in front of that young girl moments ago, he really did not dare to believe that he himself had behaved like that… Were these young masters and young ladies from wealthy families people that someone like him could offend? They simply would not care about the life of a commoner like him!
Thinking of this, Bai Yunfei stood up from the ground with some difficulties. Not daring to look at the 2 people before him, he bowed humbly, saying: “I’m sorry, young lady… I really didn’t intend to offend you. I hope a great person like you would forgive me…”
“Forgive you? You lowly pleb, do you think my little sister Meng’er is someone you can touch? Your lowly life will end right here, right now!”Grinning hideously, Zhang Yang stared at Bai Yunfei like he was a dead man. He started to stride towards him, blue veins popping out on his right fist. With every step he took, his right arm seemed to grow a bit larger.
Bai Yunfei slightly looked up. As soon as he made eye contact with Zhang Yang, he felt a stabbing pain in his head. A quiver coming from the depths of his soul swept through his entire body, making him drop to and sit on the ground again.In his eyes, Zhang Yang, who was walking towards him, seemed to have turned into a terrifying demon who was rushing at him with extended sharp claws and could squash him to death like an ant with just a light squeeze.
“Zhang Yang, stop… Did I ever say I wanted him dead?”Just when Yunfei felt that he was about to collapse, a heavenly voice rose. The pressure on his body immediately eased a little.
Zhang Yang halted his footsteps, turned around to look at Liu Meng and said doubtfully: “Meng… Liu Meng, this pleb offended you so he should die, shouldn’t he? I’ll teach him a lesson for you to vent your anger.”
Liu Meng slightly frowned and cast a somewhat displeased look at Zhang Yang, saying: “I am not ‘yours’, please pay a bit more attention when you talk…” After that, she cast a seemingly inadvertent look backwards and continued: “Plus it doesn’t seem to me that this person was pretending he was in a trance. Moreover, even though he offended me, there’s no need to take his life either…”
Bai Yunfei gazed at Liu Meng with a somewhat stupefied expression on his face: “She… is pleading for mercy for me? What a reasonable young lady from a wealthy family. She’s like a fairy…”
“In addition, he already took a kick from you just now. He’s seriously injured too. Let’s consider that he’s been punished.”Liu Meng looked at that tangluhu skewer bought by Bai Yunfei just then, which had dropped to the ground. Perhaps because she thought of something, her eyes glittered for a moment. She unexpectedly smiled at Yunfei: “Ha ha, besides, he already compensated me with tanghulu. It’s just that you knocked it down…”
As Bai Yunfei saw this smile, his heart unexpectedly started to beat faster in an uncontrolled manner. His face also burned a bit. His head felt somewhat dizzy as well: “She… is really beautiful…”
Seeing Liu Meng go as far as to smile at a lowly commoner, Zhang Yang’s eyes flashed with a hint of ruthlessness again. He said: “How can we let him go so easily? At least that hand must be chopped off! I…”
“Yang’er!”An awe-inspiring voice suddenly interrupted Zhang Yang. That middle-aged man, who had been some distance behind the two of them originally, had got in front of them.
“Father!”
“Uncle.”
Both Zhang Yang and Liu Meng said respectfully — This man was none other than Zhang Yang’s father, the master of the Zhang family, Zhang Zhenshan.
“Meng’er is right. As a soul cultivator, how can you bicker like this with this kind of people? You even want to kill him in the street. Are you not afraid of causing the Zhang family to lose face?!”That middle-aged man reprimanded, seemingly rather discontent with his son’s behavior.
A moment ago, Bai Yunfei was taken aback when he heard Zhang Yang said he wanted to cut down one of his hands. Now, hearing the this middle-aged man say so, he immediately let out a breath of relief.But at this moment, that middle-aged man slightly cast a glance at him. In just the blink of an eye, Yunfei suddenly felt as if his own body was in an ice cellar. Even his soul was trembling. An oppressive aura many times greater than that of Zhang Yang surrounded his body completely, making it exceptionally hard for him to even breathe.
Fortunately, this kind of feeling disappeared in an instant. Yunfei was breathing heavily as if he was exhausted with bean-sized beads of sweat sliding down his face nonstop.
“Your mother is still waiting for our return. Don’t delay again.” Seeing that his son was still somewhat dissatisfied despite saying nothing, Zhang Zhenshan said casually: “If your anger is still not vented… it’s okay to let your servants teach this guy a lesson.”
Zhang Yang did not dare to say anything anymore. He gave the servants on one side a hint with his eyes. This party then continued to go towards the city’s center.
There were two servants who did not leave with them and, instead, ran towards Bai Yunfei with a ferocious expression. Bai Yunfei had heard Zhang Zhenshan’s words just then so he knew that it was impossible not to take this beating today. If he resisted, there would be a very high chance that he would be injured even more severely. So he had no choice but to curl up, protect his head and let these two men beat him up for a short period of time.
Having gone a long distance, Zhang Yang slightly cast a look backwards in an unnoticeable manner, his eyes filled with jealousy and hatred. But when he turned back to Liu Meng, he immediately assumed the image of an elegant young nobleman and continued to politely introduce Luoshi City to her.
Dragging his heavy body, Bai Yunfei moved back home bit by bit then pushed open that tottering door. There was only a simple crude bed inside the narrow house. The bright moonlight was shining through the several big holes in the roof so it was not very dark inside the house either.
Everything sellable in the house had already been sold. Originally he had had another house next door but it had been sold as well.
Bai Yunfei sat on the bed, his eyes staring at the roof somewhat absently. He massaged the places on his body that had been beaten black and blue. As he massaged them, his tears disappointingly streamed down — unwilling, humiliated, helpless — so what? It was impossible for him to change this… Bai Yunfei stroked the jade pendant hanging on his chest. His tears had stopped streaming down. This was a white cloud-shaped pendant about the size of a thumb. It was somewhat crudely made. One could tell at first sight that it was not made of a good material. But because it had been kept next to his skin and gently stroked by him for years, it looked especially glossy and even slightly gave off some light — this was the only memento Bai Yunfei’s mother had left him.
“Mom… Is there really any point for me to live this kind of life?”Bai Yunfei murmured while looking at the jade pendant in stupefaction.
“One day, when my little Yunfei grows up, he will be like a white cloud in the sky, floating freely without constraints…”
His mother’s loving words seemed to be resounding in his ears again. Bai Yunfei forcefully wiped the tears on his face then slapped his own face.
“I can’t be like this! Mom’s birthday is about to come. I still must save some money to repair mom’s and grandpa’s graves. I can’t let mom see me unhappy!”
After several deep breaths, Bai Yunfei slowly calmed down and began to think about what he had encountered today.
“What was wrong with me? On the street… it seemed I wasn’t myself. How could I go and provoke those young masters of rich families…”
“Though now I’m still myself… a great deal of new, odd things seem to have appeared in my mind… I can carefully feel them, but I’m always unable to recall them clearly.”
“Could it be I’ve worked too hard recently so hallucinations occurred? But I didn’t feel anything unusual before that.”
Bai Yunfei slapped his head with force several times again. It seemed he was trying hard to search for something in his head once more.
“Item Upgrade Technique… What is this?”
Right at this moment, the bed under him suddenly shook for a short period. He nearly fell down from the bed.
“Oh, it’s loosened again? This bed is really…”
Bai Yunfei bent down and saw that a leg of the bed on the left had become shorter by a length. Originally there had been something put under it to raise it, but just then he had moved about on the bed so that thing had already moved to one side.
Bai Yunfei picked up that thing from under the bed then weighed it in his hand — it was none other than a brick.
When he was about to get up and put it back under that leg of the bed again, a string of information suddenly popped up in his mind.
“Item grade: Normal.”
“Damage: 9”
“Upgrade requirement: 1 soulforce.”
The sudden appearance of these pieces of information gave him a start, his hand trembling. The brick then fell to the ground and the information in his mind disappeared.
Bai Yunfei looked around in a somewhat fearful manner but did not discover anything. After a long time, he finally put on a brave face and picked up the brick again. As expected, the information appeared. When he put the brick on the floor, the information in his mind disappeared. When he picked it up again, that information reappeared.
“Indeed… This points to it, right? But what does upgrade mean?”
“Upgrade…”
Just as this thought appeared in Bai Yunfei’s brain, he felt an emptiness in his mind. It seemed something in the depths of his soul had gone missing, but it was also indescribable. In just an instant, this kind of feeling disappeared.
“Upgrade successful.”
This piece of information flashed across his mind. He lowered his head and looked at the brick in his hand again.
“Item grade: Normal.”
“Upgrade level: +1.”
“Damage: 9”
“Additional damage: 1”
“Upgrade requirement: 2 soulforce.”
Bai Yunfei felt that the brick in his hand seemed to be a bit heavier than before and also seemed to be sturdier than before. It was impossible to tell if this was his illusion or not.
“Some more information. Damage… indicates power, right? When I upgraded it, the power increased? What the heck is this? Or am I dreaming?”
Bai Yunfei pressed an injured place on his waist and it hurt so much that he took in two breaths of cold air — he was not dreaming.
“This… Could this have something to do with my abnormal behavior in the evening?”
Bai Yunfei pondered hard for a good while again but still ended up without a thread so he simply stopped thinking. This did not seem to have any disadvantage and he himself did not feel unwell either.
“If I continue to upgrade it… what will happen?”
This kind of curiosity could not help emerging in Bai Yunfei’s mind.
“Upgrade.”
That feeling of his heart skipping half a beat appeared like a flash again. Yunfei hurriedly stared at the brick.
“Upgrade successful.”
“Item grade: Normal.”
“Item upgrade level: +2.”
“Damage: 9”
“Additional damage: 2”
“Upgrade requirement: 3 soulforce.”
Yunfei brandished the brick and always felt that it seemed to have become even sturdier.
“Let’s upgrade it a few more times and see…”
Not long after that…
“Upgrade successful.”
“Item grade: Normal.”
“Item upgrade level: +6.”
“Damage: 9”
“Additional damage: 6”
“Upgrade requirement: 7 soulforce.”
But when Bai Yunfei upgraded it again, the result this time was different.
“Upgrade failed.”
“Oh? Failed? What does this mean?”
He took a look at the brick and saw that the upgrade level had changed from 6 just then to 5.
“So it can fail as well… And a failure causes a drop of 1 level?”
Now Bai Yunfei’s mind was full of curiosity. He had been captivated by this ‘interesting’ thing like a child who had found a novel toy.
He no longer took a look after each upgrade. Instead, he simply stared at the brick in his hand while saying nonstop in his mind:
“Upgrade.”
“Upgrade.”
“Upgrade.”
Bai Yunfei was somewhat excited. But when he was engrossing himself in saying so, he suddenly felt light in the head, as if his soul had been exhausted abruptly. His mind gradually became fuzzy and he slowly fell down on the bed.
The moment before he lost consciousness, he vaguely felt a string of information flash through his mind:
“Upgrade successful.”
“Item grade: Normal.”
“Item upgrade level: +10.”
“Damage: 9”
“Additional damage: 16”
“+10 Additional effect: Attacks have a 1% chance of stunning the target for a maximum of 3 seconds (when attacking the head, the chance of stunning increases to 5%).”