Book 1 Chapter 53: Original property of the soul
“What?” Bai Yunfei asked in puzzlement, having yet to react to the old man’s sudden change of topics.
Frowning slightly, the old man felt it carefully again before finally letting go of Bai Yunfei’s wrist. He slowly returned to his original place, sat down and lowered his head in contemplation without saying a word.
“Senior, did you say there’s the elemental force of ice in my body? What does this mean?” The old man was silent like that but Bai Yunfei was somewhat worried. From the few words the old man had said just then, he could tell that there was something wrong.
Instead of answering his questions, the old man lifted his head and stared at him for a long time with a strange expression. Eventually he said: “How did you cultivate your soulforce?”
“How did I cultivate my soulforce” Bai Yunfei said doubtfully, “I just cultivated it according to the cultivation method you gave me. What’s going on? Is there anything wrong?”
“Is there anything wrong?” The old man’s expression looked even stranger now, “Could it be you don’t know long it takes other soul cultivators to cultivate their soulforce?”
Bai Yunfei was stupefied. After thinking for a bit, he said: “Of course I know. I’ve got a friend whose cultivation speed is slightly faster than mine, er… It’s possible that I’m not talented enough…” At this point, Bai Yunfei scratched his head in a somewhat embarrassed manner, thinking that he had reached this level only because of using the Upgrade Technique as a shortcut and that he was actually far inferior to Li Chengfeng.
“What did you say?! There’s someone who can improve even a bit faster than you?!” The old man’s eyes popped out of his head again. He even could not help raising his voice a lot, “Who is he?!”
“Oh, he’s called Li Chengfeng. He lives in a village not far from Luoshi City to the east. He… Senior, I already gave him the cultivation technique and even the two soul technique scrolls you gave me. You… You won’t blame me, right?” Bai Yunfei asked the old man in a somewhat embarrassed manner.
Now the old man’s face had already slackened slightly. For someone extremely powerful like him to lose his composure like this, it could be seen clearly that he had suffered a massive shock.
Another while later, seeming to suddenly remember something, the old man frowned slightly. Then, no longer paying attention to Bai Yunfei, he leaned against the large tree and lowered his head. Nobody knew what he was thinking.
Seeing him like that, Bai Yunfei did not disturb him again. He had no choice but to suppress the impatience in his mind and wait anxiously on one side.
After a long time, the old man seemed to have finally thought something over and his expression had also returned to normal. He raised his head and said to Bai Yunfei: “Sonny, if I guess correctly, you fought someone from the Glacial School earlier, right? Was your opponent Zhang Zhenshan of that Zhang family?”
“Oh? How do you know?”
“Ha ha, don’t forget that I knew you wanted to get revenge. Didn’t I warn you that if you want to revenge yourself on Zhang Yang, you must be careful of Zhang Zhenshan and the Glacial School?” The old man shook his head slightly, “But your current power was unexpectedly enough for you to have a fight against Zhang Zhenshan then run away. This is very good already. Though the opponent inflicted internal injuries on you, since you ran into me again, plus, this was caused by the guidance of your own fate, I’ll help you this time!”
Bai Yunfei immediately had a happy expression. Just when he wanted to go forwards and ask the old man to help him get rid of the so-called ‘elemental force of ice’ in his body, the old man waved to him, saying: “You don’t have to panic. Waiting for a while won’t kill you. You see, because of your appearance, I haven’t even eaten the rabbit meat.”
Now the old man’s mood seemed to have suddenly become much better. He laughed and made a wave of his hand towards the fire in front of him. That fire immediately floated to one side and stopped when it was one meter away, continuing to serve as a source of light. The old man reached out his hand and took a swing at the air. That rabbit, which had been roasted to the point of being glossily golden and smelling delicious, was cut in two right away. He made a grab at one half and pulled it towards himself, but the other half floated up to Bai Yunfei’s face.
“Looks like you’re very hungry too. Let’s eat first. We’ll talk about other things later.”
Looking at the roast half rabbit in front of him in stupefaction, only after several seconds did he react. He hurriedly reached out his hand, grabbed the meat and looked at the old man again, who had already started to eat leisurely. It was not good for Bai Yunfei to say anything again, and he was really very hungry so he put aside all his questions and began to devour the roast meat in his hand.
Not long later, this old man and this youngster both sat on the ground somewhat idly, chewing the bones in their hands slowly. The old man appeared to be in a very good mood at the moment, having even temporarily discarded the manners of a senior expert like himself.
“Alright, now get over here. I’ll get rid of that elemental force of ice in your body for you.”
Hearing this, Bai Yunfei immediately had a happy expression. He hurriedly walked up to the old man and looked at him in a somewhat nervous manner.
The old man reached out his right hand and grabbed hold of Bai Yunfei’s right wrist as before. The moment he was grabbed, Bai Yunfei felt a warm stream of soulforce rush into his wrist from the old man’s palm. It then went a round in his body from his wrist. However, the soulforce this time seemed to be a bit fiercer, faster and also warmer than it had been last time. Of course, Bai Yunfei did not feel any discomfort. Instead, his whole body felt warm, and even his soul was surrounded in a warm feeling, which was extremely comfortable.
“It’s alright now.” That comfortable feeling suddenly disappeared and the old man’s indifferent words came into his ears.
“It’s… It’s alright now?” Hearing this, Bai Yunfei asked in some disbelief.
“You’re okay now. It was just a small problem. You were hit by the opponent’s attacks that contained the power of a natural element. The elemental force of ice entered your body. Though you seemed to repel most of it at the time, some of it still hid in your body. But you’re too weak so you couldn’t notice this. If this hidden elemental force isn’t disposed of, when you fight another soul cultivator who also controls the elemental force of ice, it will erupt, putting you in danger.”
“This, this is still considered a small problem?” Hearing the old man’s words, Bai Yunfei was frightened inside.
“It was certainly a small problem to me. Don’t worry. Just now I already neutralized that elemental force of ice for you and left it in your body in the form of pure energy. It’ll be a bit of a help to your cultivation.”
Bai Yunfei still touched his body from head to toe worriedly but did not notice anything unusual. In the end he had no choice but to give up.
He pondered about this danger, which he himself had been unaware of and which had now been ‘dealt with’ in such a strange manner, but did not have a clue so he shook his head and did not think about it anymore.
“Right, senior, I want to go to Cuiliu City, but…I’m already lost. Please tell me the right direction.” Suddenly remembering the most important problem he was faced with at the moment, Bai Yunfei asked in a somewhat embarrassed manner.
“Cuiliu City? Just go straight in this direction. You’ll reach it after two days.” The old man gave him a strange look then said while casually pointing to a direction.
“Oh, thank you very much, senior.” Bai Yunfei secretly let out a sigh of relief, rejoicing in the fact that he finally knew the right direction. He then walked to one side, sat down and lowered his head thinking about something.
“Sonny, now you want to go to Cuiliu City to head for Beiyan Province later, right? Why do you want to go there?” Seeing him remain silent, the old man asked somewhat curiously.
“I want to go to Pingchuan Province to join the Crafting School and learn its skills.” Bai Yunfei raised his head and said, as this did not need to be concealed either, “I think by the time I reach that place, I will have already broken through to the Soul Sprite stage. I don’t know much about cultivation and have already learned the method for the first three stages so at that time I’ll need the guidance of a master.”
“Will have broken through to the Soul Sprite stage by the time of reaching that place? This brat… how can he mention the improvement of power as if it was a piece of cake…?” The old man whispered to himself in his mind, but did not show signs of amazement again. He nodded slightly, saying: “Oh, you want to join the Crafting School? This isn’t a bad choice. Given your power, when you reach the Soul Sprite stage, as long as the original property of your soul and the elemental force of fire are not too incompatible, you can choose the fire element. It’ll definitely be very good for your development after you join the Crafting School…”
“Original property of the soul?” Bai Yunfei said curiously, “I knew very little about these things. Please tell me about them, senior.”
“The first three stages of a soul cultivator involve controlling the body. The next three stages, Soul Sprite, Soul Ancestor and Soul Exalt, involve controlling the natural elements. As for the last three, you don’t need to know about them yet.
“Elemental forces are the forces of the elements in nature. Among them, the five elements, namely Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, plus Wind and Lightning are the most commonly seen properties of elemental forces. The other elements, such as ice, cursing, space, and even the ‘fate’ my Fate School cultivates are also elemental forces.
“Each person’s soul has its original property, which is the most suitable property to cultivate. An original property contains at least one element and can also contain several. When you reach the Soul Sprite stage, you’ll have to choose one one element to be the main property of your cultivation. It’ll be the property that will go with you for the rest of your life and that you can control the most proficiently. Of course, after becoming powerful, you can also choose to cultivate the forces of other elements at the same time.
In fact, after you reach the Soul Sprite stage, the soulforce cultivation method will still be the same as before. Only, the absorption of elemental forces in nature will be added to it. During practice, you’ll use your soul to sense the elemental force affiliated with you in your surroundings then draw it into your body to train the body as well as to become more familiar with it. When your soul becomes more familiar with and closer to it, it’ll get easier for you to control, and stronger too.”
Bai Yunfei kept silent, trying to digest these pieces of information.
After a long time, he raised his head and asked again: “Could you please tell me a bit about soul items and soul techniques as well?”
“You really don’t know anything…” The old man shook his head and continued: “Soul items are divided into three tiers: heaven, earth and human. Each tier consists of three levels: high, middle and low. Soul techniques are also divided into the same tiers and levels.”
“The spear I gave you is a low earth-tier soul item. It contains an extremely powerful elemental force of fire. But you’re not strong enough at the moment so you can’t unleash its true power. When you reach the Soul Sprite stage, you’ll be able to really use it. Coincidentally, you want to join the Crafting School, so you’ll have to choose to cultivate the elemental force of fire. In that case, I was right to give you this spear at that time.”
Bai Yunfei looked at the Fire-tipped Spear in his hands thoughtfully: “There are three tiers: heaven, earth and human. The Fire-tipped Spear’s grade is ‘low inheritance’, corresponding with ‘low earth-tier’. This means, ‘human-tier’ corresponds with ‘rare’, such as the Glacial Pierce and the Goldsilk Soul Armor… How about ‘heaven-tier’? I wonder what grade the Upgrade Technique classifies it as…?”
While pondering, Bai Yunfei seemed to suddenly remember something. He raised his head and said in a somewhat embarrassed manner: “Right, senior, I owe you a great debt of gratitude but I still don’t even know your name…”
The old man was surprised then cursed laughingly: “This brat, only now do you remember to ask for my name? It’s okay to tel you my name. I’m Ge Yiyun. This name is kind of famous in this continent. If you run into any small problems later, I allow you to use it to intimidate people…”
“Er, thank you very much, senior…” As his little calculation was seen through, Bai Yunfei laughed quite awkwardly.
“Alright, this is it then. I still have something to do and need to leave right away.” Without a warning sign, Ge Yiyun stood up all of a sudden and said to Bai Yunfei, “Sonny, you must grow up a bit faster. Don’t disappoint this old man…”
After saying these words, he turned around and left without hesitation. In just several blinks, he disappeared into the darkness of the night. Bai Yunfei was stupefied for a good while and did not even react to this…