Chapter 89: Upgrade Complete
On the next brisk morning when Bai Yunfei had finished cultivating and was washing his face, Chu Yuhe brought him breakfast “on time”.
“Brother Yunfei, are you up? Master said that you just made a breakthrough and needed time to consolidate and had forbidden me from seeing you yesterday… How are you feeling now?” Chu Yuhe asked while placing a bowl of congee and several dishes of food onto a table.
“En, I’m fine. Yuhe doesn’t need to worry about me.” Bai Yunfei smiled.
“That’s great then. Brother Yunfei should eat something. I made this breakfast myself!” Chu Yuhe had a dainty smile on her face as she sat in front of Bai Yunfei. Resting her head on her lily-white hands, her eyes blinked repeatedly as she watched him.
Seeing how this girl was waiting with that ‘praise me’ expression, Bai Yunfei couldn’t help but laugh. His heart felt a happy emotion well up inside of him, “En, I’ve troubled you, little sister Yuhe.”
“It was no trouble. No trouble at all! Big brother Yunfei should eat quickly now.” Chu Yuhe’s smile grew even wider and happier.
“Oh, I forgot to ask. Is big brother Hong Yin still next door, has he eaten breakfast yet?” Bai Yunfei asked while staring at the door.
“Hehe, brother Hong Yin woke up a long time ago! Sister Qiu already gave him some breakfast earlier. Now the two of them are both at the lakeside looking at some dog.”
“Eh? Dog?” Bai Yunfei was taken aback before realizing something, “Oh, do you mean the Thunderwolf? Is brother Hong Yin trying to communicate with it again?”
“En, he is. Big brother Hong Yin is trying his best to talk with it, but it’s ignoring him. Even if Xiao Tang dances on its head or a finger is used to scratch its ear, there is no reaction.”
Bai Yunfei looked at the ‘mischievous’ look on her face before smiling, “Haha, don’t say that to Xiao Tang or else it’ll get angry and dump you into water.”
“Hmph, I wouldn’t even bother with it. How could a rat be so arrogant?” Chu Yuhe lifted her nose up in an adorable fashion, but she had stopped saying anything bad about Xiao Tang.
Bai Yunfei shook his head before suddenly remembering something. Taking out an item from his space ring, he spoke, “Ah, Yuhe. I promised to give you a present before, but the matters with the Glacial School took too long. Haha, take a look and see if you like this or not.”
With that, he gave the emerald-colored fish-shaped pendant to her.
“Equipment quality: Superior.”
“Upgrade level: +11.”
“Additional attribute: Agility +60”
“+10 additional effect: Movement speed increased by 3%.”
“Upgrade requirement: 34 soulpoints.”
This was the remaining piece of jewelry left over from Bai Yunfei’s yesternight attempt at upgrading. In the past he had prepared to give her a fish-shaped pendant as well, but the one now was far stronger than the fish-shaped one.
Chu Yuhe revealed an overjoyed expression at the pendant as she took it into her hands. Giddy, she exclaimed cheerfully, “What a beautiful little fish! I really like it. Thank you, brother Yunfei!”
“En, it’s good if you like it. Try it on, you’ll be even happier!” Bai Yunfei smiled with a mysterious tone to his voice.
“What do you mean? What will happen when I wear it?” Chu Yuhe asked. Curiously staring at the pendant in her hands, she finally began to put it around her neck.
“Ehhh? What a strange feeling…” A split second after wearing the pendant, Chu Yuhe felt stunned. Her mouth dropped open in exclamation.
Her current strength was quite weak, so an abrupt increase of 60 points in agility was a considerable increase to her.
Seeing the stupefied look on the girl’s face, Bai Yunfei gave a satisfied nod of his head. “How is it? Yuhe, do you feel even lighter than before? Let me tell you, when you wear this pendant, you’ll be even faster than before. Haha, how happy are you now? Do you like it?”
The girl was stupefied for a very long time before a look of excitement overcame her face. Staring at Bai Yunfei with stars in her eyes, she said, “Brother Yunfei, is this really because of the pendant? How magical! Did brother Yunfei make this?”
Bai Yunfei nodded. “En, this is your big brother Yunfei’s secret. This will also be Yuhe’s secret. You can’t let anyone else know this. Even if it’s your master or sister Qiu, you cannot tell them. Can you promise me that, Yuhe?”
Chu Yuhe’s face had gone as blank as a board before finally speaking earnestly, “En! Yuhe will remember this and won’t let anyone know about the secret behind this pendant!”
Bai Yunfei gently nodded his head before turning to eat the breakfast on the table. Chu Yuhe continued to happily play with the ‘magical’ pendant that was wrapped around her neck.
Now that he had given the upgraded pendant to Yuhe, Bai Yunfei didn’t have any more worries. The loveable little girl would definitely not reveal his ‘secret’ easily. No one would be able to figure out that such an ordinary-looking pendant would have such a particular effect unless they knew about it beforehand.
…………
After eating breakfast, Bai Yunfei and Chu Yuhe walked out of the bedroom together and headed for the lake. From far away, they could see Hong Yin and Qiu Luliu both sitting on top of stone stools by the lake. In front of the two were two large figures. Aside from the Thunderwolf, there was the gigantic Giant Goldeye Ape.
One of Hong Yin’s hands was pressed against the head of the Thunderwolf as he gathered his spirit and tried to ‘communicate’ with it. Xiao Tang was on the head of the Giant Goldeye Ape, and continued to leap and jump while tweaking its ears in an attempt to ‘bully’ the ape. However, there was no response from either creature. Their eyes were void of spirit, and there was no physical reaction at all.
Bai Yunfei stood to the side and gave a nod to Qiu Luliu. Without disturbing Hong Yin, he just stood behind Hong Yin without a word.
Chu Yuhe walked up to Qiu Luliu’s side and the two women later walked a few steps away. Their voices were quiet as the little girl began to ‘show off’ her recently acquired gift. Naturally, she only let Qiu Luliu feel the pendant with her hand. She told Qiu Luliu that it had a ‘cute’ and ‘exquisite’ appearance without ever mentioning its special use.
Half a moment later, Hong Yin finally opened his eyes. With a dejected sigh, he waved his hand to recollect both beasts.
“Brother Hong Yin, what happened? Did it fail?” Seeing Hong Yin act this way, Qu Luliu took two steps forward to ask.
Nodding, Hong Yin replied in a low voice, “There was simply no progress at all. Actually, I knew it was a futile attempt, but still… ai!”
“Brother Hong Yin, please don’t be discouraged. I’m sure that you’ll find a way!” Qiu Luliu gave some words of comfort when she saw the look of frustration on Hong Yin’s face.
Sighing, the look of frustration drained from Hong Yin’s face as he turned to Bai Yunfei with a smile. “Yunfei, how did last night’s cultivation go? How much longer do you think you’ll need to consolidate your newly acquired strength?”
“I feel that it’s going well. Nothing bad has happened so far. I think that, at most, it’ll take another five or six days before I get a full grasp of being a middle Soul Sprite.” Yunfei nodded.
“Ai, Yunfei. Why is it that I feel that each word you speak is like a physical blow to me? Really. I can’t afford to be lazy anymore. I must practice hard to increase my strength. Little sister, let us return to cultivate…” Qiu Luliu gave a feigned and exaggerated faint as a joke before pulling the still confused Chu Yuhe toward the other courtyards. In truth, she realized that there was something both Bai Yunfei and Hong Yin wanted to say to each other; therefore, she had made an excuse to leave first.
Watching the two girls leave, Bai Yunfei smiled to Hong Yin and waved his right hand. The Bloodhowl Fang appeared in his right hand before he handed it over back to Hong Yin.
“Eh? You really finished that fast?” Hong Yin was startled, and skeptically picked it up with his hands.
The moment the Bloodhowl Fang touched his hands, Hong Yin’s eyes flashed brightly and he immediately shut his mouth to stop from saying anything more to Bai Yunfei. His face carried a look of seriousness as he studied the weapon in his hands with rapt attention.
The Bloodhowl Fang was his weapon, so he was extremely familiar with it. With a detailed examination, his eyes brightened even more as a thunderstruck expression overcame his face.
“Middle-grade heaven-ranked! Middle-grade heaven-ranked! It actually increased a rank….” Hong Yin had a look of utter disbelief as he spoke.
Hearing his words, Bai Yunfei’s eyes suddenly flashed with realization, “When the attack power reaches over 3000, does it become a middle-grade heaven-rank? For them, they rank a soul item based off of its attack and defense. Naturally, they never had an ‘additional effect’ before… but with the Upgrade Technique, it shows off the original quality. For example, the Flameblade Bracer was originally a low-grade earth-ranked item before I upgraded it. But after upgrading it to +12, brother Hong Yin said that it was a high-grade earth-ranked item. That must be because after the upgrades, the cumulative sum of the attack or defense power was enough to become a high-grade earth-ranked item…”
“This really is too crazy to be true. Yunfei, just how did you manage this? In a single night, a low-grade heaven-ranked soul item became a middle-grade one. If news of this were to leak into the world of soul cultivators, do you know just how big of a clamor this would make? As far as I know, even a talented senior of the Crafting School would find it incomparably difficult to increase the ranking of a soul item. Back when my adoptive father first made this item, the Bloodhowl Fang was only at the high-grade earth-rank. It was only after an enormous payment that a senior of the Crafting School managed to use countless of materials and an entire month to bring it up to the heaven-rank. Even after that, he had been forced to take a dozen days of closed door cultivation to make up for the exhaustion. But you…” Hong Yin thought about how it had taken a single night to increase the quality of the item with a seemingly calm expression, but he had no idea just what to say to Bai Yunfei next.
“Oh? The senior of the Crafting School is truly amazing!” Bai Yunfei hadn’t paid attention to the lack of ‘compliment’ by Hong Yin since he had been shocked by what Hong Yin had said about the Crafting School.
According to what he now knew of the properties of upgrading a soul item with the Upgrade Technique, a high-grade earth-ranked soul item had an attack or defense power between 1200 to 2000. After the Firetipped Spear and Flameblade Bracer were upgraded, they were considered to be low-grade heaven-ranked soul items between 2000 and 3000. For the soul items past 3000, they were middle-grade heaven-ranked. For the time being, Bai Yunfei had no idea just what it would take to be considered a high-grade heaven-ranked soul item.
If the Bloodhowl Fang was at its prior high-grade earth-rank level, then it would have roughly 1200 attack power at the very least. Even if it was upgraded ten times, it would add another half of its attack strength, meaning that it would be able to make it to the top of the high-grade earth-tier. However, a man of the Crafting School had been able to bring it to the low-grade heaven-rank!
Hong Yin’s lips twitched. He simply had no idea how Bai Yunfei would be able to easily upgrade a soul item to such an extent. Just how would a senior of the Crafting School be so amazing in comparison…