Chapter 7: It Exploded?!

This time, Bai Yunfei was far more direct with his answer. Holding out his hand, he spoke, “Give it to me.”

The curls of the old man’s lips twitched ever-so-slightly and what seemed to be black lines fell down his face…..

Taking out a black ring from his robes, the man handed it over to Bai Yunfei, “This is a space ring. Inside it is a storage area where items can be stored. When your soulforce is fully awakened, you’ll be able to transmit some of your soulforce inside and take out the training exercise for your soul. Train yourself with this technique, and you’ll be able to grow stronger.”

Grasping the object, Bai Yunfei inspected the ring for a while. He looked to the old man hesitantly, as if he wanted to say something.

“What is it? Is there a question you wanted to ask?” The man smiled.

“Do you have any money? Give me some…”

“…………”

The old man handed over a bag of coins for Bai Yunfei to open. It was filled to the brim with golden coins, but he had only taken two coins from inside and bowed deeply to the man.

“Senior, I, Yunfei, will repay the kindness you’ve shown me today many times over when I have the chance!”

Watching Bai Yunfei walk farther and farther away, the old man’s smile slowly faded away from his face. After a period of silence, the old man sighed.

“Alas….this is already the fourth one….Will he be the one to solve the problems of my Fate School? This young one is especially special, it’s a shame I cannot interfere with his development too much….”

“Little one, be sure to not disappoint me too much….”

Upon his return to the city, Bai Yunfei decided to ‘splurge’ for the very first time in his life and rent out a room in an inn.

“I haven’t done anything at all yet and I’ve already have two debts to pay off….” Bai Yunfei muttered to himself from on top of his bed as he stared up at the ring in his hand.

Soon enough, a wave of exhaustion washed over him. It wasn’t just his body that was tired, he was also exhausted mentally. As such, it didn’t take long before sleep hit him.

For Bai Yunfei—someone who has lived all eighteen years of his life as a ‘lowly’ peasant—the experiences he had today and the future path he’d be walking later was a topic far too serious. Let us then allow him to rest for the night….

The next day, Bai Yunfei hid himself from afar to watch uncle Wu’s family go through the burying process with his corpse. Then, he rented out a simple but crude house on one of the more remote streets in the southern corner of the city for the time being.

He had taken two gold coins from the old man. A single gold coin was worth a hundred silver coins, and a single silver coin was the worth a hundred copper coins. To something who usually earned twenty coppers a day, two gold coins was a great sum of money to him. It was enough for him to live life in peace for a while.

In this small room, there was only three noticeable things. A cabinet, a bed next to the cabinet, and a window next to the bed. On the bed, Bai Yunfei held a brick in his hand.

With a thought, several strings of information had popped up in his mind. Wondering about it for a moment, Bai Yunfei spoke softly, “Upgrade.”

An instant later, Bai Yunfei had the faintest feeling that something had been drawn out from his body, causing him to feel light-headed.

“Yea, that feeling from back then was definitely because I spent too many ‘soulpoints’."

Two separate strings of notification popped up in Bai Yunfei’s mind, causing him to gasp, “Destroyed? Don’t tell me….”

It was then that Bai Yunfei felt his hand was far more lighter than before! Looking down, he immediately realized that the brick in his hand was reduced to mere powder on the ground!

“It…” Bai Yunfei was at a loss for words for a moment. “Destroyed….it was destroyed....Shouldn’t failing the upgrade mean a decrease in level? Why was it destroyed then?”

Staring once more at the pile of sand on the floor for some time, Bai Yunfei managed to calm himself after a while.

“I still don’t understand this Upgrade Technique enough….” After a moment’s thought, Bai Yunfei strode out from the room.

An hour later, Bai Yunfei was back on the bed with another brick in his hand. But unlike last time, he had several short daggers placed side by side on top of the cabinet. On the side, there were also a dozen bright-red bricks….

Already in front of him, a pile of red sand littered the floor.

“After +8, the item will be destroyed after failure. Only one brick made it to +9 out of three. Me being able to get a brick to +10 last time was only just luck then.” Bai Yunfei thought to himself as he stared at the pile of red sand. Taking a dagger into his hand, he thought, “Well then, let’s try this then.”

Not too long later….

Bai Yunfei shook his slightly dazed head, “Am I already at my limit? Let’s do some experimenting then….”

Taking the dagger into his hand, Bai Yunfei made a small incision on his finger.

“Upgrade….”

And then Bai Yunfei fell on top of the pillow prepared for beforehand and drifted away to sleep.

The next day, the warm sunlight was only just shining through the window and into the room when Bai Yunfei stretched out his arms lazily and sat up on the bed.

“I knew it. I knocked out after using all my ‘soulpoints’, but it comes back soon enough and can heal my body even of its wounds. That’s why I woke up at the Coliseum without any of the injuries earlier that day.

“And….I feel...I feel stronger now! It’s not my body though. I just can’t describe this feeling, but If I’m not wrong, this must be because my ‘soulpoints’ was increased after regenerating.

“Soulpoints, soulpoints….maybe….”

Bai Yunfei picked up the dagger that had fallen from the bed.

Upgrade Requirement: 12 Soulpoints

Thinking about it for a while, Bai Yunfei took a brick and placed it down in front of him. Hoisting the dagger up high, Bai Yunfei brought it down onto the brick with a “crack”.

In one swift strike, the brick fell apart as if it had been a piece of tofu cut in half!

“A +9 item is incredibly strong!” Bai Yunfei sucked in a deep breath of air.

“But it doesn’t have that dizzying effect, is it something only +10 items have?”

He took a dagger and a brick and upgraded both of them to +8.

His movements this time were very slow. Bai Yunfei would make a careful observation with each upgrade—and he could now just faintly feel the existence of the so-called ‘soulpoints’.

After one repetition of upgrades, Bai Yunfei could feel exhaustion start to hit him. The ‘soulpoints’ in him was already at a halfway mark it seems.

“Should I keep upgrading and use up all my soulpoints to see what happens?

“Nah, better take things slow first before I do anything harder. I don’t know if passing out like that will do me any harm, but it’s best to try this once a day. It should be a lot safer….”

Putting away the daggers and the bricks, Bai Yunfei took out the space ring the old man gave him yesterday night.

“So this is a space ring? Why does it feel familiar? I’ve never heard of something like this before….but this is something that can store things in it? I’ll be able to use this when I awaken my soulforce and become a Soul Apprentice…But when will I make this ‘awakening’? What exactly is a soul cultivator….”

“I wonder….” Remembering about the Upgrade Technique, Bai Yunfei’s eyes focused in on the space ring on his hand.

“High? It doesn’t have any attack, but its initial upgrade costs 5 soulpoints.” Bai Yunfei was astonished.

Thinking about it, Bai Yunfei decided to upgrade it just once to see the results...

“+1 Strength? Does this mean it can increase the physical strength of the user? How much is +1 anyways?”

Slipping the finger onto his right forefinger, Bai Yunfei clenched his hand tightly, but nothing out of the ordinary could be felt. Taking it off again, Bai Yunfei decided to upgrade it several times more until the feeling of dizziness came rushing back to his head.

Wearing the ring again, Bai Yunfei could this time feel a clear difference from now to last time. There was a distinct rush of power that rushed into his body, and in that instant, he felt as if he could shatter boulders if he wanted to.

But unfortunately, his mind felt extremely tired, as if he had been carrying rice sack after rice sack for the entire day. With no other choice, Bai Yunfei laid back down onto his bed and had a quick rest.

For a good while, Bai Yunfei slumbered in a drowsy but dazed state. He had no idea how much time had passed before he finally awoke. He wasn’t completely refreshed, but he was ready to go still.

He looked at the ring on his finger and reconfirmed its effects. That increase in strength really was something that existed.

Taking an ordinary brick into his hand, Bai Yunfei clenched both hands tightly so that the brick was snapped in half.

Testing again with a +8 brick, Bai Yunfei tried his best to snap the brick, but there was no reaction.

“The difference in strength is really huge! And when these items are upgraded, its definitely a lot sturdier….”

Bai Yunfei turned his head to look at the sky from behind the window; only to realize that it was already nighttime—an entire day had passed.

And then, another type of feeling arose in his head. “I’m so hungry….”

That evening, Bai Yunfei visited uncle Wu’s grave with a basket of offerings and a jug of wine.

Placing down the items, Bai Yunfei kowtowed three times in respect to the gravestone.

“Uncle Wu, Yunfei is here to see you. Please forgive me for not seeing you off in person when you were buried….

“Uncle Wu. You saved my life, so I’ll definitely make sure your death won’t be in vain. Your death and your granddaughter’s death is on Zhang Yang’s hands. I’ll be sure to make Zhang Yang pay for everything he’s done to us!”

He thought to that short period of time when he and uncle Wu came to meet each other. He thought about just how uncle Wu had looked to him with such kindly eyes filled with concern. He thought to when uncle Wu pushed him out of the way and when his blood spilled over Bai Yunfei’s face. And then, he thought to when uncle Wu was giving his very last words….

Completely unknown to him, Bai Yunfei’s eyes were already wet with tears. Turning to the sky, Bai Yunfei tried his best to prevent them from streaming down his face. But in his heart, an insuppressible flash of anger and resentment scratched and clawed at him, as if threatening to tear him apart.

Popping up the jug of wine, Bai Yunfei took a mighty swig from its opening. As soon as the inner contents touched his lips, a scorching sensation made its way through his throat and into his chest.

Shaking his head, Bai Yunfei took another sip. By now, his face was red, and his eyes were slowly turning red as if his blood was reaching them too.

But still, the anger and resentment he felt was still burning as bright as ever, like flames started with oil. By now, they were threatening to break their way out from Bai Yunfei’s body.

“Uncle Wu, I’ll definitely kill Zhang Yang. I’ll kill him with my own two hands!”

With one more look at the sky, Bai Yunfei drained the rest of the wine in one gulp.

“I, Bai Yunfei, swear by my heart that I’ll never let anyone control my life again! Never will I endure such humiliation again! I’ll trample over anyone that dare insults me! Anyone that offends me will have to be ready to pay the price!”

In a single instant, it felt as if something within his body shattered into pieces. A force of power rushed throughout his entire body, and the hand that was holding the jug of wine immediately swelled up so that the muscles were now bulging outwards.

The jug in his hand shattered into several dozen pieces of pottery, and the part where his palm had been in contact with the jug gave several crackling sounds. When his hand loosened, the remaining fragments clattered down onto the ground.