Chapter 195: Ending and Profit! (Second)

“Ten steps! I just need ten more steps! I can’t give up here, I just can’t!”

Howling almost furiously to himself, Bai Yunfei stalked forward with soulforce coursing rapidly through his body so that it’d move his legs forcibly.

His right foot lifted up ever so much, and with a forward motion, his leg stepped back down onto the ground!

“Even if I can’t become a disciple. Even if I can’t take a high-earth tier soul armament. I will take this bracer!” Blood streamed forth from Bai Yunfei’s mouth in a steady flow now. Grunting, he took another three steps forward!

The air around him was starting to heat up; his sweat was evaporating as quickly as it was appearing. In Bai Yunfei’s eyes, determination and grit shined brightly.

“How could I stop here? Why should I stop here!? I can’t stop here! I won’t stop here!!” Bai Yunfei howled yet again to himself. By now, his vision was so blurry that Bai Yunfei felt like he’d come crashing to the ground any second now.

“Haaa!!!” Bai Yunfei howled out loud. A furious burst of soulforce exploded forth from his body and materialized into a brilliant pyre that surrounded both his surroundings and his very person!

“Clak! Clak! Clak! Clak…” The clattering sounds of footsteps echoed through the cave, and not before long, a hand extended from the burning pyre that followed the footsteps and closed around the dark-golden bracer!!

…………

……

Early the next morning, the morning wind was only just starting to caress the world beneath it. The previous day had brought rain to the world, and today had not quite yet recovered from it. Therefore, the sky was still cloudy.

There was one person who sat on top of a giant boulder roughly several kilometers away from the courtyards in the Western Point. This figure sat by himself in solitude and looked up at the sky as if he were disappointed at something.

It was Bai Yunfei.

……

Barely half an hour passed by before a sigh escaped from between Bai Yunfei’s lips. Returning his gaze to the newly-acquired dark-golden bracer on his left arm, Bai Yunfei fell into a deep trance.

Upgrade Level: +10

Defense: 890

Additional Defense: 478

+10 Additional Effect: When defending, there is a 15% chance to reflect 30% of the damage done. The amount of damage reflected cannot go above what the equipment can handle and is ineffective against long-range attacks.

Upgrade Requirement: 91 Soulpoints

There was a smile on Bai Yunfei’s face. It was a sad one, but it was also mixed with a feeling of gratefulness. As it were, Bai Yunfei was completely conflicted with himself.

This would be the greatest thing he managed to gain from the examinations of the Crafting School.

In the end, Bai Yunfei had fallen at three thousand seven hundred meters, meaning he was unable to obtain any of the high-earth tier soul armaments.

Three days had already passed since that day.

Whatever happened after that examination, Bai Yunfei himself wasn’t too sure. All he could remember was that his soulforce exploded out from him due to his reluctance to give up, but in the end, he still ended up losing consciousness. By the time he had woken up, nightfall was already coming to the second day after the examination—Bai Yunfei had been knocked out for two days and one night.

And so, the latest examination of the Crafting School came to an end.

Of the twenty-eight people that made it into the inner school, five of them stopped before three kilometers. Seventeen of them stopped before four kilometers. Four more dropped before five kilometers, and only two managed to make it to the five kilometer point!!

By rights of the examination, those two would be given the right to become disciples of the headmaster or the first elder. Of course, these two lucky people were Ye Zhiqiu and Tian Yuhang.

If he were to rank himself, Bai Yunfei would be placed within the top five.

Everyone was carried back to the Western Point after the examination came to an end. For the time being, everyone would be given time to recover until the next day where the Crafting School would decide which student would be allocated to which peak.

The Crafting School had five peaks, with four of them being named after the four cardinal directions. Never had the first elder ever selected a disciple, so the Northern Point was a forbidden zone where no one was allowed entry without express permission. The third elder was responsible for managing the female students on the Eastern Point. The Southern Point was managed by the second elder and his students, and the Western Point was managed by the fourth elder, but the fourth elder had never accepted a student before and had never taught any in person either. Aside from taking in students and acting as the head of the Western Point, he never involved himself in the matters of the inner or outer school.

But no matter what, any new student would be accepted into either the Western, Eastern, or Southern Point.

No single point was higher in hierarchy than the other of course. The only difference between the points was who was in charge of it.

Mo Xiaoxuan had given Bai Yunfei a quick and concise summarization of the aforementioned subject when he woke up, but Bai Yunfei fell back asleep as soon as Mo Xiaoxuan finished speaking. It wasn’t until morning that Bai Yunfei woke up and did a quick upgrade of several soul armaments to alleviate his mood, but to do that, he had to be alone first. That’s was why he was taking in the wind here at this current moment.

Bai Yunfei had looked forward to joining the Crafting School for so long already. He didn’t know that it’d be divided into the outer and inner school or that there’d be a difference between students and disciples. Thus, he hadn’t thought about it before, but when he realized that he had a chance to become a personal disciple and that Ye Zhiqiu and another kid had earned the right to be one, Bai Yunfei came to another sombering realization. He as a person wasn’t an equal to either of the two, and that was something that made him extremely vexed.

In the eyes of anyone else, being able to join the inner school would be enough to be called a genius, but Bai Yunfei was a person that was always too caught up in trying to ‘compare’ himself to everyone else…

……

Silently touching the dark-golden bracer on his arm, Bai Yunfei continued to bask in his silence for a while longer. He closed his eyes and let out a long drawn out sigh.

By the time he reopened his eyes, the look of disappointment was gone. The usual look of determination was back in Bai Yunfei’s eyes.

“Even if my talent at crafting isn’t as good as theirs, that isn’t the end of everything. I’m not a genius soul cultivator, but I can improve just as fast! What everyone has, I might not have enough, but they don’t have what I have!!”

“So what if I didn’t get a high-earth tier soul armament? This mid-earth tier bracer will be just as good as one!”

“Not being a personal disciple isn’t bad either. I can still practice the art of crafting as a student of the inner school. As long as I can learn enough, I can combine it with the Upgrade Technique. I’ve no doubts I’ll be able to blow past the others then!”

Bai Yunfei eyed the bracer on his arm with a faint smile on his lips. He was happy that such a revelation came to him so quickly before he could spiral any deeper into depression. Muttering to himself, Bai Yunfei said, “Since you can return the damage done back to the owner, I’ll call you the ‘Returner Bracer!’”

With a flip of his right hand, an ordinary dagger popped into it.

Upgrade Level: +10

Attack: 761

Additional Attack: 365

+10 Additional Effect: When attacking, there is a 12% chance to inflict bleeding onto the target for a duration of sixty seconds.

Upgrade Requirement: 87 Soulpoints

His eyebrows narrowed at that, “Bleeding means that if I can’t even hurt the enemy, the effect won’t activate…”

Of the additional effects so far, dizziness, blindness, and knockback were all effects that just required contact with the enemy to activate. Even if the opponent blocked it, the trigger conditions would still be met, but bleeding and reduced healing speed were effects that had to be inflicted on the opponent by a direct attack on top of the already meager chance of it activating.

Aside from the two earth tier soul armaments, Bai Yunfei managed to grab hold of several other soul armaments from the examination. Namely, a high-human tier long sword, a middle-grade human tier leather armor, and a low-human tier dagger. Even after they were upgraded, Bai Yunfei wasn’t all too pleased with the results.

Just then, the sounds of footsteps behind him forced Bai Yunfei to store away the dagger and look behind him in surprise…