Chapter 267: Powerless

“Xinyun!!”

Bai Yunfei cried out as he rushed to her side. Grabbing her wrist, Bai Yunfei was just about to send in his own soulforce when he realized that it’d only serve to add to her pain. Whipping his head to Xiao Binzi, Bai Yunfei pleaded, “First elder… I beg of you to find a method! You’re a Soul King, a mighty Soul King!! Please save Xinyun!!”

Xiao Binzi’s face was ashen. Even though he was a Soul King, he had no power here. For the first time in twenty years, Xiao Binzi really felt powerless when he looked at Bai Yunfei’s anxious face. If Xinyun had been a little stronger, she would have been strong enough to handle the pain long enough for someone to send their soulforce into her body to burn away the foreign energy. Then they could treat her wounds, but since Tang Xinyun was only an early-stage Soul Sprite, the enemy energy was far too strong for her body to even withstand. Anything else would only make her wounds worse.

Bai Yunfei turned away from Xiao Binzi to Cang Yu next, “Third elder, Xinyun is your own disciple. Please, save her!”

Pained, Cang Yu turned to look at Xiao Binzi, “Senior,” she sighed, “We’ve exhausted all our other options… we may as well try to use her essence fireseed and hope that it’ll be enough…”

“But that way, Xinyun will…” Bai Yunfei protested.

To force Tang Xinyun back to the Soul Warrior realm would be the same as making her give up training in elemental fire. Even though she could continue to train in the path of elemental wind, Tang Xinyun had traveled a long way to reach the Crafting School to train in the art of crafting and elemental fire.

There was a reason Tang Xinyun desired power, and she had told Bai Yunfei about it once long ago. Everything she was doing was for the sake of growing strong enough to protect her mother…

That’s why it was like a dream come true when she finally joined the Crafting School. Even more fulfilling was her feat at becoming a disciple of the third elder. Thanks to being able to condense her essence fireseed, she was able to craft her own soulbound armament and learn the art of crafting.

To use up her essence fireseed today would destroy all the hope she had built up at this point! Her crisis might pass if her essence fireseed was used up, but she would never be able to train with elemental fire even after she fully healed!

Bai Yunfei didn’t even want to imagine how he’d be able to face Tang Xinyun when the time came…

“We’ve no choice,” Cang Yu shook her head, “Protecting her life comes first. Even if we must use her essence fireseed, Xinyun will still have the opportunity to pursue another element…”

“But… but…” Lost, Bai Yunfei tried his best to wrack his brain for an idea before swiftly coming to a suggestion, “Oh! We’ve Xiao Bai! Xiao Bai is Xinyun’s soulbeast partner! If we give Xiao Bai soulforce, Xiao Bai can give Xinyun its soulforce! She can be saved that way!!”

Moving to Xiao Bai’s body, Bai Yunfei was just about to transmit his soulforce into Xiao Bai when Xiao Binzi pulled him away.

“Yunfei, it’s useless. If it was possible, we’d have done so already… Xiao Bai is a soulbeast partner with Xinyun, so their soulforce is indistinguishable from one another. Our soulforce through Xiao Bai would be rejected nonetheless.”

“What!” Nearly as fast as his hope lit up, Bai Yunfei found himself plummeting back down into despair. “Then what do we do? What should we do—

“—oh! I’ve got it! The wind spirit mushroom!” In his moment of desperation, yet another suggestion came to mind. “Xiao Bai can eat this wind spirit mushroom! It can eat it for soulforce, I’ve a wind spirit mushroom right here!”

Like a drowning man grasping at a low-drooping tree branch to save his life, Bai Yunfei pulled the wind spirit mushroom from his space ring and presented it to Xiao Bai. “Xiao Bai! Eat it! This’ll help you recover your soulforce and get better!”

“Chirp…”

Though the reply was weak, Xiao Bai was clearly able to understand Bai Yunfei. Opening its beak, the bird quickly swallowed the mushroom.

This wind spirit mushroom was nearly a thousand years old. The previous headmaster Zi Jin might have said that this one was only ‘slightly rare,’ but that was still the evaluation of a late-stage Soul King. If a fifth-tier flying scorpion was safeguarding it, the effects of the mushroom would surely be abnormal. After Xiao Bai ate it, its entire body began to glow bright with a green light in what was clearly a sign of it becoming stronger. With renewed soulforce, Xiao Bai began to transmit it into Xinyun’s body in large enough droves, clearly helping Tang Xinyun...

Hopeful, Bai Yunfei continued to stare intently at Tang Xinyun as if to watch her progress. On the other side, Xiao Binzi sighed to himself and shook his head. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself as if he couldn’t bring himself to actually say it.

Several minutes later, Bai Yunfei’s hopeful expression was dashed once more when he noticed the soulforce Xiao Bai gained from the wind spirit mushroom started to die down. In just a short few minutes, it was completely gone from Xiao Bai’s body, and Tang Xinyun was barely better than before.

Then her injuries started to worsen.

That was when Bai Yunfei realized that this method was for naught as well…

A feeling of dread and powerlessness far more potent than before crept into Bai Yunfei’s mind and sapped his strength. He staggered away from her bed far enough that Song Lin had to catch him. Song Lin then brought him over to sit on a nearby stool for him to look at Xinyun in despair.

“Sigh…” Cang Yu looked at Bai Yunfei with a pitiful gaze. “Senior, should we use her essence fireseed then?”

Xiao Binzi nodded as he stepped toward her bed.

Right now, that was the only method left...

“Nothing can be done. I can’t do anything…” Bai Yunfei muttered to himself despondently as if trying to apologize to Xinyun. The more he muttered, the more his face scrunched together in anguish and his eyes grew even more frantic. “I’m useless, just useless!!!!”

“Aaaahhh!!!!”

“Bang!!”

A crack echoed through the room as the exquisite purplewood table exploded into powder. Bai Yunfei’s fist had slammed into it before he ran out the room.

“Yunfei!”

Song Lin yelped before chasing after him.

“Song Lin, don’t bother…” Cang Yu stopped him, “It’s no use. Yunfei is very emotional right now, leave him alone to calm down for now…”

……

Outside the room, Bai Yunfei tore through the small courtyard like a berserk bull straight for the halls of the Xiao. In no time at all, he came crashing into Xiao Er.

As soon as Xiao Er saw Bai Yunfei, he paused slightly in surprise, “Brother Bai?” He said, “What brings you here? Actually, good timing, I was just ab—”

“Bang!”

He hadn’t even finished speaking before Bai Yunfei slammed into Xiao Er. Grabbing at his clothes, Bai Yunfei threw him into the nearby rock garden.

Flying into a rock with so much force that Xiao Er’s body cracked it, he let out a hacking cough as a mouthful of blood escaped his mouth.

“Br—brother Bai, what, what do you mean by this!?” Since he was far weaker than Bai Yunfei, Xiao Er was in no position to properly defend himself. Even now, he wasn’t quite sure what in the world Bai Yunfei was doing, so he didn’t know how to respond to this.

The veins in Bai Yunfei’s right arm were bulging as he lifted Xiao Er into the air.

Both of his eyes were practically glowing with a bright red light as he snarled, “Accessories! Give me the accessories! Right now!!”