Upgrade Specialist in Another World

Bai Yunfei’s surprise was in turn surprising to Boss Hornet. Quickly guessing that Bai Yunfei must know the five, Boss Hornet quickly replied, “That’s correct. When I last saw them, two of the people from the Wood School were being attacked by two of the beast tamers.”

“When, and where?”

“It was about half an hour ago in that direction….” Boss Hornet pointed towards the left. It should be a twenty-minute run if you run full speed. Right by the river. By the time I left the battle was already very intense, I’m sure it’s already over by now.”

Bai Yunfei followed Boss Hornet’s finger to look, but he narrowed his eyes at what he heard. “Are you saying the people from the Wood School are already killed by the beast tamers?”

He didn’t really believe in that. Though the people from the Beast Taming School had the advantage in numbers, the Wood School weren’t ordinary soul cultivators. They were the best of what their school had to offer and wouldn’t be so easily killed by beast tamers.

“I only saw a bit of the fight before I left. The two people from the Wood School were ambushed by the beast tamers. I think there was also a few wandering soul cultivators from the Westward River Province with them before they were killed by the beast tamers during the three-way battle. The students from the Wood School had to be tired from that battle, I didn’t see their strongest student, Lin Zihao, there either. One of them was only a Late-stage Soul Exalt and the other a Peak Late-stage Soul Exalt, so…”

With how many people that were participating in the fight for the Extreme King Pills, it didn’t mean to say that everyone here was the best of what their particular faction had to offer. Some of the participants were merely the closest ones their faction had that could get there in time. For example, some factions had a few select strong people participating, but not their best. Several others had students conveniently located within the vicinity as well.

The students from the Wood School was a very good example of this. This group right here was comprised of the students who were training in the nearby provinces before they got the message to hurry on over to the Westward River Province. Of these students, their strongest one, Lin Zihao was conveniently there, but You Qingfeng and the other one with him were not strong enough to be normally considered for this competition had their school more time to evaluate the situation.

The Beast Taming School had the most time to prepare out of all the schools. Aside from Lin Dongxiao, the other three members with him were the elites of the school. They were stronger than You Qingfeng in every sense of the word, be it talent, skill, or strength.

“So you mean….Lin Zihao wasn’t with them?”

Bai Yunfei asked Boss Hornet.

“Ye—yes.”

From what Bai Yunfei remembered, the Wood School had only three people enter anyways. So that meant You Qingfeng had to be one of the two people fighting!

What little hesitation Bai Yunfei had before he listened to Boss Hornet was now gone. He had to head over to where You Qingfeng was as soon as possible!

You Qingfeng had been kind to him in the past. It wasn’t a particularly heavy favor, but it was especially special to Bai Yunfei considering how weak he was before. Like the favor with Zheng Kai, Bai Yunfei had never forgotten about it, so he didn’t dare daze about on his feet now that he knew one of his benefactors was in danger.

Boss Hornet knew just from looking at Bai Yunfei’s face that he was going to head on over to the battlefield. He hesitated for a moment, but he ended up saying, “I’ve said everything you asked for without lying. The battle’s over there, so could you spa—”

“You’re coming with me!” Bai Yunfei glared at him.

He took Boss Hornet by the right hand and immediately took off into the direction You Qingfeng was said to be.

But the moment Boss Hornet’s hand was latched onto, a fierce light crept into his eyes at the absurdity of the situation!

Bai Yunfei not willing to let him go was the last straw for Boss Hornet. No matter what, he wouldn’t allow himself to be controlled like so! He’d die if he was! Having nothing left to lose, Boss Hornet decided to put his life on the line in order to fight Bai Yunfei for it!!

With all things considered, Boss Hornet was a man who killed many many people in his life, so he knew just how dangerous cornered people could be. His current situation was already enough to push Boss Hornet beyond what fear could even induce onto a person, and now he was willing to do anything to survive.

A cornered rat would bite a person if need be, a desperate dog would climb a wall, and an anxious bee would sting a person if it had no other choice.

So Boss Hornet chose to fight for his life one last time!

“Die!!”

Eyes filled with all the utmost resentment he had for Bai Yunfei, Boss Hornet let loose a tremendous roar to bolster his courage. A jet-black dagger appeared in his hand as he swung it straight at Bai Yunfei’s heart!

But what he didn’t realize was that Bai Yunfei was smiling sinisterly in response to his actions….

“Halt!!”

As if uttering a chant, Bai Yunfei spoke one word and that word only with an imperative voice.

Then as if responding to his activation word, the Charm Bracelet on his left hand flashed once with white light!

Though Boss Hornet didn’t exactly come to a stop like Bai Yunfei expected when he said ‘halt’, the expression on Boss Hornet’s face looked exceedingly startled. As if some sort of mysterious power had slammed full force into him, Boss Hornet’s movements became extremely slow by several degrees over!

Bai Yunfei reached out with his right hand to slap the dagger in Boss Hornet’s hand away. At the same time, his left hand came up to yank Boss Hornet’s head!

“Look at me!”

He commanded. The expression on Boss Hornet’s face slackened immediately as his eyes met with Bai Yunfei, looking at him with such an attentive gaze that it looked like he was in love.

All emotion was quickly gone from Boss Hornet’s eyes now. His face was slugged like an idiot without emotion or thought as he continued to stare at Bai Yunfei.

Bai Yunfei’s eyes narrowed. Summoning his soulforce, he had the Charm Bracelet activate with light again. His soulsense swiftly penetrated into Boss Hornet’s mindspace to rummage through it!

This was a deviation of the mental link ability of the Charm Bracelet, soul scanning!!

In the chaotic ‘space’ that was Boss Hornet’s mindspace, Bai Yunfei could ‘see’ a series of mixed paintings. The vast majority of them were jumbled and undistinguishable, but there were a few that caught his eye….

One painting for example had an image of Crushed Stone River with a mountain of some sort there. There was also a painting of several people hard at work fighting one another, and another painting of the battle Bai Yunfei had just been in….

Though he called this ability ‘soul scanning’, it was but a poor imitation of what it really meant to Soul Scan. Soul Scanning was an extremely powerful ability that Late-stage Soul Kings were capable of doing to gleam information off of people. With the Charm Bracelet, Bai Yunfei could replicate that same ability to a lesser extent to look into someone’s mindspace and hopefully come across the information he wanted to see.

Because of the questions he asked Boss Hornet, the relevant memories of those events were fresher and more clear in Boss Hornet’s mindspace compared to the others. With these paintings, Bai Yunfei could confirm that he hadn’t been lying.

But those paintings wasn’t what Bai Yunfei was after. Scanning through them, he finally came to what he wanted to see most right as Boss Hornet’s mindspace was finally starting to collapse….

One painting in particular was very dark with one figure in there glowing with elemental energy. Even despite the illumination from that energy, the figure was hard to describe or even see. But the more the painting moved, the more Bai Yunfei could make out the features of the person….

    ……

“Plop….”

Boss Hornet’s body collapsed to the ground, his eyes vacant and his breathing non-existent.

Bai Yunfei’s ‘soul scanning’ was a method that essentially brute-forced its way through into a person’s mindspace when they were least prepared. It was a method that harmed the soul the more he rifled through their memories and would lead to the person’s death if Bai Yunfei wasn’t careful. Boss Hornet’s soul being extinguished was a result of such an event, and even though his face looked calm, his soul was gone and his person was dead.

“That person is Dongfang Ming eh….”

Bai Yunfei muttered to himself with some disappointment. He hadn’t been able to see very clearly what that person did to Huangfu Rui in the end.

Still, what little he saw was enough for Bai Yunfei to burn into his mind for the rest of his life….