Under the moonlight, a group of people walked down the street one after another. Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai led the front with the former dipping his head low as if he had just been caught doing harm onto a child. Behind him, Fang Tianmeng followed dutifully with Ye Yu next to her.

Bai Yunfei came to a stop when they reached the intersection of the road they were on. “Fang Tianmeng,” he smiled at her, “you should be able to return back to the academy from here by yourself.”

“Ah!” Having nearly run into his back with his sudden stop, Fang Tianmeng eeped in response. She had been afraid that Bai Yunfei would yell at her, so the fact that he said absolutely nothing at all about it surprised her. “Ye-yes....instructor Bai.”

Bai Yunfei nodded before turning to the other male with her, “Are you from the academy too? What’s your name?”

Somewhat fearful of Bai Yunfei, the young man managed to bow still under his gaze. “This student is named Ye Yu. Fifth year student of the fire section and once a classmate of Fang Tianmeng....”

“I see....” Bai Yunfei smiled, “And that person with you before, was that your friend?”

“Yes....” Ye Yu started to nod, but then thinking about that person brought forth a wave of repulsion and anger. He shook his head immediately, “No, he’s no friend of ours, we don’t need a cowardly person like him as our friend!”

Seeing the look of disappointment and sadness on Fang Tianmeng’s face, Bai Yunfei replied, “A situation like that always brings out a person’s true character. You won’t be dealing with him in the future, I hope.”

Not willing to remark any more about the personal lives of his students, Bai Yunfei nodded towards Ye Yu, “It’s time for you to take Fang Tianmeng back, can you do that?”

Blinking twice, Ye Yu nodded his head, “I’ll definitely bring Tianmeng back safe and sound!!”

“It’s a crowded straight, what kind of danger is there? You sound as if you’re tasked with trying to cut open a mountain, haha....now hurry back home.”

......

Bai Yunfei took Zheng Kai down another street once the two of them were alone on the way back to Zheng manor.

“Zheng Kai, do you know what happened?” Bai Yunfei asked him on the way.

“Hm? Know what?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Bai Yunfei ribbed him, “Can you not tell me about it? Me losing control was something definitely strange. What do you know about it?”

“Oh, that’s what you meant...” Zheng Kai ‘realized’. “Well....I know a little bit, but I thought you were fine before and didn’t really think much about grandfather’s words until now...”

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“Zheng Tianya? What’d he say?

“Does it have to do with me being hit with the Soul Refining Palm?!”

“It does. It’s a side effect of having your soul being damaged. My grandfather said before that even with your insane recovery, your soul is still damage. It healing in less than a month is impossible. You losing emotional control was rather light this time, and it won’t impact your training. It won’t be long before you heal, so I wouldn’t worry much.”

“Will it?” Bai Yunfei muttered, “Is this the side effects? I see....Is that why I had such a strange feeling somewhere in my soul? Losing control over my emotions can be trouble, I have to make sure I don’t get too caught up in my emotions then....”

His Soul Sentinel Scarf had been healing his soul ever since he was hurt in the first place. But throughout that entire time, Bai Yunfei felt slightly ‘empty’ inside. As if there was a piece of his soul missing. Was it his ‘self-control’ then, that was gone?

With this small interaction just recently, Bai Yunfei felt it imperative not to have a repeat of that. There’d be trouble for sure if he killed someone by accident like this....

......

It was with great concern that Bai Yunfei looked inwards onto his soul when he got back to Zheng manor. But he didn’t find any sort of ‘problem’. It was as if there wasn’t anything wrong, and his earlier slip up in emotional control had only been an illusion.

Fruitless in his search, Bai Yunfei gave up in favor to think about what the first prince had said to him earlier that day.

He had a good impression of Wu Ren, one that was even better than the one he had for the second prince, Wu Zhuo. From his talks alone, Bai Yunfei hadn’t the feeling that Wu Ren was trying to recruit him like Zheng Kai said. It seemed more like the prince was curious about Bai Yunfei and wanted to get to know him as a person. There hadn’t been any requests, and he instead got a place to live in without doing anything.

When he thought about the room, Bai Yunfei took out the slip of paper with the address written on it from his space ring. “North Seventh Street....that seems familiar, doesn’t it? I....I think that’s the street with the teahouse that uncle ‘Dan Teng’ owns, right?”

He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the uncle he met back in Casino Jin. “What a person that uncle is. What was that place called again? The ‘Soothing Heart’ teahouse? I should take a look there another time....”

Even though he had his own place to live in, Bai Yunfei still had to go over and take a look. If it was to his liking, then he’d go and live over there. Having a place to himself would be nice after all.

But after the things that happened today, Bai Yunfei couldn’t help but feel worried about the ‘side effects’ to his damaged soul and went into meditation.

......

For that same reason, Bai Yunfei didn’t step out from his room the next few days to meditate and train instead. Whenever someone from a powerful family or group sent an invitation to him, the Zheng would decline on his behalf.

A few days later, Bai Yunfei left with Zheng Kai again to walk for Tianhun Academy. It was time for another class.

Zheng Kai was happy. Today, his family would no longer restrict him going in or out. Perhaps it was because of the fact that the unknown enemy wouldn’t be going after him again like before, but it seemed the other families had heard about it as well, and Huang Bin, Chen Qiantan, and the others were also ‘free’. So Zheng Kai planned that night to have a great feast planned for dinner.

This time, Bai Yunfei was now acquainted with the academy grounds and didn’t need Zheng Kai to guide him, letting his friend flirt with girls as he pleased. With his three soulbeasts, Bai Yunfei headed for where classes would be held—up in the Back Mountain.

But when he stepped beyond the gates to the back of the academy to get to the mountain, he was stopped by a person....