“Late-stage Soul King!!”

The aura of the newcomer hit elder Wu immediately. She couldn’t help but gasp, her eyes filling up with fear. She cast a quick glance over to Long Lan, silently conveying to him that absolutely no action should be taken against this person.

Because of the orange light still shining from the person’s face, it was impossible to see what this newcomer looked like. All that could be seen were the eyes, which looked a little dark when they saw Bai Yunfei seated on the ground. The person averted his gaze over to Xiao Qi, Long Lan, and then elder Wu. “Who are you three?” The person asked.

“This one is from the Underworld School. This young friend is Bai Yunfei, a disciple of senior Zi Jin of the Crafting School. And these two are his soulbeast partner and fellow soulbeast...might this one ask for your illustrious name, senior?” Elder Wu bowed.

Elder Wu was an Early-stage Soul King, a person who by right was strong in comparison to the worldly average. But in front of this person, she was someone who couldn’t call herself to be equal and so decided to use Bai Yunfei’s name to hopefully pacify the person in front of them.

“Oh?”

The person raised a surprised eyebrow and turned back to look at the wary-looking Xiao Qi. He smiled.

“No need to worry, I would never harm any of my precious juniors...”

“Your precious juniors?” Elder Wu asked, “Senior, are you...”

By now, the orange light was completely gone from his person and his aura was now fully brought to control. “I am called Xiao Binzi.”

“Xiao Binzi!!” Elder Wu exclaimed, “The first elder of the Crafting School?!”

This person was the first elder of the Crafting School, Xiao Binzi!!

“The first elder?” Xiao Qi was similarly surprised. “Are you Yunfei’s senior then?”

“Indeed. Let me through and I’ll see how he’s doing.” Xiao Binzi nodded and strode forward to take a look at Bai Yunfei.

“No!!” But Xiao Qi chirped in defiance to stop him in his tracks. “I don’t know you, who’s to say you’re not who you say you are? Wait until Yunfei is done healing and then we can talk! He doesn’t need your help to heal!”

“Hm...” Both Xiao Binzi and elder Wu looked slightly taken aback from Xiao Qi’s defiance.

Elder Wu was all the more surprised at the courage Xiao Qi had. The person in front of them was a Late-stage Soul King. He didn’t have to lie and pretend to be someone else if he wanted to harm Bai Yunfei since he had the strength to do so without obstruction. And to lie about his identity with someone of that status would surely be foolhardy.

But Xiao Qi didn’t care for that. Bai Yunfei was injured, and someone he didn’t know was trying to get close to Bai Yunfei. There was obviously no way Xiao Qi would allow for such a thing. In any case, Bai Yunfei’s Dual Flame Artes wasn’t something that an outsider could easily help with the recovery process.

Xiao Binzi furrowed his eyebrows, but he didn’t seem angry at all. He gave Bai Yunfei a small look before turning away in another direction. “Very well,” He muttered, “let him heal for now. I’ll be back in a moment, do not leave his side until then.”

He rose higher into the skies after that. Like a shooting star, he took off towards the area where the other students from the Crafting School were currently absorbing the Extreme King Pill fragrance.

......

A while later.

“Whew...”

Bai Yunfei drew a long heavy sigh from his lips and opened his eyes. His face looked far healthier than before, though still a ways away from being fully healed. At the very least though, he’d be able to move about without much difficulty.

“Bai Yunfei, are you alright?” Elder Wu asked as soon as she noticed his waking.

“Thank you for your concern, senior Wu. I should be fine now. Nothing a few days rest can’t heal.”

“That’s good then,” She sighed in relief. “The first elder of your school came by a while ago. He went back to Crushed Stone River when he saw you were meditating and said he’d be back in a bit.”

“The first elder?” Bai Yunfei blinked, “Elder Xiao Binzi is here?!”

“Yes.” Elder Wu nodded her head. “A few of the students came as well. They should be fighting for the Extreme King Pills by this point and are most likely being protected by him right now.”

“The Extreme King Pills!?” Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows nearly flew off his forehead. He had nearly forgotten about such an important thing. “What’s it looking like over there right now?!”

“I’m...not very clear myself.” Elder Wu shook her head. “The pocket folded in onto real space before it collapsed and brought everyone out. The furnace with Extreme King Pills came out with them, but you weren’t there with the rest. Xiao Qi said you were in danger, so we came here at once just in time to see the burst of energy from your fight and knew something was amiss...”

She felt worried herself. She didn’t know how the students from her own school were faring and really wanted to go back and check herself.

Bai Yunfei looked off in a distance. Not feeling anything of any difference, he spoke, “Then let’s reconverge with the others.”

......

Flying on the Tempest Sword, Bai Yunfei followed elder Wu and the others back to Crushed Stone River where the others were. Several other streaks of light soon flew over to where Bai Yunfei was and came to a stop. When he saw who the people were, Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up with joy.

“First elder!” He bowed first to Xiao Binzi before looking to the two males and female with him. “Brother Song, brother Li, sister Lingmin, you’re all here too!”

With Xiao Binzi was one of the head students of the Crafting School, Song Lin. There was also the students of the second and third elder, Li Tiechui and Lian Lingmin. The three of them were one of the strongest the Crafting School had to offer in students.

“I’ll be taking my leave to check on my own students, senior Xiao. We will be back in a moment.” Elder Wu bowed to Xiao Binzi before flying off.

The three students were also overjoyed to see Bai Yunfei. After greetings and such were given all around, the group settled down on the mountain nearby.

“First elder,” Bai Yunfei looked to Xiao Binzi. “When did you all get here?”

“About half a day ago.”

“Oh?” Bai Yunfei looked to Song Lin. “Then did you go into the pocket, brother Song? Did you reach the mist mountain and get the Extreme King Pills?”

“We went in and arrived at that mountain, yes, but the pocket was already on the verge of collapsing and the mist was starting to disappear by that time. We could see a lot of people fighting at the top too. The pocket collapsed before we could get to the top, but we were all brought here afterward.” Song Lin smiled. “Luckily, we were relatively close to the furnace before it was destroyed and took in a good amount of the Extreme King Pill fragrance. Not bad, all things considered.”

“The furnace was destroyed?!” Bai Yunfei exclaimed, “It was destroyed? The fragrance? What do you mean?”

“Too many people had their eyes on the furnace,” Song Lin laughed bitterly. “And with so many people fighting for it, it was inevitable that there’d be chaos over it. Lin Dongxiao from the Beast Taming School brought out a class seven soulbeast puppet and started to fight over the cauldron, in the end...”

He told the story of what happened. How the furnace exploded when too many people tried to pull it towards them. How the Extreme King Pills in the furnace exploded into a fragrance that everyone started to absorb. “We had to go into meditation after we took in all that fragrance. We couldn’t move, and we couldn’t start fighting. It wasn’t until the fragrance was gone when we started to wake again.”

Bai Yunfei was amazed by the story. He didn’t think that the fight for the Extreme King Pills would have an ending like that. It wasn’t half-bad though. A decent amount of people got what they wanted at the very least, it wasn’t a wasted trip.

“How do you feel now? Feel close to a breakthrough after taking in all that fragrance?” He asked the three.

“It’s not that easy,” Song Lin smiled, “though admittedly, the fragrance has done a lot for us. My body feels like it’s still being improved many times over. I’ll need a while before I can see how close I am. I’ve a feeling though becoming a Soul King won’t be a problem anymore. It won’t take long.”

Not every Soul Exalt could become a Soul King. Many Peak Late-stage Soul Exalt would be unable to breakthrough in their entire lives and would be forced to remain as a Soul Exalt until they died. For Song Lin to mention this possibility only symbolized how effective the fragrance had been for him.

“Hey, Yunfei. Why didn’t you come to get the Extreme King Pills? The first elder said you were fighting someone somewhere else? What happened? You don’t look well either, are you alright?”

Song Lin asked.

“Ah...it’s a long story, but don’t worry, I just used up more soulforce than I thought, that’s all.” Bai Yunfei sighed.

“I’ll tell you what happened later, I’ve a few friends here that I’m waiting for before I say it...”

He turned his head back, “Actually, they’re on their way here now.” He smiled.

A group of people was already heading towards Bai Yunfei’s group. To the left were the three elders, Xu Ran, and Han Yue. To the right were Zheng Kai, Jing Mingfeng, and the others.