“Lord Feng...Lord Feng...wake up...”

A voice was calling out to him. Feeling something shake his body, a hazy-minded Qin Shoufeng roused from his slumber two seconds later. He opened his eyes as he awoke and paused briefly as memories of what happened to him started to flood back into his head. He reflexively kicked off against the ground to adopt a defensive position.

“Uh...lord Feng, what are you doing?”

It was Sun Jian’s voice that was speaking to him though, and not Mo Ni. Blinking several times, Qin Shoufeng’s eyes registered the figures of Sun Jian, Zhang Qian, and several other acquaintances who were all giving him an odd stare.

His highly-strung nerves were beginning to loosen now. Dropping his arms, Qin Shoufeng stared at them for a second and shook his head. He was feeling a little dizzy.

“Are you alright, lord Feng? Did you perhaps drink too much? Should I call for someone to bring you some sobering tea?” Sun Jian asked.

But Qin Shoufeng didn’t even hear his words. He was still looking around the room as if looking for something.

There should have been someone else in the room, but he couldn’t put his finger on who. Something had happened to him a while ago, but he couldn’t think about what it was either...

His period of silence was ended with him looking at the people around him. “Was I asleep just now? What were you all doing? Did anyone come into the room?”

“Anyone? Not at all. There are people guarding the room outside, so no one was able to come in...” Zhang Qian shook his head. “You drank too much and fell asleep. We must’ve drunk too much too, I still feel a little muddle-headed and woke up recently as well.”

Zhang Qian felt a little odd himself at the words he was saying. Qin Shoufeng might’ve been drinking without his soulforce to counteract against the effects of the alcohol, but it was still unlikely that he’d drink so much to an extent like this.

They must not be used to drinking without using their soulforce.

That’d explain things.

“Strange...was I just dreaming, then?”

Qin Shoufeng muttered under his breath. He couldn’t shake off that mysterious feeling he was having, but he wasn’t ready to continue thinking about it. “It’s getting late, so let’s return back to our homes then...”

“Eh?”

Everyone looked surprised at his suggestion, but if Qin Shoufeng was saying so, no one could disagree.

Zhang Qian suddenly spoke up before they left the restaurant. “Lord Feng, we’ve all decided to go participate in the auction tomorrow, will you be coming too? I heard there’s a lot of wonderful things. Let’s see if there’ll be anything you might like.”

“An auction?” Qin Shoufeng asked, “Fine then. There’s nothing to do at home anyhow.”

His family and the Tianhun School were in cooperation for this auction house, but he never had much interest in the auction to begin with. Qin Shouhao planned on bringing him with him to learn how to manage the auction before, but Qin Shoufeng thought it was too much work and refused.

Without anything more needed to be said, the group split up at the restaurant to return home...

......

Two figures stood high up in the night sky to look at the figure of Qin Shoufeng as he walked home. It was only when he was back home that the two looked away.

It was Mo Ni and the Black Dragon King. “What do you plan on doing now?” The Black Dragon King asked Mo Ni, “That was an art forbidden by tour school to use without the proper permissions. Should your father learn about this...”

Mo Ni sneered, “Relax, no one will find out. Who’d even know? It’s only a day or two, there won’t be any traces left. I doubt anyone will find out.”

“I would hope so...” The Black Dragon King frowned. “When will you be putting your plan into action then?”

Mo Ni turned to look at the center of Swallow City. “That Bai Yunfei didn’t do anything after crafting a mid-heaven tier soul armament. I wonder what he’s doing...but if he’s staying in Swallow City, he has to be participating in the auction tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the day!”

......

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The area he was looking at was the inn Bai Yunfei was staying in.

Right now, in the room in question.

Xiao Qi was resting on top of a large bed. He was bored out of his mind. Eyeing the Core Stone nearby, Xiao Qi sighed, “What’s going on...it’s been three days already. Didn’t he finish crafting that soul armament yesterday? What’s he doing now?”

A knock on the door roused him from his boredom, “Pardon me. I am Liu Chengfang, head of the Liu in Blueshell City. I’ve heard lord Bai is staying in this room, I would like to pay my respects...”

“You should be respecting our privacy! No visitors! How many times are you going to annoy us before I get angry? Stop bothering us!”

Booming with annoyance at the umpteenth visitor, Xiao Qi let loose a wave of soulforce through the door.

“Par—pardon my intrusion!” Came the response before the person went scampering away.

All was silent once again.

“Come on now. I might as well eat the next person to come up...” Xiao Qi groaned.

Their room had been visited from a wave of people nonstop after Bai Yunfei managed to craft the mid-heaven tier soul armament. Even Soul Kings or people from powerful schools and families were a part of that visiting list.

There had been several people with more guts than brains that attempted to scan the room with their soulsense. This was met with a wave of soulsense from Xiao Qi, resulting in grievous injuries on their behalf. No one dared to do such a thing afterward, and visits became limited to knocking on the door for an audience. Xiao Qi didn’t treat those types of visits well either and chased all of them off.

Visitors had petered off after enough time, and the last person had been the first since morning became noon. Clearly, he was a person who didn’t believe in the rumors that Bai Yunfei wasn’t taking in visitors.

“Didn’t he say he was going to see the auction today? It’s going to be too late if he doesn’t come out...”

As he was speaking to himself, a pulse of energy from the center of the room caught Xiao Qi’s attention.

Two figures came stepping out from a distortion in space a moment afterward.

“Yunfei! You’re finally out!!” Xiao Qi chirped in joy. Flapping his wings, he took off to fly not towards Bai Yunfei, but to Xiao Bai on Tang Xinyun’s shoulder.

The two birds then immediately started to engage in a series of birds chattering incomprehensible to the human ears.

Bai Yunfei stooped over to take the Core Stone into his hand before he secured it around his necklace. “Xiao Qi, has anything important happened?”

He and Tang Xinyun had been completely focused on crafting and training while they were in the Core World, so neither persons had paid attention to the passage of time. Even now, Bai Yunfei was afraid he might’ve missed the auction.

“Tomorrow’s the auction, so don’t you dare miss it.” Xiao Qi chirped, “Didn’t you finish crafting yesterday? What took you so long?”

“So refining the chaotic energy took an entire day...”

“Something came up after I crafted that soul armament. Did anything else happen other then?”

“Yeah! I nearly died of boredom!” Xiao Qi groused before telling them what happened with all the visitors.

“Did such a large Worldly Phantasm appear when I finished?” Bai Yunfei looked surprised. A Worldly Phantasm was a mysterious phenomenon where a large amount of energy gathered, much like with a King’s Phenomena. For it to happen in the real world meant that the energy in the Core World wasn’t enough.

“Then...that means everyone knows I’m here? It’s normal for them to try and visit, but don’t worry about them. We’ll be leaving after tomorrow. Did Mingfeng come looking?”

“Jing Mingfeng?” Xiao Qi chirped, “He didn’t.”

Bai Yunfei pressed his eyebrows together. Jing Mingfeng surely had to have seen the Worldly Phantasm when he was done, was there a reason why he didn’t come for it when he was done?

“Forget it. We’ll see each other tomorrow.” Bai Yunfei sighed. “Xinyun, you must be tired after watching me craft. Rest for a while, we’ll be heading early to the auction tomorrow.”