Bai Yunfei aimed a punch onto Jing Mingfeng’s shoulder to laugh at him, “You’ve some first-rate acting, you know that? If not for the auction house, I really would’ve thought you were somebody else.”

“Of course,” Jing Mingfeng snorted, “take a good look at who I am. Master of disguise! How could I possibly be discovered so easily?”

He held his hand out. “So where’s my soul armament, ol’Bai? Hurry up and give it to me.”

“Hey, you’re a really blunt one.”

“Hehe, of course! I’ve been waiting for this soul armament for so many years now! Let me tell you, I was about ready to leap out my window when I saw that commotion of yours the other day! I really did want to go then, but you had so many people coming your way. Soul Kings one after another! So I stayed in my room.

“But enough about that, hurry up and let me see how powerful my soul armament is.”

Deciding not to keep him in suspense any longer, Bai Yunfei took out the dagger he had made for Jing Mingfeng to look at. “It’s a high-heaven tier soul armament and is similar to how your ‘Blackwind Dagger’ was refined. Try it yourself. I also gave it the name ‘Black Phantom’.

“Black Fandom [1]?!” The first thing Jing Mingfeng did was take the dagger into his hand. The second thing was to stare at Bai Yunfei in shock, “Damn!! Why did you give it such a specific name like that?!”

“What?” Bai Yunfei blinked. “It’s an ordinary name, what’s so ‘specific’ about it?”

“How can this not be called specific?! You’re singling out a specific...” Almost bewildered by the reaction he got, Jing Mingfeng looked away from the dagger to glare at him.

“Oh...Black Phantom...”

“Well, yeah. Black as in the color, and phantom as in the being of darkness. What were you thinking about?”

“Ah...it’s nothing...” Embarrassed by his slip up, Jing Mingfeng concentrated on the dagger in his hand. He had noticed a small design of a cloud and two words etched on the hilt of the dagger. ‘Black Phantom’.

This was a habit Bai Yunfei picked up as of late. He’d inscribe a small cloud on the soul armament whenever he crafted one. A name would also be given if it was particularly powerful.

The words Bai Yunfei said to Jing Mingfeng caught up to him. Snapping his head up, Jing Mingfeng cried out, “Hold on!! Ol’Bai, can you repeat what you just said? This...this soul armament is...high-heaven tier?!”

“Yeah. It’s barely a high-heaven tier in strength, but it still classifies as being one.”

“That’s...that’s...” Jing Mingfeng was speechless. He couldn’t possibly be hearing things wrong, could he?

“You managed to craft a high-heaven tier?!”

“Of course. Take a good look at who I am. Master of crafting! How could I possibly not be able to craft a high-leveled soul armament so easily?”

“Yeah but...this is too ‘high’ even for you...I thought it was ‘only’ a mid-heaven tier...” Jing Mingfeng was still struggling to find the right words to properly communicate how he was feeling.

He took in a deep breath before barking out with laughter. “Haha!! Ol’Bai, you’re alright! A high-heaven tier!! A damn high-heaven tier soul armament! Kickass!!”

“Alright alright, you can do that when you’re all by yourself later. This soul armament has a particularly special ability, so listen up. I’ll only say it once...” Bai Yunfei interrupted.

“Oh? Special ability? What is it?” Ceasing in his laughter, Jing Mingfeng gave his friend an excited smile of anticipation.

Carefully, Bai Yunfei explained the mechanics of how the dagger’s +10 additional effect worked. He also talked about the equipment effects. By the time he was done listing all the effects, Jing Mingfeng’s eyes were as bright as shooting stars.

Done with that matter, Bai Yunfei took out the wind immortal grass from his space ring and handed it over to Jing Mingfeng. “And take this as well.”

Jing Mingfeng took the wind immortal grass and stowed it away with a smile. “I’m not comping you for your low-heaven tier soul armament. Can’t be as ‘generous’ as you are.”

“How rude you are...” Bai Yunfei laughed.

“Hehe, who let us become brothers? Who else am I going to take advantage of but you?” Jing Mingfeng laughed as well, but the gratitude in his eyes was clearly obvious to see.

“Where’s your grandfather? Did he not join in on the auction?”

“Oh, he had something else to do. I came here to meet with you and get the wind immortal grass, but I’ll be going to meet up with him in a bit.”

The smile on Jing Mingfeng’s face receded and the humorous mood in his eyes wavered just enough for Bai Yunfei to notice it. “Mingfeng, are you sure you don’t need me to help?”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing major, you don’t need to get involved...” Jing Mingfeng waved his hand. “In any case, shouldn’t you be ready to leave Swallow City soon?”

“Ah? How’d you know?”

“Haha, you’re the talk of the city right now...you sly dog, you didn’t tell me last time because you wanted to save the Qin some face?”

“But.” Jing Mingfeng grew serious. “You’d better be careful now that people know. I’m sure someone will come after you. It’s best that you leave as soon as you can.”

“Yeah...” Bai Yunfei sighed, “It’s not a good thing to stay here. I was planning to leave tomorrow, but the auction ended earlier than I thought. Xinyun and I will be leaving this quarrelsome place after this.”

“Alright! Then we’ll say our goodbyes here, I have to go find my grandfather.” Jing Mingfeng scoured the place around them cautiously. “Since we’re both in a bit of a spot, let’s reminisce another time. See you soon!!”

“Sounds good, see you soon!” Bai Yunfei bumped fists with Jing Mingfeng before watching the latter disappear down into the street.

“We should be going too, Xinyun.” Bai Yunfei turned to Tang Xinyun.

“Yes.” She nodded and started to walk with him.

“Bai Yunfei!”

A voice from the other end of the street suddenly called out to him.

Freezing up, Bai Yunfei turned to look as a male and female couple came rushing up to him. When he and Tang Xinyun got a good look at who they were, the two of them looked surprised.

“Brother Xiao Nan? Sister-in-law? What brings you two here?” Bai Yunfei wasn’t expecting to see either of the two people here today.

These two people were instructors of Tianhun Academy, Xiao Nan and his wife Zhao Jie.

Bai Yunfei had noticed two people come within range of him earlier when he was talking with Jing Mingfeng, but he didn’t pay much attention to him. Somehow, those two people were actually acquaintances of his.

“Haha, our traveling brought us here of all places. We even managed to take a look at the auction.”

“I see...” Bai Yunfei nodded. “Xinyun,” He beckoned to her, “this is brother Xiao Nan, you’ve seen him before. And this is his wife.”

“Sister-in-law,” He turned to Zhao Jie, “this is my fiancee, Tang Xinyun.”

Zhao Jie smiled. “I’ve been hearing about the two of you recently. You are as beautiful as the rumors say, miss Tang.”

Tang Xinyun blushed. “I’m not worthy of being called beautiful. You’re far more beautiful than I am, sister...”

“Ah?” Something in Xiao Nan’s aura caught Bai Yunfei’s attention. “You’ve become a...Soul King?!”

Xiao Nan nodded. “It wasn’t too long ago actually, haha. But...should I be the surprised one? Yunfei, you’re already a Mid-stage Soul King. That’s far more shocking if you ask me...”

......

While Bai Yunfei and Xiao Nan were talking, there was a commotion back in the auction house.

“What did you say?!”

A voice so furious that it echoed off even the furthest corner of the hall boomed. The aura of a Soul King came descending down onto the place with such anger that everyone in the hall became frightened and started to sweat.

The person who was yelling was Qin Pingzhi, Early-stage Soul King of the Qin. In front of him now was a shivering servant of the Qin. Cowed by Qin Pingzhi’s devestating aura, the man could hardly relate the message he had to say before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fainted!

“What’s wrong, grandfather?”

Startled by all the sudden clamor, Qin Shouhao came rushing over. He had rarely seen his grandfather in such a state.

“Something’s happened back in the manor! Send a message to your father to come home!!”

The look on Qin Pingzhi’s face was truly dreadful to look at. Disappearing as soon as he gave Qin Shouhao that message, the man took off in a blast of wind.

As bewildered as Qin Shouhao was, the man knew something was going wrong. Turning about, he headed up the stairs to call for Qin Shoufeng so they could return home at once.

But when he arrived at the room Qin Shoufeng and his friends had been in...

No one was inside!

[1] Original joke was 黑魅 (Hei Mei), an abbreviation for 黑色魅影 (Dark Phantom). Jing Mingfeng hears this as 黑妹 (Hei Mei), or Black Sister.