It was only when Bai Yunfei arrived at the lounge that he realized Jing Mingfeng and the others were already there before him.
Jing Mingfeng and the Ye were all chatting casually, Tianming had been most especially enthusiastic in his conversation. The others had been smiling while occasionally offering up their own words. When Bai Yunfei entered the room and saw the resplendent face of Ye Ting, he could see that there was now a very palpable difference between the two of them. There was an august aura to him, and his face reflected the confident expression of a can-do person.
When Bai Yunfei entered the room, the eyes of everyone had gathered onto him. Ye Ting and Ye Quan both had raised their eyebrows in surprise–they had seen the spike of power that happened in Bai Yunfei evidently.
“He became a Late-stage Soul Sprite in a single night!” Ye Ting cried out in alarm to himself, but the emotions were not noticeable on his face too much. He knew that Bai Yunfei was a Middle-stage Soul Sprite, but he didn’t ask at the time if Bai Yunfei had only just became one or was already close to being a Late-stage Soul Sprite. At the time, he had guessed Bai Yunfei was the latter of the two and that last night had been a coincidental breakthrough. Of course, he was already starting to become accustomed to just how often Bai Yunfei exceeded everyone’s expectations, so this newest occurrence did not bring too much surprise to him.
But even to the weaker Bai Yunfei, Ye Ting didn’t dare neglect his manners. Standing up from his seat, Ye Ting smiled widely and congratulated him, “Lord Bai, congratulations! A Late-stage Soul Sprite at such a tender young age! Lord Bai, your talent is truly astounding; it’s a talent that would make everyone else jealous!”
Bai Yunfei smiled and nodded his head to everyone before taking a seat next to Jing Mingfeng. “Lord Ye,” He smiled, “You flatter me too much. I’ve only had a chance opportunity. If anything, I should be the one congratulating lord Ye on successfully breaking through to become a Soul Ancestor. The house of Ye will surely have its era of brilliance starting this moment onwards.”
“Haha, my household is only a small one, not some sort of major house lord Bai says it is. My breakthrough was only because of lord Bai’s a.s.sistance. This benevolent favor lord Bai has granted to me will not be one the Ye will ever forget!” Ye Ting proclaimed courteously as he professed his thanks.
Bai Yunfei hadn’t been too modest in his acceptance of Ye Ting’s words. It was only natural to accept and return this gesture. If he treated Ye Ting’s thanks with indifference, then it would be meaningless to help to begin with.
“Ah, lord Ye. How goes business with the Zhao?” Bai Yunfei had naturally wished to know the reason why everyone here was talking or listening to Jing Mingfeng gossip so much that even Ye Ting would bother to listen.
Ye Ting’s face hardened as soon as Bai Yunfei spoke. “There is indeed something strange going on with the Zhao. Ever since last night, their doors have been closed and not a sound could be heard from the outside. None of our men were even able to bribe any information from the insiders of the clan, so none of us are sure of what’s going on.”
“But….the most recent information we got was that just last night, some of the men that we placed in charge of watching the Zhao noticed those from the Beast Taming School leave the Zhao residence. After they left the city, they never came back.”
“Oh?” Bai Yunfei was surprised. “The men from the Beast Taming School left? How could that be? Are they perhaps going to look after the other men?”
“That shouldn’t be it. From what we heard from the others, the group had looked extremely angry, but they were acting as if they were chased off. The men we had look after them weren’t strong enough to follow them for too long though. We have no way of really knowing if they really did left Gaoyi City.”
“They were chased away? Did the Zhao chase them off? Would they even do that?” Bai Yunfei questioned.
“There’d be no way. Unless Zhao Xing wants to ruin his family, he’d do no such thing. How could they make enemies with the Beast Taming School?” Ye Ting was unsure himself. “But the way things are going right now don’t follow up with our expectations. All of our preparational work so far has been for naught….but I am a Soul Ancestor now! Pah, let’s see them try and demand tribute from my house of Ye now!”
After spending so many days being stifled by the Zhao, Ye Ting’s anger had finally reached a boiling point. Now that the Zhao finally lost their patron, Ye Ting was already starting to think of a way to plan his revenge.
At that moment, a person suddenly came running in with great haste. Reporting to Ye Ting, he spoke, “My lord….someone….someone from the house of Zhao has arrived!”
Startled by that information, Ye Ting took a sharp intake of breath, “What? Someone from the Zhao is here? Are they here to talk about what happened yesterday? Pah! Zhao Xing is an arrogant and conceited fool then! With the Beast Taming School laying down the pressure, I’d be willing to bite my tongue and bear my anger. But if the Beast Taming School is gone, then there’s no way I’d let the Zhao bully this household!”
“N-no, my lord. Lord Zhao did not come. Instead, it’s a young man. He said that….he said that his name is Zhao Xiluo and said that he personally came to pay his respects to the lord and also apologize for his younger brother’s conduct….”
“What? Zhao Xing isn’t here? Offering his apologies? What apologies? Hold on….who did you say was here?” Ye Ting suddenly halted in his speech with surprise. “What did you say his name was!”
“He-he said he was…Zhao…Zhao Xiluo….”
“What? That kid Zhao Xiluo is back!” Ye Quan had finally broken his silence with a loud gasp. “When he left ten years ago, the entire city thought that he died already, but he’s alive and well now? And at this time too….that must mean….that must mean he’s the reason why the Beast Taming School left!”
“Zhao Xiluo is back!” Even Ye Ting was surprised. Growing silent for a second, he then spoke, “No matter what the situation is, we have to look before we act. If the Zhao sends someone over, then the Ye will naturally receive him with ‘haste’….”
As he spoke, Ye Ting looked off towards the direction where Bai Yunfei was as if trying to ask for his opinions. “Lord Bai, please don’t mind us.” Bai Yunfei smiled. “We’ll stand by the side as you receive your guests.”
And so as Ye Ting strode towards the entrance to receive the guest, Bai Yunfei and the rest followed him from behind. To the side, Jing Mingfeng asked Tianming, “Who’s this Zhao Xiluo? Why haven’t we heard about him before?”
“He’s the eldest son of the Zhao. Ten years ago, he left Gaoyi City and never returned. I was a lot younger back then, so I don’t remember much. But I remember big brother once saying that Zhao Xiluo was an amazing guy….”
“Zhao Xiluo was said to be the most talented person of his generation. But since he left so many years ago, not many people remember him. I hadn’t expect to see that he’d return out of the blue like this. But his strength should definitely be at the Late-stage Soul Sprite at the very least I’d a.s.sume. Back then, he was stronger than even me….” Ye Tianwen offered his two bits of interesting information to Bai Yunfei and Jing Mingfeng as if to explain the situation to them.
“So the Zhao still had a person like that….then he really has to be the reason why the Beast Taming School left then. If he’s representing the house of Zhao here, I wonder what he’s trying to get at. Ugh! The situation has taken off into a direction I wasn’t expecting….” Bai Yunfei sighed to himself. “I guess I’ll have to watch what to do next.”