Chapter 24: Bai Yunfei's Plan
Chapter 24: Bai Yunfei's Plan
Yuhua Sect, Canon Pavilion.
The rain was still falling tonight. Lin Jiufeng's physical body remained inside the Canon Pavilion, but his Divine Soul had already slain a Eighth Seal master and was now slowly making its way back.
A sky full of stars surged toward the front of the Canon Pavilion and enveloped Lin Jiufeng — yet rather than re-entering his body immediately, they coalesced into a human silhouette.
The three youngsters stood not far away, watching with bright eyes. The sight of Lin Jiufeng's Divine Soul, glittering like starlight, filled them with excitement, yet none of them dared approach for fear of disturbing him.
Lin Jiufeng's Divine Soul smiled faintly and waved them over.
Only then did the three little ones slowly walk forward, gazing at him with wide-eyed curiosity.
"Uncle-Master, is this your Divine Soul?" Wen Xinyun reached out to touch him, but her hand passed straight through his body. She asked curiously.
"Yes, this is the Divine Soul I have condensed," Lin Jiufeng said with a nod.
"Uncle-Master, the books I've read say that a Divine Soul is always intangible and formless. So why does yours look like starlight, as if it contains all things within it?" Zhou Tianzi asked, puzzled.
"That reflects my own cultivation insights. Your Divine Souls, when you condense them in the future, will also take on different forms according to your own comprehension," Lin Jiufeng explained.
"Uncle-Master, did you break through to the Seventh Seal tonight?" Yue Dashan asked, his voice full of envy.
Lin Jiufeng nodded. "I did indeed break through to the Seventh Seal."
"Congratulations, Uncle-Master!"
"Uncle-Master is amazing!"
"Uncle-Master is too strong — breaking through looks as easy as drinking water!"
The three little ones showered him with admiring praise, circling around Lin Jiufeng's Divine Soul and peering at it with fascination.
Lin Jiufeng let them look their fill. He also took the opportunity to share some knowledge about the Divine Soul with them, so that when they eventually condensed their own, comprehending it would come a little more easily.
Once the three had satisfied their curiosity, Lin Jiufeng allowed his Divine Soul to re-enter his body — a sight that made the three youngsters' eyes light up with hearts all over again.
Boom!!
The moment his Divine Soul returned to his body, the power that had been building in his physical form became instantly tangible. His strength surged from one hundred dragon and one hundred elephant to five hundred dragon and five hundred elephant. This fivefold explosion of power involuntarily radiated outward as an aura, sending all three youngsters tumbling to the ground in a heap, covered in dust.
Fortunately, Lin Jiufeng quickly reined in the force and pulled the three of them back to their feet, brushing the dust from their clothes.
"I'm sorry — I just broke through and couldn't control my strength," Lin Jiufeng said apologetically.
The three youngsters, however, were thrilled. They didn't care at all about their dirty clothes and instead crowded around Lin Jiufeng, chattering away excitedly.
"Uncle-Master, the power from your Breakthrough this time was terrifying!" Wen Xinyun clung to Lin Jiufeng's arm and swayed back and forth.
"Uncle-Master, when that aura pressed down on me just now, I could barely breathe. If it had lasted a little longer, I think I might have died!" Zhou Tianzi recalled the heart-stopping sensation of death he had felt moments ago, his voice a mixture of lingering fear and excitement.
"I used to read in books that a truly powerful expert could crush someone to death with aura alone, and I didn't believe it at the time. Now I know it's true," Yue Dashan said, still shaken.
Lin Jiufeng smiled lightly. "Suppressing someone with aura still depends on the gap in cultivation. You three are at the peak of the Third Seal, and I'm at the Seventh Seal — that's quite a difference."
"Uncle-Master, I feel like I'm on the verge of a Breakthrough," Wen Xinyun said, raising her hand.
Zhou Tianzi refused to be outdone. "I feel it too — the Third Seal can no longer hold me."
"Uncle-Master, I'm already in the middle of breaking through," Yue Dashan declared even more directly.
All three competed to announce their imminent Breakthroughs, as if vying for their teacher's favor.
Lin Jiufeng watched them with a warm smile. After all, he was over a hundred years old, and he truly savored this kind of familial joy.
While they were still laughing and chatting, Bai Yunfei returned. Taking in the scene, he smiled cheerfully as well. "You really do get along well with your Uncle-Master."
"Master!"
"Master, you've come out of seclusion?"
"This seclusion was quite short, Master!"
The three youngsters cried out in delighted surprise at the sight of Bai Yunfei, then pulled him over to sit beside Lin Jiufeng.
"Your master broke through, so of course he came out of seclusion," Lin Jiufeng said with a grin. Noticing the tea still brewing, he poured a cup for Bai Yunfei.
Bai Yunfei accepted the tea, took a small sip, and leaned back comfortably in his chair.
As for the matter of the Three Wandering Recluses, both men tacitly left it unmentioned — each confident that the other could have handled them.
Three old men on the verge of death's door: even if some stimulus had briefly restored them to their peak, was that truly their peak?
So neither Lin Jiufeng nor Bai Yunfei gave the Three Wandering Recluses a second thought.
They didn't even want to bring it up.
Upon hearing that their master had broken through, the three youngsters leapt up in delight and crowded around Lin Jiufeng and Bai Yunfei, chattering away and asking question after question.
Lin Jiufeng and Bai Yunfei obliged them graciously, answering one by one, until the rain stopped and the sky began to grow faintly light. The three youngsters exchanged a glance, then all eagerly went off to cultivate, determined to see who would break through to the Fourth Seal first.
A thirteen or fourteen-year-old at the Fourth Seal — out in the wider world, that would make them a prodigious disciple that every faction would scramble to recruit.
With the little ones gone, Lin Jiufeng and Bai Yunfei could sit in peace and enjoy their tea.
The two men gazed at the faint pale glow spreading across the horizon, neither saying a word.
They simply drank their tea in silence.
In that moment, the turmoil of the outside world seemed utterly cut off from this place, unable to reach Lin Jiufeng and Bai Yunfei.
After a long while, Lin Jiufeng came back to himself and asked, "Now that you've broken through to the Eighth Seal, what do you plan to do next?"
"Revitalize Yuhua Sect," Bai Yunfei said quietly.
"Recruit disciples?" Lin Jiufeng raised an eyebrow.
"No — it's not the right time to recruit disciples yet. We need to deal with the threat from Taishang Sect first," Bai Yunfei said gravely.
"How do you intend to deal with it?" Lin Jiufeng asked. The Taishang Sect was indeed a formidable threat — after all, as the foremost power of the Daoist Order, they had deep reserves of strength and no shortage of powerful experts. For now, their attention was drawn away by the juvenile Qilin, leaving them no free hand to move against Yuhua Sect. But once that matter was resolved, Yuhua Sect would face the full pressure of every elite fighter Taishang Sect had to offer.
On the surface, only Bai Yunfei stood to bear that pressure.
Although he had now broken through to the Eighth Seal, Lin Jiufeng wanted to know what his next step would be.
Bai Yunfei thought for a moment, then said earnestly, "Taishang Sect is the foremost power of the Daoist Order, with deep and formidable strength — but they also have many enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I plan to go out and forge alliances, demonstrate my own strength, and persuade others to share some of the pressure Taishang Sect exerts on us."
"That's a sound plan, but when it comes to forming alliances, we lack the leverage to back it up. Others may not take us seriously," Lin Jiufeng said with concern.
"That doesn't matter. All we need is to buy a little more time — enough to give Senior Brother room to grow," Bai Yunfei said, fixing Lin Jiufeng with an unwavering gaze.
"Give me room to grow?" Lin Jiufeng pointed at himself, startled.
"Exactly. Senior Brother had a sudden awakening and has been advancing at a breathtaking pace. In just a few years, you've already reached the Seventh Seal and can even challenge and defeat Eighth Seal masters with ease. So as long as we give Senior Brother enough time, Taishang Sect — whatever they may be — will be no problem at all." Bai Yunfei looked at Lin Jiufeng with burning intensity as he laid out his plan.
He regarded Lin Jiufeng as the future hope of Yuhua Sect — and it was precisely for that reason that he had conceived this plan of forming alliances, holding the pressure at bay, and buying Lin Jiufeng the time he needed to grow.