The time passed by rather swiftly. Xue Wei tried various formations, only to realize that his soul was nothing compared to the soul of a true master despite his abnormally strong soul.
He could currently only do the simplest and most common formations. When he tried the more challenging ones, he would always fail midway through due to total exhaustion of spiritual energy.
Even the simplest puppet formation or the Paralyzation Formation was enough to strip him of all energy.
It would take him the time it took an incense stick to burn to create either one.
Xue Wei was aware that the puppet formations only worked on structures such as figures or statues to work, but he used plain paper instead since he was just training.
The formations he created this way could only move the paper around, so it had no combat ability or practical usage in any way or form.
After seven days, Xue Wei's spiritual energy had become richer, but he still had yet to have a breakthrough.
Xue Wei did not know enough about spiritual energy. He knew that spiritual energy was essentially soul energy post-refinement, but he was unaware of how to rank it.
For the first time, he was experiencing a breakthrough he could not logically explain – from what to what?
"I better go have a talk with Bai Tianyi when Wan Qiang leaves us alone," he muttered to himself. Although he felt impatient for the answer, he was not willing to talk about it with the sword spirit in the middle of the mansion where Wan Qiang, in theory, could listen in on their conversation.
Although Wan Qiang was incredibly friendly towards Xue Wei and his friends, Xue Wei’s nagging sense of suspicion grew increasingly worse as a result of said friendliness.
Xue Wei did not know how strong Wan Qiang was, but he knew that he was the strongest expert in the Skyward Empire.
The Skyward Empire had quite a few Ordinary Knights and even a few Earth Knights. To be the strongest expert, did that not mean that he was at least a Sky Knight? Reaching that level in his lifetime most likely meant that he had experienced quite a few things in his life.
For such a person to be kind to Xue Wei for no apparent reason meant that he had something he wanted from him, and this unknown factor was what made Xue Wei feel so distressed. What could it be?
Still, he could not simply refuse Wan Qiang’s kindness even if he wanted to. If the old monster felt insulted and wanted to kill Xue Wei, then they had no chance of fighting back.
Furthermore, some of the other elders from the Black Iron Fortress had already shown killing intent towards Xue Wei. As to whether or not this was because of his actions in the tournament, Xue Wei did not know, and he honestly did not care either.
Eventually, the week was over. They had stocked up on everything they might need in the Black Iron Fortress. They had bought new clothes for all of them, so much in fact that they would never run out of clothes.
They had bought provisions, as chasing down Fierce Beasts for dinner was a pain because of Xue Wei and his quirk
They bought drinks, wines, and juices. They bought tools and items. In fact, they purchased everything that they could need in their travels, as they would rather be safe than sorry.
Xue Wei used the storage ring he had gotten from the Moon Prince. It was the largest storage ring that they had, and he had given the one from the Crimson Sunshine Sect's disciple to Hei Gou and the one that contained the prizes from the tournament to Wang Xiaoyun.
Bai Tianyi had declined when he tried to give him one. He said that he had no need for storage treasures due to his nature as a sword spirit. He had his own sword spirit dimension that he could use should the need arrive.
The group walked through the Black Iron Fortress on their way to meet up with Wan Qiang at the designated meeting point, when they saw a beautiful ornate green jade hairpin. It was shaped like a blooming sunflower and looked like it was made of crystal.
Xue Wei stopped in his tracks and looked at the hairpin. "This is beautiful," he said before picking it up. Then he looked gently at Wang Xiaoyun and held it up to her hair.
"How much is this?" he asked the merchant, who was patiently waiting for said question.
"This is a very special hairpin," the merchant began with a smile. Xue Wei knew he was trying to bring up the price, but he still heard him out. "It was one that I purchased for my late wife. But you see, we do not have enough money so I can only sell it. I will let not let it go for less than one gold coin!"
One gold coin was a tremendous amount of wealth. Both for ordinary people, but also for the nobles when it came to something as simple as a jade ornament.
But Xue Wei did not hesitate and paid the one gold coin as he took the jade hairpin and gently went towards Wang Xiaoyun.
"May I?" he asked gently. With a blush creeping up on her face, Wang Xiaoyun nodded her head.
Xue Wei stepped closer. Wang Xiaoyun always had some of her hair tied up on top of her head with braids. He felt his heart beating faster. When he got close, he could smell the fresh and lovely scent of Wang Xiaoyun that reminded him of flowers.
It was because of this fresh and flowery scent that Xue Wei had thought of her the moment he saw the beautiful flower hairpin.
He gently placed the hairpin in her hair and smiled at her with a face filled with adoration. He was in his own world, and his hand cupped Wang Xiaoyun's cheek. He enjoyed the sight of her blushing face and downcast eyes. She was clearly embarrassed but equally happy.
It was at this point that Xue Wei heard a voice somewhere in the crowd. "Such a pretty hairpin is wasted on that disfigured beast."
Xue Wei's eyes turned ice cold, and his old killing intent that now lay dormant erupted with full force.
Every person close to him started shivering. The killing intent was many times more terrifying now than when Xue Wei had not been able to control it. Now he could use it as a weapon; now it was a part of who he was; and now he could steer it to focus on specific people.
"Who said that?" he asked in a voice with the strangest of falsified calms, and yet it carried the penetrative force of a shout. It was filled with malice and hatred.
No one answered. The people around him looked at the ground, frightened to their wit’s end. No one had expected Xue Wei to erupt like this just because of a simple comment that most of them actually agreed on.
However, no one dared to say a thing right now. From the killing intent, they could sense that they would die right then and there if they said anything.
"Dare to say the words but not stand by them?" Xue Wei asked with a voice so iced-over that the spectators felt as if winter had arrived early.
Although Xue Wei was not the strongest person in the fortress, and although quite a few people in the audience were not that far from him in terms of strength, none of them dared lift their heads in the face of his ferocity.
A single word echoed in all of their minds, and that was 'monster’. This young man was even more monstrous than the Primordial Beasts they heard about. He was so domineering and overwhelming. In fact, they started fearing him.
"Wei, leave it be," Wang Xiaoyun was the first to speak. When she spoke, the crowd felt as if they just heard the most pleasant sound in their lives. It reminded them of flowers blooming and of the fresh spring breeze. It reminded them of water slowly trickling down the stream. It was so comfortable to the ear that they could not help but do a double take at the person who spoke.
It was at this point that they realized that she could have been the kind of beauty that brings nations to ruin. Her facial features were ruined because of some old wounds and the blinded eye, but a closer look revealed that she was actually not that ugly even now. There was a charm to her that one easily overlooked.
Xue Wei sighed and restrained his killing intent again. With a final icy glance towards the many experts surrounding them, Xue Wei took hold of Wang Xiaoyun's hand, gave it a tight squeeze, and smiled at her.
"If you tell me to, I will naturally let it go. In my eyes, you are the most beautiful."
Wang Xiaoyun could not help the smile on her face. The fact that Xue Wei had become so upset for her sake made her forget all about the negative emotions. She was happy enough at just having found Xue Wei again, so she gave him the warmest smile she could muster.
"Let us get going," Xue Wei smiled at her. They left the shopping district and headed towards their destination.
When they arrived, Wan Qiang was already there waiting for them. He smiled as he saw them. He gave Xue Wei a knowing glance, obviously indicating that he knew what had happened in the shopping district.
But they departed without making mention of it. With Wan Qiang leading their group, the journey was a smooth ride. The bandit attacks were a joke at this point.
The Skyward Empire was in the southern region of the continent, but it was still far away from the center of the continent.
"I will suggest that you move through the northwestern border if you wish to enter the center of the continent as soon as possible. That direction will take you to the Chengzi Kingdom. It is famed for its spiritual fruits that are being farmed there." Wan Qiang started explaining.
"Chengzi Kingdom is close to the center of the continent. Although it is not completely considered a part of the center, it is a very important gateway that doubles as a trade route into the center, and many young geniuses travel there to purchase spiritual fruits."
"That place will be your first real challenge. Although the true geniuses from the center of the continent will not appear there, many of the lesser geniuses will as they have no one to fetch the fruits for them – or it just so happens that they cannot get their hands on the more powerful fruits from the center of the continent itself."
"However, this is good. If you encountered the top geniuses right away, you are likely to be traumatized. You are still quite a bit behind them, but you are not doing bad at all considering your starting point."
"My starting point?" Xue Wei frowned and repeated rhetorically, hoping to get more answers. Was Elder Wan aware of his past? To what degree?
"Oh, never mind!" Wan Qiang laughed it off and just shook his head. He was aware that he had said too much, but he did not seem to care that much about it.
In this fashion, the five experts continued moving towards the northwestern border into the Chengzi Kingdom.