Hei Gou could not help but feel slightly arrogant. They had improved by leaps and bounds, and they had outstanding talent compared to others from the Heping Kingdom.
Xue Wei shook his head. He knew that Hei Gou was arrogant and it would not be easy to convince him.
Since Hei Gou had already made up his mind, Xue Wei knew that it’d be impossible to change it. In fact, only time could tell who was correct.
“Tianyi,” Xue Wei called out. The sword spirit lifted his head.
“Spiritual energy, I need some help with understanding it,” he said.
“When Prophet Lan explained it to me, he skipped all the important information and said that it was an energy connected to the soul.” Xue Wei sighed. He had never been given a full explanation of spiritual energy, but now he felt a need to fully understand it.
“He was not completely wrong,” Bai Tianyi said pensively. “Spiritual Energy is the energy of your soul. The more energy you have, the stronger your soul is.”
“Spiritual energy is basically your soul’s energy in the same way Qi is your body’s energy.”
“To train your spiritual energy, you have various choices. One is to use your spiritual energy. Using your spiritual energy is also considered training. That could be when you are creating formations, as they require spiritual energy to be made. It could also be when you use your Mind Infestation to attack others.”
“Another option is to consume soul energy. Spiritual energy is special from person to person, but you can consume another person’s soul power if they’re dead. That is the most direct way of consuming and increasing your spiritual energy.”
“The last option, and probably the most difficult one, is to suck out the soul of a living martial artist. This is frowned upon, but many cultivators still do it because this method is the quickest way to improve”
“As for how we rank it, it’s quite simple. Your spiritual energy is ranked in a similar way to your Qi. However, these ranks do not have layers.”
“Instead of layers, spiritual energy is classed as low, middle, and high-rank. Right now, your spiritual energy class is High Sky Warrior. You are very close to reaching the Low Heavenly Warrior rank.”
Xue Wei was enlightened. “I see,” he said, nodding his head. He had felt that a breakthrough was close, but he had not known what this breakthrough resembled or what it meant. Now he understood it better.
“To use your spiritual energy, you need to use spiritual martial arts like your Mind Infestation.”
“You can also use it to cloak yourself and make a layer of protection. You can blast it out and attack with it, but that is rather crude and not guaranteed to succeed. I would suggest you get your hands on some spiritual martial arts here at the auction. There ought to be some up for sale and even if they are not profound rank or even the superior rank, you can still benefit from them. And honestly, a spiritual martial art puts more focus on the user’s spiritual energy than the rank of the skill itself.”
Xue Wei nodded his head as he listened to the knowledge that was being imparted to him.
He felt enlightened. His improved understanding of spiritual energy was akin to a door in his mind being opened.
While Xue Wei was sorting out his thoughts after Bai Tianyi’s little lesson, the door to the training room opened. Wang Xiaoyun came out.
Each step she took was so soft that it seemed as though she was walking on clouds, a smile played on her lips, and she was so beautiful that Xue Wei froze and stared at her, mouth ajar and eyes opened wide.
Xue Wei was not the only one. Bai Tianyi raised an eyebrow, and Hei Gou smiled with surprise. when they saw Wang Xiaoyun in her original appearance that was no longer marred by the scar or dim eye.
“So beautiful!” were the words that escaped Xue Wei’s lips. He stood up as if entranced and moved towards her. He stretched out a hand and cupped her cheek gently.
A blush crept up on Wang Xiaoyun’s face, but she did not retreat. Instead, she placed her own hand on top of Xue Wei’s and leaned her head against it.
The two were in a world of their own. Happiness shone from her eyes as she beamed a smile at Xue Wei.
“I’m back,” she said gently and Xue Wei nodded his head. “I have never seen as beautiful a person as you,” he said breathlessly.
The blush on Wang Xiaoyun’s face grew deeper and she looked down, not daring to look at Xue Wei’s face.
The hand that was cupping Wang Xiaoyun’s cheeks moved to her chin and faced it upward so that they could look eye to eye.
A mischievous smile was on Xue Wei’s lips. He was relieved that Wang Xiaoyun no longer had to be reminded of her family’s demise every time she looked at herself in the mirror.
He also had to admit that seeing this beautiful face in front of him made him feel incredibly lucky.
He loved Wang Xiaoyun even when she was disfigured, but suddenly seeing her looking like a goddess that had descended to the mundane world rendered him incapable of holding himself back. He leaned in.
Wang Xiaoyun’s face was red like a beetroot; her eyes shone with a yearning and she held her breath as Xue Wei leaned down and placed his lips on hers.
The kiss was gentle and soft. It made Wang Xiaoyun think of everything that Xue Wei was to her; a large tree of protection, and someone who made her feel warm and complete. She was in bliss until she heard Bai Tianyi cough in the background.
The blush turned so deep that it looked as if blood would drip from her face. She gently pushed Xue Wei away, turned on her feet, and rushed to the closest room, where she locked herself inside, trying to calm her beating heart while grinning like a fool.
Outside the room, Xue Wei chuckled and shook his head. He turned to Bai Tianyi and Hei Gou, who both smiled. They were happy for them.
“Xiaoyun, we are going shopping,” Xue Wei called out to the closed door. “Do you want to join us?”
There was no answer, initially, but the door creaked open a few moments later. Her face was still adorably red. Xue Wei chuckled again and went to take her hand.
“Princess, let me escort you to go shopping,” he said charmingly. She nodded her head, but she seemed to be in deep thought for a second. “I want a veil,” she suddenly added.
“My face was disfigured in the past, but now it is not. People will be able to connect the dots and know I took the Rebirth Pill. If they know I took it, then it is clear that they can guess our connection with the formation master.”
“Let them guess,” Xue Wei said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I like looking at you. You are beautiful!”
Wang Xiaoyun smiled and blushed. Xue Wei’s compliments made her feel good.
Together, the four friends left the King’s Floor. When they stepped onto the ground floor of the hotel, the manager recognized them right away.
He had already knew that they had the Rebirth Pill and that the woman would take it, but he was dumbstruck when he saw her new appearance.
He was not the only one, many of the experts in the lobby were shocked. Many men started looking at her with lust and greed in their eyes. This annoyed Xue Wei.
“Maybe a veil is not a bad idea,” he said with a nod of his head, suddenly changing his opinion.
Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi chuckled at his sudden display of jealousy, and Wang Xiaoyun just giggled at the display he made.
“Ah, manager Hu,” Xue Wei saw the manager rushing towards them.
“What is it that the young lords and the lady need?” he asked in a friendly way, eager to do his very best to please them.
“We are heading out into the city to do some shopping,” Xue Wei said smilingly. “We will be back later, so if we can get some food when we return that’d be great.”
“Rest assured, young lord!” Manager Hu said with near-frenzy. “We will reserve a private room at the restaurant for you. When you arrive, just use your name, Ye Xiao, and they will instantly lead you to the room where all kinds of delicacies will be prepared alongside our best wines.”
Xue Wei knew that he would be stuck with the name Ye Xiao for some time, but he did not really care. It was better than his real name being recognized.
“In that case, I will thank manager Hu,” Xue Wei cupped his fists towards the manager before he and his friends left the hotel.
The ones who could stay in the hotel were all extremely important people with a lot of gold coins, and thus many less law-abiding individuals would keep an eye on them and make a move whenever they were to leave the hotel.
Xue Wei and his friends were not very strong when one looked at them from the outside. So they were quickly marked by the ones who were scouting for prey by the entrance.
Not only could they gain gold coins, when they looked at Wang Xiaoyun they instantly knew that she could be sold for a high price on the black market.
Although humans were allied together and slavery was illegal, there were black markets where everything could be bought, including slaves.
The black market was used by both humans and primordial beasts alike. They could buy anything they wanted there and no one would ask questions about what it was for and who the purchasers were.
Xue Wei had his spiritual energy spread out to feel what was happening around him. He could sense that three groups of varying numbers were following them.
The first group had seven members, the second group had eleven people, and the final one only had five.
These twenty-three people did not act against them in the middle of the street and kept stalking them.
Also, every group had at most three Heavenly Warriors, so they were waiting for others to make the first move so they could be the fishermen that reaped the rewards.
“Should we be worried?” Xue Wei asked Bai Tianyi. The little boy, who was in truth the sword spirit, shook his head and smiled. “We want to get their items, so let’s lure them into a small alleyway,” he said with a grin.
Xue Wei nodded his head. He too wanted to test out a few new formations, and nothing was better for that than a large-scale battle.
“Let us go, then,” he smiled at the others who curiously nodded their heads. They could sense Xue Wei’s fighting spirit. Wang Xiaoyun slowly took out her green fan while Hei Gou put on his claws.
As they reached an alleyway that was neither too big nor too small, but rather deserted, Xue Wei turned around and smiled at the air behind them.
“Come out now,” he grinned, taking out a piece of paper from his storage ring. “You followed us for this long. Are you not interested in taking our belongings?”
The three groups stopped in their tracks. They looked among each other with great distrust. Who knew what might happen if all of them started fighting at the same time.
“If you won’t begin, then allow me to start!” Wang Xiaoyun was not willing to kill humans if they had done nothing wrong to other humans, but these were the scum of society. These humans worked with primordial beasts if given enough incentive, and thus she saw no problems in clearing the world of their presence.