The massive flow of energy slowly started to ebb away from Xiao Lan as he observed his new body in delight. Seemingly trying to open his mouth, Xiao Lan looked as if he was trying to speak and say something in his excitement.
He snapped out from his excitement a brief moment later to turn his head and fly on over to where Bai Yunfei and Long Zhen were.
“Master.”
Xiao Lan spoke in happiness as he greeted his master respectfully. His voice was gravelly and a little deep-sounding, but also very straightforward.
There was a look of affection on Long Zhen’s face, who nodded in satisfaction. “Very well, you’ve done your master well.”
He retrieved a set of gray robes and handed it over to Xiao Lan, “But first put on some clothes.”
Xiao Lan was naked at this moment!
Xiao Lan lit up with excitement once again after being praised by his master. Taking the set of robes and putting it on, he looked to Bai Yunfei and Xiao Qi next with a rather silly-looking smile. “Yunfei, Xiao Qi, you’re both here too I see.”
Now could Bai Yunfei see his body clearly. Xiao Lan was quite obviously a head taller than he was and was of a stockier built. Both his arms and legs were quite thick, and his muscles were as hard as stone almost. Despite the ‘intimidating’ appearance he had, his aura was rather childish. His hair was short and was no longer than an inch all over his head. His eyes, while large, were more pure rather than ‘evil’, making him look a bit like a blockhead.
If not for the familiar soulforce he could feel from this person, Bai Yunfei would’ve refused to believe this person was the very same blue-eyes wyrm. The transformation from soulbeast to human felt a little too sudden for him to take in.
“Haha, Xi….Xiao Lan, congratulations. You’ve finally become a class seven.”
To call such a ‘man’ ‘Xiao Lan’ felt far too strange, Bai Yunfei had barely been able to say it.
Xiao Lan didn’t seem to care, however. He merely smiled in response. “Haha!! I have! I didn’t think I’d really be able to breakthrough this quickly, but it was all thanks to master’s guidance! Haha….I forgot to tell you, master has already given me a name, I am now…..Long Lan!”
“Long Lan?” Bai Yunfei repeated the name before nodding. “Haha, then congratulations on having a proper name now. I’ll be sure to call you that from now on.”
“Xiao Lan, you’ve finally become a class seven, congratulations!” Xiao Qi flapped his wings on top of Bai Yunfei’s shoulders without at all caring for Xiao Lan’s new name. At the same time, the bird gave him an inquisitive look, “But….how’d you turn into something like this?? You’re like a mountain, stupid and heavy. You probably won’t be able to walk through some of the smaller doors, what’s so good about your new height then?”
Long Lan paused briefly for a moment, not expecting such an answer. A short second after, he smirked, “Che, what’s so bad about being tall? Don’t you think I look far more ‘formidable’ now? Haha…..I’m a class seven like you now AND I can take human form!! Didn’t you say before I wouldn’t be able to humanize? Well how about now? Hmph….”
Pleased with his retort, he gave a stunning smirk and stroked his chin.
“Hmph! What’s so good about humanizing anyways. I’ll be able to do that sooner or later!!” Xiao Qi chirped in annoyance. “Besides, even if you’re a class seven and can humanize, it doesn’t mean you’re stronger than me!”
“Hey, that might not be true! I’m a lot stronger than I used to be, I’m sure I can beat you now!”
“Keep dreaming! You never beat me when we were both class six, it won’t be any different now!”
“The past is the past, and the present is the present. If you’re so scared, why don’t we fight?”
“Let’s fight then, I’m not afraid of you!”
“……”
Bai Yunfei sighed and shook his head at the banter between Xiao Qi and Long Lan. “Alright you two,” he interjected, “you’ve both said your piece. Now that you’re both class sevens, you shouldn’t be acting like children, will it hurt if you two act more like your actual strengths? In any case, senior Long Zhen is present, stop being a bother to him.”
“Haha, it’s quite alright.” Long Zhen chuckled. “Don’t try to change who you are just because you’ve gotten stronger. A child as ‘pure’ as this is something this old man hasn’t seen in a very long time, how excellent….”
He turned to Long Lan.
“However, now that you are a class seven, you must earnestly try to cultivate and stabilize your strength. Say goodbye to your two friends for now, you can speak with them another da.”
Bai Yunfei immediately spoke to Long Lan in response, “Train well, Long Lan, go with senior Long Zhen and cultivate.”
“Alright.” Long Lan nodded. “I’ll be going back with master first then. I’ll come look for you two when I’m done.”
……
The skies was barely starting to light when Bai Yunfei came out from the Training Forest. Feeling a little fatigued, Bai Yunfei headed straight home and collapsed onto his bed to rest.
He had spent the majority of today trying to repair the Devouring Chains and then upgrading it, then in the middle of the night, he also had to look over Long Lan. He really wanted to sleep.
He fell into a nice and sound slumber soon afterwards. By the time he woke up and strode out from his room refreshed, it was already nearing the end of the day.
At a second glance, Bai Yunfei realized Xiao Qi wasn’t here. By using their soul contract, he could sense that Xiao Qi was within the academy.
“That kid, did he go looking for Xiao Bai?” Bai Yunfei shook his head, a faint smile on his lips.
Exiting his compound, Bai Yunfei first headed for the Soothing Heart. He wanted to tell Dan Teng that the tear in his soul was fully healed, so he needn’t come to the Soothing Heart twice a day for some Soul Consolidating Tea anymore.
After that, he headed straight for the academy.
The more he drew close to the academy, the more students he saw on the way. Clumped in groups of twos and threes, a greater number of students than usual were walking out from the academy, many of them bidding farewell to one another.
Today, as it seemed, was the final day of instructions for the year. Plenty of students were preparing to leave the academy and return home for a reunion.
Bai Yunfei prepared for this ‘weekend’ to be the final day of instructions as well. Telling his students there’d be a test, then the class would be adjourned for three months in observance of the break.
Bai Yunfei walked through the sixth year area on the way and straight towards where the dormitories of the crafting class were. As he drew close, a group of people were just on their way out.
He could recognize most of them: Tang Xinyun, Kou Tingting, Fang Tianmeng, Fang Yong, Zheng Kai, Mo Chen, and even Ye Ming.
Likewise, the people in the group recognized Bai Yunfei when he got close. It was Zheng Kai who spoke out first, “Hey, you still came here, Yunfei? We heard about what happened last night from Xiao Qi, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Bai Yunfei smiled, “I didn’t take part in the fight, so I wasn’t injured. Where are you all going?”
“Ah, well, we were on our way to eat dinner.”
Bai Yunfei eyed the group, “And the others?” He asked Mo Chen.
“Big brother Ouyang and the others had to go.”
“Oh.” Bai Yunfei nodded. Suddenly realizing someone was missing from their group, he gave a double take. “Eh? Where’s Doraemon?!”
“Little Rui and the Fifth Princess went to the Palace to play, I think they won’t be back until later.” Tang Xinyun smiled.
“What?” Bai Yunfei blinked, “The Palace? And….with the Fifth Princess?”
“Yes, haha. The Fourth Prince came by earlier this afternoon with the Fifth Princess. She met little Rui at the time and the two got along great enough for the princess to invite her to the Palace, so they’re both there now….”
“.....” Bai Yunfei was astonished, Doraemon was with the princess Wu Ping?? Were the two of them really such good friends already? While he did want to introduce the two sooner or later, Bai Yunfei didn’t think they’d go ahead and meet by themselves and get along so easily.
And the two were already such good friends that they were both in the Palace of all places for their playdate….