Edges

At the Yellow Springs Demon Saint's teasing, Wu Bai's face instantly darkened.

"I'll wear it, all right?"

"Heh, that's more like it. You need to let them see how capable you are. Then anyone thinking of harming you will see the price at a glance. Don't be afraid to stand out. You have a teacher backing you, remember?"

Seeing Wu Bai pin the badge to the left side of his chest, the Yellow Springs Demon Saint nodded in satisfaction.

"That's right. How could I not show off such an outstanding student?"

"Teacher, I'll remember that. But please don't provoke me like that again. I'll get angry."

Wu Bai sighed and straightened his back a little.

"I'll remember too. There won't be a next time."

Far from taking offense, the Yellow Springs Demon Saint smiled faintly. He seemed pleased with Wu Bai's reaction.

That's more like it. My disciple needs to have an edge, not be a pushover anyone can push around!

Wu Bai visited the room where the Alchemy Department kept its Pill Formulas. He couldn't say he came away empty-handed, but he found precious little.

"Oh well. Something's better than nothing."

With that in mind, Wu Bai made another trip to the Outer Academy's Medicinal Materials Warehouse.

He spent a hundred thousand Gold Coins buying three portions each of the pill ingredients he hadn't worked with before.

On his way back to the dormitory, many people caught sight of the badge on Wu Bai's chest and watched him pass, showing their respect for an Alchemist.

Classes had not officially begun. The academy would only open and assign students to classes in half a month, once the Recruitment Team returned and all the new students had arrived.

So when Wu Bai reached the Dormitory Area, he caused quite a stir.

Han Yue shut the door, leaving the commotion outside, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why are you back so soon?"

"Elder Huo told me to study alchemy on my own. He gave me a badge and sent me back."

Wu Bai glanced up. Seeing that it was Han Yue, he paid her no further attention and continued mentally working through how to refine a new Medicinal Pill.

Han Yue softened her steps, her gaze settling on the small badge on Wu Bai's chest.

The days passed, and in the blink of an eye, the first day of classes arrived.

But it made little difference to Wu Bai.

He sat upright on his bed, hands forming a cultivation seal, wholly absorbed in his practice.

The light that fell into the room was pale gold in the morning, bright gold at noon, and dark gold at dusk.

After a faint, almost inaudible thud, Wu Bai slowly opened his eyes.

"Phew... Eight-Star Dou Zhe. It's been a full two and a half months since I broke through to Seven-Star Dou Zhe."

Wu Bai pressed his lips together. Truthfully, he was far from satisfied with his progress.

But there was nothing he could do. Perhaps mediocre cultivation aptitude was the price he paid for having such powerful Soul Power.

"Don't rush, Little Bai. Take your time. Once you reach the Dou Shi Realm, everything will get better." The Yellow Springs Demon Saint appeared and patted Wu Bai on the head.

"Barring any surprises, I'll cultivate even more slowly in the Dou Shi Realm. Teacher, do you have some way to help?"

"I do. I told you before, I've seen a great many things, but I paid little attention to anything too low-ranked."

"The lowest among the Pill Formulas I remember are Fifth-grade Pill Formulas. Even some Sixth-Grade Pills can't match their effects."

"And one of those Fifth-grade Pill Formulas happens to improve cultivation aptitude."

Wu Bai felt a surge of anticipation. But something quickly occurred to him, and he asked, "Teacher, the Medicinal Herbs that pill requires must be hard to get, right?"

After all, it was a pill that could improve aptitude. Countless people would fight to get their hands on it.

"They were hard to obtain back then, but things are different now. That warehouse you visited recently had enough to make ten batches."

"When you think about it, that makes sense. The Dou Qi Continent has kept moving forward. No one has broken through that boundary yet, but compared with the past, there's been great progress in other areas."

The Yellow Springs Demon Saint sounded wistful. The Cultivation Methods and Combat Skills created by past experts might still be useful ten thousand years later.

But in matters like growing Medicinal Herbs—areas whose importance was easy to overlook, though their effects ran deep—progress had never stopped.

Wu Bai breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly remembered something else.

"Teacher, do you have a Pill Formula that nourishes the soul?"

"I do, but you don't seem to need it, Little Bai."

"You do, Teacher."

"...Actually, I don't."

The Yellow Springs Demon Saint paused, then smiled.

After a moment's thought, he pointed to himself and Wu Bai and explained as simply as he could:

"Our connection is unusual. You used that miraculous ability you don't seem to understand yourself to bring me back from the dead."

"Now a special bond has formed between us, especially between our souls. It's created a remarkable cycle that benefits us both."

"My Soul Power is stronger than yours, so yours grows rapidly. The wider the gap, the faster it grows."

"More interestingly, as your Soul Power grows, mine recovers rapidly too."

"As my Soul Power recovers and the gap between us widens, yours grows even faster."

"If this cycle keeps going, I'm almost in no hurry to come back to life. I'd rather see whether it can carry me beyond the limits of the Emperor Realm."

The Yellow Springs Demon Saint was genuinely curious. This boy's talent was so extraordinary that he needed no treasures to restore his Soul Power.

All he had to do was keep helping Wu Bai grow stronger. That was the best way for him to recover.

"..."

Wu Bai fell into thought at those words. Before long, his shoulders slumped.

The Yellow Springs Demon Saint didn't understand. Wasn't this a good thing?

"So my actual talent, whether for alchemy or cultivation, is only average?"

Wu Bai laughed bitterly at himself. He was just someone who had happened to awaken memories of a previous life.

He had been an ordinary person in that life. Why would this one be any different? What had made him so sure he was a genius?

Still, Wu Bai didn't judge himself too harshly. He wasn't a fool who would ignore the facts whenever it suited him.

He turned to look at the badge on his bedside table, the one that marked him as a Fourth-Rank Alchemist, and smiled faintly.

"It's nothing. I was just overthinking."

Wu Bai shook his head, glanced at the sky outside, and got off the bed.

He changed clothes and pinned the badge to his chest.

"It's getting late. I need to go meet her. This is your fault, Teacher. You had to say all that, and now I think I'm feeling possessive of her..."

"That's only natural. You're a fifteen-year-old boy. It's normal to fall for a girl. Besides, that young lady seems quite fond of you. Why wouldn't you feel a little possessive? If you didn't, I'd have to give you a Virility Pill Formula..."