Chapter 557: Dig a Hole!
A giant expanse of forest and mountain laid behind Tianhun Academy and a part of it inside the Capital.
The most noticeable thing about this area was the five hundred meter tall mountain peak that the students of Tianhun Academy called ‘Back Mountain’. The mountain was the only thing that separated Tianhun Academy from the wilderness beyond.
Both sides of the academy had actually forests, but those were very general types of forest while the wilderness behind the mountain was considered quite ‘special’.
That was because it had soulbeasts.
Soulbeasts that were ‘born and raised’ within a small expanse of land!!
They were there for students of Tianhun Academy to prepare on. It was the students who benefitted the most from this forest and mountain combination. Any student below the sixth year could come here, train, and get experience.
There weren’t many soulbeasts in this area either. The level and amount of soulbeasts were quite evenly distributed, and the ecosystem in this area was essentially self-sustaining.
In general, the class six soulbeasts were carefully handled by the academy, and not many flying capable soulbeasts were had here (For the sake of internal safety within the Capital). The perimeter of the forest had its watchers, and there were also people within the forest that watched over it.
There were legends that the strongest of the academy, such as the chairman or assistant chairman had their soulbeasts ‘stationed’ inside the area to watch over the other soulbeasts and let everyone live peaceful lives.
Even students coming to the mountains couldn’t kill soulbeasts unless necessary.
People didn’t come here to the mountains to train often. So for the most part, the mountains didn’t have many people here, most of them being students from the younger years. Most of them were deathly afraid of this place, as it was one of the rumors that several of the younger year students once traveled up the mountain, only to be killed by a soulbeast…..
……
Today was a special day, however. Eight figures traveled from the back of the academy all the way up to the mountain.
These eight were exceedingly quick. Every leap they made was at least ten meters traveled, scaling up the mountain with great speed. What should’ve took the normal person half a day to climb had instead taken less than a minute to reach the top.
These eight were Bai Yunfei and his students.
Bai Yunfei came to a stop at the very top of the mountain. It was a rather spacious mountain point with about fifty meters of area with a small platform of sorts already there that seemed to scale upwards like stairs to the highest point of the peak.
At the peak was another small area of thirty meters or so made from seemingly very durable stone.
Bai Yunfei looked around the area, pleased with what he was seeing.
One could see the entire academy and even farther beyond from above. From the buildings to the streets, Bai Yunfei could even see a magnificently large palace— the Imperial Palace where the Royal Family lived.
This point of the mountain was tall enough to have a layer of clouds and mist cover it. With the additional coverage of wind blowing here and there, the average person would’ve been unable to endure the cold temperatures. But for soul cultivators like Bai Yunfei and his students, this type of weather wasn’t anything much. In any case, this place would soon become a ‘warm’ place, and the clouds and mist would be expelled.
The students looked incredulously at Bai Yunfei, unsure of what he was thinking about. Mo Chen was the first to speak up, “Instructor Bai….what are we doing here?”
Bai Yunfei looked back to the students with a smile. “This is where we’ll be having our classes from now on.”
“What?!”
His words had a petrifying effect on them.
Could it really be? Classes here of all places?
None of the students could even respond to Bai Yunfei, stunned by his answer.
“Yes, this place will do. I’m quite pleased with it, class will be held here from now on.” Bai Yunfei nodded. Since he was teaching the art of crafting, he had to pass on the customs of the Crafting School and sought out for a place to create a ‘crafting hole’ for the class.
But none of the students could believe it. With her eyes practically bulging out, Mo Wanxia declared, “Are you kidding?! We’re going to have classes here? In the middle of nowhere?!”
Nodding almost as if it was to be expected that he should answer this way, Bai Yunfei replied, “This will be the crafting class’ territory. The chairman has allowed me to choose anywhere I’d like for classes. I’ll speak with him the next time about the arrangements. From now on, whether it’s for classes or for training, it’ll be done here.”
“……”
When the students realized he wasn’t joking, they all stared incredulously around the area as if trying to make sense of what could be done here.
“Well then, let’s begin now. We can start class after we’re done.” Bai Yunfei clapped his hands before walking to the nearby cliff wall.
“Done with what?”
“Digging a hole, didn’t I say so?” Bai Yunfei quipped.
“……”
Whilst everyone was still staring bemusedly at him, Bai Yunfei was already standing next to the wall, his hand touching at the stone to check its durability. Nodding, he gave a step back and then punched at the wall firmly.
“Bang!!”
There was a muffled boom and minor tremor in the ground as Bai Yunfei’s fist slammed against the wall. It hadn’t been very powerful, all things considered, but the stone in front of Bai Yunfei’s fist gave away to reveal a three meter deep ‘cave’.
“Ah? It’s that durable?” Bai Yunfie remarked in surprise. He hadn’t thought the mountain would be that firm. Staring at his own handiwork in displeasure, Bai Yunfei turned to Xiao Qi on his shoulder, “Xiao Qi, please help out.”
“Chirp chirp!!”
Chirping twice in confidence of itself, Xiao Qi flew into the air while Bai Yunfei stepped back. There was a glow of green light from the bird before it grew larger into the size of a large roc. Beating its wings once, Xiao Qi summoned a twister about several meters in diameter to strike exactly onto the area where Bai Yunfei hit. Dust and stone cracked away from the wall as the twister bore into the wall before trailing off.
Once all of the wind had cleared away, everyone could see that the hole in the wall was now a cave about five meters wide and at least twenty meters deep.
Satisfied, Bai Yunfei petted Xiao Qi when it landed back on his shoulder, “Not bad, thank you.”
He turned back to the still mystified students behind him. “This will be our crafting cave from now on. Feel free to start making your own crafting cave.”
As if bewildered by this, the students looked at each other, unsure of what to do or think.
“Haha!! Interesting—I’ll go first then!! I’m going to choose the best spot!!”
Speaking up suddenly as if ‘enlightened’, Mo Chen leaped almost impishly at the chance to take part in this interesting activity. Charging forward to about ten meters away from Bai Yunfei’s cave, he swung his right arm around and around, charging up elemental fire with each revolution. And when his fist was entirely ablaze with elemental fire, he lashed out to give a furious punch!
“Boom!!!”
The resulting sound was quite loud, and the entire mountain top seemed to quake. Larger pieces of stone and dust flew through the air, revealing a surprised Mo Chen.
Right in front of him was a hole about four or five meters wide—a hole that went straight through the entire mountain!
Sunlight could be seen from the other side of the mountain, and also a faint breeze. Mo Chen had punched straight through the entire mountain!!
“Haha! My bad my bad! I used too much strength, instructor Bai….what should we do?” Mo Chen rubbed his head in embarrassment.
“….” Bai Yunfei quirked his lips, “I brought you all here to dig a hole, not blow parts of the mountain off. What do you think you should do?”
“I….” Mo Chen flushed, his hand scratching his hair. “Oh!! I know an earth-type instructor, he’s amazing! We can have him seal up the hole!!”
The realization that Bai Yunfei might be ‘troubled’ by his actions led to Mo Chen coming up with a method to undo the damages. And before Bai Yunfei could say anything, Mo Chen scampered off.
A little speechless by Mo Chen’s actions, Bai Yunfei turned back to other students. “You should all get started, and keep in mind your strength. We don’t want the mountain collapsing….”
“Yes….” Everyone replied. Now that they were given an example of what to do and what not to do, they all spread out to create their own ‘hole’.
“You there! What are you doing?! Do you not know that entry to Back Mountain is limited?!”
An exasperated voice called out to the group, resulting everyone jumping where they stood. Turning around to look, they all saw a figure in black fly towards them to the mountain top.
Bai Yunfei raised an eyebrow; he hadn’t felt this person approach them at all. And since this person wasn’t using elemental energy as platforms to leap from, that meant this person was….a Soul King!!
