The light at the end of the tunnel

A week had passed since his father had left for the City of Scholars. Bai Yun had used this time to break through to the third stage of qi condensation as well as the third pattern in skin sewing. Bai Yun placed the third mysterious pattern on his right arm. Right now, his right leg and both arms were covered with mysterious patterns, making them much stronger.

He used the remainder of the energy of the supreme weed fruit in order to heal his soul and body. He had finally repaired the damage done to his soul. Now he could use all three of his soul tendrils properly. The only thing left for him was that he could not completely remove the impurities in his qi. But he had gotten rid of most of it. The remaining impurities would not hinder him. And he could soon get rid of it with regular cultivation in due time.

It was time to meet up with the couple, so he decided to leave. He asked old Hai to deliver him close to the address. He did not want to travel the entire region in the bus since he was unfamiliar with the area.

"Young master did you hear what happened with the supreme weed fruit. I heard that someone stole it from Bai Qing. You were there. Did you see anything?" Bai Hao asked after he dropped him off.

"I don't know anything." Bai Yun replied with the innocence of a newborn.

As old Hai left, Bai Yun wondered whether he asked such a question because he suspected something.

After he left old Hai, he turned back into Bai Long. As he walked through the region following the map, he heard discussion coming from all around him by people on the supreme weed fruit. Even though the details weren't publicized, it seemed as if everyone knew that someone stole the supreme weed fruits right underneath Bai Qing's nose.

Bai Yun reached the vicinity of Bai Shi's house. He looked around silently after merging with the shadows. He saw two people who were covering the house, spying on them. One of them was looking at the front door, while the other covered the back door. Bai Yun slowly moved, out of everyone's vision.

He hid around the back and waiting until the shadows grew longer. This would have been easy if he had been of a higher cultivation, but unfortunately, he was not. He kept his eyes locked on the person who was watching the back door. No one could keep watch without making a mistake for a long time unless he was specially trained for espionage. But the people that Bai Qing arranged were far from it. Especially since a week had already passed since the theft occurred, and they had gotten sloppy.

Bai Yun only waited a short while before the person made a mistake. For a short moment, he took his eyes off the door. Bai Yun may have missed it. But not the Assassin God. In the blink of eye, he covered the distance to the door, opened the door and entered the house without making any noise, all before anyone noticed.

Once he entered he confirmed that the couple was indeed in the house, and that it was empty apart from them. Once he did so, he started to move towards them.

"When would he come?" He heard Bai Ling-er ask.

"He said in the afternoon today. He should come soon. It is not easy to shake off the surveillance on the house." He heard Bai Shi reply.

"What if he didn't come? Aren't you worried at all?"

"If that happened, we can only say that we had poor eyes and nothing else. Do you expect to find him and ask for the fruits?"

Hearing this, Bai Ling-er pouted. With a smile, Bai Yun revealed himself from the other room.

"It seemed as if someone doesn't trust me. I am sad." He said.

The two of them stood up quickly and turned to face him with a smile.

"Of course not. We trust you very much." Bai Ling-er said.

Bai Yun studied the pair in front of him. Bai Ling-er seemed to be the hyper type, while the Bai Shi seemed to be a quite type who seemed to not talk much with people who he was unfamiliar with.

"Can I ask you something?" Bai Ling-er asked just as he was about to speak. Bai Yun nodded.

"Is listening in on people speaking your fetish?" Bai Ling-er asked.

Bai Yun was stunned as he looked at Bai Ling-er. Bai Shi covered his face with both of his arms. He decided to ignore the question.

"Here are the two supreme weed fruits I promised." Bai Yun said, tossing them at the couple.

"Thank you." Bai Shi said.

"No need to thank me. It was what I promised you." Bai Yun said.

As the two of them took the fruits, he smiled. Now it was time to move on to other matters.

"As you can guess, I didn't come here for this alone. I want to ask you for a long term cooperation." Bai Yun said.

The moment he did so, the looks on their faces changed. The two of them became much more serious in an instant.

"What do you intent to do?" Bai Ling-er asked.

"I need information. Information on anything that happens in the clan. There is no need to make it into a large scale network. I am planning on going to the city of scholars after the clan meeting, so a large scale network would soon be abandoned. I would also require you to follow me there and support me. In exchange, I am willing to provide you with the best techniques as well as resources for cultivation." Bai Yun said.

As the two of them started to converse, Bai Yun waited. They had no idea what he meant when he said the best techniques. All of the techniques that he knew were of the god step, thus every one of them were extremely powerful. They were all much more powerful than the ones they could find in the entire Howling Wolf World. Of course, he had no desire to tell them of it.

After a short discussion, the duo came to a conclusion. "We would like to accept the offer, but we are not confident enough that we could get into the same academy as you when you go to the City of Scholars. The restrictions there are quite strict." Bai ing-er said.

"I intend to enter the Shadow Stream Academy, which allows one to bring subordinates inside. You can simply follow me." Bai Yun said.

Bai Shi frowned and said "The Shadow Stream academy is extremely difficult to get into. Do you have any confidence to get in there?"

"Relax." Bai Yun smiled. "I will surely get into the Shadow Stream Academy. If not I will simply return to the clan. All other academies are worthless anyway."

Bai Yun was not simply saying this. The biggest reason people went to these academies are for the high level techniques that were available only there. But all of that was unnecessary to Bai Yun who had his memories.

As for resources that were available in the Academy he could easily acquire them in the Bai clan also.

But the Shadow Stream Academy was different. His father had once mentioned a particular item that was available in the academy only. Something that could help him very much. Thus he had no choice but to go to the Shadow Stream Academy. Also the style as well the resources available there also suited Bai Yun's needs.

Thus if he could not get into the Shadow Stream Academy, he might as well not bother.

After the two of them heard him, they looked at each other and then nodded. Turning to Bai Yun, Bai Ling-er said "We accept. We will follow you." After which they bowed towards him.

Bai Yun grinned. He had found two suitable followers. The very first thing that he proceeded to do was to give them the complete versions of their cultivation techniques. After which he told them not to tell anyone of their techniques no matter what happened. If any of the higher ups were to find out that techniques much superior to theirs were in the hands of these two, it could be problematic. Since they did not know of the true value of their techniques, they did not think much of it

"First of all, where can I sell the various materials that I got in the beast garden." Bai Yun asked.

"If you want to sell in the clan, there are a few places. But it is better to sell in the hunter union if you can. The items will get better prices there. Especially if you have a high authority rank." Bai Shi said.

Bai Yun nodded. He was planning on joining the Hunter union anyway. He stood up. "I will go to the hunter union tomorrow to sell some items and buy some things that are necessary for cultivation. I will come by once I have something else to do or give you."

"Yes lord Yun." Bai Ling-er replied.

"Then I shall see you later." Bai Yun replied. As he turned to leave and reached the door, he paused. Then he very calmly turned around to face the couple with a smile.

"What did you call me?" He asked sweetly.

"Lord Yun." Bai Ling-er replied with an equally sweet smile.

"But my name is Bai Long."

"Okay lord Yun, I understand."

The two of them smiled at each other very sweetly, as if they were long lost lovers. For some reason though Bai Shi seemed to find something very interesting about the roof. He was studying it as if his life depended on it.

Bai Yun sighed, and his face switched back from that of Bai Long to Bai Yun.

"How did you find out?" He asked with a sigh.

Bai Ling-er smiled cheekily as she replied. "I knew the moment you came into the clearing of prince Qing. Most of the people who were at the weed valley are only ten or eleven years old, like us. Which meant that not a single person is as tall as you. It was highly unlikely that there would be two very tall people at the qi condensation realm at the weed valley at the same time. Also even though you said that you will let people know that prince Qing has lost the fruits, and goad someone into coming there, we never thought that you would be able to do something like that. So the only possibility was that it was you yourself who came. Even Shi was able to notice it."

As they both turned towards him, Bai Shi, who seemed to have decided to spend his life studying roof tiles, nodded imperceptibly.

Bai Yun looked lost for a moment. Then he suddenly looked up with a start. "Do you think that Bai Qing noticed? I mean, I was wearing a large robe to hide my figure when I met him."

"Almost certainly. He wouldn't miss something as obvious as that." Bai LIng-er said.

"Then my plan-"

"Was a colossal waste of time." Bai Ling-er said with a wide grin on her face. It seemed as if she was taking revenge for all that he did to them during the fruit incident.

Bai Yun felt as if all that he did was truly useless. He felt a darkness overcome his senses and a sense of hopelessness that he had never felt in two lifetimes. Bai Ling-er's attack was more effective than a dragon's breath.

"The light at the end of the tunnel is truly beautiful, ah." Bai Yun sighed.

"Please don't run away from reality." Came the finisher from Bai Ling-er.

This was probably the first time in all of history that a titled god seriously considered suicide.