Chapter 913: Tan Xin’s ‘Growth’

“It’s been over a week! When will this end?!!” whined Tan Xin, who appeared exhausted as she hung herself on Bai Xiaofei, trying to provoke him.

Bai Xiaofei did not know what kind of lessons Ni Xue had given Tan Xin to make the latter become… a completely different person. She was no longer easily jealous, was more considerate, more proficient in flirting with him, and sometimes she even succeeded!

In short, Tan Xin had become a deadly tantalizing demoness!

For example, at the moment,

Not to mention a week of walking, even if it was a week of flying, she wouldn’t be this tired. She was clearly putting on an act to take advantage of him!

“We’ve only been able to eliminate half of them. Moreover, I have a feeling that with the remaining suspects, each one will be more difficult to investigate than the next. We may have to spend quite some time doing this.” Bai Fei did not expose Tan Xin’s act. “If you are tired, let’s have a rest.”

Hearing this, something clicked in Tan Xin’s mind. Or to be exact, she had been waiting for this sentence…

“An ordinary person like Ni Xue can endure this, how can I not? I’m just worried that your mentality won’t be able to shoulder this. After all, your brain is working all the time,” said Tan Xin softly.

Bai Xiaofei decisively agreed with her, knowing that she had an even more difficult plot for him if he said anything more!

“But then again, Ni Xue, your health is really good. Tossed around by this guy all night and you are still so energetic during the day.” Tan Xin’s tone was envious. From what she had seen, Ni Xue was quite formidable for an ordinary person.

“It may be that my body is quite special. Ever since I was small, my wounds heal faster than others. Unfortunately, I have no chance to become a puppet master, or I’d be a very powerful one!” replied Ni Xue seriously.

Bai Xiaofei only smiled.

At that time, an excited voice came from a distance.

“Big Brother Fei!” Shi Kui was excited as always at the sight of Bai Xiaofei.

Ni Xue froze a little upon hearing his voice.

“Big Brother Fei, you are really hard to catch! I heard that you’ve been wandering around the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain for several days. Why didn’t you visit me?” Shi Kui pulled a dejected face like a wife who had been waiting for her husband.

“I was afraid I’d disturb your work. Haven’t you been studying hard under your master recently? I’m still waiting for your violetgold puppet,” said Bai Xiaofei.

Shi Kui immediately sighed. “I’d like to hurry, but I don’t know what’s happened to Master recently. He has gone into closed-door cultivation and seldom comes out to give us advice. I can ask for advice from my senior brothers, but I feel that they have nothing left to teach me.”

Bai Xiaofei was delighted to hear this. “How long have you been here? And you already think they have nothing left for you to learn from?! Don’t tell me… you are a hidden genius!”

Examining Shi Kui carefully, Bai Xiaofei’s eyes shone. At this rate, my violetgold puppet will be done soon!

“That’s right!” Shi Kui proudly rubbed his nose, then looked at Bai Xiaofei gratefully and said earnestly, “It’s all thanks to you, Brother Fei. I couldn’t have been who I am now without you.”

Bai Xiaofei’s expression immediately grew cold. He already said he didn’t want to hear these words more than once.

“Brother Fei, don’t be angry. I haven’t finished yet,” Shi Kui hurriedly explained. “In the past, all puppetsmiths felt that they should choose puppets that could help with forging, so few paid attention to their puppet master abilities. Therefore, many puppetsmiths stayed below the Master Rank all their lives.”

Hearing this, Bai Xiaofei thought of Shi Kui’s master Pinocchio. It actually took talent to be chased around by low-level human puppets!

“My master is an example of those people, but he is a true genius smith and so he paved a bright path for himself. However, when he ascended to godsmith, he realized one thing: If a puppetsmith wants to truly reach the peak, their strength must match their smithing ability! Otherwise, whether it’s their life span, understanding of puppets, or perception of advanced materials, it will be limited by their puppet master rank.”

“Before, in order to catch up with everyone, I put more effort into my puppet master abilities. At that time, I thought I was going the long roundabout route. Who would have thought that it was a blessing in disguise? Now in the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain, there are very few puppet masters whose ranks are higher than mine. It’s also because of this that I’ve been making rapid progress under my master’s guidance!”

Shi Kui explained clearly sentence by sentence, during which Bai Xiaofei’s expression gradually relaxed.

“It only shows that you’ve always been with the right people.” Bai Xiaofei chuckled smugly. In front of Shi Kui, he was the Savage Class monitor, not some god of illusions.

“Speaking of which, Big Brother Fei, you are too formidable! I’m still an apprentice, but you have become a god! You don’t know how famous you are in Ethereal now!” Shi Kui got excited again, as if the famous person was him.

“I’ve been strolling around Ethereal for several days now. You don’t think I know?” Bai Xiaofei grumpily rolled his eyes at Shi Kui. When it came to his fame in Ethereal, he was both happy and helpless.

Happy that with this fame, it was convenient for him to do anything as people would give him face, otherwise his investigation wouldn’t have progressed so quickly during the past week. Helpless that everywhere he went, people tailed him and asked all kinds of weird questions.

“That’s fair.” Shi Kui scratched his head and laughed foolishly.

Yan Ran’er, who had been silent at his side, hurriedly poked him, and Shi Kui finally remembered what he had come to do.

“By the way, Big Brother Fei! There is an auction at Ethereal Merchant Group today. Can you go with me…?” asked Shi Kui as he rubbed his hands, the expression on his face saying it all.

Despite his now advanced smithing skill and his identity as Pinocchio’s apprentice, he had not built any decent puppets at all. Therefore, no puppet master had asked him for help so far.

In other words, Shi Kui had no income…

“Tonight?”

“There is time!” Tan Xin jumped in while Bai Xiaofei was still recalling his plans. Then, she turned and looked intently at Bai Xiaofei. “I love lively auctions. You won’t let me down, will you?”

That blocked every excuse for refusal that Bai Xiaofei had.

“Is there something special about this auction? You’ve never cared about this kind of thing.” Bai Xiaofei looked at Shi Kui.

“That’s right. This is a rare auction for puppetsmiths. In order to meet the requirements of the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain, the Ethereal Merchant Group regularly provides us with materials, but those materials aren’t very high-grade. However, the Ethereal Merchant Group also collects some rare materials and after gathering a certain amount, will hold an auction. Every time such an auction is held is the craziest time for the smiths,” said Shi Kui while gulping repeatedly and his eyes shone. “Although I have a lot of ideas in mind, it’s difficult for a chef to cook without rice. I need to craft a good puppet if I want to make my name known, but to make this first puppet, I can only rely on myself…”

Shi Kui’s voice grew smaller at the last part. After all, he was trying to rely on Bai Xiaofei.

“Don’t worry, I will go.” Bai Xiaofei patted Shi Kui’s shoulder.

“Yay! Brother Fei, you are the best!” Shi Kui laughed in joy as his uneasiness was swept away.

In fact, Bai Xiaofei could directly give Shi Kui money, but he knew that would make Shi Kui feel uncomfortable. Compared with the investigation, his brother was too precious. Moreover, after hearing what this auction was about, Bai Xiaofei inexplicably had the feeling that he’d kill two birds with one stone if he went!

“What evil plan are you brewing again?” Ni Xue immediately asked after Shi Kui left, her sharp eyes making Bai Xiaofei panic.

“Heaven and earth know that I’m a good young man. There’s no evil plan,” Bai Xiaofei seriously declared, earning Ni Xue’s disdainful eyes.

“As if I don’t know who you are,” she retorted, and immediately regretted it. Said too much…

“Oh? Amazing, you are. You’ve only investigated recently and already know me so well as if you’ve been with me for many years.” Bai Xiaofei smiled.

Ni Xue panicked a little. However, there was a third person present…

“Can you two say something useful, or else we should go find something to eat,” said Tan Xin as she rubbed her stomach with a pitiful expression.

Bai Xiaofei smiled wryly. He had actually found someone who loved to eat more than him! They clearly only had lunch three hours ago!

“Let’s go. Consider this a break. The auction tonight will surely be excellent!” Bai Xiaofei really looked forward to the upcoming special auction.

Don’t let me down!

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