Normally, Bai Yunfei’s soulsense would’ve been only capable of sensing presences within five kilometers of him, but Xiao Fang was helping him keep an eye out. And when he was fighting Huang Shan, Xiao Fang did in fact warn him that someone was rapidly teleporting in towards him from twenty kilometers away!
Xiao Fang wasn’t capable of determining the specific details of whoever was coming in, but it could at the very least determine a few things based on the fluctuations in the spatial energy.
The incoming person was at the very least a Mid-stage Soul King and most likely a Late-stage Soul King!
“A Late-stage Soul King!!”
That was a foe Bai Yunfei was surprised to hear about. And his resulting shock was the moment Huang Shan had been looking for. Realizing that Bai Yunfei was distracted, the elder lashed out with his spear at Bai Yunfei’s throat!
“Hmph!”
Huang Shan’s surprise attack was met with a sneer of contempt from Bai Yunfei. Did the elder really think he’d get lucky with this attack? Bai Yunfei lifted his left hand up and thrust it at the incoming spear’s tip!
“Clang!” A flurry of sparks and noise flew out from the impact zone, but Huang Shan’s spear had stopped just three inches away from Bai Yunfei’s throat!
“Ah!” Seeing his attack be stopped so easily saw to Huang Shan wailing in despair. This final lack of success had drained him completely of his sanity. Eyes completely red now, the elder flung his hands off the spear to slam onto his chest with his right hand!
“Boom!!”
The hand slammed against his chest with a resounding crash louder than what Bai Yunfei expected. A wave of pain flashed across Huang Shan’s face before he vomited out a mouthful of blood. For a moment, his soulforce dipped in intensity before…it came flooding back up even stronger than before!!
He had…destroyed his own origin essence!
In the final moments of his despair, Huang Shan had decided to do the most drastic of actions! Destroying a hundred years worth of training for a temporary power boost? Even if he lived, Huang Shan was as good as a commoner. He wouldn’t be able to regain any of his previous strength given his age, and it was basically throwing his life away to do so now!
But he was as good as dead anyway if he didn’t take this gambit. Forget about living as a commoner for however little years he had left, if he didn’t kill Bai Yunfei now, he’d die today where he stood.
The destruction of one’s origin essence resulted in a very powerful but dangerous power-up, and it was very obvious to see the effects with how Huang Shan was looking right now. His skin had cracks all over and his body was cracking in multiple places at once. But despite the injurious nature of these wounds and the groaning of his internal organs, Huang Shan’s soulforce was far stronger than what it was before.
He glared at Bai Yunfei with eyes a dark red. Angered and powered up by the destruction of his origin essence, Huang Shan prepared to attack Bai Yunfei.
But right before he could do anything against the younger male…
“Skree!!”
There was a piercing screech from the base of the mountain that caused the two to look away for a moment. Over there, the two could see Long Lan, Xiao Qi, and the permafrost mastiff besiege the earthworm with powerful blow after blow before Xiao Qi finally landed the final blow with a Spatial Edge!!
“Ah!!”
The death of his soulbeast partner caused a tremendous amount of pain to Huang Shan. Tossing his head back, the elder roared in pain before his soulforce dropped by half!
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed brilliantly with opportunity—this was the chance he had been waiting for!
His left hand shook once to steal the spear away from the elder. With another shake, the Critical Glove on his left hand started to shine brightly before he sent it flying onto Huang Shan’s chest!
“Bang! Crack…”
There was a thud and then the sound of bones cracking one after another as Huang Shan was flung backward like a kite without a string. Blood flew out from his mouth in large amounts along with bits and pieces of his internal organs…
“Chirp!!”
Xiao Qi came swooping in at that time towards Huang Shan. With a beat of his wings, he sent a single blade of wind flying straight onto the defenseless throat of Huang Shan to kill him.
……
The death of Huang Shan was felt even a few kilometers away from where Gui Wei was currently fighting Tang Long and Yan Lin. His face dropped several shades in color when he realized the last person was dead and that he was now fighting alone. Without sparing a second to do anything else, Gui Wei parried one of Yan Lin’s palm strikes and then lashed out with a wave of dark blades to beat both Tang Wei and Yan Lin back.
Now with a small area of breathing space, Gui Wei took advantage of his new freedom to run off towards the north.
A kilometer of distance was covered in the blink of an eye. But after that kilometer, a flash of red light caught up to him—it was Bai Yunfei!
“Ah!!”
There was horror in Gui Wei’s scream as he realized who it was in front of him. Black energy rolled out from his body to materialize as a long black sickle to chop down Bai Yunfei!
“Careful! That’s a soul attack!”
Tang Wei called out in warning.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed once in recognition of his warning before he extended his left hand out to slam it onto the sickle’s blade!
A semi-transparent wave of energy was emitted from the tips of his fingers and scattered apart the black energy into smoke when it touched!
“So you’re from the Soul Refining School!” Bai Yunfei barked.
This soul skill was something he had seen before from the Soul Refining School!
There was no way Bai Yunfei would give Gui Wei a chance to retaliate now that he knew that. Raising his left hand, he slammed his palm into Gui Wei’s chest right over where his heart was!
“Pft!!” Gui Wei vomited up a mouthful of blood instantly. The light in his eyes dimmed drastically due to the force of the blow, but Bai Yunfei was already grabbing onto the collar of his robes. The Fire-tipped Spear was quickly stored away before he tapped at several points on Gui Wei’s body to seal the soulforce in and prevent him from using it.
The loss of his ability to use soulforce saw to Gui Wei immediately going inert in Bai Yunfei’s hands.
Now that he was done with that, Bai Yunfei had one last thing to do. The area around his chest pulsated once with soulforce before a transparent bubble of energy encapsulated Gui Wei. Then in the next second, Gui Wei disappeared into the Core World.
Tang Wei was astounded to see an entire person disappear into thin air. But before he could get close, Bai Yunfei was already shooting off towards the north.
“What? What’s he doing?” Confused, Tang Wei looked towards where Bai Yunfei was heading for.
“Another enemy?!” He quickly realized.
There was a black dot just about five kilometers away, and it was getting closer at dreadfully fast speeds! And the closer the dot got, the more palpable their soulforce got…
“This pressure…” Tang Wei’s eyes narrowed as the source drew closer, “No!! This is a Late-stage Soul King!!”
The notion of fleeing came straight to mind at the realization. He was about to alert Bai Yunfei about the new threat, but then…
While Tang Wei was still trying to figure out what was going on, Bai Yunfei was already going through a series of hand seals as he flew forward. The completion of the last seal was like unlocking a dam for an entire river of power to flow through him! Power started to swell up through his body, elevating his strength from the levels of a Mid-stage Soul King to even greater heights!
Tang Wei’s eyes flew wide open. His mouth quivered for a moment as his mind raced to catch up with his eyes.
Then, at last, he was able to blurt out four words.
“Late-stage Soul King!!”
……
Dual Flame Arts: Berserk Mode!!
Since a Late-stage Soul King had decided to crash the party, Bai Yunfei had no hesitation in using the Berserk Mode for another power up!
The Dual Flame Arts were something that didn’t follow common sense with how it could bring people past their limits. And here Bai Yunfei was, using the Dual Flame Artes to become as strong as a Late-stage Soul King!
Power welled up within his body in larger amounts than before. It was like he was teeming with an endless amount of energy that could lay waste to anything within five kilometers of him if he was inclined to.
He shook his head to clear his mind of any idling thoughts. Everything seemed so clear to him now. If he wanted to, he could probably even pinpoint an ant amongst the blades of grass on the ground. This was a whole new world Bai Yunfei was currently experiencing.
The second source of power soon revealed itself to Bai Yunfei. Just about three kilometers away, an elderly man in dark-purple robes stepped out from the warping space to stare at Bai Yunfei.
His expression had been calm until this very moment when he realized something different with Bai Yunfei. And when he realized what that difference was, his eyes widened in shock!
Bai Yunfei took action during that shock. Eyes gleaming with opportunity and body boiling with power, Bai Yunfei lashed his right hand forward to point a finger at him!
“Freeze!!”