Bai Yunfei looked neither happy nor angry, and neither did his eyes look like they were even focused. They gleamed with a light that flickered in an erratic pattern as if he was thinking about something.
In front of him was a kneeling but essentially comatose Gui Wei. If Bai Yunfei’s eyes could be argued as being unfocused or not, then Gui Wei’s eyes would most definitely be unfocused.
But that was only limited to his eyes. His face was contorted in pain and anger while streams of black energy rose up from his body. His soulforce was quickly going out of control like a rampaging horse or even a bomb ready to explode.
“Ah!!!”
A heart-wrenching scream erupted from Gui Wei moments later with blood leaking from several pores of his body. But that wasn’t the only thing to come out from his pores, his soulforce was flowing out as well now like a river that had been previously blockaded!
Bai Yunfei’s eyes were only just returning to normal by now. With no time to lose, Bai Yunfei pressed some of his soulforce into Gui Wei’s body to suppress the violent reaction. It did quick work in stopping the spasmodic episode that Gui Wei was going through before tranquilizing the man and returning him to a state of comatose stillness and his eyes losing all semblance of light in them.
“……”
Bai Yunfei knelt by the side of Gui Wei, his eyebrows knitted together in pensive thought.
He sighed. Waving his hand, Bai Yunfei summoned a burst of fire to engulf Gui Wei’s body and turn it into ash. All that was left of him after the fire was through with him was a few soul armaments and his space ring, both of which Bai Yunfei took into his hands.
“I’ll have to use the real Soul Scanning technique next time for the best results. Relying on the Charm Bracelet is a little…crude.” Bai Yunfei murmured to himself.
Soul Scanning, as it was called, was an eponymous technique capable of several things. Bai Yunfei was unfortunately not capable of the actual technique due to lacking the sufficient amount of power for it. Only Late-stage Soul Kings were capable of Soul Scanning, but they and even Soul Emperors had the ability to Soul Scan without the usage of techniques. That required a high proficiency and understanding of the soul and was akin to killing the other person when used since it was essentially brute-forcing the mind into compliance. High-leveled Soul Scanning techniques and methods were capable of Soul Scanning without injuring the person it was being used on.
As far as the study of the soul went, Bai Yunfei wasn’t at a level where he could even be considered to be a beginner. He was only capable of doing something similar to Soul Scanning because of the special ability of his Charm Bracelet and him being a Late-stage Soul King when he went into Berserk Mode. Even then, this pseudo-Soul Scan technique was a crude one that forced the afflicted person to remember and bring forth certain memories to the front and be read.
It was a dangerous technique of Soul Scanning that greatly endangered the afflicted person to levels practically impossible to live from. The One-eyed Mara, for example, was the very first experimentee Bai Yunfei used this ability on. From his experimentation, Bai Yunfei basically destroyed the One-eyed Mara’s soul and reduced it to a soulless husk that could be self-destructed upon command.
As a Soul King, Gui Wei was a different story. While Bai Yunfei might’ve been stronger than him by a decent amount, the difference wasn’t so large that Bai Yunfei could scan his soul without hindrance. Gui Wei’s willpower and mental fortitude were far stronger than Bai Yunfei expected and so he was immediately rebuffed on his first attempt. It was only when he bewitched Gui Wei that he managed to undo that first layer of resistance and scan the memories relevant to Mo Ni’s identity. But even that ended in failure for the most part.
The more Gui Wei’s soul was stripped down, the harder it was for the body to control its soulforce. Gui Wei’s essence origin nearly self-destructed due to the loss of control before Bai Yunfei forcibly suppressed all functionality of Gui Wei’s body and killed him.
There was one silver lining though. At the moment before Gui Wei died, Bai Yunfei was able to glean just one small piece of information from his soul.
Like the time with the One-eyed Mara, Bai Yunfei managed to see a few Gui Wei’s memories like paintings on a scroll, most specifically those memories most recent. From those memories, Bai Yunfei could see the Black Cloud Mountain Ranges, Crushed Stone River, and the events relating to the Extreme King Pills. Of two of those memories, Bai Yunfei saw two figures he didn’t expect to see…
The first figure wore robes as red as blood and had the aura of a blood-thirsty person. Then there was another person whose entire body was essentially drenched in blood and his face unrecognizable. But the aura coming off of him was entirely like a feral beast.
He saw these two people once before in Formagua City, Xue Wei and Zhang Zhenshan!
“So they’re connected to Mo Ni as well…” Bai Yunfei murmured. “So those two people from Formagua City were working for Mo Ni? How diabolical…
“All those killings of the people that took part in the Extreme King Pills must’ve been Mo Ni’s doing. The one eating and taking in all those soul cultivators’ vital energy is working for Mo Ni too…”
One of the memories Bai Yunfei saw involved someone in Mo Ni’s entourage that was grabbing hold of people’s throats and reducing them to a shriveled husk. It was a mortifying sight.
Bai Yunfei had a chill go up his spine when he saw the demonic being essentially cannibalize the soul cultivators he came across.
“Those two didn’t show up this time, they must be somewhere else and taking in even more energy…that person was an Early-stage Soul King in Formagua City, but he’s probably a Mid-stage Soul King by now. And who knows how strong he’ll be the next time I meet Mo Ni…”
He only knew that these two people from the memories he saw were indeed the same ones from Formagua City. He still didn’t know that one of these people was Zhang Zhenshan. The change was far too drastic for Bai Yunfei to really tell even if the two were to meet face to face right now.
There was one memory in particular that stood out to Bai Yunfei. It was slightly hazy and was hardly viewable. But from what he could tell, the memory was filled with a purple haze that spiraled upwards and a place that resembled something like a marshland.
He wanted to know what Mo Ni was hiding, and the fact that he wasn’t able to see this to a certain degree saddened him.
It would appear that his desire to chase down and kill Mo Ni was impossible for now. Bai Yunfei could only wonder what the future had in store for him….
“Mo Ni…can’t be forgiven! I’ll definitely make sure to kill him the next time we meet!” He vowed.
……
While Bai Yunfei was thinking about Mo Ni, the person in question was currently resting within a dark cave.
This cave was kilometers beyond kilometers away from Bai Yunfei where he could be in peace.
“Damn! Damn! Damn it all!! Bai Yunfei!! I’ll kill you! I’ll definitely kill you!!”
Mo Ni was currently screaming to himself within the cave. No longer was he as calm as he usually was. His eyes were blood-shot, and his demeanor was completely berserk as he raged and vented aloud.
Never had he experienced such humiliation before in his life. Never!! And to make it even worse, Mo Ni didn’t even have the chance to fight back against Bai Yunfei! And neither did he have the ability to properly run away. It was a humiliation of the highest degree and a major blow to his ego he couldn’t accept.
While he was screaming to himself, a part of the cave warped in on itself before a figure in black stepped out from it.
“Black Dragon!!”
Mo Ni called out the moment he felt his presence. “You actually left me alone back there! You coward! And to think you call yourself ‘one of the Eight Soulbeast Rulers’! Don’t forget you’re contracted with me . If I die, you won’t be getting off lightly!”
His rebukes were met with only a cold laugh from the Black Dragon King. “So what if I ran? Did you really plan on fighting? You had a soul armament to teleport you away from danger, I did not! That was my only chance to run, and so run I did! Even if I waited for you to teleport first, what would happen if Bai Yunfei came after me? If I died, then you won’t be getting off lightly either!”
One of Mo Ni’s eyes twitched at his response. Schooling his emotions, Mo Ni gave the Black Dragon King one final glare before sitting down onto the table nearby to rest his head and think.
The Black Dragon King gave him only a small moment’s respite to think before he opened his mouth. “What is your plan going forward? Everyone we brought are most likely dead. I would suggest returning home. That Bai Yunfei has grown far too strong far too fast. You cannot compare to him as you are now or even in the future perhaps. To seek him out later would be suicidal. Improve your strength for now and become a Mid-stage Soul King. That way, I will be able to return to being a mid-stage class seven soulbeast. Your Reaping Needle is more or less ready and comparable to a lifebound soul armament as well. It’ll prove helpful the next time you fight Bai Yunfei. Or at least, you won’t be intimidated into cowardice like before…”
“Shut your mouth! I don’t need you to tell me what to do!”
Mo Ni howled at the Black Dragon King to shut him up. It was a long and bothersome rant that he had no patience for. “It’ll be completely different the next time! I’ll…I’ll be sure to tear him apart limb from limb the next time we meet!”