Chapter 858: Invasion of the Late-stage Soul King

On top of another mountain five kilometers away from where Bai Yunfei was currently battling, three figures stood on top of the mountain peak to observe the occasional spark of bright light. Even from such a large distance as this one, they were able to watch the battle without too much difficulty.

The young man in the middle wore black robes with golden edges. His face wasn’t hidden, and it could be seen that this was the very same person Bai Yunfei fought to a standstill back in Crushed Stone River…Mo Ni!

Yet again, this man was behind another plot onto Bai Yunfei!

To his left was an elder in dark-purple robes and a coiling stream of black energy around him. His hair and beard were white, and his body was slightly skinny. Despite his wrinkled face, the elder’s eyes were uncharacteristically sharp and his expression quite youthful.

He and the other two had been observing the battle between the Soul Kings and Bai Yunfei impassively for a good while. But the longer the battle continued, the more varied their expressions became. Soon, the elder in purple had a thunderstruck expression on his face.

It didn’t take much for Mo Ni to notice the look. “Elder Li, what’s going in the battle now?”

He was an Early-stage Soul King and didn’t have much of an ability to see the battle. All he could do was look at the outbursts of elemental energy and feel the faint fluctuations in the air. The changes in the expression of the elder were the only indication of how the battle was going, but the fact that the battle could even bring forth a change on the Late-stage Soul King’s face was astonishing enough.

The elder—also known as Li Fenghai—didn’t look away from the battle. “Fang Shouwen and Li Fu are both dead. The dozen other Soul Exalts are dead as well. Gui Wei and Huang Shan are the only ones left, but…perhaps not for long.”

“What?!”

His words were spoken with a monotonous tone, but Mo Ni’s next words were spoken with shock. “Did the Tang already send out all their strongest?! How is that possible! How were they able to reach this place so quickly?!”

“That isn’t it. The Tang haven’t had anyone else come. The person fighting now is our primary target, Bai Yunfei.”

“Bai Yunfei is here?!” Mo Ni’s eyes lit up with excitement for a brief moment before they clouded over with suspicion. “He came here quicker than I expected. Did he have the elders of the Crafting School help him get here?”

“Again, that’s not it. He’s here alone.” Li Fenghai shook his head.

Confusion flashed across Mo Ni’s face. “He’s by himself? Then…how did Fang Shouwen and the others die? Who’s the one fighting Huang Shan and Gui Wei then?”

“Bai Yunfei. He killed both Fang Shouwen and Li Fu instantaneously and is currently fighting the other two. Li Hanfeng is on the verge of death, and Huang Shan won’t be able to hang on for much longer. Their soulbeasts are also being fought back by Bai Yunfei’s soulbeasts. And then Gui Wei…I can see him trying to run, but the two men from the Tang earlier have stopped him. Things do not look well for Gui Wei…”

“Wha—what?!”

Mo Ni’s bottom lip trembled as he tried to process the information being told to him. “You’re…you’re saying that Bai Yunfei was able to defeat Gui Wei and the others?! That’s impossible!! Even if he used that special skill last time to power himself up, he should’ve been able to fight at the level of an Early-stage Soul King only, how could he poss—”

“The strength he’s showing now shows him to be a Mid-stage Soul King.” Li Fenghai interrupted, “The King’s Phenomena earlier was from him becoming a Soul King. He managed to reach the limits of what an Early-stage Soul King could do before using that skill you mentioned before to become a Mid-stage Soul King.”

“What? That was his doing? He became a Soul King? And getting that far after breaking through before powering up again?! That’s…that’s…”

Mo Ni was feeling a bit flustered. The information he was hearing seemed almost impossible to digest, and he couldn’t help but think it was all ‘impossible’. 

But Li Fenghai wouldn’t lie to him for no reason whatsoever. That meant this was true, and that made it even harder for Mo Ni to wrap his head around.

Several seconds passed before Mo Ni came to an answer to how this situation came to be. “Could it be the Extreme King Pills?! We…we noticed a bit of the Extreme King Pill fragrance earlier, didn’t we? That had have been from the Core Stone! When he got the Core Stone, he must’ve managed to get his hands onto some of the Extreme King Pill fragrance! And that’s why he’s as strong as he is now! That has to be it!

“Damn! Damn him!!” Mo Ni snarled vehemently. Everything was going wrong. Mo Ni felt as if those items had been stolen from him. “The Core Stone, the Extreme King Pill fragrance…those were supposed to been mine!! All mine! That Bai Yunfei…damn him! Damn him to death!!” 

His head snapped up to glare at Li Fenghai. “Elder Li, you’re the only one capable of turning this situation around! Bai Yunfei must die today! We must take the Core Stone! That man can’t…he can’t be allowed to live!”

“I find it hard to believe it all as well. But indeed, this root that is Bai Yunfei needs to be snipped before it can grow any longer…” Li Fenghai nodded his head pensively, “And to lose so many men, even if they were wandering soul cultivators, is a strong blow to our strength. They weren’t easy to convince over to our side, and to lose them without seeing any returns? I would never be able to meet the headmaster eye-to-eye after this. Taking the Core Stone and all of Bai Yunfei’s soul armaments would be a tremendous boon…”

The last sentence was all it took for the elder to change his mind. Looking back in the direction of Bai Yunfei, the elder had a gleam of killing intent in them now.

“Wait for my return here.”

He was already gone before the final syllable was spoken. Reappearing several kilometers away, the man continued to teleport over and over again before ultimately disappearing from Mo Ni’s sight… 

    ……

“Roar!!”

A terrified roar erupted from the glacial ape as the permafrost mastiff tore out a chunk of its chest with a mighty paw stroke. Blood and flesh flew everywhere from the ape’s body to reveal the internal organs behind it. Moments after, the open wound froze over as a makeshift bandage, but while the glacial ape was too busy dealing with its wound, five pitch-black blades of energy came descending down onto it!

The glacial ape realized its folly almost immediately afterward. Eyes widening and pupils dilating, the ape let loose another terrifying roar and tried its best to make it out from the attack’s range despite the heavy wound it had only just received.

Alas, it was too late for the ape. Despite doing a very good job in dodging the first four strikes, the ape was powerless to do anything but watch as the fifth strike went through its shoulder… 

The Spatial Edge tore through the ape’s body from its left shoulder to its right waist in one swift motion. An explosion of elemental ice froze both halves over their wounds so that no blood leaked out before the halves ultimately fell back down to the ground.

“Chirp!!”

Xiao Qi gave one victorious chirp before flapping his wings to fly with the permafrost mastiff towards Long Lan.

    ……

“Boom! Boom! Boom!!”

One after another, the earth was ransacked by a series of explosions as two dots red and orange struck against one another again and again.

Two people were within these lights. The one in red was Bai Yunfei, and the one in orange was the golden-robed elder known as Huang Shan.

Huang Shan had been stuck in the mountain after the Cataclysmic Seal fell on top of him. By the time he managed to unearth himself and make it back out, he was treated with the sight of Bai Yunfei throwing the white-robed elder up into the air for Xiao Qi to bisect the elder in half with a single wind blade.

Though Huang Shan had no idea why Bai Yunfei would throw someone up into the air for his soulbeast to kill, the elder was still thoroughly shocked by the death of yet another companion. He knew what would happen if he were to stay here. Without any hesitation, Huang Shan flew up and prepared himself to flee.

But Bai Yunfei was quick to block him off before he could make a solid attempt. In no time, the two were fighting a feverish battle against one another. Huang Shan was practically a madman with how he was attacking. He was putting his all into every single blow he made in hopes that Bai Yunfei would be forced to fall back and thus give him some time to flee.

Bai Yunfei didn’t seem to be in a rush to kill the elder though. He gave only a cold glare at the man whenever the two exchanged blows. From his eyes, it seemed almost as if Bai Yunfei was waiting for something… 

Then a presence to Bai Yunfei’s right alerted him to their presence! When he whirled around, Bai Yunfei’s eyes finally revealed a hint of shock and fear for the first time since the battle begun!